"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.
At first Jaune Arc didn't move, his urge to vomit was suppressed, then he realized he was no longer inside a memory, that the hands gripping the rim of the trash bin were surrounded by a faint glowing white light, his Aura. The memory of dying from an unknown cause was clashing with the memory of what he assumed to be his true first attempt. After a few seconds, his mind cleared up and then, although confused, he smiled.
Aura, I have Aura. Now, now… now what?
His smile fell from his face. The memories of his thoughts about Aura had been unlocked, somehow, and from his understanding, it was a force field for the body. It could deflect harm. He could recall that Ruby had said she'll hope for the best when it came to landing with Aura, and now he knew why; it wouldn't really matter.
If Aura was a force field around the body, it could be comparable to a full body suit of armor - albeit it probably weighed nothing in comparison - which didn't do much to prevent the impact from falling. Jaune would know, although his armor and shield mostly prevented him from being stabbed, slashed, or impaled by branches. It did basically nothing to prevent him from being crushed.
Ah well, at least I'll have an easier time going through the branches. What was that? Six attempts? And now I've solved my surviving the falling issue, next step, solving my surviving the landing issue. Perhaps I'll try getting stuck in a tree again. With my new full body armor, I might not break anything important.
"Sir?" A female voice broke him out of his thoughts. "Are you getting off?" She asked.
Jaune recognized the voice, so he turned to face the blue-haired flight attendant and smiled at her. "Oh sorry, I was lost in thought. I'll see you later, Ms. Lazulum." Then he began walking away. Leaving behind a thoroughly confused flight attendant.
It's nice to see that not everything is terrible. Gods help me if I had to deal with a Zlato or Bran every time I died.
And although he recalled only those two, it was only because the second day he fled to Vale had never quite left his mind, but after a total of ten months living and working in a city, he had met a wide assortment of troublesome people, most of them the reason he didn't work retail and customer service jobs anymore.
I guess I should thank the Gods that I had a rather cute girl to ask if I was okay every time. Even when I'm not, I can at least put up a front, wouldn't want to appear weak in front of her.
Jaune's mind began to wander as he walked, and a mental image of the flight attendant began forming in his mind. From her light blue hair to her dark gray eyes, from her button nose to her freckles, her small glossy lips parted, and she tilted her head and looked him in the eyes as she asked him if he was okay. Briefly, he began to wonder which of the restaurants he had worked at that she would like to dine at.
Then an explosion of fire, ice, and lightning shattered his fantasy.
Oh cool, Ruby and Weiss, I wish I could thank them for helping me remember my Aura, but they wouldn't get it. Odd that they're arguing that intensely, but I guess they made up during Initiation. Oh, hey, who's that new girl?
Jaune lazily wondered as a black-haired girl wearing a bow approached the two other girls, but his feet hadn't stopped walking and he eventually exited earshot of their conversation.
So, Weiss Schnee, huh, she's Snow Angel? Why'd I call her that? That screaming didn't look very angelic, but maybe she's really nice underneath all that ice.
As Headmaster Ozpin began his speech, Jaune wasn't paying attention; he's already heard it a couple of time, so instead his mind was trying to uncover the secret as to how he had survived what he could only assume was his first attempt at Initiation and just what had gone wrong in all his other attempts.
All he could truly recall was that after vomiting on the airship, he heard an explosion, befriended Ruby, heard a speech, slept in a ballroom, met Weiss and some champion of sorts, the champion pinned him to a wall with her spear, and for some reason, he could see the tops of trees from that wall. Jaune didn't know how that led to him landing safely and having his Aura unlocked, but maybe the champion caught him as an apology for her earlier treatment of him.
No. I don't want that. I can't accept that help.
Although it had been the only way he had survived, it wouldn't help him. He needed to be able to do this by himself. He needed to be the one helping himself. He couldn't rely on other people. They wouldn't always be there for him. He wanted strength to defend against any threat that wanted his life.
And what was that chant? Did she curse me or something? After dying, we become immortal? Then we rise above and escape death or some such? Then she released my soul? What did she mean by that? Is it her fault that I keep dying? Or is it thanks to her that I'm not staying dead?
Once more Jaune went to sleep in the ballroom, and just like his recent attempts, he didn't bother changing out of his clothes or armor. And once more, just like his recent attempts, his night was full of suddenly waking up from his dreams, screaming as he relived his deaths. With each death so far, the number of times he woke up screaming increased, alongside the number of pissed off students.
When his latest, most sudden and confusing death finally played out in his dream, he woke up screaming in fear of suddenly and inexplicably dying. It was the reason he hadn't thought too hard on details he couldn't recall from his previous attempts; he had remembered some parts of an attempt at the cost of his life. Although suddenly dying was relatively painless, it also fueled his paranoia that death was always waiting for him at every corner.
