Chapter 39: A Hard Lesson
One week. I gave Jaune one week to learn some basic combat from our team, and once that one week was over. We were going to fight.
Now you might be wondering if any of this is necessary. To answer that, let me remind you all that Jaune has been on Cardin's side for the past week, and he didn't complain once about all of it. It didn't help that he also explained what Cardin plan was for the Forever Fall trip. It did involve those wasps that Cardin made him get, and it also involved me. So, there was no way he was getting off Scotts free for this. Once I'm done with him.
Cardin is my next target.
But for now, here I am sitting in the back of History class paying little to no attention to Doctor Oobleck's lecture. In a few minutes, the bell will ring and combat class will start. Looking around the room I see the rest of my team all sitting in the front all paying attention to the class at hand. I could tell by a little bit that Ren and Pyrrha were giving help to Jaune who was trying his best to pay the most attention in class, writing notes and asking questions the best that he could.
It's funny how in a week he did everything in his power to learn from them and yet he was still nowhere near the level that he should be, but little steps do matter at this point. And still, I did not help him at all.
One week ago
"You will get one week to train Jaune, and after that week we are going to have a match in Professor Goodwitch's class." I said to him, as he just looked lost for what I was saying.
"Now hold on Seth there is no need for any of this. I'm sure we can all just get past this and move on." Nora said as she tried to stop us.
"You guys can move on and pretend that nothing happened and live as happy as you can be. But the fact of the matter for me is. I can't trust him at all. If we were on a mission and he decided to bitch out mid-fight. And put our lives on the line... Then I rather him be the one who gets left behind."
"Seth!" Now Pyrrha steps in front of me narrowing her eyes.
We both look at each other and both narrow our eyes at one another.
"Let's not do anything drastic here." Ren said as he got between both of us. "Look, we know we don't have any say on what you think Seth, but let's try to calm down here."
I move my head to look at Jaune and see him still standing there. "So, this is how you're going to be a hero? Letting others do the work for you? Tsk." I see him raise his head and look at me upset as well.
"Seth. I'm telling you now to knock it off." Pyrrha said as she got close to me.
"Or what?"
"I'll ma-" Pyrrha soon gets cut off.
"Fine." We all looked at Jaune and saw him step forward. "You want a fight then you have one. One week huh?"
I nod my head at this. "You have prep time for one week. Fight me and I will see if you really want my apology. Chicken out and your secret is out." With that, his eyes widen. "Ah, don't worry. I won't pull a Cardin and tell the whole world this, only these two. I rather they know what we will be dealing with in the future."
"Fine." I see him walk past me, head straight to the bathroom, and close the door. While I turn back, I see the rest of the team all look at me with mixed reactions. I simply shrug it off and head straight to bed and lay down.
Present
In that one week, I've seen Jaune actually put effort into his school work, for the most part, he was doing his best. With the help of the rest of the team. I've seen them all work together and try to help in any way they could. Combat-related I had no idea what they did with him, I kept my distance from them for the week.
Do I have a plan? Yes. Will it work? In a way. Do I like my plan? No, cause I'm going to do something that I had never hoped to do. I'm taking a page out of my mom's past and now making it my own. I just hope she never finds out about it.
Honestly, the week wasn't so bad. But it did come at a cost.
And Boy. I will tell you this. These people are going to be the Bain of my existence for the foreseeable future.
"So, this is the kid huh?" Raising my head I am met with Three different people all standing in front of me. One was a guy with dark skin, Burnt Orange hair, and white eyes, from what I could tell he was blind. Cause he was not looking at me at all. The second person was another guy way taller than the other two, with black hair, and brown eyes, this guy looked like he was ready to throw someone out of his way, just for standing. The last person was a girl. And I'm going to be honest here. It felt like I was looking at a gender-bend version of myself for some reason. This girl had brown hair, pale skin and to top it all off sunglasses that almost resembled mine, but not really.
It was freaky, to say the least, but I felt like I was only complaining since I was having more headaches when seeing these three just now. It didn't help that they decided to sit down next to me and in front of me as well.
'Okay, so I hope they just want to talk. But seeing these people not talking and just sitting menacingly. I get the feeling someone sent them after me. Great.' I continued to eat and began to think of a plan to deal with them. 'Okay first the girl, I flip my tray towards her and hopefully get some food on her face, Then I'll grab the tray and smack the big guy on the side of the head, hopefully enough to daze him. Then I'll handle the last guy with a simple Discombobulate.' Okay, let's do this.
