Chapter 6: Belladonna's Request

Eleven Years Ago

"Grandpa, why are we here?" Jaune asked the older man, looking up at Aurelius.

Aurelius gave his grandson a smile that did not reach his eyes, "We're just getting you a medical check-up before we start your training."

They were in a medical office within the Valean Foreign Legion compound, which was typically used for checkups of the soldiers under his command.

A woman with short green hair and thick glasses, wearing a white coat, walked into the office. Her eyes locked onto Aurelius and his grandson.

To her credit, Aurelius thought she did not stumble or show any sign of disturbance at the odd sight of a six-year-old child.

"Sir?" she asked.

"Doctor Pearlescent," Aurelius said calmly, "You've received my request for treatment, I hope?" he asked.

"Of course, sir," Doctor Pearlescent said, "I'm to treat this child?" she asked, and Aurelius noted the edge in her voice. Not that Aurelius was surprised Doctor Pearlescent was always reluctant about this particular treatment, despite her Semblances nature.

"Yes," Aurelius said simply.

Doctor Pearlescent walked up to the table Jaune was sitting on and gave the child a once over, "And you're sure about everything we discussed?" she asked again, and Aurelius noted the plea in her voice.

"Yes, Doctor," Aurelius said again, his face implacable.

"Grandpa, is this going to take a long time?" Jaune asked.

Aurelius chuckled, but the sound wasn't all there as he looked down at Jaune, "Not long at all, why do you ask Jaune?"

Jaune shrugged and looked down, a guilty expression on his face, "I was just thinking I should apologize to Violet; I didn't say anything to her, Mom, or my other sisters before I left."

"That's good of you, Jaune," Aurelius said, "An Arc should always take responsibility for their actions," the words came out easily, though Aurelius's smile didn't reach his face.

Jaune gave his grandfather a shy grin before looking back at Doctor Pearlescent, "Thank you for looking after me, Doctor Pearlescent," Jaune said politely.

Doctor Pearlescent looked at the child for a long time and then said to Aurelius, "On your command, Commander."

Aurelius expression could have been carved from stone, "Commence the operation."

Doctor Pearlescent reached out, placing a hand on Jaune's shoulder, "Please look into my eyes," she said, taking off her glasses.

Jaune looked up, meeting eyes that bled from brown to a misty gold, "Woah," he breathed, "How are you doing that?"

"It's my Semblance," Doctor Pearlescent said, giving the boy a small smile. There was a pained note to it.

"What's a-" Jaune stopped his mouth open, his eyes became completely unfocused. Twenty minutes passed with the boy frozen, the room in a deathly silence.

Finally, Doctor Pearlescent's eyes returned to brown, and she removed her hand and put her glasses back on.

Jaune startled back into motion, looking about the room widely for a bit before his eyes landed on his grandfather. "I think I zoned out there, sorry, Grandpa." The words came out guiltily, though there was a strange way to how they were spoken, a newly formed hollowness.

"Am I cleared to do my training, Ma'am?" the boy asked, looking between Doctor Pearlescent and his Grandfather.

Aurelius looked at Doctor Pearlescent, who nodded once her eyes returned to normal, though her face was now creased in a frown, "I think so; you seem to be in good health, perfect condition for awakening your aura."

"I can do that," Aurelius said calmly, stepping forward and placing a hand on Jaune's shoulder, "For it is in sacrifice that we achieve immortality, Through this, we become a paragon of hope, the shield against the night. I release you and ask your service."

Golden light flared around Jaune, and he looked in awe at his hands as he shone brightly, his aura shimmering over his skin.

The room was quiet for a bit as Jaune stared at his skin as the golden currents of his aura played over it.

"Jaune?" Aurelius asked.

Jaune shook himself, looking up at his grandfather, "I think I zoned out again," the boy admitted guiltily, "Do you think my parents would have been proud of me?" he asked.

Aurelius smiled, "I'm sure they would have been."

Jaune frowned, looking down, "What were their names?" he asked.

"My son, your father's name was Hadrian, your mother's name was Juniper."

Jaune nodded once, seemingly committing the information to memory; he laughed a sad sound, "Sorry, Grandpa, I don't know why I asked that, I guess I had just forgotten," he gave his grandfather another smile, but this time, there was a sad note to the expression.