And as he shouted and shot upwards in a panic, he felt a hand grab his shoulder and then he suddenly felt calm. Absolutely calm.
"I would imagine if your night terrors were this frequent, you would've brought some form of remedy. Is that not the case, or did you run out?" An absolutely calm voice asked Jaune. "I do have some herbal mixtures that induce drowsiness, if you need."
He looked up, and although clouds were currently covering the moonlight coming through the windows, he saw bright pink eyes nearly glowing in the night. "No… I… no… I…" Absolutely calm, the pressure of the stress boiling his brain disappeared. Absolutely calm, the tension holding every muscle taunt vanished. Absolutely calm, his body shut down finally relaxed after hours. Absolutely calm, his mind turned off after months of being highly alert.
Jaune's eyes rolled back into his head as he flopped back down, loud snores echoing loudly.
"-a nice day!"
Suddenly Jaune Arc lunged forward, his eyes screwed shut as his stomach flipped and vomit almost exploded out of his throat.
How!? How'd I die!? How!?
Tears almost threatened to fall. The futility of his efforts had almost swallowed him. "No… no… huh?" However, he realized that the words he had always heard had sounded different from usual, and he opened his eyes. He wasn't on an aircraft bent over a trash bin, he was in a ballroom sitting on a sleeping bag, and students were walking around and packing up their own sleeping bags.
"Y'know what? I agree with you, today does look like it's gonna be a nice day! There's not a single cloud in the sky and I can almost hear the birds singing! Today's going to be wonderful!" A student loudly told his friend as they stared out the windows, taking in the sight of the world.
I'm… not dead? Then why can't I remember what…
Suddenly the memory of waking up, seeing pink eyes, and the feeling of absolute calm that had caused his tired person to faint, it all came back to him. Then, vague flashes of what comfortable dreams he had appeared in his mind, but he couldn't recall them. The happiness they brought was quickly replaced by despair. His hands shot to his head. He held his skull tightly, trying to stop the memories and feelings from fleeting.
He had been happy. Why couldn't he remember that? It had felt warm. Why couldn't he feel that anymore? A dark fog descended on his mind. He was going to die again today, so said his brain, he would die and then his corpse would be eaten by a Grimm. Tears bubbled up in unfocused eyes and tumbled down his face.
He would die. No matter what happened, he would die. Death always had her hand around his heart, his soul, ready for the moment his body would fall. Regardless of how long he survived, or how long he lived, death was always waiting for him at the end of his life, welcoming him into her cold embrace.
He could go right now, something whispered into his ear, he could end his fear of death and meet her embrace head on. It told him so. All he had to do was stop, stop wanting to live, stop wanting to not die, just stop trying and he could finally rest. It tempted him.
His heart rate sped up, his breathing became uneven. He sucked air in hard gasps, and yet there wasn't enough for his lungs. The more and more he tried to breathe, the harder it became.
It was simple. He knew a painless way to die. He just had to remember something he'd forgotten, and then it would all be over.
"It's morning~! It's morning~! It's morning~! It's mooorningggg~!" An exuberant voice sang loudly, and the source hopped around like an electrified bunny.
Jaune, momentarily distracted, lifted his head from his hands, and with watery eyes, he saw an orange-haired girl dance around a black-haired boy tying up a sleeping bag. The boy had bright pink eyes.
Was it you? Did you somehow calm me down? I guess I should say thanks, even though I don't remember the dreams. At least I slept for more than a few minutes.
He wiped away his tears with his orange sleeve warmers and stood up. His mind worked on what he would say as he crumbled up his sleeping bags and tied a loose knot around it. When he was done, he began walking over.
"I can't believe we've been at Beacon for a full twenty-four hours!" The girl shouted, her voice still bursting with energy and her body not staying in a single spot for more than a second "Not that I thought we'd get kicked out or anything, I mean, you're the perfect student and I'm... well, I'm me! But it's just crazy, you know?"
Well, it's good that she's aware that she's a little too much.
Jaune hadn't been much of a morning person even when he'd had a full night's rest, and now somewhat sleep deprived, his morning crankiness had increased at least twofold.
"We've been friends for soooo long!" The girl abruptly started to brush her hair, and then as she turned her head, her turquoise colored eyes landed on him. "Wow! Ren, that guy looks more dead inside than you do in the mornings! Wonder what's wrong with him! Do you think he didn't sleep well? I slept like a log, but like a sleeping log. What kind of log did you sleep as?" She asked the boy she was dancing around, her voice not the least bit contained.
