Chapter 61 – If You Can't Beat 'em…

…lose to 'em?

The class gathered at the center of the field, looped in by the quarter-mile track that circled around them like a coiled snake. A fitting metaphor, in Blake's opinion.

Jaune was clearly struggling to form strong opinions one way or the other, and as much as Velvet disliked the current situation, she was still pro-huntsman…pro-Beacon.

Blake was not.

If hunters, especially those associated with the academies, choose to further their own institutions desperate attempts to keep power in their own hands, then she wanted nothing to do with them.

She didn't hate them. Her own experiences with anti-Faunus discrimination had ingrained Blake with a deep belief that no person was accountable for the actions of another, but people did have to be held responsible when they chose to join a group and become parts of something bigger than themselves. This was especially true when that organization seemed to be heavily invested in keeping power and privilege in their own hands.

Jaune didn't get to go to one of these schools because they aren't advertised. It's genetic knowledge, passed down from parent to child, that keeps their list of applicants so neat and orderly. Now, the three of us have threatened to disrupt that balance, so Beacon – or at least their strong right arm – are going to break us publicly. Qrow wasn't lying. This is a lesson for these students.

'We're the world's heroes. Civilians like Arc don't get to play huntsman.'

Politicians weren't all evil, but the system in which they took part was one that rewarded those who chose to be corrupt. The Atlesian military had no laws enforcing discrimination, but it had only ever been deployed against Faunus. The handful of Humanity Rights Organizations that still existed on Remnant never explicitly preached disharmony, and perhaps there were people who truly believed that such groups were ethical to support. But in the end, when the institution you were a part of did more harm than good on average, electing to stay a part of it and participate in the system was a conscious choice.

And Qrow Branwen, currently stretching out his muscles as Jaune introduced Team Job, was about to do harm. A lot of it.

Aura up, Jaune. He can't hurt you if you keep your aura up.

"…Scarlatina. Together, the three of us represent a private security firm called Team Job Security. We are not hunters like you folks, though we do have business licenses to operate in Vale, Patch, or any colonies of the kingdom not claimed by the other three. Or Menagerie."

He'd been parroting Blake's words from when she'd given him lectures about what he could and couldn't say regarding their jurisdiction, at least until the last line. Blake had to smile at Jaune's choice to include her home among the kingdoms, and she had to frown in fear of the beatdown he was going to be receiving at the hands of this pro-huntsman.

A student raised a hand, and for a second, Jaune just stared at the kid. Then, his eyes flicked to the side and back, and he pointed.

"Uh…y-you?"

"Lukas Thrush, professor. Were you and your team trained as apprentices under pro-huntsmen or pro-huntresses?"

Jaune smacked his lips. "Velvet was…a student of Beacon once before life took her in a different direction."

It was impossible for the students to not see that she was pregnant. As much as Jaune might've been trying to sugarcoat it, the reason she'd dropped out of Beacon was pretty apparent.

"Blake apprenticed under an individual of high skill in her home kingdom of Menagerie."

Jaune's eyes shot over to her, and she nodded. As long as he didn't mention Adam by name or the White Fang, that was an acceptable story. Menagerie was famous for in-house faux hunters who kept the island clear of Grimm in spite of their lack of formal education.

"And I…briefly apprenticed. I will admit, I'm probably the weakest member of the team."

He'd apprenticed under Blake, but Jaune wasn't at liberty to say that in front of the class of students. Also, as Blake recalled, he'd told Velvet that he did have qualifications to apply to Beacon, just that they weren't good enough.

"That said, I do have a few tactical disadvantages," Jaune went on. "This yellow hair of mine is so bright that Grimm can practically see it in the dark, so I'm really the underdog here when you think about it."

That got a few smatterings of laughter from the cross-legged students.

"Your professor has kindly invited my team to partake in a spar with him for the benefit of your educations, and as I am the member of Team job who would most benefit from more field experience, I'll be one of the participants." Jaune nodded. "Now, some of you may have noticed that Professor Branwen and I, while both individuals of rugged and dashing countenance, are not, in fact, the same age."

There were a few more giggles, for some reason.

It's not that funny.

"As such, it's quite likely that there will be a disparity in our skills. But I implore you not to worry too hard – I'll go easy on him."

The crowd of students were now similar in appearance to a rioting crowd of Beowolves. Blake seriously had to wonder if city children were actually so immature that they found Jaune's cheap, quasi-ironic jokes humorous.

