Chapter Text
Jaune Arc was not exactly having a good day.
Well, no. That wasn't entirely fair. He was actually having a pretty great day. A great day that had a solid chance of going completely haywire and turning into a spectacular disaster at any second, but still technically great.
He had left his family and his hometown behind and made the long trip all the way to the City of Vale for one reason: to finally chase his lifelong dream of becoming a hero.
Okay, technically he was trying to become a Huntsman, but that was basically the same thing, right? To pull that off he needed to get into one of the Huntsman Academies. The problem was he had zero real training. This was basically like trying to walk into a fancy university without ever having gone to a normal school.
There was supposed to be a practical exam you could take to qualify for the entrance exams, but as far as Jaune knew that ship had already sailed. Mostly because he had taken way too long getting to Vale. Which, in his defence, happens when your main way of traveling is walking and hoping nice people will give you rides.
Still, he had already planned for this. He had sent Beacon some pretty dishonest transcripts ahead of time and even paid for a mailbox at a postal facility so the acceptance letter could get delivered there.
The only problem now was that Jaune Arc was standing right in front of that same postal facility with just a few hours left before the Bullhead to Beacon Academy took off.
This was it. Now or never.
[Congratulations, Jaune Arc.]
Jaune blinked as some kind of glowing text suddenly popped up right in front of his face.
[Through absolutely no merit of your own, you have awakened the Chaos Gacha. Try not to look too proud.]
Ouch. That one stung a bit.
Jaune had no clue what the Chaos Gacha was supposed to be, but it sounded exactly like one of those mobile games his sisters were always playing.
He quickly yanked his scroll out of his pocket and checked it, just to be sure the weird glowing text floating in front of him wasn't some kind of hack messing with his device.
Nope. Nothing. So that pretty much left his nerves going haywire, hallucinations, or whatever questionable stuff he'd eaten for breakfast as the most likely explanations.
[It is still impressive, technically. By hitting a lottery coincidence with a less than ten to the power of two hundred chance to win, you managed to connect to the infinite, ever-changing chaos that sits at the centre of everything and nothing. And gained the Chaos Gacha as a result. Wonderful. Somehow, this happened to you.]
That was a lot of words.
[As a native of this world, this world is all just normal to you. You should have good knowledge of the world you are living in.]
The way that word 'should' was written made Jaune feel like he was totally being judged.
[You are.]
Hey at least it was being honest.
[In theory, being a native allows you access to prior training and an established backstory. Unfortunately, you appear to have misplaced most of the first one and are currently doing your best to sabotage the second.]
That really stung Jaune's ego. Hit him pretty hard, too. It was starting to feel like this thing, whatever it was, had been specifically designed to roast him.
[Now, while you have not really taken advantage of this, rules are rules. So you will not be starting with as much assistance as some random non-native victim would receive. No full starter's pity for you. Just a little pity. A tasteful amount of pity.]
Jaune was pretty sure he didn't want to think too hard about what that actually meant. Getting made fun of was bad enough on its own. The other half of that message just sounded straight-up terrifying.
[Here is your 1x Golden Gacha Ticket!]
A golden ticket suddenly appeared right in Jaune's hand, just like the ones he'd seen in those old movies.
He took a second to run his fingers across it, feeling the smooth, slightly cool surface under his fingertips, double-checking that it was actually real and not some kind of stress-induced hallucination.
Unfortunately, that seemed to count as activating it.
The words popped up again.
[Adept Arms Mastery]
|Elite Skill|
[You are able to handle all conventional weapons, ranging from knives to swords to axes to polearms to guns to bows to even chained weapons and clubs with great skill, enough to match most dedicated practitioners in skill.]
Jaune blinked.
Whoa, that actually seemed pretty cool. Did this mean he could finally use Crocea Mors like a real Huntsman?
The second the thought crossed his mind, an uncomfortable pang hit him. His family's sword… the one he'd basically taken without permission. Jaune winced, shame twisting in his gut. He wasn't proud of that at all. Still, that same guilty feeling was enough to stop him from pulling the blade out right there in the middle of the street just to test if this 'Adept Arms Mastery' thing was real.
Shaking it off, he headed into the post office. He walked straight to the wall of small lockers, found the one with his number, and pulled out his scroll. After syncing it with the digital lock, a soft click echoed.
