And now is the time Jaune shows the fruits of his labor.

Chapter 2

Jaune woke up with sunlight hitting his face.

His eyes opened to see a familiar ceiling, and it took a moment for him to realize that he was back in his room. With an exhale, he hauled himself up the bed and sat down, bringing his feet to the floor.

The burning of his muscles were ever-present—an evidence of his workout and sword trainer a few hours earlier at dawn—which after he finished went back to bed so that he could get some shut-eye. He rotated his shoulder and tilted his neck, the action making the joints creak satisfyingly.

Then, he stood up and took a deep breath.

"...Today's the day." he reminded himself.

Jaune started his morning routine. He didn't have the time to wash himself off the sweat he had after his morning exercise because he immediately went straight to bed so he chose to shower. The cold water served to wake him up fully more than a cup of coffee ever could, and after a bit of freshening up, he left the bath in his room with a towel covering his waist and went to dress himself up.

As he looked for clothes however, he paused when he heard a knock on his door.

"Jaune, you awake?" the voice of his sister called, then the knob twisted and the door opened. "Breakfast's ready—"

She paused when she saw him standing there, half-naked.

"Err, I'm still changing, Luna. I'll be there in a minute." Jaune said, giving a glance to his big sister before continuing to look for clothes.

There was silence.

He turned to her with a questioning look. "...Luna? I said I was going to change clothes."

Oddly, he saw that his sister was standing there with a slack jaw on her face, as if shocked by something. He turned around to look behind him to see if there was anything wrong but nothing seemed to be out of place. He frowned then looked back at her.

"Luna? Is there something wrong?" he asked in concern.

"Abs." she muttered absentmindedly.

"Huh?"

That seemed to get her off her shock, as she immediately stood straight with a blush on her face. She coughed loudly and turned away from him.

"A-Ahem! I meant to say that you should hurry up, Jaune. Everyone else is on the table."

He nodded slowly. "Right… I'll do that."

"G-Good."

With that, her sister closed the door, and afterwards he could hear the rapid footfalls indicating she was running. Jaune guessed that she was in a hurry to get to the table, and that probably means that he should hurry up as well.

As he picked out his clothes to wear though, he passed by the mirror in his room. There he was left face-to-face with his reflection for a moment, something which made him pause.

"...I've really changed, huh." he muttered in thought.

Even when he had already seen it a thousand times or so the results were still shocking to look at. The three years of training he had forced to himself made his body drastically change, turning his previous noodly body into something else.

Jaune had turned ripped.

His constant training clearly helped him in the muscle department. Large pecs and biceps, rippling back muscles, and incredibly defined abs. It was the sort of ideal male body figure that he had dreamed of getting as a kid to impress girls.

It wasn't on the level of body builders with monstrously large and rippling muscles that he saw in power-lifting magazines, but rather the tightly-coiled and incredibly defined muscles that he'd seen in swimmer athletes or models. He probably wouldn't be out of place if he joined them, especially the latter considering the training made him lose all flabbiness in his face too, making his face more angular—or dare he say—handsome.

Not like it changed anything though. He was still as awkward as usual. Still, if he failed to become a huntsman then at least he might have an alternative future employment to fall back to.

"Jaune!" a distant voice reminded him.

Jaune shook his head and wore his clothes, before walking to the door of his room and opening it.

"Coming!" he called out, walking outside his room.

As he crossed the hallway, passing by the rooms of his siblings, he finally arrived at the dining room. There he saw the rest of his family seated on the table eating breakfast, with his mother waving him to come closer.

His seven sisters were right there. The eldest in the house, Luna, had already sat on the table and daintily ate her meal. Seated beside her were the two older twins, Iris and Cerise, with the former turning to him with a slight smirk and the latter a grin. The younger twins Marron and Violet didn't even glance at him, Marron being the lazy girl that she was and Violet absorbed in her scroll playing a game. Lily meanwhile, being the bundle of energy as always, gave him a bright smile before digging in her breakfast.

"Good morning, Jaune." his mother, Clementine Arc, greeted with a smile.

"Morning, mom." he returned.

Jaune pulled a chair for himself. And after doing so, Marron wordlessly pushed a plate of already prepared food to him—to which he accepted with a nod and a quiet 'thanks'.

"So what did Luna see earlier?" Cerise suddenly asked him with a brow raised. "She looked red when she came to check on you."

"Cerise!" Luna shouted indignantly, glaring at her.

"What? Come on, I was just curious." said the pony-tailed tomboy.

Luna looked red? He turned to his big sister in confusion and he saw that the girl had looked away from him. He shrugged, chalking it up as something between the two as he started to eat his food.

"Perhaps she caught him jacking it off." his bespectacled sibling asked with a bite of food on her mouth.

Jaune choked.

"Iris! We're eating." his mother scolded.

