Ch. 5 Meeting the reaper
Jaune placed his luggage in the store room and took out a sleeping bag. It was a late birthday present from his mom. It was a bit better than the standard issue ones used by Beacon students. It was supposed to be lighter and more compact than the standard ones, yet be able to accommodate two people if necessary. Jaune couldn't help but sigh and smile wryly when he recalled that information. Lily teased him for almost two hours about how he'd get to use that feature.
With his accommodation for the foreseeable future set, he went to work on his armour. The platinum Goodwitch ordered for him would arrive tomorrow, but that didn't mean there was nothing he could do. The design stage was just as important as smithing itself.
But there was no reason to hole himself up inside. Afterall Beacon featured many beautiful spots, and Jaune had the whole day to find one and let it inspire him.
And so Jaune walked around. He passed a pond, walked through the Beacon gardens and eventually came upon the cliffs.
The view of the Emerald forest was stunning. The weather was nice and the sky was without blemish. The sea of green before him, the rustling of leaves in the wind. This was the spot.
Jaune sat down and took out his pencil. He started sketching a pair of gauntlets but the design seemed bland, uninspired. Functional but boring, he could do better than that.
He looked up and stared at the sky hoping for a flash of inspiration. And then it came. A lone bullhead approached Beacon at breakneck speed.
"That's it! The bullhead! I may not be able to create a bullhead, but if I am to make armour why not make it a weapon as well."
With this flash of inspiration, Jaune started scribbling down ideas. A blade, a gun, would brass knuckles count? What about just adding a spike or two, would that count? What about mechashift? A spring loaded blade he could probably make on his own but what about a swing out dagger? Something bigger? A swing out axe? But this is armour he would have to carry the weight even while not using them.
"Keep it small, lightweight."
The sketch came to life with ideas. Jaune didn't know much about mechashift, but he could figure out something simple for now and make at least one gauntlet before initiation.
"If I'm making one at a time I should make them ambidextrous, that way I can mix and match once I have more of them."
In about an hour he had dozens of sketches of different ideas, some rough and discarded for now, some more detailed but eventually a single design started taking shape. A double action switchblade mechanism he looked up on his scroll and a pair of steel wires to engage the switch with one hand.
"Whoa kid, you planning on killing someone?" came a gruff voice from behind.
"Wha…! No, why would I? And how long have you been there?" Jaune turned around to see a skinny man with short black hair, red cape, grey shirt with rolled up sleeves and what looked like a folded sword on his back.
"A couple minutes. And if you don't want to stab someone with that it's going to be pretty useless against the Grimm."
"Well I don't plan on killing anyone with it. My semblance works with weapons so I thought to make my armour into a weapon. This is just a test case, to see if it works. I want to have this done before initiation so nothing fancy."
"Well you might want to use a dust powered piston here, instead of the spring. That way it can do damage when it shoots out."
"Thanks, but who are you? Are you a teacher here?"
"Name's Qrow, I teach at Signal. Though I run missions sometimes. That's why I'm here today."
"And why are you here at the cliffs?"
"Used to come here to drink as a student. Felt like drinking, thought I'd visit. You?"
"I'm Jaune, I'm set to start at Beacon in two weeks. Came here to design some more armour. I'm a blacksmith by trade so I want to make it with my own two hands."
"Jaune? As in Arc?"
"Yeah?"
"Aren't you the guy my niece sent to hospital in the Signal entrance exam?"
"Sounds like me. Barely remember that fight, or what came after."
"Yeah, I had to unlock your aura after that. Still can't believe you'd try out without."
"I was young and dumb alright. Went on to become a blacksmith after that, finished my apprenticeship and almost forgot about my dream to become a huntsman. But when I unlocked my semblance things just fell into place and here I am."
"Here you are indeed. Who did you apprentice under?"
"Cobalt Fèvre, the old dog made my final exam to break his best sword with one of my own."
"No shit. So you did it?"
