"I know you were part of the White Fang." Jaune said.
Panic shot through Blake's body in an instant, eyes widening in shock for a split second before she calmed herself. Surely, he had meant the Old Fang when her father still led?
"I was, yes." Blake confirmed, trying to play it off. "As a kid, I would attend the rallies led by my father and-."
Her hopes were dashed as soon as Jaune shook his head, his royal blue eyes meeting her amber ones. He hadn't said anything further.
He hadn't needed to.
"How?" She whispered, taking a step backward. "How could you-"
"Tukson's." He answered before she could finish. "I overheard everything, Blake."
Blake took another step back, preparing to flee as fear overwhelmed her. Her true secret had been exposed. She… She needed to run again. She needed to leave before she was caught and arrested!
So why did she hesitate?
Why did her legs refuse to retreat further? Why did some small part of her battle against her urge to escape?
"No one else knows," he promised her. "Please Blake, just tell me what's going on. I want to help."
"… Why?" she asked, her voice hushed, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "This doesn't have anything to do with you!"
"It has everything to do with me," he countered softly. "Because it has to do with you. You're my partner, Blake. More importantly, you're my friend."
"Jaune, we've known each other for all of a week."
"Doesn't matter," he said with a shake of his head. "A week, a month, a year: All it takes to make a friend is a good conversation and a mutual understanding."
"Is that another one of your mom's sayings?" Blake asked with a raised brow.
"It is, actually." Jaune admitted with a smile. "It goes hand-in-hand with her saying about strangers."
"I see…" She couldn't exactly refute the statement either. Despite their short time together, she did come to consider Jaune a friend. A good friend, at that.
Jaune gestured for her to take a seat next to him. Nervously, she did so, sitting slightly further up on the bed and leaving a small space between them. Silence befell them for a moment as they thought over their next words with much deliberation, both of them taking small, furtive glances at each other but not meeting each other's eyes.
"… Would you feel more comfortable knowing one of my secrets?" Jaune asked suddenly, catching Blake's attention. Seeing her slightly befuddled expression, he explained. "I'm already keeping two of yours, but you don't know any of mine. Maybe if I leveled the playing field, you could trust me a bit more?"
Seemingly thinking over his offer, Blake accepted it with a slight nod. The blond took a moment to ready himself, taking a deep breath before meeting her gaze.
"I know that Weiss likes me. I've been pretending not to notice for years."
The cat Faunus blinked owlishly at him. "What? Why?"
"Because I'm scared." Jaune turned away from her, eyes locked to the floor. "I'm scared of things changing between us, like it did between her mom and my dad."
"What do your parents have to do with this?" she asked confusedly. As far as she knew, the only interaction between their families had been a business adventure between Nicholas Schnee and Aerarius Arc.
Jaune sighed quietly as he explained. "Our parents, Ferrum Arc and Willow Schnee, used to date."
"What!?" Blake's eyes widened comically in surprise.
"Surprising, right?" Jaune remarked with a chuckle. "Just like us, our parents grew up together. They were each other's best friends for most of their lives. They started dating around the time my dad entered Beacon. Dad said it was some of the happiest times of his life."
"What happened?" Blake asked curiously.
"Jacques Gelé happened." Jaune said, his hands tightening into fists. "The Schnee Dust Company was failing, and so too was Nicholas Schnee's health. Jacques offered to save the SDC in exchange for Willow's hand in marriage. Willow, out of duty and obligation, accepted.
"My father was devastated. Nineteen years of friendship and love were gone in an instant. They didn't speak again until Nicholas' funeral several years later and didn't rekindle their friendship until a year after that, when Weiss' sister Winter was born. Even then, what they had before could never fully be repaired."
Jaune seemed to reminisce, eyes closing and a small smile crossing his face as a pleasant memory came to mind—Blake immediately guessed he was thinking of Weiss. After a moment, the smile was gone, replaced by a deep frown. "First my grandfather with Robin, then my father with Willow. Of all the things I want to emulate from my forefathers, losing my best friend is not one of them. I know I'm not being fair to Weiss, but I am simply too scared of being hurt to play anything but the fool."
