I am back again. I will be going back to college this week, and by the time you read this, I should already be started probably. So Updates are going to slow down a bit for the time being. I know that things have already been kinda slow recently, but I just can't help it. College is college, and it just saps away a lot of my time. This does not mean that I am going to just stop writing this story however, I will keep going until this story is completed, and according to how bad RT fucks up RWBY, I may or may not keep this story ongoing until RWBY itself ends. A similar situation to how An Unlikely Hero had.

Masso2010- I felt as though I didn't make it entirely obvious the other chapter where Kai and Neo fought, so I made it a little more so last chapter. As for Kai/Stone Face Vs Cinder… just wait and see.

Oblivious IJ- It was Minecraft, I swear!

Arctech: Welcome back for about the third time I think Lol. Good to see ya again. College for me has started for me again just now, so I get what you mean. I don't remember being in a slump recently, but I do remember being a little more slowly with these updates recently, and I am sorry about that. I said up above, but basically I am busy left right and center that I only get a few hours of writing time each day. Luckily, I am a fast writer, so it's never really that bad. Most of the time. It's funny, I was just thinking about her as well. I would say more, but as you once said to me that I am good at making that one aspect of this story a little lacking in insight. So I got that going for me. In other news, if you are willing to read some more stories for whatever reason, I also have Detective Grimm and my newest one, Destiny Fated Black. I would like to know what you think of those stories as well as this one.

Beta: CrowSkull

Considering drawing a new cover for this story, the one I have on now seems to be a little outdated…

The Blind Huntsman

Chapter 52- Volume 1, Episode 19

Forever Falling

Three days came and went, and still, Kai felt like there was some kind of heavyweight pushing down on his body. His muscles were still sore, and the stab wound Neo gave him the other night was still stinging, despite it being mostly healed at this point. Blake told him there was still a nasty bruise there. Which made going about his day in his usual outfit difficult with no sleeves he had going for himself. He had to wear a shirt that was two sizes too small after asking Brick if he had a spare one. It turned out, the Violet twins were smaller than he originally thought, and a shirt that he was offered was so tight that it showed every muscle on his body.

Yang wolf-whistled at him upon seeing him come off the Bullhead and into the Forest of Forever Fall. "Damn Kai, really showing off the goods today huh?" She teased. She also wasn't about to lie to herself, she was one of the girls who happened to subtly and sometimes not so subtly stray her eyes over Kai's toned body through Brick's tight black shirt, it was an attractive sight after all. She just didn't make it as obvious as Orchid did, who took full advantage of the fact that he couldn't see with the way she was staring at his muscles. Poor little Ruby didn't seem to mind though, she was hardly looking and kept on talking to him while looking into his face. Face, because there really wasn't any eyes to look into with that blindfold he has around his head.

"Believe me, it is not by choice," Kai reassured her, just in case she didn't already know that. Somehow. "It's not my fault that Brick has such a small body."

"Hey!" Brick complained, his face going red out of embarrassment as Yang made a sizzling sound. "It's not my fault I was cursed with the short genes. I hate being stuck down here with the pampered ice queen."

"Excuse you!?" Weiss shrieked, appearing out of nowhere and startling her partner as she jabbed her finger into his left temple. "How dare you insult your own partner like that, take it back this instant!"

"Alright, alright just stop pinching my ear!" Brick wailed, squirming as his partner beat on his back while pinching one of his ears. Aura took all of the pain away, but not from the ear. It felt way too similar to how Glynda did it. No amount of aura could take away that trauma.

"Children, please refrain from roughhousing in the middle of Grimm territory." Glynda announced as she exited the Bullhead herself, flanked by Team JNPR minus the 'J' and Team CRDL, where Jaune was currently sulking beside Cardin as he wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

"S-sorry, Miss Goodwitch," Weiss said with a respectful bow of her head.

"Thanks, Auntie!" Brick said with a happy wave.

All it took was Glynda raising an eyebrow at him for him to realize his mistake. A nervous bead of sweat dripped down his forehead as he hid behind his taller and bustier, blond teammate.

"As your leader, I highly recommend that you do not antagonize our combat professor," Ren told him. "I do not think it would be good for your general health."

