Ch. 13 The knight, the rabbit and the smith
It was a few days after they defeated Yang and Cardin during lunch. Team RNJR sat with Blake and Weiss (Maroon having sneaked away with Cocra) and the female half of team SWNY.
Yang and Ruby were discussing a letter from home, their father being kinda old fashioned when it came to communications.
On the other end of the table Weiss was having a surprisingly calm discussion with Nora about different dust propellants and explosives. Nora was excitable sure, but when faced with someone more knowledgeable about making a bigger boom? She would listen.
Pyrrha sat with Ren and Blake and ate in silence, enjoying a moment of calm while their respective partners were distracted elsewhere.
Jaune however couldn't help but feel something was wrong. He was eating his food slowly while he looked around trying to figure out what was wrong.
It wasn't until he heard a scream of pain from behind him that he realised what it was. Sky Lark was eating lunch alone. With Yang and Pyrrha sitting next to him, that meant Cardin was alone without his team.
And sure enough when Jaune turned around he couldn't help but audibly growl at what he saw. Cardin pushing around a girl with bunny ears. From how she was clutching at her ears he must have hurt her in some way.
"Please excuse me for a moment." Jaune gritted out through clenched teeth as he stood up.
He walked with purpose, his aura roiling from his body as he approached Cardin.
The cafeteria went silent as the students watched with intrigue. Cardin was still laughing and was about to strike the girl again when Jaune caught his fist. Moments after Jaune's fingers tightened below Cardin's chin as Jaune lifted him off the ground.
Jaune was angry and that was an understatement. His control over his aura was purely instinctual at that point and the white gold flames licking at his body were empowering him beyond what he was normally capable of.
"Do excuse me, but I'll be borrowing my acquaintance for the foreseeable future."
Jaune spoke with a faux calm, unintentionally slipping into the overly polite pattern of speech he used to deal with difficult customers. Even then, it was impossible to miss the anger in his cadence and the low throaty growl underlining his words.
Cardin was of course livid. But as he tried to fight back he became concerned, then scared. Jaune didn't so much as budge an inch, taking Cardin's blows without concern.
Jaune dragged the struggling Cardin off to the table where Sky sat. Sky looked frightened, ready to run away. But he didn't move from Jaune's gaze.
"Sky… I consider you a friend, I really do. However I think I've done enough to help you get along with your team. I know you don't want violence within your team, but this… this has gone too far. I don't care what you do, put this guy on a leash if you have to but unless his behaviour stops? The two of us will have a problem.
As for you Cardin. I know you consider yourself a prodigy, and you may be a good fighter. But this attitude of yours makes you a shit huntsman."
With his piece said he threw Cardin down on the floor and turned his back to leave. Cardin caressed his neck, the red imprint of Jaune's fingers left behind despite Cardin's aura. Sky was still frozen in fear, watching Jaune leave, his golden white aura growing dim before extinguishing itself.
Before he got even halfway back to his table the sharp sound of heels on ceramic floor tiles could be heard approaching.
"Winchester! Arc!"
"Yes, professor Goodwitch?"
"You've broken the rules against unsanctioned fighting."
"Is that so professor?"
"Don't argue with me, mister Arc. You've depleted nearly 80% of mister Winchester's aura. You may not have fought per say, but the rules are clear. You're assigned detention with the headmaster this Friday evening."
"Very well, professor." sighed Jaune. This wasn't how he wished this went, but he didn't regret his actions.
"As for you, mister Winchester, you'll have detention with me."
=O=O=O=
To say Blake was surprised would be understating the facts. She was quietly enjoying her breakfast when she noticed one of the faunus upperclassmen, Velvet if she remembered correctly, getting teased by Cardin. When she heard her yelp of pain she was contemplating getting involved, but before she could decide one way or the other she heard Jaune growl.
Now Blake wasn't a stranger to faunus expressing themselves like that, but as far as she knew, Jaune was human. So imagine her surprise when Jaune got up and put an end to Cardin's bullying.
