The Good Hunter

A Hero Emerges 1

Jaune Arc couldn't possibly say his life was easy. His childhood for starters was pretty much all about him trying to go unnoticed by his bullies.

He had a lot of them.

Yes, life for Jaune Arc was not all sunshine and rainbows, and that was only proven further when his own family denied his dreams, with his father refusing to train him, and his mother and sisters all but keeping him away from any kind of training his childish mind could possibly think of at the time. Crocea Mors being the first blade he ever succeeded in hielding on his hands.

It was a funny thing, really. At that time, it felt so... Right. He couldn't find a reason as to why, but... It was like it was made for his hands and his hands only.

The hands of an ARC.

Then there's the fact that he was flung into a forest full of Grimm after coming to Beacon with the stolen blade from his family. Not to mention being forced to face an ancient Grimm. He didn't really do too much at that time, only acting upon instinct, but the fear he felt was VERY real. There were so many things that could have gone wrong and he, somehow, still made it in one piece. Still, the fact that it only needed ONE event to go wrong for him to die kept him awake for nights to no end, all of them plagued with nightmares.

From there on, Jaune's life only became harder and harder with daily doses of bullying, courtesy of Cardin, his lackeys, and Glynda Goodwitch - she, herself, confirmed this to him when he asked her years later. Not that he didn't deserve it, as he only made it to Beacon with a forged transcript, which at the time was only known to Ozpin and not her, making her act on her suspicions.

She did apologize for that though, something about her behavior being no different from petulant children and highly unprofessional. If she wanted to know so much the how, then there were many different ways of finding it in a way that did not involve a bastardized version of children torture.

And there's the crush he had for Weiss and his admittedly very childish way of pursuing it. Not that the way she treated him was in any way right. Still, things could have gone a bit different if he just tried to be himself and talk to her, instead of making things difficult by being something he was not.

To think that despite all the bad blood between the two of them in the first few years of Beacon, they would still become a couple later on, not only that but end up married a few years later down the line...

... Life's funny like that, huh? At least Jaune's thought so, all while recalling the unlikely happenstance.

Would Pyrrha be happy for him, though? That's something he always wondered, as Pyrrha always had an admittedly quite obvious dislike for the white-haired heiress. One that only he didn't notice, considering how dense he was in his youth.

If he had to guess though, he would say she's always cheering him on. After all, she was his supporter, his inspiration, his Beacon of hope...

... His champion. His love.

It still hurt to think of her and, sometimes, he found himself thinking of how a life with her at his side would be. Weiss knew that as he didn't make a habit of lying to those he loved. Surprisingly enough, Weiss just put on a sad smile. She knew he loved her with all of his soul, but could never move away from Pyrrha. Her death was what set him on a warpath for a few years, after all. It was his berserker switch and one of the few things that could make him mad, REALLY mad, nowadays.

A bitter irony, really. One that the Heiress accepted. It didn't make his love for her any less true, though. She knew very well that, while Pyrrha was one of the few things that could make him like this... So was she. Her death only made him treasure her more than anything else, because while he couldn't do anything about those who died, he sure as hell could do about those who lived on. She once complained about how he tended to end battles faster than she could even meet her opponent on the battlefield. She said it was both sweet and incredibly annoying.