After this chapter, the following chapters will now be shortened to around 5-6k words instead of the previous 10k. This will allow me to be more consistent with uploads due to having to write with a rather hectic job. This will not affect the story as a whole, just allow me to not be as stressed that I haven't written enough on a particular day after a rough day at work. I thank you for your understanding and hope you continue to show your amazing support!
27/03/25: Made a few corrections and edits to mistakes. Remembered metres are much longer then centre metres (ha). Found a few small spelling/grammer mistakes.
26/03/25: Not sure if the chapter not showing issue has been fixed, but I think it's sorted now... fingers crossed.
Sorry that this chapter came later than intended, I actually got sick again, what a kick up the ass eh? But I'm not better, again. So on we go with chapter 10 people!
Still going strong! 430 favs and 565 follows! You Legends!
This chapter has some big things going on, I hope you enjoy, I've been waiting to write this particular part since I started the story.
Thanks to H4mmond for being the beta reader for this story, cheers pal!
Update are weekly to biweekly. They will still be like this even with the upcoming shorter chapters.
Also... over 100k words, yayayaayayayaayayay! That is so cool to me!
Chapter 9: Perilous Practices
It was finally time.
In some vain ideal, he had hoped something would happen that would cancel it. The room needed cleaning, or maybe a professor had booked the room too. Anything!
But alas, it seemed that as lessons finally ended for the day, nothing would prevent the group training session from happening. Jaune had nearly been frog marched to his weapon locker, gathered Crocea Mors, changed into his combat gear -and the rest of his team and team RWBY- and led to the pre-booked training room.
The blonde had to admit, the idea of eight well armed teenagers walking down school hallways would normally raise some very concerned eyebrows. But within a school like Beacon? It was more common than unusual. On the way the group of friends chatted amongst themselves.
"This is gonna be so cool! Team RWBY will kick butt!"
"Foolish Ruby", chided Nora. "We have our Fearless Leader, team JNPR cannot lose!"
"They also have Pyrrha… yaknow, the invincible girl", reminded Yang, a cheeky grin on her face to show she was just teasing the tall redhead. The girl in question ducked her head and blushed.
"I'm sure everyone will do their best today…" The spartanette mumbled, still slightly bothered by that nickname.
"I agree with Pyrrha", tacked on Ren. "We're not here to decide which team is stronger, we're testing our skills against one another… There's no pressure from each other". Jaune certainly hoped his calm teammate was right, because he placed enough pressure upon himself to sink a city. It was the first time he'd have to fight against his fellow hunt-people in training. People who have had professional training from actual Huntsman and Huntress'.
He'd have to bring his A game tonight.
The walk to the training room ended far sooner than Jaune would've preferred. Ruby swiped her scroll against the door's automated locking mechanism and with a high pitched beep, the door swung open. It revealed a huge open space with a raised platform in the middle, to the far side was some bleachers for spectators to watch and wait their turn to train. Close to the platform was a terminal and on the wall opposite the bleachers was a large screen, showing a live feed to the barren platform.
"Whoa…" Jaune muttered, unable to hide his shock at the sheer size of just a training room.
"Wha… Oh! You haven't seen one of these rooms yet, have you?" Asked Yang. "That's right! You've not actually had a lesson in Miss Goodwitch's classroom yet, it looks exactly like this". Everyone except Jaune acted like nothing was strange or abnormal about how vast the room was, and headed towards the bleachers. All except Ruby who stayed next to Jaune, bouncing on the balls of her feet like an excited puppy.
"C'mon Jaune, me versus you! Let's go!" She even began to try and drag the blonde towards the platform, try being the operative term, as she barely managed to budge his much weightier form. Eventually the blonde came to his senses and went along with Ruby's giddy pulling. She dragged him to the terminal adjacent to the platform, on it were two identical curved indents, without explanation Ruby pulled her scroll out and inserted it into the left slot.
A ping from the large screen drew his attention to see a picture of Ruby's face appear on the screen, followed by some kind of green bar showing 100% above it. The combination of images quickly moved to the top left corner of the screen and stayed there.
The little reaper moved aside and gestured for Jaune to do the same as she had. Confused, but trusting that this was just a normal thing professionally trained Huntsman and Huntress' did, he pulled out his own scroll and inserted it into the right slot. His gaze instinctively turned to the screen.
For a few moments, nothing happened. Then suddenly, his face appeared on the screen, followed by the same green bar next to it, and the same 100% above it.
"That's strange…" spoke Weiss. Jaune turned to her.
"What's strange?"
The heiress pointed at the screen. "I've never seen a combat display screen glitch out like that before." Confused, Jaune returned to the screen . And just like Weiss said, a glitch of some kind seemed to be happening. Every few seconds the bar next to his picture would visibly fizzle and turn into static, and the 100% above his bar would sometimes change to 0% for a split second before returning to normal.
"Should we call this off then?" Jaune asked, "I mean, if the equipment isn't working, couldn't this be risky?"
"Maybe…" muttered the white haired girl, "oh! It seems to have fixed itself". Another look to the screen proved Weiss's assumption, no longer was Jaune's part of the screen flickering and turning to static. "Perhaps the system merely needed to register your scroll for the first time, you never did use it for Miss Goodwitch's combat class after all." It made sense to everyone, the screen was showing everything correctly . Now, to Jaune's technological limited mind, he couldn't think of any other reason.
"Can we start now!? Pleasepleaseplease!" Ruby was nearly jumping now, Crescent Rose gripped tightly to her chest. The size difference between the girl and her baby was absurd. But the little Rose held the deadly device like it almost an extension to her own body.
Seeing no alternative, Jaune finally acquiesced. "Yes, we can start. But we're doing first to three sure-fire hits, we're training after all. No need to try and hurt each other." Ruby pouted for a few moments, but eventually nodded.
