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Jaune sighed as he finished a tearful goodbye to his employees. He had written letters of recommendation for each of them in hopes it would help them find new jobs. Elen would be heading back to work for Spa Eny, but even she seemed disappointed in heading back.
Looking at his apartment one last time that he was renting, Jaune grabbed his suitcase and walked out the door with everything that belonged to him.
He appreciated the fact Junior, Melanie, and Mlitia were willing to find him another location as well as delay his payments. Azul was willing to hire him for Spa Envy until he had his store up and running again. His grandfather was calling in favors for the store.
However, in the end, it wasn't solving the fact Cardin had a rope around his neck, even if it was temporary. It also wasn't helping his goal to becoming a Huntsman, no matter how much he had enjoyed his job. It had helped with Aura training, and thanks to Pyrrha, he was getting some combat training as well as getting a small headstart into its education, but he couldn't rely on her forever, especially when she would be getting busier into her own studies. If he kept being a masseur, then his goal of becoming a Huntsman could slip further away until it was unattainable.
Granted, he had tried to slip into Beacon without any sort of training at all, but now he could actually say he had experience now.
In the end, Jaune decided it was time to head back home, to face his parents and family. Aureville had already promised that he would personally teach him, and with his Aura unlocked, Jaune felt like he had a better chance now.
With his payment system set up to still pay Junior for the rest of the rent, Jaune looked at the room one last time, leaving a letter on the table before setting out. He had an airship to catch back home. He hadn't told anyone about his flight, as he felt that if he did tell the others, it would make it harder for him to leave.
With a deep breath, Jaune stepped out of the room with the resolve to never come back to it.
"I hope Jaune's feeling better," chimed Miltia as she climbed up the steps with Melanie and Neo, carrying some groceries.
"Yea, he shouldn't let that asshole get him down like that," nodded Melanie before looking over to Neo, "Junior says he's handling it. So no violent stabbing….. Yet."
Neo pouted as she held onto the large gallon of her favorite ice cream. She had came to Junior for information on Cardin's whereabouts so she could introduce him to her favorite sword, but was stopped when Junior insisted on dealing it himself, even under the threat of her blade. Seeing such determination, Neo could only relent.
Still, if Jaune was currently out of business, that just meant he had more time on his hand to spend with her. Neo could already see the upsides to this new situation. More time to get those massages and to tease Jaune.
Neo could already see Miltia and Melanie already considering the same thing, which was why she was purposely putting her favorite ice cream inside Jaune's freezer. It would let her have the excuse to visit him more often under the guise of grabbing her ice cream.
"Jaune, you're favorite customers are here!" announced Miltia and Melanie as they opened the door with the key they had, only to be met with silence.
"Jaune?" asked Miltia as the trio put their groceries down, looking around to see where Jaune was. They looked all over until they noticed the letter on the table.
Quickly rushing over to it, the trio opened the letter, reading through it before letting it flutter down to the ground.
"Dammit Jaune, you jerk," sighed Melanie, "You could've just asked us to be sparring partners. We're good enough to give those students studying at Beacon a run for their money. You didn't have to go back."
"He wanted to become a Huntsman," placated Miltia, "We all knew that, but just hoped that he would stay and be our favorite masseur. We knew it couldn't last forever…. But daammit, I wish he could've just asked us instead of just up and leaving. Uncle wouldn't do anything to him."
While Neo was sad that Jaune was gone, she was slightly happy that he would be out of Vale. That meant he would be far away and safe from whatever plan Cinder had for the city, and she knew it wasn't going to be pretty.
While accepting the fact her favorite masseur/tease was no longer available, Neo decided to settle on the second best. Making sure Cardin suffered for his words. It would just be a pity Jaune wouldn't be here to see the end result, but Neo was going to do her best to at least mail it to him.
Jaune sighed as he sat in the airship, waiting for his flight to take off. He hadn't told his grandfather that he was leaving now, but he figured it would be easier to leave without saying anything.
Jaune felt his scroll vibrate, and quickly picked it up to see Pyrrha calling. Taking a peek at the time to see that the ship would be launching soon, Jaune decided to pick it up.
"Hello, Jaune," said Pyrrha, "I hope you're doing alright. We haven't seen you for a while."
"Pyrrha," greeted Jaune with the warmest voice he could muster, "I'm doing fine."
"Jaune, we know what happened," cut in Ren, "Cardin won't get away with this, nor can he do what he threatened to you or us. We're already formulating a proper response, and team RWBY had joined in as well."
"We're going to smash his legs, and then his face!" chimed Nora, "Then we'll have an all-you-can-eat pancake feast to celebrate while we watch our favorite replays!"
"That sounds fun," chuckled Jaune just as the ship began to shake and the engines began to growl.
