Although the sensation from dying repeatedly as his soul and body hadn't matched was mostly repressed, he could vividly recall how it felt to be unsure of whether he was alive or dead.

His brain had eventually slowed down, and it became hard to think.

The last thing he could recall was the feeling numb before his body collapsed, and then there was nothing. He wouldn't be shocked that he had died.

However, the pleasant warmth and cool breeze that tickled his body confused him. The faint chirping of birds that reached his ears instead of the static filled voice that normally greeted him, was how he knew he hadn't died, and then he felt his brain be kicked into high gear. He wasn't dead. He was alive, and then more signals that his body had been sending his brain registered.

Jaune let out a groan as he realized just how sore his body felt. Every muscle nearly screamed in response to the slightest twitch, and when his body experienced a sharp jolt, waves of pain flooded his nerves. "Uohwa!" He mumbled out a yelp with a numb tongue.

"Looks like someone's woken up." A rather chipper voice said, their tone was completely laid-back as if they were talking about a pet or something.

Jaune's eyelids weakly fluttered open. Even this simple task required a herculean effort. Through fuzzy vision, his blue eyes met purple dots that were surrounded by a sea of gold. "Huuwh?" His mouth produced a sound of confusion.

She's not Red. Or White. Where are they? Where am I? Who is this?

Even though it caused chaos in his body, he turned his head and tried to find the two girls he had met. It was nearly impossible for his sight to make out shapes and colors. The sky was like a still wet oil painting of blue, white and green. And yet when he saw a white and red blob staggering forth, he felt relieved.

He wasn't dead. Red and White were safe. He was in a lot of pain, his body was too tired to continue. He was at his limit. He should let go. He should stop his futile struggle and close his eyes. Jaune Arc should just di-

"Going back to sleep already?" The new voice asked.

The eyelids that had almost closed slowly opened back up. Jaune was almost annoyed that whoever this person was had woken him back up again right before he was about to fall asleep. Right now, he couldn't form words coherently, so he hoped that the sigh he released would convey his frustration.

Purple dots rolled. "Seriously? C'mon, stay awake for a little while longer. We're almost back to the cliff, and then you'll get fixed back up."

Fixed back up? What's wrong with me in the first place? I literally just healed up, so is this some side-effect to using Aura?

As his brain sorted the information that his body was giving him, he realized that although everywhere felt sore, that was only everywhere he could feel. His hands and legs didn't feel anything, or more accurately, was that he couldn't feel them at all.

Jaune tried to use his Aura to heal his body, but the pain he was in kept interrupting his focus. He supposed all he could do was wait. He hoped that the next sigh contained all his frustration. Something that had been applying pressure on his back suddenly shifted, and the purple dots seemed closer for a second.

"It's not so bad, and look at the bright side. If you survive, you'll get one heck of a kick-ass blonde bombshell as a partner." The purple dots then moved in the direction of the red blob and then her voice lost all traces of playfulness. "So you better not die. You can't do this to her. You can't. You can't." A tone almost completely hollow and aimless.

Jaune's upper arm felt like it was being crushed as he saw the purple dots flash a bright red, but he didn't make a sound.

Partner? I guess those purple dots are eyes then. Fuck my luck, seriously, just great that I get some weirdo after all that I've done to survive this hellhole. And fuck whoever decided this was an acceptable thing to put students through. Fuck the students for being bizarre enough to make this look easy. And fuck that idiot who decided to fake his way in and die multiple times.

For the rest of his trip through the forest and then on to a medical bed, Jaune continued to curse out everyone involved in his situation.

"And fuck whoever created Grimm, and fuck whoever created Huntsmen, and fuck whoever created those creators, and fuc-"

"Is there really more to that?" The playful voice of his new partner asked. "Isn't cursing the Gods like blasphemy? Do you really want to go deeper than that?"

Jaune turned his head to pointlessly face his new partner. "Fuck you," he started off, "I'm venting. Whatever they pumped me full of is currently making my entire body and mind numb, but my fucking soul, or whatever, still feels like it's on fire." He wasn't one to cuss or swear normally. His parents and older sisters had all done their best to set a good example for the younger members of his family.