"I hope you don't do anything dumb on your part, especially on her." The blind guy next to me said as I turned to face him and saw him with a neutral expression.
"What?" I question.
"Oh, what was he going to do huh?" Now the girl said as I also looked at her confused.
"Huh?"
"Do not fret, we are just here to talk." Now the big guy said to me as I began to question what was going on.
'Okay, what the fuck is going on here' I thought to myself, but then I heard another voice.
'You know, if I was you. I would be really freaked out by now.'
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'Oh.' "Fuck me." I thought and said at the same time.
After sitting there for the past five minutes I just kept wondering what did I do to deserve this. For the most part, the guy was in my head and was talking a storm to me, while the girl was also talking to me but right in front of me. Any peace that I once knew was gone and all I heard were voices all around me that it was really getting to me. I tried to leave however the moment I stood up the big guy just placed a hand on my shoulder and made me sit back down.
I swear... Who the fuck are these people!
After another five minutes, "Alright! I had enough." I said to them as I got up from my seat and began to leave. However, they decided to follow me for some weird reason and now were on my tail.
'Okay, this is getting annoying now. I could try to lose them, but I feel like they will find me again eventually.'
'That is correct.' The voice once again said.
'Or I can do this the old Argus way.'
'The old what?' I stop in my tracks and turn to face them. I raised my fist and stood my ground.
"Alright, square up you three." I see them look at me surprised by this. "If you guys want these hands, then alright. who's first." They continue to look at me for a good second but eventually, the girl is the one to break the silence.
"Oh, I like him. I can see why bun bun. Keeps on following him." The girl said to the other two.
'Wait what?'
'Don't worry about it' The voice answered.
"Okay, who the fuck keeps talking to me." I looked at the three and saw that they all turned to the guy with orange hair, who whistled a tune trying to not look our way.
"Right... Sorry about that, our teammate here likes to toy with people from time to time." The big guy said as he looked more apologetic than before. "I believe introductions are in order here. My name is Yatsuhashi Daichi, our leader here asked us to act intimidating for a reason. So, my apologies."
'Well, at least he's nice about it.'
'Yeah, that's Yats for you.' The voice returns and continues. " The name's Fox Alistair, the blind guy next to our leader.'
"Okay, can you at least get off my head?"
'Nah, I like it in here. It's so spacious. I can even put a pool table here.'
"You can do that?" I asked out loud.
'I don't know.' I could see that he was enjoying teasing me, but I just about had enough of it.
"Okay kicking you out." I began to think of a song in my head and played it. Suddenly Fox quickly grabbed his head and looked in my direction.
"The hell was that?" He asked looking at me... At least I think he was.
"What? Didn't like the song? Just curious, what does the fox say?" I smirked at this but realized he couldn't see so I just stopped.
"What did you do?" The girl asked.
"Oh just played a song. Guess he's not a fan of it."
"That was not a song, that was some sort of torture technique." Fox said as he just rubbed his head some more. Which got the girl to laugh.
"Not bad kid. I guess the rumors about you are true."
"Rumors?"
"About your songs. Almost everyone in the school knows about them by now."
"How?"
The girl just pulls out her scroll and shows me a video of me fighting and skips to the part where I tap my heart and music begins to play. By the look of the video, it was when I had to fight Cardin and Russel.
"Who the hell keeps recording these fights?" I asked out loud.
"Don't know but you are not the only one who gets recorded when you fight. Everyone in that class has their showcase. But yours is the more interesting one with your songs." The girl put her scroll away and lowered her sunglasses, allowing me to see that she had dark brown eyes. "By the way, my name is-" She gets cut off by someone yelling.
"Coco!" We all turned and saw that Velvet was standing there shocked and wide-eyed. She then ran at us and grabbed Yatsuhashi, Fox, and I assume Coco, by the arm and began to drag them away from me.
"Sorry about them Seth. My team tends to be a problem for all. I'll take care of them. See you." She quickly dragged them away and saw Coco wave back at me. Yatsuhashi raised his hand and Fox sent a salute my way.
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"Damn Velvet never knew you were that strong... Man, why is her team weird?" I asked myself that question as I began to walk back to my room. Something told me I would be seeing them from time to time. And I would just have to deal with them as that time came.
'Well, at least they were nice.'