"Jaune? Where are you right now? Why does it sound like you're on something?" asked Pyrrha.
Jaune winced, knowing he couldn't hide it anymore, and decided to rip the bandage off.
"I'm on an airship. I'm heading home, and it looks like the ship is ready to leave," said Jaune.
"What!?" gasped Pyrrha, "Jaune, there's no need to run! If you're worried about Cardin touching me, don't be, I can handle a creep like him easily!"
"It's not just that, though I trust you can beat him up," replied Jaune, "Cardin has me in a corner that I can't just go in swinging at him. Not only that… I'm tired. I want to be a Huntsman like you all, but I failed to get in. Heck, I didn't even know what Aura was until you helped me unlock it. You've even tutored me and trained me, but I don't want to take all your time, especially since you'll be going on missions. And if I keep being a masseur… I'm afraid I might let my chance slip by me. So I'm heading home. My grandfather said he'll train me full-time, so I won't miss my chance. So maybe next year, I'll be able to make it to Beacon and see you guys, though you'll be a year ahead of me."
"But what if your par-" began Nora, only for Ren to stop her with a soft jab to the side.
"I… I understand," said Pyrrha as she suppressed her feelings, "If that's what you want, then go for it. We'll support your decision. Just promise me you'll come back, and at least keep in contact with us, alright?"
"Of course," nodded Jaune, "Although my home is a little ways off, it's still near a CCT. I can make and receive calls."
"Good. I look forward to seeing you next year," resolved Pyrrha, "If you need any help, just ask. I can give you a copy of my notes for you to keep up. Your grandfather certainly knows how to fight when we were shadowing him."
"Thanks. Looks like the ship is getting ready to leave now, I should go and meditate so I don't get motion sickness," said Jaune, peeking out the window to see the engines fully revved, "I promise I'll make it next year, that's an Arc promise!"
With that, Jaune hung up before closing his eyes, and getting ready for the flight.
'Hopefully I'll just fall asleep,' thought Jaune.
Back at Beacon, Pyrrha sighed as she put her scroll down.
"Pyrrha!? Why didn't you stop Jaune?" asked Nora, "And why didn't he tell us that he was planning to leave? We could've stopped him!"
"And that's why he didn't tell us at the last minute," sighed Ren as he gently pulled Nora back down to the bed, "He didn't us to make him hesitate. Especially with your history of kidnapping him."
"But!" began Nora, looking over at Pyrrha.
"It's alright," sighed Pyrrha, "Jaune had made his choice. I know how much he wants to become a Huntsman, and if this helps him get in, we should support his decision. I will miss him dearly, but he made a promise to come back. Perhaps some time will make our meeting much fonder. And he won't see what I'm about to unleash against Cardin."
With that, Pyrrha turned around, doing her best to mask her emotions, but both Ren and Nora could see a tear escape from her eyes, but said nothing.
"Let's go meet up with team RWBY. I'm sure they would be interested in helping," stated Pyrrha.
Team RWBY were indeed very interested, especially when they were given the news that Jaune had left Vale. Not only would they no longer have access to their favorite masseur and his Aura massage, but also their friend (and to Blake's private thoughts, her favorite chef that could make fish dishes.)
Weiss was aghast at someone so blatantly abusing his power, one that was given to him by sheer nepotism, and couldn't help but look at herself to see if she was any better. Ruby disliked any sort of injustice like that, and the fact it was happening to one of her friends made her mad. Yang wanted to punch Cardin's face as she did to Junior, as she really enjoyed her time with Jaune. Who else would laugh at her fantastic (awful) puns? Blake hissed internally, knowing Cardin was a full-on racist asshole whom the White Fang would use as an excuse for their actions, a stereotypical human abusing his power. While she didn't want to resort to violence, she was willing to engage a few White Fang tactics on Cardin.
In the end, though, Pyrrha had the most influence to do the most damage against Cardin, and though she rarely used it, she was going to use it. Logging into her account on DustBook, she prepared her message. With the help of others, she wrote a long rant. She would wait to post it soon, but once done, it would spread. It also helped that her profile had a lot of followers due to her popularity.
"So he's gone," sighed Junior as Melanie and Miltia reported to him, "Idiot even has a payment plan still set up with me, stating he'd still pay what he owed. He's already paid off everything as far as I'm concerned, and not to mention the property he was standing on was already rather old, and with the insurance money that should've come in, it would've been more than enough."
Junior took a drag of his cigarette and a sip of whisky before flicking his wrist to open up a little book that contained all of the Winchester's private information. Junior had reached out to several of his connections to gather even more information about the brat's family.
