Jaune and the Real Girl.

Chapter 10

Jaune folded his hands in his lap and looked out the window to the streets and spires of the academy outside. He shuffled in the armchair and looked across to the friendly face of a woman with her scroll in her hand.

"Are you comfortable Mr. Arc?" Dr. Jasmine asked, typing something into her scroll with a stilius. "Would you like anything? A different seat? A glass of water?"

"I'm fine," Jaune assured her, crossing his arms. "Let's just begin."

The psychiatrist nodded. "Very well Mr. Arc, just so you know I have viewed the footage recovered from Miss Polendina. Also know everything you say to me is completely confidential, anything you say here doesn't leave."

Jaune nodded, "alright," he said. "Where do we begin? When the truck was attacked?" He asked her.

"This isn't a debriefing Mr. Arc, we don't need to retrace events. I'm here to evaluate your psychological condition so please just relax." She explained to him. "How have you been the last several days recovering?" She asked.

Jaune sighed as he considered the question. Being told to relax always had the opposite intended effect for him. "A little stir crazy," He answered her honestly deciding that the best and most relaxing thing to stare at was the ceiling. "Being confined to the academy grounds hasn't been easy, especially with my friends still working with the General, I probably would be pulling my hair out by now if it wasn't for Penny."

"You have been spending time with Miss Polendina?" She asked him, continuing to make notes on her scroll.

Jaune nodded, "yeah... we're stuck here together so we've been passing the days with one another."

"Did you have a particularly close relationship with her prior to these events?" Dr. Jasmine asked him.

"No, I honestly barely spoke to her before this, never really had the time to." He admitted to her.

"How would you say your relationship with Miss Polendina has changed now that you're interacting more?" She asked him.

"It's... nice," he admitted to her. "It's good to have company after all of this and she's pretty fun to be around."

"But?" The doctor asked clearly, sensing that there was one.

"But... I don't know but it seems like she's been doing everything for me," he explained releasing a frustrated sigh. "Ever since I woke up she does everything for me, she gets my medicine, she fetches me water, she does every little thing. I don't know if she pities me or if she's just trying to be helpful but it's been a bit frustrating."

Dr. Jasmine wrote something down again on her scroll. "Let's move on to the incident itself. There are a couple moments within the incident I'd like to examine."

Jaune nodded, "alright."

"When you fought Vasily you pulled the knife he'd stabbed you with out," she explained, "you risked bleeding out."

"I needed a weapon," Jaune explained, a little embarrassed that he'd done that. "My sword felt like it was made of lead and I knew if I didn't stop him I'd be dead anyways."

"So you feel that you were being pragmatic in your actions?" She asked him clinically.

"I don't really remember what I was thinking at the moment," He admitted with a shrug. "Penny was down and I needed to do something," he confessed to her considering the mental image he had of her trapped beneath that wire net, the razor thin steel cutting her.

"I was scared," Jaune admitted, "I never really thought much about it but I've already seen Penny die once before back at Amity Arena, I just... I don't ever want to lose anyone, not if there's something I can do about it."