"Fine, that makes sense." She twirled Crescent Rose as it shifted from its carrying form into its intimidating scythe form. She took an offensive pose, silver eyes narrowed and waiting to start. "Count us in Yang!" The blonde brawler stood up from the bleachers and dramatically waved her arms.
"3…"
Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors, and held the blade loosely in his right arm and squared his shoulders every so slightly.
"2…"
Ruby moved her feet a few inches apart. Her own shoulders were narrowed forward.
"1…"
Jaune sighed as his eyes met Ruby's own. His legs tensed in preparation.
"Begin!" Yang sliced her arms down to add emphasis to her command.
And both fighters moved!
"3…"
Pyrrha had to admit, she was excited to see her partner in action. Her mind had replayed the sheer display of skill and raw power Jaune had demonstrated during their initiation. His battle against the Alpha Beowolf had been exhilarating. His attacks had been somehow sloppy, yet filled with skill and strength, his movements restrained yet somehow explosive. It had been the initial reason she had formed her crush on the blonde. And thinking back, forming a crush on someone's skill with a weapon and not their personality or attitude was kind of shallow, looking back on it. At the time, she hadn't really gotten to know the person she would come to consider her best friend. It was another reason she felt she had to clear the air with the teen, she wanted to apologise for seeing him only for his skills and not himself at first.
"2…"
Even now, as Yang counted down the match, Pyrrha felt that same level of exhilaration at watching her partner about to fight. How his stance at first glance looked unready or uncaring. Her trained eyes could see just how flexible it was, Jaune stood ready to react to anything at a moment's notice. Crocea Mors ready to move into action in a split-second.
"1…"
Pyrrha wasn't blind to herself. She knew she had a thing for strong individuals, the idea of fighting someone who could push her, maybe even beat her always had a special place in her mind. That was probably why her initial reaction to her partner's fighting acumen had been so… breath-taking. That was also why the potential interest from Coco and Velvet had her pause in thought so often. Perhaps a friendly spar between the three would open the door to further potential outings? She shook her head, it wasn't time to get lost in such things.
"Begin!"
She had a partner to cheer for!
"3…"
Yang had to play it up as the match official to keep her mind occupied. Her little sister, her little Rubaby was going to fight one of the most potentially dangerous students in all of Beacon. She knew it wasn't anything serious and Jaune had even limited the fight to first to three, which lessened her worry.
"2…"
She knew her little sister didn't need her to protect her anymore, Ruby had long ago shown she wasn't the cute little girl who cried after scraping her knee once, and needed her big sis Yang to make it all better. Now that little girl, whilst still little, was a trained and incredibly skilled Huntress in training. So incredible, she was at Beacon a whole two years before you were normally allowed.
"1…"
And yet, with all those reassuring thoughts, the idea of Ruby fighting Jaune still gave her chills. She had no basis besides initiation to base her concern on. But… something about the blonde always left her on edge. Not in a 'stay away from me and my sister' way, but more in a 'what have you done to survive so long with the life you've had?' She wasn't as hopeful as her little sister, she knew not all dangers in the wilds bore bone white armour, or hungered for negativity.
Some looked like any person on the street, and wielded guns and swords to threaten and kill.
Kind of like a certain Raven she festered a deep level of resentment for.
"Begin!"
Just be careful Rubes…
"3…"
Ruby was ready, she was good to go. She was hyped! As Yang might've put it. Her baby; Crescent Rose was as pretty as ever and ready to show Jaune what she was capable of.
"2…"
She still held some petty anger over the fact her last display that Jaune saw of her skills was her nearly getting skewered by Nevermore feathers. Totally not cool… She had planned on kicking some butt during combat class, but Jaune had gone and been all dumb, cool, heroic and handsome -BAD BRAIN-, and knocked out that bully; Cardin. So that plan had gone up in flames.
Stupid Jaune.
"1…"
But now? Now she could really cut loose. Right here? Right now? With Crescent Rose backing her up? She'd show Jaune just what she was capable of. That she wasn't just 'cute' -that he had called her-, but dangerous, cool and a total butt-kicker!
"Begin!"
She was born for this! She dashed forward, ready to score the first hit on her opponent, Jaune would be so shocked.
He'll be like; whoa! You're so cool and super awesome Ruby, wanna go get ice-cream? Wait, no!
Spinning Crescent Rose to better strike from a lower angle, she ducked under an overhead strike from Jaune's blade and came face to face with… Crocea Mors!? The blade stopped inches from her face.
"Wha…" She mumbled.
"First point goes to Jaune!" Announced Yang.
"What?" repeated Ruby, utterly confused how this happened. She had just ducked under the blade, how had it been inches from her face!?
"Oh… Guess I'm up by one". Jaune seemed just as surprised as Ruby, retracting his blade, he returned to his side of the platform. "You're pretty fast, I barely managed to turn that opening feint into a low sweep". Ruby nearly blew a gasket.
Pretty fast!? Pretty fast! I'm faster than some cars! How is that just 'pretty fast'? How did he move Crocea Mors that quickly…I didn't even see it coming.
"Probably beginner's luck", the blonde teen reasoned. "I'm sure you'll get the better of me next time". Ruby could tell he wasn't trying to be pitying, he genuinely believed what he said.
It still managed to strike a nerve in the kind caped girl. Saying 'beginner's luck' meant she had messed up, that she should've been better.
Okay… focus up Ruby! You were distracted thinking about Jaune and his dumb, cute face. Just watch out for any feints and strike!
Finding her next plan of attack, she repositioned Crescent Rose behind her, blade half curving around her legs in a protective stance.
Jaune simply readjusted his loose stance from before and waited for Ruby to attack first.
"Begin!" Announced Yang once again.
