RWBY: Shonen Jump Edition
Chapter 1: Preparations
The training was nice, Ruby thought. It helped to get her mind off of things, at least for a little while.
Jaune was proving surprisingly sufficient, too, in picking up on the things she was trying to teach him, even though it didn't quite suit his style or physique.
For Ruby, her style, her style and her physique complimented each other. Having a smaller figure meant that she was more easily propelled by heavy artillery and explosives, and it also meant that she would be harder to hit as a smaller moving target, moving at very fast speeds. It was a style that focused a lot more on evasion, propulsion, and constant movement, so it wasn't a style suited to Jaune, at least he seemed to be understanding how the style worked in theory, which would be a nice way of prepare himself against such opponents in the future.
Besides just that, though, Jaune had also focused on improving his footwork, which was going well. Pyrrha had already drilled into him the basics, but now, with Ruby's help, he was getting more fluent, especially as they sparred (Ruby was still going easy on him, just so that he could start to get a feel for fighting faster opponents), but Jaune was adapting surprisingly fast, and he seemed to be thinking how he could counter and hold stead against such opponents.
One thing she did have to warn him against, though, was to not take too much time to defeat fast opponents. Though it might've sounded like a good strategy on paper, in reality, opponents that could hit and run often managed to deplete aura faster than they used it up, and once the defender's aura was gone, it would be easy for a speedy opponent to land a critical hit or inflict a fatal injury in real battle.
Ruby's main advice for Jaune was just to learn how to spot openings, and when to take advantage of them. Of course, circumstances would always vary, but Jaune wouldn't do himself any good by just defending.
Jaune nodded, thinking back to his matches with Cardin - it wasn't quite the same situation (Cardin was more of a heavy hitter than anything), but just keeping up a continuous defense wouldn't do him any good, he'd run out of aura before his opponent would, despite his larger reserves.
It was a useful lesson, though. Pyrrha had focused their training lessons mainly on improving Jaune's basics (footwork, shield stances, sword position and swinging), but that was what Jaune had needed most at that time. Unfortunately, she had passed right as they were about to move to practical application.
Jaune wiped away his sweat. "Thanks, Ruby." He said, "You've been a big help."
"Yeah, no problem, Jaune." Ruby chirped, "It was fun!"
Jaune smiled wryly. "Yeah, yeah...I guess it was."
He seemed to be lost deep in thought, though Ruby didn't know exactly why. But he probably just needed some time to himself.
At that moment, Ruby's scroll also began to ring, so she excused herself to the side for a moment.
Jaune took the time to just take a deep breath, and reminisce. 'If Pyrrha were still here, then...'
Thankfully, Jaune's attention also got distracted by Ruby's voice in the distance before he could get too deep into depressing thoughts.
"Weiss?! What, really?! Oh, that's great!"
Honestly, Jaune was grateful to still have Ruby around, at least. She really was just like a cheerful ball of happy energy. As long as she was around, Jaune wouldn't have too much time to sink into the mire of his own feelings.
"So?" Jaune asked, as Ruby returned, "What was that about?"
Ruby beamed. "It was Weiss! It turns out she's not going to go back to Atlas after all. It took a lot of arguing on her part, but apparently she managed to convince her dad to let her stay in Vale!"
"Oh, well, congratulations, Ruby." Jaune said, "I guess that's good news for your team, huh?"
"Yeah!"
Jaune gave a slight smile, even though he wasn't really feeling it. But, even still, Ruby's enthusiasm really did seem almost contagious at times.
"Now, there's only Blake to worry about..." Well, technically there was also Yang, but Yang had been sent back to Patch, to spend some time to recover with dad and all, so there wasn't much reason to worry about her. And she wouldn't in fighting shape again for a while.
"You called?"
Ruby jumped, startled by Blake's sudden interruption.
"Blake?! Since when have you been there?!"
"I was here the whole time." She replied. "You just didn't notice."
"Right...But, why are you here?"
"Well, I was curious about what our team leader was up to, and I figured it was better than just moping around in bed all day." Blake still had bags under her eyes, though, probably still kicking herself over what had happened to Yang.
"Right!" Ruby answered, "Well, it's good that you're here now, Blake! You wanna help out with training?"
"...Sure, I guess." Blake didn't seem the particularly enthusiastic about it, but it probably would be a good way for her to get her mind off things, too.
"So," Blake asked, "What kind of training are we doing?"
"Well, for now, I've just been teach Jaune the basics of my style, and helping him get better. You wanna give it a whirl?"
"...Alright."
Blake faced Jaune. "I should warn you, though. My style is very different from Ruby's. Ruby's is more focused on propelling herself forward, but my style focuses on attacking from multiple tricky angles, and attention misdirection. It'll be a very different type of battle sparring."
Jaune nodded, "I think I'll be alright."
Ozpin went through his connections and his preparations relatively quickly.
Everything was in place, now. All that was left was to watch over and guide the growth of the two who had the potential to become great heroes.
From afar, Ozpin watched over Jaune and Ruby, with his magically-enhanced sight.
Looking at Jaune, he couldn't help but be reminded of his old friend and rival, Artorius.
