Author's Note: Wow, I am quite happy with all the positive reviews last chapter. I wasn't really sure how the trigger of Jaune's Semblance would go over, but it seems everyone liked it.

Resonance

"Hold it steady if you can."

I lifted my head slightly to see Shirou approaching from the opposite side of the clearing while still keeping most of my attention on my hands. I nodded and put all my focus into maintaining the light by holding onto the feeling, the faith, I had in myself. It wasn't easy, focusing on just the one thing when there were so many other emotions I was feeling: caution, curiosity, and exhilaration foremost among them.

I had done it. I had done it! I mean, I wasn't sure what it was besides the ability to maybe save on flashlights and never run into furniture in the dark, but still!

The light wavered for a moment at my stray thoughts before I steadied it again and tried to keep my joy in check. Even with it curbed, my smile still refused to be kept down as Shirou arrived and began to examine my hands.

"…Good work, Jaune. Self-doubt isn't an easy foe to best, and an even more difficult one to continually triumph over, but we'll be here if you ever need help in your fight against it," Ruler assured.

"Shirou made it sound like awakening your Semblance was a rather arduous task, so I suppose this is worthy of some congratulations. Don't believe for one second that you can just rest on your laurels, though! I'm expecting you to advance at least this quickly in everything else. Such is only fitting for someone I have decided to help," Avenger remarked in an aggressive tone, one I still found to be reassuring.

The smile on my face only grew at their words before Shirou began to examine my Semblance in earnest.

"Inform me if you feel anything out of the ordinary," he spoke while reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a small stone that he then released above my hands. It gently fell through the air before hitting my palm. Nothing; it rested easily on my hand and the expectation of something happening made the light waver again before I once more stabilized it. Shirou squatted down and scooped up a handful of dirt before repeating the process. I didn't gain anything out of the test besides dusty fingers, but he looked curious. He held out his hand and a copy of my dagger appeared in it.

"Would you tell me if this feel in any way different to you than it normally does?" he asked while holding it out to me by the flat of the blade. I nodded, and the pebble and dust fell to the ground as I turned my hand over and took the knife from him. I very gently tossed it into the air and it completed two rotations before I caught it by the handle again.

I had seen Jasper doing something similar once, throwing the weapon up, catching the handle, and then launching the blade across our yard and up to its hilt in a tree twenty meters away. She had made it look so cool then, so effortless, to the point that I had wanted to do the same once she gave me her dagger. My first attempt to throw it into a tree ended with the blade bouncing off the bark, so I had instead focused on the twirling part in my room for a few hours with the blade still sheathed. After a couple days, I could toss and catch it almost instinctively. If I wanted to, I might be able to replicate her throwing feat with a bit of practice now that I had Aura, but I already had the bow for fighting at range.

I was still mostly concentrating on my Semblance but the feel of the knife was something I was very familiar with and it was definitely off.

"It feels…lighter. Much lighter. It's almost like it weighs nothing at all."

"That may just be because you have Aura now. A sudden increase in strength could certainly make these things hard to discern," Shirou pondered while looking at the blade. "On the other hand, it could very well be Semblance related. Increased strength, gravity alteration, or matter manipulation could all be reasons for the discrepancy, along with any number of other things. We can likely determine whether the change is due to Aura or Semblance if we use a heavier object, and we could test strength vs. gravity vs. matter modification using a larger object with more force behind it…"

The copy of the dagger disappeared and I looked from where it had been twirling in the air to Shirou to see him with a large sword in his hand. No, sword wasn't the right word for it. LARGE wasn't even the right word for it. It was bigger than a personal weapon had any right to be, at least the same size of its wielder even, and was made entirely out of faded green rock save for its single honed edge. If a club, an axe, a sword, and a boulder had a child, that child would still feel inadequate at the sight of this monstrosity.

Shirou stepped back several feet while I was gawking at the absurd existence, gripped the thing's handle with both hands, and demanded the impossible with a small smirk on his face.

"Catch."

