Quick Note: For some reason the formatting for this chapter got screwed up, and keeps screwing up with the edited version of word doc for the chapter. So I'm using the unedited version. So there might be more mistakes than in earlier chapters. Which I'll fix once I have the opportunity.

The days after Jaune met Ruby were about as uneventful as the days before.

Though at least Jaune would have someone to talk to, besides Mr. Russet and random customers, while he was at work. Since Ruby had come in almost every day since they'd met. So, they got to chat about whatever random thing they wanted to that day. With Mr. Russet allowing it as long as Jaune still finished his normal duties on time.

He still hadn't managed to meet Ruby's sister, Yang. From how Ruby had described her, it seemed like the two sisters couldn't be any more different. Which was the case for some of sisters too, so he didn't question that much. He was just happy that he managed to find someone who he could call a friend. He wasn't the best at making friends back at home, and he was certain that trend would continue at Signal just as much as it did at home.

Probably more since he didn't really know anything about huntsmen culture.

But he was more than happy to talk to Ruby about comics, video games, or whatever she wanted to talk about on any particular day. It was just nice to have someone, anyone, to talk to.

"Then I figured out that I just needed to make the recoil spring a bit thicker and he worked like a charm." Ruby said, sitting in her own stool next to Jaune's, who was manning the cash register, with her legs swinging away as she did so. She'd come in during the late afternoon this time. With a little less than an hour left of Jaune's shift. "The recoil was much more manageable and he jammed a lot less when firing."

"Wouldn't that have made the design heavier?" Jaune asked, having picked up some basic weapon crafting from his time working in the shop. And not even bothering to correct Ruby's habit of referring to her weapons as him or her. It was just one of Ruby's quirks. "You were already pretty close to the weight limit with your original design."

"Yeah, the new design did make him a little overweight," Ruby said, opening one of the candy bars that they sold at the counter for some reason. Having already paid for it. "So I had to go in and lighten the shifting mechanism a little and that made High Thorn just light enough for Uncle Qrow to approve him."

High Thorn was Ruby's first attempt at building her own scythe. With her Uncle Qrow wanting her to build it so she could move on from using a wooden training scythe that her dad had made her. Ruby decided to replace it after a year of using High Thorn to train with her uncle. Apparently, she wanted to switch to a higher caliber and just wanted to make a bunch of improvements to her previous design. So High Thorn would be retired for her baby, Crescent Rose.

Which Ruby was more than a little salty about not being able to work on yet.

"So, what did you do after getting him built?"

"Oh, it was really cool! Me and Uncle Qrow started sparring and it was awesome." Ruby said, barely able to stay sitting down, she was so excited. "I got behind him and it was like wham and pow." Ruby did little karate chops in the air. "And it was just so awesome and Uncle Qrow is just so good with Harbinger and I couldn't even get a single on him and it was so awesome and just ah! It was awesome!"

"I bet," Jaune said, just letting Ruby do her thing.

"It was! And we kept sparring for like… thirty minutes. Which is way better than I ever did against him before. We only really stopped because…" Ruby paused; all her previous excitement gone. Now looking a little embarrassed. "I kind of tripped and face planted into one of dad's garden plots. Luckily it wasn't one of the rose bushes, but I still got a face full of tomatoes."

"I'm pretty sure people are supposed to throw tomatoes at you, but throwing yourself at the tomatoes is new." Jaune said with a chuckle, Ruby responding with crossing her arms and giving a joking pout. "If it was me, I definitely would've fell face first into the rose bushes. My dad did always say I had a knack for hurting myself in the weirdest ways possible."

"Really?" Ruby said, with Jaune nodding. "Which one was the weirdest then?"

"That would probably be the fish taco incident," Jaune said with a shiver. "But I'd rather forget it if I'm being honest."

Ruby nodded, and Jaune decided to change the subject. "So, what's your Uncle's weapon like? Harbinger." Ruby's eyes immediately lit up in a way that they only ever seemed to when talking about Crescent Rose.

"Harbinger is just the coolest! It's a scythe but it's also a greatsword and even has a war scythe mode. Which I added to Crescent Rose's design too. Not to mention it can turn into a tonfa and it has duel automatic shotguns and lots of cool gears and stuff and it's just so cool!"

