Chapter 6: A troubled heart and mind
ArcofUA: Thanks for the review Arc! And I hope that you stick around for the rest of the story!
Robbeeyy: Oddly enough, the draft concept for why Raven brought Jaune in was because I was gonna make him Raven's first love before dating Tai, only to have her heart broken when he started dating Jaune's mom (Yalena in this story), But I thought that was a little too personal for both Jaune and Raven and in my head sort of pointed at this being a slight Harem (which is not what I intend for this story) and just stuck with Raven being an old and close friend of Jaune's dad, though I admit, I still sort of like the whole NicholasXRaven concept, so I might use something like a one-sided crush with those two later (Don't expect it to go anywhere tho). As for the next to Acts, I can't spoil anything but I will only say that the "Pine Act" will involve Oscar and his Aunt, while the "Spider Act" will be right after the "Pine Act" and the two will be directly connected.
Guest: Ok, I understand that my argument may make no sense, but to me, I had to come up with something that would push Jaune to the edge while also having a reason for facing off against Raven and leaving the tribe, and I know I could have done that a million different ways, but to me, I thought that was the best possible way, because the damage was supposed to be more emotional and psychological to Jaune and show him that this is the world he lives in now, (Also, unless your fucking superman or have superhuman strength, your not stopping three guys from jumping you from behind, like Ruby got knocked out by a grunt of the White-Fang in V2! So it's not impossible for someone like Jaune and even Vernal to be surprised attacked and overpowered by three guys). Also, let me just say that in reality, Vernal shouldn't have been overpowering Weiss, simply because Weiss is supposed to be one of the strongest members of Team RWBY, her fucking semblance allows her to speed up or even slow down objects, as well as glide in the air with her glyphs, and summon enemies she's defeated! Vernal should have lost! I get that Vernal was trained by Raven, but again, in the show and Wiki it was never shown or said she had Aura. I can agree that the training makes no sense for Jaune, and while I love Jaune, he had been done dirty many, many times (that includes the Hair, I wanted a warrior's wolf tail!). Vernal is 17 in this story because she looks to be around 18 maybe even 19 during V5. Yeah, RT's writing is messy and just bad in places. Also, who says Vernal was trained since childhood? And why was Vernal the only one trained? Wasn't it her and Qrow's job to go to Beacon and then go back to the tribe and teach them to kill huntsmen? Why not teach the rest of the tribe kids how to fight like Huntsmen? There are many plotholes in the Branwen tribe that I'm not going to get into, but yeah, bad writing on RT's end, (Not saying I can do better, just saying I thought of a few reasons as to why the Branwen tribe actually should have lost to any freaking Huntsmen!).
The format of the words is going to get a little weird so Here's something to help you out!
1. "Text"/"TEXT"/"~Text~" = Talking/blood curling screams/Singing
2. 'text' = Thoughts
3. Text/"Text"= Past actions or speech
4. 'Text' = Beowulf talking
5. [Text] = calling
6. {Text} = texting
7. Text = Dreams
Update:
By the way, here's a timeline of events. (Reminder that for this story, the Vytal Festival will be taking place during the 2nd year of Beacon/the 2nd half of this story).
1. The Branwen Act takes place after Vol.1 but before and at the beginning of Vol.2.
2. The Pine, Spider, and Argus Acts will be during and after what is essentially Vol.2.
3. The Atlas Act will be during what would be Vol.3.
4. The Patch and Shade Acts will be After Vol.3 but before the 2nd year at Beacon (what would have been Vol.4)
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Jaune looked around only to see pitch blackness all around, only able to see the shapes of trees, letting him know that he was in some sort of woodland area.
"Jaune..."
Jaune turned around quickly, looking around for the source of the voice. "Who's there!?" Jaune cried.
"Jaune..."
"Show yourself!" Jaune cried, still frantically looking around trying to figure out who was speaking and where they were coming from.
Suddenly, a hand popped out of the dirt and grabbed onto Jaune's ankle, Jaune looked down with a horrified look and saw that the hand looked decomposed, almost like a zombie. Jaune backed up but tripped and fell backward onto the ground, and when he did, more hands popped out of the ground and grabbed his arms and his legs, and all he could do was be frozen in horror.
Head and bodies finally rose from the dirt and looked at the blonde teen, their features were decomposed and rotting, and limbs, pieces of flesh, and hair were missing.
"Jaune!" cried one of the zombies, "Come with us Jaune!"
"Murderer!" shouted another, "You killed us!"
"You'll pay for what you did!" cried a third, "You'll burn in the abyss!"
Suddenly, two hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down to the ground and when Jaune looked up, he saw Shay, however, his head wasn't bashed in, giving the young man a clear view of the horrifying sight above him.
Shay was also zombie-like, his face was sunk in, his flesh rotting with maggots wiggling in his cheeks and around his eye, which were just empty voids of nothingness, and there were parts of his hair that were ripped out, leaving some exposed spots that also had flesh eaten away.
