Toshinori had been going about a day that he would consider to be quite pleasant. It had been strangely villain-less today and even if one did show up they were usually a simple purse snatcher that was quickly handled by the heroes on patrol. His scar didn't ache as much as it usually would and he had even managed to have a nice chat with Tsukauchi over some good old fashion hamburgers and fries –Although Toshinori hadn't been able to eat much, not having a stomach and all but it still tasted amazing and reminded him of when he used to work in America– at his favorite spot. Nezu had approached him about teaching at U.A recently and Toshinori was still considering it.
If he accepted then he probably wouldn't be able to do as much hero work, his time limit being barely enough to teach classes after all. But he would be able to search through the best of the best and see if there was anyone worth passing One For All onto.
Toshinori considered it and decided he'd take Nezu up on his offer, after all, a second Symbol of Peace was more important than his want to do hero work. And also the fact that Toshinori loved seeing the innocence of children.
Ahh, it reminded him back when–
A loud metal thunk was heard above Toshinori, making a cold sweat wash over his form. This must've been a mugger, as it wasn't the first time a villain had tried to mug him, thinking he was a sickly, old man. Toshinori looked above himself, expecting to see a mugger with some kind of flight Quirk above himself.
He did not expect to see a body dangling off the roof of one of the two building the alleyway was in-between. The body then fell to the ground with a loud metal crash, cracking the concrete.
Toshinori was about to investigate when he saw red begin to pool around the body.
Instincts taking over, Toshinori transformed into All Might with an explosion of smoke and rushed over, instinctively smiling, feeling the warmth and power of One For All as he went to check if the person was alright.
"I AM HERE!"
The person didn't react one bit, besides turning their head towards him slightly.
All Might crouched down and took a look at the boy's face who couldn't be a day older than eighteen, skin pale meaning he had been bleeding for a while now, his eyes were still open and they were struggling to focus on Toshinori, indicating a concussion. It seemed like the kid was an up and coming hero, he was wearing armor and seemed to be going for the look of a knight, considering the sword and shield he had. All Might shook his head to get rid of stray thoughts and picked up the boy.
"DON'T WORRY FELLOW HERO!-" Several people peeked into the alley, hearing the voice of All Might and hoping to witness him in action. "-FOR ALL MIGHT IS HERE! I WILL BRING YOU TO A HOSPITAL IN RECORD TIME!" All Might widened his smile and crouched down, before jumping hundreds of meters into the air towards the nearest hospital. Many people pointed at him in awe as he flew through the air, hundreds of them pulling out their phones to try and take a picture.
As All Might flew through the air, he inspected the injuries of the Hero-in-training to give the information to the doctors. All Might's eyes widened as he saw the gigantic hole in the back of the boy's chest plate, seemingly blown open by something. His eyes widened that much more when he saw the horrific burns and metal of the chest plate digging into the boy's back.
Good god… this was the most horrific injury he had ever seen a Hero Student take. All Might's great smile began to decrease in size as he saw more injuries. The boy had bruises forming on his face from the fall in the alley, there were several cuts on him from the sword not being sheathed in anything on the way down and he seemed to have burns caking his entire body now that All Might took a closer look.
It was as if he was caught in an explosion… and it reminded All Might of himself after he had fought All For One. All Might frowned…
These injuries would need Recovery Girl.
Jaune heard the beeping of a heart monitor, a sound that's become quite familiar to him as he had taken many injuries while fighting Grimm and from accidents during training. Jaune smelled the unnatural smell of antiseptics and soaps of a hospital, another thing that he had gotten very familiar with. He was in a bed, much softer than his bed, almost too soft in fact. He also felt a bone-deep exhaustion, combined with horrible ache he felt in his back it made it impossible to move. He also had trouble thinking, but managed to come to the conclusion that he must've been given pain killers because he could not think at all.
Jaune slowly opened his eyes, the glaring rays of a LED light above him making him squint.
He was in a hospital room. But instead of the extremely advanced hospitals of Atlas or the Vale hospitals that tried to feel homely and were more comfortable than most other hospitals, instead he was in a room that was devoid of any other color besides white. It didn't have any holopads, instead a strange black metal box in the corner with a screen on it.
It was displaying a simple weather prediction program.
Jaune paid little heed to that and saw that he was dressed in a hospital gown and frowned. What had he done to land himself in the hospital this time? Jaune attempted to remember but his mind felt sluggish and slow, so he gave up for now. Jaune absent mindedly wondered where Crocea Mors and his armor was, as he felt naked without them.
Jaune sat up and got up, his feet not liking the feeling of being on the cold and hard floor, attempted to walk away when he felt a small pull on his arm.
Jaune looked behind himself and saw an IV attached to his right arm he had somehow missed due to the haze in his mind. Jaune grabbed a hold of the IV stand and pulled it along with him. Jaune wondered where Ren, Nora and Oscar were. Where was Ruby? Weiss and Blake? Whenever he woke up in a hospital they would always be here with him.