"Cooler than Crescent Rose?" Jaune asked, with Ruby pausing for a minute. Seriously considering which weapon was cooler like it was a life of death question. But she didn't get a chance to enter before Mr. Russet came out of the forge.

"I've never been one to contemplate how 'cool' a weapon was, but Harbinger was certainly Summer's most impressive design." Mr. Russet said, carrying a box with Crocea Mors on the top. Jaune not noticing the frown on Ruby's face as Jaune turned to his employer. "I do have something to show you. If you don't mind me interrupting your quality time with the customers."

"Are you finally done with Crocea Mors?" Jaune asked as Mr. Russet sat the box down on the counter next to Jaune. "What's in the box?"

"One question at a time," Mr. Russet said, picking up Crocea Mors and handing it to Jaune. "I added the attachment points you wanted and did some general maintenance while I had 'er." The scabbard was a bit brighter now, the dust and grime from sitting unused for all those years having been cleaned off.

Jaune pulled Crocea Mors from his scabbard, the sword making several very sharp sounds as he did so, and saw his family blade again for the first time in weeks. It didn't look any different really, maybe a bit shinier, but it still brought him a strange sense of comfort. Like a home cooked meal on a rainy day. But him thinking about home cooked meals may have just been because he'd been eating nothing but fast food and candy since he left home.

"So that's Crocea Mors," Ruby said, standing up from her spot and standing next to Jaune to get a better look. "Does it do anything cool?"

"Well, I guess it cuts stuff pretty well," Jaune said, turning the sword over in his hand. "But it's just a sword. It doesn't shift or do anything like your weapons."

"You've gotta appreciate the classics though," Ruby said, "A weapon is still a weapon, even if it's a simple one."

"The old girl doesn't shift, but she does have one interesting feature," Mr. Russet said, pointing towards the bottom the pommel of the old sword. "The hilt is actually hollow, and you can twist off the pummel."

"Really? I never noticed that before." Jaune said, twisting the pummel which started to move. Jaune taking to off with relatively little effort. "Why would the make the grip hollow?"

"Maybe it's for Dust." Ruby said, "I know some old weapons did that before dust ammunition was a thing."

"It is, in fact, for Dust." Mr. Russet said. "You sometimes see compartments like this on older weapons, like Ruby said, but they never really caught on with huntsmen generally. And Dust was much more expensive when Crocea Mors was forged. Back then you really only saw weapons that used Dust coming from rich families."

"I was surprised too when I got the pummel off," Mr. Russet continued, "It was pretty well jammed shut. I needed some pliers and a hammer to get it off, I doubt you would've been able to get it off even if you knew it was there."

"I don't know if I'll be able to afford a lot of Dust," Jaune said, "But how does it work?"

"It's fairly simple by modern standards," Mr. Russet said, taking the detached pummel from Jaune's hand. "Once the hilt is filled with whatever type of Dust you prefer, you'll need to load a primer into the pummel here." Jaune could see that at the end of the pummel that screwed into the sword, there was an opening for the primer Mr. Russet was talking about. "Which makes the weapon essentially work like a dust cartridge."

"You press the button here at the bottom of the pummel to fire the primer, and that sets off whatever Dust you're using. So, your blade will cause whatever effect that Dust would. Fire Dust will give ya a flaming blade. Ice dust will the blade cold enough to freeze most things."

"Ooh, that's cool," Ruby said, fawning over Jaune's weapon.

"Nobody ever told me Crocea Mors could do that." Jaune said.

"Well after the Great War ended the Kingdoms stopped issuing dust to their soldiers. So, it might have just been too expensive to use after that." Mr. Russet said, "No point in worrying about a feature of a weapon is it's too expensive to ever use. Not great logic, but still logic I suppose."

"Wait, Crocea Mors is from the Great War?" Ruby said, once again staring at Jaune like he had two heads. "I'm surprised she hasn't been retired by now. Most weapon's her age are hanging on a mantle or are in a museum." With the stories that Jaune had heard about his great grandfather and grandfather, Crocea Mors probably should have been in a museum.