"You'll join us soon enough," Shay said with a sinister giggle.
He felt his entire body being pulled down into the dirt and Jaune did his best to free himself, but it was no use. Their rotting hands pulled him deeper into the soil, and all he could do was scream.
"Arc!"
"Arc!"
Jaune quickly sat up and looked around frantically with a horrified look on his face, Vernal put her hand on his shoulder to ease and he quickly turned to her with his bewildered expression.
"Easy! Easy! It's alright, everything's fine," Vernal told him
Jaune began to slowly calm down and he took a few deep breaths, he looked over to Vernal and her worried expression told him everything, "I-I'm fine, Vernal," he told her, giving her a reassuring smile, "It was just a bad dream,"
'Hehehehehe,' came a very distinct laughter, 'Sure, call it a bad dream, hehehe~!'
Jaune didn't turn to see the Beowulf, he already knew it was behind him. He just looked back to Vernal with a raised brow, "What time is it?" he asked her.
"Around 8:00," Vernal said. She then dug into her bag and pulled out a protein bar and handed it over to him, "You want breakfast?" She asked,
Jaune looked at it and then looked at her, "Is that your last one?"
Vernal shook her head, "Nah, I still got plenty more," she replied, still holding out the protein bar for him to take
Jaune took it from her with a small smile on his face, "Thanks," Jaune said as he opened it and began eating it.
"Don't mention it, Arc," She said with a smile, "Do you got the map?" Vernal asked
Jaune nodded and held the bar in his mouth as he dug through his own bag and after moving a few things out of the way, he pulled out the folded map and handed it to Vernal. She took it and unfolded it and looked at where they were.
It's been 10 days since they left the Branwen Tribe and were making their way north. Their main destination was Mistral, but also Argus, where Jaune's sister lived.
Vernal looked for the nearest town and much to her joy, she saw a particular village. "Looks like we're in luck, Arc," She said as she showed him the map and pointed at a town.
Jaune looked at where Vernal was pointing on the map and he swallowed his food and read the town's name, "Matsunoki?" Jaune asked, "What's there?" Jaune asked
"A lot," Vernal said with a smile, "It's a rather large town just a couple of miles from here, it's half the size of Argus, and it's also got an old Mistral military fort, maybe we can even find a Mecha-shift shop there,"
Jaune smiled, "Going through with that idea, huh?" Jaune asked.
Vernal smiled back, "Maybe, though, the design you came up with was terrible, the mechanical working of how they worked was great," Vernal told him, "Where did you learn Mech-Shift Mechanics?"
Jaune thought about it and he remembered how when his shield wasn't opening properly one day, Ruby forced him to learn a few things about Mecha-Shift products and weapons for a whole week, and he's thankful that he remembered most of it in case his shield acted up again. He smiled a little, remembering how excited Ruby was to teach him and how giddy she was showing him how Crescent Rose worked, but then his smile faded as he remembered her, and his thought drifted off to wondering how she was and what she was doing, and then he began to wonder if she missed him or even cared about him.
He wouldn't blame her if she didn't...
'She wouldn't care about me if she knew what I did... what I've become' Jaune thought
Vernal saw Jaune's gloomy expression, and it made her worried. He had been stuck in his thoughts for a while, which just made her uneasy. She would sometime's see him looking at something with a glare but there was always nothing, and she swore he was talking to himself, but she never made out what it was. However, she wasn't going to bring it up, not yet anyway, she knew he needed time to heal.
She figured it out the moment she woke up, she remembered the crazed angry face he had when he killed the Beowulf and when she saw how he acted, she knew what had happened. He had gone through with his promise to kill Shay and his group.
"Arc? You good?" Vernal asked.
Jaune was taken out of his thoughts and looked at her, "Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Jaune replied
"Alright," Vernal said, a little apprehensive, "So where did you learn Mecha-Shift Mechanics?" Vernal asked him again.
"A friend of mine at Beacon taught me," Jaune said, "Well... I don't know if we're even friends anymore," he muttered softly.
Vernal heard that and she too was beginning to feel bummed out, so she decided to do something to take his mind off whatever it was he was feeling. "Hey, since we got some time, how about you teach me more about Aura?"
Jaune turned to her and smiled, "Didn't I teach some things yesterday?" Jaune asked
"Hey, this whole thing is completely new to me, it's not like Raven taught me anything about Aura or Semblance, she said it was a skill that needed to be earned," Vernal said with a bit of a frustrated tone, "I wanna know as much as I can,"
Jaune chuckled and he began to feel better, "Alright, I can teach you a few ways to use it as defense, and how to turn it on and off, which is a little hard,"
Vernal looked a little confused by his last remark, "Wait, what's so difficult about turning it off and on?" Vernal asked.
Jaune chuckled, "Let me explain," Jaune said, he turned around to her and looked at her, "First off, have you felt more tired since we left?" Jaune asked.
