Shoutout to Lumely, who will one day update his shit, for helping me worldbuild and beta read my stuff
The Arc clan/family was always big, bigger if you counted the extended family members – aunts, sisters and cousins. It grew even bigger when his father married his mother and they decided to pump out eight children – him and his older sisters. Even bigger if one was to consider his mas side of the family, all of them Arcs or Nearls - aunt, granduncle and his aunt-cousin Zofia he couldn't understand what she was exactly but she used to be there, then there were the honorary aunts, the lesbian ex lover of his mother – aunty Shining and so on. Most of the people in his generation had gotten through a combat training while he was barely trained a bit of self defense,and when aunt Maria tried to teach him something, it came out he wasn't that good at it, and then his mother found out and scolded them. Apparently being the sole male in the generation meant he had some important but nebulous task in his future, but try saying that to a 12 years old child.
When asking his older sister Alicja she started saying something about bloodlines, before their mom stopped her. At certain points he had thought of running away to become hunter, but later realized his sisters and cousins were everywhere one can become huntsman. Beacon – Estera the second oldest, Haven – Yolantha, Atlas – Kalina, Shade – Saphron and Rouje and so on, and being the only boy he was both babied and teased by everyone, well with the exception of his dad and uncle, who both seemed to share some sort of camaradery with him, not that they went out of their way to save him. Life was simple – go to school, help with chores, do his hobbies and try to understand why he wasn't allowed to train with the others.
Looking back on it, the young horseboy could only wish it remained this way. It all changed the spring of his 14th year. When he got home it was unusually quiet inside, even though all his sisters should be home for their spring break. Upon entering the living room everybody was there, and his mother rushed to hug him. Which while not unusual for her to hug them, there was a strange urgency in the way she rushed him.
"What is going on Mom?" everythhing made the young boy afraid, the somber athmosphere, the tears streaming her usually calm and gentle face. "What is going on everyone, why is mom crying?"
"Your aunt Zofia, she and her husband have died in a bullhead highjacking, there isnt much known about it" said their granduncle while his mother continued to hug him tightly. "Come Margaret, leave the boy alone, lets get you to rest, me and Maria will take care of the kids. Aurèle is coming as fast as possible, we will take care of it." After managing to pry her off of him the older man lead his mother to the couch.
In the days after the terrorist attack the white fang came to clain the responsibility for what they have done, its goal – to kill a member of the board of directors of the Schnee Dust Company, unbeknown to them they made a bigger enemy than they could imagine. The day after the news came to them, their mother came to her senses, but it seemed she was no longer the same woman they had grown used to. Something in her had changed, while her caring side was again there, her eyes were steeled. Aunt Maria had brought her a big box, tall and wide, that remained locked no matter what they did to try and open it, that remained in place no matter what they did to try and move it, the only thing on its front was the emblem of their mothers family and a logo, logo that would soon become engraved in his mind.
By the time the weekend came so did the funeral. More and more people were coming to the small town. Some the blonde boy knew and had seen before – aunty Platinum, aunty Amiya, aunty Elisabeth in her wheelchair, doctor Kelsy(I know it is kaltsit, but in concept trailers theresa pronounced it as kilsy), aunty Viviana and many others.
The ceremony was to be held at the arc graveyard, even if the people burried wore not the name of the arcs. Despite how big the plot of land was it seemed filled to the brim, and even more than that, many people stood outside and protected and waited for their turn to express condolences – armored and civilianly dressed individuals from all types of Faunus races, it was a tragic occurance that a member of Arc-Nearls passed, both families had been beloved by Kazimierzians and wilderness folk, be it for their noble behaviour or military and competitive succeses. The Burrial of the remains was to be done with closed casket, for the sake of him and the other children he was told. Men put their helmets and hats for a bit on the coffins, women touched it and left flowers. On top of her coffin was put a copy of her weapon and one of her hats, while the remains of the actual weapons he would later learn, were burried burried inside with her. His mother was dressed in her ceremonial armour – steel pauldrons with the 2 headed emblem of the Nearls, His father in a black suit with the combined emblems of the two family lines. Every knight wore ceremonial armor without mechanised parts.