A shadow flashed over Aurelius's face, then disappeared as fast as it had come, a smile was pasted back across the older man's face, "Come on, I believe your first lesson awaits," Aurelius said, clapping Jaune on the back.

"Okay," Jaune nodded, smiling happily at Aurelius.

Jaune woke before the sun had even begun its ascent and began his jog around Beacon's campus.

While he jogged, he collected his thoughts, nerves still sometimes fluttered in his stomach as he thought about the plan he had concocted with Winter. Nothing immediate should be happening yet, and his overall part was rather small.

At some point, Winter would contact him, and he would have to duel Winter's father. The man apparently had little Huntsman training to speak of, and Jaune thought from his own encounter with him that the man certainly did not move in a way that gave him any pause. More than that a deeper thought had begun moving through his mind, something uncomfortable that he hadn't voiced to anyone.

No one at Beacon had demonstrated a capability that he thought himself unable to match. Where were the Hunters and Huntresses like Aurelius Arc, the man who even now he could not beat? He had been so sure that they were everywhere. How else could the Grimm be matched in the amounts he fought?

Yet as he saw the students fight in class, as he had watched some of the upper years spar, a small thought had emerged in his head, louder and louder.

Was he not actually weak?

Then why had his grandfather pushed him like he did? Aurelius had never, it seemed, been satisfied with his training and his accomplishments. Whenever Jaune had thought he had made progress and they had sparred, the man would beat him into the dirt and then explain what Jaune had done wrong.

Why had his grandfather never said that he loved him if he had actually been doing so well?

Jaune shook his head.

His grandfather had told him a couple of times that he had done well on his training and had completed enough of it to have a break. Jaune hadn't believed him then, but maybe that was the extent of how his grandfather showed his emotions.

Jaune snorted, the breath passing idly through his lips, not at all disturbing his running pace.

His grandfather must have had a good reason, he always did. Jaune revered the man deep down to his core. If there was something he hadn't understood, then the fault rightfully lay with him.

In the more immediate sense, he had another pressing concern. He had gotten himself engaged to get out of being married. A situation that he found himself wishing for his grandfather's advice on.

Not that, of course, he would be telling his grandfather what he had done. The only thing that might be worse would be team JNPR or RWBY finding out. Even if it wasn't a real engagement, the potential for awkwardness would be way too much. All he could do was hope it wouldn't be too long before he could fight Jacques Schnee and put this whole thing behind him.

So lost was he in his thoughts that he went a little longer than usual and found himself arriving back at his room with his teammates already awake and prepared for the day.

"Jaune," Pyrrha greeted politely, her eyes flicking over him before her emerald gaze locked onto his own eyes.

Ren was seated on the floor cross-legged, her face in a serene expression as she did not make a sound.

Nora was laid back on her bed in the opposite direction of how one would usually lie, with her head hanging off the end pointed toward the floor.

Teal eyes regarded him with excitement, "Fearless Leader!" she cried out, doing an odd sort of flop as she tried to shoot to her feet but only managed to tip herself over, body tumbling to fall to the floor with a thud.

Jaune winced, "You okay, Nora?" he asked, concerned.

Nora giggled and bounced to her feet, her breasts jerking with the motion, "Yep!' she said, popping the p.

Jaune nodded and headed toward the shower after grabbing his school uniform, "Give me a minute; I'll be quick," he said, reaching down and pulling his sweaty t-shirt over his head as he idly scratched his abs.

Unbeknownst to him, the motion drew the attention of all three girls in the room, their eyes following him until he entered the bathroom before they snapped back when the door closed.

Three pairs of eyes met each other guilty before the pink eyes closed again, and the emerald green busied themselves looking over her notes; the teal eyes simply sparkled in amusement.

Jaune finished his shower with all due haste and led his team to their Sunday breakfast.

After grabbing their food, they settled at a table and began to eat languidly.

"So what are we doing today, fearless leader?" Nora asked excitedly, almost vibrating in her seat.

Jaune blinked, surprised at the direct question, noting that Ren's eyes had locked onto him, her delicate features impassive beside a gentle warmth in her pink eyes, and Pyrrha had looked at him contemplatively as she continued to eat her yogurt, swiping the substance from her spoon with a delicate lick of her pink tongue.

Jaune frowned in thought; now, perhaps, was an opportunity to fully analyze some of the thoughts he had earlier.

"Well," he began, "Where do we think the weaknesses of our team lie?"

