AN: I made a pa teron. Also, there's a fanfiction story where Pyrrha retires and lives with Jaune, a farmer. But the author never states their names. Does anyone know the name of that fanfiction? I'll look it up on my own time, but I was thinking about it and kind of wanna revisit it. It was an enjoyable read.
Chapter 15: The Battle's Aftermath
In a sizable town within Valen's borders, the mountain of a blond huntsman stomped his way to a larger-than-normal home. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head as he thought about his most recent mission. It was a simple elimination mission. The details were that 2 packs of beowolves were prowling around the next town over.
However, he didn't know that the huntsmen team supposed to join him arrived late. Unfortunately, the worst part was that the town didn't see one glaring variable. A masked giant was leading the charge. Thankfully, judging from its size and abilities, it was a decade old. That way, they didn't have to worry about its mouth forming. He shuddered at the idea of dealing with what the records say, "a breath that can cause the strongest of them to puke and the weakest to pass out from the smell."
Both ends of the spectrum would be horrible for any fighter against creatures that didn't hesitate to go for the kill. The huntsman sighed again and thanked his past experiences for keeping him alive. He passed by a light pole with Jaune's photo plastered on paper. The words, 'Have you seen him,' were in big black bold letters fading away with time. When the family got home from their outing together, they didn't expect to find a note saying he had run off to achieve his dream.
Depending on the day, they wouldn't see each other until dinner, so they didn't question why they didn't see him until dinner time. They looked high and low, but no one they talked to had seen the only other male in the Arc household. Then Sapphire had the bright idea to check the transport depots. In all fairness, their panic and confusion had them running around like chickens without their heads. After 2 long hours of asking every business they could finally, someone answered their pleas.
The Remnant Trotting Company.
Unfortunately, they couldn't tell them where he got off. These crazy things called rules only allowed the clerk to tell them that he got a ticket to go anywhere in the confines of human civilization.
When you had now eight mouths to feed, a mortgage on a house larger than most in the town, and a whole host of items that required money on one salary? They didn't have the money to look for their family member who could very well be in the sands of Vacuo. The father had a duty to be a Huntsman as well. The parents wouldn't begin to send any of their other children after him, so they were stuck with the father looking for the signs of their son when he went to work. He opened the front door and called out, "Everyone! I'm home!" He closed the door and tried to shake off the fatigue. "Hello?" Are they out? He thought to himself.
"Nicholas!" His wife rang out in surprise. She called him by his first name. Nicholas could hope that was a good thing. "Come to the kitchen now, please. We're having a family meeting." It was a bad thing, he supposed. As he walked into the kitchen, he saw all of his present children huddled around the dining table. 6 daughters looked back at him with equal surprise to their mother.
"Welcome back, Dad!" They said in unison.
The smallest one of them all with brunette hair ran up. Nicholas snatched up from the ground with practiced ease. "Daddy!" She cried out as she hugged his neck.
"Hello Little Sweetie." He peered into her sad orange eyes. "What's wrong, Amber? What happened?" She didn't answer as she buried her face deeper into his chest. He looked at his wife, and she shook her head. With all the answers he would get from his little girl, Nicholas put her back down into her chair with the grace she deserved.
Nicholas made his way to his wife at the head of the table and planted a kiss on the top of her head. She smiled back as he looked around at the table. "So what's happening? Did something happen at school?" His wife left her seat and motioned for him to take it. Oh boy. His daughters didn't look downtrodden, so no one was dead.
His wife, Juniper, said, "We know where Jaune is."
Nicholas sucked in air through his nostrils, and the breath that followed was so heavy it could be called a gale. "Where is he?"
"He works at Beacon!" Jade sounded off. Nicholas looked at the twins at the table. They were a spitting image of their mother. Their blonde hair and emerald eyes blinked in unison. He found it creepy at first. He thought that they just had some innate semblance, but he found that they practiced synchronizing their movements when alone.
Thankfully, like most parents, they gave the sisters different clothing. It also helped that they found different style choices. Jade chose to wear more active clothes, giving her a tomboyish look. While Hazle, her twin, chose dresses and skirts, which gave her a feminine look. "The Headmaster was talking about him on the TV. About how he's some assistant to the staff there. Which is impressive considering how lazy he can be." She looked at her twin. "Do you think he bribed the Headmaster or got some dirt on him?"
His second youngest, Lavender, slumped into her nest of arms, pushing her circular glasses up to her forehead. "I doubt Jaune could bribe the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, but why does it matter? Can't we go get him?" They all mumbled different agreements.
The smallest of them all spoke her opinion. She had a sneer, and her eyes bore a hole into the grand table that could hole the entire Arc family. "Why should we? He left because he didn't want to live with us. He doesn't love us anymore."