"Yeah… Still can't believe he managed to make a stable gravity dust alloy into a sword. And since it warped the crystalline structure at an atomic level it apparently sounded awful with his semblance."
"Did it now? S'that why he never liked it?"
"Apparently. Do you know him?"
"Dealt with him some time ago and read his research papers from when he still worked in Atlas."
They stayed silent for a while.
"Sorry, I don't know much about mechashift, could I ask you some questions?"
=O=O=O=
Jaune stood by the docks and watched as the transport came into view. On board should be all the other first years. Some familiar faces, he hoped, but most of them would be total strangers. Though they had the next four years to get acquainted so Jaune wasn't worried.
The ship docked and soon students flowed out. A few people he knew waved hello. It wasn't until he was nearly tackled by Nora that he noticed Ren and his hyperactive friend.
"Jaune! Hi!"
"Hi to you too Nora. Hello Ren. How was the flight?"
"It was pleasant. Thank you."
Jaune was about to say something when he saw a girl with white hair pushing a trolley full of her luggage. Clearly she was having difficulties with doing something she wasn't even supposed to do. Jaune wanted to help, so he decided to go and tell her.
"Go ahead you two, I'll catch up later."
As he approached her he was passed by a group of students. When he reached the luggage girl she was already yelling at a girl in black and red that was left behind by the previous group.
"Sorry? Do you have any idea…!"
"Whoa whoa, slow down miss. It really didn't seem like her fault that she was knocked to the ground."
Both girls looked at Jaune now. The white one however turned her ire towards him.
"Do you have any idea how much damage she could have caused? Who are you anyway?"
Jaune however didn't care much for rude people and so he put on his best passive aggressive customer support smile. It wasn't the first time he dealt with unreasonable people.
"Jaune Arc fellow first year. But really if anything got damaged that's kinda your fault. You're not supposed to haul around all of your luggage. You were supposed to leave them at the docks"
"And how would you know?"
"Well first of all everyone else has at most a backpack with them right now. All other luggage will be delivered to the dorms once we get a room assigned. And secondly, it's all written down in the pamphlet for first years. There should have been a bunch on the transport, but I think I have one with me."
He rummaged through his pockets and brought out his copy of the pamphlet he got from Goodwitch that morning.
"Here you can keep it. You should return your luggage back to the dock with the rest of the luggage. Please, read the pamphlet and have a good day."
As the white one humphed and started putting her suitcases back on the trolly, Jaune turned to the girl still on the ground. Extending a hand to help he asked in a quiet voice
"Hey, you okay?"
She took his hand and let herself be pulled up.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for standing up for me."
"Hey, don't mind her. She's probably just having a bad day. Anyway I'm Jaune, and you are?"
"Ruby."
"A pleasure to meet you Ruby."
=O=O=O=
"Look, all I'm saying is that social anxiety is not that uncommon. Plus my sister is making a big deal out of it."
"You don't have to try and convince me. I've been saying the same about motion sickness."
"Is that why you weren't on the transport with us?"
"Actually no, though staying here did save me two trips in that flying cage."
"So why were you here before anyone else?"
"Ah, it was to use the forge here. I was a blacksmith before coming here, but I didn't have time to get all of my gear in check."
"Wait, Beacon has a forge?"
"A good one too. Master Fèvre's forge is nice but it isn't…"
"Fèvre? as in Cobalt Fèvre the master smith? He's a legend. Did you work with him?"
"Apprenticed under him. Is he such a big deal?"
"Are you kidding? He's a big name in the weapons comunity. He's famous for being a perfectionist! And you learned from him, that is so awesome!"
The anxiety ridden Ruby was gone and in her stead was one completely in her element.
"Oh you have to show me some of your work. I based some of my alloys on the research he did when working on his magnum opus."
Jaune was at a loss for words. Not only was this girl fangirling over the old dog, but she specifically used the research that led to Sorrows Song. The blade that Jaune himself broke. Well, when in doubt, deflect.
"So you made your own weapon?"
