A Faker Or Something Chapter 2

Edited by: Toffee

Midnight.

Checking the clock, Jaune saw that it was midnight. It didn’t feel like midnight, but the shattered moon was at the highest point, everything was dark, and Nora was snoring louder than a chainsaw, so it was probably midnight.

Also, a quick check on his scroll confirmed that it was midnight.

Jaune Arc was wide awake, too busy with thoughts and thinking to sleep. You’d think the snoring would be the biggest problem, but no. It felt like being at home with his sisters. A bit of (Read: A lot of.) noise actually helped him sleep.

Unfortunately, bad choices and incessant worries kept him awake.

Giving up on sleep, he sat up and looked to the right at the source of his greatest worry; a black-haired teen with a pink streak, sleeping soundly; a pink-haired goat-girl sprawled and snoring; and a red-haired fox-girl sleeping softly.

Lie Ren. Nora Valkyrie. And Pyrrha Nikos. Including himself, they made up Team ANVL, pronounced Anvil. Technically, they were supposed to be Team JNPR, pronounced Juniper, but Jaune had raised his hand and requested a name change because it was awkward to be on a team that felt named after his Mom.

Jaune shuddered at the memory. He had built up his courage to interrupt the ceremony to put a fix to this mess and fucked it all up by requesting, of all things, a name-change. In a way, it was worse that the Headmaster had accepted that request so easily. It had made it impossible to try and interrupt again.

Looking at his… teammates, Jaune sighed and rubbed his face. Gods, he was supposed to be the leader? Him? Jaune Arc? He wanted to be a Huntsman, yeah, but a leader of an entire group? By the Four Kingdoms, he didn’t even have his Aura activated until literally today.

Not for lack of trying, mind you. Jaune had trained hard, but Dad had never approved of anybody becoming a Hunter in the family. Said that they didn’t need to put themselves in danger when he and the village guard were enough.

Jaune didn’t agree with that, so he came up with a plan. He did every physically demanding job he could to get his body into shape. He joined the local LARPing group to learn how to use the family sword and shield. He tried to get his hands on all the information on being a Hunter that he could, but there were only so many books on Grimm in the local and family libraries. He had to resort to begging off stories of traveling Huntsman and Huntresses to even begin figuring out the basics of Grimm. He’d have loved to use the CCT to gain access, but he lived in Ansel. Ansel was great. It was home, but damned if the CCT’s transmission was spotty out there.

…He had gotten really lucky during the Initiation Ceremony. The launchpad had almost killed him, but thank the gods that Pyrrha had saved him. Fighting the Grimm was… It had been everything he thought it’d be. Scary, dangerous… Exhilarating, fulfilling.

Shivering slightly, Jaune sighed as he remembered how he had flagged towards the end, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. He hated to admit it, but he could understand why Dad had never wanted any of them to be Hunters.

And then Pyrrha, beautiful, kind, scarlet goddes that she was, came in and saved his stupid ass.

A quick glance at her slumbering form, and Jaune sighed. She was… confusing. She seemed nice, she was strong from what he had seen, and supposedly, according to the… white-haired girl, she was a Four-Time Mistralian Regional Tournament Champion.

Whatever that meant.

Oh, right. He wasn’t in the middle of bumfuck nowhere! He could actually look things up without having to wait an hour. Finally! The power of the CCT!

Pulling up the sheets over his head to shield the light of the scroll from waking up his teammates, Jaune quickly looked up Pyrrha and began scrolling. A few clicks, a quick skim of the Mikipedia page, and a few videos later, Jaune peeked out of the blanket to stare at the red fox-faunus turning in her sleep.

This person activated his Aura? If anything, calling her a Champion had been underselling her reputation and skill.

…Well, nothing to change about it. She had activated his Aura and that was that.