Eh, they had probably gone out to eat while he was out.
Jaune opened the door and walked out into the hallway, seeing dozens of doctors and nurses rushing about. Jaune looked around and was about to take a step when a tiny old lady dressed in a weird costume quickly stopped him.
"おい！ベッドに戻る！誰もそのような怪我をして歩き回るべきではありません。" She yelled in a tone filled with annoyance and disbelief. Jaune just stared at her in confusion as if he hadn't understood a single word she said, partly because he didn't, she was speaking in what Jaune thought was Mistralian. He had never seen someone so short in his entire life, she had to be like, four feet tall at most.
"おい、大丈夫か？" She asked in a tone with a little more worry. Jaune shook his head to clear his mind and spoke.
"Uh, I don't understand." Jaune said, hoping she would understand Valean.
"I said, are you alright?" She repeated in a Mistralian accent, tilting her head, hoping his concussion wasn't causing this. Strange how he didn't know Japanese.
Japanese and Mistralian are both the same language, as Mistral is just a Jumbo-sized version of Japan.
"Uh, yeah I'm fine… I think?" Jaune replied, unsure if he was alright due to the horrible ache he felt in his back.
"Oh dearie… how about you have some gummy bears while I examine you?" She said while pulling out a blue bag of blue gummy bears. Jaune tried to bend over and grab it when his back exploded in pain. Jaune yelped in pain, grimacing before straightening himself and smiling sheepishly at the little lady. Definitely not alright.
She frowned in annoyance, seeing the blonde try and move his back as if he wasn't lucky to have an intact spine before throwing the gummy bears at his face. Jaune caught it before it hit him. Thankfully, it had labels written in Valean.
Huh, it was a brand he'd never seen. Jaune considered himself a professional at eating snacks but he'd never seen gummy bears like this.
BLUE RASPBERRY MEDICAL GUMMY BEARS!
CONTAINs PAIN KILLERS, CAFFIENE AND ENOUGH NUTRIENTS TO LAST 24 HOURS!
BOTH GOOD FOR YOU AND TASTY!
*Disclaimer: Eating more than one packet at once will cause side effects such as: Inability to sleep, vomiting, and temporary loss of senses.*
*Double Disclaimer: Eating more than 17 packets at once may cause side effects such as: Death.*
"誓って言うが、ブロンドは皆、幼児のような自己保存本能を持っている。" She muttered to herself, Jaune not hearing her also because he was more focused on the gummy bears –he didn't understand Mistralian anyways– which were apparently nutritious and were not unhealthy –Jaune didn't read the second disclaimer.
Jaune grabbed his IV stand and followed her, reading the back of the gummy bear packet. Jaune ripped open the gummy bears and popped a few into his mouth, and being pleasantly surprised at the taste, they tasted very artificially flavored, probably because Blue Raspberries weren't real –He had half expected it to taste like cardboard.
Jaune followed her while eating gummy bears, so focused on the gummy bears he didn't notice the extremely strange people walking around him. Someone had a pufferfish head, somebody had table legs for hands and someone else was a literal skeleton. Jaune didn't pay them any heed, not even noticing them mostly because he was hopped up on some very powerful pain killers.
The woman opened a door and ushered him in before shutting it behind herself and telling him to sit down on the bed while she prepared to take a checkup of him.
"Okay dearie, now what's your name? I'm Recovery Girl, I'm sure you've heard of me as I'm quite famous." Recovery Girl said as she pulled out several tools such as those things that measured heartbeats, and… that's about all Jaune could recognize.
"I haven't heard of you, but I'm Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue and... Uh, rolls off the tongue." Jaune didn't say the last part because Weiss had recently told him that the last part was just unnecessary and idiotic and sounded like something a dolt would say.
"Oh? What a fancy name!" Recovery Girl exclaimed as she put the heart beat thing to his chest.
".ジョーヌはフランス語で黄色を意味します。" She muttered to herself, Jaune not hearing her.
"So, uh, why are you wearing that costume?" Jaune asked through a mouthful of gummy bears, wondering why someone would wear something like that. It looked like something a hospital would use as a mascot, with the syringe she was using as a hairpin and the gigantic syringe she was using as a walking stick.
Recovery Girl was puzzled by the question. She frowned in slight suspicion. All Might had brought him in. They hadn't been able to find any hero that matched his appearance in the entire Japanese Hero Index, and now he gives them a name that is quite obviously French. Maybe he had been warped here from a different country by a villain with a warp Quirk? But that was quite unlikely. He had also came in with serious burns spanning his entire body and his metal chest plate blown into the flesh of his back.
She had All Might –Carefully– tear the chest plate in half to remove it so she could heal and examine him. She hadn't been able to heal Jaune fully, and there would be a horrible scar spanning his entire back –He now had a scar that could rival All Might's– which he would have to live with.
"I wear it because I'm a Hero." Recovery Girl replied with a smile, hiding her puzzlement at the question.
