Prologue
The Academy of Beacon is one of the most prestigious places to learn the trade of the protectors of Remnant, stalwart warriors of hope to the people of their respective cities. However one particular Huntsman-in-training struggles to endure and meet the expectations of both his teachers and his peers, this is none other than Jaune Arc, unlike other students he cheated his way into the advanced combat school and had no pre-cursor training to back him up, only his family heirloom was his source of protection.
Or so you think
You see, the Arc family is home to its matriarch Juniper Arc and its patriarch Noah as well as seven sisters varying in age with Jaune as the sole male child of the family, unbeknownst to the world that Jaune is actually a very competent fighter, taught by his father and his elder sisters: Olivia, Rosemary, and with much hesitation Bianca they taught him how to fight with various weapons, but in his naivety he sought to master the shield and sword the bread and butter weapons of a romanticized knight and for some Oum forsaken reason could not wield them as effectively as other weapons he was trained with.
In his adolescence at around 12 years old he fell in love with the game 'Dark Souls' he held a particular fondness for the bosses mesmerised by their designs, combat, elusive backstories and fighting style, and in later years finished the entire series by the time he reached 17 years old. During this time his sisters picked up his fondness for the game and as birthday gifts from each of them they sought the best weapon smiths to create replicas of their brothers' beloved characters from the 'Capra Demon' all the way to the final one in the series 'Slave Knight Gael'.
He also took interest in Bloodborne, reveling in its fast pace, make or break game play. It too had a special place in his heart, particularly characters such as the world weary Gehrman, the lovable Doll, the motherly Eileen.
He trained himself to fight just like them as soon as possible, and aided by his elder sisters he became strong enough to wield the replicas that were so lovingly crafted for him, but he yearned to wield a sword and shield just as his Undead had when facing against the mighty foes he sought to mirror, but to no avail. This left him disheartened and shattered his childlike naivety for a time, but his determination and tenacity that he had developed over the years had hardened his resolve to titanite and so he left home with Crocea Mors with the support of his sisters at his side to become a Huntsman and finally train to learn the art of sword and board from people beyond the household and uphold the legacy of his ancestors.
Much to his foolishness however he forgot to bring the boss-inspired weapons with him on his journey and so his first few terms of Beacon were a struggle especially in combat classes, even with help from the 'Invincible Girl' Pyrrha Nikos he just couldn't keep up with everyone else despite his prior training, and it is only until recently that Oum decided to give him chance, through the mailing of a large box of from home
I'll leave it for you my dear readers to decipher what's inside….
Hehehe
It was a calm Friday afternoon in the dorm room of team JNPR, Lie Ren sat on his bed reading through his textbooks switching to his exercise books to jot down a couple notes here and there and his long-time friend Nora Valkyrie was in the bathroom freshening herself up for dinner as the both of them had combat classes prior to the end of the school day.
"Renny!?" Nora called from the closed bathroom door
Ren hesitantly shut his exercise book to address his friend
"Yes? What is it Nora?" he exclaimed in reply
"Do you know where Jaune and Pyrrha are?" she called back
"They said that they'd be staying back for some more training remember?" he said
"Oh, right Hehehe sorry Ren!" she chirped
"It's alright Nora" he sighed rubbing his cheek tiredly, as he was about to return to his notetaking however he heard a knock on the door.
'That must be them' Ren mused internally, relinquishing himself from his bed he strode to the door and opened the door expecting to see the other half of team JNPR to be standing there.
What he got however was a large cardboard box a single sticker sat neatly on the corner detailing shipping, taxes and address.
It was addressed to Jaune Arc
Ren's eyes briefly widened in surprise, scanning the hallway for anyone around the corridors expecting it to be a prank of some sort, with a sigh he dragged it into the dorm, as he finished dragging the box and leaving it to the side of Jaune's bed he heard the bathroom door open, Nora strode out in casual sleepwear a cheesy grin plastered to her face.
"Ren, what's that?" she asked
"Mail" he said
"Who's it for? OH is it for me?" Nora squealed jumping eagerly on the spot
"No" he said monotonously "it says here that it's addressed to Jaune"
"Aww" she sagged dramatically "What's inside?"
"I have no idea, and it is rude to open mail that is not addressed to you Nora so we will wait for him to return from training" he deadpanned
Nora could only reply with an audible huff crossing her arms and looking sideways and obvious pout on her face.