"Yeah, all students at Signal make their own weapons. Jaune, meet Crescent Rose."
With a fluid motion Ruby swung out her warscythe and with an added flair and twirl slammed the heavy blade into the ground.
"A mechashift warscythe huh."
"It's also a highly customisable sniper rifle."
"That's so cool. I'm no expert on mechashift but even I can tell this is an overengineered work of love."
"Finally someone gets it."
"Yeah, I did the same with my weapon. I've poured my soul into Atra Aurora."
The black blade materialised in front of Jaune and in a subconscious move his father spent two weeks beating into him, he grabbed it and with his own flare and twirl dropped into a relaxed combat stance.
"Whoa…"
Jaune smiled.
"Ruby, meet Arta Aurora, the Black Dawn."
"How did you do that?"
"My semblance Arsenal. My weapons are a literal part of me."
"That's so cool. You can almost feel the aura radiating from it. What is it made of?"
"A high dust carbon steel alloy. Almost 40% dust."
"Jaune, that is impossible, that much dust makes alloys so brittle and can hold so much aura tha… by the gods you're not kidding."
"I've got a lot of aura."
"That…how?"
"Maybe I'll tell you at some point, and you can teach me about mechashift in exchange."
"Yeah, that'd be cool."
"Ok, but now we should head to the auditorium. The headmaster is going to have a speech and professor Goodwitch will have our heads if we come late."
=O=O=O=
"Hey sis, I saved you a spot."
"Oh that's my sister, gotta go. Talk to you later?"
"Sure, talk to you later."
As Ruby ran off, Jaune took a look around the auditorium. Again some familiar faces though one redhead in particular was frantically waving at him.
Jaune just smiled at her enthusiasm. She somewhat reminded him of Lavender in her mannerisms. Though he suspected some acts of affection could prove downright deadly from Nora.
"Hi! Again…"
"Hi, sorry to have left you two. The white haired girl was having some trouble with her luggage."
"We heard some of it while we were leaving…"
"She wasn't very nice. But I guess that's par for the course with a celebrity like her."
"Is she, like, famous? Sorry, I didn't really keep up with any media in the past few years."
"So you didn't recognize Weiss Schnee?"
"The name rings a bell but…"
"Come on, silly Jaune… Schnee dust company?"
"Oh those guys. My master was faunus so he stocked his dust from elsewhere. He mentioned them in passing and called them racist but that's about all I know."
"Did your master teach you to use the sword? You were the top of our group in the entrance exam."
"Actually I'm self taught. My master is Cobalt Fèvre, but he taught me smithing. I actually finished my apprenticeship so technically I'm a master blacksmith too. That's mostly on paper though, I still have a lot to learn. Cobalt though is a legend apparently. Or so Ruby said."
"Is that the girl you came in with?"
"Yeah, she's…"
Before Jaune could continue the lights in the auditorium dimmed. Their eyes were drawn to the podium where professor Ozpin was about to begin his speech.
"I'll...keep this brief. You have travelled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."
The speech itself may have been profound but the delivery seemed tired. Like the headmaster told the same speech so many times the meaning became stale.
"Tomorrow morning your initiation begins. For tonight all first years will sleep in the ballroom. To those who didn't bring their own sleeping bag one will be issued. The curfew is at ten, so make sure to be in the ballroom at that time. You may not officially be students yet but that won't stop me from giving you detention. Dismissed."
Jaune winced a bit under the stern gaze of the strict professor. It was clear that as pleasant as his sleeping spot was, from here on he was no longer allowed to use it.
"Well, I'll go get my stuff. I'll see you guys in the ballroom. Save me a spot?"
"Of course, see you later, Jaune!"
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
So the romance begins, after all Qrow is such a handsome guy... I'm kidding of course, but the chapter isn't called "Meeting the reaper" for nothing. The next chapter is going to be a bit shorter but I hope you look forward to it regardless. Next week's chapter: Ch. 6 Turf war