He opened the door.
There, sitting all by itself inside, was a crisp white envelope with elegant gold lettering on the front.
Beacon Academy Acceptance Letter
Dear Mr. Jaune Arc,
It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted into Beacon Academy's first-year class. Your transcripts and application stood out to us, and we look forward to seeing what you bring to our halls.
The Entrance Exam will begin soon, and you are aware of the date. We await your arrival at Beacon Academy.
Welcome to Beacon.
Regards,
Professor Ozpin
Headmaster, Beacon Academy
Jaune blinked hard and reread the elegant gold lettering a second time, just to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. Seeing things was definitely turning into the theme of the day.
He had made it.
He had actually made it into Beacon.
For a moment everything felt lighter, like he might just float right off the floor. A huge goofy grin spread across his face. He'd done it. He'd taken that first real step toward becoming a Huntsman — toward finally becoming a hero.
But the warm rush of joy didn't last long. The 'seeing things' nonsense came crashing back in full force.
[Congratulations! Your forged transcripts have allowed you to attempt the entrance exam for Beacon Academy. Truly, academic integrity trembles before you.]
[Jaune Arc, you now have the potential to join an elite, dangerous, hard-to-enter faction despite being wildly underqualified. Inspiring, in the same way a burning cart rolling downhill is inspiring.]
[1x Gold Trait Ticket]
A slightly different golden ticket suddenly materialized in Jaune's hand this time, its surface catching the light with a faint shimmer.
He stared at it, equal parts surprised and a little offended even though the words on it were technically right. In his shock, his fingers clenched too tight and crushed the shiny ticket before he could stop himself. The thin metal foil crumpled easily under his grip.
Apparently, the Chaos Gacha counted that as using it anyway.
[Cat's Feet]
|Uncommon Trait|
[You almost always land on your feet when falling, in addition, you are immune to all fall damage, even falling down from space to earth will not hurt your legs.]
That made Jaune blink.
Just like the first reward, this one seemed pretty useful too. He figured it was a good thing he wasn't planning on falling or jumping from any crazy high places anytime soon.
Regret was something Jaune was quickly realizing was going to fill the rest of this day.
Okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic, but right now he was seriously regretting getting on this Bullhead.
The Bullhead ride to Beacon Academy had started off fine. They got a news update about some notorious criminal, then something about protests getting shut down, and after that one of the professors appeared on the screen and started giving a big speech.
Jaune hadn't heard a single word of it.
The cabin looked perfectly steady, but his stomach was convinced the Bullhead was jerking around like crazy. It definitely had nothing to do with nerves… or the fact that he had technically cheated his way in and was now swimming in a messy mix of guilt and anxiety.
Deciding that in this case discretion was definitely the better part of valour, Jaune made a hasty retreat to the bathroom and lost his breakfast in the toilet.
Afterward he shuffled over to the sink, washed his face and hands, then rinsed out his mouth, trying to get rid of the awful sour taste clinging to his tongue. His cheeks burned with embarrassment. Great. Just great. Puking on the way to Beacon. Real heroic stuff right there.
If the rest of the Bullhead ride was going to be like this, maybe he should test out that new Cat's Feet trait and just walk the rest of the way instead?
It sounded like a decent idea for half a second… until his brain caught up. Walking would take way longer than the Bullhead, and he doubted they'd even let him in if he showed up late on foot like some lost traveller.
He let out a quiet groan, gripping the edge of the sink. Between the airsickness, the guilt still gnawing at him for cheating to get here, and now this, the day already felt like it was testing him. Still… he wasn't turning back now.
Managing to get off the Bullhead, Jaune stumbled onto solid ground and felt so relieved he could have kissed the dirt right there.
After steadying himself and letting his nerves calm down a little, he noticed that misery really did love company. A girl in a black dress with a bright red hood had just tripped and face-planted straight into a big stack of suitcases piled on a trolley. An irritated-looking girl in white stood over her, making sharp angry gestures. They were a bit too far away for Jaune to catch every detail, but it looked like the girl in the hood was trying her best to apologize.
Then, before Jaune could even take a step forward, the girl in the white dress pushed herself up from the ground. A bright flash erupted right next to her, followed by a loud boom as flames suddenly burst across her outfit.
