Died, Died, Again and Again Chapter 3: Have a nice day, a rwby fanfic

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Beacon Academy. Please make sure you have all your personal belongings with you as you exit. I'd like to thank you for joining us on this short trip. Have a nice day!" The many speakers on the roof all echoed the same announcement.

Jaune Arc was alive. He was bent over a trash bin and alive again. And for the first time, he was happy about it. His previous experiences were all marred by his painful and untimely ends, but now he had played an active part in his death, and he wanted to live. Laughter bubbled up, but he had to hold it back as vomit was still creeping up his throat. After spitting it out, he sighed in relief. Although motion sick, he wasn't in any actual pain. He was alive.

His previous rambling had held some truth to them; if he failed, he could just try again. He exited the aircraft with a pep in his step and took in the magnificent sight of Beacon Academy. He took a moment to smell the roses, and only stopped when an explosion echoed across the courtyard.

A few steps later, Jaune greeted the first friend he made at Beacon. "Hello, Ruby."

Ruby, a short girl with a red hood, who was currently lying in a small crater in defeat, looked up at him in confusion. "Uh, hello, and how do you know my name?" She scrunched her face up and narrowed her eyes at him, as if trying to recall if they had met before.

Looking at her cute expression, while riding the high he got from being alive, he said the first thing that came to his mind. "I'm psychic." He said in a tone that held much seriousness.

"What?" She asked, and she shot up to her feet.

"Yup, psychic." Jaune nodded and closed his eyes. "I can read minds and predict the future, and all that jazz."

"Oh yeah? Then what am I holding behind my back?" Ruby said and swung a hand into her cloak.

He needed to think. It was ten months ago for him, but it had left an impression on him. "A scythe that's also a high-impact sniper rifle." He answered with a smile.

Everything felt right, and he just went along with the flow. He chatted with Ruby and slept peacefully. He had a full breakfast, then he was standing on the iron platform once more. And something dawned on him. The reason he had been so laid-back was because he knew he was going to die. He knew that there was no easy parachute he could just snatch up, and now he wouldn't survive the fall.

Impaled on a tree branch, he slowly bled out.

Then there was nothing.

Jaune Arc had died, and he was alive again. It had been a pointless death, and he was no closer to his goal of surviving. He was actually glad that his second death had traumatized him so much that he had left Beacon, because now he knew that it wasn't fate that was killing him, if he didn't have that reassurance, he wouldn't be able to throw his life away in the hopes of finding a way to survive.

Time drifted around him in a buzz, and then he stood on a cliff overlooking his future grave, his cheerfulness from before all gone. He was going to die. That was the outcome he was resigned to.

As he descended into the hungry Emerald Forest, he noticed something odd. He could feel his ankle. By itself, that wasn't odd, but in his memories, he could only recall a numb sensation. In just a short moment, he had realized why that was. He had broken his ankle all those other times, but not this time. He latched onto this improvement like a man lost at sea would to a lifesaver.

Then he crashed through small tree branches and hit the ground at an angle that forced his knee into his jaw, shattering his teeth.

The pain was short-lived as he rolled once, and his skull shattered upon contact with the ground.

Then there was nothing.

"Have a nice day!"

He shook off his nerves and hyped himself up. He had made progress. He went the rest of the day and night trying to brainstorm ideas he could use to survive.

He decided to use his large metal shield to protect his fleshy body from the wooden branches.

As he stood upon the iron platform, he switched his sword's sheath into a large heater shield, and held it in front of his body before being launched. And he wasn't prepared for the other effects this would bring. A wall of wind pushed back against him, and he couldn't properly prepare for impact.

He collided with a large, thick branch. The sudden force snapped the arm holding his shield as it straighten over it and twisted his body. The lower rim of his shield dug into his gut. His forward momentum didn't simply stop there. The metal edge - of the item meant to protect him - tore through the flesh and organs of his stomach and shattered his spine.

His consciousness faded out and in. He barely had enough cognition to recognize that he was hanging from tree branches by his own intestines. Bright red blood poured from his mouth like a faucet as he looked down at the ground.

His waist and legs had made it. They were on the ground.

His arms were dangling, and a hand weakly reached out in a futile attempt to join the rest of his body on the ground.

