Author's Notes:

-To anyone who remembered and took the flashback sister-said-which-line challenge from ch. 15 (or may encounter it in the future well after I post the answers), here they are;

"Good luck Jaune!"-Acacia

"Honestly, I don't believe this will end well for you. But good luck anyway!"-Azura

"Don't worry, Jaune! Just fake it til ya make it!"-Indigo

"Jaune Arc, you're an even bigger imbecile than I thought. If I were a betting woman, I'd wager that you'll be out of Beacon in two weeks or less."-Rouge

"I know you're trying to become a huntsman, but you should have just agreed to take lessons from me. It would have been a smarter, safer and wiser decision."-Tangerine

"Don't be so mean, you two! I believe in him. Good luck, Jaune!"-Amethyst

"The odds are against you, but if you work hard enough, you just might pull it off. Good luck, big bro!"-Emerald

Don't worry if you missed it or got them wrong, it was just a little test of your brainpower. Also makes you think, what does their farewell line say about Jaune's relationship with each sister? What does it say about their character? You don't have to answer that.

Anyway, let's get back to the story!

It had been a week since Jaune arrived at the Arc family home. He had some trouble settling into a routine of chores, mainly because Rouge was being a royal pain. It hadn't helped that he slept horribly the previous night, having slight bags under his eyes. The young man sighed as he dragged himself upstairs, taking Indigo's laundry to her room. The light yellow wall has part of the big hallway, with numerous doors leading to various rooms on both sides of the second floor. As he reached the top of the stairs, the young blond looked at the clock on the wall to the right of the door in front of him; it's second timer making it to the top, signaling it was 9 am.

How am I going to do this? Indigo likes sleeping in, just like Rouge. How do I make sure I don't wake her up? He internally sighed. Maybe I should have started by mopping the floors. No wait, that wouldn't work well with mom and dad eating breakfast in the kitchen before they go to their respective jobs.

He internally sighed once more as he turned to the right and went to the second door on the left. Slowly but surely, he crept open Indigo's door, trying very hard not to wake her up. The slate blue walls of her room were mostly bare, save for a picture of her family and a poster of a spider on a web to the right and a fly to the left, drawn in the style of a comic book.

In a big speech bubble in the middle of the poster, it read, 'Will you come into my parlor?' said the spider to the fly. 'Tis the prettiest little parlor that you ever did spy.'

Looking away from the poster, he turned to see his little sister asleep with her left arm on the pillow, the rest of her body covered underneath a warm, fuzzy dark purple blanket and a white sheet with vertical light blue thin stripes. She looked so serene. Jaune hated the thought of waking her up. He thought of setting her clothes on her bed by dumping them there, but he'd wake her up if her did that. He gently set the basket down and put her stuff on her desk in small batches at a time. He then picked up the basket, looking at his sleeping sister one last time before he stepped out of the room. Holding the basket by the handle with his left hand, he silently shut the door with his other, exhaling a sigh of relief as he did so.

Standing there, as if she was waiting for him, the tough tomboy asked him, "Still having trouble balancing everything?"

"No. I mean..." He sighed. "Yes. I am. Tangerine, I haven't got a clue how mom and dad did it all."

The tough tomboy smirked. Her black eyes had healed, as well as her bruises and cuts. She still had the scar on her right arm, which she made no effort to conceal. She leaned back against the wall with one of her legs up, folding her arms simultaneously. "Just be thankful it isn't all the loads in one day. That would suck."

"I meant all of the chores simultaneously, but yeah, it could be worse." He looked at his older sister sincerely. "Hey um, Tangerine?"

Her expression slightly softened. "Yeah?"

With his free arm, he put his hand over his elbow and slowly moved it down his arm. "I realize that... I may not be worthy... and that I probably should have asked you about this a long time ago, but... would you... still be willing to help me... with combat training?"

"Hmm... Normally I wouldn't, but since you asked so nicely, I'll do it."

"Really? Thank you! When do we start?"