"Today we lost two great people from our community –a great medic and a honourable warior. I did not know the good doctor well, so I will not talk about him"a short stop to breath "She was a good friend, felt to me like a, family member and a great knight. Her absence will weight on us always, but we will move on and become better! For her! For Kazimierz! For a better future!" said passionately granny Ioleta, who despite her advancing years had come in full ceremonial plate. "We must protect our citizens! We always made sure that people are equal in our homeland, that deeds matter and not Prejudices! We must make sure that the kingdoms politics do not endanger our people!" stopping for a momment to catch her breath and lift her long, thin sword"FEAR NEITHER HARDSHIP NOR DARKNESS!".
Every silverlance pegasi raised their spears, campaign knights raising weapons, arcers raising arrow holding fists. After that things were blur more people holding speeches, hugs to him and all his family, and a big, BIG lunch that he at some point just sneaked out of.
The day after the funeral his mother sat him on a table after dinner was done, she was going to ask him a question that would change his future, but back then he did not know that. After staying silent for a bit, Margaret Arc-Nearl was ready, she didn't want to do this, but she realized she needed to.
"Jaune, what happened with Zofia is terrible, and I want to ask you a thing, and it is important – why did you want to learn how to fight before?" to a young boy that question was hard to answer, it needed to be processed.
Why did he want to learn how to fight? His first thought was to say to become strong like his sisters, a great knight like all the other members in his family, but then he vividly remembered the distraught look on his mothers face from the day they learned of the tragedy, the sadness in all of the people in that room. Something inside of him made it so he didn't want to see her face like that again. And even when she mentioned his aunt, it hurt him too but he saw her eyes water.
"I…" after steeling his resolve "I want to make sure all of you are safe, I don't want to lose people. I don't want to see you so sad again mom." Upon hearing this his mothers shoulders sagged, while she smiled. Something inside of him made him hug his mother. Where was his dad when he needs him?
"Jaune, I was afraid you will say that. The day after tomorrow you will not go to school. I will ask Maria and your father to help us." This puzzled the young boy help them with what? He didn't manage to ask his, as she answered it. "I hoped it would be easy, but it never is, you and your sisters all the same. We will make you strong, but I hoped you will live a normal life, where you live long and I don't have to worry everytime you go to work. But it is never too late, my uncle, Młinar did it, maybe so will you." What she said made him hurt a bit, he didn't want to make his mother sad.
On that day in their front yard many boxes were laid out. All of his siblings was there, but his sisters were not allowed to take part of it, just to watch. On his dads belt was clipped Crocea mors, on his back a shield that was gifted to him by their mother was held by magnetic technologies he was not privy to.
"Son I am both happy and sad I have to do this again, this is the 8th time I do this." The man looked like he had given this speech before. "Me and your mother have always worried that our pasts are going to shape your futures – of you and your sisters, the way of the warior, be it a huntsmen or a knight, even that of lawkeeper is a thorny, bloodsoaked one." The mans voice seemed to falter and for a momment his eyes seemed to look into something far far away, before snapping to reality. "I want you to know that you can always step away from it even if it is just to take a break from it, me and Margaret, we have lost friends and family in the line of duty. We have trained all of you to be ready to deffend yourself and those you hold dear, we tried raising all of you to be smart, which didn't always work out, we raised you to be just and honorable." The older blonde unclasped his sword and sheath and put it on the ground next to all the other boxes. Before taking breath to continue talking. "You still have much to grow for you to get your mechanised armor, but we asked your aunt to bring all training weapons she has made in her shop, so we see what you have an aptitude for, that aptitude may shift as you grow. Through training and meditation we will help you awaken your aura, and grasp the aura techniques that your mothers side of the family uses to augment their fighting styles. Some of it may be hard, but we will explain, teach, knock and beat it into you if need be, just as we did with Rouje." Which got an indignant shout from his 3rd sister, and a momment of regreting his choice from the boy, before he got ready for what was to come, for it was what his future would hold.
2 and a half years later
"Good luck little brother! I bet a weeks wage on you winning!" screamed Rouje, who despite being a campaign knight for couple of years was being manhandled by their mother who looked at him with pride.
"He will Rouje, we made sure he is able to, and about your bad money management skills we will talk later. Jaune, don't underestimate your opponent, her father was a fierce warior and Gerel doesn't fall far behind." Before hugging him, despite being 14 centimeters taller than her and her being in the tail end of her forties, the hug still nearly crushed his ribs, even through the armor and aura he had on.
"Margaret, let him breath" Auriele Arc said, and when his mom let go of him, his dad gave him another bear like hug. "I am proud of you son, in just 3 years, you have gone far, even if you don't win we still love you, Rouje got eliminated in the prelims, so there will be no issues!" which got said sister to start a grumbling rant under her breath.