I had a whole half-second to process that ridiculous statement before he lopped the one-ton weapon at me. With great dignity, I used what little time I had left in the world to let out a very manly shriek, stagger half a step back, and desperately raise my hands to try to fend off my oncoming demise.

It was enough.

The moment the weapon hit my palm, there was a surge of confusing sensations and a vague feeling as if my body had both breathed in and out at the same time. The light at the point where stone met skin suddenly grew a dozen times brighter, so much so that I instinctively closed my eyes right before I was launched back. That, combined with everything else, finally robbed me of my concentration as I felt my Semblance fade.

I opened my eyes and was slightly surprised that I wasn't seeing spots. I seemed to have somehow impacted a tree, which I was now leaning against, and I noticed that Shirou both looked a little bemused and was several feet to the right of where I had last seen him. I realized why he had moved once I looked towards his original position and the amazement of me not being crushed was quickly overshadowed.

The tremendous mass of the thing he had thrown at me had lodged the weapon over a foot into the earth. It stood there, partially planted, for a few moments more before it slowly fell back, uprooting grass and displacing dirt as it did so. It hit the ground with a solid wumph withdust and leaves flying away from the impact.

"Huh."

My throat was dry as I looked from what was essentially a handheld boulder to the man who had tossed said boulder. I swallowed, met his eyes, and articulated my thoughts.

"What-…Ho-…Did I do that?" I gestured in the sword's general direction while picking myself up off the ground and looking to Shirou, hoping he had a better idea of what had just happened than I did. He gave a small sound of amusement and a nod as an answer. I looked at the weapon laying across from me. It was far too large for me to block, too large for me to lift on my own even, but I had somehow forced it away without even trying to.

"Am I correct in assuming that you don't fully understand what just happened?" he asked in response to my previous sputtering.

"I…might need a little help putting the pieces together," I admitted while scratching the back of my head. "Did I block it, making it bounce back, or maybe I…reflected it?" I finished in a questioning tone while looking with a raised brow from the sword to Shirou, but he just shook his head and the stone weapon dissolved into light.

"No, I don't think either of those is it. Not truly. While the weapon was deflected, it went back farther than it would have if it had just hit an immovable object. While its force was similar both before and after making contact with you, they weren't the same and its momentum wasn't completely reversed either; it would have landed farther away had it followed its previous arc…"

"Of course. Starting with the super obvious stuff, I see," I commented, having seen none of that before he pointed it out. Now that I thought about it though, there was one thing that I should have found a little concerning.

"You threw a giant stone sword at me." I wasn't accusing him, although maybe I should have been. I didn't really feel mad, I just felt that maybe I should have, like any normal person would have been angry or scared after something like that. As I felt neither, it was only an observation for him to elaborate on.

Shirou nodded.

"Going off of your Aura reserves from yesterday, I knew the sword wouldn't crush you, even if your Semblance hadn't stopped it. Had something gone wrong, I would have dispelled the weapon and done everything in my power to ensure your safety. It was just a method to test your reactions like I did earlier with the spear."

"You performed quite well," he congratulated while gesturing to the gouge in the earth my Semblance had created. "Managing to keep hold of your Semblance long enough for us to actually see its effects likely wasn't an easy feat considering this was your first conscious use of it. We'll have to see how it reacts with La Pucelle later, but I suppose we should stick to discovering the basics of you Semblance now and working out the finer details after you have mastered the fundamentals. Speaking of your sword, would you bring it forth?"

I nodded along easily enough, having already had an inkling of his reasons from our earlier interactions. Now that I thought about it, maybe having a mindset a bit different from the norm was a facet common in all hunters. Most stuff that would be lethal to anyone else would pose no threat at all to a trained huntsman. I guess there wasn't any point in getting caught up in what normal people considered life-threatening incidents when such things were, to me, mostly harmless.

I pushed such thoughts aside and shifted my sword into reality.

"Looks good," he said with a single glance. "I was worried that La Pucelle may have been fusing with your own soul or that the use of your Semblance may have altered it in some manner, but its form and spirit are as sublime as ever."