After that day I saw more and more of them. Each time alone or in a group and for some reason Velvet kept on dragging them away. Don't know what that's about but hey, at least she was keeping Fox away from me. The guy can talk a lot in my head and yet not talk at all in person. And somehow, he added a pool table in my head because the last time he was there I could hear what sounded like Billard balls cracking around.
Don't tell me how he did it, he just did it. And it scares me how many things he can set up in there.
The bell rang and everyone got up from their seat to go to the final class of the day. Well, this was it, let's just see how much Jaune wants this and see if he wants my trust back. This will also help me understand what I'm working with here. Getting up from my seat I began to leave as well seeing that I was the last student there.
Leaving the classroom, I saw that I was not alone, to my surprise I saw team RWBY waiting for me for some strange reason.
"Hey guys, what's up?" I ask them as I stop in my tracks.
"Seth, is it true?" Ruby tells me.
"What is?"
"Don't lie to us Shades, tell us if it is." Now Yang tells me.
"What is?"
"Spill it Sapphire, they just want to know if it's true or not." Now Weiss was on my case for some reason.
"I didn't know you cared enough for whatever it is I was in. But for real what is it?" I tell them, now getting annoyed by them.
"So, it's true." Now Blake said to me and that's when I just gave up on them.
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"Okay, that's it I give up." I begin to walk away from them, and I hear them all yell my name. But I just continue to ignore them.
'Honestly they either tell me what is wrong, or this will continue for the foreseeable future.'
"Are you going to fight Jaune?" I heard and turned around to see Ruby ask me this.
"Yes." I tell them the truth without any hesitation.
"Why?" Now Yang asks me. Which in response I just shrug my shoulders.
"I have my reasons. Is that all you guys wanted to know?"
"It's just weird that you out of all people would want to fight him. Is it because of what happened a few weeks back in your team fight?" Blake said to me as I continued to walk.
"You could say that. Look, me and him have a little bit of a disagreement that's all. We wanted to help him, but he declined. Then he spends a whole week with Cardin and leaves the team while he does his little soul-searching. Then he comes back and asks for forgiveness and the rest of the team welcomes him with open arms. While I don't. So if he wants to make it up for me, we are going to fight." As I tell them the reasons why, and leave out a lot of details of the story.
"That sounds like a barbaric way to forgive someone." Weiss tells me and I retort back,
"Yeah, it is. But tell me Ice Queen," I stop and turn to them. "Would you have done the same if this was You and Ruby? How you wanted to take her role as a leader? Would you have done anything in your power to get what you wanted? Fight her and see who was truly fit to lead your team?"
"So this is what it's about? You want to become leader?" Yang tells me.
"Me? Hell no, I rather not be a leader at all. That role doesn't suit me. But I rather a leader be there when we have our little problems and when he has a problem of his own. I rather he ask for help rather than think that he can deal with everything by himself. Last week how he got eliminated was a pathetic way to go out, he let himself get pushed out while I had to pick up the scraps." I can see them all look at me with concern as I began to rant at them. "Imagine that was a mission? We all fighting for our lives while he decided to chicken out halfway. This is our lives on the line. I rather he man up and stop pretending that he has the confidence of someone who can do better." I turned around and began to walk again while saying one last note to them.
"If he wants to show off. Then I will do it better."
As I leave, the four girls all look at each other wondering what Seth is planning. Something tells them they are not going to like it at all.
As I took my seat. I saw Miss Goodwitch enter the ring and begin her usual speech.
"Alright students, as always it's Monday so let's get the first fight on its way. Any volunteers."
I raise my hand and stand up. "I will."
"Mister Sapphire, Very well would anyone like to-"
I was about to tell her who I wanted to fight but to my surprise someone already did.
"I will..."
"Mister Arc? I'm sorry but since you two are in a team I can not allow it."
"Miss Goodwitch. We already fought amongst each other a lot already now, so why not allow us to fight our teammates? I'm sure we can learn a lot more like this." I say to her.
I see her think for a bit, almost like she was deciding to allow this to happen.
Sigh... "Very well. I will allow this to happen then. Both of you get your equipment and get ready." With that she allowed us to leave and go to the locker room. As we both entered, I sat down and saw Jaune begin to change into his combat attire.
"Aren't you going to get ready?" He tells me but I just ignore him and take my time changing.
