Not exactly a chapter I'm proud of, but eh... I write this just so that I can focus better. Apparently I have this attention span problem, and if I let it be any further, it will actually ruin my life. Like, actually ruin it because I can't do shit without forgetting what I'm doing seconds later.
Anyway, another boring ass chapter. Not much, just a copy-paste of the original version with some changes here and there. Y'know the drill.
-oOo-
People often said, an important moment in life won't be complete before the complete trainwreck that's nervous fit they needed to face first. Cold sweat, guts churning and overwhelming dizziness. A torture of a symptom at the most critical time. They say you just have to grit your teeth and clench your buttcheeks. They say it's all not real, it was all only in his mind and everything will be alright.
Jaune sadly had to digress.
Extreme nervousness or not, he personally feels like it has nothing to do with the sickening nausea he's having right about now. Curse aerial transportation, the bane of his existence.
Gripping tightly against the leather-bound notebook of his dear old Uncle, he deliberately tried to distract himself with it as the content of his stomach continued to roll and struggling to not spill itself out of him.
Everything sounds like a buzz to his ears, the jittery tapping of others, the few chattering, the heartbeats and the speech from the hologram form of a blond pretty lady. It all sounds like a noise from a distant land as he fought for his life.
The blond lady has stopped her speech by now, replaced by a robotic female voice that announced their landing. Jaune immediately leapt away.
"Oh gods, thank you!"
Using 100% capacity of two braincells, he immediately scanned his surrounding, captured his target within his sight and reached it in a span of few second before unloading the unholy concoction brewing within him.
"HOEEEKKK!!!"
Not exactly the most prideful moment of his life, but he definitely felt a blissful relief beyond imagination in that few seconds.
"Damn, he had it worse than you, Rubes." His ears idly caught someone commented behind him. "Maybe you can, like, try nervous-bonding with him and all that. Who knows, maybe you can be friends or something."
"I'm- er... Not sure..." Jaune sadly had to agree with her. His breath must have smelled horrid by now.
"Oh, c'mon now. This is an opportunity Ruby, opportunity! Who knows when will you get a chance to get an easy friend here anyway. And worse, gods forbid, what if he's the only one who are willing to be friend with you?"
"Y-Yang! Why are you scaring me like that!?"
"I'm just saying..."
"Fine!"
The tiniest noises of steps reached his ears soon enough. And before he knows it, a hand was tapping against his back slightly in a very weird manner as if it was unsure whether it wanted to comfort him or simply catching his attention.
Jaune turned, face still pale but with his inside feels empty enough by now he had enough confidence to hold a conversation without ruining it. But gods know he needed to wash his mouth and his face right now.
"H-hi!" The shaky smile says it all, "A-are, erm... You good...?"
Wow, she's worse than me. That's sorta amazing...
"...never been... better..." A self-deprecating chuckles slipped away from his lips.
"T-that's... W-well, that's... great...?" She paused, still unsure of what she needed to say, before giving him another awkward smile, "um... I'm Ruby! R-Rose. Ruby Rose. And that's my sis, Ya- Yang?"
Looks of confusion flashed in her face as she turned around and called someone's name, probably the other voice. The girl, Ruby, continued to look for 'Yang' like a lost puppy before slight anger and panic settled in her once confused features before she put her hood up. "...darn it, Yaaaang!" She murmured.
"Ruby?" Jaune called the girl.
"Y-yes?"
"Name's Jaune, Jaune Arc. Er, you go ahead first if you want to find to find this 'Yang', I'm looking for restroom to wash my face anyway. But thank you, really, for your concern."
"O-oh! You're welcome, I guess..." Another pause, then she abruptly, and without much thought he suspected, blurted out a question, "Can I come with you?... N-not in the men's restroom! I just- just... w-wanna tag along... s-sorry. I don't know much about this place and don't wanna get lost. That would be embarrassing."
"Er, sure, I guess."