"As I said, this is meant to be a learning experience for everyone, but in all seriousness, it'll probably be slightly one-sided." Jaune raised both of his thumbs and smiled. "Wish me luck."

Branwen decided that meant that Jaune's opening remarks were finally over and stepped into the ring that had been painted onto the grass. Jaune moved to join him but stopped before crossing the boundary.

"Oh, and uh, one last thing…" Jaune winked. "…skibidi."

The class erupting in fits of roiling, bellowing, guffawing cheers.

Blake and Velvet remained standing, in part to not feel like they had been placed among the seated children and also to be able to intervene if Professor Branwen tried anything. She doubted he would, not with his entire classroom of students watching.

Jaune had clearly been worried about Branwen trying to backstab them somehow, hence him taking some sort of weird selfie with the man, but Blake was of the opinion that he was doing this more as a personal thing. She'd seen enough members of the White Fang take their own private revenge on the people they'd been wronged by in the name of justice to know what to expect from it, and all the signs were there. From Branwen forcing them to participate to him justifying it by implying they had been crazy for trying to turn him down to isolating Jaune, the victim, it was all so familiar.

This wasn't some sort of tournament fight, so it began when both fighters declared they were ready. Branwen said it first, and Jaune repeated it after him momentarily. Naturally, the second the words were out of Jaune's mouth, his enemy was flying towards him, sword drawn.

Jaune's training with Blake evidently hadn't been wasted, as he elected to raise his shield to take the hit rather than try to deflect it with his sword. That would've only hurt his arm and occupied his own weapon. As the metal crashed together, Jaune tried to poke Qrow in the center of mass with his sword, but the huntsman fell to the side and pushed Jaune back with his far greater strength.

Jaune kept his shield up the whole time, but Branwen's sword suddenly bent at an angle, and two barrels that hadn't been visible revealed themselves. Bullets struck Jaune's unprotected legs, sending him dropping down to the grass below.

"Now, what good is a lesson if I don't teach?" asked Qrow. "Most of you kids may already know to look out for this, but human beings aren't an awful lot like the Grimm. We aren't one-trick ponies, and if you don't look out for the trick up our sleeves, you'll find your butts getting kicked from here to Argus."

Blake winced as Jaune pitifully groaned, rubbing the spots on his legs where the bullets had hit.

Also…

Human beings. He doesn't even realize it as he says it.

"Now, what Security Consultant Arc failed to consider is that lotsa folks carry mechshift weapons – it's kinda an industry standard for those of us in the huntsman game."

He had wasted no time in making it clear what his game was here, then. As Blake has suspected, Qrow intended to humiliate Team Job.

Jaune carries a plain sword and shield, minus the useless sheath bit. Him drawing attention to hunters wielding mechshift weapons is just another way to remind us that we aren't hunters.

"Right you are, professor, right…oooof…you are." The blond boy pushed himself to his feet, his hands lifting him up off the ground. "Now I know better, and my eyes'll stay peeled. I'm ready to continue if you are."

"Likin' the spirit," Branwen said. His sword flipped down to cover up the barrels of the hidden gun once more. "Go ahead, Team Job."

Jaune didn't go ahead as asked. Instead, he raised his shield up once more to protect his chest and neck, keeping his sword hand on the opposite side of his body.

Credit where credit was due, Jaune was no fool. There was no opening for Branwen to disarm Jaune the obvious way by shooting him in the hand.

Naturally, an experienced combatant like Branwen didn't even try to disarm him by shooting him. Instead, he shot off the ground to give himself some elevator, and then brought the sword down onto Jaune's shield from about. Jaune raised in time to protect himself, but he was forced to cover his head and thereby block his own view of his enemy.

C'mon, Jaune…

Branwen rotated his entire body around and landed easily on the other side of Jaune, who had been forced to spin around from the aerial assault. Then, Branwen pulled back on his sword, winding up for a big attack

Jaune threw his own sword onto the ground and tackled his entire shield into the professor.

The sudden existence of a swinging scythe where the oversized blade had been was negated by the decrease in distance between the two of them. Branwen's war scythe couldn't even swing the attack he'd been planning due to their closeness, and he too had to drop his weapon as Jaune's shield pressed into his chest.

Jaune's advantage didn't last long, if it ever existed at all. The senior huntsman caught the shield around the edges, falling back a step to improve his stance, and twisted it. Jaune's arm was strapped in, and he flipped ass over tea kettle onto the grass, gaining Qrow another solid point (had they been scoring it).