"Oh, we know." Rick piped up, hiding behind his taller redhead of a partner. "Trust me, we've been dealing with her for years."

Glynda crossed her arms, glaring at them both.

"She heard that I hope you know." Orchid giggled.

"I did," Glynda confirmed, much to the twins dismay. "But I will not act on it at this moment, later, I just might. Unless everyone is on their best behavior for this trip."

"Of course!" Brick and Rick yelled out with exasperated chuckling.

"Of course you will," Glynda smirked. "As for everyone else, students, welcome to the Forest of Forever Fall. Whereas you can see, all the plants within miles and miles around us grow with a specific red tint."

"Hm," Kai hummed as he felt the ground with his feet. To him, it just felt like grass, and very little else. External beauty meant nothing to him, and so this forest meant nothing to him. It was just like any other forest that he's been in after all, besides it being a little bit colder here in Vale, Patch had a forest that felt just like this. If anything, the one on Patch had more life since it was Huntsman patrolled every day. The Grimm cleared out anything that had a soul for miles in this forest.

"Professor Peach has given you all the task to collect the sap from these trees. One jar from each of you will be fine. I am only here to make sure that nobody dies on this trip. If you see any Grimm, even if you are confident in taking it down yourself, call for me. That is what I am here for after all." Glynda explained once she had everyone's attention. "You may split up into groups of two's at least, but I would prefer for you all to remain in your teams to build stronger bonds within your teammates. If all goes well, we will be back at Beacon in just a couple of hours. Any questions?"

"Yes," Kai raised his hand, keeping his head mostly facing down toward the ground as he did so.

"Go on, Mister Matsuoka."

"Why do we need to collect this sap?" Kai asked.

"For an assignment, of course," Glynda told him.

"Yes, but why," Kai repeated himself, raising an eyebrow underneath his blindfold. "Is it for food? Research purposes? If it's the former then we just don't need this, and if it's the latter you have had countless years to research this place."

"Mister Matsuoka, the primary reason for this trip is to build stronger bonds to your teammates." Glynda interrupted him before he could continue. "To answer your question, do we need the sap? No. But your students are being sent to collect it for a purpose. I do not know where your questions stem from, but have faith in your teachers."

"Mm." Kai nodded his head once as he crossed his arms. He supposed her reasoning was sound enough. Before he could think too much about it, he felt two palms rest on both of his shoulders, and he felt himself being slowly pulled back.

"C'mon Kaizy, let's suck these trees dry!" Orchid exclaimed.

"It'll be fun! And if the rumors I heard from the upperclassman are true, it tastes really good too." Ruby added as she licked her lips with an audible smack. Even going as far as to let out a pleased moan at the mere thought of getting her tongue dripping in such stuff.

"I…" Kai couldn't tell them no, not even if he wanted too. He laughed softly and let them pull him away.

Blake watched this with an amused look on her face. She turned to Yang and she gave her a thumbs up. Step one of her little plan starting off rather smoothly. Blake told her two other female teammates that they should maybe try to include Kai more, and they were just naive enough to go with her suggestion without a second thought. She wondered if she was manipulating them, but with the way that Orchid laughed as she went on about some inside joke between her and Kai and the way Ruby beamed at him whenever he complimented her about her weapon craftsman or combat skills told her that they wanted to do this anyway, and all she did was give them the light push that they needed in order to finally go through with it.

She would have to go with them, of course. She was her leaders' partner after all, and it would look back if she went to hang out with anyone else. Anyone else meaning just Yang, since she is practically the only person outside of her team that she speaks too, and only for a few days. After their conversation, Blake learned more about her partner than she cared to admit, and it made much more sense now. Yang was smarter than she looked as she went on to list the things that changed about Kai, and everything that Blake told her in return was met with a… expecting reaction was the only way she could put it, like she already knew, but didn't want to believe it was true until it was right in front of her. They'd thought about confronting Kai about these issues, but went against it after realizing that this was Kai. He'd just say sure and then keep doing whatever it was he was doing every night and early morning.