"I was just saying." the girl shrugged. "Did he do it?"

"No!" both him and Luna shouted.

"What does jacking it off mean?" Lily piped up obliviously.

"Nothing." Luna quickly cut in. "It just means that big brother's playing his video games. Right, little sister?" she asked, glaring at Iris.

The bespectacled girl's eyes narrowed. "You're not much older than I am. You don't get to exercise that right."

Luna mirrored it. "No, but I'm still the eldest."

"That's Saphron." Iris pointed out.

"But she's not here now, isn't she?" Luna rebutted. "She already moved out. So I'm the eldest one here right now. Isn't that right, Marron?"

"Luna's avoiding your question again, Cerise." Marron threw her under the bus without looking up from her food, making Luna turn to her in horror and Iris smirk.

"Holy crap, you're right! So what did you see?"

"Can you guys keep it down? It's way too early for this." Daisy sighed out beside her as she played with her scroll.

His mother glared at the girl. "Daisy, how many times did I tell you to put that scroll away!"

"Just a bit, mom! Let me finish this!"

Jaune sighed as the usual morning in the Arc household started once again, though he couldn't help but smile fondly as Lily giggled as she watched her sisters argue. While bickering between his siblings was normal, it was never serious and it was almost always forgotten a few minutes later.

He let himself get immersed in the familiar atmosphere, with his arms turning autopilot so that it could shovel much needed nutrients and energy into his mouth. It was important for him to stay healthy after all, and he needed all he could for what was coming later.

That's right… he needed to be at his best.

He was going to find a Grimm to take down after all.

The reminder of what he's going to be doing put a damper on the relaxing atmosphere. The familiar feeling of nerves settled upon him, and he felt the hesitation gnaw on himself. Maybe there was no need to do it? Maybe he can just continue to train instead? There wasn't any need to put himself into danger, was there?

"—Yes, some mature older sister you certainly are. Dare I ask where your boyfriend is again?" Iris snarked, making Luna bristle.

"Excuse me!? So what if I don't have a boyfriend!?" she shouted.

Iris scoffed. "See? That's what I'm saying."

"What does that have to do with anything!?"

Cerise let out a bark of laughter. "It has everything to do with it, sis. Why do you think we respect Saphron so much?" she grinned teasingly. "Is the mature elder sister supposed to be that shy and inexperienced?"

Luna's brow twitched. "I don't see you having one as well, Cerise. And last I checked, there are plenty of people interested. Are you sure I'm the one that's shy and inexperienced?" she sniped, turning the girl flustered.

"S-So what? You should've seen those boys at school! I've got half a mind to be like Saphron and just turn lesbian rather than pick any of them!" Cerise said defensively. "I mean, they're nothing compared to Jau—err, I mean compared to my standards."

Luna and Iris raised their brows. "What was that?"

Cerise's face reddened. "I-I said my standards! Shut up!"

A tug on his leg turned his attention away from his bickering sisters, and he looked to the side to see that little Lily had left her chair to approach him. "Lily? What's up?" he asked curiously.

The little girl brought both her hands up, wordlessly asking to be carried. Jaune let out a smile and heeded her little sister's request, bringing her up and making her sit down on his legs. The girl giggled when he fixed the bow on her head when he realized it was slightly undone.

As his sisters continued to bicker though, he just continued to shove food in his mouth. The food served enough distraction to make him reflect on his thoughts. But this time, Lily's presence made him calm enough to reconsider things differently.

…Maybe he could delay trying to fight Grimm. Maybe he shouldn't do it at all in the first place.

But he wasn't going to quit now. He wanted to be a huntsman.

And like hell he'll let fear make him stop when he already got this far.

Leaves were crushed under his boot as he walked on the lush forest floor. The noise made a nearby foal freeze up in alarm, before dashing off into the shrubbery to escape.

Jaune looked around the canopy, eyes peeled for anything unusual while he kept his fingers wrapped on Crocea Mors' pommel.

He had done all the preparations. He made a plausible excuse for his family so that he can sneak off. He'd mentally reviewed his plans and did his research. He sharpened his sword and checked the shifting mechanism of the shield-sheathe. He outfitted himself in the armor that his great great great (etc.) grandfather wore that he found stored much like Crocea Mors.

And now, he was in the outskirts of Ansel.

It was time to defeat a Grimm.

Jaune took a deep breath and focused.

The first step was to find a Grimm.

From what he could gather, Creatures of Grimm are territorial. There are signs that you are within a Grimm's territory - large scrapes on a tree or a boulder, auditory signals like howling, or visual badges like maybe even a skull of a dead person. He only needed to look for those signs so that he could find one.

It didn't take long.

After a few minutes of careful trekking, he stumbled upon a giant fallen log. It looked fairly innocuous, if it weren't for the fact that it looked like its bark was cut by jagged blades like a shoddy lumberjack's work who gave up half-way. He also noticed that there weren't animals around anymore, and the forest had gone unusually quiet.

