512Chapter 15: The Lonely Hearts Club
How do you tell someone you're not dead?
This was a perfectly reasonable question for Jaune Arc as he looked at Pyrrha Nikos, who looked back at him with the expression of someone at a funeral.
"Uh," Jaune said intelligently, looking at Pyrrha for a moment before he shook himself and replied, "Actually, I am Jaune Arc. Uh, Hi again?"
The last part came as a question as he did a half wave, feeling awkward beyond all belief.
She blinked. Then blinked again. Frowned. Bit her lip, leaned forward slightly as if to examine the veracity of his existence.
"You died buying time for myself and others to exist," she said blankly, almost pointedly.
Jaune nodded agreeably, for lack of anything better to do, "Right, um, yeah, didn't die. I made it out ok, all things considered.
Pyrrha looked at him, disbelief painted on her pretty face.
Seriously, Jaune, these thoughts weren't helpful; Jaune shook himself. First Weiss, now Pyrrha. What the heck was going on with his brain?
"I don't understand," Pyrrha said blankly before looking around as if checking for something, "Is this some sick idea of a prank? I can't believe someone would do this."
"No, it's not," Jaune sighed. Look, I get being confused, but how am I supposed to prove to you that I am, in fact, the not-dead Jaune Arc? Can't you take my word for it? I mean, I don't even know why someone would try to prank you."
Pyrrha looked at him for a moment before an idea appeared in her head, "What's my semblance?"
Right, the metal crates!
"Polarity, right?" Jaune asked somewhat questioningly, "You can control metal and stuff."
Pyrrha nodded slowly before walking around Jaune, examining him under a microscope, and coming to a halt before him.
"I guess you could be Jaune Arc," she murmured thoughtfully.
Well, at least they finally arrived at that point of agreement.
"Is that Pyrrha Nikos!?" came a cry, and both Jaune and Pyrrha spun around to see a seemingly starstruck teenager looking at them. That starstruck teenager was soon joined by another, and then another, as more seemed to have heard his call from outside the training arena.
"Fans of yours?" Jaune looked at the gradually forming crowd, a little awed at the speed of its growth.
Pyrrha's eyes widened, and she looked horrified as she stared at the forming crowd, "So many of them…" she mumbled.
Jaune warred with himself for a moment, but looking at Pyrrha's expression, he couldn't abandon her to whatever precisely this was.
Not at least while he had a solution. Or maybe a solution; he had never tried this before.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and activated Stealth, wrapping the skill around them. There were cries of shock and awe, but he and Pyrrha had notably disappeared.
"She's gone!" "Where'd she go!"
Pyrrha looked at him, confused, and he shrugged and gestured for her to follow him. They slipped outside the arena and made it some distance before arriving at an out-of-the-way park where Jaune felt comfortable dropping Stealth.
"Um," Pyrrha bit her lip and looked away slightly, "Thanks. I appreciate you pulling me out of there."
"No problem," Jaune hummed. You didn't look incredibly excited about that situation, so I thought I would lend a hand—the least I could do."
Pyrrha seemed to blush slightly red at his words. "It's not that I don't like interacting with my fans," she said defensively, though who she was defending herself against was a distinct question. It's just they can be a bit much, especially after my last tournament win. Everyone's even more jazzed up about the tournament in a few days."
"Is there another tournament soon?" Jaune asked before he realized he wouldn't know that, given that he had spent some very long months sequestered fighting Grimm on Menagerie.
"Yes," Pyrrha nodded, though it seemed somewhat hesitant for some reason.
"So, like some kind of fighting thing?" Jaune asked cocking his head at Pyrrha.
"Yeah," Pyrrha nodded, still seemingly hesitant.
"Cool," Jaune gave her a cheesy thumbs up and grin for lack of anything better to do, "Feeling confident?" he asked as he didn't have anything else to say.
Pyrrha blinked and stared at him, seemingly confused at his words. She opened her mouth. Closed it, then finally replied, "Uh, yes, I suppose. I mean-"
She seemed to be getting more flustered, and Jaune regretted his question; he didn't think something so simple would cause such an issue, "Uh, that's good then," he nodded slowly, giving her a weak smile.
Pyrrha paused and then seemingly formed a perfect small smile as she looked at him, "Of course."
The more Jaune looked at the smile, the more it bothered him. There was a Weiss-like element to it, like when Weiss was at a party organized by her father. There was a Yang-like part to it as well. Like the smile Yang gave when she was in her group of friends, the attention had turned away from her for a moment. There was even a Ruby-like part to it, the smile she would give whenever she returned from a walk where she never quite seemed to say where she had been.
