Chapter 25: First Semester Part 25
Yang nodded her head, "Yeah, imagine a target to train against, it's hard to do, even our old man still has some trouble with it. Are you telling me that was your version of shadow boxing?"
"A bit more advanced than that, in order to use this technique you have to reach the level to where your belief in the image is so real you can fool yourself into taking real damage from the imaginary creation, this is what happens when I overlap Aura with that image that strong," Jaune explained.
"Very useful for training? How much Aura does it cost to create one of these things?" Weiss asked with an idea of profiting off of the idea.
"Yeah, that would be awesome, especially if your training by yourself!" Ruby's eyes glowed.
Jaune and Yang chuckled, this time Ruby and Weiss gave them a confused look, "It's not that easy Weiss Cream!"
Weiss frowned and raised her finger, "First, never call me that again, second, and, I beg you pardon!?"
Jaune shook his finger, "Yeah Yang's right, it takes years of practice to build up your imagination and willingness to inflict harm on your own body, normally your brain protects you from these kinds of things, you have to gain control over your subconscious, and force yourself to believe that what your fighting is real, and then there is the guessing on how much Aura to use in order to mimic pressure of the attacks. If that isn't enough to make you shiver, it takes around 300 points of my Aura per-use."
Weiss shook her head, "When you improve our Aura's we could easily do such a thing?"
"Yeah, are you saying we ain't got the talent for this?" Ruby bounced up.
Yang grinned, "Talent; yes, willingness; I doubt."
Jaune smiled, "You could ask Yang for help, she knows about shadow boxing, you should start there."
"Pshh, more time to spend with my Sis, I can handle that," Ruby said as she crossed her arms.
"I find it offensive you think that you can do something that I the great Weiss Schnee can't do," Weiss joined Ruby.
Yang placed her arms and thought back to what Ruby said about respecting a leader, she then smiled at Ruby and Weiss with a teasing grin, Yang threw out another unbearable pun, "I'm not a kind teacher, you'll have no time to smell the roses, Ruby, it will be painful. Mark my words, you will need some Weiss to go on your bruises!"
Ruby and Weiss were beginning to regret their decision, Pyrrha then walked up and said, "That was very impressive Jaune, your stance was exceptional, and are those your family's fighting style."
"Yeah, you called it Arc Style, why do you shout the names out before you perform them? Did your parents teach you that? Is it something all Arc's know?" Nora asked with a curious expression.
Jaune scratched his head, "Well, there is an Arc Style taught by my family, but these are my own, and the reason I was shouting was because of my skill, Shout. I need to time my exhale with my swing, so calling out the technique helps me keep that timing exact."
Everyone thought back to how Jaune looked when he spoke about his family, they assumed they were touching a sore spot, so they backed off, all except for Nora, "So you didn't learn them?"
Jaune smiled and shook his head, "No, I missed out on that, but come winter break, I intend to go home."
Everyone gave a worried look, "You're coming back, right?" Ruby asked pulling on his sleeve.
"Of course, in fact, I was planning on asking you all to come with!" Jaune announced.
"Why?" Yang asked tilting her head.
"You know that metal I was talking about?" Jaune looked at Ruby.
"The one you need to build your weapons?" Ruby smiled.
"Yeah, it's near my village Domremy, you see, Domremy is on the border between Vale and Minstral, and since the mine is much closer to the village my family vacationed at for a while, I figured we could stop at the house to pick up the keys, and use our vacation home as a base for a while, after securing a place to stay for the rest of the vacation, we head out after to collect the ore," Jaune said shrugging his arms.
"Your family has a vacation home?" Yang asked with a grin on her face.
"6 of my seven sisters are hunters, and my parents are as well, you can earn a lot when you pool your money together. Especially when everyone decided on it being near Argus, the Port City for Minstral. The beach is just a few miles away and the temperature is warm even in winter," Jaune answered. "I also figured I could upgrade everyone's weapons after I visit my family. That is if no one has anything they're doing?"
Weiss tilted her head, "Why do you need all of us? I had planned on visiting my sister, but if this metal is like Ruby explained, then I am interested in it."
Jaune smiled and rubbed the back of his head, "Well the thing is, although the mine is close to the vacation home, like a few days if we traveled by foot, even faster if we took a vehicle. But the Mine itself is guarded by a fierce Grimm, a Nuckelavee."
Ren and Nora frowned, "Where is this mine located?" Ren asked.
"I got the ore at a shop in Argus, the guy who sold it to me said it was from a fallen town, Kuroyuri, I think," Jaune lied through his teeth, he felt terrible about bringing this up, but, Kuroyuri was the first town they re-built after the Grimm Invasion, thank's to Ren's Semblance and Dr.Geppe's genius, they made the first ever Grimm Barrier, it would neutralize the emotions that travel from our brainwaves and hide it from the Grimm.