They were getting pretty far now, Blake went to go catch up to them. She stopped when she heard a nervous whimper coming from that blonde scraggly boy from the other team that sat with them at lunch. Jaune, if she remembered correctly. He was currently being pulled along by the bigger boy, Cardin, and the rest of his team practically surrounding him, and obviously, Jaune did not want to go with them, and again, obviously his partner didn't want him going with them either. The two even looked each other in the eyes at one point, the blonde seemingly telling the ginger that he was sorry with his eyes before he gave up and let Cardin do what he wanted with him, and disappeared with Team CRDL into the red forest.

Blake understood the situation immediately, having overhearing the reasoning for their team fracture over and over again between her teammates and at the lunch table, and wondered if she should do anything to help.

Ruby called for her, and the decision was made for her. She shrugged her shoulders and turned her back. If Jaune wanted to make things difficult for himself and his teammates, then that was his problem to resolve himself. She had her own team to worry about, after all, a new family. She prioritized them over some boy she barely knew.

"Let him go, Nora," Rick told the ginger girl. "He'll come to his senses soon, he obviously doesn't like being with them."

"Yes," Pyrrha continued. "Come with us, we can sort this out when we all get to Beacon. Okay?"

"...Okay." Nora huffed, and let her two other teammates lead her along into the forest, which was coincidentally in the general vicinity of where Cardin and his dumb friends took her partner. She pretended that it was just that. A coincidence.

"Unf!" Jaune groaned as he was roughly yanked along by his wrist, the one using his body part as a leash was none other than Cardin Winchester, who got more and more rough with each time Jaune got slow or lagged behind. He didn't know what kind of sick pleasure the larger boy got from this, if any at all, but he just hoped that whatever it was that he was going to make him do would just be done and over with quickly. What was strange to him, however, was the fact that even Cardin looked sick of this. It seemed like his overly submissive behavior around him was starting to make him bored, which spelled a blessing and an omen. If Cardin got bored, he'd like to think that he would just start leaving him alone, but he could just as easily want to punish him for wasting his time.

"C'mon Jauney boy, we're almost there," Cardin said, letting go of his wrist and now expecting him to walk on his own to follow them. His expectations were correct. But why were they walking so far out?

"Aren't you going to make me collect sap for you guys?" Jaune asked with a confused tilt of his head as he watched the trees go by. He even had some experience collecting sap from trees back from where he used to live. His parents and sometimes sister sent him out to go collect some for whatever purpose they needed it for, mostly for food. So he knew his way around this kind of thing. It was part of why he hoped that he could get this done quickly so he could return to his own team. He had to make up with Nora quickly, not because of Ren's threat, even if that is a big part of it. Jaune just wanted to say that he was sorry to Nora at the very least.

"The time for that will come, don't worry." Cardin laughed maniacally as he kept stomping forward, his team all laughing with him. "Keep the questions at a minimum, and I might tell you by the time we get in position. Or more specifically, you in position."

"Okay…" Jaune almost asked another question right there, but opted not to in favor of not getting in trouble with them again.

The larger and stronger leader kept leading them through the red forest, and in his boredom, Jaune decided to take in his surroundings. Red leaves, red grass, pale greyish cream colored bark. It was a beautiful place to be. Too bad it was infested and controlled by Grimm. This might have been a pretty place to live in if you could withstand literally seeing the color red every day of your life. He knew he would have liked to at least camped down here once or twice. But sadly, now was the wrong time to have such thoughts, because the moment a smile started curving up from his lips, Cardin noticed.

"Something making you happy Jaune? What, do you like watching us walk in front of you?" Cardin's evil smirk told him that he obviously knew that wasn't the case.

"Eugh, gross." Sky remarked as he quickened his pace and put his body in front of Dove's.

"Hey, don't leave me to get checked out by that creep!" Dove complained as he wrestled with his teammate to get in front of him.

"Hey, you think we can report him for that?" Russel chuckled as he leaned in to whisper obviously to his leader. "Sexual harassment has a no-tolerance policy, right? We wouldn't even have to-"

"I wasn't looking!" Jaune shouted out, a brief showing of the irritation that has been building up for days just now going over the brim. Cardin looked surprised by his tantrum, and once he realized what he did Jaune covered his mouth and paled. Knowing what was about to come next.

"What was that Jaune?" Cardin asked, coming to a stop as he cupped his ear outwardly toward Jaune. "I didn't quite hear you, do you have something to say? Getting a little rebellious? C'mon, if you really let us all have it, it might just make me respect you enough to let you walk back to your team Scott free!" That was a lie and they all knew it, but despite that Jaune wanted to hold out hope that Cardin was actually telling the truth. He put on his best angry face, and prepared himself to unleash all of his pent up frustration and rage out on them that has been building up for weeks now. Even longer when Jaune was pretending that Cardin was never bullied him in the first place. He kept trying to think of things that made him angry, like all the little things Cardin did to him, all the public humiliation during combat class. Kai calling him out and figuring out his secret. He very nearly blew up on the bully, but at the last second, he thought about his partner, Nora, and the fact that he was very weak. The what if's starting invading his mind. What if Cardin was lying? What if he was telling the truth but ended up telling Ozpin about his fake transcripts anyway? What if. What if. What if. By the time he knew it, it was-

"Too late." Cardin snickered as he turned back around, expecting Jaune to follow him as he always did. "Man, and I was really hoping you would grow a gut in that scraggly body of yours. By the way, between you and me, I really was telling the truth you know."

Jaune kept his head hanging as he followed like a robotic slave would. Defeated and unwilling.

"Tch, don't look so pathetic," Cardin said as he slowed down and smacked his hand against Jaune's back, waking him up from his stupor. "I want you in top shape for what we are about to do."

"Here, now get us a jar of sap," Cardin said a few minutes later as he tossed Jaune a clear glass jar. Jaune stabbed the spile deep into the tree's bark, and watched as he twisted the valve when the dark strawberry colored sap starting pouring out of the jar. Cardin whistled an impressed tone as his team started applauding him for how quickly he was able to get a full jar of sap so quickly. "Good job, maybe you're not so useless after all. Now get over here, time for the final test of the trip!"

Jaune walked over to him with the jar in hand, he held it out for Cardin to take, expecting him to take the full jar and give him another empty one, but instead the bulkier boy smirked at him and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him forward and wrapping an arm around his shoulders as he pointed him toward another group of people in the nearby distance.

"You see boys," Cardin started speaking to his team. "Jaune here managed to collect a whole box of rapier wasps yesterday, just like I told him. And now, they are going to come into use here today. You see the ginger bitch over there Jauney boy?"

"N-Nora!?" Jaune said as he locked on to his partner's orange hair immediately. She was happily drinking a jar of sap as Rick hurried to try and get another one, struggling with the spile as Pyrrha slowly figured hers out on her own on a nearby tree, all of their backs were turned to him. Nora announced that she was finished and demanded another, which Rick complained that they were being incredibly inefficient and Pyrrha politely recommending that Nora take it easy on the sap, to which her answer was a P popping 'Nope'.

"Yeah, her." Cardin tightened his arm around his shoulders in anger. "She is such a pain in the ass, and with the way she humiliated Sky and I in combat class the other day has been haunting me. It's time for some payback."

Jaune remembered that, it was just two days ago in combat class where Cardin and his partner Sky Lark were called up to spar against Nora two against one. Previously, Nora went up against Cardin one on one, and absolutely demolished him. Cardin was strong, but he was not Nora strong. When his mace smashed against Nora's hammer, it went flying out of his grip, and moments later so did he out of the ring. The two on one didn't go much better, especially since Sky went down in just one hit. Cardin once against got humiliated by her, and in an even worse way when Nora picked up his mace and dual-wield it with her hammer. Jaune would not lie and say that he did not find satisfaction with seeing his bullies being picked apart by his partner, but what was strange about it was that this all happened during the issue that he and Nora are having now. Which could only mean one thing…

"And you are going to be the one to cover her in this sap you so generously provided for us." Cardin continued as he pushed the jar full of red sap deeper into his grip.

"Me?" Jaune asked stupidly.