This time, Ruby didn't just charge in blindly. Against her better nature to go fast, she watched Jaune, silver eyes analysing every detail of her opponent. And what she found infuriated her.
Nothing… nothing special at all, his stance was full of holes, it was almost lazy. Her dad would've been furious if she or Yang dared have a stance like Jaune's. That's what made it so infuriating.
Because she just knew all those holes were traps, and his lazy stance was all for show. She had already proved that by being 1 down to him.
Maybe long range?
Pulling the mech-shifting handle of Crescent Rose, her beautiful scythe transformed into an equally beautiful high powered sniper rifle. She wasted no time in lining up a quick and easy shot. It must've taken her no less than a second to transform the weapon and line up said easy shot.
But a second was too long a time apparently. As she barely managed to duck her head out of the way of the expanded kite shield of Crocea Mors flying for her head. The shield sailed past with an audible whoosh as it cut through the air. Inches above the scythe girl's head. But the odd part was that the shield wouldn't have struck her . Even if she hadn't ducked, her reaction had been instinctive.
And it was with that momentary distraction that Ruby found the tip of Crocea Mors tapped against her shoulder.
Jaune had traversed the distance between the pair in what could've only been the mere moments Ruby had been distracted.
"Oh… another point to me then…" Ruby pouted in response.
"Second point to Jaune!" Yang's confirmation only made Ruby pout harder. The pouting girl continued to pout as Jaune retrieved his thrown shield. He shifted it back into its sheath form and holstered it at his hip. The blonde returned to his side of the arena and took his stance up once more.
"Ready when you are!" He announced, that same totally not cute smile on his dumb face.
Ruby wanted to wipe that smile away. It made the butterflies in her tummy go into maximum overdrive. The reaper nodded and lowered her stance once more. Her silver eyes brimmed with more determination than ever to show Jaune what she was capable of.
So far, all she showed off was her total lameness…
This time she would go all out straight away, no waiting or testing the waters. Full throttle to the max as her sister would probably say.
"Begin!" Yang announced.
Ruby did not hesitate. Petals floated to the ground where she once stood, a red blur sped towards her opponent.
"Whoa… she's going all out", muttered Yang. As she sat back on the stands.
Weiss found herself agreeing, her partner had certainly decided to throw caution to the wind as it were. Even with her high class training, her eyes could barely keep up with her team leader.
It was odd to the white haired heiress, she knew Jaune was a fearsome foe, his displays during initiation had proven that beyond measure. So, of course she was not surprised the blonde could attain points on Ruby in training. The strange part was how easy it seemed for him. Contrary to what fools might assume, Weiss had a high opinion of her partner's fighting ability. Her leader had displayed time and time again that there was a reason she was at Beacon two years early. She had shown it during initiation against the Nevermore, and again in combat class. Yes Ruby was young and inexperienced, but she was good at fighting.
And Jaune had bested her so handily twice! And now her partner was going all out to quote the brutish sister.
Just how talented is Jaune? How would I fare against him? It was a valid thought, Weiss wanted to be the best huntress she could possibly be, what better way to see how far she has gotten, then fight an objectively stronger opponent? She could ponder that later, for now, she would analyse this fight with a keen, critical eye.
The red blur that was her younger partner reached Jaune in no time at all. The heiress pondered how someone like Jaune would react to this kind of attack. Would he try to dodge with his own impressive speed? Perhaps the experienced survivor would utilize a cunning trick or trap to throw her partner off balance?
The Schnee certainly didn't expect for Jaune to actually deflect a strike from the speeding blur. Sparks shot out from the point of impact as Ruby's blurry form slowed down ever so slightly to come around for another attack. Jaune; in Weiss' opinion, looked rather baffled at the current turn of events. Baffled, but not distracted. The blonde was ready for the speedy follow up attack, he spun and brought his blade up in time to throw off another of Ruby's attacks.
Then another.
And another.
And another.
Again and again Ruby tried to use her sheer overwhelming speed to score a strike upon her opponent and each time, Jaune managed to use Crocea Mors to deflect, parry or batter the attack away. It was an astounding display of focus in Weiss' mind, how Jaune kept a cool head and calmly dealt with each attack.
There were hints of fencing within his defence, how he never overextended, always looked for an opportunity to counterattack, but her partner was too fast for any follow up attack from the blonde.
Unconsciously, the normally well composed girl started to lean forwards in her seat, her perfect posture ruined in the pursuit of getting a closer view of the fight.
Ruby was having so much fun right now!
Here she was, going all out and her opponent was actually able to keep up! Not in terms of speed of course, she was number 1 in that skill. But Jaune could actually see her attacks coming and counter them. Not even Yang could do that most of the time, and she had trained with her big sister for years now.
SLICE
KCHANG
Crescent Rose scraped against Crocea Mors again in a totally awesome shower of sparks. This time Jaune had seemingly known she would attack his back and instead of wasting time turning, he just angled his blade behind him and struck her scythe in time to deflect.
Ruby thought she'd be annoyed that she still had not scored a blow, but she was having too much fun cutting loose. She wasn't dumb, the little reaper had her dad's genes in her, and just like her dad, Ruby enjoyed a good fight between friends.
Crescent Rose sheared towards Jaune's head, he ducked at the last minute and backed up to gain some distance.
Distance Ruby wouldn't allow, instead of coming around in a wide arc for another attack, she deployed a super secret manoeuvre. Shifting Crescent Rose into its rifle form, she kicked off the ground and spun the barrel end of her weapon behind her and fired. The impact from Crescent Rose sent her careening after Jaune, who's eyes widened in shock. He managed to somehow deflect two more brutally fast strikes.
But Ruby never intended these attacks to land.
She just wanted to hold her opponent's attention for just long enough.
