AN: Man, what a life, what two months it has been. God of War Rangnork is an awesome game. Fun fact, I get a notification whenever something follows, favorites, or reviews my stories from the app. Kinda cool if you ask me. Also, we're almost at 500 followers, which is wow.
I didn't think we would make it this far. So thank you all for joining me for this fun ride.
Chapter 8: Take the Moment of Relief
Jaune's dress shoes moved across the floor with purpose as he held documents in one hand and went through his scroll in the other. The bags under his eyes were so big you might have thought he was older than he looked. He sighed as he made his way to the door of his office and slid his scroll across the lock.
He oddly hooked the door handle and made it past the threshold. The young hunter-in-training greeted the insane amount of paperwork on his desk. He groaned frustratedly and stomped to his desk, not noticing the door didn't close. With a huff, he slapped the documents in his hands and started to look through the papers in the vain hope they would disappear.
"Hey, Jauney boy. How's it going?" He looked up from his work to spot a tall beefy ginger with three other students standing in his office. The young apprentice sat there in disbelief and tried to rub the sleep from his eyes.
He blinked hard and then looked at the group again. "Huh, so I'm not seeing things again. I don't know how you guys got in here, but I can't help, so leave."
"Oh, come on, don't be like that. We just wanna give you tips in training," the ginger looked to his friends, "Right guys?" He asked with a smirk.
"Sorry, but I can't. I have all," Jaune yawned, "this work to get done and no time to fool around. Otherwise, Professor Goodwitch will have my hide." Jaune could feel his head flaring up at the mention of the witch.
A teen with slicked-back blue hair stepped close to his desk and pointed to the papers. "You mean this stuff?" Jaune nodded, and the hairs on his neck stood up. The situation sounded as if his younger siblings would pull a prank. Then by an invisible force, the papers flew to the teen with a mohawk.
He snatched them out of the air with a smirk and ran out of the room. "Hey!" Jaune shouted as he slapped his desk and stood to leave. A brown hair teen with squinted eyes was now on his left, and the slicked hair teen was on his right. With their hands firmly on Jaune's shoulders, they pushed him back into his office chair.
"Now," their leader sauntered up to the front of his desk, "what makes you think you can just walk into this place and think that's okay?" The ginger raised his eyebrow, and his face formed into a scowl. "We had worked our asses off from when we were young. So why do you get a free pass? Someone so weak," he shoved his finger into Jaune's chest. "Someone so dumb," he did it again with his finger. "Someone so ignorant of our struggles?" The ginger poked his chest once more to prove his point.
"The Headmaster invited me," Jaune said sharply. It surprised the young man how harsh it came out. The shock on the three's faces and the anger that dressed them made him regret it.
"So what, the Headmaster invited you? My dad is on the council, so you'll be out of here. You cheat," the leader rebuttal.
"They can't kick me out because of my contract with Beacon," the young apprentice said defiantly.
"Oh, he has a mouth on him. Well, even if my father can't get you kicked out." He towered over Jaune and shadowed him. In place of him was a more muscular man with blond hair. "You're too weak even to catch up." Their forms blurred, and Jaune couldn't tell who was real. "We'll make your life a living hell as long as you are here." Glynda's form seemed to appear alongside and mesh with the two. "You'll never make it."
Jaune rubbed his eyes, but nothing changed. His father stared him down past his fair-sized beard. Glynda's eyes narrowed as she looked down at him, and all their lips were downturned in disappointment. His aggressor's form seemed to shrink as the other two grew. The two blondes' faces became more exaggerated and disappointed.
The ginger saw Jaune's face of fear and shame. With the idea of a job well done, the boys left. Jaune could hear them start to chuckle, which only infuriated him more. He huffed and jogged out of his office to find his papers. His feet carried him through the long halls of Beacon during his search.
Students of all years whispered to one another, and he figured it was about him. He looked high and low, but there wasn't a single sign of the papers. I swear if that guy had a speed semblance, I'm going to be in so much trouble. Jaune's thoughts continued as he found himself in one of Beacon's courtyards.
The sun's rays hit the huntsman in training's eyes, and he had to cover them at its intensity. He looked across the area until he found white rectangles floating in the fountain. With a sigh, he made his way to the water to find his objects of desire floating there. Jaune took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants, and then got into the water to retrieve them.
He grumbled all the way through, but when his scroll rang, it showed Glynda was requesting the papers he was grabbing. Jaune cried.
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The young apprentice rocked on his feet and chose not to look Glynda Goodwitch in the face. The stern woman was glaring daggers into his rocking form and released a depressed sigh. "You will tell me what happened to those graded papers right now," she barked.
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"It was uh…." He looked around the room for an answer.