"Sort of, but sleeping in nothing but a sleeping bag will sort of do that to you," Vernal said
Jaune shrugged, "You're right, but with Aura, you should feel well-rested after most nights of sleep," Jaune said.
Vernal smiled as a thought came to her, "Does that mean I'll even feel better after a hangover?" She asked with a smile.
Jaune thought about it, "I'm not sure, I know that Aura helps with some headaches and even when you're sick sometimes, but I don't know about a hangover," Jaune said "But I wouldn't try it Vernal,"
"Say's you, Arc," Vernal said with a smile and a point, "First chance I get, I'll give it a try," she said with a smug grin.
Jaune shook his head and he smiled, "Not until you learn some better Aura control," Jaune said, smiling, "Now, back to what I was saying, with Aura, you should feel well-rested after a long nap or just 8-hours of sleep, so the reason you might be feeling tired is that it's been on since you unlocked it,"
"What?" Vernal asked, "How is that possible? shouldn't I be extra tired since my Aura's supposedly been on since we left?"
Jaune realized she was right, and then decided to check something, he quickly grabbed his scroll and went to his Aura meter, where it read his and his team's Aura. He pressed "Add profile" and then held it out to Vernal and looked at her, "I need you to touch the screen of the scroll where it says," Jaune said.
Vernal looked at the scroll and saw a small fingerprint button on the scroll, she pressed the button and she felt a bit of an odd sensation, but then it went away after the Scroll pinged, and Jaune looked back to the screen and then quickly took a picture of Vernal and created her Aura profile on his phone.
"What did you just do?" Vernal asked
"Created your Aura profile," Jaune said, "It'll allow me to watch your Aura levels and will even notify me when you're low, I just need to calibrate it a bit," Jaune explained.
Vernal was a little bit surprised a scroll could do that, to be fair, she never really had one of her own, and she didn't come around a scroll all that much since they held no value to the tribe, but now that she was no longer part of the Branwen tribe, she wanted to do so many things that she never got to do in the tribe. "Hey, how much is a Scroll?" Vernal asked.
"I'd say... if you want one like mine, maybe 50 to 60 Lien?" Jaune said.
Vernal was stunned that a Scroll like Jaune's was rather cheap. "Really? That much?" Vernal asked "I thought they would be more,"
"Well the model given to us was made for huntsmen and is created by a company that makes most of the scrolls for Huntsmen, so they are pretty cheap," Jaune told her.
Vernal nodded, "huh," She said, "You think... we could also buy me a scroll once he gets enough money?" she asked
Jaune shrugged, "I don't see why not," Jaune said with a smile.
Vernal nodded with a cheerful smile, and then she remembered what he was doing. "By the way, you almost done with that?" Vernal asked.
"Yeah," Jaune said, finishing up calibrating Vernal's Aura.
Once he was finished, he saw Vernal's Aura level, which was odd. Because according to his scroll, her Aura level was around 70%.
"Your Aura's relatively high, though you could use a boost," Jaune said, "Hold out your hands," Jaune told her.
Vernal did so Jaune put his hands over hers, he activated his semblance and it glowed and so did Vernal's. Jaune saw her aura and saw the color of it, it was a blue hue, and now that he thought about it and got a better look, it sort of looked like the color of his own eyes. Vernal saw his hands and saw his Semblance, and seeing it was a little odd, she had gotten so used to seeing his usual white Aura, but when he used his Semblance, it wasn't white, it was a light blue.
When Jaune began boosting her Aura, she felt herself becoming better, more than she had ever been before, and the boost also made her feel both awake and full of energy.
Jaune removed his hands from hers and turned off his semblance with a small smile on his face and he looked over to the ex-bandit. "Feel better?" he asked
Vernal nodded as she looked at her hands, still feeling a lingering sense of Jaune's boosting. "Yeah," Vernal said, she looked up to Jaune, "Now can you teach me how to turn my Aura on and off so I don't feel so tired anymore?"
"Yeah," Jaune said, "Now here's what you need to do,"
Jaune began to explain to Vernal how she needed to concentrate her aura in order to turn it off and Vernal was closely how she was able to turn it off. Most of the morning was spent on how Vernal turned off her Aura and how to use it for defense before eventually, they needed to pack up and head toward Matsunoki, where hopefully there were a few available jobs where they could get some Lien, as well as a Mecha-Shift shop for Vernal.
However, as they walked, Jaune could feel the Beowulf following behind...
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Finally, after a long walk, the two arrived at Matsunoki, and Jaunr saw that Vernal was right, it was half the size of Argus, and some of the buildings were larger than most in regular villages, he has seen over the past month. And the town did indeed hold an abundance of people, as the streets were full of people walking down them and small shops lined the streets.
"Wow," Jaune said with a smile
Vernal smiled as well, and also a little in shock, she had heard of Matsunoki but had never seen it with her own eyes. "It's so big!" she said with wonder, "I wonder what Mistral City is like?"