And she had.
Not many knew this, probably only her sister and dad, maybe her uncle. But Ruby's petals that she left when activating her Semblance had a secondary effect then just looking cool.
They were a trip hazard in the heat of battle.
And Jaune had just stepped into a bunch of them.
His blue eyes widened as his centre of balance was thrown completely out of whack. His feet desperately tried to find their footing, but he didn't have enough time to readjust.
She was just that fast.
Leaping across to him, her form unblurred from its red smudge as she descended towards him, a near manic grin on her face as Crescent Rose sliced down towards the blonde.
Inwardly, Ruby was beaming a million dust smile. This would show Juane and everyone, this would show how capable she was, that she could hang with them despite her younger age. In just a few moments, her beautiful baby would slice against Jaune's aura and she could begin her comeback from almost certain defeat. She could almost picture it as her scythe inched closer.
Jaune would be super surprised and totally praise how awesome she is. Maybe she could even try and steal a hug from him? Ohhhh… now that was an idea! Act smug and get a hug, it was genius in her mind.
Crescent Rose finally reached its target, Ruby threw her entire weight into the attack, she really wanted to make a dent in Jaune's obviously massive aura reserves.
The scythe came down.
Red splashed onto her face.
Someone screamed.
Crescent Rose was stained a deep scarlet.
"What…"
Why was Jaune bleeding?
Why?
WhyWhyWhy?
Numbly, Ruby's silver eyes turned to the screen.
0%
Why was Jaune's aura zero?
Ruby didn't understand. She raised her trembling hands -when did they start shaking?- to her face.
She wanted the blood out of her eyes. Why was blood in her eyes?
WHy waS jAuNE BLEedING
The last thing Ruby heard before something just… broke in her head was rushing feet in their direction.
All a nightmare… I'm ready to wake up now… Mum.
It was a familiar feeling that greeted Jaune as Crescent Rose sliced across his chest.
Pain.
Jaune staggered back as blood poured from his chest.
Crescent Rose was designed to cut through hardened Grimm bone, a human body was like wet paper in comparison. Gently, the blonde raised a hand to his wound to assess the extent of the damage. When his hand came away slicken with his own blood and his vision briefly blurred. He realised just how deep the wound was. The fact that he couldn't feel the pain threw up more than a few red flags.
Blankly, he looked up to find his friends rushing towards him, faces filled with fear.
"Jaune!" Cried Pyrrha. "Your aura! Why didn't you maintain it!?" His redheaded partner was the first to him, face stricken with white with shock and fear. Soon after, Ren, Weiss and Blake crowded him. Despite the increasing blood loss and immense pain he was in, his mind had the wherewithal to respond.
"Wh-what's a-aura?"
The looks of horror he received in response worried him.
"Wh-what's a-aura?"
Pyrrha nearly passed out, it was only through her need to help Jaune that prevented this. Surely, she had misheard or Jaune's mind was too muddled with pain to have understood what she said.
Surely her partner, the young man who had spent the last seven years of his life in Grimm infested wilds, had aura.
"Your aura Jaune, the manifestation of your soul, activate it already, this isn't funny!" Her voice raised several octaves, nearly shrieking by the end of her demand. Any second now Jaune would realise what she said and his aura would form, his wound would begin to slowly mend and her best friend would stop bleeding so much!
Jaune did no such thing. There was no shimmering glow as one's aura reactivated to heal the user. The blood didn't begin to slow down, it kept gushing like something from a bad horror movie. Her partner just stared blankly at her, eyes unfocused but clearly indicating their lack of understanding for what she was asking of him.
"Nononononononono". Someone was just repeating that word to themselves, Pyrrha found it wasn't helping at all.
It took far too long for the redhead to realise she was the one speaking. As if prodded by electricity, she placed her hand on his chest and began to speak.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality." Through sheer instinct, she began to speak her mantra to try and activate Jaune's aura, normally as the speech progressed an individual's aura would begin to form, Pyrrha hoped activating Jaune's would help.
It did not. Instead of the formation of his aura, Jaune let out a cry of agony and fell forwards into Pyrrha's embrace, his body convulsed painfully.
What!? What!? She pulled her hand away by instinct and Jaune fell silent once more.
"Tha… that doesn't make sense…" Why had Jaune reacted to his aura being unlocked that way? The redhead had never heard of it. It confused and stalled her. Thankfully, the other male on team JNPR took charge.
"We need to get him to the infirmary!" Ren took charge, forcing his way underneath Jaune's right arm to take him there.
That was good, Ren was smart, he had a cool head. Pyrrha always liked that about the boy. She needed someone like that, she needed someone like that very, very much right now.
"Pyrrha, get his other arm and help!" She could do that, yes, yes! Almost robotically, the spartanette placed herself under Jaune's left arm. She could do this, this was helping Jaune! They would take him to the infirmary and everything would be okay!
Her hand was covered in blood.
Her hand was covered in blood.
Her hand was covered in Jaune's blood.
"Blake, Weiss run ahead and let the doctor know", both girls hesitated, not because they didn't want to help. But because the sight of one of their friends pouring blood near froze them to the ground. Pyrrha could relate, yes she could!
Now Jaune's blood was running down her side.
"NOW!" The usually calm boy ordered, both girls flinched but moved as fast as they could. Blake nearly flew out of the room with Gambol Shroud's ribbons and her clones. Weiss propelled after her through her family's semblance.
"Wh-what was that?" asked Jaune, voice twanged in agony but fully coherent.
The fact Jaune had no idea what a semblance was caused a broken giggle to sprout from her lips.
Of course Jaune wouldn't know what a semblance was! He didn't know what aura was! Her best friend had spent many, many years fighting Grimm without aura. She couldn't think of it, she wouldn't!