Tangerine was about to answer when suddenly, she heard the sound of a door opening. Indigo appeared before them, very grumpy and displeased. "Could you take this conversation elsewhere? I'm trying to sleep."

She shut her door. Jaune grumbled. "Aw rats." He sighed. "So much for not waking her up."

Meanwhile, Ren and Nora had filled out numerous job applications, so now there was the matter of preparing for the potential interviews. The two were at a clothing store in the mall, trying to find suitable attire for said interviews. Ren already found his outfit, but he still needed nice black dress shoes. As the young man sat there on the floor, trying on shoes, his partner in crime came out of a nearby dressing stall, wearing a knee-length black dress with long sleeves and a collared neckline.

"You look really nice." He got up and started walking a few steps in the shoes to see how comfortable they were. "Just perfect."

"I know this for getting a job, but... does it have to be black?" Nora asked. "Black just isn't my color."

"Hmm... I think it looks good on you. Black is the most common color, commonly considered the best for formal events and business. But if I suppose we could find something in a lighter shade, like maybe a cream color." Ren sat down on the bench, took the dress shoes off and put on his "I've finally found the right shoes though. I've got my outfit, we've both found our shoes, but we still need you a dress that is both appropriate for business and not black. Hmm..."

And so began Nora trying on many more dresses, with Ren giving commentary for each one. First was a bright blue knee length dress paired with a light jacket as a coverup. The second one was a light brown leopard print dress. The third one was a crimson dress with a slight wave-like v-neck. The fourth one was a white dress with a floral pattern of pink, green and blue.

"No, too bright."

"Too patterned."

"Too flashy."

"Pretty, but not suitable for an interview."

Nora sighed as she stepped out of the dressing room in her normal clothes. "We've been here for over an hour. I don't think we're going to find anything."

"There's got to be something here." Ren said. He saw a mannequin wearing a black skirt paired with a white and black blouse. "Hmm... I've got an idea. Wait here."

The young ninja sped off and grabbed few things for Nora to try on. Roughly ten minutes later, he stood up waiting for Nora to show her outfit to him. When she stepped out, she was wearing a knee-length navy blue skirt with a matching coat and a white blouse.

"Well, I like it. It's nice, it's comfortable, formal yet not horribly dark in color. What do you think?"

Ren smiled. "It's perfect. It might be slightly more expensive because it's multiple parts, but if it helps you to get a decent paying job, it's worth it. Now then, get back into your normal attire so we can make our purchase and get out of here."

The happy go lucky lass followed his instruction and the two started walking through the store, making their way to the counter. As they passed by other sections of clothes, the ninja turned to his internal thoughts. Damn, why does she look so cute in that? Then again, she's always cute. Wait. Cute?

Back at the Arc family home, Jaune took a nail, a hammer and a piece of paper and started hammered a message into the wall over by the entrance to the kitchen and dining room.

"Could you keep it down?" Rouge asked, annoyed with the racket.

"Sorry. Just posting an important notice." he answered.

"Huh?"

The other sisters began to notice and even his parents too. "What's this?" Emerald inquired.

Acacia squinted at the text, being further away from everyone else. "It reads,

'To Whom It May Concern; I, Jaune Arc, will soon be taking combat lessons from my older sister, Tangerine Arc. These lessons will be occurring on a daily basis from 9:30pm-10:30pm. Please note that this time may vary depending on when Tangerine returns from her work of hunting down criminals for cash. I kindly ask of you not to call me for any sort of butler related activities or disturb me during the training sessions that are to come. Your patience and understanding are most appreciated.

Signed Jaune Arc'

Below that, in Tangerine's hand-writing, reads,

'Tangerine Arc

Yes, Jaune is actually doing this.'"

"He can't even do this!" Rouge exclaimed, before turning to her parents. "Can he?"

"As long as he gets done with all his chores beforehand, I don't see what the problem is."

Rouge sighed. She turned away from her family and rolled her eyes. Jaune grabbed the mop and proceeded to mop the kitchen floor.