Sticking a hand out, Jaune admired the way his Aura brightened to a silvery gold sheen. Aura. The coveted tool of Hunters everywhere. The soul manifested from the rumors that he had gleamed. Dad never wanted to activate his when he was 13, part of the family tradition and safety precautions on the Kingdom’s Outskirts, but Dad, being disapproving of his dream of becoming a Huntsman, had refused to, waiting until he was 18 and past the cut-off point for the Academies.

Jokes on him though, Jaune had made it in anyways and was even team leader!

…That was the fucking problem, wasn’t it though? He was the leader of a team of Hunters and he didn’t even know the most basic of the basics.

Jaune scowled and clenched his hand, brightening the sheen of Aura. He really was just a country hick, thinking that he didn’t need Aura to become a Hunter. The arrogance of yesterday!Jaune was just… argh.

He almost died. The launchpad alone should’ve killed him. Fighting all those Grimm Aura-less was… Why’d he think a chestplate would be enough?

…He was going to be so behind on Aura manipulation. No better time to start now then.

What did that one drunk Huntsmen say?

Beer before liquor, you’ll never be sicker. Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear.

Wait, no. Wrong saying. Aura was the soul tempered.

Jaune still didn’t know what that meant, but he remembered the breathing exercise that Huntsman taught him to focus. Maybe if he combined that with his Aura, he could start ‘tempering’ his soul.

Crossing his arms and legs, Jaune closed his eyes and began focusing on his breathing.

In for four. Hold for four. Out for four. Hold for four. Repeat.

As he took in the breath, Jaune felt his Aura grow and shrink in response. In each lull, he focused on the feeling of his Aura, testing the boundaries.  Repeating the process and feeling it out, Jaune was almost overtaken with the ease of control. In a way, it was more difficult with how easy it became. Every inhale felt as if his Aura would outgrow the bounds of his body. Every exhale felt as if his Aura sunk deep into his body, kicking everything into overdrive.

The exhales were more dangerous than the inhales. Inhales felt as if the body simply gained a full-body shield. If he didn’t concentrate on the exhales though, evenly distribute the spread of Aura, he felt as if he would over strengthen his muscles and crush his own bones.

Gah, why couldn’t Dad have activated his Aura earlier?

It’d be so much easier if he didn’t have to be self-taught on everything, Dad! Less deadlier too. Now here he was, trying to figure out how not to break bones while breathing and depending on fucking LARPing for swordskills.

Dismissing the thought, Jaune decided to try a different method of meditating. It was a bit of work, but he consciously changed how his Aura moved in unison with his breath. With every inhale, Jaune had his Aura contract and with every exhale, he had his Aura expand. Breathing this way felt so much more steadier and far less effort had to be put in on not breaking the bones.

Still, Jaune had to resist the urge to cackle. Two different styles of using Aura, discovered all by himself. He was sure these were already well-known and ubiquitous, but… Gah, he was proud of himself.

Inhale for expansion, exhale for contraction.

Inhale for contraction, exhale for expansion.

He’d have to find the names for them later, probably on the CCT or the library or something, but for now, he’d call the first style Burst and the second style Steady. He’d have to experiment with them in actual movement and combat to see which felt better.

Closing his eyes, Jaune returned to using Steady style to meditate. While he felt partial to Burst style, it was scary focusing on not breaking your own bones with misplaced Aura. Slow and Steady, pardon the pun, won the race after all.

“Jaune?” a soft voice sleepily murmured, interrupted his focus.

Jumping only slightly, Jaune scratched the back of his head, “Oh, sorry, Pyrrha. Did I wake you?”

Good thing he had been using Steady style just then. If he had fucked up on Burst style… Jaune cringed. His sisters would never let him hear the end of it if he broke his bones while literally sitting in place.

“It’s fine,” Pyrrha murmured, rubbing her eyes even as her ears flicked, “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

Lying propped up on an elbow, the red-haired fox-girl rubbed her eyes sleepily. Toned muscle spoke of her years in the ring, but her unblemished skin, free of scars and wounds, spoke of her domination of the tournament. Seeing her yawn sleepily, Jaune couldn’t help but simply see a tired girl.