"Seth..." I hear him begin to talk " Look, I know you are mad at me and I'm sorry about what I did back then. But I just really wish you would at least hear me out before we fight. I'm not going to back out from this, but I just want you to listen." I get up and move to my locker. "My parents never believed in me. In becoming a huntsman, when I was growing up, my father told me stories of the adventure that he took in this school and all of the people he met. Those stories inspired me to become like him and so when I asked him to help me become one. He declined, I asked why and you know what he told me. He told me I was not built for it. I tried to prove to him that I was, but he just kept on declining, saying things like ' No son of mine is ever going to become a huntsman. As long as I live.' That hurt me so much that eventually, my mom agreed with him. This was a dream that I had and now they were taking it away. So I did the only thing I could. I met someone who could forge some transcripts and came here to beacon. I want to be a hero, like those stories my father told me, the stories that my mom read to me. I want to be a hero." He finishes his story and I just begin to laugh at that.
"What?" He asked confused as to why I was laughing.
"That's it? Ha, that's the reason you are doing this? To prove to your dad that you can be a hero?" I turn around to look at him and slam my locker shut. "Let me break it down for you, Arc. Do you know you could have been any other thing in your life other than a huntsman? A medic, a police officer, hell join the army. But, No. Your father gave you this Idea that a hero was your calling. Did you train? Take classes? Any sort of knowledge of becoming a huntsman?"
"I... Ugh...No." He said weakly but I still heard him. "My family we-"
"Oh, So you just got up from your bed and decided to fight? You chose violence that morning and decided to head out into the world and fight Grimm with no Aura."
"Pyrrha told you?"
"Don't bring her up now. You're fighting, so you can watch everyone around you die. Think Arc! You decided to get yourself involved in this career because you want to be a fucking hero like those fucking storybooks. But I'm going to tell you something here. The world is nothing like that, we are going to die and we are going to fight everybody who tries to harm us. Grimm and people included. You have not had a person hold you as a hostage. Nor had to fight a pack of Grimm by yourself. Nor have you lost anyone yet. But I've seen what it does to a person and you'll live to see this world every day. Knowing at any moment someone or something can take it away from you. Then what... What will you have left?" I said this and removed my sunglasses from my face to look at Jaune.
"..." Jaune just keeps quiet unable to form any sort of words.
I backed away from him and faced my locker again. "I don't hate you Jaune, I just don't like the reason you are doing this." I open my locker and hear him walk out of the locker room leaving me alone.
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Stay calm... Stay calm... I take a seat and lay back down on the bench.
Tsk... The same huh? Pyrrha you have no idea. I get up and remove my jacket. I need to play the role that I need to be. Take a page out of Mom's past. God I am going to hate this so much right now.
Outside in the stands, the rest of team JNPRS was waiting in anticipation for their teammates to come out. They saw Jaune walking out and getting into the ring. They all looked at each other and wondered.
"You think Seth will go easy on him?" Nora asked "We haven't had any word with him and each time we did he just brushed us off."
"I don't know, but my guess is that he wants to test Jaune." Ren said as he turned to Pyrrha "What is your take on this? Why is he really doing this."
Pyrrha didn't answer right away, she just kept on looking at Jaune. For the past week, she has seen what he is lacking and what he needs to work on. To say the least, he really needs help. But she was certain that with the help of everyone, Jaune would be able to accomplish his goal. All that is needed is for Seth to accept him and they could really start on his training. Did she trust Seth? Yes. Did she like his plan? No, but she believes that he knows what he is doing.
She hopes.
"Hey guys." Pyrrha turned and saw Team RWBY walk to them. "How has it been?" Ruby said as she took a seat next to Pyrrha. In response, Pyrrha smiled back at them.
"Things have been... Good, but..." She couldn't find the words she wanted to use but Ruby nodded in understanding.
"So Shades and Vomit boy huh? Never would have seen this one coming. Still though, Shades didn't give us much to work with when we talked to him coming here." Yang said as she also looked at Jaune in the middle of the ring waiting for his opponent.
"Wait you guys talked to him? What did he say?" Ren asked.
"Well, he-" Yang was cut off by Blake.
"Uhhh, Guys." She said as she pointed at the entrance of the locker.
The two teams looked at where she said and to the surprise of the two teams they didn't know what to say.
"What is he?" "Cool!" "Um Pyrrha, has Seth ever done something like this?"