Pyrrha roamed the forest, still cloaked. It had been only a single day since her fateful encounter with the tarot reader Maura Celandine. She knew where she wanted to go, but unfortunately, she was really lost. During an encounter with Beowolves the previous night, one of them ate her compass, so now she had no idea where she was, where the city was, or how to get there.

Alright... The nearest city is... How many miles away?

By now, she was very much far from the city of Mistral, and away from most other major cities for that matter. Since her destination was the southwestern part of Vale, she would either have to get to Olympia by plane or by boat. But the latter would take a lot longer. Considering that most major cities with airports were pretty far away, her best option was to get to the nearest coastal city. Where in the world was she?

She pushed a few branches out of the way and walked forward to a small cliff, containing a freshwater marsh below. Sometimes there was civilization nearby a swamp or marsh, but this was not always the case. Deciding to change course in these hopes, she jumped into the ankle-deep water, letting it soak her feet and the lower part of her cloak. She took a few steps, one after the other, and after walking about 50 feet or so into the marsh, she felt something bite at her ankle.

"Ow! What the?" She lifted her leg up and saw she was being bitten by snapping turtles. "Ow, get off!" She knocked the turtle off her with her fist, only for the turtle to come back with another turtle. As the two turtles tried to bite away at her, she then realized her red sash was being bitten by them. "No, stop it!" She got out her spear, Milo Javelin, and used it to knock the first snapping turtle away from her. She then had to pry the second one off her sash, ending up bitten in the hand twice before using her spear to knock it away. Wanting to avoid more snapping turtles, she then ran through the marsh for a few hundred meters and got out of it, jumping off onto the cliff, sitting down to catch her breath while thoroughly examining the damage done to her sash. "Oh man! This is the last thing I have left of my mom!" She felt like a burst of cold air ripped through her lungs and sniffed, trying to hold back tears. "Mother..."

Her memories brought her back to the day she left for Beacon Academy. This would be the last day she would ever her parents in person for the last time. The three of them, stood on the front porch of their house. Ash Nikos was not present, since he said his goodbye to her earlier before going out with his friends. Pyrrha had her big red luggage case behind her, wearing her traditional combat outfit.

Her mother, Phoenix Nikos, was a tall woman with the same bright red hair Pyrrha had and slightly lighter green eyes. Her hair was thrown into a large top bun with slight curled bangs on both sides of her face. She wore a white peplos with a golden phoenix pin on the right shoulder strap paired with gold open toed sandals.

Her father, Merle Nikos, had the same emerald eyes Pyrrha did, but had black hair, greased back and neatly combed. He wore black pants held by red suspenders with a dark grey button up dress shirt and an orange neck tie with red stripes in a spiral-lined pattern paired with black dress shoes.

"Well, I suppose it's time. To start walking the road that leads to my destiny." Pyrrha said. She smiled and sniffed. "I'm going to miss you."

"Wait." Her mother reached out. "I made you this." She handed the red sash to her. "Red is the color of energy, strength, determination and power. Remember this is every battle you fight. Keep it on your person, so that you know, that no matter what happens, we are always with you."

She attached the sash to her belt. "Thank you." She threw her arms around her mom. "I love you, mom."

"I love you too, sweetie. Good luck at Beacon!"

Her father gave her a big bear hug, which she returned with equal strength. "Love ya, dad."

"Love you too, little champion." He released her from the hug. "Now get out there and show em what you're made of!"

She smiled as she took her suitcase and left her home. She then stopped and looked at her parents one last time before leaving. "Tell Ash that I love him and wish him good luck when he goes back to Sanctum!"

"Will do. Goodbye!"

"Goodbye!"

And so she walked forth, believing in herself and her destiny. As she returned to the present, she felt the tears slip from her eyes and fall down her face. They were gone now... her parents were dead and Ash... oh gods, where was he?

Later that evening, the first combat lesson had begun. It was 9:30 as Jaune requested, and he and Tangerine were in the backyard. The backyard was surrounded by a wooden fence and had three big trees at the perimeter. The lamp lights on the outside of the house served as a source of illumination on the dark night. Trying to keep himself still, Jaune sat on a chair he took from the kitchen with a clipboard and some pencils on his lap as Tangerine stood in front of a chalkboard, her back turned as she wrote something down with a piece of white chalk.