Jaune looked at her, still with that smile on his face, "Trust me, this place is cool, but it ain't got anything on Mistral," Jaune told her.
Vernal tapped him on the arm and pointed toward the shops, "Maybe we can find a Mecha-Shift shop here,"
Jaune nodded and the two walked down the street and looked at the shops that littered the street, they passed all kinds of shops, each selling different things, such as dust, meat, vegetables, artwork, and clothing. Jaune looked at the shops and smiled, but he turned toward Vernal to see her admiring some of the shops that were selling artwork, he noticed her eyeing some of the wooden carvings that one shop was selling. He sort of smiled as he saw her looking at everything with a smile and an expression of wonder on her face. This was pretty new to her, after all, mostly due to her life as an orphan and as a bandit.
"How goes the window shopping?" Jaune asked playfully.
Vernal turned to him with a smirk, "Going well Arc, and for your information, I do plan on getting what I like in some of these shops,"
Jaune raised a brow, "How are you going to do that? We don't have any money so how are you going to buy what you want?"
"Who said anything about buying?" Vernal asked with a side glance and a smirk.
Jaune rolled his eyes, "You are not stealing from any of these shops," Jaune said,
"Says you," Vernal said.
Jaune sighed, "How about we wait till we have the lien, besides, we need all the Lien we can get because isn't one of the reasons we're here is because you want some Mecha-Shift weapons?" Jaune reminded her
Vernal rolled her eyes, "Ugh! Fine, have it your way Mr. buzzkill," Vernal said
Jaune sighed a little at her antics, but still kept his smile and they continued searching for a Mecha-Shift shop, and eventually, the two changed streets and kept looking.
"Ah! A little help please!" came a pleading cry.
Jaune turned his head to see a young boy trying his best to hold on tight to a stack of crates that held eggs.
The boy was short in size, tanned skin, and had freckles on his cheeks. His hair was a dark brown and his eyes a really strange color, as they were hazel, though the main iris was a forest green, with accents of burnt orange and yellow around the pupil.
He wore a dirty and scuffed white shirt that has laces across the chest, the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and there was a small pocket on the left tricep, and orange suspenders held up his olive pants, which were tucked into worn, brown boots. The pants themselves were patched over the knees, and a quilted cloth hung loosely out of his left pocket.
He also wore a pair of orange gloves, with green straps overlapping across the back of the hand in an X shape, and around his wrists. His neck was wrapped with a torn bandage, though, Jaune could tell that was more of a style choice than actually a need to hide or cover a wound, simply due to the fact that they looked to be used yet clean, almost like they were worn more than once.
Jaune quickly ran over to him and grabbed some of the crates and lightened the load of the young boy.
The boy now had a better hold of the crates and let out a sigh of relief, and turned to Jaune with a smile, "Thank you so much," replied the young boy, "I was afraid I was going to drop all of those," He told Jaune.
Jaune smiled back at the young boy and gave him a quick nod, "No worries," Jaune said, "Where do you need these?" Jaune asked
"Um, right over there," told the young boy, pointing to the other end of the shop's stand.
Jaune and the young boy walk over to the other end of the stand and set the crates down gently.
The boy smiled and then looked over to Jaune, "Thanks again Mr...?"
"Jaune Arc," Jaune introduced himself, "And please, just Jaune, I'm only 17,"
"Right, um, thanks again, Jaune," replied the boy, "I'm Oscar, Oscar Pines," Oscar introduced himself.
Jaune chuckled, "Nice to meet you, Oscar,"
"You too," Oscar said, "Are you new in town?" Oscar asked the blonde teen.
Jaune nodded, "I and a friend are staying here for a bit hoping to find some work," Jaune told the young boy.
Oscar's smile widened a little when Jaune expressed he was looking for employment, "What kind of work?" Oscar asked.
"Any kind truthfully," Jaune said, "Nothing illegal of course, but anything will do,"
"What about farming?" Oscar asked, "Are you any good with farmwork?"
Jaune was a bit surprised by the boy's question, but felt there was no harm in answering it, "I am, I use to help out with some work on my grandparent's farm," Jaune answered, "Why?" Jaune asked.
Oscar scratched the back of his head nervously, "Well...My Aunt's looking for some help around the farm and she could pay you and your friend well," Oscar said.
Jaune thought about it, "Well, first I have to speak to your Aunt and make sure it's ok with her, it is her farm and I'm sure she doesn't want you bringing strangers out of the blue," Jaune said
"Yeah, makes sense," Oscar said with a bit of an embarrassed smile.
"Is she here?" Jaune asked while gesturing to the shop
Oscar shook his head, "Not right now, she went to take care of a small errand, so she should be back soon," Oscar replied.