"Ohhh, I get what you mean!" Jaune said with a smile, snapping his fingers. Recovery Girl merely shook her head in amusement.
He really was like a smaller Toshinori.
After the check up, and Recovery Girl telling him to take a good rest for a few days so his back could heal –Jaune was still having trouble remembering how his back ended up with such a big injury but hey, at least now he had an awesome scar– and then asked him a few questions before he was discharged.
"Do you have anybody here?" Recovery Girl asked with a small frown, Jaune's face scrunched in confusion, wondering what she meant. What Recovery Girl actually meant was 'Do you have anybody here for you to take you back to wherever you came from?'
But of course, since Jaune didn't understand the context, he took the question literally instead.
"Uh, yeah I do." Jaune replied. Of course, his friends were here for him.
"Then I think you're ready to leave, just be careful. I see a lot of great up and coming Heroes like you get snuffed out too early." Recovery Girl said with a mournful glaze to her eyes. Jaune nodded his head in response, thinking she was just referring to him as a hero, not a Pro Hero like Recovery girl actually meant.
"Okay, and thank you for the gummy bears and checking on me and all that." Jaune thanked with a smile, rubbing the back of his neck. Recovery smiled in response, looks like his parents raised him right.
"Oh, and I almost forgot! Here's your hero gear, sadly we couldn't salvage your costume and armor at all so you'll have to take these clothes instead." Recovery Girl said as she pulled out a suitcase and Crocea Mors.
"Oh, thank you again. You're being really, generous." Jaune said as he opened the suitcase which had a symbol of a 'U' and 'A' combined on it. It had a few articles of clothing such as plain hoodies and pants, jeans and tank tops. Which all also had the 'U' and 'A' symbol.
"Of course, after all, you're at the best of the best." Recovery Girl said as she opened the door and motioned for him to follow. Jaune transformed his shield into its sheath form and sheathed Crocea Mors and followed Recovery Girl.
Now, you might think, why hadn't Jaune asked where he was? Well that's because he simply assumed he's in a completely regular hospital. And why hadn't Recovery Girl asked more questions? She assumed that Jaune was an up-and-coming Pro Hero from a different country that was simply visiting, and that his school was probably panicking, looking left and right for him. It was why she hadn't asked many questions and why she simply let him go, she assumed he was here on some kind of school trip.
Jaune followed Recovery Girl through the halls which were now completely empty as it was night, she led him to the lobby which had a stupidly large door and gave Jaune a prescription of pain killers before saying her farewells.
Jaune walked out of the hospital and looked behind himself.
Woah…
This place wasn't a normal hospital was it? It was absolutely huge and in the shape of a huge 'H'. Jaune shook his head and walked out of the large gate of the walls that surrounded the building.
Jaune then came to a conclusion that he thought was very reasonable, he must've gone to a very famous hospital! And that was why the old lady was wearing a costume! She was the mascot!
Jaune snapped his fingers, happy he came to a conclusion that made sense after being so confused for a while.
Jaune pulled out his scroll –Jaune had been so incredibly happy they had packed his scroll into the suitcase–to try and call his team or Team RWBY.
Huh… unable to contact? That was strange… Jaune knew that ever since the destruction of the CCT towers communicating between long distances now had to be done the old fashioned way but short-ranged calls within a couple dozen kilometers still worked, albeit with quite a bit of static interference.
Jaune frowned as he walked down the street, a few cars passing by him. It had begun to lightly drizzle with water, pleasantly splashing down upon Jaune as he walked down the streets. He sighed. The rain always made him sad but in a good way. It always reminded him of his family… they loved the rain, hadn't they?
Jaune shook his head with a smile, eyes closed, remembering every member of his family running in the rain, from little three year old Lily who loved the rain because she'd never seen it before, to the almost graduated Ellie who would simply sit in the rain because she loved how calm it was. From his mother Galore, who'd play in the rain as if she was still a child, to his father Alexander who would hold his mother close as he closed his eyes.
Then they'd look up at the broken moon together, the inspiration for the Arc Crest.
Jaune opened his eyes and looked up at the broken moon.
The broken moon that wasn't… broken…
The moon was whole… it was huge… it was beautiful…
It was breathtaking…
…
And it was so very wrong.
Translations:
"おい！ベッドに戻る！誰もそのような怪我をして歩き回るべきではありません。" / "Hey! Go back to bed! No one should be walking around with an injury like that."
"おい、大丈夫か?"/ "Hey, are you okay?"
"誓って言うが、ブロンドは皆、幼児のような自己保存本能を持っている。"/ "I swear all blondes have the self-preservation instincts of infants."
"ジョーヌはフランス語で黄色を意味します。" /"Jaune means yellow in French…"
Author's Note: How was this chapter? I ain't gonna get to the action for quite a bit since Jaune will have to settle in this world and whatnot.
So in the meantime, please give me ideas for Jauney's Hero Name since I can't come up with anything at all.
Please review!