"Dude, you were so right!" Jaune trilled happily from the dirt in which he lay. "I kept looking for another weapon, and I saw it coming, bro!"

He had, but it wasn't enough to save him from losing just the same. And yet Jaune wore a brilliantly gleaming smile on his face.

"Well, we are teachin' a lesson," Branwen said.

"And I'm learning so much!" Jaune stressed. "Shall we go again?"

Blake wasn't sure exactly why he was so happy at being humiliated in front of all of these kids. In the moment when he'd gone down, she'd seen him wince in pain. Branwen, Velvet, and any others with trained reflexes would have, even if the class didn't.

Jaune got hurt. Why's he pretending like he enjoyed it?

The two were up and clashing blades again already by this point, and this time, Branwen was going all out. The difference in skill could not be overstated between the novice Blake had trained and the expert Blake would've feared to be up against herself. For every three swings of his weapon, two got past Jaune's defenses and snipped at his aura.

"See how I use the momentum of the fight to prevent him from counterattacking?" Qrow said aloud. "If I don't let up on him…" He heaved out a grunt as Jaune fell back from a particularly rough blow. "…then he can never ready up to go on the offensive."

"So, then how would I – someone who's physically weaker and slower than my opponent – properly respond to that sort of strategy?" Jaune asked, blocking another volley of his with his shield as best he could.

There was a silence as everyone seemed to wait for someone else to answer from someone else. The only sound ringing through the air was metal clashing against metal.

"You askin' me?" Qrow said.

"Well, I'm not an academy trained huntsman," Jaune freaking said aloud for some reason. "I'm just a security consultant. I figure that you as a professional and a professor at that will definitely know better than me."

Jaune fell back a few steps and lowered his weapons, as though the fight was on pause.

"So how would I?" he asked as the fight briefly paused.

Blake would've assumed it some sort of snide, sarcastic remark that was intended to be followed up with a zinger, but Jaune said it far too earnestly for that. If she had to guess, it felt more like he was genuinely asking the question.

Oh shit.

He was.

Branwen was tossing him around like a ragdoll to dishearten Team Job and humiliate them in front of his class. But that strategy only worked if Jaune let it.

Were he to get angry and lose his cool, Team Job would appear to be ineffectual sore losers without an ounce of skill among them with the added bonus of suffering a killer beatdown.

There was nothing Jaune could do to win against a superior opponent, nor was there any way that he could avoid losing some face here. But if he just didn't have a meltdown and kept his cool in spite of the goading, the students would see a far younger opponent learning an actual lesson from a more experienced huntsman. Team Job wasn't expected to beat huntsmen at their own game, nor had they ever claimed to be able to do so.

And not 'teaching us a lesson.' Branwen's actually teaching Jaune a lesson. It's free training from a professor of Signal – people would pay for that kind of private tutoring.

"Sir?" Jaune asked. "What's the best defense you would recommend for someone in my position?"

And if Branwen tried to rob Jaune of that free training, his class would see him as the poor sport (that he probably was). He'd called this a lesson for their sake, and refusing to teach anything to spite Jaune would only make him appear the fool.

As long as Jaune owned up to the fact that he wasn't as good as a huntsman, there would be nothing Qrow could do to hurt or embarrass him. Jaune was going to win the day by being a good sport.

"Someone blitzing you…I'd say…" Branwen had the presence of mind to not openly frown, but Blake could tell he would rather be kicking Jaune's ass around instead of giving him strategy tips. "Best bet would be to fall back. Lose a little ground and see if you can put some distance between you and them to interrupt the attack. That's one way. The alternative is drop your defense and accept one solid hit as a reasonable price to pay for readying an attack of your own." Branwen looked away from Jaune, finding Blake by chance. He ground his teeth and looked away from her as well. "…assumin' you've got the aura control to tank it. Otherwise, go for the fleeing."

Oh, how perfect. He can't lie to Jaune and feed him bullshit, because the students he's promised to teach are listening in. Anything Jaune hears, they hear. He's obligated to give the best lesson he can, to both his children and Jaune.

"Alright, let's go again." Jaune backed up and raised his sword and shield once more. "I'll try to implement what you said, professor."

It had been described as a combat lesson, so Branwen had to go through the motions of the same rapid fire attacks once more. Jaune immediately was overwhelmed again, but Blake saw the exact moment he tensed up to flare his aura.