Jaune nodded, "Alright, well, my friend and me have something to do real quick, so will you and your aunt still be here?" Jaune asked
Oscar nodded, "Yeah, we usually stay here for most of the day trying to sell out produce," Oscar told the blonde knight
Jaune smiled, "Awesome, then when we're done doing what he came for, we'll head back here and see if your Aunt's willing to give us some work while we're here," Jaune said
"Ok, see you later then, Jaune,"
Jaune nodded, "Later, Oscar," Jaune said as he left and went to go look for Vernal.
After walking down another street looking for Vernal, he found her entering a shop called "Mech-a-Weap" and quickly followed her inside, and once he did, he saw her waiting for the clerk to finish talking with another person at the counter.
Vernal heard the door open and turned to glance at whoever it was that entered, only to see Jaune. "There you are Arc," Vernal said, "Where have you been? I almost thought I lost you in this place," She told him.
"I was helping someone and they offered me a job, though, I told them I had to do something first, so once we're done here, we can head back and see if the job's still on the table," Jaune told her.
Vernal smirked, "Lucky us," She told him, "now we don't have to spend another day looking for work," Vernal said
Jaune nodded with a smile, glad to know that they both might have found work rather early and easily. Eventually, the clerk was finished with the customer that was ahead of them and called them over, and they both made their way to the front desk and saw the employee.
She was a girl, with light green hair which was swept to her right, she had teal eyes and a fair complexion, and on her face were two black facial markings on both of her cheeks, which resembled something a football player would put on their cheeks. The only article of clothing Jaune could see clearly was her dark purple hoodie due to the desk obscuring the rest of her clothes. If Jaune had to make an assumption, this girl likes to skate, or something along the lines of that.
"Hey there, welcome to Mech-a-Weap, I'm Reese Chloris, what can I help you with?" the clerk, now known as Reese, asked them.
Jaune stepped forward and decided to be the one to speak to Reese, "Hi, uh, we don't have that much knowledge in Mecha-Shift Mechanic building, so we were wondering if you do custom builds?" Jaune asked
Reese nodded, "We do," Reese replied, "However, we need specific details of how the weapon functions, as well as blueprints," Reese told Jaune.
"Well we don't have blueprints but we do have the details of what we want and how the weapons function," Jaune said.
Vernal pulled out a few folded pieces of paper from a pouch on her belt and handed them over to Reese. Reese took the papers and unfolded them and read some of the details that were written down on them, and she carefully read the papers, and that's when she noticed a few problems things they missed, but thankfully it was nothing serious as she could fix the small mistakes herself.
"Well, you're missing a few details, but nothing to worry about, and thankfully, DPC's are rather common in this line of work," Reese chuckled.
"A what?" Vernal asked with a raised brow
Reese chuckled again, "DPC's stand for Dagger-Pistol Combo," Reese informed her, "They're pretty common amongst some trained civilians, however, since you're a huntress, this weapon needs to pack some power, so a few changes will be made... is that ok?"
Vernal nodded, "Yeah," Vernal said, and then she remembered that she needed to find out what the price was going to be. "Well, first how much is this gonna cost?" Vernal asked.
Reese thought about it for a few seconds before answering, "I'd say around 800 to 900 Lien?"
Vernal groaned, "You serious?" she asked
"Yeah," Reese said with an awkward smile, "And that price is pretty cheap, I made my very own HBPH and that thing nearly cost me an arm and a leg!" Reese said.
"An HB-what now?" Jaune asked this time.
"Hoverboard-Pistol Hybrid," Reese said.
"Oh... cool," Jaune said, not knowing what else to say 'If Ruby met this girl, I fear my brain would overload,' Jaune thought to himself.
"Well we don't have that kind of money," Vernal said letting out a sigh of disappointment.
Reese saw her disgruntled expression and then thought of an idea, "Are you guys students at any of the 4 Huntsmen Academies?" Reese asked
"I am," Jaune said, and technically, wasn't lying, "I'm from Beacon," Jaune told her.
"Huh, thought you guys would be from Haven," Reese muttered with a smile, "But anyway, I might be able to lower the price due to the student discount," Reese told him
"Really!?" They both cried out with joy.
Reese nodded with a smile, "Yep!" Reese replied, popping the p, "Most Mecha-Shift Shops in Anima have a Student Discount for any student of the 4 academies because Mistral is the 2nd most dangerous Kingdom and the Council thought they'd make it easy for aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses to get supplies, that way they'd actually be able to survive out there,"
"Huh... maybe I should have gone to Haven then," Jaune said with a smile, thinking about how much he actually could have saved during his first month at Beacon.
Reese then clicked on the computer/register and calculated the cost, now adding what was apparently a student discount. "With the student discount the price would be... 500 or 550 Lien," Reese told them.
Jaune was a bit surprised by how much was taken off, "Whoa! That's some student discount," Jaune said
"I know huh?" Reese said "So that's the price, as for when they'll be done... estimated time is 7 days from now,"
"That fast?" Vernal asked
"Crazy right?" Reese asked with a smile, "We're just that fast and that good here at Mech-a-Weap!" Reese said with pride.