Jaune's brain first registered it like a silly gag from some over the top sitcom. Then reality slammed into him hard.
His stomach dropped. Horror hit him like a truck. That girl had just been set on fire. An actual explosion right in front of him. Heart pounding, he was already stumbling forward on his shaky legs, rushing over as fast as he could to help.
When the smoke finally cleared, both girls were standing there completely untouched. Not a single burn, not even a singe on their clothes.
That caused Jaune to freeze in place, his eyes widening at what he was seeing. It was confusing and seriously concerning all at once. That explosion had gone off point blank. She should have been hurt. Scorched clothes, burns, something, anything. But there was nothing.
As Jaune got closer, he saw the white-dressed girl's anger suddenly swing toward a new target. A black-haired girl with a cute little bow sitting on top of her head had stepped in, trying to calm things down and play peacemaker. But the white-haired girl was having none of it. She got right up in the new girl's face, looking furious, before she spun around and stormed off in a huff.
Whatever the girl with the bow had said must have been pretty funny though, because the one in the red hood started giggling. Jaune could hear it clearly as he finally reached them.
With her part in the whole mess apparently finished, the girl with the bow turned and walked away without saying another word to the one in the red hood. She headed off in the exact opposite direction the white-dressed girl had stormed off in.
Strangely, the whole thing seemed to hit the girl in the red hood pretty hard. She dropped down onto her knees, then flopped forward onto the ground in a tired heap. She looked so completely defeated that Jaune felt a pang of sympathy twist in his chest.
He even caught her quiet mumble as he got closer. "Welcome to Beacon…"
Jaune was not exactly having the best day himself, but that did not matter. Strangers were just friends he had not met yet, right? And he was not about to let someone's first day at Beacon start off this badly if he could do something about it.
He walked over and offered his hand.
"Hey," he said a little awkwardly, "I'm Jaune."
The girl, still looking worn out and down, took his hand and let him help pull her back up to her feet.
"Ruby," she replied softly.
Then Ruby's voice shifted. It suddenly sounded like she had just put the pieces together, and there was a clear note of judgment in it.
"Aren't you the guy who was throwing up on the ship?"
The two of them had been talking, or more like awkwardly arguing, about motion sickness, vomit, and especially the explosion Ruby had caused earlier. The conversation started to drag into uncomfortable territory when Jaune realized he had no idea what to say to a girl who was not one of his seven sisters.
"So," Ruby started, sounding just as awkward as he felt while she clearly tried to think of something to say. "I've got this thing."
She reached behind her back and pulled out a massive red and grey weapon. The second it cleared her shoulder it slammed down hard onto the pavement with a loud metallic clang, making Jaune jump back in surprise.
He stared at it with wide eyes. The thing was enormous, a crazy-looking combination of a giant scythe and a high-tech cyberpunk artwork all fused together. Sharp curved blades gleamed at the top while the long shaft had mechanical joints and a dangerous-looking spear point at the bottom. It looked incredibly deadly, but also really cool.
"Wow," Jaune said, taking a big step back in shock. "Is that a scythe?"
He tilted his head, still staring. If it was not a scythe, then why did it look so much like one?
"It is also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle," Ruby replied. She patted the hilt with a big cheeky grin on her face.
The words sniper and rifle stuck out in Jaune's head. He blinked, completely thrown off. "A what?"
As if to prove it, Ruby pulled a lever on the hilt with a smooth motion, almost like she was loading a cartridge. "It's also a gun," she clarified proudly.
"Oh, that's cool" Jaune replied, his eyes still wide with pure bewilderment. He was seriously impressed by how cool the whole thing looked, but he could not wrap his head around why anyone would combine a giant scythe with a gun. Still… if it worked, it worked.
"So," Ruby began, and Jaune immediately felt a sense of dread creep up his spine. "What do you have?"
"Ah," Jaune stammered. He drew Crocea Mors from its sheath and held it out. "I've got this sword," he explained, showing it to Ruby, who was smiling with way too much excitement.
Looking the blade up and down ruby whistled appreciating the fine edge. Jaune was pretty sure no sword had ever been stared at quite like that before.
He quickly picked up the sheath and added, "I've got a shield too." With a quick motion he activated it, letting the sheath expand out into a full shield.