Nora's brow furrowed in concentration as she looked down in thought, and Pyrrha's gentle expression shifted into one of consideration.

Ren spoke first, her voice delicate and soft but easily hearable despite the growing noise of the cafeteria, "Pyrrha and you are the strongest members of our team, Nora at least is more capable than me, I think that puts me at the bottom combat wise on the team."

Nora shook her head, glaring at her friend, "That's not true! You may not have the same firepower, but you're way better at finding the weaknesses of Grimm than me!"

Ren shrugged, giving her friend a gentle smile, "I don't say that in a self-deprecating way. It's more a statement of how good the rest of you are. Pyrrha's technique is so finely honed that no one in combat class can challenge her; she's good enough to be a full huntsman now. Your strength is simply overpowering. Jaune…"

Ren turned to look at him directly, "The day you saved our village, you were the best hunter I had ever seen. Now, from what I've seen this past week… a part of me wonders why you're here… there's not a single Hunter I've seen who has your kind of strength."

Jaune frowned, resisting the urge to respond as he actually considered Ren's words.

Pyrrha spoke up, looking at Jaune with serious emerald eyes, "I have to agree, Jaune. I've done a lot of fighting in tournaments against full-fledged Huntresses and the occasional Huntsman. I've always won. Before we fought in that tournament I had never even taken a single strike to my aura. When we fought, though, you demolished me in a way no one ever had before. I mean, people used to call me the Invincible Girl!" Pyrrha chuckled dryly.

Jaune blinked, reaching back through his memory before he put two and two together, "Wait, you're the 'Invincible Girl' I heard about?" Jaune asked, the words escaping his lips despite himself.

Pyrrha cocked her head with a wry smile twisting her lips, "Sorry!" she said, but she didn't sound it, "I realized you didn't know when we met again; I guess I just got caught up in the fact you had no idea who I was."

Jaune raised an eyebrow at her, "I still don't; actually, I just heard the name 'Invincible Girl,' that's all; I still don't know what that's about."

Nora and Ren looked at Jaune with perhaps some of the dryest expressions he had ever encountered, "You're serious?" Nora asked.

Pyrrha's hands shot up, latching over Jaune's ears as she glared at Nora, "Nope! You're not taking this from me! If he doesn't know, that's fine! Great even!"

Ren and Nora exchanged a look before they turned back and nodded slowly, "Okay…" drawled out Nora raising an eyebrow at the crimson haired girl.

Pyrrha blinked, then her cheeks reddened, and she withdrew her hands instantly, "I'm sorry!" she cried out.

Nora shrugged casually, "All good P-Money, didn't realize it meant so much to you."

Pyrrha looked at the rest of them, her cheeks still red, "I'm sorry," she said again, avoiding Jaune's eyes and looking down. "It just would mean a lot to me, Jaune, if you got to know me as I am. Not everything there is surrounding me."

Jaune shrugged, not ruffled by the conversation in the slightest, "Sure thing, Pyr," he grinned at his partner, then he turned back to Ren, "Thanks for the honest assessment, Ren," he said with feeling.

Ren shrugged before a coquettish smile bloomed on her face, and her eyes became half-lidded as she looked at him, "If you ever need another assessment, I'm sure all of us would be willing to help," she grinned at him.

Pyrrha's cheeks flushed a deep red, and she looked away. Nora's cheeks only pinked up slightly as she eyed Jaune in a considering manner.

"Uh," Jaune coughed into his hand, "That won't be necessary, uh, thanks again, Ren."

Ren's smile remained as she hummed thoughtfully, "Could it be I've found your weakness? A girl says some words, and you're completely disarmed?"

"No!" Jaune said hastily, shaking his head and looking pleading at his team, "Of course not! That would be extremely inappropriate; I'm your leader!"

Ren leaned forward, her smile taking a dangerous bent, "Oh, but Jaune, that's not how Hunter teams work. It's not so uncommon for a Hunter surrounded and greatly outnumbered by Huntresses to give in to temptation, one might even say it's encouraged…" she visibly licked her pink lips her tongue swiping delicately across them drawing attention to their plush shiny pink that Jaune would never admit to contemplating.

"Ren!" cried out Pyrrha, shocked, her emerald eyes wide and her cheeks flushing, "You shouldn't be saying that to Jaune!"

Ren raised an eyebrow at Pyrrha, a dry look on her face, "Rich coming from you," she said simply and Pyrrha's cheeks flushed brightly.