Vernal smirked but still remembered the fact that they didn't have the money just yet to pay for the weapon, and she let out a soft sigh, "We'll we can't pay right now,"
a cat-like grin formed on Reese's lips, "Well, how about this, I'll put in the order and you can pay when it's finished, deal?" Reese said with a smile.
Vernal was a bit surprised by the girl's generous offer and smirked, "You got yourself a deal," Vernal said with a nod.
Reese nodded back and told them that she would let the owner know to start on their order soon and both of the teens thanked her and left the shop.
Jaune then told Vernal to follow him back to Oscar's shop so they could talk to his Aunt, who he hoped was there by now, about working on her farm. After walking back and passing the shops again, this time a few were packing up for the day, Jaune and Vernal arrived at Oscar's stand/shop, and thankfully, it appeared his Aunt was with him as now there was an older woman next to him.
Oscar's eyes landed on the approaching form of Jaune and he smiled and waved over at Jaune. "Hey! Jaune!" Oscar called out
Jaune smiled and waved back, "Hey Oscar!" Jaune said, "Came back, just as promised," Jaune told him.
"Good, because I told my Aunt about you and your friend and she was actually hoping you'd show," Oscar said
Jaune nodded, and then realized that Vernal was next to him, "Oh, right, Oscar, this is Vernal, she's the friend I mentioned," Jaune said,
Oscar looked at her and smiled and held out his hand, "Oscar Pine, nice to meet you, Ms. Vernal,"
Vernal shook his hand and smiled back, "Nice to meet you Shortstack," Vernal said, "And no "Ms", I'm 17, not 40," She told him
Oscar chuckled and nodded, "Did you really have to bring up my height?" Oscar muttered.
Jaune chuckled and Vernal smirked, and the two then saw that Oscar's Aunt was approaching the three of them.
Oscar's Aunt had skin just as tan as the young boys, she had long brown hair that only went down to her upper back, and there was a red ribbon tied in her hair, her eyes were as orange as the fruit itself, and she wore a pair of hooped gold earrings. She wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a pair of dark blue gloves, her pants were skin-tight blue navy jeans and brown calf-high boots.
"Pinetree, you gonna introduce us?" asked Oscar's Aunt with a smile.
"Ah, Right," Oscar said, "Jaune, Vernal, this is my Aunt, Melissa Pine,"
"Nice to meet you, Ms. Pine," Jaune said.
Vernal gave her a small wave, "Nice to meet you," Vernal said as well.
"Nice to meet you two as well, and please, call me Mel, the whole Ms. Pine makes me sound old,"
"But you're-" Oscar began before his mouth was covered by melissa's gloved hand.
"Anyway! My Nephew here tells me you two are looking for work and are willing to help out with my farm, is that true?" Melissa asked.
Jaune nodded, "Yeah, we're short on Lien right now and we're going on a really long journey, so we need the money if we wanna make it to Mistral, as well as the rest of the places we're going to go," Jaune told her.
"Hmm, are you two huntsmen?" Melissa asked.
"In a sense, yeah," Vernal told her.
Melissa raised a brow at Vernal's answer but moved on to her next question. "Do you two have any experience with farmwork?" Melissa asked them.
"I do," Jaune replied.
"Not really," Vernal said.
"How about Animals? Any good with them?" Melissa asked a third time.
"Yeah actually," Vernal said with a smirk, "I had to take care of some of the livestock where I use to live," Vernal said
"Same here," Jaune said.
Melissa nodded and then went on with her next question, "Are you two ok getting paid around 100 Lien each for a whole day's work?" She asked
"You can pay that much?" Vernal asked
Melissa nodded, "I'm one of the best farmers here in Matsunoki," Melissa told them with pride. "Business is good," she told them
"Then we'll be ok with that," Jaune said.
Melissa smiled at the two, "Then you two got the job! Congrats," she told the two teens.
Jaune smiled brightly at the older woman, "Thank you, Melissa,"
"Don't mention it, kid," Melissa replied. Melissa then looked like she realized something, "Oh, I almost forgot to ask, but do you two have a place to stay?" She asked.
Jaune and Vernal had realized that they had totally forgotten to look for a place to stay, being caught up with the Mech shop and getting the Job from Melissa.
"I'm guessing that's a no, right?" She asked with a smile.
"Yeah..." Jaune said scratching the back of his head.
"Well it's no problem, you two can stay with us," Melissa said, "I got two spare rooms at my house, so you two can stay with us there,"
"Really? Are you sure?" Vernal asked.
Melissa nodded, "Yeah, besides, it would make it much easier for you, since all I'd have to do is wake you up and get to work,"
"Well... How can we say no to a free place to rest our heads," Vernal said with a smile, nudging Jaune in the Arm, "Right Arc?"