The silent between them was just as awkward and as awful as their earlier conversation. Even after Jaune had grown out of his social ineptitude many months ago, he was still unsure at how to approach the jittery girl when all he knows about her is that she needed some help before she got a panic attack. Gods, that one friend who abandoned her needed to get an earful from him.
Though, speaking of the girl, Jaune had to admit that she was particularly cute, in a weird combination of nerdiness and tomboyness. She was dressed in, albeit yet again weird, corset and hooded cape that matches really well with the black and red gothic dress underneath it. It was even more shame for him to know that the first time he met someone as gorgeous as her was happening at one of his worse moment.
Trying to distract himself from the girl, Jaune's eyes wandered away to inspect the campus ground of Beacon Academy. The place was large, ridiculously so and looked beyond majestic, like a castle straight out of high fantasy fiction. Complete with a massive wizard tower at the exact center of the building. And before he knows it, he had found his destination.
"I'll be going." Giving her a somewhat encouraging smile, Jaune disappeared into the room.
"Y-yeah, sure. G-Go on! I will wait here! Promi-!" And with a turn of a knob, he drowned her muffled voice with a stream of water.
Starting from his hand, he began to wash his hands. The way the cold water ran across his skin was nothing short but relaxing and calming. He could almost felt his heartbeats finally slowing down thanks to it. Then he drank the water, cleansing his throat from what remains of vomit still stuck in there. The coldness soothes him. And then he brought it to his face. Believe it or not, there was still boogres stuck on his eyes. And then, then-
Jaune took a breathe, deep heavy breathe while blood keeps pumping into his head and cold sweat drips from his back.
"This is it."
Or is this it?
Doubt he had suppressed for so long and so hard resurfaced, rearing its ugly head to be faced with him again. There was a faint whispers in the air, but he was afraid of drowning if he listens to it.
They all looked ready, more ready than him and most probably more capable than him. It was even funny in a bad way that his guts was telling him Ruby was probably more capable than him despite acting like she might faint at any moment. The fact that she was lugging around what appears to be some mechashift weapon behind her back convinced him more than enough.
He was afraid. Not of dying, somehow he had never been afraid of it, no. He was more afraid of failing. Failure, no good, nothing. A brand that he himself put on himself and had always plagued him even until now. Sometimes he even thought that dying here in this initiation will be much better than not achieving anything.
Looking at his own reflection on the mirror before him, the picture of calmness hiding away storm was what he found there. A mask his uncle had sculpted all these months. 'Fake it till you make it', his father used to say. It was funny in an ironic way that his Uncle shared the same principle but only in a more extreme way.
Needless to say, the only training he had so far was nothing more than an inpromptu bootcamp at his Uncle's backyard.
"Adapt, Jaune, adapt. Don't hope, don't pray, just do it." Jaune took a long deep breath, the slapping his own face.
Turning off the sink, he walked out of the restroom with a newfound resolve in his heart and fear buried deep. He was somewhat surprised to find Ruby was still outside, patiently waiting for him by idling with his scroll. The girl looked quite annoyed before she noticed his presence.
"H-hey, er... You good?"
"Never been better." This time, there was no sarcasm in his tone. "So... What's your plan now?"
"M-me!?"
"Yeah. I just felt like I needed to do something in exchange for bothering you with my own mess. Also, I was completely lost here. Had no idea where to go honestly."
"Erm... We can... Uhh... Like-" The girl, rather than giving him ana answer, just stuttered out gibberish to the point where she was sweating bullet from sheer amount of embarassment.
"Alright, how about we sit down and take a breathe?" He suggested, before flopping down unto the paved ground without a second of thought. "See? Just, relax, calm down. It's only me, Ruby. Would you ever be scared of someone who just puked his breakfast out?"
"N-no...? Unless you puked at my... boots, I'm-... Um... I will try to shut up now.." She looked down at the ground beside him and took a deep breath. "M-may I?"
"Sure!"
Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground with hesitation. Wind passes between them as Jaune stayed silent for awhile, bringing to it a soothing cold breeze that made the silence less unbearable at least for him.
"So."
"S-so?"
"I feels like we should have another introduction going. It's just that, I don't think we're at the best of our moment back then and I don't really want to have that mess be a core memory if this friendship thingy will go on for a long time." Personally, he did find their situation a bit silly if not tragic.
"...so...?"
"I'll start first. Name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies's love it."
She suddenly snorted, "D-does they?" Baby step!
"At least me mum did. Apparently my old man caught her with that, according to him that is. You?" He flashes her an equally goofy smile.
She was giggling by now, "R-Ruby Rose, and I don't have any dorky catchphrase."
"Hey, personally I think that everyone needs to have it. It adds charm and... personality to their character, y'know. You should try it too, maybe you won't be so shy if you did."
"If I did, I would die first from the cringe, Jaune."
"Well, who knows." He paused, before looking at her, "Why are you shy anyway? I reckon cute girl like you would be popular or at least attract attentions on daily basis."
The sudden question was more than enough to caught her off guard, but luckily for him, despite the embarassed blush, Ruby didn't shy away and hid herself inside her shell like before, "C-cute? You think I'm cute?"
"Yeah. What? You think you are not?"
"Er... Yeah, I guess. At least I knew a lot more people who are prettier than me. My sis are one of them." She blushed again, "And also most people thinks that I'm the weird kid with too much love for weapons I guess."
"Tell you what, I'll take the honor of calling you cute then! And about weapons, like weapons? As in general? I do have some love for guns and general firearms anyway, so maybe we can be like, hobby buddies?"
Apparently, Jaune has spoken the absolute trigger word because Ruby immediately do a complete 180 of her personality and start to look at him like an excited puppy. He even had to suppress himself from jumping away in surprise once she leaptz literally leapt to his face with a megawatt grin.
"Guns? Guns!?"
"Er... Yeah? Though I had all of my equipment transported here first. That's why I looked like a bum with this hoody and trackpants on."
"O-oh... Awww..." Jaune felt like he had just kicked a dog. Crap basket.
"Maybe I can show you on later. And not all of my collections are here anywa-"
"How many guns did you have?" Again, Jaune held himself from jumping away.
"Not much, six if I remember correctly." He was still not sure whether sacrificing his comic reading hobby for those guns are worth it or not, "Three of them are pistols. The rest are this old mini-14 I got, my uncle's M4 and this brand new Bizon I bought. I'm planning to buy a shotgun that I can use with one hand, but hadn't really found one though."
"That. Was. Awesome!" She screamed, "Promise I can see them, Jaune. Promise!?"
"Sure." By now, Jaune was getting more used with her sudden outburst and played along with it, "I only have my Bizon and pistols though."
"That's more than fine! And you say you wanted one handed shotguns? Why don't we build it ourselves!"
"Build it?"
"Yeah, here. Meet Crescent Rose." She carefully took the red block from her back and with a click of button Jaune had no idea where, the thing springs to life and turned into some sort of rifle. "I build this baby by myself!"
"Er... Okay..." Unfortunately, he was still confused at how he was supposed to react to that information.
"It's a bold-action sniper rifle, chambered with 50. caliber BMG." the things sprung again and expanded into its final form. "And it was also a giant scythe."
Jaune blinked.
...
"Where do I sign for you to help me build a compact light machine gun I can shoot singlehandedly without ruining my arm?"
"Just give me a handshake, good sir!"
"I can already feel a beautiful relationship blooming here, Ruby."
Their hands clapped loudly against one another before they shook it with mutual respect. Ideas began to form in Jaune's head for his own nonsensical armory with the help of this little genius while Ruby was simply just overjoyed by the fact that she had gained the bestest friend ever in her life.
Sadly, the moment was ruined when a ring came from one of Ruby's pocket. She yelped away in surprise, frantically looking for the source of it before almost the ringing scroll in panic. "Er... Hello?"