He was so close.

Blood painted his vision for only a moment, before there was nothing.

"Have a nice day!"

Even though Jaune's lower body had been separated from his upper half, he still believed in his current plan.

This time, he tried to steer away from the large branches, and he made it the through some small ones before he smashed into a thick truck. He bashed his jaw and nose against his shield. He got stuck a few dozen feet above the ground. He gargled on the blood filling his throat, torn up by fragments of his teeth and lower jaw. And with his nose also broken, unable to breathe either, he was slowly drowning in his own blood.

He dislodged himself from the tree and willingly fell to the ground, seeking a quick death so he could restart already.

"Have a nice day!"

Jaune had grown impatient. It was getting truly tiresome that he would die and then have to wait another day to die again, but he had been close last time, so it didn't matter. Slow and steady, as they say.

He plowed through lesser branches that could only dream of impaling him now, his shield held in his right hand braced against his shoulder, his body curled up as much as he could manage. It was nearly perfect, but then he smashed straight into a tree truck again. It was unsurprisingly hard to miss trees in the forest.

His arm snapped, and his ribs crunched this time, then he fell to his death. With the inevitable approaching, he stopped trying. His limp body crashed against loose branches. Perhaps the world was making up for the one he had blocked. If the world was alive, then it was definitely the reason he plummeted head first onto a rock. He was even able to see it before he died. The impact scattered his brain, spots of nothing filled his sight and a ringing echoed in his ears. He almost wondered how his brain looked scattered amongst the grass.

He closed his eyes and waited for death to overtake him.

It doesn't matter, I should just…

Then there was nothing.

…

…"—pulse—"…

…"—breathing—"…

…"—alive—"…

…

…"—help—"…

…"—survive—"…

…

…"—die—"…

…"—dead—"…

…

Jaune could feel a shifting weight beneath him. A slight breeze was pushing his hair back, and his body was in tremendous agony. Even though he was familiar with pain, it was only for a few moments before he died, and being alive and in pain was a whole other ballpark. He would gladly die than have to deal with this. Forcing an eyelid open, he saw red, not the red of blood, but a brighter red. "Ru-hguck." An odd cough interrupted her name.

The red moved and revealed a kind face, with worried silver eyes. "Oh, uh, hello, I'm Ruby, me and my partner, Weiss, are taking you back to Ozpin, I'm sure he'll be able to help you, so hold on a little bit longer, we're almo—" Her words were lost on his ears.

He could only hear a muffled buzz. The world was so disorienting. He felt motion sickness like never before, he's heard about roller coasters and can only imagine that they would feel the same.

He could feel the familiar embrace of death approaching him.

'Hold on a little bit longer.' Yeah, I can do that, but not here. Sorry.

Jaune strained every muscle in his arms, broken or not, and gave the small girl carrying him a hug. "ank yu." He forced out, and although incomplete, he hoped the emotion behind it would fill in the blanks.

Then there was nothing.

Jaune Arc had died, but he was so much closer to surviving. As his mind sorted through the mess of memories from his final moments, he only now realized that Ruby had been alive. That meant she had landed safely. And someone else named Weiss also made it and then they partnered up. He was happy that Ruby was safe, but if a short and unassuming looking girl like her could land on her first try, then he needed to know what he was doing wrong.

It didn't take long for him to acknowledge that he wouldn't find the answer in himself, although he knew she survived, he didn't know how or maybe why, and without those to compare to himself he would die over and over trying to discover the answer, then it came to him, he needed to know what she did right. That was obvious, but he knew how he could get that knowledge.

A quick sprint later and he arrived just in time to see Ruby spinning, and that really confused him, but he didn't let that stop him. Jaune halted her momentum by catching her by the sides of her shoulders with a firm grip, and because of her sudden stop, her eyes continued to spin. He waited until her unfocused eyes narrowed in confusion at the boy who caught her. "Excuse me, I have a quick question: how would you survive being launched from a cliff into a forest?"

"Uh, what?" For some reason, she didn't answer his sudden question, and instead responded with her own.

He released her and took a step back. "Hello, I'm Jaune, and how would you survive being launched from a cliff into a forest?" He asked again, but slower.