Walking out the team saw Seth walk out but instead of his usual combat attire. He came out with a white long-sleeve shirt with a red design over his heart. Black pants with his orange scarf tied around his waist almost like a belt. His blue gloves were also gone and were now replaced with white tape around both hands. But what got their attention was the lack of sunglasses on his face.
The manner in which he was walking showed that he was way overconfident than he usually is. However Ruby pointed something out.
"Where is his weapon?" Looking closely everyone else realizes this as well.
Seth didn't have his weapon.
Entering the ring, he went to his place and began to stretch like he normally does and began to talk out loud so that everyone could hear him
"I'll show you that it's one and the same fighting, dancin', same game. It's easy. Step up to the ring."
"Mister Sapphire!" Miss Goodwitch got his attention. "Can you please explain to me why it is you are fighting like this?" Her tone was an annoyed one. But Seth just simply brushed it off.
"Meh, no reason teach. This fight won't take long. I got no worries about it." He finished it off by giving her a wink that got Miss Goodwitch to have an irate expression at that.
"Uhh. What was that?" Nora said as she looked at both her team and team RWBY.
"I have no words for this." Blake also said as well.
"Well, this gives me another reason to hate him even more."
"Pyrrha what can you tell us about this?" Ruby asked but didn't get a response turning to her friend she saw her with wide eyes. "Pyrrha?" She waved a hand to her but she was ignored. "Yang, Pyrrha is acting weird... Yang?" She turned to her sister and also saw her with wide eyes as well.
"What?"
Seeing his opponent Jaune had a few questions in mind. Why is he dressed like this? Where is his weapon? Is he taking this seriously? What is going on here? So many questions yet not many answers. So in the end he decided to walk to the center of the ring and meet up with Seth to begin this fight.
Seeing Seth also walk up close to him he could tell that he was enjoying this for some strange reason. He was fixated on the tape on his hands, making sure they were secure. Once he raised his head to face Jaune, he only smirked at him and shook his head.
A moment later Miss Goodwitch walks to the center with the two competitors and explains the rules. "Now then I'm sure you both know the rules but here it is again. I want-" She gets cut off by a loud ring coming from Seth's side.
She turned to him and saw him raise his finger. " One second. Hello? Oh hey, Pen. What's going on? Nah nothing just about to fight. Hey thanks for doing this for me I really-" Seth gets cut off by his scroll glowing purple and leaving his hand. His scroll flies toward Miss Goodwitch's hand and holds it there.
"Mister Sapphire, take this seriously. Your last warning." She said to him as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Fine! We already know the rules here, can we just start?" Seth said nonchalantly. Which got the professor to look at him angrily.
"Very well. If you two are ready. You two may begin." With that, she walked away from the two and the buzzer was heard.
Jaune was about to rush at Seth, but he raised his hand toward Jaune.
"Hold up! Let me put my shades on." Seth reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his sunglasses. "Much better! Alright, Jaune let's...WOAH!" Seth quickly dodges an attack that Jaune sent and begins his offense.
Jaune continues to swing his sword at Seth trying to land a hit on him. However, Seth was able to dodge any swing that Jaune sent. With simple side steps and a few rolls, Seth was just dodging every attack Jaune sent.
"Alright! You at least know how to attack. But you keep swinging that sword around like that." Seth blocked Jaune's attack and sent a punch toward his face connecting and sending him to the ground. "People will see a pattern there." Seth backed away from Jaune allowing him to get back up.
As Jaune got back up rubbing his cheek, he went back into attack. He had to remember what his team taught him and not allow his opponent to get the upper hand in the fight. But this was way different from what Pyrrha told him about how Seth fights. He was prepared to fight him with his weapon and now that plan was out the window. So Jaune had to come up with a new plan of attack and fast.
"If you think attacking at random is going to work, then I am sadly going to let you know." Dodging another attack Seth went for another punch. But this time Jaune was ready and raised his shield and blocked the attack.
"Nice! But I still have another arm." Sending another punch at Jaune, once again in the face and making him stumble back.
"Keep your shield up or I'll ring your head like a bell." Seth taunted but he waited for Jaune to attack again.
Seeing as he was going to get the same result Jaune raised his shield and prepared for Seth to make his move this time. Getting in the stance that Pyrrha taught him. He prepared for the impact he was about to receive.
Looking at him, Seth lowered his sunglasses and saw Jaune take a stance that almost resembled Pyrrha. Smiling at this, he cracked his knuckles and began to walk towards him.