He hadn't given it much thought in the moment. Not before had he spent months isolated on Menagerie.
Slowly, gears begin to turn in Jaune's brain.
For some reason, his last time talking to Yang and Ruby popped into his head,
Yang's face was unreadable at this news.
Ruby, on the other hand, was focused on Jaune, "When am I going to see you again?"
Jaune blinked at her words, and feeling a strange sense of déjà vu, he replied, "I've always planned on going to Beacon. I was going to take the entrance exam for non-combat school students."
"Okay." Ruby said, "You've promised, which means you can't return it. I better find you at Beacon when I get there."
"Me as well," Yang said, and Jaune was surprised by how serious the usually joking blonde looked, "You better be there on entrance day."
He had seen the expressions he knew he had, but somehow he hadn't understood.
It is so typical to put himself before others.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha looked at him strangely, and Jaune realized he hadn't spoken for some minutes.
Jaune looked at a girl he didn't know. It wasn't his place to say anything. Yet he couldn't say anything for some reason, even to a stranger.
"Wanna hang out?" the words were blunt, unpolished, and on no normal, well-adjusted person should they have done anything.
Pyrrha blinked, then turned slightly as if she thought he was talking to someone else before; after a long moment, she replied, "Are you sure? I'm sure you have plenty of better things to do, and I really should get back to training."
Jaune gazed blankly at the girl, who seemed to flush under his gaze, twisting slightly under his stare. "If you don't want to hang out, just say so," he said.
"NO!" Both Pyrrha and Jaune blinked, astonished at the volume of her voice as it came out only slightly under a shout, "I mean," Pyrrha coughed, "If you wanted to spend some time together, that would be nice; I mean agreeable, or perhaps pleasant-"
Jaune's eyes widened as Pyrrha trailed off, somewhat red in the face. This girl was awkward—maybe not Ruby awkward, but awkward in her own way, it seemed, when the topic was no longer her being a champion.
"Cool," Jaune nodded slowly. How about we grab some food and do whatever teens do here?"
Still slightly flushed, Pyrrha nodded but smiled all the same, "That would be grand."
Jaune had to admit there was a sense of style in Argus that he hadn't quite seen in the other places he had been. The architecture was unique and elegant, with unique style flairs that were easy on the eyes.
They had eaten at a small out-of-the-way restaurant that served food that consisted of fish, fresh vegetables, and something called Hummus, all of which Jaune had enjoyed.
After some prodding, Jaune began to understand some of Pyrrha's life. She was the single child of two parents who had helped her throughout her entire time as she began to train and further spurned on as some of the best huntsman in Argus had offered through skills in her training. She enjoyed fighting—well, at least fighting in tournaments.
"So I remember when we first met, you said you wanted to become a Hunter because otherwise it would be a waste. That still true?" Jaune asked as he walked down the streets with Pyrrha.
Pyrrha frowned, though this was more a thoughtful expression than anything else, "Yes, I suppose I did say that. I'm surprised you remember, to be honest."
Jaune laughed somewhat awkwardly, "Well, I guess you left quite the impression."
That or, in his belief, Intelligence likely boosted his memory
Pyrrha nodded, though her cheeks had reddened again for some reason, "Well, it is still true. I'll fight this year and the next, but I think I'm pretty much done after that. I'll finish out my sponsorships and then go to Beacon."
"Beacon?" Jaune cocked an eyebrow at her, "Not Haven Academy or Atlas?"
"Ah," Pyrrha looked away for a moment, "I haven't really mentioned it to many people, but Beacon is a premier academy, and I had hoped-" she trailed off.
"Um, well," Jaune cursed himself as he had seemingly wandered onto another conversational landmine. Still, he had been able to talk to Weiss without pissing her off… that much, "Well, that's cool. I'm also going there."
Pyrrha turned to him, her eyes widened slightly, "You are?"
"Yep!" Jaune grinned. I'm going to take the noncombat school exam, of course, but yeah, I plan on going there."
"Why would you need to?" Pyrrha frowned, looking at him, "Don't you go to a combat school on Atlas."
Oh, right, that.
Jaune shrugged, "I did. I ended up deciding that real-world practice would suit me more."
Pyrrha shook her head incredulously, "Real-world practice? What you don't mean you just wander around killing Grimm?"