He fell back to lay across the bed. "And now I have to worry about Pyrrha's feelings as well. No matter what I choose, someone is going to get hurt, and it's going to be my fault."
His pleading gaze turned to her once more. "So please, Blake. Let me help you, if only so I can run away from my own problems for a bit longer."
"… Okay." She finally relented, causing him to sit up to listen.
Blake told him everything from beginning to end: Why she ran away, who Adam was, why she came to Beacon; she left no stone unturned. Throughout it all, Jaune kept silent, only nodding every so often and never once looking at her with a judging gaze. Once she finished telling her story, she waited apprehensively for Jaune's response.
She was caught completely by surprise when he leaned over to hug her. She stiffened, flinching as his arms gently wrapped around her. Slowly, however, her body relaxed in his embrace, immersing itself in his comforting warmth.
It had been… a long time since she was held like this. It reminded her of her father when he would hold her as a little girl. She felt safe, a feeling she had nearly forgotten until recently.
"I know it wasn't easy for you to talk about your past." His voice was quiet, almost soothing. "Thank you for trusting me. You won't regret it."
She nodded slightly, reaching up to grab ahold of his arm. They stayed like that for a moment before Jaune pulled away, his face the picture of seriousness. "So how can I help?"
"There's nothing to help with," she explained. "Until Tukson gets back to me with new info, we just bide our time. But when he does, I'll let you know."
"All right." He said with a nod. His eyes glanced towards the clock, noting the time. "We should probably meet up with Weiss and Pyrrha; see how they're doing."
Blake nodded in agreement. They left the infirmary and made their way to the combat arena, traveling in relative silence.
Suddenly, Blake spoke up. "Jaune."
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad it was you who found out." She flashed a small smile at him. "Thank you for being so supportive. You're a good friend."
He returned it brightly. "No problem."
{ I }
When they finally arrived, they were met with a chaotic aftermath of their teammates' spar. The entire platform was coated in a layer of frost, with several spikes of ice protruding menacingly forward as if to impale someone. At the center of the arena were Weiss and Pyrrha, both panting with exertion. Weiss seemed significantly more haggard than her partner, though Pyrrha was not unscathed either. They were so completely focused on one another that they seemed to not have noticed them enter.
Only when Jaune spoke did they seem to break from their battle trance. "Um… girls? What are you doing?"
They both fell back into relaxed stances as they turned to address him. Pyrrha spoke first, as she was the first to catch her breath. "Hello Jaune. It seems that we forgot that Ms. Goodwitch has already stored your weapon away. However, since we were already here, we thought it'd be a wonderful opportunity to spar."
"Did Weiss put up a good fight?" Blake asked dryly, holding no illusions as to who was winning before they interrupted.
"Quite so, yes." Pyrrha confirmed, twirling Miló in her hand before strapping it to her back. "I've never had to deal with so much Dust before." The redhead tossed a look back at her partner. "She is certainly a worthy opponent."
Weiss returned it defiantly. "As are you. I never imagined I could come across such a challenging foe. To think that foe was also my partner…"
"It's, uh, it's almost time for dinner." Jaune interjected awkwardly. "We should probably head back to our dorm and wash up if we wanna make it in time."
The feuding pair nodded as they made their way down the platform. Weiss seemingly stumbled from exhaustion, falling onto Jaune's chest.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Jaune." She apologized quietly. "It appears I'm more tired than I thought. Could you help me walk back?"
"Sure," Jaune chuckled, letting her cling onto his left arm and lean against him.
As they walked away, Weiss turned her head back to send a smug smirk to Pyrrha before facing forward, leaning her head against Jaune's shoulder. Pyrrha's green eyes seemed to grow even greener as she watched on in envy, a pout on her lips.
Blake let a small laugh escape her: Pyrrha may have won the battle, but Weiss was winning the war.
{ II }
Things calmed down after the duel, with a couple of weeks passing by in relative peace. Cardin still sneered and glowered at Jaune whenever they passed one another, but the two never shared another word between them.