"Amber," her father chided.
"Nicholas," her mother said with a placating hand on his broad arm. He looked at his wife. His fury over the subject of his only son leaving in the middle of the night burned. His son and he would have little fights here and there. Jaune went from interest to interest. He never truly landed on something to stick with. Unfortunately, he always came back to being a Huntsman. His fascination with the profession was something he wished he had grown out of, but here they were today.
The calm eyes of his wife stole the edge from his eyes. She had her feelings about her only son leaving. He remember hearing about the day he left. Her sobs broke him when he got the call out in the field. He couldn't unleash his fury on anything but the monsters that surrounded him. Nicholas looked back to his daughter. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but don't say that about your brother. He still loves us, and it wasn't anyone here's fault that Jaune left. That was his choice."
"So we won't bring him back? It's Jaune! He can barely take care of himself," one of the Arc daughters shouted. That sent the rest into different pockets of discussion about the viability of Jaune being able to make it on his own. Juniper clapped her hands three times, and they all quieted.
"Now, children, your father and I had a long discussion about what we would do."
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Jaune parried the spear aimed for his head with his shield. He went for a slash with his sword, but Pyrrha locked it with her shield and bent it to open his body. Pyrrha pulled her shield forward, and his sword somehow went with him. A rising knee caught his face, and Jaune struggled to stay awake. The redhead champion stepped back as her partner fell onto his face. She stood ready with her spear and shield for their next exchange. Jaune rose and looked up at his opponent with battle-enhanced focus. "Did you see what you did wrong?" Glynda asked from the sidelines as they studied one another.
"Yeah, I should've let my sword go. I'm guessing that was your semblance?" She nodded. They stared for several more moments until Pyrrha moved in with a stab at Jaune's thigh. He sidestepped and slashed for her neck. She ducked under the attack and backed away to gain back the ground her javelin gave her. Jaune's sword followed as he threw it lazily. Her shock at the tactic slowed her down; she could only dodge the blade. Jaune's feet pounded as he ran up. His aura swelled and shone as it coalesced on his right shoulder. The half-second distraction allowed him to check the redhead. She was off balance and not giving her all, so Jauine's weight pulled her to the ground.
"Oh," Pyrrha said in surprise. "I guess you won." Jaune rose and lent a hand out for her to take.
"Mister Arc, while you did achieve the victory requirement set for you, throwing your weapon should be one of your last options. I imagine you got inspiration from the advice?" The boy nodded his head. "I'll applaud you for your flexible thinking. As well, what were you going to do with your Aura?"
"Oh, I don't exactly know. I wanted to shoulder-check Pyrrha to the ground, and it just followed." He touched his shoulder, and his body glowed. "It kinda felt like it was trying to leave and jump off my body.
"Interesting, your innate ability with Aura is certainly showing. "
Pyrrha mummed in agreement. "It usually takes people 2 years to use it to protect themselves from firearms. I bet you could do it now."
"He can," Glynda added.
Pyrrha stared with her mouth wide open. She stared at her partner for an uncomfortable amount of time, and he waved a hand in front of her. "Um, Pyrrha?"
She returned to reality and looked like nothing happened. "Sorry, I just remembered the 3 years it took me to use my Aura to such a degree. I don't know whether or not to be proud or jealous of you?" She poked him in the side several times to get what Jaune thought was slight revenge.
Glynda rolled her eyes good-naturedly, but an itch in her throat brought them back to the conversation. "Yes, I'm almost jealous of my student as well. Go clean up, and I'll see you in my office, Mister Arc."
They left the arena chatting about their spar and improvements Jaune could focus on when someone called out to them. "Is that Jaune?" They turned to see students of different standings heading towards them. He could see some 1st and 3rd years by their uniforms, but the rest was up in the air. As they cowarded around the pair, the 3rd-year spoke. "I was out on a mission, but damn, it was kinda impressive that you did there." The others agreed and laughed as they brought up the different moments of the fight. "So, did you kick him in the balls?"
"Uh, not really. I needed Cardin to be off balance, so I faked a kick. But I would've kicked him in the balls if I could."
They all laughed, and the group leader clapped Jaune on the back. "Well, he got what he deserved." 2 faunus students slowly nodded their heads in agreement. They cradled their fanus features and looked to the boy as a role model. "See you around, and don't stop working."
As the group left, Jaune looked at Pyrrha and chuckled. They kept walking until they had to part ways. Jaune's happy feeling gave him a skip to his step. It was strange, but he didn't want to squash the emotion. His smile was almost infectious as he passed other students with a cheery wave and a bright 'Hello.' Most chuckled and waved back with the same attitude. Some even stopped the young hunter-in-training to give him pointers. He took whatever notes he could into his scroll and thanked them.