"Well Ruby, when you live out in the more dangerous parts of the kingdoms, you only truly retire a weapon when it breaks." Mr. Russet said, handing the pummel back to Jaune as Ruby listened to the old man. "Course, that'll lead you to your fair share of problems. Outdated weaponry putting you at a disadvantage, the aura resonance being wrong, or just having the old things break on you at the worst times. I had a few friends who lost their lives that way." Russet seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before looking back to Jaune.

"But that's a topic for a different time. For now, you two need to make it back to your homes to prepare for your first day of classes tomorrow." Russet said, as Jaune put Crocea Mors away and picked up the box with the rest of his stuff. "I'm not sure what your old combat school was like, Jaune, but at Signal we like to get right into things. So, it'll be sink or swim for the first few days."

"Well luckily I have a pretty mean doggy paddle," Jaune laughed awkwardly.

"Well it's unfortunate that we don't have a swim team then," Mr. Russet said as Jaune and Ruby prepared to leave his shop. "Good luck to the both of you, and I'll see your tomorrow."

With that, Jaune and Ruby left. Soon going their separate ways.

Jaune was only a day away from starting at Signal, and he could only wonder how he was going to manage to sleep that night.

SCENE 2

It was here, the day Jaune had been dreaming about for years.

His first day at a real combat school was ahead of him. A day that he'd hoped and dreamed about for years, and a day he thought would never come when his mother forbid him from being a huntsman.

To say that he was excited would be a massive understatement. He was even more excited than a kid in a candy store, though he was still maybe a tick or two behind Ruby in a weapon store.

So, for the first time, Jaune dawned his armor. Wearing it over his Pumpkin Pete hoodie since it was the closest thing he had to any sort of padding. Attaching his sword and scabbard to his belt on his left hip. Jaune stared at himself in the bathroom mirror of his room, as much as he could with as dirty as it was.

Though even he had to admit that he didn't look like much of a huntsman, or maybe just a really noodly one. "Maybe I should have tried more in gym class," He muttered to himself as he straightened out his armor. "Guess that's another thing to catch up on." But Jaune's lack of big manly muscles was a problem he could worry about another day. It was time for him to leave.

Jaune grabbed the rest of his things and left, exchanging a quick good morning with the weird middle-aged guy who was staying in the room next door to him who liked to smoke far more than any sane person would. And he made his way though town and to the spot he and Ruby would usually split up at when they were both walking home. An intersection with a dirt road heading out into the forest.

Ruby and Jaune had agreed to meet each other there so they could walk to Signal together and Ruby could show Jaune around a little bit before class started. Jaune pulled out his scroll, with the time reading a whole twenty minutes before they were supposed to actually meet up. Jaune sighed, he was maybe a little bit too excited and headed out way before he really should have. But at least it was a nice day, and he could stand around without too much trouble.

Time passed slowly by as Jaune stood around, fiddling with his armor, and giving his sword a few good practice swings when he didn't thing anyone was looking. Soon the time when Ruby was supposed to meet him came and went. Then another five, ten, and fifteen minutes did as well. With Jaune starting to get antsy. "Come on Ruby," Jaune said to himself, pacing around at the crossroads. "Is she sick or something? No, she would've called me if she-"

Then suddenly a gale of dust and rose petals nearly knocked Jaune off his feet as Ruby came running down the road with the help of her semblance. With her coming to a sudden stop just before she ran into Jaune, but not before covering him in more dust. Thankfully not the explosive type though.

This time at least.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" Ruby said, as Jaune tried to wipe the dust off his clothes and armor. And before Ruby started to explain why she was late. "Yang used up all the hot water in the shower so I had to wait for the water to heat up and- are you wearing armor?" Ruby quirked her head to the side a little like a confused puppy.

"Yeah?" Jaune said, wiping the last bit of dirt off his chest plate. "What's wrong with wearing armor?"

"There's nothing really wrong with it, I guess, it's just weird." Ruby said, looking a bit closer at Jaune's armor.

"How is wearing armor weird?" Jaune said. They were training to fight grimm and even with aura it never hurt to have a little more protection.

"I mean, maybe weird isn't the right word, but you just don't see a lot of huntsmen wearing armor." Ruby said, knocking on Jaune's chest plate while she inspected Jaune's armor. "At least not plate armor like you're wearing. Maybe something like Kevlar or some knee and elbow pads. But armor like yours, I've only ever seen people wearing armor like this in old pictures and books."