"Yes, you," Cardin replied, annoyed. "All you gotta do is throw the sap at her, and we'll do the rest. If you're fast enough, you might even be able to hide after you throw it so you don't get caught. That much is up to you though."

"So…" Cardin arranged his body so that he was in a prepared throwing position. His arm was cocked back and his other arm lined up the shot for him. Nora wasn't even that for, she was down a hill and about thirty to forty feet from him. He could easily make the shot, very easily.

His hand shook as Cardin stepped away from him and crossed his arms, the rest of his team lining up beside him as they watched Jaune prepare himself. He didn't want to do this, far from it. Nora was his partner, his friend, and he'd insulted her and belittled her just for trying to help him, and he'd repay her by throwing a jar of sap at her and unleashing a horde of rapier wasps to sting her all over? His grip tightened on the jar, and he could almost feel it crack underneath his fingers as he clenched his eyes shut, and threw the jar as hard as he could.

The shattering of glass and a grunt told him that he hit his target, and when he opened his eyes, he could see Cardin's breastplate dripping with red sap, and the rest of his teammates standing behind him with shocked expressions on their faces. "Oh…" Cardin took in a deep breath and shook his head, glaring daggers at Jaune as he wiped some of the sap away with the back of his hand. "You did it now, Jaune."

"I don't care what you do to me." Jaune finally snapped at him. "Go ahead and telling Miss Goodwitch right now for all I care, I am not going to hurt my teammate. Not anymore."

His head smashed against the ground after a fist kissed his face rather hardly. He wasn't even able to get his aura up in time and felt the full brunt of the blow. Cardin pulled him up by his hoodie, and punched him again, and then again, and one more time for good measure. Jaune felt like his head was going to fall off of his shoulders, and his nose must have been broken at this point. Cardin may not be Nora strong, but he was still pretty damn strong.

"Woah, dude…" Sky spoke up. "Don't you think that's a little too much?"

"Shut up, Sky." Cardin hissed at him. Sky yelped and hid behind one of his other teammates. "So what, now you think you're some kind of man? You're going to stand up to your bullies? Well, good job on that, you definitely showed me." Everyone winced when Cardin gave Jaune a nasty black eye with his next punch as he held him up off his feet a good foot off of the ground and into the air. "Yeah, you definitely did with that pathetic look. What a white knight you are. How did Ozpin think it was a good idea to make you the leader of anything when you can't even defend yourself?"

Jaune coughed and spat blood mixed with spittle into Cardin's face defiantly. "Go fuck yourself, Cardin." He rasped.

"Urgh!" Cardin grunted and threw another fist into his face.

A bright flash of white had Cardin dropping Jaune and holding on to his fist in pain, which now had a few knuckles dislocated. He hadn't bothered to use his aura to punch Jaune with, he wanted to make him hurt, but not kill the kid. He looked to Jaune who was now sitting on the ground in front of him, all of the bruises and cuts on his face healed so quickly, and even his broken nose was mended back in place with a clicking sound. Jaune looked down at himself and saw the aura flow over his body, and for the first time, he felt just how much aura he really had. Nora was right, there really was an ocean of it.

"Heh, about time you defend yourself. I can almost respect you for it right now." Cardin commented as he clicked his knuckles back into place one by one. Wincing each time one popped back in. "Too bad you've managed to really piss me off-"

An Ursa roaring behind them cut Cardin off. He turned around and was just barely not able to draw his mace as the Ursa barreled into him and his team as a bowling ball would pins. His mace went flying out of his hand and disappeared in a bush somewhere, and before he could even stand up half of his teammates ran off into the forest, leaving him and Jaune behind with just Sky being the only one standing up to the Grimm.

"No, Sky!" Cardin cried out as he realized that this wasn't just a regular Ursa, but an Ursa Major. It was like the alpha variant of Ursa, which meant it was stronger, faster, tougher, and more dangerous. His friend wasn't strong enough to take down such a creature, especially when it got the drop on them and Sky's weapon was so pathetically small in comparison to the large beast.

He screamed even louder when the Ursa charged.

"Hm?" Kai hummed as he sensed a great vibration ran through the ground coming from a specific direction. He turned his head in said direction and tilted his head as he thought about it.