His first win put Jaune on Cloud 9 for a day now. It gave him the confidence actually to talk to Weiss. All be it, the whole interaction wasn't the smoothest. She did acknowledge him and wasn't much of a brick wall. He skipped and hopped his way to his next duty of the day. His test that was coming didn't even bother him.
As Jaune made his way through one of Beacon's many courtyards, a student's shoulder checked the young man. "Teacher's pet," he snidely remarked. Jaune stood there staring at the student's back, and after a moment, he realized that one of Cardin's teammates was there as well. He didn't need to use the empowerment his soul gave him to know what they were laughing about. He looked at his calloused hands. Jaune poked and prodded them to feel how real they were. Jaune wanted to feel—
No, want was too weak to describe how strong the negative emotion rushed forward.
Jaune needed the soothing sensation they held as they warded off the mockery. The young huntsman-in-training could feel his weapons and the time he spent learning them. He flexed his hands tightly and then looked forward.
With his fist balled up, Jaune marched forward toward Glynda's office.
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"Are the bullheads ready for the Forever Fall trip tomorrow?" Glynda asked from her desk.
"They sure are." Jaune looked through his notes and double-checked them. "Aren't Beowolves weak in their snout and lower body?"
"No, the lower body is a good place to strike because their center of gravity is closer to their upper body. But where should you strike if you can't have them rise?"
Jaune sat there thinking about where he could hit. He imagined the beast rushing him in a forest. Since he wasn't strong enough to cut through the bone plates, he couldn't just stab through the mask. Wearing down his weapons wasn't ideal, either. He tried to remember what Peter said about attacking the Lupin monsters. Beyond the situational advice, he thought about the joints of the beast. "Oh, I can hit the joints and the place between the bone mask and the bone protrusion!"
"Correct." Jaune corrected his notes. He would always be in training when it came to combat, truly. Ozpin says that everyone is constantly training to be a better combatant. An opinion Glynda agreed with fully. However, Ozpin's project would always be behind by virtue of not starting at the same time as his peers. So, learning as much as possible and facing superior combatants would elevate him. Glynda could see a day where he could win battles against his peers. He might even be able to eke out a win from the year's more formidable fighters. Glynda wiped the sweat from her brow and scratched at the paper below.
She looked at the temperature gauge on the wall, which read 75 degrees Fahrenheit. She reached out with her semblance. She felt the grooves of the dial mesh with her ability, the hard plastic giving her feedback within her mind. Glynda grunted as she tried to twist the well-lubricated object. Then, without warning, the purple energy failed and faded away into the air. She looked at her hand and then at her target with a pensive stare. "Jaune," she pushed a button on her scroll, and her printer whirred to life, "can you turn the temperature down to 70."
"Oh, yeah, sure." Before he made his way back to his seat, Glynda called him over.
The tired Goodwitch skimmed over a paper that her machine produced and sighed. She gestured for Jaune to take it, and he did with a question plastered on his face. "Make sure this gets to Doctor Oobleck. I know that man won't answer his scroll at this hour."
"You got it." The door closed, and Glynda kept working on lesson plans for the future. While generally, the student body was at the same level as the past batch of students, thankfully to their society and the need for strong fighters against the Grimm. She still had to monitor the progress of her students. Everyone grew at different speeds. Jaune was the perfect example because what was supposed to take years took him weeks. He was a genius when it came to Aura. From Oobleck's educated guess, he would catch up with his peers in less than a year or 2.
Fatigue slowly encroached on her form as she marched on. A sudden bout of rough coughing shook her body. Her thoughts became a jumbled mess of puzzle pieces thrown across her mind. Another wipe of her sweat-covered brow pushed her to a conclusion. With a heave, she dragged her body out of her office and into her bedroom. The purple linen pulled back, and she clambered into the bed. Another bout of coughing locked her within her purple base.
AN: First and foremost, I have created a pateron with a discord connected to it. You can find me at DragooFire's Library. Now, the Pateron has 5 tiers for those wishing to subscribe. The tier Borrower is $1, and it gives you the Borrower roles and a shoutout at the end of every story if you wish to be thanked publicly. Now, keep in mind each tier has the same rewards. The previous one expects the role in Discord to correspond with the given tier. With that out the way, the Regular tier ($5) allows you to see the chapter's rough draft, the progress, and the chapter before it is published to the public.
The You Live Here tier ($10) allows you to see one-shots early. The Budding Librarians tier ($15) gives you access to monthly Q streams. They will also be recorded for those who wish to watch back anything. Finally, the Librarians tier is the Fuck you money tier. I do not expect a single person to subscribe to this tier because there is no real reward for this tier.
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Next Chapter: May 1st