"Heh, I guess you really like the classics. Don't you?" Ruby said.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head. And to anyone who didn't know that he basically stole all of his gear from his family, it did look like he just preferred simple weapons. And maybe he would, his mom used a hammer, though Jaune didn't know if it transformed or anything like that. His dad preferred a long sword, and Jaune knew that it transformed into a rifle, but he did marry into the Arc family. And he didn't really know what the rest of his family preferred to use. "My family has always kind of just preferred to keep things simple and reliable."

"Well, I guess there's nothing wrong with that." Ruby said, taking one final look over the armor before looking back up at Jaune. "But maybe you should do something to spruce it up a little bit. Ooh! Maybe you can add some gold trim or add your symbol to the front. That would look cool."

"Yeah, it would." Jaune said, with some imagines of a much more muscular version of himself wearing some awesome gold trimmed coming to mind. Though he wasn't sure he'd want to modify that armor he was wearing now, or Crocea Mors for that matter, that much. Sure, he was fine making some small modifications just to make sure he could actually use his equipment. But making major modifications like that just didn't feel right to him. He was probably just going to mail his equipment back home after he was done at Signal, but considering how behind Ruby and Jaune were at the moment, he should probably worry more about his first day at Signal. "But we should probably get going before we're late."

"Oh, right! Dad's gonna kill me if I'm late on the first day… again." Ruby said, leading Jaune on the way to Signal.

"Again?" Jaune asked. "Let me guess, you decided to get a little extra work on one of your projects and lost track of time?"

"I only did it once!" Ruby said, pouting at Jaune with her hands on her hip. Jaune raised an eyebrow in response before Ruby's confidence quickly went away. "Okay… it was more like once a month. But I had Mr. Rushing's class first hour last year and it was sooooo boring!"

"I get it Ruby, a few of the teachers at my old high- combat school really knew how to put you to sleep," Jaune said as the pair kept walking. "But why don't you just go to school with your dad and sister then?"

"Well, I like to sleep in and it's usually just faster for me to run." Ruby said, "But I don't mind walking with you. It's not like I can work on Crescent Rose in the morning anyways. Not that hanging out with you isn't fun." Ruby gave an awkward laugh.

"Don't worry, I get it Ruby." Jaune said as the two continued.

If Jaune was being honest, if he had Ruby's semblance, he'd probably sleep in every day too. Though he imagined having to clean up all those rose petals every day would get annoying really quick.

Jaune wondered what his own semblance could be, or if he would ever even unlock it. He knew even less about semblances than he did about most huntsmen things. Not that it seemed that anyone really knew much about semblances. How to unlock them, or really anything about why they are the way they are.

Some people's semblance unlocked as soon as their aura was or soon after. For some people it was just a matter of training, both physically and mentally. Some people just never unlock theirs. Some people had the same or a similar semblance as their parents, Jaune's dad had the same semblance as his dad did, but most didn't.

And that was about as much as he knew, or anyone knew. Heck, Ruby didn't even know why her semblance made rose petals out of thin air. Though Jaune thought it might have been the gods making a joke with her last name.

Jaune just hoped that his semblance would be useful. He was already far enough behind; a dud semblance wasn't going to help him any. But he couldn't spend too long wondering about what it could be, as he and Ruby talked about random things as they made their way to Signal.

Signal was on the northern edge of town, next to the forest that Ruby called home, and wasn't too far of a walk from Jaune and Ruby's meeting point. After maybe 5 minutes of walking Ruby and Jaune came to a fence, on one side of it was the older brick buildings that matched most of the rest of the town.

And on the other side were buildings that were much more modern and looked like what he'd seen in the nicer areas of Vale. Some of them looked like apartment buildings from Jaune's guess, and he also guessed he'd never be able to afford to stay in any of them. Jaune and Ruby passed them fairly quickly.

There it was, Signal. The main building was large, way bigger than Jaune's old high school, and just as modern as the rest of the buildings in the area. Jaune and Ruby made their way into the school as a few other students did, but it seemed they arrived after almost everyone else did.