To Blake's further surprise, Jaune's actions were met with support from not just his team, but the rest of the table as well, Weiss Schnee included.
To hear her partner express her contempt of the bully was reassuring to say the least. Blake had made up her mind. She would share her heritage with her team.
=O=O=O=
Classes were a blur as Jaune mechanically took notes. Well tried to, though professor Port's lecture was about as comprehensible as the first one. At least he didn't have to face Goodwitch until later in the day, and he had hoped she wouldn't set her eyes on him again.
As for his team's reaction? Jaune was grateful to be greeted by agreement with his actions. Ren was quiet as was customary by now, though Nora expressed their opinion for the both of them. Apparently growing up orphaned beyond the kingdoms' walls got them closely acquainted with all sorts of people. Though Jaune's anxieties weren't truly quelled until Ruby voiced her opinion on the whole thing.
"Anyway, you'd think Cardin would know better than that. Someone was bound to stop his bullying and I'm proud that it was you."
As the tension left Jaune's body all he could do was sigh as he pointed out the major downside to what he did.
"I still got detention. And I was looking forward to Friday too…"
"Ah… right, guess we'll have to reschedule our training."
"Guys, you don't have to do that, you can just go ahead without me."
"And what would be the point of that? How about we move it to Saturday morning?"
"Won't the arenas be booked?"
"We can ask around and switch with another team. Friday evening is a more popular time anyway. I'll try asking Blake."
"Do they normally train on Saturday morning?"
"Dunnow… Can't hurt to ask though."
The class continued for a while more as Jaune tried once more to focus on note taking. Hopefully Ren had more luck in the endeavour.
=O=O=O=
Team RNJR was on their way to doctor Oobleck's history class when they bumped into the bullied girl and her team.
Well it would be more accurate that their team leader, Coco Adel, had utilised all of team CFVY's abilities to hunt down one Jaune Arc. Much to Velvet's horror as she had originally asked Coco to help her find him in order for her to thank him. Instead Coco had taken it upon herself to ambush the poor first years on their way to class.
"Hello there! Name's Coco Adel, the fabulous leader of team CFVY. The big one is Yatsuhashi and the blind one is Fox. Of course you already know Velvet, our resident bun…"
Velvet pretty much shoved Coco out of the way in order to interrupt whatever embarrassing introduction Coco had concocted this time around. Coco just laughed as she took a step back.
"Sorry about her. I just wanted to thank you for what you did this morning."
"Right. Hello again Velvet. Sorry for this morning. Didn't even introduce myself. I'm Jaune. The hyper one is Nora, the quiet one is Ren and this is our fearless leader Ruby Rose, our resident prodigy…" Jaune would have continued if it wasn't for Ruby shutting him up with a hand over his mouth.
"Ugh, please don't imitate Coco. One of her is annoying enough."
"Hey!" sounded Coco in mock indignation to Velvet's remark.
"Yeah, he has a tendency to pick up the most annoying habits from people." added Ruby.
"What? No, I don't." rebuked Jaune, his words slightly muffled by the hand still pressed to his face..
"Ignis Manus?"
"Ah, right, shutting up now."
"I swear, he seemed so normal when we first met."
To his credit Jaune kept his mouth shut, though he crossed his arms and pouted in the best imitation of his younger sisters he could muster..
"Stop it you goofball. Anyway, it was nice meeting you, but we need to get to class. We really don't want to get extra reading from professor Oobleck."
An indignant yell of "Doctor Oobleck!" could be heard from down the hall, much to team RNJR's confusion.
"Hmm, doctor Oobleck is sensitive about his title. You better get going now." Said Fox, adding to the conversation for the first and apparently also the last time.
"Uh huh…Well maybe we'll talk to you later."
Ruby ended the conversation as she corralled her team to the classroom.
=O=O=O=
As the firsties departed the hallway Coco shared a look with Fox. From the outside that was that and they all started walking. However, inaudible to everyone else, a conversation continued amongst team CFVY. Fox Alistar might have been blind, but his keen aura sense along with his semblance, Telepathy, led him to an interesting conclusion.
