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We went to math next. I knew math. I even knew a handful of programming languages. My father taught me. It was a breeze. The calculus and real analysis involved were easy. I mean it was pretty rigorous. Beacon was the last school many of us would attend. It was a full measure school. I listened to the professor talk. Professor Cauchy was the name. I think he may have a PHD. It might be Doctor Cauchy. He began to lecture about the limit definition of derivatives and I shuffled my head into my hands. I didn't need to take notes for this.
"Now note that under the limit definition we have sine of x over x. Now this classic limit can be difficult to prove but in your homework and within this class we take as a given that it is equal to one. You can use this identity for every other trigonometric limit you come across in this class, no questions asked." The gray haired man lectured easily.
Seemed easy enough. I wasn't an expert but I was pretty sure I'd seen a proof of that particular limit. Ruby was frantically taking notes. Wait, wasn't she a little young? Did she take calculus? Precalculus, even? I didn't know. I couldn't recall at what ages you took each class. I knew the material involved already but she might struggle… I resolved to help her out, should she ask me for it. I thought it was unlikely that she would but still. She was a friend. I wanted her to do well.
"Can anyone tell me what the limit of sine of one over x is?" Cauchy asked. I raised my hand.
"Yes. You. Young man. Introduce yourself and share with the class."
"Jaune Arc," I did as instructed. "It diverges in real analysis. In complex analysis we can say that the limit is i."
"Yes. Very good. Now this limit serves as an important counter example. You shall use it along with the Dirichlet jagged function for counter examples within this class. The Dirichlet jagged function is defined as one where x is rational and zero where x is irrational. It is discontinuous everywhere. However, it is Riemann integrable despite this."
I let myself shift back in my seat slightly. I plopped my pen onto my desk in front of me. Weiss was taking notes quickly in a neat elegant script. Pyrrha was too. But this stuff I already knew. I didn't need to take notes. Not yet. It was just the beginning of the semester but if the material remained at this level of difficulty I would do fine in this class.
When the bell rang we were passed along for history. The Professor who I was certain had a PHD was Oobleck. Now this quick man shuffled around the room at high speed and waved his arms about as he made his points. When he began lecturing it was on the Human Faunus war. I saw Blake recline slightly as he went over the syllabus and a brief introduction to Menagerie. The island nation on which the Faunus lived. He started introducing the war with a timeline. He touched briefly on major battles before he went into detail on the Faunus rights revolution and the end of slavery in Atlas. If I understood correctly there was something of a caste system in Atlas. With Faunus on the bottom. It sounded most unfortunate. But I didn't have the money, power, or strength to change people's minds. Let alone restructure society. Faunus lived in Mantle and humans lived in the floating city above. They worked the mines until recently. The WhiteFang, the faunus terrorist organization, forced concessions. With the Grimm at the gates there hadn't been any choice. The manpower involved for fighting them was necessary. The WhiteFang forced change. Which was good but the way they had done it…
Well maybe violence was justified in some cases. I wasn't sure. I didn't have the answers. I mean we had to use violence against monsters. But against people? I didn't know. Maybe if my rights were being infringed upon I'd do the same. It's easy to see it. Violence being the last bastion of the underprivileged and unheard was a common conception. But so was nonviolent protest. That could do a lot with monsters being drawn to negativity. They can force concessions that way. But it was slow. It's easy for me with my full belly and privilege to say that people should be patient but if I was starving and if I was being trampled upon in a mine I'd probably want immediate change. They say civilization is only two missed meals from barbarism.
I listened closely and took loose notes. My notebook had a line dividing where main ideas were broken down into bullet points. I drew a copy of the timeline indicated. I made a note of the important battles. I also noted the end of the war as well as some causes for the beginning. The straws which broke the camel's back.
"The Banquet campaign which may have passed as a minor footnote within Atlesian history if the government hadn't put their foot down and caused a constitutional crisis regarding the right to assembly and association, was a major turning point in the faunus right revolution. At the start the banquets were nothing but a place for the rich to enjoy bad food and bad speeches. However, when the government targeted the banquets, they forced the liberals into a bit of an awkward situation. They didn't want revolution. They wanted reform and an extension of voter enfranchisement. Now the excluded faunus wanted more than that but they were mild. When the government shut down the banquets and forced the liberals to take a side the WhiteFang made their move. They mounted the barricades and began the revolution. Indeed one can time the faunus revolutions of all the major cities to the time it takes from the mounting of the barricades to get news from Atlas. Almost like clockwork the workers and downtrodden faunus united and struck back," Oobleck quickly spoke.