She had to focus on putting one foot in-front of the other, she had to be strong and help Jaune to the infirmary.
It was a mantra, just like her tournament one; Analyse. Adapt. Overcome.
Now it was; Help Jaune. Help Jaune. Help Jaune.
Easy!
Where was Nora?
Unlike the rest of her team, Nora hadn't rushed over to her Big Bro. Obviously she was horrified when Ruby's scythe cut into Jaune and sprayed blood everywhere. It was terrifying to the powerful girl, how her fearless leader went from dominating the fight to nearly being cut in half so suddenly. It shocked her; the suddenness of it all.
But it shouldn't have, of course a weapon like Crescent Rose would be able to dig into human flesh like that, like a warm knife in butter. She'd seen so, so many similar things like it before.
At Kuroyuri. People cut down, crushed, ripped apart. She'd seen it all.
So why was she shocked now? After witnessing these arguably worse things before?
Because it's not supposed to happen to Jaune.
Big Br-Jaune was different to all those people who died, he was strong, super strong! He was a hero, like X-Ray and Vav but with less swishy capes! He killed Grimm and made pancakes!
But… Now he was bleeding out over the floor, a gaping wound longer than her arm across his chest, gushing blood. Her aqua eyes drifted from her team leader to the cause of this.
Ruby Rose had collapsed to her knees, hands held in front of her face, head unmoving. Yang crouched next to her desperately trying to get her younger sister's attention.
Why was she acting like it was her who got hurt? Why wasn't she helping Jaune? She hurt him! She should help fix him! The Orangette stood, her fists clenched so tight, her combat gloves nearly tore. Nora realised she wasn't thinking straight, that she shouldn't go over to the obviously shell-shocked young girl, that her feelings right now were unreasonable, that instead she should help her team leader as well.
Nora knew all of this.
But she didn't care.
All she could see was Jaune's blood and the culprit behind it. With a blank expression on her usually expressive face, she approached the sisters.
"Rubes… can you hear me? Ruby!" Yang gently shook her sister, the small girl just wobbled like jelly in her arms, completely catatonic in her arms. It took all her willpower not to panic over her younger sister's condition. The coat of blood that covered Ruby nearly head to toe had the blonde girl recalling memories from many years ago, long suppressed.
Ruby should never look like this. Her bouncy, lovable dork of a sister should not be staring blankly into her eyes, unaware of the world around her.
"C'mon Ruby, just look at me! Anything, please!" Still no response. Yang didn't know what to do! Jaune's injury whilst horrid was easy to at least solve; take him to the infirmary asap, and figure out why the hell his aura hadn't protected him! The blonde brawler unaware of the revelation Jaune had let loose himself mere moments ago, too wrapped up with care for Ruby. Again, the blonde tried to grab her sister's attention.
"Ruby, can. You. Hear me?" She spoke slowly and as calmly as possible given the circumstance. "Jaune will be okay!" she hoped. "It's not your fault". For a split second, Yang thought she spotted a flicker of recognition in her sister's scarily dull silver eyes, but before she could try again, a voice cut in.
"It is her fault…" Yang's head shot up, a vicious snarl on her normally jovial face, initially she was surprised to see that it was Nora who had said that. But she didn't care in the end.
"Shut your mouth…" She hissed, eyes flashing a fiery red before returning to ocean blue. "It was an accident, Ruby would never-"
"Of course she wouldn't… But it's still her fault", Yang wanted to punch the ginger through a wall.
"How fucking dare you…" Yang hated swearing near Ruby, but with everything going on, she couldn't hold it back.
"Jauney didn't try to actually hit Ruby, he always stopped just before… Ruby didn't!" Nora's eye's kind of worried Yang, they were so… dull, expressionless. "But the moment Ruby had the chance, she attacked to hurt".
"Ruby would never try to hurt anyone, never mind her friends, so shut up, before I throw you through the wall…" Yang was trying her hardest to not let her anger control her. She needed to be there for Ruby, not throw hands with an obviously distraught Nora. The ginger had the balls to scoff at her warning.
"Duh! Ruby would never want to hurt Jaune, she figured his aura would keep him safe, but it didn't and now my big bro is dying!"
"You don't know that!" Shouted Yang, uncaring of the crack in her voice, unconsciously her arms tightened around her little sister.
"I've seen people bleed out Yang", no one should ever say those words so… casually, especially Nora. "Most don't bleed as much as Jaune already has!"
Oh shit, oh shit shit shit shit. Yang didn't know what to do, she wanted to help Ruby, she wanted to help Jaune, she wanted to punch Nora, argue with her and tell her off for daring to accuse her baby sister of maybe… inadvertently… killing Jaune of all people. Ruby would never kill someone, the fact that she could be the reason Jaune might die would… it would destroy the small girl in her arms.
"Is… Jaune…" Yang's mind righted itself and focused entirely on the timid, quiet words from the eerily still Ruby Rose. Her eyes were still unfocused, hands palm up near her face, but she had spoken, she had!
"Ruby? Can you hear me, it's me! Yang!" Tears threatened to escape her eyes at the state her sister was in, but she held them back. She had to be strong, had to be the big sister, nothing mattered about her until Ruby was okay. Her own mental panic could wait!
"Jaune…" The crimson slickened girl whispered. "Is he?" She didn't finish her question, she didn't have to, Yang understood the meaning. But she didn't know how to respond, yes Jaune had been hurried to the infirmary, but she had no clue if the blonde had even… survived. She wanted to reassure Ruby obviously, but if the worse came to be true?
Would her sister even recover? She hesitated, Yang, the bombastic bombshell hesitated! She was supposed to be there for Ruby for everything, but all she could now was hesitate.
That's when Nora decided to answer Ruby's question.