Weiss and Pyrrha still fought for their leader's attention but were much more subtle about it: They were never again so bold as to steal a kiss from his lips. It served to be an entertaining pastime for Blake, who derived pleasure not just from the partner pair quarreling over Jaune, but also from how the boy in question played the oblivious fool to such an impeccable degree.
Despite no longer needing to, Yang still offered to spar with Jaune on occasion, having come to enjoy fighting against the knight.
"You make a great punching bag," She told him. It may have sounded like an insult, but it was actually a compliment to Jaune's endurance and stamina. He was probably the only one in their year who was able to take a Semblance-boosted punch from the fiery blonde and still remain standing afterward. It forced her to think more strategically than she was used to, since she couldn't rely on her Semblance to end the fight before her boost was exhausted.
Jaune grunted as he took the full force of Yang's punch on his shield, sliding back slightly from the immediate shotgun blast following it. He shoved his shield forward, pushing her back before darting forward with his sword and scoring a hit on her thigh. He retreated into a guard before she could retaliate, causing her to growl in frustration. Seeing as her eyes were not yet red, Jaune knew he could safely block against her next few hits.
"You're already wearing a full suit of armor!" Yang yelled angrily as she charged in, delivering a flurry of blows in an attempt to blow open his guard. "Why the hell do you need a giant-ass shield, too?"
Dodging one of his counter-thrusts, Yang slipped to his side and grasped his shield firmly in her hands. With a roar, she wrenched his arm down and sent a lightning-fast jab into his face, blasting him with a spray of buckshot point-blank.
His head snapped back from the force of the punch, but he powered through the pain. With his eyes shut tight and ears ringing, Jaune thrusted his shield arm up, lifting Yang into air and flipping her behind him. Yang let go before he could slam her into the ground, flipping onto her feet before launching herself at him once more before the knight could regain his bearings.
Suddenly, Jaune had shifted Crocea Mors into its greatsword form, thrusting the large blade in her direction. Yang, moving too fast to stop herself, jumped over his sword and made to shower him with lead. The knight pivoted the moment she was in the air, swinging his greatsword up and releasing the lock connecting the Shielthe to his sword, sending it flying up and into Yang's gut. The force of the projectile sent her flying upwards and into the ceiling, her body impacting with a loud 'SMACK' before falling down to the ground in a heap.
Yang audibly groaned in pain, but Jaune did not approach her, instead drawing White Rose and keeping a fair distance between them with the pistol pointed at her prone form. The last time he tried to help her, he received a Semblance-empowered fist to his chin. He would not fall for it again.
"I believe Jaune won this one, Yang." Pyrrha said from her seat, an apologetic smile on her face.
The long-haired blonde made a dissatisfied noise as she sat up, a pout on her face. "Stupid shield, sheathe, whatever it is," She mumbled angrily, throwing the armament back to Jaune with a slight amount of contempt.
Jaune caught it with one hand, collapsing it and hanging it on his belt before putting away his weapons. Now that the fight was over, he walked over to Yang and helped her up to her feet. "That's why I have it." He said with a chuckle, taking off his helmet.
Yang paused for a moment before grinning predatorily. Swiftly, she grabbed Jaune's hand and pulled it to her stomach. "I can't believe you knocked me up like that, Jaune." She spoke huskily with half-lidded eyes. "You gave me such a tummy-ache. Can you fill me with your white stuff and make it feel better?"
Both Jaune and Pyrrha stiffened visibly at her words, mouths agape and faces reddening with embarrassment. "P-Please don't say it like that!" He yelped after finding his voice.
His fellow blonde cackled loudly, her seductive façade melting away in the blink of an eye. "The looks on your faces!" Wiping a tear from her as she calmed down, she continued. "Hah, but seriously, mind if I get a pick-me-up, Doc Arc?"
Face still flushed, Jaune did as she asked, hands glowing as he amplified her Aura. Yang let out a small sigh, a soothing warmth enveloping her abdomen as her pain faded away. Pyrrha watched enviously at the exchange. When Jaune was finished, she stood up and approached.
"Do you think you have enough energy to take me on as well?" The redhead asked them.
The blondes shared a slight grimace.