The board read in the middle in big bold chalk, Combat 101-The Basics and Advanced Aspects of Combat and at the bottom it read in smaller, lighter font, Tangerine Arc.

His older sister turned to face him, chalk in her right hand. "Alright, Jaune, welcome to Combat 101. Your instructor is me, Tangerine Arc. Considering the very informal setting of these nightly sessions, you do not have to address me as Ms. or Professor, or any other teacher related title, but you can if you so desire to. These sessions will consist of a half lecture, half actual combat practice. We will also be working with aura and other exercises as I see fit. I see you have taken the liberty of getting supplies to take notes. Very good, those notes will help you during this course and throughout your career as a huntsman. So then, let's begin. Lesson number one-" Jaune began writing. "As a lone huntsman, you must be able to stand and fight on your own. I can not stress this enough. You have no teammates to aid you, no one to hide behind, no teachers or fellow hunters to save you. You are on your own. Answer this honestly; during your time at Beacon, you relied on your teammates to do some of the work for you, didn't you?"

He held the tip of the eraser of his pencil to his chin. "Well, yeah, I suppose... to an extent."

"To an extent... Hmm?" She looked at him curiously. "How much would you say you relied on your teammates to do the heavier, more difficult aspects of fighting on a five point scale? Five being absolutely helpless without them and one being you hardly relied on them at all."

"Ah... it depends on which point of the year you're asking about, but... I'd say a three overall."

Tangerine nodded. "Alright then. Well you're on your own now, so you must step up. Stand up." He did so, putting the notes and clipboard down. "Get out Crocea Mors." He followed her instruction without hesitation. "Show me your best combat ready stance!" Jaune put his right foot forward, his sword in hand, holding his shield up with his left arm as he had his legs apart, his body slightly towards the ground. "Good. Now then." She got out her spear, seemingly out of nowhere. "Now then, prepare to face me in combat!"

"Wait, what?!"

Before he could even blink, she charged towards him and knocked him down by batting him with her fire-dust loaded spear, partially singeing his clothes, leaving him in pain and confusion. His sword and shield fell behind him by the fence as Tangerine stared at him down below. "Lesson number two- always be prepared for anything and everything. Be ready to expect the unexpected. Don't worry, I'm not going to suddenly charge at you. Probably." That stated sounded less than reassuring to Jaune, but he said nothing of it as he got up from the ground. "Were you told this one in your school days?"

He retrieved the sword and shield, answering as he stuttered, "I... I think so, although I've never really followed it much. Mainly because it's really hard to do..."

"Well, you're going to have to. And I know it's easier said than done, but the reaction of the unforeseen occurrence and the possible hesitation could cost you. Now then, shall we move on?"

After the lecture part of the lesson was over, they moved on to the actual combat training.

"The rules of these duels are simple; defeat your opponent. I will be throwing all different kinds of fighting styles at you so that you will be prepared for anything that comes your way. Like this course, these duels will get harder as time goes on. Since we are just starting out, I'll use one of the weapons I don't normally use." She got out her nunchucks. "I won't hold back. Not much anyway." She tightened her grip swung her wrists in a clockwise motion, spinning the weapons as Jaune braced himself for combat once again.

Without warning, she charged at him. He tried to rise his shield to block her attacks, to no avail. After being struck in the chest with the nunchucks in her right hand, he felt winded and then the next thing he knew, she knocked his shield right out of his hand, leaving him with only his sword. He tried to use his sword to prevent the nunchucks from getting him in head or face, and when the right one roped around his sword, he used his raw muscle strength to yank it away from her.

Instead of looking annoyed like he thought she would be, she smirked. "Clever." Tangerine remarked. "But not quite clever enough!" As she spun her remaining nunchuck, she switched it from one hand to another as she continued fighting. She end up getting him in the stomach, briefly stunning him as she cartwheeled back and retrieved the other part of her weapon. "You fail to see how your weaknesses are dragging you down! You could be faster! Use more aura when fighting! You told me that Pyrrha told you had a lot of aura! Why aren't you using it?!"