The inside was just as impressive as the outside. At least compared to the white cinder block walls of Jaune's old school. With the main room having a rather impressive statue of someone Jaune didn't know in the center. With two stair cases leading to the second story. And plenty of art lining the walls as they made their way through.

"It's going to take awhile to find my locker," Jaune said, pulling out his scroll to bring up his student information. "Hopefully I managed to get a good one." His last locker was right next to the bathrooms.

"We've got to turn in our weapons at the armory first," Ruby said, pointing to the room with a line of people waiting to go in. "What, did your old combat school make you carry around your weapons all day?"

"Oh, um, no. Guess it just slipped my mind." Jaune responded to which Ruby seemed to accept as they got into line. Jaune guessed that it made sense that Signal would have somewhere for students to put their weapons instead of making the students carry them around or just stuff them in their lockers.

How big were the lockers?

Though he did think it was a little funny that they were allowed to bring weapons onto school grounds at all. His old school expelled a student for bringing a metal butter knife. But he guessed it wasn't as much of a safety hazard when everyone there had aura. Though it really wouldn't make any sense to not allow students to bring their weapons to the school.

After a few short minutes Jaune and Ruby turned in their weapons. With Jaune also turning in his armor, though apparently, he didn't have to do so. But honestly, he didn't want to walk around in armor all day if he didn't have to. That stuff got heavy after a while. Ruby and Jaune were about to split up to head to their morning classes when they heard a familiar voice.

"I see you managed to get Mr. Arc here without too much trouble," Mr. Russet said as he walked up to the pair. He was wearing a jacket over his usual polo shirt. "Though maybe you should try getting here a bit earlier next time. There's only five minutes before your classes start."

"Yang used up all the hot water again!" Ruby said, "And I was walking here with Jaune, I would've been here ten minutes ago if I didn't."

"I imagine you would've," Russet said.

"Wait, isn't there any like orientation assembly thing? That's what my old schools did at the start of every year." Jaune asked.

"I'm afraid we don't," Russet said, "It's like I said yesterday Jaune, we prefer to hit the ground running here at Signal. You'll probably get some explanation on what you'll be doing this year in most classes but expect to do actual work today."

"Well, that's… great," Jaune said, and it looked like he wouldn't be getting very much time to adjust. He knew he was going to be behind no matter what, but Signal not really giving him much of a cushion to adjust was going to make it harder than he thought. "Guess I'll have to see if I've gotten rusty over the last few weeks."

"I doubt a few weeks off from your normal training regimen will slow you down that much." Russet said, and he would've been right if Jaune was any other student. Or had a training plan to begin with.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Jaune said, before Mr. Russet glanced away at, what Jaune guessed was someone answering the room.

"Ah, well I'll let you three get acquainted then," Russet said, giving Jaune a pat on the shoulder before leaving. "Good luck."

"Oh no," Ruby said.

"What do you mean, good luck?" Jaune tried to ask before a girl's voice cut him off.

"So, you're the weird guy that's been hanging out with my little sister," The girl, who was obviously Ruby's sister Yang, said with both hands on her hip. Looking Jaune up and down as she turned to him. "I gotta say, I didn't expect you to look so… noodly."

"Yang," Ruby said with more annoyance than Jaune had ever heard her speak with and confirming that this was Ruby's sister. "Don't be mean to Jaune."

"What? He looks noodly." Yang responded with.

Yang, to put it bluntly, didn't look anything like Ruby. While Ruby was a fairly short girl with short dark hair, Yang was fairly tall for a girl and had long blonde hair that would fit in with the Arc family perfectly. Though neither he nor his sisters had the cow lick that Yang had, and the purple eyes would definitely have stuck out.

Though Jaune had to wonder for a moment what color eyes their mother had to have one daughter with gray eyes and another with purple eyes.

"So, why have you been hanging out with my little sister so much, noodle boy?" Yang said, ignoring Ruby's protest to be nice, and by the tone of Yang's voice, Jaune could guess what she was really asking. Ruby was as far as Jaune could tell a sweet, quirky, and overall innocent girl. If she was Jaune's little sister he'd be worried about some random creep taking advantage of her.