"Ruby, where the heck are you!? I've been looking for you for an hour. Hour, Ruby!" Jaune remembered that voice, the one who accompanied Ruby before disappearing away without any notice or warning. The hologram on her scroll showed a girl with a fierce features and long flowing hair.
Ruby, contrary to his believe, rather than shrinking down, simply double down and grumbled back indignantly, "Well, I hope that will teach you for ditching me all alone with Vomit Boy."
'Vomit Boy?'
"Anyway, I have found my future husband, Yang, so you don't need to be worried. Jaune, say hello to her."
"Hi sis!" He waved, playing along with Ruby's little game.
"What the-? Wha- You know what, I don't care, just come here quickly will you. The opening ceremony is about to begin. Just walk inside the big ass gate and you will know where you're going. I'll wait, and we'll have a talk."
"Alright, bye sis!" "See ya later sis in law!"
Ruby cut her the connection off the moment before they can fully hear her exasperated scream. The two of them began to snicker and laught by themselves at the gag they just played before Jaune gave her his arm to hold, "Alright, Wifey, we need to find your sis so I can ask for her blessing!"
"Sure Hubby!" She latches on to it, still trying to breath through the fit of laugh she was having.
Beautiful indeed.
-oOo-
""Hello sis!""
It was Ruby and Jaune, arms linked like a couple and goofy grins on their faces. Ignoring all the weird looks they had garnered, they stood as confidently as they can in fron tof their target. Might not have been the best plan, but watching the girl's unimpressed stare and twitching eyebrow felt worth it even to Jaune.
Siblings are there to be bothered after all!
"Hello sis, name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, Ruby loves it! I'm humbly asking you to bless our marriage with happiness!"
"Yeah, and lots of babies (guns)! We are planning to have at least tens of them!"
Their gag continued and absolutely unhelpful to their case.
"Wow, har har, congratulations." Comes the flat answer, "Now drop the act, everyonecs watching. Even I felt embarrassed."
Unfortunately, she was right. No matter how funny it is, this is still a public space, and they are making fun of themselves. Some were even vocal with their opinion.
"Excuse me, could the two of you be quiet?" A shrill voice quietly asked from behind them.
A girl of pale complexion and equally white hair stood before them as they turned around comically. A perfect picture of prim and proper, with unmatched beauty that reminded him too much to a glass art. Funnily enough, for someone who looked at them so haughtily, she was actually stood on a shorter height than Ruby.
"Er... Yeah, sorry."
"Good, and to you, the brute with blond hair." The girl suddenly pulled out a giant thick book out of gods know where and handed it forward. Jaune simply blinked at it.
"Wha-?"
"Not you, the other one." Does that she also sees him as a brute?
"Godsdamnit, can't you drop it, Princess?" But behind him Yang grumbled to the girl with a guilty look on her face. Ruby and Jaune simply watched them from sidelines.
"As if! As the heiress of Schnee Dust Company, I'm compelled to teach ignorant fool like you knowledge of dust's proper care and the danger of it lest you put a lot more life in risk because of your inability to be a civilized individual!"
"Hey, just so you know! I sneezed on that dust because you yourself are incapable of actually properly store it! Who in world would carry around dust in a cart like it was a fricking grocery!"
The other girl gasped as if she has just been scandalized, but before she can continue on, Jaune stood in between them and put his hands on each of their shoulders.
"Woah! Woah! Woah! Ceasefire, ceasefire! Calm down, ladies! Why don't we chill out and calm down, okay." He turned towards Ruby, "Ruby, hold your sister, please."
He didn't wait for her affirmation before turning his attention to the other girl, "And you, miss um..."
"Weiss Schnee, you ignorant buffoon. And take your hand off me."
"Yes, yes, Ms. Weiss." He didn't take his hand away but rather he take the book from her grasp and put it into his jacket' pocket, "How about I graciously take this... lesson myself so I can teach her in a more understandable manner? "
"You will?"