It was fascinating. I was pretty sure Vale still had branches of the WhiteFang active within the major city and the surrounding kingdom. I wasn't sure what they did. Did they still commit terrorist violence or was it more passive now? I doubted I'd find out in this lecture. This all happened twenty five years ago. Things were still settling since the faunus rights revolution. Indeed we still lived within the shadow of the great war which occurred fifty years ago.
"The Great War gave the faunus a position to advocate for themselves. They fought in battles for the kingdoms only to come home to a total lack of rights and they must have asked themselves just what they had been fighting for. Indeed women were pushed into the factories during the great war and won the right to vote but the faunus were still excluded in all the major kingdoms. Faunus hunters like Bai Hu led the charge in atlas. You will want to make a note of the tiger faunus Bai Hu. He was a proto-anarchist. He bucked all forms of authority in Mistral. Which as you can imagine ruffled quite a few feathers in the orient. He wrote for the newspaper the Liberator as well as the Times. He awakened other anarchists and proto-socialists. Mistral had always been open minded however and the change was swift there. Voter enfranchisement as well as the ability for faunus to hold office was won. From there Bai Hu went to Atlas. The place where resistance and reaction was most stiff to the revolution. Under Bai Hu's leadership the revolution and WhiteFang became somewhat more organized. This is where the WhiteFang truly becomes a threat which brought Atlas to its knees. They struck the critical systems which kept the city of Atlas in the sky. They forced it to land. When they did, the Grimm came in waves. The Grimm coupled with the white terror forced the government to concede to the faunus' demands and allow them to serve on the council as well as to vote. To this day there has never been an Atlesian faunus counselor however. Unlike Vale, Mistral, and Vacuo which have all seen faunus rise to the forefront. But the WhiteFang quickly broke down to infighting due to the entropy of victory. Swiftly the remains of the revolution were crushed and the status quo antebellum was reestablished for the faunus in Atlas. They were back in the mines and down in Mantle, the lower city. Bai Hu was forced back to Mistral where he died writing what ifs regarding the revolution and ignored outside a handful of intellectuals," Doctor Oobleck continued.
When he finished and the bell rang I packed my things. Next was literacy. When we shuffled along the school halls to the next class I walked anxiously. I didn't know too many books. I hadn't read much. I didn't write. The professor, Patricia Bagwell handed out poems by an author called Dunn. It was called a Where Oblique Compasses Run. It was a love poem. We were expected to analyze the poetry. I frowned lightly. I didn't know literary methods nearly as well as I knew mathematical ones. How does one analyze a poem? It's just words. Pyrrha began to silently mark up her copy. Weiss had highlighters and was highlighting lines of text in different colors for her analysis.
"Take note of the kennings. What did the author mean by 'tear-flood?'" The professor asked. I continued to frown. What did the author mean? Or what did the author do? What was the difference? Was I supposed to form a meta analysis or a meta-meta analysis. Or was it more obvious than that. The professor read the poem aloud once and then we all set to work. I started writing on the use of the metaphor comparing his love to a star. I thought that was good enough. Stars are long lived. Especially compared to something as ephemeral as flowers which the author seemed to disparage as a false sign of love. I made note of it and tried to analyze it. I could tell that it was sloppy work. But there was only so much I knew how to do. Besides, what was the point of all this? We were here to slay monsters. I could see the usage of real analysis for our equipment but otherwise why did it matter if I could study poetry. I could read and write and do the basics.
When the bell rang we were shuffled along to combat class. The disciplinarian stood at the front. The deputy headmistress Glynda Goodwitch. Her scroll was hovering in the air next to her along with a data pad. Suspended on nothing. Combat. This was why I was here. I was here to learn this specifically. The other stuff I could muddle my way through but I truly was a beginner when it came to fighting.
We were all paired up with our partners and did combat down in the central ring one pair at a time. When it was my turn Pyrrha gave me a kindly smile and we went to separate locker rooms to change. I put on my armor and drew my sword. I took a few deep breaths before exiting onto the stage. Pyrrha joined me shortly after in her bronze armor with her red half cape sash. She wielded a sword which was also a spear and a rifle. She wielded it in conjunction with her round shield. I held my kite shield easily.