"Well, I think me working at Mr. Russet's weapon shop is most of the reason," Jaune said, trying to calm the tension a little. "But between you and me I think she just hangs out with me because she feels bad about almost killing me when we first met."

"Almost killing you?" Yang said, raising an eyebrow and looking at Ruby.

"I didn't almost kill you!" Ruby said, giving Jaune a mighty pout, before shrinking a little. "I just accidentally knocked you of your chair with my semblance… sorry."

"It's fine, I'm just joking Ruby."

"Yeah, that does sound like Ruby," Yang said, with some protests and even more pouting from Ruby. "So what year are you in? You look a little old to be in Ruby's year, unless you held back, I guess."

"4th year," Jaune said, not really her thinking he could've been held back, but all things considered he pretty much was. "Same year as you."

"Guess we'll be seeing each other a lot then," Yang said, and most people probably wouldn't mind seeing Yang often. Jaune had done a very admirable job of not peaking down at Yang's chest for their conversation, but nobody could deny that she was rather gifted in that area.

The yellow shirt she wore under her jacket was tight enough to make that fact rather clear. The jacket was a dark brown one with orange and black racing stripes on the bottom and sleeves starting from the shoulder. She also wore black shorts that ended an inch or two above the knee and were just as form fitting as her shirt. With, what Jaune guessed was, her symbol on the belt she wore.

"What combat class do you have?" Yang asked.

"I'm in one of dad's classes. 4th hour, I think."

"Guess I'll get to kick you butt a few times this year," Yang said with a smirk that sent a shiver down Jaune's spine. "Cause I'm in that class too."

"That's… wonderful," Jaune said, and from what Ruby had told him about her older sister. Jaune wasn't going to enjoy any sparing with Yang. Apparently, her semblance makes her stronger every time you hit her. Which to Jaune just seemed outright overpowered. Not that she really even needed to use her semblance to beat Jaune, but that was a different topic and Jaune needed an exit from talking to the overprotective older sister. "Don't we need to leave for our classes soon? I don't really want to be late on the first day."

"Yeah, we do!" Ruby said, "Mrs. Burnside is going to kill me if I'm late for her class. See you at lunch Jaune!" Ruby ran out of the room, not using her semblance, leaving Jaune and Yang alone for a moment.

"You know, Ruby hasn't always been the best at making friends," Yang said, a moment after Ruby left. "And she really thinks of you as a good friend. If I were you, I'd make sure to keep her as just a good friend." And with that Yang left as well. With Jaune getting the message she was trying to send him loud and clear.

Jaune let out a deep sigh before heading out to his own class. He understood why Yang was treating Jaune the way she was. His older sisters were just as protective of him as Yang was of Ruby. Not that any girls had ever asked him out. And he was just as protective of his younger sisters. He was going to have to work on convincing Yang that he wasn't trying to corrupt Ruby or anything like that.

"One more thing to work on," Jaune muttered to himself as he walked down the quickly emptying hall.

Jaune just hoped his first class would be easy.

SCENE 3

Jaune's first few classes weren't too bad.

His first class was a sort of general huntsmen knowledge class called, rather bluntly, huntsmen studies. Which Jaune thought was going to be a useful class to be in. He was probably going to end up reading his textbook back to front as much as he could manage this year. At least that was the plan, he never really was one for consistent study schedules.

His third class of the day was a sort of general first aide course. For both tending to oneself when injured and others. As well as learning to identify certain plants and things that you could make some basic medicines with.

Useful stuff.

Why the gods decided to punish him with a calculus class in the middle of those two, he did not know. Jaune could run away from home without his mother finding out where he was going and seeming to have kept her off his trail so far. She had to have been look for him at this point. He'd managed to fool one of the premier combat schools in all of Remnant into thinking he was a real student, but it seemed that he could never outwit his one true enemy.

Math.

But his unending battle with his true enemy aside, now it was time he'd been dreading since that morning. Combat class.

Jaune sat alone, nervously tapping his feet on the floor. Most of the classrooms at Signal weren't all that different to the ones he was used to. Except for being a lot nicer he guessed. He was expecting combat class to pretty much be the same thing as the gym classes he took. At least in that they would be in a gym or something. But instead, they were sat in a large auditorium with a stage in front of them.