Jaune didn't have time to think about that or answer her question. She spun her nunchucks faster than ever, scaring him. He sidestepped, trying to avoid her attacks and think of a strategy on how to, but he had nothing. The match then ended with Jaune's head hurting after being knocked down with the nunchucks. He felt dizzy, almost like falling unconscious on the ground. Forcing himself to get up, he threw his arms forward, using his hands to mount himself upward, his head spinning as he tried to get up. He moaned and rubbed his head in pain as Tangerine sighed.

"Ohhh..."

"Looks like we got a long way to go. Now then, time for a new experience." She set her nunchucks down on the collapsible table, where she placed her other weapons, trading the weapon she previously used for one used by someone the young blond used to know. "You told me that you knew Yang Xiao-Long, one of the many pen-pals I have. Well tell me this, did you ever face her in combat?" She cocked her basketball orange dual ranged shot gauntlets.

"Can't say that I have." he slowly answered.

"Well then, first time for everything I guess."

She smirked as she charged towards him. Pretty soon, the combat part of the lecture was over.

"Now then, since we still have a little bit of time left, I'll give you the instruction to dodging. Do be aware that there is a difference between retreating from battle, taking cover and doing an evasive maneuver. Retreating from battle is where you are completely abandoning the battle or getting off the battlefield. You don't want to be doing this, as running away from battle generally means that you're a cowardly weakling. There are some instances, however, where this would be the better option. For instance, if your arm breaks and there's massive gunfire, you want to get out of there immediately. Now taking cover, that's trying to get away from the source of conflict without leaving the battle. That's what you were doing to avoid the sniper's gunfire in your match against team BRNZ in the Vytal Festival. Dodging, or evasive maneuvering, is exactly what it sounds like-avoiding enemy projectiles and attacks by deflecting them or getting out of the way."

"Now, for your first dodging exercise... Hmm..." She went over to her table and grabbed a wooden staff. "You have any objections to Randori?"

Without even a moment to answer her, she swung the staff at him, hitting him in the head, both of his kneecaps and his back. He groaned as she got up, swiftly doing a backflip to evade her advances.

No one ever said this would be easy...

Several minutes later, Jaune was lying on the ground.

"Oof. That was rough."

"You managed to evade for at least a minute though. That's a good sign. The first step isn't always easy, but you have taken it." Jaune arose as she put the staff and her other weapons away. "Take what you have learning here tonight and apply it in combat."

"Hey um, Tangerine? Thanks again for agreeing to do this."

She smiled. "No problem. But don't think that this is going to get any easier."

Jaune nodded in comprehension as he took his materials and went back inside. He set the clipboard and pencils on the dining room table and sat down at the dining room table as he tried to regain his strength.

"Oh, Jaune!" a familiar voice called out.

"Oh boy..."

What does Rouge want with me this time?

"Come with me." She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him up the stairs, turning to the left and going to the first door on the right. With her other hand, she opened the door and took him into her room, showing him several bottles of nail polish on her desk underneath the bookshelf on top of it. "You are to sort these out by color and place them on the top rack of the bookshelf, left to right from lightest to darkest."

"Sorting nail polish?" He gave her a raised eyebrow and annoyed look. "That's what you want me to do as butler? Seems like such a minimal task."

"You don't have a choice." She held the back of her hand to her forehead. "Also, today has been exhausting for me."

He shot a death glare at her. "You could have done this yourself hours ago during your spare time."

"Zip it. Oh, and when you're done with that, make me a cup of rose passionfruit tea." She grabbed a book from the bookshelf and turned to face the door. "I'll be waiting downstairs."

The fashion model left the former student of Beacon to complete his task. Jaune sighed as he looked at the bottles of nail polish. There were over a hundred of them, a majority being in some shade of red. A few were in pink, a smaller few in white, two in gold and silver glitter, other glitter colors, and one in orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. He was going to be here a while.