Ruby's eyes lit up even more. "So, what do they do?"
Reacting the shield back into its sheath form, "not that much, really," Jaune admitted. "The shield can fold back into a sheath so I can carry the sword and shield together a lot easier., though it still weighs the same"
"Well," Ruby continued with a slightly awkward laugh, "I am kind of a huge dork when it comes to weapons." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I might have gone a little overboard when I designed it."
It took Jaune half a second for the words to fully sink in.
"Wait," he said, eyes widening. "You made that?"
He stared at the massive scythe-gun resting on the pavement. It looked so complex and fancy. The idea that someone his own age had built something like that before even getting to Beacon was seriously impressive. He felt a familiar twist of insecurity in his chest.
"Of course," Ruby answered, suddenly sounding much brighter and more excited. "All the students at Signal forge their own weapons." She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
For Jaune, it felt like a heavy brick dropping in his stomach. He had not known that at all. It was just one more reminder that he really had not prepared enough for this. He had not researched nearly as hard as he probably should have.
Ruby tilted her head, looking a little confused by his reaction. "Didn't you make yours?"
"It's a hand-me-down," Jaune replied. That was technically true. It just had not been handed down directly to him.
"My great-great grandfather used it to fight in the war," he added, his voice coming out quieter than he wanted. Embarrassment burned in his cheeks. He felt ashamed that he knew so little about it compared to what Ruby clearly expected.
Even though Jaune was busy feeling down on himself, Ruby's face lit up.
"Sounds like a family heirloom to me," she said warmly. "Well I like it. Not many people appreciate the classics these days."
"Yeah," Jaune agreed, though his mind was already miles away. The classics. His thoughts kept drifting back to that new Adept Arms Mastery ability and whether he could figure out how to actually use it. Even with that kind of help, he could not shake the sinking feeling of just how far out of his depth he really was.
As the two of them kept walking away from the courtyard, Ruby glanced over at him. "So why did you help me out back there, anyway?"
"Why not?" Jaune replied with a small shrug. "My mom always told me strangers are just friends you have not met yet."
Ruby hummed softly, like she was turning those words over in her head and actually liked them. Then her eyes suddenly widened. "Hey," she said, "where are we going?"
Jaune blinked. They had just been wandering around with no real direction. He had never been to Beacon before either. "I do not know," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "I do not have a map of this place yet."
Great. They could just keep wandering around aimlessly for who knew how long while they tried to figure out where they were supposed to be. Perfect plan.
Soon enough, after the two of them spent what felt like forever hunting for any building that looked even a little bit important, Ruby and Jaune finally wandered into a big circular hall. It did not really feel like a meeting hall though. It looked more like some central hub that connected all the different wings of the academy.
It reminded Jaune of those annoying spots in video games where you had to backtrack constantly just to unlock the next area.
Apparently, someone Ruby knew had saved her a spot. Even though everyone was standing and Jaune could not see any actual seats anywhere. Ruby gave him a quick, slightly awkward but still friendly goodbye before she hurried off to join whoever that blonde was.
Jaune shrugged to himself. He doubted he would run into anyone as nice as Ruby for the rest of his time at Beacon. Might as well find a place to stand and actually try to pay attention to whatever was being said up front.
He also really hoped he did not look as out of place as he felt.
Thanks to Ruby, Jaune noticed that not everyone in the room looked as confident as they tried to act. Some of the other new students seemed just as nervous as he felt, which made sense. But most of the others looked excited, eager, or straight-up confident. The whole hall buzzed with this hushed energy even though nobody was actually being quiet when they talked.
His eyes kept moving so he would not stare too long at anyone. Then he spotted a less pleasant sight. It was that same white-dressed girl from earlier, and she had scared Ruby right into the arms of another girl. Seriously?
Now that he actually looked at her properly, the white-dressed girl was really pretty. Her dress had this nice fade from white down to pale blue at the bottom, and her long white hair was pulled back into a slightly off-centre ponytail. She even had a cool scar over her left eye that somehow made her look tough and elegant at the same time.
Jaune felt his face heat up a little. She was the kind of girl who might make him trip over his own words. But then she started shouting at Ruby again and shoved something right in her face. Yeah, that killed any daydreams fast. Ruby was his first friend at Beacon and a genuinely sweet girl who had helped him earlier. So Jaune figured he might as well step in and ruin any chance he had of getting to know the pretty white-haired girl better.