Without the need to train specifically against Cardin, Pyrrha took a much more active role in their spars. Whereas Jaune provided Yang an opponent who could take her hits, she provided a foe who Yang couldn't hit. The Mistrali champion made any battle she partook in seem like a ferocious dance, flowing gracefully from one strike to the next and never letting the brawler land a clean blow.
Jaune fared little better than his female counterpart. He was able to make Pyrrha work a bit harder, though that was more by virtue of her getting tired from kicking his ass than it was by proving a match against her martial prowess.
Normally, they'd have Nora to balance things out, but the ginger had been forced to catch up on school work at Ren's insistence. Without their third, neither blonde felt confident in their chance of victory against Pyrrha.
That said, they were both steadily improving under the redhead's tutelage. Considering that the three of them were already at the top of their Combat Class meant that they could most likely match against their seniors and win.
Speaking of which…
"Heya freshmen!" Coco yelled as she and her team entered the training arena, saving the blondes from their certain doom. Velvet visibly perked up upon meeting Jaune's gaze, smiling brightly as she waved at him. Behind them were the rest of their team: Fox Alistair and Yatsuhashi Daichi. Fox was dark-skinned with burnt orange hair. The teen was blind, which made his admittance into Beacon all the more impressive. Yatsuhashi, in contrast with the rest of his team, was a proverbial giant, taller and bulkier than even Cardin at a jaw-dropping seven feet tall.
Jaune waved at the sophomores. "Hey there, guys. What's up?"
"Nothing much." Coco replied. "Just heard you were in the neighborhood and decided to stop by." She looked around for a moment. "Where's the rest of your team?"
"Weiss is studying and Blake's reading her books."
"Hmph, how unfortunate. I wanted to pay the Schnee back for robbing my store blind."
Jaune chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "Y-Yeah, uhm… sorry about that. I didn't mean to take advantage of your generosity."
Coco waved him off. "I'm just teasing, Arc. Like I said, that product was already on its way out. Besides, I heard you guys donated whatever you didn't want to a charity, so it's a publicity win for the both of us." Her lips split in a wide grin. "Plus, it's funny to think that a bunch of orphans and poor kids will be better dressed than most white-collar families."
"Haha, yeah…" Jaune laughed, still feeling guilty over the entire ordeal.
"Anyways," Coco continued, gaze shifting from him to Pyrrha and Yang. "We didn't stop by just to chat. I was hoping my team could spar with your little group."
The three freshmen shared a look, somewhat surprised by the challenge. "Is there a particular reason why?" Pyrrha asked.
"Eh, yes and no." The chique brunette replied with a shrug. "Vel wanted a reason to see Sir Arc and the rest of us wanted to kill some time."
"Coco!" Velvet screamed with embarrassment.
"What? Do you want me to lie, bun bun?" She teased. "I don't like lying."
"But you are lying, you cunt!" The Faunus hissed, shocking the freshmen. They had not expected such a cute girl to swear like that.
"Oof," Fox chuckled. "Hard 'c' on that one, boss."
"I love it when she gets feisty." Coco purred.
Turning on a dime to face her juniors, she tried to explain herself with a pleading look. "Please don't listen to her! My team wanted to spar with you since your duel. That's why she brought us here."
"My partner is correct." Yatsuhashi chimed in. "I am eager to test my blade against yours."
Jaune sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I'm flattered, but I don't think I'm as good as you make me out to be."
Fox held up a hand. "You're good, or so I hear, but don't forget that we're also interested in your friends." The teen's milky-white eyes seemed to stare into the girls at Jaune's side. "The Invincible Girl and the Dragon of Signal: Two very famous names for such fresh meat."
"You want a taste of my knuckle sandwich, buster?" Yang growled.
The dark-skinned teen smiled. "You wouldn't hit a blind guy, would you?"
"Don't tempt me."
Coco her hip back, a challenging grin on her face. "So what do you say, freshmen? Feel like playing with the big kids for a bit?"
"Our teams seem a bit unbalanced." Pyrrha stated stoically. "I hope you aren't thinking of bullying your juniors?"
"Right, right, don't worry. Bun bun?" She pointed to the seats with a wink. "You can sit this one out. Just watch and learn, m'kay?"
