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Unceremoniously, I plopped myself down into the plastic cafeteria chair and put my tray down in front of me. Not even the prospect of the delicious food served at Beacon could cheer me up, though. In front of me, Weiss gave a little huff as she primly sat down, straight backed even in the uncomfortable plastic seat.

Her lack of reaction to my 'uncouth behavior' was a new development. For the last two days, ever since her little chat with Port really, Weiss had been much more relaxed. It was a jarring change from how she was before, and I wasn't entirely sure how to deal with it.

On the one hand, she was clearly trying her best to be a better teammate, even if she wasn't doing a very good job. On the other, she had tried to have me removed as team leader on the first day, and I still wasn't sure how to feel about that. The fact that I might as well throw all my experience in dealing with Sapphire out of the window now that she wasn't actively trying to bait me didn't help either.

At least from her, I had expected the change in behavior. The one that had taken place in my partner was a little more concerning. It wasn't that she was doing anything wrong per se, but it was more than a little off-putting.

Even now, as the redhead sat down next to me, I could feel it every time her eyes flicked over to me. It was almost like she was trying to make sure that I was still there. Almost as if she expected me to suddenly vanish into thin air. She rarely let me out of her sight now, and while it wasn't horrible, Pyrrha was good company after all, it had delayed me going to the forest since she had stayed up a good bit later than the last couple of nights.

I wasn't sure what exactly had caused the change, but it was getting a little out of hand. Until she said something about it, I couldn't really do much, though. For all I know, I could just be chasing ghosts.

But nonetheless, the fact that Blake, the teammate who had literally held me at gunpoint, was the one I found the easiest to deal with at the moment was more than a little concerning. The fact that my 'dealing with her' was just interacting with her as little as humanly possible was irrelevant.

For once, team VLYR wasn't sitting with us, though that might be because they were still in the lunch line. Ren'd had a question for Professor Trudeau, and the rest of his team had stayed behind to wait for him before all coming to lunch together. They'd probably get there soon enough.

"Hah! I told you they were real!" The shout broke me from my musings, and I immediately knew who it was.

It was Cardin, loudly talking and laughing with his team at their usual table to my back. It was only when a second voice broke through the laughter that I realized something was wrong.

"Ow, let go! That hurts!" It was a girl, I didn't recognize the voice, but that didn't mean much. Honestly, I probably wouldn't recognize most of the first year's faces, let alone their voices. Turning, I couldn't help the twitch in my eye as I took in the scene in front of me.

Team CRDL were sat at their usual table, talking and laughing as they ate. But this time, there was a new addition. It was the girl I'd heard. She wasn't all that tall, but not as short as Ruby or Weiss, but definitely not of a height with girls like Pyrrha or Yang. She was pretty too, with long, brown hair, a little button nose and big brown eyes. Her most noticeable feature, though, were the tall bunny ears which Cardin was currently yanking at as he and his team laughed themselves silly.

"Despicable." I didn't have to turn to see that it was Pyrrha who'd spoken.

Before I even knew what was happening, I had stood up. It was so sudden, that my chair simply clattered to the ground behind me, and then I was standing between Cardin and the girl. Logically, I knew that she, too, was a student at Beacon, and was probably perfectly capable of defending herself. But logic wasn't always my strong suit.

"Leave her alone Cardin."

The taller boy looked surprised to see me, though not at all intimidated. He did let go of the girl, though. That probably had more to do with the fact that it was incredibly awkward to hold onto her ears when I was standing between them than anything else, but I would take it.

"And why would I do that Arc? I didn't take you for some animal lover, though that would explain how you lost so hard in combat class. Too much jerkin' not enough workin' eh?"

Even if the reminder of my loss stung a little, the rest of his words just didn't really affect me. Let's be honest here, I'd heard a hundred times worse at home. Living with seven sisters and not developing a thick skin was virtually impossible, and Cardin didn't have a fraction of the wit Sapphire or Indigo did.

"Very funny Cardin, you might as well get your obligatory 'your mom' joke out of the way while you're at it. Then we might be able to get back to our lunches." I told him in the most deadpan voice I could muster.

"You think you're hot shit, huh?" I almost rolled my eyes at how cliché he sounded.

"No Cardin, I think I'm hungry. And while you seem pretty thirsty, but I thought you might have learned by now that pulling a girl's hair, or her ears in this case, isn't going to actually get you any, if you know what I mean." I said, throwing in a mocking wink just to add insult to injury.