"I-I don't know what you mean," Pyrrha said, looking away to the side.

Jaune's cheeks were flushed a bright red as he looked at his team, but despite himself, he couldn't help the smile tugging at his lips, "Ren, go easy on her," he chided gently.

Ren hummed but relented, looking back at Jaune, "Still keep in mind what I said, Jaune, hmm?" she teased, her eyes sparkling.

Jaune shook his head, his cheeks still searingly hot, he had no idea what had gotten into Ren; she had made the occasional side comments, but this was something else.

"Uh, sure thing, Ren," Jaune coughed, his cheeks still brightly flushed.

"Oh, team RWBY's here!" Nora perked up, waving wildly at said group who had just finished getting their food.

Ruby noticed Nora waving and turned back to her team before, as a group, they came over and settled down next to team JNPR, Ruby settled down with a thump next to Jaune, with Weiss settling beside her and Blake and Yang settling across the table.

Up close Jaune noted that Ruby's eyes looked somewhat blearily and he frowned, "You okay Rubes? You look tired."

Ruby blinked and then seemed to perk up a bit as she turned giving Jaune a tired smile, "'m sorry, I was up late working on our homework," she mumbled out before beginning to poke through her food.

Jaune saw Weiss shake her head, but a small smile was on her face as she looked at Ruby, "You didn't need to do everything for next week in a single night," she said, though the tone wasn't chiding, perhaps closer to an odd sort of pride.

The discussion switched topics, which Jaune didn't track as he noted a familiar set of gazes on him.

Jaune restrained a wince as Violet's team walked by their table, and he consciously ignored them even as he felt their gazes stay on him.

It was frustrating, but he wouldn't react.

Of course, there was another group that had earned his focus; Cardin Winchester sat with his team, the girls lightly chatting with one another even as Cardin himself seemed to be consciously avoiding looking at the section of the cafeteria that Jaune and his team were sitting in.

He wondered what they were discussing as he noticed they kept glancing at a table with a girl with rabbit ears, another girl with a beret with light brown clothes, a red-haired girl with a fox tail and twitching fox ears, and a physically large girl with dark black hair yet Jaune noted she seemed shrunk in on herself almost shy.

The glances made him uneasy, yet he decided it was probably nothing. There could be many reasons why Cardin's team was talking about the other one.

Jaune shrugged to himself as he took another bite of his meal rolling the sweet and fluffy texture of the pancake with his tongue.

"Jaune?" Ruby said, and Jaune was startled from his thoughts and looked up to see that, for some reason, he had the attention of the combined teams of RWBY and JNPR.

Rapidly, Jaune ran through his mind, but he was unable to determine what the teams had been talking about.

"Ah, sorry, Ruby," he said, giving the girl a pained half smile, "I got lost in my own thoughts, what's up?"

Ruby looked at him, and those pretty silver eyes seemed to see far too much as she looked at Jaune, her lips twisted into a frown, "We were talking about what we wanted to do today, it's a Sunday, and all of us have our work done," she caught him up to date quickly, "Did you have an idea?"

Jaune nodded thankfully; she had caught him up to the conversation before he shrugged, "I was thinking of running my team through their paces so we could get used to fighting together."

Weiss nodded approvingly, "That's a good idea, Jaune, we've all only just met each other, it would behoove us to practice together."

Ruby tapped her bottom lip, indenting the soft red, distracting Jaune for the briefest of moments before she grinned and nodded, "That's a good idea," then she blinked again before looking at the rest of her team, seeming somewhat abashed, "I mean if you guys are willing too."

"I'm game," grinned Yang with a fierce smile.

Weiss nodded primly, before a small approving smile flashed across her face, "Of course," she said simply.

Blake looked up from her book and gave a put-upon sigh but nodded regardless, "I suppose," she said slowly and unenthusiastically.

The teams quickly finished their breakfast and found their way to one of the sparring rooms after putting on their gear.

Jaune looked around the empty chamber, surveying the room for any surprises that could occur during the sparring match. His Grandfather sometimes would have surprises in store when they went to a separate area, and those were always good to be aware of.

"So how should we do this?" Ruby asked to the assembled group.

Jaune frowned in thought, "Perhaps we start off with singles matches just for a warm-up."

"Good idea!" Ruby beamed at him, and Jaune saw a genuine thankfulness on her face as she nodded at him, a pretty small smile curving her cheeks.