"Are you girls really okay with this?" Jaune asked his friends.
Yang flipped her hair over her shoulder, eyes blazing with fury. "They're talking some really big shit. I wanna see them back it up."
Pyrrha also seemed to have a competitive aura about her, brandishing her weapons with a flourish. "There is much knowledge to be gained by fighting more experienced opponents. This could be good for us." Her eyes narrowed. "That is, of course, if they've truly earned their arrogance."
"Careful there, Red." Coco warned. "You might be hot stuff in the ring, but the real world isn't as neat and clean as your tournaments. Team CFVY is ranked first among the second-years for a reason."
"Maybe you're just the best of a bad bunch." Yang taunted.
"Then you better not lose to us, hot shot." Fox fired back.
As their teammates continued their pre-fight banter, Yatsuhashi and Jaune shared an apologetic look.
"Please forgive my teammates." Yatsuhashi said with a bow. "They say these things only to rile up your friends. They do not mean any of it."
"Same here." Jaune replied, donning his helmet once more. "No hard feelings?"
The behemoth of a teen smiled. "None whatsoever."
The two groups took to their sides of the arena after synching their scrolls with the heads-up display and setting the countdown timer.
Team CFY vs Team JNX
As soon as the buzzer rang, the makeshift Team JNX sprang into action, charging forward in a burst of speed. Fox leapt forward to engage Yang, but Coco and Yatsuhashi waited patiently behind.
Pyrrha paired off with Coco, who coolly dodged her initial thrust before batting Miló aside with her handbag. Shockingly, the redhead's weapon nearly went flying out of her hand as Coco's weapon, Gianduja, impacted with significant force. Caught off-guard, Pyrrha was forced on the defensive as Coco flowed into a mix of kicks and handbag swings.
Jaune's own opponent was no less surprising. Despite the sheer size of Yatsuhashi's enormous blade, Fulcrum, he wielded it as if it was as light as a feather. Of course, when Jaune was forced to block one of his strikes head-on, he felt as if he would be crushed under its weight, reaffirming that the sword was indeed as heavy as it looked. There was a brief lull in his fight where he noticed the faint sound of a camera's shutter going off. Sparing a glance, he barely caught the flash of a camera in Velvet's hands before turning his attention back to his opponent.
Letting the large, orange blade skitter off his shield, he thrusted his sword into the larger teen's stomach. Swiftly, he combined his armaments into its greatsword mode, swinging upwards to catch Fulcrum and parry the bigger blade. Falling back slightly, he fell into a key guard, probing Yatsuhashi's defenses before committing to a thrust at his face. Yatsuhashi jerked his large pauldron into Jaune's sword, shoving it aside as he pivoted and swung Fulcrum around in a wide arc. Jaune took the strike on his own pauldron, but the force of the blow sent him skidding into Pyrrha.
The gladiatrix caught him on her shield before shoving him out of the way of Coco's strike, the deceptively heavy handbag swinging through the small gap between them. Suddenly, Yang's body flew into her, having been launched by Fox's blow. The two girls tumbled to the ground in a mess of groaning limbs.
Coco drew back as she activated Gianduja's mechashift function. The handbag began to speedily unfold, revealing why it held such massive weight despite its small size: it was, in fact, a minigun. As the massive firearm began to rev up, Jaune ran in front of his teammates, planting Crocea Mors down and expanding its shield. Bracing himself to take the full brunt of the hail of bullets, the knight's body began to glow as he amplified his Aura.
He gritted his teeth as Coco unloaded almost a hundred rounds into him within the span of a second, the bullets impacting his shield and sending agonizing vibrations up his arm, rattling his bones up to his shoulder. He was deafened by the sound of ricocheting bullets and the hum of Coco's minigun blasting off several hundred rounds into him. By the time she deigned to pause her onslaught, his shield arm had become numb.
Glancing backwards, he saw that Pyrrha and Yang had gotten back to their feet. They sent him thankful looks for covering for them before leaping over him and back into the fray. They were intercepted by Yatsuhashi and Fox, who kept them off of Coco as her weapon spun up for another barrage of bullets.