On go she opened fire and I flinched behind my shield. The bullets impacted the Titania and deflected off. Then she slipped in with her spear. She rotated it and delivered three quick thrusts before transitioning to a kneeling position and shooting twice.
I'd like to say I stopped her. I liked to say my attempts amounted to anything. But in the end she well and truly just hit me anyway. I clumsily swung at her and she deflected off her shield and riposted. Her rifle swiftly transitioned into a sword and delivered three quick cuts. She knocked me on my ass, she butchered me. When I got to my feet with a roll which I thought was okay in terms of grace she floored me again. She hit me so hard with her sword I went through half a backflip and landed flat on my back. She gave me an apologetic smile as I got up.
I didn't know what to do. I didn't feel like I had any answers. When I sliced at her with my blade she blocked, she let go of her sword to block behind her shield with both hands and as her sword rotated slowly in place beside her she hit me in the stomach with her gauntlets. Backhanded my face. Grabbed me by the collar and threw me over her body to the ground and she did it all so quickly she was able to grab her sword out of the air easily. She just casually plucked it with her right hand.
She shot me twice when I was on the ground. She glanced at the projector above us which displayed our aura and I realized, a touch belatedly as she whacked me with her sword that I hadn't hit her yet. Not that I was about hitting women but Pyrrha seemed like a badass and I was pretty sure that I couldn't afford to go easy on her. She was too good. She stabbed me with her spear. When I tried to block she pretty easily slipped past my attempt and bent me at the stomach. Then she reversed her grip on her spear and whacked me in the chin with the butt and in a swift motion took my legs out from under me with her shield. She shot me three times and reloaded in a fluid motion at the same time her rifle became a sword and she hit me with the blade. It sliced into my aura and took out a glowing white chunk. When I tried to cut her with a hastily attempted hacking motion she easily blocked with her blade in a roof and sliced me horizontally before hitting me in the stomach first from the right then from the left. She shot another glance up at the projector. Then shot me in the head. It rang me like a bell. I fell over and rubbed my forehead with a groan.
"And that's the match. Well done Ms. Nikos."
"Sorry Jaune." Pyrrha said to me as she helped me to my feet. I grimaced, chagrined as I looked at her. I sighed heavily. I didn't know anything about fighting and she trounced me like I was a stiff breeze. She gave me a soft smile and I smiled back a little. It was weak underneath. She was a real threat. SHe was a champion. I reminded myself of that as I looked into her bright green eyes. She seemed to be waiting for me to say something. She seemed content to wait.
"I just…" I managed to work my sore jaw from when she clotheslined me. It really hurt still. "I thought I'd do better. Anyway it doesn't matter. You did well. You should be proud." My eyes felt spicy. I was tired and sweaty. A trickle of sweat ran down the center of my back. My armor felt heavy and unnatural. I wasn't sure who I thought I was fooling. Fake transcripts were no good when I was bad. Pyrrha was the real deal and I just got a big dose of reality right to the spine.
"You'll get better. I'll help you," she vowed.
"Thanks," I sighed. I felt this weight in my soul. Like besides the emasculation of getting my ass kicked by a girl in front of the entire freshman class I felt like I had never even really stood close to a chance. I felt like there was nothing I could have done differently. Like a forced checkmate where Pyrrha hadn't even been looking at the pieces. Like some kind of blindfolded chess master. In fact I was pretty sure she could have beaten me blindfolded. I wasn't sure what to do. I returned to the locker room at the same time another boy was called up. A Cardin Winchester. As I made to move past him he shoulder checked me casually and I nearly cartwheeled into some lockers. I regained balance and shot him a confused look. He just snorted and began to strap on his armor.
"Good luck," I told him.
"I don't need luck. I'm not a little washed up faggot." His partner, a blonde haired boy named sky laughed into his hand.
I frowned a little. "Oh. Well. Okay."
I took off my armor and changed back into my school uniform. I was embarrassed about my body compared to Cardin's. He had muscle and I was so thin. His shoulders were broad and he was quite a bit taller than me. I exited and returned to my seat next to Ren and Pyrrha. I watched the next matches desperately like I might learn something. It was too fast really. I didn't learn much. Just how much I needed to practice. Ren gave me a small martial nod when I plopped down. I smiled back at him lightly. I was in it now.
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-WG