Unfortunately, when Jaune had reached puberty and wanted to prove to the village bullies that he wasn't a sissy (another reason he lashed out at his sisters for their influences on his development as a growing boy,) he began to do more things that he deemed manly and mature. And then he began imitating characters from dark and gritty books and tv. That led him to adding a curse in every sentence and just being an all around asshole to mostly everyone.

"And fuck these drugs. Now it's hard to focus." Jaune tried to flop back into the medical bed he was placed in after his 'Spiritual Surgery' and whatever that had entailed, but the back of his head missed his pillow and collided with the wooden headboard. "Fuck! Fuck this wood and fuck this blindfold." He tried to grab where he had hit his head, but something stopped his arm before it reached his head. "Fuck you." He whispered.

"Odd way to say thanks." His partner said as they slowly released the cast they had stopped from smashing into his head.

After being brought in, Jaune was immediately surrounded by loud noises and bright lights. He received some form of medical help and then he had been told he was suffering from an extreme case of Aura Exhaustion. Both his arms and legs had then been covered in a special type of cast and bandages were wrapped over his eyes.

"Fuck this," Jaune mumbled, as the physical pain faded and his thoughts slowed down. He couldn't feel his hands or legs, he couldn't see. He was helpless, surrounded by darkness, utterly defenseless. Something inside his body, his Aura, felt like it was burning out, and there was nothing he could do about that. His breathing sped up. "F-f-fu-fuck t-this." He stuttered out a whimper as reality once again set in.

Jaune Arc was a complete failure. There was nothing he could do.

Mom, Dad, I'm sorry. You were right. I should've just listened. I'm a fucking failure.

Memories began to fill his dark world. Scenes of his parents dismissing his dream, of them doubting his ability to achieve his dream, the bitter comfort as they offered up other options he could dedicate his life to. And yet he couldn't accept anything else. He defied his parents, decided he knew better. And now he was being constantly reminded of how wrong he had been. It was completely impossible for Jaune Arc to become a Huntsmen.

Burning agony was raging inside his soul, his body was broken, and yet he was alive. "Fuck! Fuckfuckfuckfuck!" His mind was clogged with drugs that blocked him from feeling physical pain, and yet his soul was still on fire. Jaune started fidgeting as the flames grew bigger and hotter. "Fuck!" There was nothing he could do. His hands were useless and his Aura couldn't help.

And yet his cast covered hands involuntarily began trying to claw at his chest.

"Get it out! Get it out!" Jaune began screaming as the flames spread through his body. He desperately wished he could snuff out the flames, but his body was blocking them.

Again he felt something stop his cast covered arms. "Relax." A calm tone, nearly unrecognizable from the usual playfulness. "You're okay. There's nothing wrong with your soul."

"Shut up!" Jaune screamed as he tried and failed to yank his arms away. "It burns! It burns! It b-bur-urns!" He began huffing as he tried to flail about.

"Sorry 'bout this."

Jaune felt his arms be forced down, and then he heard the sounds of things clicking and snapping. He couldn't move his arms, they were somehow locked down. "Stop stop stop." He couldn't see, he couldn't feel his hands, he couldn't move them, he couldn't move them. A blaze continued to consume his soul. "Stop! Stop!"

Pain, a never ending pain, had engulfed everything he could feel. His body had been discarded, and suffering was all that he could experience.

Hell, the afterlife for sinners. He was in Hell. Jaune Arc died during Initiation at Beacon and ever since then, his soul had been trapped in Hell.

"Hey, Jaune." A voice pierced the veil of fire and darkness. "I hope you don't mind, but I read your name off your medical report. I know now isn't the best time for this, but thanks. I don't know what happened, but Ruby said you saved the life of that Weiss girl. I don't particularly care for her, but I wouldn't know how to help Ruby if she had witnessed a death right in front of her eyes. So thanks for preventing that."

