This story has been beta by TheMischieviousPuppyDog.
Jaune took a deep breath as he prepared himself for another day. So far, the business had been going well, but tomorrow... he was on a full schedule. The reason being was that Beacon had just finished their first semester and would be on their two-week summer vacation. Of course, compared to other schools and colleges, this was a much shorter break from the usual two months, but they were training to be Huntsmen and Huntresses. They were protectors of the people's hope, the sword against Grimm. Of course, having them train all the time would break them, so, therefore, it was decided that two weeks was enough.
It was because of the two-week break that a lot of students had booked appointments at Elysium Oasis. Once again, thanks to Pyrrha's quote, the students had made appointments as soon as they could, meaning when the summer break started. Only a few had been willing to book appointments after their classes, and even then, those times tended to be booked by other customers.
Going through the day, nothing different really happened besides an attempted scam call, telling Jaune that he was 'under arrest' as his name and social security number was listed under 25 different fraud crimes. The bad thing was that the call was traceable to a certain part of the city near Junior's bar. On a different note, the 'business' would soon find itself being shut down.
"Mr. Arc, I hope you're doing well?" asked Ozpin as he stepped in for his appointment a few minutes early.
"Doing well, thanks for asking," smiled Jaune in reply.
"Hard to believe that you've been open for almost half a year," chuckled Ozpin, looking around the room, "You certainly have come a long way, haven't you?"
"Huh... Time passed on faster than I thought," blinked Jaune in agreement, "Guess time passes by you fast when you open up a shop."
"Perhaps," nodded Ozpin, "Shall I sign in?"
"Go ahead, I believe you know where the changing room is?" gestured Jaune.
"Of course," said Ozpin as he left for the changing room.
"Oh my, this certainly is a different experience," hummed Ozpin as Jaune pressed down on his back, using Aura to amplify the massage.
Out of the years of experience that he had, which was a lot per se, not even he had thought about this technique. Though to be fair, he had only used Aura for fighting. He had used Aura for offensive, defensive, or even supporting tactics, but never for something so... mundane as this.
Yet he couldn't deny the advantages of the Aura massage. It certainly was relaxing, far more than anything he had experienced before.
"You seem to have accumulated quite a bit of knots since the last time I saw you," mused Jaune as he pressed down another knot.
"Mmm, part of being the headmaster," replied Ozpin, relishing the slight pain as he felt another knot slowly unraveling under Jaune's ministrations.
"Hey, questions about Aura," asked Jaune after half an hour in the massage. He figured since he had the headmaster of Beacon with him, Ozpin was sure to know more about the finer details of Aura.
"Ask away," hummed Ozpin.
"Do you know if it is possible to use Aura to, like, create another hand?" asked Jaune curiously, "I mean, it'd be cool if I could construct an extra arm made of pure Aura to increase the area I can massage."
Ozpin chuckled at that thought, though didn't disagree that if Jaune did so, then he could definitely work faster.
"As of now, I haven't heard of anyone making limbs of pure Aura besides a Semblance."
"Semblance?" asked Jaune, having heard and read the term. However, he wasn't quite sure how that worked still.
"A person who has their Aura unlocked will eventually discover what makes them unique, thus a Semblance is born," explained Ozpin, "As you might have read, it is the manifestation of one's innate and personal power, each unique to an individual with its effects varying from users. To give it a better context, you could say its a more tangible projection of one's Aura. Most of the time, a person's semblance is more likely linked to an aspect of the said person's character, if not the primary aspect. Though there are a few that are hereditary instead, but those are more rare cases. An example is if, say, a person is always protective of someone, then their Semblance might be in the form of a shield."
"So what type of personality would have extra arms?" asked Jaune.
"I'm afraid I'm not sure of that," shrugged Ozpin, "Each person has a unique possibility of a Semblance. It takes time to discover one's semblance, though. Not everyone finds it so easily."
"Knowing my luck, it'll be something pointless," sighed Jaune, at first imagining shooting laser beams from his eyes or firing energy bolts from his hands before letting reality set in.
"Don't be too sure," chastised Ozpin lightly, "You have a rather large Aura reserve for someone your age. It's not commonly known, but Aura reserves are sometimes linked with what one's Semblance is. Yours might be something big. But even if it isn't, one can always train their Aura to their limits. For instance..."
Ozpin slowly stuck his left hand out to the side, and with a slow breath, formed a green light barrier ball the size of his palm. The most curious part was that that ball was hovering in the air without Ozpin actually touching it.