"Our Fearless leader is tough! Everyone knows that, Ruby!" Nora smiled brightly at the catatonic girl, to someone is Ruby's state the smile would appear genuine, happy. But Yang could see many cracks in Nora's façade. Her lips quivered, her hands fidgeted and pulled at her clothes anxiously. The smile also never reached her eyes, they were still an eerie dull. Yang wasn't sure what to think, just a moment ago Nora had been blaming Ruby, down right accusing her sister of manslaughter! Now the ginger was reassuring her better than her own big sister could!?
"Oh…" Ruby murmured, her body began to lean into Yang's comforting arms, eyes flickering closed. "Am… glad, wanna… need…" Her voice wavered and cracked, body shutting down from the stress and horror of it all. It was okay, Yang would keep her safe.
"Need… sorry…" The little reaper managed to sigh out as she finally succumbed to the traumatic events that happened mere minutes ago. Her blood soaked head fell onto Yang's shoulder, covering the blonde's clothes with Jaune's reaped blood. Yang didn't care that her clothes also had their friends' blood on them, or that some of her well cared for hair slipped into it. All she could do was feel relieved that her little sister had responded. She turned to Nora, feelings so… mixed on the ginger right now. But she wasn't angry enough not to thank her.
"Thank you… for… yeah," she couldn't say what she needed to say. How could she say it?
'Thanks for being better than me at reassuring my own little sister.'
Nora just shrugged. "It's okay".
"But… Why, why did you say that? Just before you said it was Ruby's fault".
"It is", Nora replied matter of factly. "She attacked and thought Jaune's aura would protect him, she didn't even think about what would happen if something went wrong." Yang felt the all too familiar spark of anger begin to flare, but was honestly too tired to hold it close.
"Then, why tell her Jaune would be okay!?" She demanded.
Nora smiled, a genuine one this time, sad, unnaturally timid but it held a fragment of the boisterous girl Yang knew the ginger to be. "Because Jaune would be angry with me if I shouted at Ruby". Yang almost choked on air.
"You just said Jaune was dying! That he'd bled out more than most could even survive!"
"I also said that my big bro was tough, tougher than me, I know he will be fine. And I don't want him to be angry with me if he finds out I was mean to Ruby."
Yang wasn't sure how to respond to Nora's… matter of factness. It was the kind of logic that made sense when connected to Nora. Everyone knew the girl looked up to her team leader like an actual big brother bear. And Nora was tough, the brutal spars in Goodwitch's class proved that. And if she considered Jaune even tougher?
Maybe their friend would be okay after all.
They had to hope.
But for now?
"Nora… I need to take care of Ruby… Can you let us know how Jaune is?" The ginger nodded silently, she put on a big Nora-esque smile and headed out of the bloodied training room.
Yang wondered how the girl could even hope such a fake smile would fool anyone. She returned to her sister, now sleeping in her arms.
"C'mon Ruby, let big sis take care of you for a while. Everything will be fine".
It has to be.
Dr. Kenso Onyx was a tough man. Tough but fair. His upbringing as a tiger faunus studying to become a medical practitioner in the harsh kingdom of Atlas made him so. He suffered much abuse and ridicule from his peers, even attempts to remove him from the course and his own life. His body was a tapestry of that difficult life. A man of intimidating stature, dark, leathery skin, hardened red eyes, a head of jet black hair splattered with specks of grey and two feline striped ears prominent within his hairline.
But the most striking aspect of Kenso was his much faded burn scar that went from his neckline, to his right cheek and ended somewhere within a short hairline. He was a man who had seen the worst of humanity and came out the other side with a sense of right and wrong intact. His proclivity for helping others, treating injuries only reinforced, to prove to the world that he would not stoop to the level of hatred some of both human and faunus kind fell too in regards to each other.
He had seen a lot over his many years.
All that to say, when the infirmary door almost exploded open from sheer force of those who burst through, he reacted calmly and deliberately. He approached the two panting girls, ones he recognised as Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna, he analysed their ragged state, wide eyes, panicked breaths and immediately approached the situation as a doctor and not a staff member of Beacon academy.
"Girls," his voice was hard but not unkind. It was deliberately maintained to gather their attention and make sure panicked individuals had him as a kind of focus point for their turbulent emotions. "What's wrong?" He waited a few moments for the girls to think on their words. From his inspection of their medical charts when they were admitted to Beacon, his professional opinion was that the pair were very focused oriented individuals, capable of thinking clearly and efficiently in tense situations. For something to have rendered them so… dishevelled must have been severe.
Even before they answered Kenso was mentally preparing contingencies and plans for any and all incidents.
"Jaune… our friend", Blake panted out, Kenso assumed she would be the first to respond, not to disparage the Schnee heiress, but from what Kenso knew of the Belladonna name meant the girl probably had more experience with tense situations, but that was here nor there at the moment.
"Is Mr. Arc injured, Miss. Belladonna?" It was a fair assessment, why come to an infirmary unless someone needs medical attention. The ravenette nodded hurriedly.
"There was an… accident with training, Jaune… Jaune was hurt badly." Kenso hummed and motioned for the girls to follow him. He walked briskly to his desk across the hall.
"Give me as many details as you can, type of injury, Mr. Arc's current state, was a weapon involved? If so, what kind? Do not miss a single detail, it will help me prepare for him. I assume he is being brought here right now?" Blake and Weiss nodded. "I'd rather you left him where he was injured, less chance of aggravating his injury, but I gather emotions ran high and you did not think of contacting me with your scroll?" More nods, these ones almost ashamed. "Do not blame yourself, I cannot expect kids your age to react like a medical expert in times of high stress. Now tell me everything! Is able to travel by himself?"