"Alright Jaune, Up, Up, Down."
Hearing this Jaune got confused by what Seth said to him. But that quickly went away as Seth began to throw a punch his way. The first punch connected with his shield and soon another punch also connected, but the last one was a lower one, that did connect to his shin that made him back away once more.
"Up, Up, Over!" Seth once again said and threw more punches at Jaune. Jaune raised his shield once more, he was able to block two more attacks, however, the last one went over his shield and struck him on top of his head. Making Jaune wince in pain at the blow.
"Two out of three again. Not bad let's try again. Up, Up, Down." Upon hearing this Jaune finally understood what Seth was talking about. Raising his shield, he was able to block Seth's next few punches and when those two were out of the way he lowered his shield down to his legs to block the kick that he sent his way.
"Up, Up, Over, Down" Once again blocking his attacks Jaune finally got the rhythm of how Seth was fighting. Jaune was able to block his attacks.
All Jaune could think about was. 'Is he helping me?'
As Seth continued to talk to Jaune about his attacks Jaune soon took it upon himself to attack back. So after blocking his last attempt, Jaune moved his shield to the side making Seth follow his motion and Jaune soon went for a strike.
"Ack!" A clean cut into Seth's stomach with his sword. Not letting his momentum go to waste Jaune went for another attack. One that Seth saw coming and rolled out of the way. Jaune soon went after him as Seth got back up. Seeing Jaune get close to him, he raised his hand to catch Jaune's arm and swung him over his shoulder to take him down to the floor.
As Jaune landed on the floor he saw Seth raise his leg up and in response to that Jaune also raised his shield to block the stomp.
"Good. At least you block that attack. Unlike someone here! You hear that Winchester! At least someone can do something about it!"
"Fuck You!" Seth heard someone yell out.
"Language! Students." Miss Goodwitch yelled at the two students.
"Sorry teach. But don't worry this is all according to cake."
"Excuse me?"
"Old Mistrillian. Something along the lines of... Woah!" Seth soon gets sent to the floor, and Jaune finally was able to push Seth off him.
Rolling out the way Jaune got back to his feet and tried to stab Seth who was just laying on the ground. Seeing Jaune run to him Seth began to flare on the ground in hopes of making Jaune back away. However, with his shield, Jaune simply blocked all attempts of Seth's kicks. Seeing as his plan didn't work Seth kickflips back up and sends a strong kick toward Jaune Shield making Jaune get sent back a good feet away from him.
As Jaune landed hard on the floor he could hear someone running at him, raising his head he saw Seth jump and went for another kick his way. Without a second thought, Jaune quickly rolls out of the way and gets back up, shield raised and sword ready. Seth soon began to talk again giving the same hints as before, allowing Jaune to be able to block his attacks. However this time, it was Seth's turn to change his approach.
"Up, Down, Down, Over!" As Jaune raised his shield, Seth sent a low kick toward Jaune which caught him off guard. Received a few good punches to his body and sent him to the ground Aura flaring.
Standing over him Seth yells at Jaune. "Shield up!" Hearing that Jaune raised his shield and blocked Seth Punch. But he didn't stop there. Seth continued to send punch after punch at Jaune Shield.
"Seventeen years! And now you want to take this seriously." Seth said as he continued, "That ego of yours is going to be the reason we will fail!" Punch! "We will fail!" Punch! "Because you!" Punch! "Want!" Punch! "To Be!" Punch! "A Hero!" Punch!
A small crater was now forming under Jaune as he continued to block all of Seth's punches. As Seth continued the whole arena was silent seeing what Seth was doing and saying. His team was looking at him with shocked expressions as well as team RWBY.
Seth soon stopped his barrage of punches and looked down at Jaune still holding his shield.
"Tell me this Jaune... What are you even fighting for?" Seth asked as he looked at Jaune peeking from behind his shield. "Fame? Money? Glory? That thumps up from your father, that he never gave you? All pathetic reasons to fight. I fight to help others. That's what I fight for... Your goal is nothing like mine... So get up. Drop that ego of yours. And Punch me in the face!" Seth gets up to let Jaune get some breathing room. Seeing as he's not getting back up. He just shook his head in disappointment.
"This match was a waste of time then. Teach, I qu-" I was cut off by Jaune yelling back.