After pats on his back, and some shoulder squeezes they set out for the arena where the years Majors finals were to be held, 8 of them were going to bewatching him from the tribunes. Saphron was occupied around her expecting wife, that had been one awkward conversation, especially when they had asked him for a donation. Soon they were at the arena and his family left him to go to the stands, as he went for the fighting pit, today there was going to be only one fight, starting 5 minutes from now, at 17:00 sharp.
The filming and broadcasting crews nodded to him, as usual the commenting was done by Old Greatmouth and a guest host, he did not know about, usually a teacher from the accademies or an experienced knight. Calming his nerves, despite the reassurances of his family was a difficult task, breathing in and out helped him. No matter who watched him, no matter who he fought,he would threat it as a combat to the death, and will hold no tricks behind, if they are needed. When the announcer told for the fighters to come to the field, he strode into the almost blinding light, seeing the crowd cheering, holding boards and waving flags. Advertisements placed on the walls, and in a section a big group of blonds holding a big print that made him smile, he didn't notice them carying it in, so they must have prepared it in advance. Likely uncle Kowal had helped them, despite his old age the old craftsman had a lot of sway in his guild.
"Here are the finalists, two young knights reminding me from a fight twenty five years ago, where their parents were in this very same arena. Last time the Radiant knight Margaret Nearl won, while Nightmare knight Tola the kheshig lost, it was in the semi finals, before the second title of the Radiant knight against the Blood knight, those were great fights I am telling you. Today here with me is Liam the head of the Silverlance pegassi special squad, it is an honour to see him again hosting with us, his last appearance here was nearly fifteen years ago. Will we be safe if you are here Liam?"
"If we arent I would be a failure of a leader arent I? " as usual uncle Liam looked like he would do anything to not talk too much.
While the announcer kept talking he looked at his opponent, a young woman slightly shorter than him and with a slim build, maybe slightly older than him, dark red of hair and with certain mistralian feel to her facial features. He could see a curved sword of somekind with a tassel of dark fabric hanging of off it and some sort of small shield on her back. Noticing she was also checking him out the young man gave her his best smile, which seemed to make the lady annoyes, as she put her red and black helmet over her horse ears, not so dissimilar to his.
Understanding that the time for socialising was over Jaune put his helmet on, and the comentators started to countdown untill the start, and in this momment the only thing that mattered were him and his opponent, no enemy, taking Crocea mors in her greatsword form in one hand and his shield, clasping itself on his gauntlet. On the front of the elongated diamond like shape of black steel stood the Arc-Nearls emble – twin golden arcs over twin horseheads, a short right angle point slightly ahead of his fist, hoping he wouldn't have to use it. (Pretty much )
When the countdown reached zero, the two of them, eyes locked into each other started circling each other, in that point the world was just them and their opponent. Nobody dared make the first move for a while.
The young blonde broke the stalement by rushing in sword poised to strike, and just at the last momment his enemy moved to dash and counter attack with her own curved sword, which he took on the side, turning faster than the bulk under his armor could suggest he lashed out with his sword which was taken in by his opponents shield.
That would repeat for a while before a hard hit on her shield made her drop it, deciding to ditch the shield the woman jumped back, when he tried to follow her, a strange darkness overtook both of them. That must be her semblance, something to do with my perception, maybe an illusion?. A hit to his back, but when he lashed out he didn't feel any resistance, and another blow hit him to the side of the helmet, leaving him dazed, there were only a couple of ways this could end, either he gets out of this damn darkness or he will be helpless as she takes pot shots at him. Focus Jaune focus, using her semblance must take her aura away, lets see if I can outlast her, feeling his aura out just as his uncle thaught him, made him aware that will not be possible as he didn't know what her aura levels were at the momment and het blows were going to dwindle him aura no matter how much he had of it.
A strategy started forming in his mind, breaking her concentration will probably get her to drop her semblance, but he cant hit her as he don't know where she is, and getting lucky was out of the question, maybe blinding her might work. He focused his aura and flared it as hard as he could, despite the hits on his body after a particularly strong hit he burst out as much aura as he can, turning himself into a blinding flare of golden light.