"But who should fight who?" Yang asked cocking a hand on the side of her hip.

Instantly, Jaune felt a hand latch onto his shoulder, and he turned to see a fiercely blushing Pyrrha who, despite the incredible redness in her cheeks, her emerald eyes were focused forward on the rest of the group, "I get Jaune," she said simply.

Nora snorted, waving her hand back and forth, "You can take him, I'm not interested in getting hit into a wall by him."

Jaune winced at a reminder of what he had done to Cardin; that really had been too much.

"Then I get you," Yang said with a fierce grin. I've seen you with that hammer, and I wanna see what I can do with my fists against it."

Nora grinned back brightly, "Sounds great!"

"Weiss," Ren said in her typical soft voice, "Would you care to spar?"

Weiss blinked, seemingly taken aback, but then again, she and Ren hadn't interacted much, Jaune thought.

"Of course," Weiss said, nodding her head and giving Ren a firm look.

"That just leaves us, Blake!" Ruby said, looking at the cat girl, who looked back consideringly at the slightly younger girl before nodding.

"I'm interested to see what you have, Ruby," Blake said, a solemn look on the girl's face.

Pyrrha shifted back and forth on her feet as she faced across from Jaune.

Something like anxiety flashed through her before she realized that this emotion was more appropriate anticipation.

Before at the tournament she hadn't been ready for the sheer force the other boy could bring to bear.

This time, she would give everything and she wouldn't hold back at all.

Jaune stood dressed in his armor, though he had taken off his coat, revealing that the silver steel of the armor stopped at his shoulders, leaving his arms entirely bare.

Pyrrha closed her eyes and took a deep breath, now wasn't the time.

She braced her feet on the floor before consciously she engaged her semblance on her own armor, before, with a furious leap, she split the space between them.

If there was something Jaune could say about Pyrrha's fighting is that technically her technique was so close to perfect the distance to actual perfection might as well not be her.

You couldn't fight Pyrrha, relying on her to make a mistake. The only way to fight her was to overcome her own strength with your own.

Except how did that help in a practice match where the point was to practice technique against technique.

Jaune blocked a blow that still sent his feet sliding across the floor from the sheer force.

Pyrrha hit hard, deceptively, so given that while she was in excellent shape, you wouldn't expect it just from the size of her muscles.

Aura, though, was a universal boon and made the physically impossible very possible.

Just look at Nora.

Still Jaune felt the impact of her hits was still outsized compared to what just Aura and muscle should be able to accomplish.

A Semblance most likely, he thought, flipping over Pyrrha's blade, economically rotating his blade as he drove a foot forward at her stomach, which Pyrrha blocked with her shield.

Jaune drove his own shield outward, flaring a minimal amount of aura through a section of the shield, causing a bright purple flash of gravity dust, sending Pyrrha skidding backward.

Pyrrha's ever-present smile took on a fierce edge as she sprinted forward, and they clashed once again.

Over and over again, they danced across the floor, and Jaune was reminded of the tournament fight against her.

"So you've done this a lot?" Jaune said, conversationally ducking underneath a swipe from Pyrrha.

Pyrrha gave him an enigmatic smile, "A bit," she said simply before chambering a kick, which Jaune took on his shield with nary a grunt.

"I'm just wondering," Jaune said, launching a flurry of swipes at Pyrrha, which she blocked and deflected in a dance, "When you say you want me to get you to know you as you are, is this a part of that?"

Pyrrha's grin widened, "Of course!" she said, a smile lighting up her face that would have disturbed Jaune's flow if he hadn't so much of his life-fighting.

Jaune nodded thoughtfully, their feet tracing patterns across the floor of the arena as they advanced and retreated in a rhythm as they continued to clash.

Jaune considered the statement for a moment, making two quick steps backward to avoid three spear jabs.

"It's just," Jaune said, trying to think how he should word these next words, "Why do you like fighting?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened, though her body did not slacken on the pace they had set.

They danced across the floor, exchanging a rapid series of blows, the metal shrieking and clanging against each other.

"I don't know," Pyrrha said simply, the words so simple that Jaune was caught off guard as he performed an axe kick, which Pyrrha caught, though it didn't stop her feet from embedding slightly into the ground.