"Wait!" Seth looks at him and sees Jaune getting up without his shield or sword in hand, raising his fist and getting in a fighting stance.
"Really? You think getting back on your feet, raising your fist, and telling me you are ready to fight me hand-to-hand will make me change my mind?"
Jaune doesn't answer he just begins to walk toward Seth. Making him raise his eyebrow.
"Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right at me? Even though you won't win you still want to fight?" Seth said to Jaune.
"I'm done running away. If you want me to give it my all, then I'll just have to beat it to you. To prove that I can do this!" Jaune said as he began to charge at Seth.
"Oh ho! Then come and hit me." Seth raised his own fist and got ready. As Jaune sent his first punch, Seth simply dodged it by moving to his side and sending his own punch at Jaune. To his surprise, Jaune was able to dodge it and send a counter punch at Seth making contact with his cheek.
That punch was enough to make Seth take a step back and hold his cheek.
'Wait hold up, that movement.' Seth thought to himself and turned to look at his team and saw that Pyrrha had a smile on her face. 'So she taught him how to counter my hits huh? Not bad.' Blocking more punches Seth began to walk back as Jaune was continuing his assault. The more Jaune threw punches the more Seth began walking back. Soon they would be at the edge of the ring and Jaune would win this match.
'Okay! At least now he is taking this seriously. Now let's bring him back down a peg.' Blocking Jaune's next punch Seth began to send kicks his way making contact with Jaune's armor. The impact of the kick forces Jaune to step back to get his bearings. Seth taking the opportunity, began his assault and pushed back Jaune as well. Both kicking and punching at him. Jaune did his best to block his attacks but Seth was able to mix his attacks to the point where Jaune didn't know what was hitting him. And it was a roundhouse kick that sent Jaune to the ground.
As Jaune clutched the side of his stomach, Seth looked at the screen and saw their Aura levels. Jaune was nearly at the end of his run about 19% while he was still above 85%. Laughing at this Seth walked up to Jaune's body and gave his hand to him for him to grab. Jaune just looked at him confused at this, wasn't going to grab it, that was until Seth told him. "Just grab it. I need to tell you something." With hesitation. Jaune grabs it and Seth helps him to his feet. He pulls him in and whispers to him so nobody else hears what he says.
"We have a lot to work on." Jaune looked at him confused and was about to say something, but Seth cut him off. "I'll help you. But this whole confidence stick that you had ends here. We work as a team and tell our team what is the matter. Got it." Jaune shocked by Seth's words, eventually nods his head in agreement. "Good. You won't be a Hero Jaune. You'll be something better than that." With those final words. Seth brings Jaune in and punches him in his stomach hard, making him spit out and wheeze in pain.
"Remember this pain Jaune. Cause there is going to be a lot more in the future, but we will figure it out as a team." With those final words, Jaune falls face-first to the ground and the buzzer is heard.
Releasing a deep breath out of me, I Look at Jaune's body. It almost reminded me of me when I was young. Mom back then didn't hold back at first and still somehow I was able to do it. I'm sure he can do it as well. But there is going to be a lot of work on our hands.
"Mister Sapphire, as you did win this match I suggest not to act overconfident, in the near future. You are to fight Grimm. Not to show off." I heard Miss Goodwitch tell me and I rub the back of my neck at this.
"Ehe... Sorry. Do you think I can get my scroll back now? I want to take Jaune to the nurse." I said trying to not act embarrassed of my own actions.
She looks at me with a stern look that makes me shiver.
"Sigh... Very well. you may take Mister Arc to the nurse. As well have your scroll back, but the next time you do this. You will not have it back." She tosses it to me and I catch it.
"Thanks!" I was about to put it inside my pocket but I saw something on it. "Hello? Penny, you are still here! Thank you, I promise I will call you later. Yes! Yes. I will. Okay bye." I hung up and went to pick up Jaune. "Alright, you asshole get up. No, no one help me out here."
"Here let us." I heard behind me and saw Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha all help me out.
"Thanks." With our combined efforts we got Jaune up and began to carry him to the nurse's office. Honestly, it was all Nora, she decided to carry him to the Nurse's office all by herself. She really is that strong.
"So, you finally got that out of your system?" Ren asked me as we were all walking to the office.
"Sigh... Yeah, it's all better now. I feel like now, we won't have any problems. Whatever you guys did to him training-wise. Was not bad. Especially for one week." I tell them and see Ren nod.