Jaune has felt his bones crack and snap. He has been impaled and bisected. During his cycle of torment, he became familiar with the many ways a human body could self-destruct. He had learned just how much pain a single nerve could feel, and yet right now, as a fire burned away at his soul, he couldn't imagine or put into words how it felt. This fire had moved beyond burning and melting his soul, now it transformed it into more fuel for the flames. And with every second that passed, the flames grew exponentially more intense.

He breathlessly and pointlessly turned his head, even though he couldn't see he looked towards his new partner. "P-partner?" He started with a cracking voice. This was his partner. Their eyes had met inside the forest.

"That's me, and the name's Yang Xiao Long."

Jaune paid no attention to the tone of his partner's voice. "Yang?" He asked.

"What's up?"

"Kill me." He begged. It was hard to tell time through the pain, but he knew a beat passed in silence. "Kill me." He repeated. If he died, he might escape this pain, and he didn't even care if he couldn't try again. He would welcome an eternal sleep of peace. "Kill me, please?" He begged politely. Again, he didn't hear a reply. His mind couldn't focus because of the drugs, so he couldn't even attempt to remember a forgotten memory.

Silence in itself was frightening. Another connection to the world was suddenly gone. Something else to distract his mind from the pain was gone. Before he could panic, a stray memory surfaced to his attention. He had been reading a book about spies, and when an enemy spy had been captured, he ensured his own silence at the cost of his life.

Jaune was barely able to taste blood before something pried his jaw open. His tongue was still mostly intact. As he began trying to free his jaw so he could try again, he felt something grasp his numb neck, and suddenly he couldn't breathe anymore. Joy began to fill his body, and relief flooded his mind. "—hannk-yuu—"He choked out.

And then there was nothing.

…

…

…

…

Awareness slowly drifted around before it pooled up inside his mind.

Electronic beeps and chirping birds. Those sounds reached his ears.

Jaune's eyes opened slowly, although the sensation from dying repeatedly as his soul and body hadn't matched was mostly repressed. He could vividly recall how it felt to be unsure of whether he was alive or dead.

Right now, he wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not.

He wasn't surrounded by students and bent over a trash bin - no - right now he was laying in bed. Warm sunlight was entering through an open window and a cool breeze was causing the curtains to flutter about. He tried and failed to move his arms, and then his memories of yesterday came back in full.

I'm alive.

He realized that he hadn't been killed like he had begged, but he wasn't angry or annoyed. He could no longer feel a fire consuming his soul, so he didn't care. What's more was that he could feel with his body and he could think with his mind.

As his eyes scanned the room he had been placed in to recover, he spotted a girl with golden blonde hair. She was slouched over in a chair, completely asleep in a rather uncomfortable looking position.

Ah, well, this'll be awkward.

It wasn't every day that he begged to be killed, and he doubted choking someone out was a regular occurrence for the girl - Yang, if he recalled correctly.

"I'm alive." He muttered. There had been a moment where he had wished for that to no longer be the truth, but now he was overjoyed to be simply alive. He had successfully escaped that emerald graveyard. Tears of joy began leaking from his eyes. "I'm alive." Jaune Arc cried at the fact that his heart was beating and his brain was working, a task that they had done for all his life.

Shuffling caught his ears, and he turned to the source.

Blue eyes met a pair of purple eyes.

Yang's eyes slowly fluttered open. Any semblance of sleep was completely gone when she noticed he was staring at her. Immediately, her eyes darted away as she stood up, and then she began walking away from him. "I covered them, but if anyone asks, tell them it's your kink or something, now I'm going to eat something." Her tone had been between awkward and teasing, and it was tinged with something like guilt.

"Thank you." Jaune croaked out, and Yang flinched as she was about to leave the room. "I'm glad to be alive." He forced his sore throat to allow him to speak.

He didn't get a response as Yang quickly fled the room.

Would've been nice if she unlocked my arms before she left.

Then Jaune noticed he could see, and that he was missing his blindfold. As he began looking around for it, it came to his attention that something was roughly wrapped around his throat.

Oh, that's what she meant.

Still, he didn't know what she meant by telling someone that it was his kink or whatever.