"N-not really", answered Weiss. "Last we saw, he was supported by Ren and Pyrrha… He… He lost a lot of bl-blood." Kenso quickly made notes at the terminal on his desk and pulled up Jaune's medical record; its details were… sparse in his expert opinion, but they would have to suffice.
"Okay, start from the beginning, by the time is brought here I want to have everything already prepared." Before the girls could start, he sent off a message to his fellow staff members informing them a student had been injured and requested Ozpin contact Vale hospital in the event that he needed assistance.
When the white and black haired girls began to inform him in as much detail as he requested, each piece of news concerned him greater and greater. But their in depth explanation had him believe himself ready to help Mr. Arc in the best way possible. He had all his equipment and bed ready the moment he neutered the room. He was an accomplished doctor with decades of experience, whilst the details were disturbing, nothing could shock him.
He had been very, very wrong.
The moment Jaune Arc was carried through the open doors of the infirmary. Dr. Kenso Onyx could only wonder how the boy was still alive. The girls had warned him of the amount of blood he had lost. Add the travel from the training room to the infirmary, he had accounted for even more blood being lost.
He hadn't expected to be unable to see the original colour of the front of his clothes under his blood. Nor the drenched sides of his teammates that supported him. Both who looked on the verge of hyperventilating. If he couldn't see the slow moving of the boy's chest, he would've already assumed him to be long dead. The fact he wasn't was both confusing and a minor miracle. But Kenso couldn't gawk and hesitate, his medical mind took over and instantly he began barking out commands.
"Quickly, place him on this bed!" Both teammates came to their senses and hurriedly dropped the blonde onto the prepared bed. "Now I need space, I will not ask you to leave because I know that would be pointless, but stay away as I work!" There was no verbal acknowledgement, but everyone did step back to let him work. Instinctively, before even assessing the patient, Kenso attached an aura reading device to Jaune's finger, normally it would display an easily understandable representation of what remained of a patient's aura if they had any, it would also display if the patient had never had their aura unlock in the first place.
It was only as he finished attaching it that he recalled the most concerning detail Weiss and Blake had revealed to him.
He does not have an aura. He had nearly broken his professional attitude at that moment, but had calmly noted it down like everything else. So he had just attached the device purely due to instincts. In a moment the screen would indicate Jaune not having his aura unlocked and Kenso would quickly move on.
But that's not what happened.
The screen did show the expected display of Jaune's aura being locked, but then it flickered to show his aura at 100%, then back to it being locked and then at 0%. Constantly it changed from locked to a seemingly random percentage. Kenso had never seen such a thing. Briefly he considered his equipment might've been faulty, but he had tested this exact device mere hours ago, it worked fine.
He glanced at the boy on the medical bed. Something told him he'd need to recheck the medical forms he received in regards to Jaune Arc. And thoroughly at that.
"What does that mean? His aura was like that on the tr-training screen!" Mr. Arc's partner pointed at the aura reading device. Kenso didn't respond, too focused on the next step to help the boy, his sensitive feline ears picked up the girl's teammate pulling her away before she could distract him.
Confused by his patient's aura situation, Kenso swiftly moved on. He needed a clear view of the wound, that meant cleaning away the blood and removing Jaune's torn shirt. He wished the boy's friend weren't here to see this, but he couldn't waste time failing to remove them from the room. With careful precision he managed to cut away the rest of Jaune's ripped shirt, and what remained of the compression top he wore underneath. The sight was… he sighed, he couldn't be certain with all the blood. Next he managed to somewhat stem the excessive bleeding and clear the surrounded area to get a better look at the wound.
The results made him wish he had actually tried to remove the other students.
"Oh… oh god!" The doctor was unaware which student spoke, but he agreed with the sentiments.
Jaune's body was a canvas… a canvas of scars, burns and some of the worst displays of past injuries he had ever seen in his multiple decade spanning career. From his neck, to the waistband of his jeans, Kenso could not spot a part of Jaune that wasn't scarred.
He assumed the boy's back was in a similar state.
Someone collapsed behind him.
"Pyrrha!"
No wonder the boy wasn't screaming in agony, whilst the bleeding wound was horrific, Kenso gathered Mr. Arc was used to such pain. But he had no time to truly analyse how badly Jaune's previous injuries were.
He had to focus on his current injury.
Deep laceration from an angled blade, the amount of blood loss indicates severe internal damage. Patient is a type O- blood, I'll need to administer a transfusion. I've stemmed the bleeding enough for the moment.
The doctor got to work, any questions regarding Jaune's… state could and would be held after the boy was in stable condition.
"Jaune, can you hear me?" Bleary blue eyes tried to focus on Kenso's red ones.
"Nee-need to… ban-bandage…"
Patient is aware enough to realise the extent of his injury.
The doctor was aware of Jaune's past in the wilderness, as aware as any of the staff were at least. He would assume the boy knew basic medical needs, and the fact he had survived the history of his canvas of scars clearly said he did.
"First I'm going to administer a blood transfusion. You've lost a lot of blood, then we will see to the wound in full." He needed to remove the sleeve of Jaune's right arm to apply the transfusion, once he did, he was both unsurprised and concerned to see the same amount of past wounds and scars littering his right arm as his upper body. Because his arms weren't as caked in blood as his chest, his sharp eyes managed to make out what in his expert opinion were old stitching holes alongside some of the more… egregious scar tissue.
As Kenso found a vein and inserted the needle for the blood transfusion, he could only think of one thing as he began the long and excruciating process of administering aid to the barely conscious boy.
Wounds like this belong on Huntsmen with decades under their belt… not a teenager. How are you still alive?
Throughout Doctor Kenso Onyx's treatment, and with the horrified onlookers that were Jaune's friends. None of them, not once noticed the briefest of brief moments of dull gold flashes around Jaune's wound. Nor how they occurred simultaneously as the aura display screen flickered to a percentage of Jaune's locked aura.