"What's wrong, Kai?" Ruby asked him as she wiped her mouth of what little sap remained on her upper lip.

"Nothing," Kai said. "I just thought I sensed something."

"Noooo!"

Kai's eyes widened underneath his blindfold, and he took a step toward that direction and drew Silver Ebony. In response, so did the rest of his team.

"What is it?" Blake asked him.

"Grimm." Kai could hear it now, it was a chaotic battle between a very large Grimm and some very small in comparison humanoids fighting it. There was one lying on the ground motionless, another one hurt but standing, and the last one desperately trying to hold it off on his own. "Just one, but it sounds like a big one."

"Which direction?" Orchid asked.

Kai flicked his chin forward. "That way, follow me. Whoever it is they may be in trouble, we'll have to help them."

"Then let's go!" Ruby exclaimed as she used her semblance to get ahead. "Last one there is a rotten egg!"

Kai rolled his eyes and started running forward, enhancing his own speed with his aura. His other teammates were right behind him. They weren't going to get there as fast as Ruby, but they'd get there by the time it was slain, maybe.

It just depended on who was the one fighting the Ursa Major he sensed stomping someone into the ground.

Cardin coughed and struggled to keep the weight of the Ursa from crushing him as he held up one of its paws. His aura flared to keep the claws from cutting his hands, and he kept pushing back as hard as he could. His muscles were clenched, his teeth were grinding together, and sweat was stinging his eyes as he desperately tried to keep himself alive. Sky got hurt, having the least amount of aura out of all of them on that trip. He was taken down in one hit, and now he was on his belly laying flat with his face in the red grass, a red stain across his back from when he gave up on fighting the Ursa Major at the last second and tried to run away.

Jaune shoulder charged into the Ursa Major's side and pushed it off of him with surprising strength that seemed to come out of nowhere. Cardin gasped for air and tried to get back up on his feet, but his legs failed him and he could only get up to his hands and knees.

"Jaune, just get out of here!" Cardin screamed at the blonde who had taken to defending him.

"Shut up and stay out of trouble!" Jaune screamed back, glaring at him with anger Cardin never thought he'd be capable of. He kept silent, and quietly rooted for Jaune to win, it meant both of their lives.

The Ursa was powerful. Too powerful. Jaune knew that it was so big and his sword was so small, despite it being almost as long as his arm. It was easily twice his height and probably ten times his weight. But that meant nothing to him, he'd never forgive himself if he just ran away from this fight and leave people to die in his stead. Even if it was Cardin and Sky. His moral code wouldn't allow it.

He felt his bones shake as he raised his shield and blocked another attack, and then rolled to the side to dodge another that would have cleaved him in two from above. He tried to counter-attack, but his form was sloppy and the Ursa was easily able to bat him aside. Jaune caught himself from sliding back too far by stabbing his sword into the ground, and sloppily jumped to the side and behind a tree to dodge the charging Ursa that followed him. The monster was terrifying. It had many sharp bony protrusions sticking out of its back that could easily skewer him, and it's glowing red eyes were just so monstrous, like it stared into his very soul and vied to destroy it.

Jaune stared back with equal hatred. An enemy of all humanity was right in front of him, and if he didn't kill it now, it would kill him and all those around him until it was stopped by someone stronger. Someone like Professor Goodwitch or Kai or Pyrrha or even Ruby, someone who was not a fake, someone who actually deserved to go to Beacon.

He managed to lure it back into the open and slashed at its offending paw. The creature roared angrily at him and swiped at him, which he clumsily blocked. He felt the leather straps of his shield connecting it to his arm snap as it's paw hit the inside of his shield instead of the outside, sending it and a piece of his armor flying toward Cardin, who just managed to dodge it lest it break his sternum.

Now he had no shield, and hesitantly he wielded his sword with two hands. It would make his attacks stronger, sure. But he just lost his best means of defense, and he was not entirely confident in himself to block an attack with just his sword and upper body strength. If he was able to lose his shield, he didn't want to risk breaking Crocea Mors. Even down his best measure of defense, he stood against the creature of darkness, taking a peek at his scroll that he had strapped to the back of his wrist to check how much aura he had.