"You're no fun Renny!" she whined
The door knocked again and their discussion was automatically extinguished, Nora giddily ran to the door also expecting to see their fearless leader and cereal girl at the door, instead it was team RWBY assembled at the entrance.
"Heya Girls!" Nora greeted
"Hello there" Ren greeted as well to which Yang smiled
"Ah General Nora Valkyrie" Yang quipped with wide grin, Ren scowled at her
"Should have never joined you in that Star Wars marathon" he muttered
"Aww but Ren it was fun wasn't it?" Ruby asked innocently
"Never mind that" Weiss said dismissively "where's Jaune and Pyrrha?"
"They're out training" Ren replied "they both stayed behind after combat class"
"A shame" Weiss sighed
"Wanna join us for dinner?" Yang asked "we're all ready to go, and I want first dibs on the Friday special!"
"Sure why not?" Nora cheered
"I'll stay back" Ren said "I'll join you all later with Pyrrha and Jaune, whenever they finish"
"We can wait" Ruby smiled "We all have to stick together"
"Yeah" Yang grinned mischievously "I wanna find out what kind of 'training' they're up to"
"YANG!" Ruby shouted indignantly, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment
"I'm joking Rubes" Yang laughed
Blake finally decided to join in on the conversation, knowing that she would have to wait for dinner"
"Mind if I ask what's in the box?" the Ninja girl asked
"It's for Jaune, it's not my place to open it" Ren replied
"I see" she nodded her head
Curiosity piqued, Yang had already entered the room observing the sides of the box and sticker tag with a quirked brow.
"Okay now I'm interested" Yang stated "Who else wants to open it?"
"I DO!" Ruby and Nora shouted in agreement
"Dammit Nora" Ren cursed silently
"YANG!" Weiss yelled "don't touch that, as much as I abhor Jaune, even I wouldn't go looking around his own personal property"
"Oh hush Weiss" Yang quipped "You know you're curious too"
"Shut Up!" the Ice Queen fumed
"Gotcha" she grinned as she already began tearing off the packaging tape, and with a dramatic pull lifted the folds of the box open
"What's inside?" Ruby questioned hastily "I wanna know!"
"Huh not what I expected" the blonde brawler said a hint of disappointment in her voice
"Tell us!" the girls hissed eagerly
"There's weapons in here" she replied simply to which they responded with a collective 'huh' except for Ruby who seemingly teleported to the box and was quickly pulling out each weapon and laying it carefully laying it on the floor with care.
To the surprise of everyone, the collection was astounding they ranged from various weapons of size and design. Ruby was particularly interested in a simple gleaming scythe a shorter pole was tied to the scythe with a purple ribbon and a card was attached to it, gazing closely at the handle of the scythe she could make out a single word.
'Friede' she murmured all the others turned their heads to the red reaper
"What?" Weiss asked
"The scythe's name is Friede" Ruby repeated
"Interesting name" Weiss mused as she picked up a pair of thin curved swords, the blades' colour varied one was a light purple and the other a saturated orange, like fire. She ran her fingers along the handle also finding a name etched into the metal.
'Boreal' she said to herself then looked at the purple counterpart 'Dancer'
Blake quirked her brow at a large black great sword, attached to its bottom was a dagger, she corrected herself, a parry knife judging by the curved nature of its blade as well as the metal just that stuck out from where it emerged from the handle, etched onto the flat of the blade on both sides was the word 'Farron'
Nora was interested in a gigantic cleaver, the handle was of curved wood as thick as a matured tree branch that ran along the spine of the weapon, a notch was cut out of the blade where a hand could fit easily as a secondary handle, its name was 'Yhorm'
There were so many weapons that were neatly packed into the box that the group silently agreed to not take out all of them at once.
"These are all so COOL" Ruby squealed as she cradled a beautiful golden ceremonial great sword in her arms, idly running her fingers over the intricate carvings of the blade.
"What do these have to do with Jaune though?" Yang wondered as she stared at a pair of cruel paired great swords named 'Capra'
"Well why don't we look at the cards attached to each of them?" Ruby suggested as she continued to play with a beautiful deep black greatsword named 'Artorias' she could barely lift the blade herself as she hefted it onto her shoulder.
