Honour's Curse - A RWBY fanbook

Chapter 5 - The Freak and The Fighter

"Ettore?!" Jaune shouted as I tossed his shield back to him, "I've not seen you in two years." He sheathed his sword into his shield.
"That's new." I said, pointing towards his arming sword and heater shield.
"Yeah, It's kind of a hand-me-down, Crocea Mors. It's nothing special." He held it to his side.
"Always have pride in your weapon, especially that shield. It's very sturdy. What metal is that?" I asked.
"I don't know, it's apparently been in my family for generations." He stated, still at an elevated and happy tone.
"Jaune?" I heard the voice of Pyrrha behind me.
"Hmm, looks like I'd best be going." I said, not wanting to intrude on whatever conversation Pyrrha wanted with him, "We'll catch up later, okay?" I said as I walked through the door and passed Pyrrha.

A few weeks went by from my return to Beacon. Me and Jaune caught up with each other, talking about our time before arriving at Beacon. I could still see the same potential that I had seen before, he just needed to find it, and that wasn't something I could help with. But now was one of Miss Goodwitch's combat classes, I had been selected to fight against Lie Ren of team JNPR. As I stood facing him in the ring, Nora, the orange haired girl I had encountered briefly in the emerald forest, was cheering Ren on with an almost blinding fury. Jaune sat with an awkward look, obviously not knowing who to root for, and Pyrrha sat forward, interested in the outcome of the fight. Team RWBY sat to the side of them, Yang had a rather pronounced smirk as she leaned forwards, Blake sat looking completely neutral, the Schnee heiress seemed to examine me carefully, and Ruby was clicking the heels of her boots together whilst leaning forward and occasionally swinging her whole body backward, she seemed, excitable. It wasn't long before Miss Goodwitch sounded the buzzer and began the fight. Me and Ren seemed to have an equal view on tournament style fighting as he and I both bowed before readying our stances for battle. I didn't draw my sword, but instead simply lowered my stance and held my arms out in front of me. Ren pulled out both of his bladed machine-guns, and stood in a similar stance to mine. Ren was the first to rush forward, exactly as I had expected him to, when he was barely a meter away from me I flicked back my wrist, and used my hook to throw myself into a roll over his back, this move created an opening for me, so I drove my elbow into his back. He stumbled away for a second from the force of my counterattack. He sprayed gunfire in my direction, so I circled his position, ensuring that I stay one step ahead of his fire. After one lap of him I drew Quaesitor and went for an attack, he continued to spray fire at me as I dodged the bullets, when I was close he swiped at me with his blades, I parried each of his attacks and he did the same. Eventually he went for a kick to my abdomen, the hit connected and it sent me back. Thinking quickly, I used the momentum from the kick to launch myself into a backflip, and threw two of my throwing knives toward him, only one connected it's intended hit. I rushed forward and prepared to hit him in the abdomen with the spine of my scimitar as he stumbled. My hit connected and his aura dropped just into the red. As Miss Goodwitch stopped the match, I held out my hand to Ren and pulled him up from the ground. We bowed to each other again, and took our seats.

The next match was decided quickly, Jaune Arc versus Cardin Winchester. This was never going to end well. The match went on for a long time, Cardin was constantly, and slowly, draining away Jaune's aura, he had an above average amount of aura, so it took a long time for Cardin to whittle it down. Even if Cardin was the winner of the fight, his demeanour was disgraceful, if he wasn't going to fight seriously then why fight at all?

After Miss Goodwitch dismissed the class, I walked out behind Jaune. I noticed that Pyrrha was waiting just outside the doorway, as he walked past she tried to call out to him, but he ignored her. She looked down at her feet and sighed. "He'll come around eventually." I said, looking at her.
"What do you mean?" She asked, meeting my eyes.
"I can tell," as I began she looked at me curiously, "you obviously care for him, he just doesn't see it. But he will, you have my word." 
"How did you know?"
"You tend to avoid people, but with him you seem almost... Comfortable. Like he sets you at ease, it's easy to tell your at least interested in him." I explained, turning my gaze to Jaune as he walked away.
"I just. Don't know what to do. I want to help him, to make him realise his strength. But I don't know what I can do about it." She sighed, starting to turn to walk away.
I placed my hand on her shoulder, "Train him." I instructed, "He's got potential, he just needs someone to give him a little push. And I think you're the one who needs to give it to him."
"How can you be so sure?" She asked in a defeated tone.
"Call it intuition, or do you believe in destiny?" I replied, reasserting my position as completely confident in this plan.