Tai and a few others of what Jaune guessed were teachers too stood chatting at the front of the class. Before long though Taiyang made his way onto the stage as the students hushed their conversations.

"Good morning students. Now, all of you have taken a combat class before, and you know how the basics work, so I won't go into too much detail on that today." Mr. Xiao Long said. Jaune would've appreciated the basics, but he couldn't really do much about that. "But since we do have a few transfers this year I'll quickly go over how we do things here at Signal."

"First of all, this class is not one where you'll only be sparing with other students. We'll also be focusing on general physical fitness, aura control, semblance control for everyone who has their semblance unlocked, and anything else that has to do with combat. So don't just think you'll be sitting around watching fights the whole class."

Luckily Jaune needed to catch up on pretty much all of those things. Though Jaune would be kicking himself for not going to the gym more often… or really ever.

"Second, we'll be splitting the class into four groups. Each of the groups with cycle though whatever exercises we have planned for Monday though Thursday. Friday, however, will change from week to week, but will mostly be individual focused and we'll have you work on an area that we feel you're weak in. Though sometimes it will be an extra sparing day, or we'll review some sparing tape with the whole class."

Jaune wasn't looking forward to having everyone watch him suck at fighting, let alone a film of him sucking at fighting. But if it helped him get better, he would have to get over it.

"And the last thing I want to go over today, starting next quarter you'll be able to apply for a class-2 huntsmen license. The exam to get your class-2 license will be a supervised D Grade mission with a partner. If you fail to earn a class-2 license, you will fail this class and will have to transfer to a regular high school. That's not something you'll have to worry about for a while but do be aware that it is a requirement."

Jaune didn't know what a class-2, or even class-1, license was and he could only guess what a D Grade mission would be. Things that he would probably have to look up at some point, or maybe try to find some way to ask about it without seeming like an idiot.

"So now that we're done with that, let's get everyone assigned to their groups. If you hear your name, you're in group A." Taiyang said, reading off from a list. "Jaune Arc." So Jaune would be part of group A. Which he hoped didn't mean that he was grouped with all the best students, but as Mr. Xiao Long kept listing off names it became clear that it was just an alphabetical thing. "Yang Xiao Long." And now he wanted to be in any other group.

Soon everyone was assigned to their groups and made their way to the floor. "Okay students, since it's our first day we'll be staring off light," The group A instructor said. Well, Jaune guessed it was time to figure out what Signal considered to be light. "We'll only do a five-mile run today."

Crap.

Scene 4

Jaune's legs still hurt from the run, but at least his first day at Signal was almost over.

"Why did they have to give me the best class last?" Ruby complained, she was sitting next to Jaune in their class. Advanced Weaponsmithing, which was of course taught by Mr. Russet, and was obviously Ruby's favorite class by default. "Why couldn't they give it to me first hour? That would be way cooler than history."

"If they gave you the best class first, wouldn't the rest be really boring in comparison?" Jaune said.

"Yeah, I guess they would be," Ruby said, rubbing her chin in thought. "But if they had more forging classes than they wouldn't be boring."

"Aren't you already in two forging classes?"

"Yeah, I'm only in two! Four or five would be better," Ruby said without a hint of sarcasm. To which Jaune had to try very hard not to laugh or chuckle in response. With how much Ruby loved weapons and just making stuff in general, it sometimes made Jaune wonder why Ruby didn't just go to a school focused on that. If schools like that even existed.

Ruby and Jaune returned to their chatting as they waited for the class to start. It wasn't the only class they had together, they had the same 5th hour class too, and they'd managed to actually get seats next to each other for this one.

Which was good for Jaune, first because he got to sit with his friend, and because Ruby would be an amazing study partner for this class. Which considering that his job also included weapon forging, though Jaune had only made some small knives and daggers so far, he figured this class would probably be his easiest to pass.

The chatting of the class was soon interrupted by Mr. Russet who stood at the front of the classroom. "Settle down. I'll go through this quickly since I imagine you've listened to enough long spiels today." Mr. Russet said. "This is advanced forging, and as such I imagine most of you are familiar with the safety procedures of a workshop. Despite that, we will largely be reviewing that subject for this week and we will have a test on such next Monday."