It was flickering red, he had less than twenty percent left.

He stood his ground and got in position, the Ursa roared at him and began to charge. He roared in turn and charged it back. Their roaring echoed throughout the forest, and midway through its charge, the Ursa yelped as a pink explosion knocked it off balance, falling forward with very little grace. Jaune swung his blade up with his body and cleaved the head of the monster clean off.

"I did it!" Jaune exclaimed with joy as blood started spouting out of the Grimm's stump of a neck.

The very heavy body of the Grimm started to fall toward him.

Jaune was still in mid-air, unable to dodge.

"Oh no…" Jaune prepared himself to get smothered by the Grimm's impossible weight, but before it could land on him, he felt himself get yanked back by the hoodie and away from the crushing weight of the Grimm.

"What the-"

"I knew you could do it!" Nora exclaimed, turning him around and grabbing him by his hands and twirling with him around and around in her excitement. "I knew it! I knew it! Haha!"

"N-Nora!" Jaune exclaimed. "I'm getting s-sick."

"Oh!" Nora let him go, and he went falling to the ground. "I'm sorry!"

Cardin watched the scene before him with a sinking feeling of guilt running throughout his heart. He looked toward Sky and hurried over to check his pulse, and sighed out of relief as he hooked his arms underneath his body and lifted him up. Once he stood up he looked back toward Jaune, who was now having his ear chewed off by that ginger bit-... Nora.

"Damn it. You win." Cardin said quietly as he began walking away toward the Bullhead. There was nothing else for him here.

"I'm so proud of you Jauney!" Nora exclaimed once more as she buried the side of her face into her partner's chest. "You took on that Ursa Major all by yourself!"

"I-I…" Jaune remembered seeing a flash of pink just before he cut the head off the Ursa. "I know you helped, Nora."

"Eep!" Nora looked horrified all of a sudden. "I'm sorry! I was just worried and-"

"It's okay!" Jaune cut her off and grabbed her hands again. "It's okay… Nora, I am so sorry about what I said. It was stupid, I was being stupid, a-and I'm just envious of your strength and skill and I hurt you for it." He felt tears stinging his eyes, he felt a massive weight get taken off his shoulders as he was finally able to say these things to his partner. "I'm so sorry…"

Nora, for her part, stared at him with wide eyes.

"Nora?" Jaune called out to her.

Very slowly, a grin started to split her face in half.

"Oh…"

"Awe~" Nora picked Jaune up in a hug and swung him around again, this time with a deep red blush on her cheeks. "That's so nice of you to say! I had this whole thing planned where I was going to say sorry and try to make friends with you again but I didn't know when to start because I don't want to come off as overbearing and- Muuah~!"

Jaune's face went beet red as he felt Nora smack her lips against his cheek so suddenly. "It makes me so happy that you said that! Hehe."

"I-I'm glad," Jaune said, hugging his partner back finally.

"I'm still training you," Nora said with a sudden dangerous edge to her voice.

"Eh?"

"You called me overbearing. Even with an apology that is unacceptable." Nora said this with a happy smile on her face as she tilted her head at him. "I will make you a stronger partner, and it will be painful. I promise."

"O-okay." Jaune chuckled nervously. "If it makes you happy, and me stronger, then it's a win-win, I guess."

"Now that's the spirit!" Nora cheered, going back to how she usually is as she lured the blonde toward their two other remaining teammates. Who were all smiles and teases when they caught up with each other.

Ren watched from a distance, a small approving smile curving up from his lips. Beside him, his blonde brawler of a partner teased him for it. He was happy that he has been proven wrong, and now he wishes Jaune the best of luck and hopes Nora gets what she wants from him, which is another best friend to drag around everywhere, or perhaps… Well, that would be none of his business. At least not yet.

"That was interesting," Kai said as he leaned against a tree. "Didn't think Jaune of all people would have been able to even hurt an Ursa, even with the help."

"Be nice!" Ruby scolded him. "At least he did it, I didn't see you going in there to help him."

"He was already getting help from Nora, and I don't think you can berate me for not doing anything here. You're the one with the speed semblance." Kai countered slyly.