I didn't even think it was that funny, but some of the spectators certainly did, and Cardin's face flushed as they laughed at him. Honestly, I felt a little bad for him. Sure, he was being a racist bully, but was I really any better right now. I didn't have time to think on it further, though, as Cardin had apparently had enough. With both hands, the larger boy shoved me back, making me bump into the Faunus who's ears he'd been pulling and almost knocking her down.

Afterwards, I would try to rationalize my response to the shove. Maybe it was instinct or reflex, after fighting the Grimm so much that I immediately counterattack whenever I take damage. Maybe it was just the heat of the moment, Cardin had started it after all. Or maybe, deep down, in a part of me that I don't like thinking about, I just really, really wanted to punch him in his smug face.

The truth, though, was much simpler. I simply hadn't thought. It might have been a combination of all of those reasons, but if I had taken even a single moment to think, my reaction would no doubt have been different.

But no, I didn't think. And so, my fist flew true and struck Cardin on in the jaw so hard that he would probably still carry a nasty bruise, even with his aura taking the brunt of it. I didn't have any time to process what I had done either, as I both Cardin and I were suddenly launched into the air and away from one another as a purple glow covered us like cloaks.

"MR. ARC! MR. WINCHESTER! My office. Now!" Glynda Goodwitch was stood down in the crowd, stone faced and pointing her signature riding crop at us in a white-knuckled grip.

'Shit.'


Cardin and I weren't so much frog-marched into Ms. Goodwitch's office as dragged there. We floated behind the blond woman, still snared in her semblance as she traversed the halls with the steady clack clack of her heels hitting the tiled floors being the only echoing sound, as Cardin and I both decided to remain deathly quiet. Lest we invite more of her ire.

We arrived at her office, still floating behind her, and even then, she continued to use her semblance to move us through the doorframe and into a couple of uncomfortable straight-backed chairs that were placed in front of her desk. Almost as if she thought we would run off if she released us outside of her office for even a single moment. As if we'd be dumb enough to try something like that. Not even Cardin was that stupid.

Ms. Goodwitch's office was surprisingly lived in. For some reason, I had pictured her office as a spartan place, empty save for the necessities that allowed her to work in the most efficient way possible. Instead, the room had all sorts of little decorations that livened the place up, even if the furniture was the bog-standard stuff that was found in the various classrooms throughout the academy.

Her desk had framed pictures, though what they showed I did not know. Mostly because they were all facing the woman herself, and not the chairs opposite her desk. There were also a bunch of knick-knacks scattered around, some on her desk, others on shelves around the place. There was, for example, a rather cute wooden carving of a horse on her desk which she used as a paperweight.

I didn't have time to dwell on the decorations, though, as the crack of her riding crop hitting the desk made me flinch. Suddenly, my feet were looking mighty interesting.

"The first week of school has not yet ended, and students are already brawling in the cafeteria. I wish I could say that this is a record…" The professor muttered as she sat herself down into a comfortable looking office chair. Now seated, the woman steepled her fingers together, rested her chin on her interlocked hands and stared us down. "Now you will tell me what possessed you to act in such a manner." As I opened my mouth, she held up a hand, silencing us. "One by one, you first Mr. Winchester." I hadn't even noticed that both Cardin and I had tried to start at the same time.

"We were just having a laugh, joking around, you see…" I have to admit, Cardin spun his tale well, and more than once, I was tempted to call him out on his bullshit, though a warning look from Ms. Goodwitch made me hold my tongue.

He told Ms. Goodwitch how he and his team had been kidding around and laughing, making jokes that might not have been entirely appropriate. The boy even made sure to highlight that it might have been in bad taste, to show that he was feeling sorry for having caused the incident. How I had stepped in because I was offended at one of the jokes and how I'd escalated. How I had insulted and goaded him, and that he had overreacted and pushed me. And finally, how I had punched him.

Already, I could see the angry-red bruise where my hand had met his jaw, managing to damage him even through his aura.

It was a little-known fact that it was in fact possible to injure someone, even if their aura wasn't fully depleted. Many simply thought aura to be some impregnable barrier that either worked, or didn't, there was no in-between for them. For me, that was actually true. Over the last couple of weeks, I had noted that I never took a single point of damage to my HP until my aura bar was fully empty. I was the exception there, though, and it showed here. The bruise making it so, so very easy for Cardin to paint himself as the victim.