Quickly drawing White Rose, Jaune fired desperately in the brunette's direction, managing to land a shot on Coco's hand. She yelped in pain as she was forced to drop the front half of Gianduja. Suddenly, Fox was on him, kicking the pistol out of his hand and striking him in the face with the heel of his boot.
Jaune rolled with the strike, rolling to his feet and drawing Crocea Mors once again. With his left arm still numb, he was forced to fight one-handed. He deflected a few blows, managing to parry one of Fox's attacks and forcing him back before Yang came to his rescue.
"GET BACK HERE!" Yang roared, flying in swinging with her eyes red with rage. She landed a punch on Fox's cheek, then followed with a gut punch that had the dark-skinned teen doubled over gasping for air. A roundhouse kick to his head launched him back towards Coco. Using the opportunity to catch his breath, Jaune looked towards his fellow blond and gave her a nod of thanks, to which she returned one of her own. They turned to gauge Pyrrha's fight, who was fairing as well as she always did.
The redhead was dancing around Yatsuhashi's strikes, turning away the giant blade with minute movements of her armaments then darting in with small attacks of her own before slipping back into an impenetrable defense. At some points, it had seemed like strikes that should have connected missed by a hair's breadth. Yatsuhashi staggered as Akoúo̱ caught him in the chin. Pyrrha's foot connected with his chest soon after, sending him stumbling backwards onto his back.
As soon as the mountainous teen fell, the freshmen collectively charged at Coco, who looked at them with an impressed smirk. Just as they were upon her, she dropped her weapon and raised her hands in surrender.
"We yield."
As soon as the words left her mouth, Team JNX slowed to a stop just in front of the brunette, eyes wide with confusion for a moment.
Did they really just win?
"WOOOO!" Yang hollered in victory, pumping her fist in glee. "Yeah baby, that's what mama's talking about!"
Pyrrha lips also turned upwards, satisfied that they prevailed against the older team. When Yang held up a hand for a high five, she readily slapped it.
Jaune, however, remained skeptical. He turned to Coco, taking off his helmet. "Something's not right. You gave up way too easily at the end there."
The brunette retained a coy expression. "Why, whatever do you mean? My teammates were down and you were all about to gang up on me. By all rights, you beat us fair and square."
Fox and Yatsuhashi picked themselves back up, sharing similar satisfied smiles. Velvet approached, her camera still in her hands.
Coco addressed the Faunus. "Did you catch everything, bun bun?" When she nodded excitedly, she sighed in relief. "Good. Mission accomplished, boys."
Brow furrowed with intense curiosity, Jaune turned to Velvet. "Velvet? Mind telling me what she's talking about?"
She returned a guilty smile, holding up her camera. "This is my weapon, Anesidora. With it, I can make a hard-light copy of any weapon I take a photo of." She put the camera away into the box on the small of her back. Holding out her hands, a light blue light shined out of the box into her palm. The light coalesced into a transparent construct of Crocea Mors. She flourished the blade exactly as he would, then combined both components into its greatsword mode.
"Woah…" he whispered in awe.
A second later, the copied Crocea Mors faded away. Velvet crossed her arms behind her back meekly. "What we really came here to do was to copy your weapons for an upcoming mission. I'm sorry we weren't upfront about it."
"Why not simply ask us to show you our weapons?" Pyrrha asked, walking up to Jaune's side. "For that matter, how would they help you? Some of our weapons were tailor made for our fighting styles, so unless you can copy those as well…"
"Actually, I can." Velvet confessed. "My Semblance allows me to almost perfectly mimic the moves of anyone I've seen. That's part of the reason why I sat out of the fight: So I could watch how all of you fought."
Yang frowned; her good mood soured slightly by the revelation. "So this whole thing was just a trick?"
"Nah." Coco denied casually. "We really did wanna see how you guys stacked up. Gotta say, I'm very impressed. Not many people are able to stand up to us in a straight fight."
"So you weren't pulling your punches…" Yang muttered, her smile slowly returning. "Awesome."
"Well, my boys weren't. I was, but that's 'cause my Semblance is kinda dangerous to use against people."