"Looks like there's quite a lot of details in here that I wasn't even aware of," huffed Junior, "That just makes this job easier. I guess the only good thing about the kid being gone is that he won't be in the middle of this shitstorm that I'm about to cause."
Speaking of the kid, he had a recent visit from Aureville. Just like him, Aureville promised him that he would take care of whatever debt Jaune incurred as well as do him a favor.
Technically speaking, Junior wasn't a 'good' guy. He is the underground crime lord of Vale. So he saw no point in telling Aureville that Jaune's debt was gone, but he did take in the favor. It wasn't too hard, just making sure his huge shipment of alcohol that was being imported from Mistral arrived safely. He knew the crimelords there would jump on his package if given the chance. Totally legal, though.
"Well then, it's time to start," grinned Junior as he began disseminating information to the public, with the first one being sent to star reporter Lisa Lavender.
"Umm, boss? Why are we raiding this area?" asked a White Fang member.
"Because it aligns with our goals," replied the White Fang Lieutenant Gray, "The Schnee Dust Company has a vested interest in this warehouse, so anything that they have an interest in, we also have an interest in ruining it."
The other members part of the raid nodded, but the same member blinked before looking at the warehouse they were raiding versus another warehouse slightly in the distance. In the distance was a warehouse with the SDC logo clearly printed on the door, though surrounded by armed guards.
The warehouse they were currently going to raid was less guarded, but on the door was a sigil of a bird with its wings outstretched. Clearly not an SDC warehouse.
"It's a ruse," replied Gray, "Our spies confirmed that the SDC is using the Winchester warehouse while the other one is merely a front and a trap."
"Oh, alright," nodded the White Fang member, deciding to shut up.
Gray was conducting a raid for some more supplies, but rather than targeting the usual SDC warehouse, he decided to aim for the Winchester warehouse as a way to train his troops as well as getting supplies. Certainly not reacting to the video that Neo gave him. Certainly nothing personal.
"We're here," announced the pilot.
Jaune slowly opened his eyes, blinking as he felt the ship touch the ground.
"Wow, I must've been asleep for a long time to not notice the hours pass by," said Jaune as he stood up, grabbing all his gear.
Walking out of the airship and into the dock, Jaune stretched his arms and legs, looking out into the distance to see a familiar sight. Jaune took a good minute to look out before blinking.
"This isn't home. This looks like Beacon."
Jaune turned around, only to see the pilot already turning off the engine and walking away. Jaune quickly peeked at his scroll to see only 10 minutes had even passed.
"What's going on? Did I get on the wrong flight?" questioned Jaune, taking a look at his ticket once more.
"Ah, there you are!" boomed a voice.
Jaune turned to see Peter Port walking up toward him.
"Ho ho! Headmaster Ozpin would like to see you. He made a call to have your flight to be redirected here," said Port, answering Jaune's question about his flight.
"What for?" asked Jaune blankly.
"You'll have to ask him yourself. You can leave your luggage here, I'll have someone take care of it for you. Follow me now, Ho hoo!" declared Port as he began dragging Jaune with him, who was too stunned to resist.
Soon enough, Jaune found himself standing in Ozpin's office with the headmaster himself, though all alone as Port went back down after finishing his escort.
"I'm sure you're rather confused at why you're here and why I had your flight redirected, correct?" asked Ozpin, to which Jaune nodded.
"Quite simple really," said Ozpin as he stood up, turning towards the open window where he could see all of Beacon, "Come stand here for a bit, Mr. Arc."
Jaune did as he was told, looking out the view of Beacon. He had to admit, it was a nice view, overseeing all of Beacon's buildings and students. Though the Atlesian airships that hovered over the skies detracted the overall sight, it was still something.
"Do you know that due to the fact the Vytal Festival tournament is being held at Vale, our student population here has basically tripled?" asked Ozpin, "Many students from the other academies are either trying to participate in the Vytal Festival tournament or are here to support others. Of course, the other academies do not send all of their student population to us, as they need to have students to help protect their own capital. The academies, of course, send some of its professors or student teachers to supplement our own staff, but there's only so much that one can do."
"The students here train and push themselves to the limit as they want to show the world what they can do. Sometimes they push themselves a little too hard, and end up in the infirmary. Nurse Ivy is an excellent physician, but there is only so much she can do herself. Her assistants help her, but the fact that none of the academies sent any trained nurses to help does hurt her ability to treat everyone. Luckily, the Vytal Tournament is a Biennial event, and one that rotates its host each time, making Vale the host of it every octennial,"
"Ouch," winced Jaune. He knew how tiring it was to be overworked when treating his patients, "But what does that have to do with me?"