After that he could see as his opponent was currently dissengaging with hand infront of her helmet, where eyes were supposed to be, the reason why he couldn't hit her made it obvious, her sword had mechashifter into a spear looking halberd! The similarity to the possibilities of his own weapon would have usually shocked him, but at this point in time, he had no time to be shocked, rushing to take advantage of the disposition of his enemy, pumping aura into his legs for maximum speed he reared his shield carrying arm for a punch he drove the point of his shield into her side, the strenght and the speed of the blow must have been great as he had taken her off the ground, umwilling to let her recuperate a sword slash was sent immediately, only to hit noting as a gun hidden in the spear shot to change her position, but even then she seemed to have some difficulty standing, changing into more deffensive form trying to use her longer reach with quick thrusts and attempts to slash at his legs.
Again rushing at her using shield to cover his body while advancing untill he got inside her guard, after a couple particularly strong blows his opponent fell to the ground, the alarms sounding the end of the bout were deafening. He suddenly became aware of cheers from all sides, raising his sword to the sky in celebration, and after clasping it on his belt, he knelt to try and help his enemy back to her hands and supporting her to the medics, who immediately started stripping her armor, to reveal the tunic underneath it. Seeing as he was not needed, and to preserve her modesty, Jaune left the medic tent and headed to his family, who rushed to hug him.
"That's my lil bro, even the comentators said it!" Rouje was over the clouds with how what she had taught him had helped the finals, looking at his parents he saw his mother talking with a dark haired horse faunus, having many scars on his face, deciding to listen in on their conversation.
"Don't be too harsh on her Tola, it was a good fight." Which prompted the man to look at him for a bit before answering.
"Right now she is going to be harsher to herself than I can ever be." Sighing and taking a breath. "I moved on from trying to find a glorious death. When I met her mother and we fought together, she helped me see the world in a new light, that is how I named my daughter. As a parent I am angry at your son, as a warior I respect him and will do nothing." Chuckling for a bit before continuing "I did not want her to participate this year, me and batbayar know that no matter how much we have whipped her into shape, especially after your aunt died , her mind just isnt there, she gets sloppy and overly relies with her semblance…" Keeping silence for a bit before continuing "Maybe from this she will learn to be better, I am afraid to let her go on her khaganquest yet, but I must soon." In the mans voice there was tenderness, that his rough look didn't suggest.
"You trully have changed, I am incredibly happy for you." There was a smile in his mother's voice. as the man entered the tent, Margaret Arc-Nearl joined her family.
After resting, and washing himself up so that he doesn't smell like a stable and it was time for the awarding ceremony, putting on a suit, brushing his tail and trying to not make too much of a mess with his hair, and they were all ready to go, the ladies of the family in a white dresses with pieces of plate on it, the men in black suits and gauntlets, his uncle's with gold accents, his father's – silver, and finaly his own uniformedly grey. All of them with a purple half cape in honour of aunt Zofia.
On enterring the hall a reporter managed to get to him: "anything to say on the finals champ? Can we get your opinion!"
Not knowing how to answer, Jaune chose to be honest and give the trademard Arc smile - "The fight was hard and enjoyable, I hope me and her can get to fight again in the future."
"Does that mean you will be fighting next year…" only to be stopped by jaune being dragged by Młinar Nearl inside. "You will need to learn to deal with people Jaune, not everyone is well meaning."
The award ceremony went well after that, him being given a trophy, he didn't particularly care about. The people he met that night were what really mattered in the end, his grand uncle would later tell him it was called networking.
"Congratulations, young man, it was a beautifull fight" the retired Nightmare knight would told him. "You and my girl…"putting a hand on his daughters shoulder, his horse ears standing proudly, "have both much to work on as warriors, and I hope you two one day become friends." Before leaving them alone, as he went to talk with someone Jaune did not see. When she was outside of the armor, she looked beautifull, even if her recent injury had her look pale and sickly. Even through her black dress, he could see the bandages around her ribcage.
"I hope it doent hurt too much." Jaune said apologeticaly, while motioning to her wound.
"The doctors said you broke and bruised a rib or two, even with aura it will take some time to heal." There was no anger in her voice or expression. "You got me good."
The young woman looked at him for a bit more before continuing."It was a beautiful fight. I learned new things from it, and next time we fight I will definitely win, just you wait!"
Jaune could only smile at her before answering with all his honesty "I hope so." Not noticing how the older girl blushed and turned away.
Other than that, there was a lot talking with other competition and off duty campaign knights, craftsmen, busynessmen and family friends. And what saddened him the most not enough food, to cover all the energy he expended in that evening.