"I've always loved fighting," Pyrrha said, pushing forward against Jaune, "From a young age, that's how my mother and I would spend quality time together. There was never really an overarching goal, though; it was just something I loved to do. Everything about it, the physicality, the timing, the push against an opponent as you each attempt to defeat the other. Even when there was stuff I didn't like about it, I just-"

Pyrrha's cheeks reddened, and the pact of her blows increased even more, attempting to drive Jaune back, "I feel alive when I'm fighting," she whispered the words almost impossible to make out though Jaune's ears caught them.

They clashed even harder, racing across the ground as they fought harder and harder.

"Do you feel it, too?" Pyrrha said quietly, her emerald eyes gazing at him with an almost desperate look, a look that said she didn't want to be alone.

Jaune thought seriously as he pushed forward against her, why he did what he did, and specifically the moments when he fought Grimm, "I don't know," Jaune said, "I have a dream to be a Hunter, and for the longest time that's all I've thought about, fighting? I guess that's just a part of it."

A small frown crossed Pyrrha's face, and Jaune's heart squeezed uncomfortably before a smile replaced the look, "If that's what you say, Jaune," she said, a warm smile on her face.

There was no winner in Jaune and Pyrrha's fight. Instead, they naturally called it to an end after around ten minutes to allow the other pairs to fight.

Yang and Nora clashed in a battle of the titans, pure strength against pure strength, which also ended without a conclusive winner.

Weiss and Ren sparred which ended in the first defeat as Weiss trapped Ren by freezing her legs first and then having Ren accept defeat at sword point.

Ruby and Blake clashed in such a way that made it difficult to tell what was happening for most of the fight as clones popped in and out of existence as Ruby blurred around the arena.

It was perhaps more by luck than skill that Ruby caught the real Blake at the hand and hooked around Blake's waist before sending her flying into the wall.

Still, they finished their sparring against each other, leaving both teams with a better sense of what everyone was capable of.

They spent the rest of the morning simply practicing and giving tips to each other, and Jaune found himself enjoying the atmosphere among the teams. A certain camaraderie that had begun during initiation continued during the week and now was continuing to settle as they worked with each other.

Jaune had taken a moment for himself, sitting in the empty male locker room, where he had begun to change back into his casual clothes. He sat with Crocea Mors, leaned off to the side as he held his shirt out on his lap, idly running his hands over the VFL logo.

Everything really did seem to be going well with the teams. Jaune, though, was unable to ignore. He had noted there was a distinct distance Blake had kept from the group. She had participated, even given several one-word responses, but when they had finally broken up for the day to go to their solo activities, she had disappeared, saying something about the library.

From the way the rest of her team acted, this did not seem unusual, but still, it bothered Jaune.

He remembered his conversation with Blake over a month ago in that stand in Atlas and his conversation with her the night before initiation.

"Happy?" Blake cocked her head at him, "You don't even know me, I could be a really terrible person!"

"Yeah," Blake said softly, "Thanks for what you did for me back then. It changed everything for me."

She had seemed better after their conversation, but Jaune now wondered if he should have done more. It was like there was still an invisible weight hanging out her, that followed her everywhere.

Jaune's scroll rang startling him and he looked down to see his Grandfather's name emblazoned across the screen.

That was odd; he and his Grandfather rarely communicated through their scrolls except when it came to mission assignments, something about the man not trusting the CCT beyond what he had to.

He flicked his thumb across the screen, answering the call, "Sir," he said shortly.

"Lieutenant," came his grandfather's voice all business, "I've come across some information that you might find interesting. You have one Blake Belladonna in your classes, correct?"

Exactly like his grandfather to expect him to know the names of everyone in his classes already.

"Yes, sir," Jaune said.

"We have a mutual friend that is concerned about her, the one from back during the mission you took on the coast of Menagerie."

Jaune ran his thoughts over the information presented before he landed on the correct person… but it couldn't be.

Six years ago.

If Jaune were to describe the scene below him in one word, he would have chosen chaos, at least if his Grandfather was listening.

The term FUBAR he had heard used by other legionaries he thought was perhaps a more accurate statement.

A ship was surrounded by a cloud of flying Grimm even as a leviathan's arms rose in the air, attempting to pull the ship underneath the waves.

His bullhead circled above the ocean, and he held the side of the metal door with an iron grip.

They circled a vulture over the carcass of the listing ship and Jaune took a deep breath to steady himself.

"Just another solo mission," Jaune muttered to himself; there was no reason to worry; how big could the leviathan really be?