"Eep!" Ruby squealed, then pretended that the conversation they just had never happened.

"In any case, perhaps Cardin has learned his lesson," Blake said, utterly satisfied with what she's seen. "I hope his friend is okay, but he must have learned a lesson in humility at the very least. Jaune will still have to have one last talk with him, however, to resolve some obvious standing issues."

"I can have a talk with him!" One of Orchids special personalities piped up.

"You will do no such thing. The last thing we need is to hear that Cardin has mysteriously gone missing." Blake said.

"Heh, yeah." Kai chuckled to himself. Remembering the scene he sensed over a week ago. He didn't talk to Cardin that night, nor did he the following morning. But before the trip, he thought to have a little chat with an old friend of his, and, well…

He certainly is happy everything turned out okay in the end.

After getting Sky to Beacon's hospital, Kai figured that he would go and visit his mother since they landed there. He said goodbye to most of his friends for the night, but Ruby and Orchid insisted on going to visit Marron with him, and with them, Blake was dragged along for the ride, mostly because she didn't want to be the only one going back to the dorm room. The trip ended without any more issues and was over the moment Sky got hurt, which was a good thing, he supposed. Now they are not wasting any more time over there.

Somewhere along the line, Yang decided to join up with them as well for whatever reason. He wasn't about to tell them no because why would he? He trusted them, and his mother happened to like each of them. Now that he thought about it, Mom has never met Blake before, has she? Now would be a good time to introduce them, and she should be awake by this time. He has been wanting to visit her for some time, but the meds they put her on made her woozy for a couple of days, and so he let her have her rest.

"You're not going to go get her some flowers?" Yang asked him as they made it to his mother's floor.

"I would, but by the time we go to Vale, pick some flowers, and come back visiting hours would be over." Kai pointed out.

"You could always just pick a few out from the garden." Orchid suggested.

"That would get us in trouble, Orchid." Kai laughed.

"I don't know, I saw a few orchids lying around one time." Yang chuckled at her own horrible pun.

"I hope I don't have to listen to any more of those for the next few minutes," Kai said as he placed a hand on a plaque beside one of the doors to the hospital room, and read the braille that told him that this was indeed his mother's room. He could sense two people within it, but that alcoholic scent told him it was none other then Qrow. That made sense, Ozpin did ask Qrow to guard Marron and Malienna whenever he had the time.

"H-Hey kids!" Qrow greeted them all with a very strange red tint to his face. "I didn't know you were all coming to visit today."

Kai knew there was something wrong immediately. Qrow was way too nervous. Qrow is never nervous.

"Oh. My. God." He could sense the shock within Yang. "I never thought it was possible."

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby wailed, her face was red as well.

"I-I think we should visit another time, Kai." Sloppy Mediator Orchid suggested. "It seems Marron is a little... busy at the moment."

"Son…" Marron greeted him finally. "How was your day?" Trying to change the subject immediately after.

Qrow could feel Kai's blind stare into his soul.

Besides, it wasn't like he and Marron were caught kissing or anything. Marron, who is Kai's mother, and Malikai's widow. And Qrow, who has been with her and training her on how to be a Huntsman for the past few years. No, that wouldn't have lead to anything. Not at all. It took him a few moments for him to realize that everything he thought was not words that came out of his mouth.

"So," Kai drew out a seat and sat in it, his tail as stiff as a branch visible over his shoulder. "How long has this been a thing?"

Haha, yeah, this happened. Qrow finally finds some love, and now he has to deal with the pseudo-step-son that is Kai. I threw a few hints toward this pairing throughout the second half of this story so far. It has been two and a half years since Mistral, Malikai is dead, and Marron had a lot of time to move on, and I mean, hey. If Raven can leave Tai and in just a few months Summer becomes pregnant with Ruby, I think Marron can move on after being widowed for two and a half years.

In other news, I have started College once again, which I might have said before will sap away some of my writing time. So I am apologizing here first, updates will be slightly slower.

Please review and let me know what you think of the story!

T w itter . com (slash) genatools

P a treon . com (slash) Genatools