"Uh, I don't know. I'll probably use my scythe." She shrugged.

"And if you didn't have your scythe?" Jaune needed to know if there was another way, or else he'll need to find a scythe.

"I'll… probably use my Aura and hope for the best, or maybe my Semblance if I can manage." She didn't appear confident in her answers.

"Okay." He racked his brain, but he couldn't recall hearing about Auras or Semblances. "Is there a shop that sells them nearby, or did I have to bring one from home?"

After hearing his questions, she made an odd expression, then she spoke slowly. "You don't know what Aura is?"

Jaune waved his hand in the air and looked away from her. "Of course I do!" He asserted with a tone that said: obviously. Then he asked. "Do you know what Aura is?"

Ruby looked at him, taking in his full appearance. Her eyes narrowed past his armor and focused on his clothes, from his boots to his jeans, and then on his hoodie. Although it seemed as though something was on her mind, she still answered him. "Aura is the manifestation of a soul." She spoke carefully, her eyes looking over his face, but he didn't notice her expression.

As soon as she finished speaking, her words echoed in his mind, but they were spoken by someone else. Jaune could only recall a faint whisper. Nothing else remained from them.

"Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts."

His head pounded at the unfamiliar line, an electric itch swam through his mind. He knew that he had heard those words before, but he couldn't remember them. Through his eyes, he could see Ruby's lips moving, but his ears couldn't hear anything. His entire brain was occupied trying to locate his missing memory. Then it stalled; a few feet behind Ruby stood a girl with porcelain skin adorned in white with hints of pale blue and reds.

Weiss.

Last time, Ruby had said her partner was Weiss, but Jaune had never had the opportunity to put a face to the name.

Weiss Schnee.

That was her full name, but he shouldn't have known that.

Snow Angel.

That was what he called her, but he never did that.

Jaune shouldn't know who that girl was. He couldn't have given her a cheesy nickname, but he did. His vision blurred and refocused on Ruby. She was still talking, but he still couldn't hear her. Ruby, he knew her name.

How?

He couldn't recall their meeting, but he should.

Ten months ago, he died, but he didn't. He tried again, but he shouldn't have. He didn't need to.

Jaune Arc had arrived at Beacon and spent the entire day confused, stressed out and anxious, but deep down he wasn't worried. He had already done this, but then he died. He couldn't believe his death and died, then he left Beacon.

As his brain scrambled to sort itself out, he realized that he couldn't recall his first attempt. All he knew was that he died. In his second attempt, he thought that it was a nightmare, then he died again. He had heard an explosion and found the source. There he met Ruby, but he couldn't recall remembering an explosion. He just knew that Ruby had caused one. During what he thought was his second attempt, his first attempt was vague and hard to grasp, but now a thought he previously had solidified.

Where was the explosion?

During his first attempt, he thought that an explosion should happen, but it didn't.

How many times have I died?

Another question, but he couldn't tell if this was from himself. He could recall dying during Initiation two times, then he left Beacon and died three times. Now back to Initiation, he died six times. The answer to his question should be eleven, but if he could recall moments in his first attempt that implied things weren't going according to memory, then it should be twelve, or maybe more, he didn't know.

It was only now that Jaune realized he couldn't see anything, that he couldn't feel anything. It barely took less than a second for him to realize his situation. He was dead.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Beacon Academy. Please make sure you have all your personal belongings with you as you exit. I'd like to thank you for joining us on this short trip."

Jaune Arc was too busy emptying his stomach to pay attention. He made sure to get it all out since he already made a mess of some girl's shoes, or so the screams had claimed. He really didn't need to vomit on more people.

After hearing an explosion, his curiosity got the better of his anxiety, and he found a girl who appeared to be having a bad day, then she recognized him for vomiting. Afterwards, she showed off her weapon.

In a crowd, a beautiful girl pointed him out.

In a big room filled with sleeping bags, four girls were making a scene by a wall.

After breakfast, he was having trouble finding his locker, but then he introduced himself to the beautiful girl and also met a champion. Then the champion threw her spear and pinned him to a wall.

And pinned him to a tree.

In the woods, she gently placed her hand against his face and spoke: "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul."