Oh, hello there. Welcome to another update of The Unexpected Team. Today we bring you the latest installment of our series included in this are some review responses. I won't respond to them all this time as it's really overwhelming how many there are and this is going to be the way that I handle things from now on since this story has blown up so much more than I expected. What I will do, however is anyone that asked a specific question or made a very important point that I feel necessary to touch on then I shall answer that review otherwise the wordcounts going forward are going to be a nightmare. I would like to reiterate though that I loved reading each and every one of your reviews! They're funny, informative and just downright brilliant. I appreciate ALL of you. Speaking of which, if you would further like to discuss my stories, ideas, or other things of those nature, then send me a Private Message and I'll shoot my discord information through and we can chat over that.
Also, advertisement section where I remind you to go and read some of my other stories and give them some love if you haven't already. I personally, not to toot my own horn or anything recommend "Two Generations of Bitterness."
Now that we're done with that, I'd like to respond to the reviews I need to.
Argus456: It's a habit I'm trying to break, I did it when I first started writing to give me some practice writing description, and it's taking a little to write it out of my system so to speak. As for your suggestion to use titles instead of description is a good idea and I'm going to incorporate that going forward. Please forgive me if the description point takes over once or twice. Bad habits take some time to overwrite lmao. Thanks for your review, advice and support! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
AgentDraakis: Yes, it's on the nose. Yes, it's done on purpose. That was more to give me a laugh than anything else. No more than that. I assure you though, it's fully intended to come across the way it does. As for your question on power-scaling, it depends on the circumstances, for example don't expect Jaune to be throwing down with Pyrrha equally in a battle any time soon. He's going to get stronger but it's not going to be instant and he's still going to struggle with the source of his strength for a good while. An important thing to consider is that Jaune doesn't even know how to make Crocea Mors do the magical stuff at will yet, which puts him still at an incredible disadvantage should he fight anyone unless the sword decides to go magic-mode and intervene on his behalf. Hope this answers your question, if you need further clarification please send me a PM and I'd be more than happy to discuss it in more detail. Thanks for your review! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Zathol: I love all of these ideas and some of them will be incorporated into the fic! Hope you enjoy seeing them as they pop up! Thanks for reviewing and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
It was necessary to respond to this review, because I am acknowledging and referencing that I was inspired by Zathol's review to use some of the ideas in this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or anything else you might recognize.
Chapter Four: The Grand Tour!
The week that they'd been given to get acquainted with their teams and the academy before classes begun had been a place of deep thought for Jaune Arc. On the one hand, it presented opportunity for teams like his own to get closer, but there was no doubt that it offered a potential slew of problems for teams that had already been shown to not get along so well. He thought that Team LVWR particularly would find this week difficult, owing to Weiss' difficult attitude. He knew he shouldn't worry about another team outside his own, but Ruby was his friend and he couldn't help but worry for her. Yang had been correct in saying that her little sister needed to find a way to fight her own battles, which meant as much as it ailed Jaune to do so, he was going to need to leave this one alone.
"Jaune?" a voice said quietly from the bed directly beside his own one, "Are you awake?"
"Yeah, Pyrrha. What's wrong?" he whispered back in an equally quiet tone.
"N-nothing really, I just wanted to say goodnight."
"Oh, goodnight then, Pyrrha."
"Goodnight Jaune."
Though Jaune could distinctly remember that all four of them had exchanged goodnights half-an-hour ago when they'd all decided to go to sleep for the night, he didn't begrudge Pyrrha for wanting to hear it a second time. Maybe she dealt with nightmares or something and needed reassurance that someone else was in the room? His sisters had been like that when they were younger, so it made a little sense to him. Jaune had been so distracted by these thoughts that he didn't notice said girl, who was lying with her back to him, smiling ear-to-ear, her emerald pools shining in the moonlight.
Deciding that he was ultimately better not worrying about everything tonight, it was time for Jaune to follow in the route of his new team-mates and get some sleep. He finally lay down and rolled over to the face the wall and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. Jaune felt that the night had moved far too quickly for his liking. In his mind, it was like the moment he'd gotten to sleep, he was waking up again and though he was mostly rested, the partial grogginess that remained irked him enough to make the Arc more than a little frustrated. Seeing as none of the other members of Team ABYN awake yet was a relief to Jaune. Mostly because it meant as the early riser he could sneak in for a quick shower before anyone else woke up. Then it would be time for some coffee to deal with the remains of his tiredness. Jaune gently climbed out of bed and crept quietly toward the end of his bed and collected some clothes from the closet at the end of his bed. He chose a dark shirt and a pair of jeans, seeing as they didn't have classes for another week, putting on the freshly laundered Beacon uniform seemed like it would be a waste of time.
Besides, they hadn't been told to wear their uniforms, so who could be blamed for assuming that they didn't have to wear them until classes officially began next week? He shrugged again, which was weird to him that he'd done so, privately being glad that none of the others were awake yet, he finished his silent walk into the bathroom and gently closed the door behind him. Jaune quickly showered and dressed in the clothes he'd chosen, then quietly walked out of the bathroom and sat at the end of his bed. As much as he wanted to go for coffee right this second, the shower had helped with some of the grogginess and since it was their first day here as a team, he wanted to be polite to Blake, Pyrrha and Yang by waiting for them so that they could spend their first day together as a team properly. What he hoped would only be a little while longer turned out to be varying times. Blake woke up shortly after he did, Pyrrha a little while after that and finally two hours after he'd sat down on the end of his bed did Yang Xiao Long finally open her eyes.
Stretching out slightly, The Brawler looked toward the rest of her team, "Oh, hey, morning guys, sorry if I kept you waiting too long."
"Not at all," Pyrrha said.
"Don't worry about it," Blake said, not even looking up from the book in her clutches.
"It's fine," Jaune said, a shrug leaving his shoulders. They weren't in a rush for classes so what right did he have to begrudge the Brawler her sleep? None, really, but he had decided to wait for all of them before going down to the mess hall, so maybe he only had himself to blame for not having access to the sweet bitterness that was a morning coffee. Yang stretched her arms out above her head, then looked down to her team-mates, a bright smile on her face, "You all grabbed showers already?"
"Yeah," Jaune divulged.
"Indeed," Pyrrha added.
"Yep," Blake finished.
Yang nodded in confirmation to her team-mate's answers and swung her legs round to the side of her bed. She stretched out again and then ascended to her feet. She stretched again then turned around to collect some clothing from her wardrobe. Jaune had pulled out his scroll and brought up Ninja-Madness Three and pressed for the round to begin against an A.I opponent. Pyrrha and Blake had both taken a while for their showers this morning as most women did, so Jaune could safely assume he was going to get treated to the same ordeal with waiting for Yang to finish, so he figured playing a round or two against the NPCs would make the time go by a little faster, however he'd barely got to the versus screen when a set of emerald eyes slowly rose over his right shoulder.
"Heeyy Jauneee," the voice said slowly and gently, right befoe it turned to a high level of excitement, "Can I play?" Jaune screamed in a very un-manly fashion and if that wasn't enough went tumbling off his bed right after. He yelped at the feeling of the ground colliding with his side and quickly forced himself back to his feet. Ignoring the small snigger coming from the bed at the end of the room where Blake was sat, Jaune heaved a calming sigh then returned to sit on his bed.
"Sure, Pyrrha, let's play."
This girl is going to be the death of me!
Pyrrha's face, if possible, lit up twice as much as it been when she snuck up on him and she quickly pulled her scroll from seemingly out of nowhere and opened it up to Ninja Madness Three. The two players went to match up screen and selected their characters.
"Shining Ninja versus Spartan Ninja begin!"
The moment the game's announcer said begin, their fingers were off. Jaune's surprisingly nimble digits moving equally as fast as Pyrrha's did while gliding across the on-screen controls, both of them doing their utmost to try and gain the early advantage during the fight. Blake's bow twitched at the rapid sounds being produced and she lifted up slightly to try and get a look. Seeing what Jaune and Pyrrha were doing she merely smiled, shook her head at their antics and dropped back into her bed, her eyes returning immediately to the pages of the book infront of her. Maybe they weren't the quiet team she'd been hoping for, but these two and her partner were alright.
Blake was simply thanking her lucky stars that she didn't end up on the same team as that Schnee girl. She already hated how loud the arguments between the white-haired girl and Ruby were, she couldn't even fathom how much more painful it'd be if she had to share a room with the two of them. Her head turned just in time to see Jaune's hand fly up in triumph and Pyrrha's head drop in anguish, so she could only assume that Jaune had won the match between the two of them.
"Shining Ninja, Wins!"
"Not fair!" Pyrrha exclaimed, she lifted her head slightly and threw a full-on pout in the Knight's direction, her emerald hues widened a slight extent and had Pyrrha aimed this obvious puppy-dog look at anyone else, they would've crumbled instantly, but this was Jaune Arc. The man who had seven sisters, the man who-caved instantly to the look Pyrrha gave him the moment he saw it.
"I'm sorry, Pyrrha," he tried gently, "Yang did warn you last night that it wouldn't go well if you tried to-"
"I demand a rematch."
"What?"
"You. Me. Fight. Now."
"Pyrrha, I'm not so-"
"I demand a rematch!"
Jaune sighed. He could see that no matter how much he tried to, he just wasn't going to weasel his way out of this one. That meant he would have to fight again and beat her. He knew that Pyrrha would instictively be aware if he tried to hold himself back her for her sake. What had he done? What had Yang done?
"One more round while we wait for Yang," he said firmly, "Then we're all going to breakfast."
"But Jaune-"
"No, buts, if Blake's being forced to come with us then so are you."
"I'm what!?" Blake interjected, this time she actually looked up from her book, looked up and turned a full-on glare towards Jaune with those golden-amber eyes of hers. Jaune almost withered beneath that glare, but he'd faced down the glare of Saphron Arc when he'd messed up previously and no glare, no matter who it belonged to would ever scare Jaune Arc that much ever again. It was the vision of nightmares, believe him.
"Coming with the rest of us," Jaune repeated, "This is a week to get to know your team."
Blake audibly whined, but Jaune decided to ignore it, he had a rematch with Pyrrha he needed to focus on. He took a deep breath then looked back down to the scroll in his hand as the voice of the announcer sounded through his scroll's speakers.
"Shining Ninja versus Spartan Ninja...Begin!"
Another round, another victory for Jaune and a visibly disappointed Pyrrha. He hated the disappointed look in her eye, but he knew this was the lesser of the two punishments. If he had gone easy on her, there's no telling what his new team-mate might've done to get back at him, one thing growing up with seven sisters had taught Jaune was that girls could be rather...vengeful if they were given reason to be and he had decided that he would like to avoid such a reality with the 'Invincible Girl' for as long as absolutely possible and if he could possibly manage it, permanently avoid one. Luckily for Jaune, the door to the bathroom opened and Yang strode out, which meant that Pyrrha's opportunity to yell 'Rematch!' again was stolen right away from her. Heaving a sigh of relief he didn't know he was holding Jaune closed his scroll and looked around the room at all of his team.
"Everyone ready?"
Jaune, Yang, Pyrrha and, much to her reluctance, Blake, all left their dorm as a group. Small talk was exchanged between all four through their walk from the dorms to the mess hall and funnily enough they managed the trip without too much of a fuss, thanks to the campus map that Pyrrha had brought up on her scroll which they were able to refer to just to make sure they didn't get lost along the way. Jaune wasn't surprised to see the mess hall relatively empty when the four of them walked in. Yang had gotten up rather late, so it wasn't difficult to believe that a good majority of the students, older ones especially were already in class, or prepping to head out for their first missions of the year.
Team ABYN walked over to where the food was being served, filling their trays with what they wanted and then took one of the empty tables toward the back of the room. Jaune himself had chosen a plate of eggs with a side of bacon and some of the coffee that he had been desiring all morning. He took a small sip of the steaming liquid and exhaled a happy groan. Yang heard this and decided to have a little bit of fun with her new leader.
"Jaune, stop it!" she pretended to giggle, "We're in public!"
Jaune's cheeks flared, his eyes widening to the size of saucers and he whipped round shooting a surprised glare at the Brawler whom only returned the look in a mocking fashion and followed up by playfully punching Jaune in his upper arm. After he'd put the coffee down of course, she wasn't suicidal. She knew how some people could get about that stuff. Jaune had been wrong earlier, Pyrrha wasn't going to be the death of him.
This entire team was going to be the death of him.
Was it too late to switch teams with Ren? A sudden flash of the girl with the grenade launcher flew into Jaune's mind and he shivered involuntarily.
'Never mind. I'm fine where I am.'
Sure, his interactions with Pyrrha and Yang this morning had been a little dangerous for sure, but maybe he was being a smidge too unfair on Blake since she'd not really done anything to warrant concern, but, still, Pyrrha and Yang were definitely going to be the death of him, he just knew it. He rose the mug on the table to his lips again, taking another sip of the bitter liquid and this time he made entirely sure that no strange sounds were heard coming out of his lips. He had absolutely no desire to give Yang the satisfaction of having another opportunity to tease him. Jaune was so focused on the embarrassment he was feeling that he didn't notice a set of eyes glaring at the back of his head from behind.
"Where should we go and look at first? Some of the classrooms?" Pyrrha asked.
"Booooring!" Yang groaned, dragging out the 'o' sound, "We've got all the state of the art facilities Beacon has to offer at our disposal and you want to look at classrooms."
"Well," Pyrrha said defensively, "I just thought that it's important to know where they are...given that we only have a week to get used to their placement, we should walk there together as many times as necessary until we can get there without relying on a map!"
"Welll..." Yang said, still not seeming convinced by Pyrrha's idea.
"It makes sense," Blake added, coming to Pyrrha's aid, "Besides, if we go and look at the classrooms first, that means that we don't have to cut the fun side of the exploration short just to double-back and see the classrooms. Also, I want to go and see the library before too much longer. See if there's any books that I can borrow for when I finish this one. Jaune and I still have to discuss the finer points on it, but then I'm going to need to read something else once that's done."
The look Yang gave Blake was one that could be associated with her saying, 'Are you kidding me?' but she oddly didn't make a comment in complaint, what surprised her though was their leader's odd silence during this conversation. As leader, shouldn't the final decision be down to-oh, he was...still engrossed in the coffee. Everything made sense again.
"Whatcha think, ladykiller?"
Jaune flinched, not expecting to be addressed so suddenly, he was usually the one following when it came to things like this since his sisters often chose what they were doing and he had no choice but to go with it. He was surprised that they'd wanted to hear his opinion and though a little timid about it, he speaks up, "Well, if we go classrooms first, then library, then everything else, that means we've got most of the day doing the fun stuff as you put it Yang, we should have that to carry us through until dinner at which point we can come back here and hopefully be able to meet up with Team LVWR if they're here."
"That's...surprisingly well thought out," Blake agreed, "And easily incorporates all of our ideas into a fair system where everyone gets the most out of the day."
"You're pretty good at this whole mediation thing," Yang observed.
"Seven sisters," Jaune repeated for what he felt like the hundredth time. The rest of breakfast was a mostly silent affair with Team ABYN's leader wanting to focus on eating and his coffee more than engaging socially with anyone. All throughout breakfast though, the narrowed eyes that were trained on the back of Jaune's head never left them for more than a few moments.
"Well," Jaune said, "That's me finished."
"He's done!" Yang breathed happily, stretching out slightly, "What a relief!"
Jaune rolled his eyes good-naturedly and collected the trays from their table, taking this opportunity to get maybe a few seconds on his own, Jaune slowly got to his feet and walked away from his table, making his way across the cafeteria to return the trays to the kitchen. It hadn't been the easiest of mornings to get through with his new team's antics, but all things considered, Jaune thought it could've been worse. His only disappointment at the moment lay with the fact that classes being on hold for a week meant that while he got the opportunity to explore the school and get to know the girls of ABYN a little better, the one thing he'd not have much opportunity to do would be experimenting with Crocea Mors and trying to figure out what all the glowing was about.
When he'd gone up against that Nevermore in the Emerald Forest he'd summoned a strange blue aura around Crocea Mors, which should've been impossible since both he and the weapon were associated with the color yellow and there was no way that he'd been able to do that on his own anyway because of his...unfortunately...very low level of skill. Maybe he could've killed something much, much smaller and definitely not a Grimm that could fly...yet, he'd handled himself with ease and had been able to do it without exerting almost any effort. The trays were returned, yet Jaune's mind remained fixated on the idea of what'd happened during the fight with the Nevermore and he tried desperately to reach out and grasp for some kind of clue as to what it was. He wouldn't ask his father about it. He would never ask him about it ever again. Not after last time.
"So, Dad!"
"What is it Jaune?"
The voice that the man spoke with gave none of the enthusiasm his son possessed, none of the excitement that was there. His dull cerulean pools gazed at his son emptily, impatiently awaiting the boy's question, "I'm busy so you'd better make it quick."
"I was just wondering if I could learn some more about Crocea Mors while we wait for the time to be right for me to start training. Once I've got aura unlocked then I'll be able to fi-"
"I'm not going to tell you anything more about that damned sword, so stop asking about it! We'll train together when I deem you good and ready, not a minute before, is that clear? Now, go and see if your mother has any chores to do, try being productive instead of standing around and wasting air like that. Work can be done, so there's no excuse to be doing nothing."
That had been one of the more unpleasant memories for Jaune, the more of these memories that kept popping up involuntarily inside his brain only led Jaune to the conclusion that his father didn't want him to achieve his dreams. Now, some might think that he was perhaps just warning him or not wanting to talk about that weapon specifically, but it was like this. Every time he had mentioned wanting to be a Huntsman, his mother and father had stopped it at every turn. In the end only Saphron had supported his dream and in the end, she'd been the one to help him sneakout of the house long enough to go and find someone who could do up some fake transcripts for him.
Yes, it had partially been about following his dreams, but another big part of it was that he needed out from that life, he couldn't just live under their thumbs forever. He absolutely refused to. Now he had an opportunity, an opportunity to prove he could be so much more than what his parents believed and he wasn't about to blow it. He would figure out Crocea Mors, even if he had do it on his own.
"You ready to go?" Yang asked, approaching the door with Pyrrha and Blake in tow. Jaune nodded, deciding it best for the time being to let his thoughts focus on the day ahead with his team rather than trying to bury himself in the angst and feelings of resentment he had toward his parents. They weren't here at Beacon and he wasn't going to let them ruin his life anymore than they already had.
"Yeah, let's go and see what Beacon has to offer."
Even as the four of them were leaving the mess hall, the same set of eyes that had been watching Jaune all morning had once again srveyed him leaving the hall. Once the door had closed and Jaune was out of sight, the figure grunted as if they'd heard some brilliant joke then went back to eating their breakfast in silence. That is, until the person beside them decided to speak up.
"You been starin' at that Arc kid all morning, what gives?"
"Nothing. Nothing at all."
The doors were shut to the mess hall and Jaune looked over at his fellow team-mates, "So, if we're going to head to the classrooms first then we'll want to go and check out the classroom building, right?"
"Right," Pyrrha spoke up, taking this as the opportunity for her to bring up the map of campus on her scroll again, "It has several floors and acts as the base for all theoretical based classrooms. Grimm Studies with Professor Port, History with Doctor Oobleck, Science with Professor Peach and of course, Combat Class with Miss Goodwitch. There's more classes with other staff that come along later, but those aren't available for first years to take. I hear Ozpin even teaches a class for fourth years!"
"Pyrrha," Jaune asked her, "How did you know all this?"
"You didn't?" Yang asked Jaune, "Did you not come in for the open day? We were introduced to most of the staff here and given a little tour of the place. Nothing like the classrooms and stuff though, only the auditorium so we'd know where to go when we arrived our first day."
"Oh. I was sick, so I had to miss it."
That explained why he hadn't been able to acquire directions from anything on his first day. He hadn't known about the Campus map and since Ruby was attending Beacon two years early, it only made sense that she wouldn't know what was going on either. Well, that's what he got for faking his way in here.
"Well, you're here now and you've got us to show you around anyway which is way better," Yang punched Jaune's shoulder playfully then she looked towards the courtyard ahead of them all and begun to walk along, her team-mates quickly falling into step beside her. Jaune silently released the breath he didn't know he was holding. That had been a close call. If his fake transcripts came out into the open then he was a goner in all senses of the word. He'd end up all the way back in his village and end up as a Farmer or something. Something that Jaune Arc wanted nothing less to be. Farming was the least exciting profession in the world, in his opinion. Nothing beat the thrill of adrenaline pumping through your veins while you're fighting a Nevermore. Okay, so he'd only ever been in one fight, sue him, he was going to be in more and he just knew the only he could go from here was up.
"Jaune, are you listening?" Pyrrha asked, effectively cutting off the train of thought in the Knight's mind. It was something he could deal with later. He needed to put his attention where it needed to be right now.
"Sorry Pyrrha, was a little distracted, what did you say?"
"We've got to take the next left, then walk a little down this pathway to get to the classroom building."
"Cool, then let's go."
Another nod exchanged between Team ABYN, Pyrrha taking the lead since she had the map, the four of them advanced through the many paths of Beacon, stopping when they saw the grey-haired Professor Ozpin walking past them with a mug gripped in the hand not holding his cane.
"Good morning Professor Ozpin!" the four students said cheerily.
"And good morning to the four of you as well," he answered in kind, "How are the four of you enjoying Beacon so far?"
"Lovin' it!" Yang exclaimed.
"It is rather the interesting place," Blake added from beside her.
"It's grand," Pyrrha offered politely.
"Even bigger than in the pictures," Jaune said. The moment he said it, he internally face-palmed. Even bigger than in the pictures? Jaune the guy's going to think you're an absolute moron! Ozpin may be a nutcase, but still!
"Yes, though, that wouldn't be hard to achieve," Ozpin chuckled softly, then he turned down the same direction as the four members of Team ABYN were head, "I'm due to start my class with the fourth years in a few minutes, if you'd like I can show you the rest of the way and you won't be needing to worry about that map. I've been looking forward to the opportunity to talk to each of my first years this year. Especially you, Mr. Arc."
"M-me? Why's that?"
"Your family name interests me is all, I knew your grandfather a very long time ago. We worked together, you know."
"You did?"
"Indeed."
"D'you think you could maybe tell me about him?"
"Of course, Mr. Arc. I would be honored to discuss your grandfather, he truly was the great mystery was Bann Arc and an even greater mystery was the sword he carried with him. I believe it is currently in your possession?"
"Yes, I acquired it-I acquired it some time after he passed away."
"Hm," Ozpin said, if he knew any more on the subject, he did not mention it, instead he straighted up a little and pushed his glasses futher up the bridge of his nose before taking another sip from his mug, "Well, be that as it may, I think some of the things you will want to discuss with me are rather private and we shouldn't discuss them so openly where anyone can hear us. However Mr. Arc, I would just like it to be known to you that my office is always open if you should ever need it. The same goes to the three of you as well. I always have time for my students."
"Thanks Professor Ozpin."
"You're all welcome, now come along, before my fourth years get on my case about tardiness."
End Chapter
Hey guys thanks for reading! So, we're done with another chapter! So, we're at a little bit of a crossroads here, a cross-roads that I would like to get your opinion on, my readers! So here's my question to you. Would you rather we continue with these sorts of chapters showing Team ABYN bonding through this first week, or would you rather we skipped right ahead and went on to the first lesson with Port in the next chapter after paraphrasing what happened over the rest of the week? This is your story as much as it is mine, so I would love to hear your guys opinions on this!