"Yeah," Jaune said with a small smile.
"Well then, I'm just about to close the stand for today, so why don't you two help us load the truck back up and we'll be on our way back to the farm, sound good?" Melissa asked the two teens.
"Sounds good," Jaune replied.
"You got it, boss," Vernal said.
With a nod, the group began to pack up and close down the stand for today and load what they had leftover over into the truck.
Once that part was over, Jaune and Vernal got into the back seat of the truck and Melissa drove out of Matsunoki and made her way back to her farm, which was just about 10 or 20 miles away from the town.
Melissa welcomed them to the Farm and Vernal commented on how well the house looked, both outside and inside and Melissa thanked her.
a large brown wooden fence surrounded the house, which was two stories. The entire house appeared to be made of large logs and even had a wooden patio with wooden railings and with a cover attached to the house.
The inside was just as good as the outside. The first floor had a living room, a kitchen, a small dining room, a laundry room, and a master bedroom with a bathroom, while the 2nd floor had three rooms and a bathroom.
Oscar showed them which rooms Jaune and Vernal would be staying in, and showed them his room, also told them that dinner would be made soon and let them know that if they needed anything else to just let him and his Aunt.
The two teens thanked the boy and told him to let them know if they too could help with anything, then they went to their separate rooms and unpacked what they had, and awaited dinner.
So far, things were going smoothly, and Jaune hoped it would stay that way for a while.
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Jaune looked around only to see that he was once again surrounded by pitch blackness all around, once again only able to see the shapes of the trees that surrounded him. His eyes widened with terror, realizing what was going on again. "No..." he muttered.
"Jaune..."
Jaune turned around quickly, knowing what would come next. "No!" Jaune cried.
"Jaune..."
"Get the hell away from me!" Jaune cried.
Jaune quickly tried to run only for a rotting hand to grab his ankle and cause him to trip.
"Jaune... you're going to be coming with us..." came a voice.
Jaune got up and reached for Crocea Mors and frantically swung it around, trying to scare the figures away. "Get back! Get the hell out of here! Get away from me!" Jaune cried with terrible fear, still swinging Crocea Mors wildly.
Finally, the zombies appeared and they were making their way toward Jaune, their hands trying to grab him, and pull him to where ever it was they wanted to drag him off too.
"You'll pay for what you've done!"
"You killed us!"
"Come with us Jaune!"
"You'll burn in the abyss!"
All the voice screamed out to him at once, and all he could feel was fear, he saw the form of Shay slowly approaching him, with the rest of his zombie friends following behind him.
"You're gonna die blondie, and then you'll be stuck with us forever!" Shay cried out
Jaune's fear quickly turned to anger and his grip on Crocea Mors tightened as he looked at the zombie. "GET. AWAY. FROM. ME!" Jaune cried as he swung at the zombie's
He swung with anger and destroy the decrypted creatures before him. He cut off Shay's head, and then stabbed another zombie in the chest, and then kicked it off his blade.
"I killed you all before! I'll do it again!" Jaune cried in anger,
However, it was like the zombies multiplied, because more and more of them appeared they surrounded Jaune. He tried to kill as many of them as he could, but they all grabbed him and began to pile on top of him.
"Get off of me!" Jaune cried in anger and fear as he tried to throw the zombies off of him.
"You'll burn with us Jaune!" cried a zombie
"Jaune!" cried another
"Pull him down to the abyss!"
Jaune tried to free himself, but he could feel himself being pulled down by all the zombies. He couldn't free himself.
Jaune jolted up and began to breathe heavily, he looked around only to find himself in his room in Melissa's house. He slowly calmed down and leveled his breathing.
'Have a good dream? Hehehehe!'
Jaune looked to the end of the bed and glared as he saw the Beowulf sitting down and the end of his bed, as if it was a domesticated dog.
"For the last time, go away," Jaune said, as he turned and sat on the edge of his bed.
The Beowulf appeared to shrug, 'Why? after all, I'm just here to remind you that you do have to face the reality of the situation' It told Jaune
Jaune knew what it was talking about, "You're wrong," Jaune told it.
'Am I? Saphron almost got killed because of you being a bratty child, Vernal almost died because you were weak, how long before she gets hurt again, or maybe this time it'll be the kid? or maybe even his aunt?' The Beowulf asked. It moved over to Jaune and lay next to his legs. 'Face it, all you do is bring pain and sorrow to those around you, you failed at everything you've done, it'll only be a matter of time before you fail to protect her or anyone else, you'll get them killed, then you'll be alone in this big scary world, and eventually, you'll die alone... that's your destiny! Hehehehehehe~!'
Jaune quickly grew angry and tried to swing at the Beowulf but once again it disappeared. However, the echoing of its small laughter was still heard by the blonde boy.