"Yes, yes, now!" He put his other hand on her other shoulders and spun her around before she could voice her complain, "Why don't we forget about this and let past be bygones, okay? That way, you don't have to waste your precious time and effort."
"Hmph, at the very least one of you plebeians understood what it means to be civilized. I will be on my own way then!" And with that, she disappeared away without even a nudge from him, giving Jaune the time to let out the breathes he had been holding for awhile.
"Holy crap, what's up with that girl?"
"Beats me." Yang replied, "I've been minding my own business before she came and ruin my day."
"What about the sneezed on the dust part?" Ruby piped in.
"That's! That's-! Erm... That one is an accident alright, accident! It's not my fault anyway she was bringing these dusts around like grocery from dollar store. Can we- ugh..." She groaned, "Can we drop this, please?"
Right on cue, the room suddenly become much quieter as light began to gather around the podium at the forefront of the auditorium. A man with grey hair and a elegant piece of cane strode forward. His gaze, cold and sharp roamed the room as if judging each and every single one of them. And for a moment, when Jaune's eyes met his, a glint of mischief appeared in them.
"Greetings." He started, and the room immediately fell into a total silent, "You may refer me as Headmaster Ozpin. I'm here to greet you to Beacon Academy and welcome you should you succeeded in my trial. Prepare yourself."
Jaune glanced right and left once the man stopped talking and walked away, unsure at how to react to the... speech if that could ever be called one.
"That was quick." He couldn't agree more.
"Well, at least we won't have to stand and wait till he finishes. The initiation is actually tomorrow right?" They hummed in response, "Right, so... Anyway, I wanna take a look at my stuff, see if it had arrived already. Wanna see my big iron, Rubes?"
"Why are you still asking dummy? Of course I a-"
"Ahem." Yang suddenly cleared her throat, hand snaked around Ruby tiny shoulders, "I think the two of us got some... businesses to do here, Jaune. Sister's business. You won't mind, won't you?" And he felt like there's no room for a no right at that moment.
"Sure." Jaune, being the smart man that he is, avoided the obvious land trap and graciously walked away. "See ya later, Ruby!"
"J-Jaune! No! W-wait! Noooo!" The betrayal in her scream was hard to ignore, but Jaune wasn't in the mood to tempt fate that day. Thank you very much.
-oOo-
Pyrrha had always wondered just what exactly made her so famous that the entire world decided she was a worldwide celebrity with people worshipping her as if she was a goddess. Her management team may have played a part, er... well, a significant role to her fame but still, she's just a girl y'know! Funny thing about it is the fact that all the tournaments she won are just local competitions, and they were only for children or teenagers.
That never stop them to worship the ground she walked on anyway. And it all thanks to her management team's effort to embellish and hyperbole the slightest detail of her story.
They really are the sole reason of her terrible experiences, aren't they?
Now, you might be wondering, why would Pyrrha Nikos, the Undefeatable Goddess of Victory, the Unchallenged Champion of Mistral Combat (Student) Tournament, and the face of various famous daily and luxury product, was having all these monologue about her terrible life?
Such was happening because: One, apparently just because she assumed that she had only won a local tournaments, she won't be known that easily here at Beacon; And Two, there's just as much people who loved and idolized here as they are in Mistral; Three, somehow, in some way, someone as high as the Heiress of Schnee Dust Company at the social hierarchy was among those people who almost mobbed here.
The good news is Weisss Schnee was at least a decent enough human being to respect her personal space. The bad news is...
"And that's why I personally believe that with the two of us in collaboration, we shall be the strongest and the greatest Huntresses to ever graduatd from Beacon Academy. Also-"
She was a terrible sales pitch, and with each passing seconds, Pyrrha got more uninterested with her already unappealing offer. Bless her mother for teaching her how to maintain public image because if she hadn't, Pyrrha would have caused a few international accident right in this place.