As he started walking over, he scrambled for something to say. Maybe something from one of those really old cheesy sitcoms his sisters used to watch, the ones that made fun of everything, could break the tension.
"Hey Ruby!" Jaune called out as he walked over to the dark red-haired girl. "Is this harpy giving you a hard time?"
The white-haired girl spun around angrily to face him.
Yeah, she was still really pretty, even when she glared like she wanted to kill him on the spot. That look could probably melt steel.
"Harpy?" the white-haired girl repeated, her voice full of outrage. Ruby gasped in shock beside her while the blonde girl let out a loud bark of laughter.
"Just who do you think you are talking to?" the white-haired girl demanded.
Jaune blinked. She had just handed him the perfect setup on a silver platter. He almost smiled. After all, they were all just seventeen-year-olds starting at the Academy. None of them were famous yet.
"It is told among the wise of old," Jaune began, catching all three girls off guard. He put on his best dramatic Alric Idol impersonation. "That in days long past five sages most ancient of the kindred of Bitterness came together upon the high and terrible peaks of Mount Woe."
He kept going with a straight face, even as he felt a little ridiculous doing it in front of everyone.
"And there they proclaimed the hour of thy birth," he declared, watching the white-haired girl's face shift from confused to furious. Her pale skin started turning redder and redder. "And it came to pass that after the waning of a hundred years, when all the stars of that kindred were aligned in dread and fateful conjunction in the heavens,"
Jaune continued with fake solemnity, like he was telling some tragic and mournful tale.
"Thou wast born into the world;" he spoke, mustering a fake tone of contempt as he looked right at the white-haired girl like she was the worst thing since homework. "And with thy coming thou didst turn the lives of all those about thee into a grievous torment and living woe," he narrated as if speaking of some unspeakable evil. "For in truth thou art a most fell and spiteful creature."
Ruby looked torn between being mortified, grateful, and desperately trying not to crack up. The blonde girl had been laughing her head off pretty much since the second sentence of his speech.
The white-haired girl just stood there with her mouth hanging wide open. Her face had gone bright red with pure righteous fury. She clearly had not gotten the reference at all. Jaune figured this was probably the first time in her life anyone had ever talked to her like that.
"Excuse me?!" she hissed. She glared up at Jaune with the wrath of a thousand short people staring up at someone much taller, making his stomach tighten for a split second. "Who do you think you are, you clumsy, brainless oaf?!"
Last Jaune checked he was still Jaune Arc. This was one of those rhetorical questions his sisters had tried to teach him about plenty of times. Not that the lessons had ever really stuck.
"How dare you speak to me that way!" the girl rambled on, completely unaware that Jaune was barely paying attention to her actual words. Her flushed face and bright eyes made her look extremely pretty in that moment. He figured it was a good thing she had the personality of a stump.
"I am Weiss Schnee of the Schnee Dust Company!" the girl almost screeched, introducing herself.
Weiss Schnee. The name had a nice ring to it, Jaune thought. But given how his own siblings were named, he was not too eager to find out if she had any brothers or sisters.
"I will not be insulted by some," Weiss Schnee trailed off like she was searching for the perfect insult, "some peasant," she settled on. "Who thinks he's clever for memorizing dusty old fairy tales!"
Now Jaune had plenty of experience with girls throwing tantrums. He had seven sisters after all, and he had lived through more than enough of those growing up.
So while he would normally avoid pushing his luck, this was Beacon and having a major meltdown on the first day probably was not the smartest move. He decided to push it just a little anyway. "Peasant?" he questioned. "Miss Schnee have you been living under a rock?" he asked, not unkindly. "Don't you know the King of Vale abolished that system along with the aristocracy after the end of the Great War?"
His words had the desired effect. Weiss's face grew even redder and her glare sharpened dangerously. Ruby was giggling nervously and looking pretty embarrassed while the blonde grinned ear to ear and sniggered like a kid.
"How dare you lecture me on history?!" Weiss almost screeched. "The Schnee family—"
"You're the one who called me a peasant," Jaune pointed out, fanning the flames even as his stomach twisted with nerves. "Not my fault you're behind on the times, like really behind. Next you'll be calling it Mantle not Atlas."