"Whoa, cool. Is that your semblance or you just using Aura?" asked Jaune, distracted by the show now.
"I'll leave that up to your imagination," smirked Ozpin as he clenched his fist, causing the ball to disappear, "But I will say this. The study of Aura even to this day is still a mystery the further we dive into it. Even now, there are some parts that we aren't sure what it means or how it works. So if you do experiment with Aura, please be careful."
"Will do," nodded Jaune as he focused back on his work.
Jaune hummed as he leafed through a book about Aura that he had gotten from a bookstore Blake had referred him to, called Tukson's Book Trade. This book was actually one of Tukson's suggestion, as it was apparently a rare book that was hard to find in circulation. Not even Ozpin nor Oobleck had put it on the suggestion list as it was very hard to find.
"Guess he lives up to the motto 'Every book under the sun'," muttered Jaune as he turned the page. His mind was slightly distracted, though. The reason why was because of the massage he had just finished with Ozpin. For some reason, while he was using his Aura to massage Ozpin, he had a glimpse of Ozpin's own soul, so to speak.
While using Aura during the massages with other people, one thing he didn't mention was that he could feel another person's Aura, or perhaps his soul. He wasn't sure why, but Ozpin's soul felt different from all the others he had done.
"Maybe it's just my imagination," yawned Jaune before taking a peek at the clock, "Oh shoot, I should head to sleep."
Soon, his little dilemma with Ozpin's soul was shoved out of his mind as he would completely forget about it.
Next day
"You sure you don't want to take a small vacation?" Jaune asked Ren as Ren settled in, "I mean, it is your summer vacation right now... which is only two weeks long."
"I'm fine," smiled Ren, "I had nothing major planned for the two weeks. By the way, thank you for letting Nora stay here while I work."
"Yea!" shouted Nora from upstairs inside Jaune's living room.
"I'm afraid of leaving her alone to her own devices," whispered Ren, slyly pointing upstairs, "Pyrrha is back home at Mistral with her family, so I don't have anyone to watch over her."
"I see," nodded Jaune, "Well, if you want, the two of you can stay here for a bit. I can cook you both some dinner for the days you work here."
"That would be appreciated for today, but we'll decline tomorrow," replied Ren, "Apparently there's going to be an all-you-can-eat pancake eating contest that day that Nora signed up for. I'll have to carry her back home after."
"I see," nodded Jaune, "Well then, what are your plans after the break? You'll be going on missions soon like the others, right?"
"They shouldn't take more than a day or two at most. For us first years, they usually have us working at the lower ranking missions to get used to it, which includes paperwork and write-ups," shrugged Ren, falling silent after that statement.
"I'm sensing a but," commented Jaune with raised eyebrows.
"I will admit that with the missions along with school work and possible projects, it will be harder to maintain a good grade while working part-time here," admitted Ren, "A passing grade is obtainable, but our grades do influence what sort of job rankings we are allowed early one."
"I understand," nodded Jaune, "Luckily I have two that works full time here already, and another masseuse that'll be coming in too. It wouldn't take too much for me to hire a replacement. I've actually been thinking of promoting one of them to office manager... not that you don't deserve it."
Ren nodded, "I'm only a part-timer here. It would not make sense for me to become an office manager, especially with my job as a Huntsman in training. If you were to ask me, based on seniority, Clementine would be first. However, in my opinion... Arvo may be better suited for the job."
"You too, huh," sighed Jaune, "I hate to do that to Clementine, but Arvo seems like he's more experienced with the system. Clementine sometimes struggles with the system a little. Not to mention Arvo always helps me take stock and always notifies me what we're low on before I even need to ask."
"Perhaps you could have a group discussion between the two?" suggested Ren, "It could work out if Clementine knows to improve on and why Arvo is being promoted."
"Yea, that sounds like a good idea," hummed Jaune, "I'll speak to them on Monday or Tuesday about it. As for you, I could put you as a temporary worker when the new semester kicks in. Just e-mail me the days you would be available and I can try to work around that. If that doesn't work... then it was nice working with you."
"A pleasure for me too," nodded Ren, "If it doesn't work, I'll turn in my two-week notice."
The boys didn't chat much after that as the next client had arrived.
The next two Aura massages were Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port, both of which went off without a hitch. His conversation with Oobleck took an interesting turn, though.
"Jaune, may I ask you a serious question?" asked Oobleck as he closed his eyes, enjoying the massage.
"What is it?" asked Jaune.