Later into the process, other staff would arrive to shepherd the panicked students out of the room. More individuals dressed in medical scrubs would rush into the room.
It seemed Ozpin had taken Kenso's call for aid very seriously.
There were moments in his life that Ren wished his semblance wasn't so… powerful.
This was not one of those times.
Tranquillity, a unique semblance, the ability to mask negative emotions for himself and others within a close range. Normally, he would refuse to utilise such an intrusive power upon others.
But, as he watched Doctor Onyx cut off Jaune's upper body clothes, he knew they would be needed.
As Pyrrha collapsed to her knees in horror at the state of their leader, his semblance instinctively flared to life. He wouldn't be able to subdue the negative emotions altogether, but it helped Pyrrha go from utterly destroyed at the physical state of her partner, to quietly weeping as he comforted her. A hard thing to do as his own emotions were even more supressed than normal.
It did allow him to analyse what he had seen however. It still sent the usual signal to the brain that it should make him feel terrible to see his friend in such a state, but his ability allowed him to look past that and think. It let him try and connect the dots.
Jaune doesn't have aura… but the school systems show he has aura sometimes. He doesn't know what aura or semblances are. How has he survived for so long? It was a good question, but Ren's analytical mind considered something else. How is he so strong if he doesn't have an aura? He knocked Cardin out in one punch… and… he shattered his aura! It was true, Ren could clearly see it as if it had just happened; Cardin's body had collapsed with the sound of shattered glass and his body covered in the cracked effect that follows one's aura breaking.
How did Jaune do that? It was one punch, I just assumed his aura strengthened his body… was it something else? The revelation of Jaune's condition brought into question every feat he had shown. His kill of the deathstalker, the fight with the Alpha Beowolf. Even the spar with Ruby before it happened. Jaune had displayed feats that should be impossible for one without an aura.
How had Jaune done them?
How had he lived seven years of his life in the Grimm wilds without aura!?
It was impossible, Ren hated to admit and only his semblance allowed him to come to the following conclusion.
Jaune should be dead, no ifs or buts. His friend and team leader shouldn't have survived seven days, never mind seven years.
But he had… and the scars that covered more of his body than unblemished skin proved that. This realisation also came with a dour amount of relief.
If Jaune had survived all of that, without professional medical help, but with… Ren had no idea how Jaune treated himself. But the fact of the matter still stood, If Jaune survived that, he could survive this.
Despite the horrific scene, the sheer panic and terror that gripped Ren and his friends, he was certain of one thing.
Jaune Arc would not die today.
Pyrrha had seen scars before, hell she had a few herself when she had pushed her aura to its limits and paid the price. A nick there, a tear here, even a few deep scratch marks hidden by her clothes. She understood it happened from time to time, and that being a Huntress would lead to even more.
But she had never, ever seen scars like the ones on her partner.
Her strong, kind, wonderful partner.
Her partner who now lay bleeding on an infirmary bed.
She wasn't naïve, she realised that with Jaune lived his life, he'd probably have many leftover marks from his many trials. She had been prepared to see some gruesome aspects of her partner. She had at least thought she'd be ready.
She had not been ready at all.
She had spotted the many, many assortment of marks and scars, burns, bruises. She had seen those and gasped. They were shocking to see, but Pyrrha had stood strong for her partner.
What had sent her to her knees in horror was not a scar. Some may call it a scar, but whatever that was too horrid to be just a scar. From where she had stood, only she had been able to spot it.
Along the left side of Jaune, along his ribs were three jagged rips in his flesh. Or the poorly healed leftovers of them. Each rip was bigger than her own arm, they were symmetrical and went down the entire length of his side.
They had healed very poorly. Jaune's wound looked like it had been stitched together by an amateur.
Or someone unable to get a clear view of their own wound. She had realised, and the horrifying imagery of her partner bleeding out against a random tree in a random forest, as he desperately tried to stitch himself back together had been just too much.
No one should've been through that, especially not someone like Jaune.
So her legs had given out under her.
Ren had rushed to her aid.
Weiss tried to put on a brave face, but her eyes betrayed her horror at Jaune's body.
Blake had turned away, unable to stomach the sight anymore.
Doctor Kenso Onyx continued to work diligently and eventually, Pyrrha, with Ren's help alongside some staff ushered her back to her dorm to allow the doctor to work in peace, with extra help from Vale General Hospital.
Throughout it all, no one noticed the pink clad form of Nora quietly watching her big bro lay immobile from outside the room.
"Get well soon… Jauney. I'll… I'll make you loads of pancakes", the girl silently slipped away, back to her dorm.
She wanted to be with Ren right now.
Later
Team RWBY and the remaining members of team JNPR would not hear any news throughout the rest of the day and night.
Team RWBY spent the night in silence, their leader rocking back and forth within her sister's arms.
Team JNPR spent the night staring from time to time at the empty bed of their leader, hoping, praying it wouldn't stay empty.
Neither team would end up getting much sleep.
In the infirmary, Jaune's heart stopped beating.
Sparks of dull gold stood out against Jaune's bloodied chest.
Okay! Lotta stuff this chapter, lotta answers to questions, more questions brought up. What the hell is Jaune's deal?
Who knows?
Poor Ruby, poor lass is gonna need some serious counselling after that.
I do hope I've given you all some nice pieces of juicy story reveals, and I really hope the new hooks and upcoming drama will keep your attention going forward.
As always, please let me know what you think!
Big thanks to H4mmond for being the beta reader for this story.
Please have a wonderful day.
Kind Regards
Gavin Tyson.
Once again, all chapters going forward will now be around 5 to 6 thousand words, purely to allow me to write more consistently around my hectic job. Thank you for your understanding.