"She completely decimated a Death Stalker once." Yatsuhashi recounted. "Blew right through its armor and into smithereens."
"Ah, right." Fox chimed in. "I remember that. Never knew what death sounded like 'til that happened. Wish I could've seen it."
"I bet you wish you could have seen a lot of things." Yang taunted good-naturedly.
The blind teen laughed. "That I do!"
"Thank you for the spar." Pyrrha said with a respectful bow of her head. "Though we might have won, your teamwork was superior to ours. I suspect that had Velvet joined you, we would have lost."
Jaune nodded in agreement. He had no doubt that they had won in large part due to Pyrrha and her Semblance, despite her subtle usage of it. If she was paired against Velvet, who fought without metal weapons, she would have had a much tougher time. Compound that with Team CFVY's superior coordination, they would have likely lost.
"Eh, maybe, maybe not." Coco said with a slight shrug. "You guys are pretty damn good. We wouldn't mind doing this again. Without being shady about it, I mean."
"I'm down!" Yang exclaimed, punching her fists together. "I can kick your ass a second time!"
"You know, beating a blind person isn't usually something to be proud of." Fox teased.
"You're the exception."
"That sounds like a great idea." Jaune agreed. He turned to Velvet with an eager smile. "I hope I'll get to see you in action next time, Velvet."
She beamed at him; her bunny ears perked ramrod straight. "Definitely!"
From the corner of his eye, Jaune saw Pyrrha give the rabbit Faunus an intense look. "That sounds grand. I am eager to test myself against the full might of Team CFVY."
Despite her polite and sincere tone, Jaune couldn't help but feel a chill run up his spine.
{ III }
"Come on Jaune!" Ruby's whined as she hovered over his shoulder. "The shot isn't that hard! This isn't rocket science!"
"The only reason it isn't is because I'm not using gyrojet ammo!" Jaune rebutted, laying down several more shots down range with a newly decked-out White Rose.
He and Ruby had finally finished the conversion kit today after several weeks of careful machining and assembly. At times, it made him want to give up from just how complicated mechashift weapons were, especially considering that this was still relatively simple in comparison to Ruby's Crescent Rose.
The conversion kit, dubbed the 'Stamen' of White Rose, hadn't even looked like it at first, having more resembled a holster with an oversized lid. That said, Jaune took much inspiration from Crocea Mors when designing White Rose: When the pistol was slotted into the holster and the lid was closed, the entire apparatus could mechashift into a bullpup carbine, which shared the same white and gold color-scheme as the pistol itself. With the barrel extending to 16 inches, White Rose's maximum effective range tripled from 100 to 300 meters. The new form was also completely ambidextrous, having a hybrid side/forward ejection port so he wouldn't be eating brass if he fired from off-shoulder.
If he wanted to, he could even mount Crocea Mors' blade on it like an oversized bayonet, though that feature had been more at Ruby's insistence than anything else. In the defense of the over-the-top weapons fanatic, the mount could also accept several other modular accessories like a grenade launcher or an under-barrel shotgun. To be honest, he didn't need any of that; but it was a feature that didn't come at any cost to the assembly itself, so he had agreed to it.
To ensure that the Stamen was working as intended, they were putting the converted firearm through its paces at the shooting range. Currently, Jaune was struggling to hit the target from 200 meters away.
Resetting his grip on White Rose, he laid down another burst of bullets at the target, several satisfying 'DINGs' ringing over the range.
"Finally," he sighed in relief. He glanced behind him, hearing Ruby whoop in joy.
"Nice!" She praised with a wide grin. "See, I told you it wasn't that hard!"
"Easy for you to say," He grumbled. "I didn't start using guns until three weeks ago, remember?"
"That just means you need to keep practicing!" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You have been practicing, right?"
"Yes!" He answered defensively. "Every time I spar!"
The petite gun nut sighed in exasperation. "Jaune, that isn't going to be enough to improve. You need to go to a range too! Despite what you might think, target shooting does help!"
"All right, all right," Jaune raised his hands placatingly. "I'll start coming more regularly."