"Well, Mister Arc?" Jaune could see Glynda was getting impatient by the second. Glynda crossed her arms over her bust, and her finger tapped away on them. He looked to the ceiling, and it held no answers. Then he looked at her desk and only found the problem at hand. Finally, Jaune looked at her bedroom door and found his answer.
"My water bottle?" He said meekly. Glynda stared him down, and after a moment, she sighed into her hand. He'd hoped she bought the lie like his mother when she asked who made the mess in the kitchen when he was young.
"You buffoon," Glynda then looked at him with tired exasperation. "You have to control your Aura at all times. If you think I'll ever let you out of this school before you can control it, you got another thing coming."
"Wait, why?" Jaune asked, now curious about her choice of wording.
"Because you are a superhuman by definition now. If you lose control with civilians around, you can seriously hurt someone. You have to remember this is our soul brought to the physical world. The strength it gives you is enough to break a person's bone for any aura user." It was as if your mother learned you did something terrible after lecturing you for ignorance. "Now, back to the topic at hand," Glynda said with a rising tone.
"You will have to recreate these papers once more, along with any other work you must complete simultaneously. Do you understand?" Jaune nodded his head in compliance. Glynda then floated the semi-dry papers to the boy. "Good luck Mister Arc and this better not happen again." Jaune made his way out of the office as fast as he could, not paying attention to the cough set free from her throat.
The young man marched back to his office and slammed the door behind him. With a huff, he sat down and got to work. In his experience, those bullies would only continue, and his workplace would only worsen. He had to find a solution before anything got worse. What did I do in the past to get those bullies off my back? Oh wait, I didn't. Jaune could only sigh at the mental loop he had made.
Maybe if he ignored them, they would eventually leave him alone, but Jaune had his sisters last time to help. He didn't see them coming to his rescue, especially since he didn't tell anyone where exactly he had gone. So with another sigh — this time much heavier — Jaune went to work.
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Pyrrha watched the bored forms of her teammates laze around their room. She wasn't entirely sure about Ren since he rarely changed his expression, but Nora, on the other hand, was obvious. "I'm so bored," Nora said sadly. "Oh, what if we go see what Jaune is up to?"
"He's probably busy doing work Nora," Ren said from a book he was reading.
"But you always say that," Nora whined. "Let's just see what he's up to, please." Nora pleaded with puppy dog eyes that, from Pyrrha's perspective, Ren didn't see. He must have, however, because he folded a corner of his book and looked to their leader.
Nora pulled the same eyes on Pyrrha and gave in as well. "Okay, let's go see what he's up to; I would like to get to know my partner more than a simple hello, finally." Nora jumped up from her bed triumphantly and skipped to the door. Pyrrha giggled from behind her hand, and Ren shook his head in fondness at their teammate's antics.
It was a quick walk to Jaune's office with Nora repeatedly singing, 'Going to see Jaune.' When Jaune's wooden door greeted them, Nora gave it a hearty knock and waited. Team Prawn Jam could hear trips and curses from the other side of the barrier, and they all looked at each other in concern. "Who is it?" Jaune asked in between curses.
"It's us, Jaune. Are you okay?" Pyrrha asked as she stepped forward in an attempt to open the door. Unfortunately, it was locked, and all she could do was jiggle the handle.
"Y-Yeah, just give me a second." Shuffling and curses came from the room, and the lock pad next to the door turned green. "Come in," he announced. Nora pushed Pyrrha aside and pushed the door open. They were all greeted by a disgruntled teammate staring at them with wide eyes.
"Hey guys, how's it going?" He asked from his messy desk. While a fan was haphazardly sitting on some shelving, blowing onto semi-wet papers.
"Uhm, Jaune? Should we come back?" Pyrrha asked.
"What!" Nora exclaimed. Jaune looked across the desk and then at his team.
"No?" Jaune said awkwardly. He shuffled the papers into drawers and then slammed them shut. "So what's up, guys?"
"We were wondering if you wanted to do something with us if you're not busy?" Pyrrha looked around the office and saw a plethora of books open. From history to the ecology of Grimm and they were everywhere.
"Yeah, we are super bored," Nora pulled out the bored with a drone. She skipped lazily to the couch and flopped down on the furniture. Pyrrha and Ren followed after the not-so-bubbly bomber. Jaune chuckled at Nora's antics and began to move the wet papers.
"Oh, let me help you with that," Pyrrha said as she stepped forward.
Jaune waved her off as he made his way to his door. "No, it's fine. I got this," his hand finally found the knob, but the door was already swinging open. A black glow around the knob was pulling the door all the way, and Jaune stared at it curiously until it disappeared. Pyrrha approached him as friendly as she thought possible and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Please, Jaune, let me help you. Leader's orders," she said with a smile. He sighed, and the bags under his eyes showed how tired he was.