The mythical training ground for Hunters lie that he fed Glynda was actually something they made on their own, it took them years to track down Salem and plan their final fight, and that Barrier was the beginning of humanity fighting back, they chose Kuroyuri because of how the mountain's and landscape fortified their defenses from Grimm and Human alike.
Little did they know, an Ore that would change everything was located inside one of the abandoned mines that the Nuckeleavee first emerged from.
After hearing the name of there village, Ren felt Nora squeeze his hand, he looked down to her and sighed, "Jaune, we'll go with you."
Nora nodded her head, they figured that if everyone helped take down the Nuckeleavee they could finally let his parents rest, the only thing he was struggling with now, is whether they should tell the rest of their team about what happened in Kuroyuri, he was worried they pull him out of the fight for having personal history with the Nuckeleavee.
"A Nuckeleavee, how much experience do you think that bad boy is worth?" Yang asked eager to level up.
Jaune smiled and said, "So, is that a yes?"
Ruby and Yang looked at each other and then laughed before Yang said, "Definitely, though, only if dad doesn't have anything to do, we usually spend our break time visiting home, but I think we can pull off a late celebration with him."
"My family lives at Argus, so I was planning on staying here, but I suppose I could visit this year," Pyrrha said placing her finger on her chin.
Everyone looked to Weiss, "Fine, if everyone is going then so am I!"
"Wait a minute, we came out here to talk about Jaune taking it easy, and now we're piling on more chores," Ruby said crossing her arms.
"Is that why you all came out here?" Jaune questioned.
Ruby nodded her head, "Yeah, we thought that maybe you might be working too hard, it's we were just worried about your health."
"I'm fine, really, in fact, I would prefer to add even more time to my training, it seems my blessing let me skip over the muscle fatigue period of working out, in fact, I feel better than ever!" Jaune said flexing his biceps, "Not to mention if I stop, then the effects will be wasted, I've noticed that the long term part of my blessing is really crazy, if I keep training for one year, I'll gain 10 years worth of benefits daily. If I stop, the whole thing resets."
Everyone nodded their heads, accepting why he trains so hard, Ruby then surprised everyone when she asked, "But why are you training so frantically? I understand that were Hunters and that our line of work is more than dangerous, but when you train Jaune, it reminds me of a soldier preparing for war."
Jaune jerked his head back and thought, "Why is she so perceptive about the strangest things,"
"That's because we are at War, Miss. Rose. We Hunters exist because we fight against the darkness of the Grimm everyday, make no mistake, we are at war," Ozpin's voice called out distracting everyone.
"Sir!" Everyone gave the headmaster a salute.
"Good morning children, Jaune." Ozpin nodded his head.
Jaune lifted his brow and asked, "How long have you been watching?"
Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, "Around the time you returned, I must say it was quite the spectacle to watch, I learned a lot."
Jaune scratched the back of his head, "Well, thanks...I guess."
"You know, if you need to borrow a ship, I could pull a few strings, after all, a Nuckeleavee isn't a normal thing for 1st-year students to take on," Ozpin said with an 'I know all' look on his face.
Everyone acted like children that had been found with their hand's in the proverbial cookie jar, Jaune shook his head and smiled, "A ride would be appreciated, I was just going to buy a ticket, but if Beacon wants to pay for it, I'm good with that."
Ozpin smiled and said, "Keep up the good work, Mr. Arc, and take your friends' advice, you don't have to skip your training regiment, but you should at least take time to relax."
Jaune smiled, "I'll keep that in mind."
"Now I believe that you have 20 minutes until Professor Port's class begins, should you all be sitting around out here?" Ozpin sipped on his mug.
Jaune smelled himself and spoke with a slightly red face, "Yeah, I guess I should hit the showers."
As Jaune began to walk away, Ren transferred his breakfast and said, "I want to check up on something in the library."
Nora smiled like she was hiding something and said, "Yeah, I'll help you Renny."
"I'll head to class, might as well show up early," Weiss said as she turned around and walked away.
Everyone else decided to go do their own thing, while Jaune was walking back, Yang snuck up on him and said, "Hold it there Vomit Knight, I got some questions for you."
Jaune turned around and saw Yang giving him a harsh stare, "What's up Yang?"
Yang crossed her arms and said, "I want to know how you know my Uncle."
Jaune gulped, "Uh, pardon."
Yang squeezed tighter, "Jaune, we've only known each other around a month or so, so let me tell you this, your a terrible liar, the only reason I'm not beating the answers out of you, is because it looked like you disliked lying about whatever you're trying to keep secret."
Jaune shook his head, "I'm not that bad, in fact, I think my lies are top notch."
"Okay, rephrase, you're good with coming up with lies, but are terrible at executing them." Yang grinned.
Jaune let out a sigh as he shook his head and thought, "Maybe I should tell Yang, she was always there for me, especially when it concerned her sister, not to mention, it would be nice to have someone to confide in."
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