Weiss's eyes widened and she looked like she would explode. "Excuse me?!"
"You're excused," Jaune replied smoothly, forcing himself to stay calm.
"You.. You insolent, uncultured buffoon!" Weiss snapped, shaking with rage. "Atlas is the heart of progress and industry! How dare you speak the name of that backward mining town in the same breath as my home?!"
Sheesh she sounded annoyed,
"I don't know who you think you are, but I will have you expelled from this academy before the day is out!"
Jaune winced internally. That was might be a rather serious even as he tried to keep his face calm. Still, if she was from Atlas, why come all the way to Beacon in Vale?
"We're in Vale, not Atlas," Jaune prodded, unable to stop himself even while his heart beat faster.
Ruby seemed to sense the inevitable end and hid behind the blonde girl. "Jaune," she pleaded, "stop! She's really mad! We're gonna get in so much trouble!"
For her part the blonde girl seemed to be absolutely living for this, laughing once more. "This is better than TV," she commented.
It was kind of sad that was one of the best compliments Jaune had ever received from a girl he was not related to.
"If Atlas is so amazing, go back there," Jaune decided to make Weiss even madder by adding, "I joined that academy, I think you would be able to if you were as important as you think you are."
And it seemed Weiss had reached the melting point. "How DARE you?!" Weiss shrieked, her voice cracking with outrage. "You pathetic, ignorant little bumpkin! You think you can tell me where I belong?! I came to Beacon because I chose to! Because I refuse to let my family name define me, unlike some talentless nobody who clearly stumbled in here by accident!"
Yeah, that last one stung, Jaune thought. His pulse kicked up hard as he kept his face relaxed and his arms loosely crossed like this was just a casual conversation. He was pretty good at pretending.
He gave her a small, almost sympathetic shrug. "So… how exactly are you planning to throw me out? Or have me thrown out? Your family's influence is all the way in Atlas, right? We're in Vale now. Beacon's run by Professor Ozpin, not the Schnee Dust Company. Unless you're secretly on the Vale Council or something?"
Now Jaune was pretty certain he was going to die. If this girl was even half as influential as she claimed, he was a dead man walking. But hey, he never liked bullies.
Weiss looked like she was about to burst into flames. Her pale face flushed crimson as she sputtered, mouth opening and closing several times before she finally found her voice again. "How dare you?! How dare you?!" she repeated, her voice climbing higher with every word.
The calm, almost polite way Jaune had just listed off everything she had said and pointed out what he had not only made her angrier. Being fact checked like a child in front of everyone was unbearable. "You think you're so clever? I'll call my father right now! Or better yet, I'll go straight to the headmaster! You won't last another hour at this academy!"
Ruby had basically disappeared behind the blonde, peeking out from under Yang's arm with those wide, horrified silver eyes. She kept whispering "Jaune, stop, stop, stop," while frantically tugging at the back of Yang's jacket like she could drag him to safety through sheer willpower alone. She looked two seconds away from just yanking him out of there herself.
Yang, on the other hand, was having the absolute time of her life. She threw her head back and laughed loud again, wiping at her eye while grinning. "Okay, he's actually kind of savage," she said, clearly impressed. "I'm invested now. Keep going, Knight Boy—this is the best thing that's happened all day."
Jaune raised an eyebrow and tilted his head a little, genuinely puzzled. "Wait… hold on a second," he said, keeping his voice as steady as he could manage. "Didn't you just finish telling everyone how you came to Beacon because you refuse to let your family name define you? That you wanted to stand on your own?"
He gestured lightly toward her. "Yet the first thing you do when someone disagrees with you is threaten to call daddy and get the headmaster involved? That sounds an awful lot like letting this Schnee name of yours do the heavy lifting."
The words landed like a bucket of ice water. For a brief second, Weiss's outrage actually faltered, a flash of something almost like surprise crossing her face before it hardened back into pure fury.
Ruby let out a tiny, mortified squeak from behind Yang, while the blonde herself let out a low whistle. "Ouch," Yang muttered with a grin. "He just keeps swinging."
It seemed that Yang was not the only one impressed as the text appeared before Jaune, reminding him that it was still there.