"Quite a bit," said Ozpin as he turned to Jaune, "As I said, Nurse Ivy is overworked dealing with injuries, and has no time for other treatments. The students are always working out in the gym, and sometimes (if not all the time) overstrain their muscles. A massage would usually do the trick, but Nurse Ivy has no time for that. That is where you can come in."
"Jaune Arc, I am asking as the headmaster of Beacon Academy if you would be willing to be hired as a part of Beacon's auxiliary staff," asked Ozpin, causing Jaune to almost fall in surprise.
"You would be doing what you did before, being a masseur for students who overstrain their muscles," explained Ozpin, "Wages will be discussed, but in the case of Aura massages, you can charge extra for students who want it. You will, of course, be covered by our insurance plans and other benefits, as well as qualify for 401K."
Ozpin slid over a Scroll listing all the benefits for Jaune to look over, to which he held with still glazed eyes.
"Your will, however, be working seven days a week, unfortunately. However, Monday through Friday, you will only be working half days, as the students will be in class in the morning and afternoon, usually up to 4:00 PM, which will be your start time. Students have a curfew of 10:00 PM, so your sessions will end at 10:00 PM. On the weekends, curfew is up to 11:00 PM. We can discuss your working hours. Perhaps every other week, we might be able to give you a day off."
Jaune finally looked up before asking, "Why me?"
Ozpin took a seat before gesturing for Jaune to do the same. Jaune quickly took the opposite seat, scooting up while sitting up straight.
"Because I believe your service would be invaluable to the school," said Ozpin with complete honesty, "You may not know, but the whole staff wanted, and still wants, you to join our staff. A good majority of the students use your services more than any other spa, mostly due to the price range, service, and hospitality. We just didn't have any way to poach you from your own clinic, so to speak. Now, though, we have an opening to do so."
Ozpin took a sip of his coffee before continuing, "There are other benefits in taking this opportunity that I feel like I should expand on. For instance, access to a state-of-the-art gym used by Huntsman and Huntresses alike. A library full of subjects that will be useful for your own studies to become a Huntsman. Colleagues that will be more than happy to assist you should you need it. Since the students will be in class in the morning and afternoon, those facilities will be free for you to use without any disruption. Everything that you would need to join Beacon next year."
Jaune felt the temptation calling towards him. He wanted to become a Huntsman, and Ozpin was now offering it on a silver platter. He would be able to still talk with Pyrrha and the others at Beacon, and even have access to what they studied to keep up with what he was lacking, the academic portions.
Before Jaune could say yes, he froze as Cardin's face appeared once more. His threat and his statement that Ozpin could be fired soon.
"Are you thinking about Mr. Winchester's threat?" asked Ozpin, causing Jaune to jump up at that.
"Ehehe, sorry," apologized Jaune, "Truth be told, I would love to take the job. But Cardin's threat remains. If he finds out that I started working here, he'll go to his father and try to get you fired. From what I've heard, they took your job as head security for the Vytal Festival and are threatening your position as Headmaster."
Ozpin chuckled as he put his cup down, leaning forward while placing his elbows on the table, and putting his chin under his hands.
"And if they did that, they would no doubt try to put someone under their thumb as Headmaster, and then try to erase the black mark on Cardin, and no doubt try to place him back into Beacon with a team of his choosing," said Ozpin, "One that he'll try to lord over with his influence and power."
As Jaune nodded his head, Ozpin merely closed his eyes for a second, "I can tell you that Vice-Headmistress Goodwitch would never allow such a thing. If, and that's a big if, I am removed, then she would move up to Headmistress, and the council knows far better than to try to cross her. While students may ogle at her for her beauty, to which I admit she is one, those in higher positions know better than to anger her. She would sooner chuck Cardin into the Emerald Forest than allow that to happen."
"As for young Winchester, he overestimates the influences that he has. The council may have threatened my position, but that is all it is, a threat. It will take more to remove me from this position, and Glynda is more than capable of taking my position. But I wouldn't worry about the Winchester family much longer. His little rant was done out in the public, and there were more than a few witnesses there, some of which I would bet recorded the whole thing. Once it gets out, it will cause a scandal that will force the Winchester family's focus away from Beacon and onto itself. And finally, should they wish to harm my students and faculty and force them into such degrading position…. They'll have to go over my body."
Ozpin briefly let his Aura surge, letting Jaune stiffen as he felt Ozpin's power wash over him. Closing his eyes, he began to consider his situation. The more he thought about it, the more it was easy to see that there was only one choice.
"I'll take it," said Jaune.
"Welcome to Beacon Academy," smiled Ozpin as he stretched his hand to shake Jaune's hand, "Let us discuss your hours and wages."
Ozpin and Jaune began to go into more detail over Jaune's new job.
Ta daaa. Jaune is in Beacon! What will happen next!? Well pretty much the consequences of Cardin's action up next!