“Just couldn’t sleep,” Jaune shrugged, “Decided to train my Aura.”

“Oh,” Pyrrha frowned, “You know the exercises?”

“A bit,” Jaune deflected, hiding that he was literally making things up as he went along, “Learned a few from this one drunk Huntsman.”

“Ah,’ Pyrrha smiled encouragingly, “I’ll leave you to it then.” She then rolled over, placing her head on the pillow once more.

By all rights, he should’ve just let her go back to sleep, but… He had questions, one boiling since they’re first meeting in the forest during the initiation.

“...Why didn’t you out me?”

For a moment, Jaune thought she had fallen asleep until she hummed, “What do you mean?”

He was tempted to let it go, but… he never was one to just let things die. Leaning back against the wall, Jaune sighed, “You’re Pyrrha Nikos, right? Mascot of Pumpkin Pete’s Cereal. Four-time champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament.”

Pyrrha was quiet. That was fine. He could talk enough for both of them.

“You’re seen as the face of the Faunus Rights movement there, according to your Mikipedia page. Children admire you, you’re seen as THE up and coming rookie. Even the most racist politicians will admit that you’re ‘one of the good ones’ whatever the fuck that means.”

Shifting back up, Pyrrha met his gaze, emerald eyes slit in the dim room.

Eyes softening, Jaune asked, “Why throw it all on helping a country hick like me?”

An ear flicked once, twice before she looked away, “What do you mean?”

“Let’s not play games here, Pyrrha,” Jaune sighed, bowing his head in exasperation, “It’s just me and you tonight Why did you help me? You must have known that I was a fake as soon as you figured out I didn’t have Aura. Why’d you stay quiet? There must have been countless people wanting to be your partner, why me?”

“...Why are you here?” Pyrrha asked, in lieu of answering. Jaune fought back his scowl. Gah, it was like talking with his sister Jade with all the lawyer-speak and double-twists. He supposed he’d have to answer her question first before she’d answer his.

Completely unfair, but he learnt how the question game worked with his family.

His fingers drummed against his knee. Why was he here? He could’ve stayed at home. Dad would’ve eventually activated his Aura. He could’ve learned enough to help defend home. He already was helping with farming and building and…

Thinking it over, Jaune finally shrugged, “I wanted to help people.”

He could spend forever coming up with fancy words and stories to explain why. Gods know his sisters ragged about how long-winded he was, but this? This was simple.

To be a Hunter was to help people. To gain the power to fight evil, right wrongs, make changes on a meaningful level. Dad would say there were other ways, safer ways, but to be a Hunter was to be powerful in body and powerful in… Gah, Coral would know the world, but Jaune wanted the power that made people listen to you, trust in you. The kind that made assholes stop being fuckers to your Faunus sisters, the power to open up opportunities for others, Jaune wanted that power and he wanted to help.

Smiling softly, Pyrrha answered, “I wanted to help too then.”

That wasn’t really an answer to his question, but… it kinda was in a way.

“Thank you for the help then, Pyrrha.”

“Mm. You should sleep. We have classes tomorrow.”

Jaune hummed in acknowledgement, and Pyrrha smiled softly before turning over to return to sleep. Watching her ears flick in the moonlight, her red hair shimmering, Jaune sighed. He had been planning on confessing tomorrow and resigning, but…

“...Well, I guess I can’t give up now then,” Jaune sighed, sliding under his covers. He’d give it a month. See how it went and see if all the stupid shit he tried to prepare for being in an Academy actually worked before giving up.

Checking the time, he sighed. 200 and classes started at 800. If he pushed it, he could get a couple hours of sleep before then. Jaune closed his eyes and relaxed, letting his worries drift away into a sea of idle resignation.

…And now his neck was itchy. Fuck.