"That's right, mister!" Ruby gave a satisfied nod, crossing her arms haughtily. She held the pose for all of three seconds before exploding in a fit of giggles, eliciting a chuckle from the blond as well. "Me and Ren can go with you. I know he's been slacking too."
"Ren and I, Ruby." He corrected.
She pouted cutely. "That's what I said!"
"No, Ruby, that's-"
"Nope."
He quirked a brow. "Nope?"
"Nope." She confirmed. "I get corrected enough by Yang and Ren. I'll grammar how I want when it's just me and you, thank you very much!"
He let out an amused sound. "All right then. I'd be glad to have you and Ren join me. Thanks."
"No problemo!" She gave him a double thumbs up before gesturing back towards the range. "Now get back to shooting! We're not leaving 'til our baby can clear 300 meters!"
"I'm pretty sure White Rose can hit it if you shoot it."
"Her, Jaune." She emphasized. "White Rose is a her, just like Crescent Rose. And if I shoot her, it defeats the whole point! She's your weapon, so you need to be the one to do it."
"But it's our baby, remember?"
She gave him a cheeky grin. "Yeah, but she's a daddy's girl, so get to it."
Rolling his eyes, Jaune shouldered the firearm and aimed her down range once again.
{ IV }
"RRRAAAAARRRGGH!"
A loud 'CRUNCH' echoed through the training room as the training bot crumpled to the ground, its torso caved in much like that of its fellows around it. Above its crushed corpse stood a hulking armored teen, his eyes filled with rage as his shoulders heaved with exertion.
With another spite-fill roar, Cardin Winchester smashed his mace into the ground, activating the Dust within his weapon and creating a large explosion on impact. Countless shards of twisted metal and loose nuts and bolts scattered through the air, forcing his partner to protect his face from the debris.
"C'mon bro, are you done yet?" Russell Thrush whined. "We've been here for hours already. I wanna go back to our room!"
The mohawked teen was suddenly petrified as Cardin leveled an intense glare at him. "I'm done," he growled, "When I say I'm done! Now send in the next one!"
"Dude, chill!" Russell said nervously with hands raised. "All I'm saying is that maybe you should take a break. You've been pushing yourself to the max ever since you lost the duel."
He immediately regretted opening his mouth as his partner began striding towards him, the larger teen's footfalls thudding loudly against the floor until he was towering over the green-haired boy. "Send in the next bot, or else you'll be the one I'm making scrap out of!"
Nodding fearfully, Russell ran over to the console and prepped another training bot to enter the ring.
As the metal mock-fighter stepped onto the platform, Cardin's hands tightened around his weapon with an eager rage. He charged forward with another ferocious warcry, bloodshot eyes imagining that his steel stress relief was a certain armored Arc once more.
AN: Hey there guys! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I wanted to post yesterday, but didn't want the April Fool's stigma XD
Anyways, a few things I wanna cover, namely White Rose's conversion kit.
The whole idea was inspired by Jaune's somewhat simplistic mechashift in the show and I wanted to keep that thematically similar (sword+sheathe=bigger sword, gun+holster=bigger gun.) I got the idea while doing research on guns to give to Jaune. The whole assembly is a mishmash of different firearm systems that I kinda just threw together. The holster/conversion kit was initially inspired by how Luger and Mauser pistols were able to attach their holsters as stocks to the handle, which then evolved into modern conversion kits (specifically the META Tactical APEX Bullpup conversion kit.) The bullpup system was something I decided would benefit Jaune the most so that he could more easily fire it in tandem while holding his shield, since the entire firearm would be more compact and back-balanced. The carbine form was initially based on the ShAK-12, but then I became enamored with the forward eject system of the Desert Tech MDRX, so now it's a combination of both XD.
And yes, before anyone says anything, I know that it'd make more sense for "Pistil and Stamen" pun to be reversed, but goddamnit I wanted the pun so bad.
It's kinda funny. Before writing this fic, I was never a big fan of guns, since I was always more interested cold weapons and warfare. Now I find myself asking my brother-in-law to take me to a gun range to learn how to handle a glock.
Anyways, thanks for reading guys. I'll catch you next time.