"Well…" Jaune winced at her tone; to be fair, she made it sound a lot worse than it was. He needed the Exp!
Pyrrha covered her mouth, looking at him, seemingly horrified, "But that's crazy! You could die!"
Jaune shrugged, "Well, it's made me strong," he said weakly.
Pyrrha shook her head, seemingly shocked, "I still don't see why you would choose that over a combat school."
Jaune shrugged again, getting a little tired of the motion, "What can I say? It's definitely given me strength I wouldn't otherwise have."
Wasn't that the truth? Honestly, he was already getting slightly antsy to do some good old-fashioned Grimm slaying. Maybe he could take a small trip out of Argus.
Just to take the edge off. It would probably even be therapeutic.
He and Pyrrha stopped in front of a television blaring far too loudly to be ignored.
"A source has recently revealed the identity of the White Fang member killed in the recent attack on the Schnee Dust Corporation. One Adam Taurus-"
There he was, the man that Jaune had killed. His face stared at the camera accusingly, the all too familiar anger in his eyes.
"I heard about that," Pyrrha murmured, following his gaze, "You and Weiss seemed to know each other pretty well back then. How is she doing?"
Jaune looked away, unable to meet Pyrrha's eyes, an unknowing accusation in her words, "I, I don't really know. Weiss and I haven't talked in a while."
"Oh," Pyrrha winced, "I'm sorry if I'm touching on a sore topic," before her eyes widened for a moment, "Wait, she knows you're alive, right!"
The words came out louder than Jaune would have liked, and frantically, he waved at her, "Easy, not so loud! Of course, I told her!"
Well, I mean, he had sent a text, but that counted!
But as he was waving at Pyrrha, his eyes caught something stark white, and his heart froze.
Weiss Schnee was walking down the street next to her sister, both prim and proper.
Ocean Blue met Ice.
Weiss didn't want to go on this trip. She had told Winter multiple times that she was fine and just wanted to go back to classes.
Winter had said no and decided to take her on a trip to Argus to watch the Mistral Regional Tournament. She hadn't made any protest as they boarded a ship out of Atlas, traveling the distance to Argus, where the Tournament was to be held this year. Honestly, she wasn't sure her sister had given that much thought to what exactly Argus meant to her.
Weiss had stilled her face and chilled her emotions as prim and proper as possible.
She wanted to scream, but that would be unfair. Her sister was just worried.
And maybe she should be; Weiss hadn't slept well since the attack. The White Fang had never got so close.
It was stopped because of a mysterious cloaked figure that had come from seemingly nowhere and vanished just the same. Weiss had never seen how much power the cloaked figure had generated before or how easily he had hit the attacking White Fang member through the wall.
No one even knew how the figure had gotten in and just suddenly been there.
They had continued to battle, tearing apart the building, even as Schnee security forces were unable to do a single thing in response.
She had felt so weak and powerless at that moment; she still felt somewhat like that.
"Weiss, are you alright?" Winter asked softly as they walked through the streets; her sister had tried to entice her with some things, but nothing much had interested Weiss.
Still, she didn't want to worry Winter overly. "I'm fine, Winter," she said, giving her sister a smile that did not go past her eyes.
"If you're sure," Winter said quietly. Weiss wondered if her sister wanted to push further but knew that even if she did, propriety would stop her. For once, it was useful for keeping her emotions to herself.
She had looked away from the stall they were at set up in anticipation of the festivities, and her eyes caught on a golden blonde head of hair.
A very familiar golden blonde set of hair.
Ice met Ocean Blue.
Stats:
Name: Jaune Arc
Class: Shadow Knight
Level: 22
HP: 700
AP: 7000
Mana: 8000
Strength: 70
Agility: 70
Health: 60
Sense: 60
Intelligence: 80
Luck: ?
Available Ability Points: 0
Skills:
Gamers Mind: Level Max
Dancing: Level 50
General Studies: Level 42
Hunter Martial Arts: Level 15
Hunter Dagger Arts: Level 38
Hunter Sword Arts: Level 36
Hunter Shield Arts: Level 28
Aura Control: Level 37
Shadow Extraction: Level 17
Hunter Gun Arts: Level 14
Stealth: Level 10
Knight's Shield: Level 6
Dust Channeling: Level 3
Survival: Level 3
Inventory:
Crocea Mors
Clothing
Assorted Food Supplies
Ninjas of Love: Volume 1
Camping Equipment
If you want to check out some of my original work, check out my work on Royal Road under NFKipp or on my website, nfkipp . com.