And then the boy, who had been previously not showing any signs of listening to the rambling girl, looked up. His half lidded pink eyes, no longer glowing, meet a pair of dull blue eyes. "I apologize for the effect my Semblance had on you. I didn't expect your body to give out. I watched over you for a while, ensuring you were healthy, before I went back to my sleeping bag. I hope you can forgive me." The boy had placed his bundled up sleeping bag down and bowed slightly to Jaune.
"Oh, uh, it's no problem." Jaune started off nervously. For one: he didn't know what a Semblance was, but now he knew two people with it, and two: he was uncomfortable with the amount of sincerity that he deemed unnecessary. "In fact, I wanted to thank you, so uh, thank you." He gave an awkward bow back, his knowledge of Mistrali customs just bouncing around somewhere in the back of his brain. "I even had fairly decent dreams… I think."
"That's good, and I still have some herbal mixtures if you need them." The boy's emotionless face had just the slightest bit of a relieved air about it.
"No thanks, I probably won't need it." His landing strategy hadn't advanced far enough for him to worry about the next sleepless night.
"You should take them! The less Ren has, the less he tells me to take!" The orange-haired girl suddenly gave her opinion on the matter.
Ren? Oh.
"I'm Jaune Arc, by the way. It was nice to meet you, and again, thanks." He didn't bother putting on a fake smile as he spoke and extended his hand. He was sincere and didn't want to come off as fake, even at the cost of appearing rude.
"Lie Ren. It was nice to meet you too, and again, sorry." His face hardly changed from his bored look as he grasped Jaune's hand firmly. They shook lightly just once before they let go.
Suddenly, Jaune became nervous as he spoke. "W-which one's… your, uh…" As his sleep deprived brain parsed between words like 'actual' and 'real' searching for a word that didn't make him seem like an asshole for not being well informed of different customs.
"I would prefer to be addressed as Ren. It's my family name." Ren answered, intercepting the awkward question.
"Cool, will do." He breathed a sigh of relief.
"And I'm Nora! Nora Valkyrie! Queen of the Seven Storms!" The self-proclaimed queen twirled and posed dramatically. "In the name of lightning, I reign supreme above all else!" She shouted, raising a fist high in the air, drawing more than a few eyes from the rest of the students who haven't left.
"Nice to meet you too," Jaune said, and kinda meant it. She seemed like a fun person, but he wasn't in the mood for fun.
"Hah! Trying to slather me up are you!?" Again, her shouts drew attention from the crowd.
Jaune blinked, his well addled brain not quite comprehending the being that was Nora. "Pardon?"
"I refuse! Your crimes are unforgivable! You think of me as a pancake!? A delicious pancake you could slather with butter to distract me while you eat me whole! Well, I got news for you, buddy! I'm not! I can see straight through your nefarious schemes!"
Jaune blinked, his still well addled brain not quite comprehending just what was happening. "Pardon?" Although he spoke, he began to wonder if he passed out after shaking Ren's hand and was currently having a fever dream.
"I can tell that you've recognized Ren's greatness-ness! Everything has been a ploy, a scheme to get closer to him so you can steal away my partner from me! Well, not 'partner-partner' and not because he's not handsome. He is actually very handsome." Nora suddenly turned away from Jaune and faced Ren. "You're very handsome, Ren."
"Thank you, Nora. You're very beautiful." He said with a flat, distracted tone, currently tying up his partner's sleeping bag.
"Sweet!" Then she turned back to Jaune. "Uwah? Uh? Oh! As I was saying, Ren's my partner, my Huntsmen partner and soon we'll be Beacon partners too! And you won't be getting in our way! We even have a super secret sloth call that we use to identify ourselves in the wilderness. Well, don't tell anyone this, but it's actually a bird call disguised as a sloth call."
Jaune felt his brain start to ache.
Am I trapped in hell? Was this all an elaborate hoax to get me to let my guard down before I was subjected to this torture?
He tried to tune her out, to zone out her voice, but the amount of buzzwords she said that drew his attention were endless. He didn't even notice as Ren dragged her away, and she dragged him along to continue her lecture. She talked non-stop, and they went through the bathroom, the cafeteria, the locker rooms and cliffs. Then finally his brain was set free as she was sent flying through the air.
The instant he realized where he stood, he activated his Aura, hoping he didn't break his ankles as he was sent flying. And as he soared through the open sky, he had finally had a thought since he met Nora.
It's a waste. I'll die and the connection I made with Ren will vanish. He'll see me as a complete stranger. Why even bother? Well, at least if the world goes on after my death, I'll hopefully be remembered fondly.
And then gravity pulled him back down to earth.
That doesn't matter right now! Focus! Survive! Survive! Survive!
Jaune's thoughts switched from sentimentality to a single-minded focus revolving around his survival.
Thanks for the reviews everyone, and I hope you'll keep reading. I plan to address some questions later on in the story.