"What do you mean he's stronger than me!?"
"I mean what I said, Coco. I believe he has more aura than you. And not by a little either."
"But thats…"
"Unlikely." interrupted Yatsuhashi.
"And also in line with what Velvet saw this morning. What did you describe it as again?"
"It looked like flames. I've never seen pure aura look like that. A flame aligned semblance? Sure. But nothing like this, there wasn't even any heat in it. Not to mention that wasn't his fighting style, he just grabbed him. I'm not even sure what his fighting style is."
"Wait what? Velvet, that sounds really important. What do you mean?"
"My semblance can't get a proper read on him. It's like he's a complete amateur when it comes to combat. Like, there's muscle memory of other stuff, but almost no fighting style to speak of."
"You think he just gets by with his massive aura reserves? Just brute force through?"
"See that's the thing. A brute force approach is still a fighting style. It's more likely something about him is interfering with my Photographic Memory. Some kind of skill concealment maybe?"
"We could always ask one of the professors about him. I'm sure Goodwitch would help you if you asked about it. She likes you more than the rest of us." offered Fox.
"Only because I actually pay attention in her classes."
"You mean you take the opportunity to take photos of your classmates."
"Yatsu, you fall asleep in her class on the regular! Twice just within the last week."
"True. Doesn't mean I'm wrong about the photos."
"Anyway, I vote to leave Jaune alone for now. He helped me after all."
"Still think you should have just punched the pretentious bastard yourself."
"He would just use it as an excuse to target a different faunus student."
"Doesn't mean you should let him target you Vel, we've been through this." Coco sighed out loud accompanying the thought.
=O=O=O=
Ruby normally enjoyed History. Profes… sorry, doctor Oobleck was probably her favourite teacher at Beacon. Sure it had a lot to do with her being one of the few people that could keep up with his rapid lectures and swift movements, but just knowing he also taught History of Weaponry, had endeared the hyperactive man to Ruby.
Today though, Ruby was having trouble keeping her attention on the spirited doctor. She had kept her cool during the confrontation with team CFVY, but only just barely. To be honest, focusing on Jaune's antics really helped.
Looking back at the encounter, Ruby found herself having far more in common with the girl Jaune helped that morning, rather than their team leader.
And wasn't that a demoralising thought. Coco Adel exuded an air of confidence and dependability, something Ruby felt she lacked.
Ruby once again questioned the headmaster's decision to place her in the role of team leader. It wasn't like she was doing a bad job or anything. Rationally Ruby could see that. Emotionally though… she felt so inadequate, especially when faced with an example of a more experienced team leader.
Coco seemed to have charisma in spades, meanwhile Ruby had trouble keeping contact with the classmates she left at Signal.
And not for the lack of trying on her part either. She wrote to them from the very day she arrived at Beacon. And after receiving no answer, she even worked up the courage to call them, only to have the call rejected.
And while her team felt more like real friends than her classmates ever were, sometimes she couldn't shake the thought that they too would abandon her eventually.
Of course, when she thought about it some more, she couldn't help but remember her first interaction with her partner. Back when he saved her from the ire of the grumpy Weiss. He hadn't even known her then and he still came to her rescue. And just that thought made the possibility he would one day abandon her seem distant and unlikely.
On the other hand the thought of spending the rest of her life with her partner made her blush. She just hoped nobody would notice.
=O=O=O=
So I've been trying to figure out some things regarding the geography of Vale and so I've been reading the wiki. Now as a result of that I have spoiled myself slightly in regards to Volume 9, which I've yet to watch. And frankly, I was surprised. You see I've begun writing this fic in late 2021 and by this time last year I had a lot of the story figured out. Volume 9 seems to hit on similar notes and themes, albeit in different ways and with different characters.
...I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, by the time we get to those aspects of the story it will look like I've lifted them directly from the show. On the other hand, I guess I should feel good about myself. I mean if the people whose actual job is to write RWBY had similar ideas, then surely I'm doing something right.
Anyway, I hope you're looking forward to the next chapter: Ch. 14 Detention