By the time he finished telling his story, it was already clear to me that I wasn't getting out of here without some kind of punishment. There was only one option left, and it was to run damage control. Denying that I had insulted or punched him would never work, not when she had literally caught me red-handed. No, as bad as I felt about hitting him, I would make sure that Cardin faced his own punishment. At least then, he might leave the girl alone in the future, though I somehow doubted it.

"Is that what happened Mr. Arc?" I took a deep breath before I responded.

"Mostly, yes. I did insult Cardin, and I did strike him. It was ill-advised and a mistake made in the heat of the moment." I could almost feel the scowl on Cardin's face as Goodwitch nodded along, in not trying to hide what I'd done wrong, my story would immediately be more credible than if I had tried to deny it. Cardin had done the same, but now I'd leveled the playing field.

"He had been laughing at the girl stood behind me. I don't know her name, but when I was having lunch, Cardin was pulling on her ears and wouldn't listen when she asked him to stop. He says they were just kidding around, but I thought that was too far. I asked Cardin to stop, and he insulted me. I'll be honest, I got a little angry and insulted him too. It was wrong, but in the moment, I wasn't thinking. When he shoved me, I threw that punch, it was instinct, but it wasn't right. And I am sorry for that."

I did my best to sound remorseful as I finished telling the professor my side of the story. The fact that I genuinely did feel like I'd taken things a little too far certainly helped selling it. Because honestly, while punching Cardin had been more than a little satisfying, it wouldn't solve anything. He would still be a jerk to the Faunus, and he would still bully people. The only difference it made was that I would be punished alongside him now.

For a while, Ms. Goodwitch just sat there and stared at us. The silence stretched so long that I'd almost finished counting the grooves on the horse paperweight before she spoke.

"Detention, Mr. Arc. You will serve detention with me this Saturday from 8 AM until 12 PM." She said, giving her verdict. Beside me, Cardin kept his head down, but I could almost feel the smirk on his face. That didn't last long, though, as the professor continued. "And you, Mr. Winchester, will serve detention with Doctor Oobleck this Sunday from 10 AM until 12 PM."

She simply stared at us for a little while longer before she said one final thing.

"This is a school for huntsmen and huntresses, you are here to learn how to defend mankind from those that would threaten them. We teach you things here which can be used for much good, but also for much evil. Many of the things we teach here are dangerous, and I want you to ask yourselves for a moment, do you think it wise to continue to teach those things to people who cannot help themselves discriminating against other, simply for the way they are born, or to start petty fights?" She let that sink in for a moment.

"Today, you get off with a slap on the wrist. But I want to make something clear to both of you. This is not a game, we are here to learn how to save lives, gentlemen. So I suggest that you shape up before your behavior forces us to expel you from this school, for fear of what someone with such judgement might do with the things we teach here."

And on that cheery note, the severe blonde woman sent us away.


By the time we'd finished in Goodwitch's office, our last class of the day had already finished. We only had a single class after lunch on Thursdays, and we'd missed it completely.

'Oh well, I'll just ask Pyrrha for her notes.'

"Jaune." I didn't immediately recognize the voice, but it was familiar. As its owner fell into step beside me, I felt the cold ghost of a barrel scrape over my back, and I did my best to suppress a shiver at the feeling. Next to me, and apparently unbothered by or unaware of my discomfort, Blake, the last of my teammates walked with quiet steps.

"Blake." I responded, hoping that she would take the hint and leave me alone. My day had already been bad enough, I didn't need her screwing it up even further. Blake moved suddenly, and a loud sound echoed through the hall as she did so. I flinched away from her, fully prepared for whatever attack she had in store. Only, there was no attack. Instead, she simply held out a small bundle of papers for me. I blinked once, then twice before I found the courage to ask.

"What's this?"

"My math notes. You missed class to help that girl, it's the least I could do." She spoke softly, almost as if she was afraid of spooking me if she was too loud. And, to be honest, she wasn't entirely wrong to think that. Not that I'd actually run away from her, but I was definitely on edge.

"Oh, thanks." I let out, a little dazed as she pushed the papers into one of my hands before she walked further down the hallway. I didn't follow, too stunned to even think of doing so.

'It's official. All of my teammates have been abducted and replaced by shapeshifting aliens. It's the only explanation that makes sense.'


A/N: Hi everyone! Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. What did you think of cafeteria scene? The first draft for that had been a lot more brutal on Jaune's end, but I thought that would have been very out of character for him. I discussed it with someone, and I think I found a nice middle ground. But please, let me know what you think.

As always, have a good one!

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PS. I'm having a little issue with right now, chapter 15 should be up within a couple of hours.