"This class will focus primarily on more complex shifting mechanisms and general weapon theory. You will be required to design and construct your own shifting weapon system this year. With the plan needing to be done by the end of this semester, and the actual weapon needing to be done, as I said, by the end of the year."

"Though I would recommend having the first model of your weapon done far sooner than the end of the year. You will only be graded on the end plans and model. Not the five failed prototypes before then."

Well, Jaune guessed that Ruby was planning on using Crescent Rose for that project. In fact, Ruby was practically wiggling out of her seat from excitement. And Jaune would need to think of his own design at some point. Though he wasn't really sure what kind of weapon he would want to make, there was still plenty of time to figure that out.

"Though you will be required to do all building of your weapon at one of the forges here at Signal. And weapons constructed before today are ineligible, and so are any weapons using designs that aren't yours."

"With that said, today we'll be reading though this packet."

Jaune's first day at Signal had its highs and lows, but as Mr. Russet started with the day's lesson, he felt a certain sense of ease. Sure, he knew that it would only get harder from there, but whatever challenge that laid ahead would be far better than if Jaune stayed home and asked himself what could have been for the rest of his life.

He hoped one day his mother would understand that.

And with that, our main 3 have met and Jaune's time at Signal has begun.

Jaune's going to have to work on getting on Yang's good side so he can keep hanging out with Ruby. Not to mention working on his training, worrying about getting his class-2 license, and designing a weapon by the end of the semester. Which, besides Ignatia and Qrow's plot line, is going to be most of the focus of his first semester at Signal. So expect the first semester to be fairly short.

Much like volume 1 or rwby I guess, though with significantly less Cardin.

Now, for Crocea Mors, I got the idea for there being a dust tube in the hilt from Lancaster Arms. Which is pretty good if you like Lancaster. Comparing it to Weiss' weapon, which I'm not even going to attempt to spell right now, think of hers like a revolver. Crocea Mors is more like a black powder, percussion cap fired, single shot pistol. It isn't as powerful, nor does it have as much Dust to use. It's not something that Jaune is going to use often, but he'll pull it out when he needs to.

As for the weapon project for Mr. Russet's class. It's definitely not going to be a weapon that replaced Crocea Mors, but it might be something like a ranged option or a backup weapon. Is their any kind of weapon that you would like to see Jaune make?

Shipping:

I do think I need to clarify something from the last chapter though. I said that I might do a ship poll if I was stuck between two ships. I'm not doing such a poll right now, and if I was I would make an actual poll, and considering more than half of the main cast hasn't be introduced yet, it would be too early for that. I apologize for not being clear enough on that. And I do agree with the people who said that I shouldn't force a ship if I don't want to, and I won't be. I'm a firm believer that romance has to be earned, and I do planning on putting in the work to earn a ship if I decide to add one.

I do appreciate everyone who left a comment on what ship they would like to see though, thank you.

There were also a few people who suggested doing a poly ship for Jaune. Which, I'm not against doing. Though I would say there's a better chance than not that I don't for this fic. If I was going to do one, I would want to it to be one where all three parties are dating the other two. So no sharing situation, which means that Jaune getting with both Ruby and Yang has a very low chance of happening. Since I'm not doing enabler at all.

If I was going to do a poly ship, here's what needs to happen.

1. I like all three of the ships. So, for example, I wouldn't do war of the roses since I don't like white rose.

2. It needs to fit the story I want to tell. Which is harder than you might think to achieve.

3. No harems.

So I wouldn't hold my breath on there being a poly ship in this fic, but I won't say that it can't happen either.

QnA:

Since I was asked, yes JM Russet is based off of John Moses Browning. Who, if you don't know, was a rather infuencal weapon designer who's responsible for such weapons as the M2 Browning Machine-gun, the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), the 1911, and many other things. Such as the .50BMG cartridge that Ruby uses in Crescent Rose. So I thought it would be fitting to have him be a mentor to her.

And since I keep forgetting-

Color Naming Rule Allusion:

JM Russet = John Moses Browning - Russet = potato - Colors = Brown

Ignatia Arc = St. Ignatius of Loyola - Ignatia = kind of sounds like ignite - Colors = Red and Gold

Thank you for reading, if you have any questions feel free to ask.