"Trust us. Nora did the physical stuff, I did the emotional training, and Pyrrha helped him, with his combat skills."
So that's why he didn't lose his shit when I was talking to him, damn whatever Ren told him worked like a charm. I turned to Pyrrha and saw her just staring at me.
"You alright?" I asked her.
"Promise me you will never act like this again."She tells me with a serious tone and look.
...
...
...
"What?"
"Seth promise me."
What the fuck did I do? "I... Sure, I won't. If anything, this was a one-time thing. I just pray that people will forget about it soon." As I said this Nora turned her body and showed us her scroll.
"Doesn't look like it." She showed a video of me walking out and taking the scroll call at the beginning.
"I swear, who takes those videos!"
As we made it to the nurse's office, we entered the room and saw that it was empty. Walking inside we see Nora placing Jaune in one of the beds. The moment he gets put on the bed, Jaune begins to move around and open his eyes.
"Wha...What happened." Jaune said groggily.
"Wake up lazy bum!" Nora quickly goes to him.
"Good to see you awake now, how are you feeling?" Pyrrha asked him.
"Like I have just been hit by a bus. Who won?"
"Oh, Jaune you have no idea what that feels like. And I won, but you did last way longer than I originally thought." I tell him as I walk to see him as well.
"So... Are we cool? Or." He said as he looked at me confused.
I shrugged. "For now. Unless you do something dumb again then we will see. But there is one more thing you need to do."
"Seth." Pyrrha looks at me.
"He needs to tell them." I look at her back. "Once he tells them, then we will all be good." I look back at Jaune. "It's up to you Jaune."
I see him look at both Ren and Nora. Who were also looking back at him in anticipation. With a deep breath, Jaune began.
The room was silent as I saw both Ren and Nora talking amongst each other on the other side of the nurse's office. I was sitting down in a chair next to Pyrrha who was looking at both Jaune who was sitting on the bed with his head down on one side and Ren & Nora on the other side of the room talking to each other.
"You think they will accept him?" Pyrrha whispers to me.
"Hard to tell. We barely know them that well, so I don't know how they will react. What was your reaction when he told us this? Your true reaction?"
She looks down at her hands. " I felt upset, that he lied to us. Happy that he told us why he wasn't doing his best. And shocked, by how far he had gotten on his own. But seeing him training for the past week, I can see the potential that he can accomplish." As she finishes, she looks at me. "What did you feel?"
"To be honest here, I really didn't care. I mean he somehow was able to survive initiation. Somehow, he faked his transcripts and still hasn't gotten caught. And he was able to behead an Ursa Major with some help." I bump her arm at this and see her fluster. " I can tell he got a lot to work on. But we all started somewhere, right?" Pyrrha nods her head at this. "So, yeah. I think we have a lot to work on now. Once those two get behind the idea now. But it's the little things right." I didn't tell the whole truth, because I knew she wouldn't understand it.
"Right." Pyrrha agrees to this.
"Guys. We finally decided." Ren walked back to us with Nora. As Ren walks toward Jaune you could see Jaune look back at Ren. " No more lies."
Jaune nods at him. "Yeah, no more lies."
"Good." Ren then turns back to us and nods as well. "Well then... We got a lot of work to do."
"You said it." I said to him as I stood right next to him and saw Nora and Pyrrha talking to Jaune. "So, what convinced you?" I asked Ren.
"Nora. But she did have a point, we both didn't have any major training at a young age. It was around when we both turned twelve that we really started to train to become hunters. So, you can say we all start somewhere."
I nod at this. "Yeah, you're right."
"What about you? What convinces you?"
I looked back at Jaune and saw him smiling at his teammates. And I smile as well. "Well... He kind of reminds me of someone."
A/N: And we are done with this Arc. Up next is the docks.
Important update now: This might be the last chapter of the year. The reason is right now work is at the busiest time of the year, so that will cut my time in writing. I hope I can post one more chapter before that. But if not, this is the last chapter of the year. Sorry about that. But I will return next year hopefully the first week or the next one. So for now take care all and have a happy holiday! and a happy new year! (I'll laugh and cry if you do post another chapter)
Take care all and see you all next time!
PS: New story! Team JAMS Trailers will be posted on Saturday and starting next year the first chapter will begin. A story about a Dancer, an orphan, a nurse, and a runaway! Hope you read it and enjoy it.
Okay Bye!