Suddenly, between her dying in the inside and Weiss Schnee continuous rant, a third voice butted in with a cough. Pyrrha turned away to see a young man with a blonde hair stood before them. A smile was on his face, not quite fake or forced, but still looked unsure yet strangely also confident and amicable at the same time.
"Ahem, excuse me, er... you two."
"Oh, it's you..." Surprisingly, it was the other girl who reacted first.
"Oh, Ms. Weiss! Fancy meeting you here." Even Pyrrha can actually tell just how forced that greeting was. But knowing the Schnee girl, even from brief interaction, that was enough to please her most likely giant ego.
"Yes, yes, now could please vacate yourself from our presence? If you haven't noticed yet, we're rather busy with an important matter here." And before could even offer her own thought, the girl simply brushed his presence away.
"First thing first, I'm sorry for butting in but... the thing is, I just wanna get to my locker and funnily enough, the thing was exactly by your side." The blond chuckled goodheartedly. "Er... Would you two mind?"
This time however, before Weiss could open her mouth, Pyrrha took the initiative and pushed the girl to the side, "Of course, yes! Sorry if we're bothering you, er..."
"Jaune. Jaune Arc. Short, sweet and ladies love it." Pyrrha failed to hold back a sudden chortle.
"Haha. Are they?"
"Well according to me mum at least, bless her soul." He continued to chatter while opening the metal locker, "Anyway, the other missus I knew her name already, met her in a not so best circumstances. What about you?"
And that was when it all clicked in place. Pyrrha's hand shoot out towards Weiss' mouth before she could ruin the moment with her most likely explosive reaction while she continued to smile. "O-oh, er... It's Pyrrha... Pyrrha Nikos." And she held her breath.
"Cool. Nice to meet you, Pyrrha."
The blond, Jaune, hadn't even batted an eye when he addressed her. It might have been a little bit too excessive, but Pyrrha felt like crying at that exact moment.
The loud bang from Jaune when closed the locker snapped her out of her reverie, "Anywau, I'm famished. Are you down for a dinner Pyrrha?" T-that-! That's too quick!
"T-that would lovely, yes." Her answer come too quickly, "Can we be friends?" Her next sentence came out much more quicker than the last one.
Jaune turned to look at her quizzically and began to blink, and Pyrrha was so afraid that he might think of her as this weird girl. At that moment, Pyrrha realized that this is the result of having to wear a mask of politeness since her childhood. She might have the reliable and undefeatable persona of a champion, but once you strip that away from her and she was nothing more than an awkward girl who had no idea how to have a genuine relationship with someone else.
Luckily for her however, Jaune didn't put much thought on her strange behaviours, strange people are daily occurrence to him anyway, "Sure thing!"
"Great! Er.. I mean uh... I'm- I'm gonna take my jacket and masker first.. i-if you don't mind." She quickly supplied, "I don't really like large crowd."
"Sure!" Jaune had to admit, he was starting to feels tired saying that same phrase, "Honestly can relate. I'm also not that comfortable eating in public space. Fair warning, I ate like a horse. Oh I forgot, Weiss, do you wanna join us?"
Once again, with her hand on Weiss' mouth, Pyrrha answered the question for the squirming girl, "Er... I-I actually she had a plan after this so..." And then Pyrrha ungraciously threw her away without much thought, "And there she goes! A-anyway let's get going, shall we?"
"But-?" She put her hands on his broad shoulders, then pushed him forward.
"Aren't you hungry, Jaune? L-like, really hungry? I think we should get going by now." There was a muffled scream, calling for her name as she continued to push Jaune forward. By then, the boy had completely leaned into her hold as if it was little fun game they have.
"You know, I think you're pretty weird." Her heart nearly dropped by then, "The good kind of weird. I also am weird, but I think your weirdness is cuter than mine. I don't think I'll regret this friendship, just to let you know."
And she nearly leapt by then.