"Okay, okay." Jaune motioned with one hand to the wet papers. "We can just put them on top of my dresser." Pyrrha gave him a conformational 'hmm' and transferred the documents to the next room.
"Oooooo," Nora jeered towards Jaune. "Someone made Wrathful Leader upset." Her team chuckled at her antics as Pyrrha sat down in one of the armchairs in the office.
"Yes, you better watch it, Jaune, or I just might have to get stern with you." Pyrrha pointed and stared at Jaune with the rigidity of a sword. However, the smile on her face said the fierceness was to play along.
He chuckled quietly. "Yes, ma'am," he replied alongside a mock salute to Pyrrha and dropped it when she started to laugh. The young squire turned to the rest of his team. "So what's up, guys?"
"We wanted to see if you wanted to hang with us!?" Nora exclaimed, and Ren just silently nodded his head.
"Yes, that is if you're not busy?" Pyrrha wasn't sure he would, all things considered. Any time she or the rest of her team saw him, Jaune was either running to one place, working on paperwork — homework or not — or next to a teacher. Jaune looked around the room to his desk and then at his team.
It looked like he was about to say no with the downturn of his eyes and from the corner of Pyrrha's eyes. Nora could see it coming, too. "Or you could think of it as a break from the important work you do around Beacon?" The three of them looked toward Ren as he sat there stoically. "You're always working, but you never seem to have a break. If you keep this up, you'll collapse from exhaustion."
"I do rest," Jaune said as a rebuttal.
"From working in general or just working out?" Ren questioned with an eyebrow raised.
Jaune raised his finger and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came. "Okay fine. You have a point, Ren." Jaune smiled good naturally to the only other male on the team and then looked at Pyrrha. "So, what do you guys have in mind?"
"How about a movie? We could watch it in our dorm." Pyrrha said over the excited cheers of Nora and her 'thank yous' to Ren.
"A movie, huh?" Jaune placed a hand on his chin. "What kind of movie, and will there be snacks?"
Nora rushed over to Jaune and hugged him by the shoulder. "Of course, there will be snacks. Ren!" She shouted the boy's name in his direction. "Can you make pancakes for Jauney to try?"
Ren chuckled at his partner. "I'll make just enough for him," he said jokingly. Nora whined at the suggestion of pancakes only for Jaune. "I'll make enough for you as well."
"Hooray," she cheered. "Thank you, Renny." Pyrrha flashed a puppy dog face Ren's way, and he sighed.
"I'll make some for you as well, Pyrrha." Ren shook his head good naturally and made his way to the door. Nora followed closely behind with a skip in her step.
"Wait, what movie are we watching?" Jaune questioned.
"We'll figure that out from the selection we have. Come on, Jaune; if you wait too long, Nora will eat our share," Pyrrha said as she motioned for him to follow. The teen just stood there and stared at the three. Ren and Nora stopped themselves from leaving; then they looked at the boy. "Is something wrong, Jaune?"
"No," he said with a smile. "First one to the dorm is a rotten egg." Jaune rushed past them and headed in the direction of their room.
"Hey! No fair," Nora kicked off the floor and went after him. The other two looked at each other, and Ren could only sigh. The midnight black and crismon hair teammates chased after them. They watched as Nora and Jaune laughed and pushed each other out of the way. The ninja and spartan laughed as well. Their voices bounced off the walls and carried them into the morning, where they were all slumped into a pile of their sleeping forms.
AN: I have to say thank you for everyone's understanding. I hope this chapter is something you all enjoy. It might not be two months' worth of content, considering I couldn't write the previous month, which brought this whole gap. I had a lot of reviews about not having burnout and taking care of myself. Which is something I'm still learning.
Funny enough, this is what the first part of the story is about. Burnout and taking care of yourself while going for your goals. If you guys give me time, I will answer all your questions about what's happening. I am also sorry to the person who doesn't understand Aura fully. My fault for not going into it fully. I also see why a person doesn't see why it's called "The Witch's Apprentice." Side note I graduate in the Summer. So if I don't fail a single class until July 30th, I'm in the clear.
I've become a more determined person in the two months I haven't seen you guys. I've always felt like the lazy idiot that would never join the race. Even though he was at the starting line and had everything, he needed. I will not be that person and stop putting myself down. Sing like no one is listening. Dance like no one is watching, and reach for your dreams as if nothing else matters.
I thought of that about a year ago to hide from my laziness. But I'm to take that saying and push for it. I've been embarrassed to say what I wanted to do with life but no longer. I think this whole thing of writing fanfiction has set me in this direction. So thank you, everyone. Stay safe, and I hope y'all enjoyed it. Leave a review of what you think to aid in improvement.
If you like what I make and want to see more, find me on Youtube, Twitch, TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook at Dragoo_Fire. The links are on the profile page.
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Next Chapter: January 16th