"That is out of the question Ruby" Weiss growled "This is all Jaune's property, we shouldn't be even touching these in the first place, nor should we even consider prying into his private life"
"Aww look at you Ice Queen" Yang giggled "And I thought you hated him, look at you defending him maybe you do like him after all~"
"Its common sense Yang" Weiss groused "how would you like it if I decided to take your scroll and started poking around at all your e-mails?"
"Do that and you're as good as dead" Yang threatened
"Exactly my point"
"Yeah, Yeah you made your point Ice Queen" Yang relented "pack it up girls, especially you Ruby"
Ruby's eyes widened in horror
"NO!" she yelled "I wanna look at all of them" she protested "They'll get lonely without me!"
"Ruby" her elder sister reasoned "You can have a look at them later, we all still have to have dinner"
"B-but I" she whined again, but her stomach decided to voice its own opinion by growling audibly for all to hear
"Aww fine" She pouted as she relinquished her hold on 'Artorias'
As fate would have it though as soon as they started returning the first round of the numerous weapons scattered on the floor, Jaune and Pyrrha entered the abandoned, open doorway.
"Oh uh Hello girls" Jaune greeted awkwardly "What are you all doing here?"
All people present in the room flinched and stiffened to the sound of his voice, except Ren who was sitting in the corner back to note taking.
Ruby was frozen stiff as a statue hesitantly looking to the heavy blade that lay before Jaune's eyes
"Is that…" he started
"Uh No it's uh nothing Jaune" Ruby played off quickly dragging the sword behind her, oblivious to the fact that the whole handle stood at least a couple heads higher than her.
"Artorias?" Jaune finished off as he tried to get a better look at the object Ruby was desperately trying to obscure with her petite form.
"NO!" the girls shouted collectively, Weiss face palmed
"I apologise Jaune, curiosity got the best off us and we all started looking through this box that arrived here not too long ago" she explained "it was addressed to you"
"I… see" he said as he deftly took Artorias from the reaper's grip making her whine in melancholy
"It's good to see you old friend" he smiled letting his hand wander along the length of the massive greatsword, he noticed the card that was innocently strung around the cross guard by two ribbons, unravelling the card slowly he opened it and began to read.
The girls watched in silence as a myriad of emotions crossed his face as he read, thankfully they were all positive emotions, and finishing the reading of the card he put it down and sat, contemplating the words that the girls did not hear
"I'm really sorry" Ruby whispered "I didn't mean to touch your weapons"
"I-It's alright Ruby" Jaune replied he didn't turn his head to her but they could hear that his voice was shaky "You guys head off to dinner….I, I need some time to myself"
With a solemn nod, Weiss and Yang began to shepherd the others out to the corridor, Ren left his perch and gave Jaune a reassuring pat on the shoulder, he turned and gave him a nod of appreciation, tears threatened to fall from his eyes.
Ren nodded in silent understanding, He motioned for Pyrrha to follow despite the silent protests she followed, giving Jaune one final longing glance before closing the door.
Jaune returned to the box and began taking out each weapon, slowly and gently. Reading each card and cradling them close like a mother would a child as he cried.
One card, already read lay open underneath the moon, the ink illuminated by the guiding moonlight.
Dear Jaune
It's been a while little bro, you forgot to bring these with you to Beacon so we all decided to pack them up for you and send them all in one go. We miss you all so much and we hope you are doing well despite the hard times I know you're having using that old sword and shield, We wish you luck and joy in your time in Beacon and hope that you've made lots of good friends and teammates, and maybe when the years done and dusted you can come and visit us in the holidays? Aqua and Jade miss you so very much….
Karen did some modifications to your weapons while you were gone so you can use them in Huntsman fights, maybe we can see you use one of these during the Vytal Tournament, wouldn't that be awesome?
Anyway, we all love you and miss you (especially Bianca, she can't stop worrying about you) and we hope to hear from you soon, have fun and kick ass with these okay?
Love your Older sister- Olivia Arc
XOXOXO
As the moonlight spread through the window panes, one large greatsword lay, mummified in linen wrappings the entombed blade glowed a mystical blue and humed sweetly like a lullaby, it's glow was beautiful to any that were there to view it, but alas Jaune was already asleep his upper body embraced the head of a large mace and his light breathing the only sound to be heard in the dorm room of team JNPR.