Branwen's sword switched to a scythe and hit Jaune in the arm he was using to hold his weapon, likely hoping to still score a victory over Jaune by not letting him attack with it. However, he wasn't familiar with just how much Jaune's aura was a brick wall – hitting it on one limb did next to nothing to impact the rest of the body. Jaune just bashed his shield into Qrow's chest once more.

The professor blocked the hit by flaring up his own aura and switched his sword – which was under Jaune's armpit – into a scythe. Jaune was flipped over once more.

"Oh, I really do think I'm getting better," Jaune said, ignoring how bad a tumble he'd taken somehow – likely by having far greater patience than Blake. "Thank you so much for inviting me here, sir. This has been a very productive fight for me, too."

The scythe switched back into a sword, and Branwen stabbed it into the ground to lean on. "You still got a long way to go, kiddo."

Jaune chuckled congenially. "That I do, sir, that I do. So, what's next?"

Thirty-minutes was how long it took for Qrow to drain Jaune's aura fully into the red. Of course, that included them breaking for Jaune-mandated lesson reviews, pointers, and tips on how to improve his battle strategy. It was probably pretty good for the students, as Jaune was roughly around the same level as the eldest among them, meaning that the advice was tuned appropriately to them.

Qrow had tried everything. When Jaune took a devastating hit to the leg, he complimented Jaune for his aura control and said that Jaune could clearly go for another round. Jaune turned it around on him by using that as a segue into getting some advanced pro-tips on aura control. Branwen casually remarked how Jaune might need to remember he had Eminence since he never broke it out, so Jaune asked him to bring up when the best times during their fight would have been to use it (after they'd already passed, of course, so that he could have the benefit of hindsight).

Blake knew Jaune was probably aching – his body was covered in bruises, scratched, and even a black eye from times he'd spread his aura out too thin – but he kept up that smile the whole way through, even wearing it as he shook Branwen's hand.

"It was absolutely swell to be here today," Jaune said. "Outright splendid."

"Great to have you," the veteran huntsman replied back.

Branwen wasn't nearly as shaken as Jaune, nor was his aura lower than 90% according to Blake's scroll, but it was clear who the winner was today.

At least, who my winner was.

"F-word," Jaune said under his breath, leaning up against Blake for support as Velvet lifted the Job Hunter into the air. "F-word, F-word, F-word, F-wording F-word!"

"You alright?" Velvet asked.

"F-wording no I'm S-wording not!" Jaune raged, balling up his hands into a fist and growling at the ceiling.

"Wait…you're shitting not?" Velvet asked. "Don't you mean fucking not?"

"P-word if I know!"

As soon as Jaune relaxed from his tense position, Blake threw her arms around him in a hug. She didn't do it tightly, knowing that his limbs were particular favorites of Branwen to target, but she was just too proud of him to not do something to express it.

"I'm sorry you had to do that, Jaune," she admitted. "But you were amazing."

"I kinda wasn't," Jaune said, flexing his arm and wincing. "And now my everything is gonna be swollen for days."

"You were," Blake insisted.

"No, I mean…I kinda wasn't." Jaune tapped his black eye. "I let this one get through my aura. Intentionally."

The airship lurched, and Jaune and Blake turned to stare at the cockpit for answers only to find their pilot staring back at them.

"What?" she asked incredulously. "Why?"

"Eyes on the skies," Blake called to the front. "But she's not wrong. Why in the hell would you let him bruise you up like that, you utter madlad?"

Jaune grinned. "Probably just crazy. Anyways, we'd better give our client a call to let her know that we finished our mission. I'll do the honors of telling her, if you don't mind."

The client – oh, right.

Blake had nearly forgotten entirely about the mission, about the tombstone, about the flowers, about…

"Ruby," she whispered.

Jaune's grin could've been mistaken for a filthy hound for how likely it was to eat shit. "I figured I'd get some proof, in case her uncle tries anything funny. A little pre-emptive security for Team Job Security."

"Ha!"

Blake's laughter slipped out before she could even process Jaune's trickery. If Qrow tried to spin things against them to his niece…

"HA! Fuck me, Jaune, you really…"

She let out a happy sigh and tackled him with another hug.

Coming Soon: Summer Intern

Team Job wrestles with the idea of their latest client switching which side of the business she's on.

Author's Notes

Qrow: Oz said this guy's endangering innocent lives by falsely calling himself a huntsman to con folks out of their money. I need to prevent this from catching on, by any means necessary.

Jaune: Hell yeah free training!

The mission officially ends next week (they might actually be paid for this one). Then it's on to the next one...or is it?

Happy rats, and don't do crime!