Jaune was firmly inside Grimm territory, alone and without anyone to help him. He felt the familiar feeling of his nerves acting up and no doubt that whatever Grimm was around he had already announced his presence with those negative feelings.

A heavy thump on the ground alerted him to look to the side, and lo and behold, there he saw a Grimm.

Large. The creature was large, towering over him despite his six foot height. Black fur covered its body along with bone-like armor protecting its head along with some spikes on its back and arms. It stood in its hind legs, hunching over like some Gorilla.

A Beowolf.

He saw pictures in books and videos in scroll of what it looked like, but it never did it justice.

The monster growled, chuffing steam out of its maw as it prowled around him like it was observing prey. For a moment Jaune stood still and unable to know what to do.

Then… he took a deep breath, and squashed the feeling of hesitation within him.

"Alright…"

He snarled in defiance.

"Bring it on!"

The Beowolf roared in return, then started charging towards him. The ground quaked in each step as the it pushed over foliage and small trees as it brought up a large arm towards him, about to brutally rip him apart. Jaune watched with wide eyes as the arm blurred, heading straight at him—

Clang!

—Before it was stopped by his mechashifted shield, stopping the claws of the Beowolf with an ear-piercing clash.

"Grghhh!" Jaune grit his teeth, using his strength so as to not get entirely folded by the force of the downward swipe.

Heavy—It was way too heavy! He felt his entire body quake, and it took all his strength and beyond just to block that single attack with his shield. Even now as he held the arm in place an incredible weight was forced down upon him, and his entire body was starting to feel like jelly.

The monster growled from above him as they pushed against one another for a battle of strength. Then, Jaune caught movement from the corner of his eye and he saw that the monster's other arm was also rearing back. His eyes widened.

"Wha—!"

With great exertion, he pushed the arm away and immediately jumped to the side as fast as he could. The judgment proved to be correct as he managed to avoid another swipe from the Beowolf, with its claws hitting nothing but air instead.

Jaune got a bit away from the Grimm, landing on a roll and sliding backwards from the momentum. He stood up straight and immediately went back to his stance, not daring to let his guard down slightly.

The Grimm roared again, enraged at missing its attack.

Jaune, meanwhile, took a moment to mentally review what happened.

"So that's how Grimm are… Just as I expected, they really are strong. And this is what Huntsmen can defeat hundreds of easily?" he chuckled and shook his head. "I really have a long way to go."

The monster looked like it was about to attack again, its hind legs bending over as it hunched over to all fours.

"But… I'm really glad." he continued. "Because if they're like this—"

The Beowolf ran towards him, barrelling through in an incredible speed unlike before as it roared towards him in rage, intent to rip him apart.

This time, however, Jaune had no plans blocking the attack with his shield.

Instead, his eyes locked onto one part of the Grimm's body and his arm whipped up to throw his own shield. It hit the monster's arm with its edge, the force of the throw strong enough to make the limb bend with a sickening crack which echoed in the forest.

The Beowolf suddenly roared in shock and pain. As it was running on all fours, the sudden breaking of one arm made it stumble forward uncontrollably.

Making its canine head meet his sword when Jaune stabbed it forward, with the blade easily piercing straight through the Grimm's jaw where there was no bony armor to protect it.

"—Then, it means that my goal might not be so unachievable after all." he finished.

He pulled the sword out, making the Beowolf drop lifelessly.

It didn't move.

Jaune stared at the monster's dead body.

"...I did it." he muttered breathlessly.

For a moment, he just stood there, taking in his first kill. It took a few minutes to calm his racing heart, and another few minutes more to make the shakes of the adrenaline disappear. His emotions ran wild—the feeling of fear that he felt, euphoria of winning, and pride for his hard work all swam underneath him from his victory in battle.

He only realized later that he had a toothy grin on his face after a few moments.

Then, he took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

Jaune walked through the Beowolf's body as it slowly disappeared into black wisps, and he leaned down to pick up the shield he threw and shifted it back into a sheathe, one that he fastened back to his waist with a click.

And once that was done, he turned around and left the area, eyes filled with determination.

He still had more Grimm to hunt after all.

Looks like Jaune's family is introduced. Sorry for dumping all the names there, but I tried to minimize it as much as I could. I thought of using Coeur Al'Aran's names for the family at first but thought that it might be too lazy for me to do so. His siblings are based on Dishwasher1910's fanart of Jaune's siblings, or at least the general feel of the characters drawn there. They're a very talented artist and I especially like their drawings of Rwby 3.0.

Anyway, it looks like Jaune found out that he's strong enough to defeat Grimm! Now he just needs to get better at it. And he will get better at it - that's his thing. It's just a matter of practice for him.

I think that's it. If you have any criticisms, please leave a review. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!