"Ah, how he resembles you, old friend. I can't help but wonder if you've come back to us, in another form, after all this time..."
Ozpin shook his head. Still, though, the young Jaune Arc had a long ways to go.
The Arc family sword and sheath, now called "Crocea Mars", though it had been known by a very different name long ago, still had yet to recognize him as being worthy, it seemed. Though, the same could have been said for many past heads of the Arc family, who despite being great huntsman, had not been acknowledge by the sword-in-the-sheath.
Still, Ozpin had a feeling that Jaune would be the first in a long while to be able to reveal the sword's true form. There was something about his character, his nature, that just seemed to say so, to Ozpin. (It was rather humorous, then, that he had tried to forge his transcripts - If only Jaune had known about his history with the Arc lineage, he would've been more than happy to have given him some private tutoring.)
And as to Ruby Rose, too. The "Eyes of Light and Darkness", the blessing of both the Grimm Brothers, was something he never thought he'd see again. Ozpin had thought that the Silver-eyed lineage had died out long ago, in all practical senses. Summer Rose was technically part of the lineage, but she had not the eyes nor any semblance of power that could be drawn from her blood, so Ozpin had counted the Silver-eye lineage as all but dead.
To think that they still lived on, through Summer's daughter. Fate was quite the mysterious thing, in all its ways.
Both of them still had a long, long ways yet to go, though.
Perhaps his next move should be to send them on a mission, to accelerate the growth?
Hmmmm, yes, that might be a good idea. A mission that seemed relatively mundane at first, but one that force them to grow and rise to the occasion.
Such a mission might not be a bad idea.
And then, there was the matter of the stray enemy piece, Adam Taurus, as well. If he could be placed properly, then...
Well, it would be a bit of a gamble, but Ozpin trusted in Jaune's nature. If there was anyone that could win over Adam, it would certainly be Jaune, if nobody else.
Ozpin chuckled. Oh how much more complex and interesting the game of life was than than a simple game of chess.
So many things to be account accounted for, so many things that could change in the blink of an eye. But, that was part of what made it so fun and so fascinating.
The free will of human beings was truly something to be appreciated, thought Ozpin.
Still, they had not much time left. The Grand Grimm, King of All Grimm, was on the move. And so was the Queen, and her agents as well. This was not time to be just sitting back and relaxing.
"...Awaken, young Heros, and make your ancestors proud."
Jaune was not fine, contrary to his expectations.
Blake was not joking about her fighting style - Jaune had seen it in action before, but it was only now that he was fighting her in-person, in one-on-one combat, that could truly appreciate the complexity and multi-faceted nature of it.
Her fighting style was composed multiple moving parts - not only she herself and both her weapons, but also her shadow clones and ribbons.
It was a far cry from Ruby, who, although extremely fast, was only one target to focus on. If you lost attention to just one part of Blake's arsenal, another would hit you from a blind spot you weren't paying attention to. Not to mention that, like Ruby, Blake was constantly on the move - constantly adjusting her weapon and projectile angles and layering fake-outs upon fake-outs, making herself an extremely difficult to hit in a way that was very different from Ruby.
Whereas Ruby was hard to hit just on account of her speed and constant motion, Blake was hard to hit because of her skillful use of shadow clones. She might not have had the same degree of swiftness as Ruby did, but she had many decoys to cover for her, and any time she seemed to show an opening, it was likely only a fakeout, meant to bait her foe and create an opening in charging opponent.
In other words, if Ruby was a monster of speed, Blake was no doubt a monster of skill (and multi-tasking, Jaune noted).
By the end of it, Jaune collapsed as an exhausted mess of sweat on a pile of autumn leaves.
"Geez, Blake, go on easy on me would ya?" Jaune barely managed to get out, between his heavy pantings.
Blake, on the other hand, didn't even look winded in the slightest.
"Sorry," She said, "I thought I was."
"Ugh."
That was a bit of a blow to Jaune's pride, though he couldn't be too mad at Blake. He kind of already knew that that was the case - that there was a huge gap between him and other huntsman, and that Blake was far above the skill level of even the other huntsman of their year.
Still, on the upside, it meant he still had a lot of potential for growth and improvement, right?
Well, so he'd like to think and tell himself, at least.
Meanwhile, Ruby had been cheering them on on the sidelines. "Yeah, go Blake!" "You can do it, Jaune, go get 'em!" And such.
Not very helpful, but it was pretty cute, if nothing else.
Blake helped Jaune up, right as an announcement played over the loudspeakers of the training grounds.
"Will Jaune Arc and Team RWBY please report to the Headmaster's office, please? Will Jaune Arc and Team RWBY please report to the headmaster's office, please? Thank you."
Jaune looked at Ruby, puzzled. Ruby looked back, apparently equally as confused.
"Are we in trouble, or something?" She asked. Jaune just shrugged. Well, only one way to find out.
Author's Notes:
Things are starting to get moving, now!
The next chapter will be the assignment and the first part of the mission (maybe with a short cameo by Adam), and also deciding on a team name, and such. If I can fit it all in, I might just finish the mission in one chapter, but it'll probably take a little bit more than that.