"Drop now, Private," the pilot's voice came over his earpiece.

Jaune leaped into the air; a hot landing wouldn't do on a ship that he didn't want to be damaged.

He brought his arms together and slimmed his body to a single line, aiming for the ocean below him, head first to pick up speed before at the last second he rotated his body to land with his feet first.

He hit the water with a small splash, going underneath for a moment and getting eyes on the massive hulk of the leviathan body underneath, curling its tentacles upward to the ship.

He drew his sword free slamming it home in a tentacle next to him and the Grimm reacted shooting it's arm toward the sky ripping him once again into the world of air and light.

Jaune shifted with the motion of the tentacle, swinging his body free while severing the rest of the tentacle with a twitch of his wrist before he let the momentum of his swing carry him to land lightly on the deck in a spray of seawater.

Jaune glanced through the obviously frightened deck workers who had startled back from his landing before his eyes landed on a bulky man, obvious by his very size and the fact he was a man compared to the fact that, as per usual, most of the workers on the deck were women.

He had a massive black beard and black hair swept back along with feline yellow eyes, from the way he was standing Jaune immediately pegged him as the man in charge.

"Sir," Jaune crossed an arm in front of his chest, "Private Arc, ready to be of assistance."

The man blinked before he gave a loud chuckle, "Aurelius, you son of a bitch," he chuckled, he held out a hand, "Ghira Belladonna," he said firmly, "You ever fought a leviathan before, kid?"

Jaune grinned liking the man's warm personality, "No sir, but willing and eager to learn."

The man roared with laughter, seemingly unaffected by the dire situation.

"Come on then!" the man flicked his fingers outward, his nails razor sharp, and likely Jaune thought much harder than human nails, "Aim for the tentacles; slash enough of those, and the head will emerge, or at the very least, it'll run!"

Jaune sprinted forward down the side of the ship before bouncing off the railing and sailing through the air to plunge his blade into a tentacle, slashing clean through as he channeled his aura through the weapon, lighting a pure gold path through the black Grimm flesh.

Just as quickly, he backflipped away and headed for another tentacle to cleave through that one, before kicking away once again.

He zipped back and forth, cleaving and cutting with Crocea Mors, as seawater rained from the sky and the ocean became more turbulent from the disturbed and angry leviathan.

Ghira did solid work batting the tentacles that remained undamaged back from the ship with ferocious punches while he and a couple of what looked like guards did their best to keep the crew safe.

Sweat beaded Jaune's forehead as he continued to push his body harder his aura working hard overtime to keep up with his movements as he burned it for the each massive jump between the tentacles.

The last one fell, and Jaune leaped back toward the deck, landing by Ghira, who had a fierce smile on his face.

"Do you think it'll run now?" Jaune asked, taking deep breaths.

As if in answer, a deep howl reverberated from the depths, and the ship shook as it was pushed back into the water the full snake-like head of the leviathan rose from the sea, its two massive red eyes focused on the assembled mass of faunus and singular human.

"Hah," the man laughed, "There's your answer; come on, boy!"

Jaune leaped forward.

"The man you met during that mission, she's his daughter," his grandfather said.

Jaune paused, taking in his grandfather's words that didn't make sense. Ghira Belladonna was the Chieftain of Menagerie; what was his daughter doing on this side of the world?

"I see," Jaune said, still struck off guard by his grandfather's words.

"Our friend is concerned about his daughter, he asked for me to keep an eye on her."

Jaune easily read between the lines—a mission, though not one technically on the books.

"Acknowledged, sir," Jaune said, "Is that all?" he asked.

"That's everything Lieutenant," the call ended and Jaune glanced down at his scroll, the abruptness and cool tone normally didn't bother him, yet…

Jaune shook his head free of the distracting thoughts; he was looking too much into things. His Grandfather was probably busy as per usual.

He'd already been thinking about Blake, but with this information, maybe it was time he had a chat with her. If she was Ghira's daughter, then she was a faunus, and didn't that suddenly recontextualize the bow she always wore on her head?

Jaune sighed, rubbing his forehead, getting to talk to her could be difficult thought especially considering Winter Schnee's request.

I am also launching P. A. T. R. E. O. N. for my original works. I'd love for you all to check it out. That, of course, does not mean that these stories will stop being published. There will just be original works on that website.

Dirty Doug

P a treon . com (slash) user?u=53654642