Jaune let out a heavy sigh and checked his scroll only to see that he had 30 minutes left before he had to wake up with Vernal and start work on the farm. So he decided to get up and headed down to the kitchen to get something to drink, however, as he made his way downstairs, he saw that the light to the kitchen was on, making him wonder who might have been up as well. When he entered the kitchen, Jaune saw Melissa leaning against the counter, drinking a mug of coffee.
Melissa must have heard him because she turned to him with a small smile on her face. "Mornin' kid," Melissa greeted.
"Morning," Jaune replied.
"You're up a little early," Melissa said, "Any reason?" She asked
Jaune rubbed his eyes a little, "It was just a bad dream," Jaune told her
"Bad dream huh?" Melissa said, "let me ask you something, are the dead talking to you?" Melissa asked
Jaune eye's widened as he looked to Melissa, "What are you-?"
"The moment I looked into your eyes kid, I saw the eyes of a person who's killed, after all, I have the same eyes,"
Jaune was a little confused as well as shocked, "You have the same eyes...?" Jaune asked
Melissa first took a sip of her coffee before she answered, "Yeah," Melissa said, "Before I was a farmer, I was a detective of the MPD, a damn good one too, but there were times where I had to shoot, where I had to make the choice of killing someone or letting them kill me, and I chose the first option,"
"But you had to kill someone..." Jaune said
"And I'd do it again if it meant I could be here to raise my nephew," Melissa said, "But I've been where you've been, the dead used to talk to me too, and they kept saying how they were waiting for me, how they were gonna make me pay,"
"Do they ever go away?" Jaune asked
"No," Melissa told him, "One way or another, they'll always be with you,"
Jaune looked down in sadness.
"What did you do?" Melissa asked.
Jaune shook his head, "Long story," Jaune said with a sigh.
Melissa gave him a soft smirk, "I got time," Melissa said.
Jaune looked at her and decided to tell her, after all, she shared some things that she kept hidden from most no doubt. Jaune began to tell her how he was expelled but then given a chance to return, how he met Vernal, how he was technically a hostage of the Branwen tribe, what Raven had done to Vernal and him, how he killed Shay and his goons, and also how he had fought for his and Vernal's freedom to leave the tribe. He had left out Vernal's past of course.
Melissa was surprised that someone as young as him had been through so much, but then again, he wanted to be a huntsman, things like that came with the job.
"That's a lot for someone your age to go through, and for what it's worth, I am sorry," Melissa said, "But at the same time you shouldn't dwell on killing them,"
Jaune looked at her with a bit of surprise, "W-What?" Jaune asked
"Jaune, they were bandits, you're a huntsman, and I am an ex-cop, all of us chose a dangerous path, and we have to live with that choice," Melissa told him, "Have you ever heard of the phrase "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword"?"
"Yeah," Jaune said with a nod.
"That saying means that those who commit violent acts must expect to suffer violence themselves," Melissa told him, "Trust me when I say that it's not a saying, it's a fact, and if you didn't kill them, something or someone down the line would, it's how this life, and how this world works,"
Jaune took in Melissa's words and thought hard about what she said, and the more he pondered what she said, a terrible realization dawned upon him.
"So... we, and the people like us, are stuck in a cycle of violence and death,"
"Yes,"
"...Is there any way to escape it?"
Melissa took a sip of her coffee and then set her mug down and looked the young teen dead in the eye, and gave him his answer.
"No..." She told him, "Death is a part of the world you and I live in, we either kill or we die, but even if we do that, we die, but once you accept that death is a part of the world we live in and the job we do, it makes it easier,"
Jaune knew what she meant... but he still had to ask. "Makes what easier?" Jaune asked
"Killing" Melissa said, "We who live by the sword, will die by the sword, that's our fate," she finished.
'That's our fate...' Jaune thought.
'Face it, all you do is bring pain and sorrow to those around you, you failed at everything you've done, it'll only be a matter of time before you fail to protect her or anyone else, you'll get them killed, then you'll be alone in this big scary world, and eventually, you'll die alone... that's your destiny! Hehehehehehe~!'
'Maybe it was right...' Jaune thought, 'maybe they were both right, maybe my destiny is to die by the sword...'
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Notes:
1. "Matsunoki" means "Pine tree" in Japanese. ;)
2. If Vernal seems a bit out of Character when she arrives at Matsunoki, that was intentional because I wanted to show that Vernal was rather sheltered in a sense to the rest of the world, she knows about scrolls, TVs, and Mecha-Shift weapons, but I doubt a Bandit tribe was keen on keeping artworks or electronic devices. Not to mention she's only used to the small villages/towns she's seen and raided. In fact, she's probably lived on just meat and vegetables or any food the tribe took, her whole life, meaning she's never really eaten the things Jaune has.
3. Yeah, Reese was shown but don't expect much out of her, she'll appear again later down the line, but she won't be a part of Jaune's group.
4. Trust me, Melissa's backstory will be explained down the line because it ties in with what happened to Oscar's parents~.