[Congratulations, Jaune Arc.]
[You have defended Ruby Rose by engaging Weiss Schnee in open verbal combat and, through some alarming combination of spite, historical trivia, and sibling-honed survival instincts, you actually won the exchange.]
Jaune was not certain why it was acting like this was over. Weiss looked ready to explode, probably violently from the looks of things.
[You made a Schnee invoke class, status, family influence, Atlesian superiority, and paternal authority in under five minutes. Then you pointed out the contradiction in front of witnesses.]
Oh, so that was how he won? Well Jaune was fine being the doomed moral victor.
[Honestly, it would be more impressive if this did not also look like attempted social suicide.]
It was not social suicide, at least Jaune hoped it was not. And it seemed Weiss might be doing a little more than just socially killing him.
[1x Silver Skill Ticket]
Jaune blinked when he felt something solid suddenly appear in his pocket, heavier than he expected. He had not felt it arrive in his hand this time. It just… showed up there on its own. At least the thing was trying to be subtle.
Fortunately for Jaune and unfortunately for Weiss, his impending demise was postponed by a man clearing his throat through a microphone, making everyone look toward the stage.
Professor Ozpin stood on the raised platform with a middle-aged woman beside him. She had very light-blonde hair tied back in a tight bun with a single curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were a sharp bright green behind thin oval glasses, and she wore dangling teal earrings that matched the pendant on her collar. She stood perfectly straight, her mouth set in a firm line, and the way she looked out at the crowd made it very clear she did not have time for nonsense.
"I'll keep this brief," Professor Ozpin stated, adjusting his sunglasses. Jaune wondered why the man was wearing them inside the building.
"You have travelled here today in search of knowledge," Beacon's headmaster continued, "to hone your craft and acquire new skills."
Yeah, Jaune could relate to that. Though he would probably need to acquire some actual skills first before he even thought about honing anything.
"And when you have finished you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people," Ozpin added.
To become a hero. That was why Jaune came here. Heroes protect people. That was what being a Huntsman was supposed to be about.
"But," Ozpin added, with a rather dramatic timing, "I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy."
At those words Jaune gave Weiss a smug glance, which she did her best to ignore. Even so, he could see the anger simmering behind her pale blue eyes. The Professor had probably heard the commotion earlier, but Jaune doubted the words were aimed specifically at her.
"And need of purpose, direction," the headmaster listed. "You assume knowledge will free you of this."
That was confusing. How would knowledge free someone of purpose and direction? Or was it supposed to free them from a lack of it? Jaune didn't understand.
"But your time at Beacon will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far," Ozpin explained. "It is up to you to take the first step."
As Professor Ozpin stepped back from the microphone, Jaune noted that the speech was less welcoming and encouraging than he had expected. It felt more ominous than anything.
The middle-aged woman stepped forward and explained that they would have the rest of the day in this room, which was apparently the ballroom. The initiation would be tomorrow. Great. That meant Jaune had another night to sit around worrying about whether he was going to pass or not.
As they were dismissed, Jaune heard the blonde comment that Professor Ozpin seemed "kinda off." So, he wasn't the only one who had noticed it.
He needed to get somewhere private to check the Gacha. The toilets were probably the only place he could do that without anyone noticing. Sighing, Jaune started making his way through the crowd to find one.
[Martial Foresight]
|Elite Skill|
[Kengan Ashura - The Foresight is a technique developed by skilled fighters. It is a skill that allows one to predict a target's moves to dodge and counter them through quick analysis and instinct. Your Foresight is quite basic, and will require actual fights to train and develop.]
Standing in the private cubicle, Jaune read the ability description once again. He had ducked in here specifically to use the Silver Skill Ticket without anyone seeing. He had noticed that some of these skills came with different rarities attached to them.
This one was listed as an Elite skill, but Jaune still had no idea what a Kengan Ashura was. It sounded like some kind of fancy exotic dish.
Still, if the skill actually worked, it might give him at least a chance of passing the entrance exam. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking.
Regardless, Jaune knew he needed to start practicing while he still could. They had several hours before they had to turn in for the night, and he desperately needed to test out Adept Arms Mastery. That particular skill was supposed to let him use normal weapons with real skill, and he wanted to see exactly how it worked before he made a fool of himself tomorrow.