"Why do you want to become a Huntsman?" asked Oobleck.
"Huh? Kind of a weird question isn't it?" blinked Jaune, "Especially since I'm not even a student at any academy. I'm just a masseur."
"Just humor me. I know that you're still actively studying and working out to be a Huntsman," replied Oobleck.
Jaune hummed in silence a bit before finally answering, "I guess in the beginning... I wanted to be a hero like my ancestors. I guess I thought it would be cool to rescue people and be famous. Then when I grew older, it became more a plea for recognition. Don't get me wrong, my family loves me, but when I saw some of my sisters getting the training that I wanted while I was stuck helping the family with chores, I was a bit jealous. For some reason, they never seemed to have the time to train me, though having seven sisters would do that. Then for validation for myself that I could do it without help."
Jaune paused for a bit before continuing, "Now, though? It feels different. I mean, I still want to be a Huntsman, but not for those reasons anymore. I guess it changed after that impromptu trip I took to Forever Falls and meeting a real Grimm."
Oobleck winced at that sentence. He had heard all about that event and the disastrous aftermath. Frankly, as a staff of Beacon, he had been rather ashamed of what had happened. The Rapier Wasps topic was something he had assigned Cardin to do as punishment, and Cardin ended up warping the assignment into a tool of bullying.
"I was terrified when I saw the Grimm," admitted Jaune, "It hurt when it slashed at me, batting me to the side. Frankly, I got lucky that I killed the Grimm. Professor Goodwitch stopped it from moving as I foolishly attacked. Looking back, it was clear that the Grimm would've hit me first before I could slash at it, and with my Aura deactivated, it would've killed me. That's when I knew that this lifestyle I thought was glamorous wasn't so glamorous."
"So you no longer want to be a Huntsman?" asked Oobleck.
"Oh no, I still do," chuckled Jaune, "It's just now... the reason I guess... it kinda sounds cheesy if I say it out loud. I want to become one so nobody has to be placed in the same situation as I was. To face the Grimm with fear and desperation, without knowing how to fight it. I don't want to imagine another innocent in the same situation as I was. I got lucky with my outcome, but I can't imagine that happening all the time. I guess it comes back to the first part, to rescue people."
Oobleck shook his head, "Mr. Arc, that, in no way, sounds cheesy. It sounds like a respectable goal that I can admire, and do hope that in the next year, I can see you in my class."
Jaune smiled as he continued his work with renewed energy.
'Especially since I can sense just how large your Aura reserves are,' added Oobleck to his mind.
Next day, Sunday night
"Hoho, and that is how I outwitted several bandits with a mere fork, grass, a trusty compass, and my sheer will!" boasted Professor Port as he was receiving his massage.
'Oh Oum is it over?' thought Jaune as he forced himself to stay awake.
"Oh, what's this? I still have a good 20 minutes of my massage left! Just enough time to regale you with another tale of my adventure with just my wooden stick against a horde of Grimm," laughed Port.
'PLEASE NO!' screamed Jaune mentally.
Next day, Monday Night
It was there that Jaune met another Beacon staff member, Nurse Ivy, a fox Faunus with a green tail.
"Mmm, I can see why the others at Beacon recommended you," purred Ivy in delight, "Especially with this Aura massage. A girl can get used to this."
"I'm glad you like it," smiled Jaune, "Though out of curiosity, why didn't you come earlier? Your fellow coworkers came months before."
"I was busy," huffed Ivy, "You have no idea how many students injure themselves while either sparring, working out, or even come complaining about a stomach ache from the cafeteria food or headaches all semester long."
Though very quietly, she murmured, "Though I can't blame them about the food."
Jaune hummed as he kept kneading her back, ignoring the wagging tail that kept hitting his arm before pondering about something.
"Do you mind if I try something?" asked Jaune.
"Mm? What are you planning to do?" asked Ivy.
"Well you have a lot more knots than compared to the other staff members, so I want to try a little different treatment. I've done this before without Aura, but I'm curious to see what happens if I combine it," said Jaune as he squirted a little more oil in his hand as he lit a candle he had on the side.
Jaune swiftly waved his hand over the flame, letting the oil catch on fire. At that same moment, he let his Aura surge into his hands. The results were surprising, to say the least. As soon as his Aura came into contact with the fire on his hands, it suddenly blew up in size and heat that Ivy turned around in curiosity.
"Oh crap, flaming hands, how do I smother this?" panicked Jaune, flailing his hands to put it out without any luck, "This is so much more fire than I wanted!"
"The sink!" pointed Ivy, quickly standing up and turning the water faucet on.
Jaune quickly ran towards the sink, putting his flaming hands under the water. After putting it under it for a good 10 seconds, Jaune pulled it out to see his hands still on fire.
"Oh how does that even work!?" shouted Jaune in disbelief.
Ivy looked stunned for a second before realizing something.
"Mr. Arc, are you streaming Aura into your hands by any chance?"
"Umm yeah, why? How do I put this out!?" panicked Jaune.
"Put your hands back under the water and stop streaming Aura into your hands," ordered Ivy.
Jaune immediately obeyed, putting his hands back under the water stream and cutting off the Aura. Instantly, the fire was extinguished under the water.
"Oh geez, that wasn't supposed to happen," muttered Jaune as he pulled his hands back out, "Did I burn my hands? Huh, don't feel any pain. And my hands don't look burnt at all. How does that work? And why didn't the fire go out before?"
Ivy couldn't help but giggle, "Mr. Arc, you were streaming Aura into your hands, were you not? Because of that, it was working to both supply the fire with fuel and amplify it. The candle you were using has trace amounts of fire Dust in it to preserve the flame. Aura can be used to amplify Dust."
"Oh," blushed Jaune, "Well, I'm going to put off trying to use fire cupping with Aura until I can control that."
"A wise decision," nodded Ivy as she laid back down, "Continue on."
"Finally, a day to relax," yawned Jaune as the sun shone down on him on a Tuesday morning, "Well, almost relax."
It was true that he was free in the morning, but after that, he would be a little busy. His supply orders would be arriving around eleven in the morning, and he had requested both Arvo and Clementine to come over for a lunch meeting that would be, of course, on him. He expected to be the meeting to last until two in the afternoon. After that, it would be restocking his shelves until dinner time. He also had to prepare for the new masseuse that was coming after lunch, too, so as to integrate her into the system.
Still, it meant he had a little time to himself.
Jaune had finished breakfast and was organizing his clinic when he heard someone knocking on his door. Curious, he opened the door to see team RWBY, Nora, and Ren right outside.
"What brings you guys out here?" questioned Jaune in surprise.
"To hang out!" cheered Ruby, "It's summer break! You can't stay in here working all the time!"
"Yea, there's a new movie that came out and the movie theater is serving maple syrup and pancake flavored popcorn! Pancake popcorn!" screamed Nora.
"Err I can't really go out right now, I have a bit of stuff to do," sweatdropped Jaune, "I have a lunch meeting with my employees, another meeting with a new employee, and then I have to restock my shelves. Which that'll take a while, way past dinner."
"Boo, you can't stay inside in such a good day like this, magic hands! We could join you for lunch!" chimed Yang.
"Yang, he said he was having a lunch meeting with his employees, which means it has to be an important discussion. And really, magic hands?" remarked Weiss.
"Well he does have magic hands," shrugged Yang.
"Does that mean it includes Ren?" asked Blake.
Ren shook his head, "This one is for full-time employees only. I'm aware of what the topic is going to be about. Though I'm curious about the other employee."
"Yea so I'm going to be busy for today," nodded Jaune, causing Ruby and Nora to pout.
"Ooh, what if we helped you?!" exclaimed Ruby, "If we can help you stock up, then you'll have time to catch a movie at least!"
"Yea, we can totally help!" nodded Nora.
"Right gang?" said Ruby, turning to her teammates. Weiss had a rather shocked and confused look on her face, Yang looking at the side, while Blake had a neutral face.
"Come on, please?" begged Ruby to her teammates.
Jaune could only chuckle before deciding to throw a little bone at them. He could use the help anyways.
"If you guys help me, I'll get you a little inside information that deals with my Aura massage," whispered Jaune.
"What, you're going to add more slots?" huffed Yang.
"Something among those lines, starting tomorrow," hummed Jaune, "Though I'm reserving those slots."
That instantly caught all their attention. Pretty soon, Jaune had volunteers to help him stock up his shelves when it arrived. All were eager to get it as soon as possible instead of waiting for another week.
'Now to ready myself for the lunch meeting,' sighed Jaune.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Reminder, I have a pat reon, look up azndrgn making fanfic. Donators get perks!
Next chapter, we have the discussion of promotion, a new co worker, and more massages! What will happen next!
Lastly, hope everyone's doing fine. This virus is not a joke with how fast it can spread. Stay safe and healthy!