"Tch. Sublime, he says. I knew Emiya would try to make a move on me someday. He has always had a love of swords, him falling for my charms and attempting to ensnare me has always been an inevitability," Avenger quipped in a resigned tone as if such an outcome were predestined.

"Oh, whatever shall we do? Two helpless maidens-" "Witch!" "-alone with no one to protect us from his womanizing ways?" Ruler replied and I was taken aback by her dramatically helpless tone, even though I could hear the smile in her voice.

'Um, uh…clearly, I must save thee from yon scoundrel's perverse gaze!' I mentally responded as I dispelled La Pucelle, a little confused at their byplay and more than a little flustered at taking part in it myself. I heard chuckling in my head as the blade vanished, but it seemed good natured.

Shirou wore a knowing grin and I suspected he had gathered at least part of the conversation from my embarrassed expression alone. I felt my cheeks heat as I averted my eyes and tried to bring us back on topic.

"So, do you know exactly what it is that my Semblance does?"

Shirou allowed the redirection to go unchallenged as he shook his head.

"No, but I do have some ideas for what it could be and we might even be able to verify with a few more tests. Would you use it again?"

I nodded, closed my eyes and thought of how great everything had been going lately while remembering how it felt to shape the light of my soul. In less than half a minute, my hands were once more encased in light.

"…That won't do," Shirou concluded after staring at my hands for a moment. "That took far too long to bring forth. If you want to use your Semblance in battle, summoning it will have to be the work of an instant. The Grimm won't be so generous as to wait for you to enter a proper mindset."

"Another thing to work on?" I guessed with a half-hearted smile while thinking of how far I still had to go in both sword and archery practice. So many things I had to improve… So many things I would improve.

"Of course. It doesn't matter what your Semblance does if you never have the time to utilize it. Even the world's sharpest sword is worthless if it cannot be drawn from its sheathe," he said in a knowing manner before his expression turned thoughtful. "Perhaps we're getting ahead of ourselves with this testing. We should prioritize speed and accessibility first. I want you to release your Semblance and then summon it again, repeating this process until it is both instantaneous and can be performed either with a single thought or solely on instinct."

"Are you sure? I mean, that sounds like something I could do on my own in my room," I voiced while allowing the light to fade, feeling a little disappointed since I had been looking forward to finding out more about my Semblance. "You're certain I should spend our training sessions on something I can do by myself?"

"It may not seem especially productive," he conceded, "but I think it's the better option. We've already seen your Semblance's effects once, so we have an idea of how we can expect it to behave in the future. Focusing on gaining finer control of it will likely yield the greatest long-term results. Since you shouldn't need any supervision for this stage, I have a few things I can work on while…"

The mage trailed off as he turned his head in the general direction of Anthem proper and considered something before giving a small hum.

"It seems someone is headed this way. Is this a frequently used trail?" Shirou asked while turning his eyes to me.

"No," I shook my head, a little perplexed, before turning in the direction Shirou had indicated to try and spot who was coming. Whoever it was, they were still too far away for me to even hear, much less see. "The only place anyone visits this far out would be my house, but there's a more direct route East of here. That one's better suited for vehicles and it's more well known, so everyone takes it regardless of whether they're walking or driving."

"Well, whoever it is," Shirou continued, taking the intrusion in stride, "I suppose I should leave before they arrive. If it's convenient, we'll meet here again in the morning and you can show me how far you've advanced. If meeting proves inconvenient, then it shouldn't change anything since you don't need my input for this. Practice what we talked about in your spare time when you're sure you're alone until you reach an acceptable level of competency in using your ability. Ruler and Avenger will certainly help in that regard. Understand?"

I nodded and Shirou returned the gesture. He walked over to the ground, smoothed over the hole I had gouged into it earlier, and paused before turning and tossing a coin to me. I raised my hand to catch it but it bounced off my palm and I scrambled to grab it before managing to pin it in the crease of my elbow.

"Should you need my help for anything, just say 'Clocktower' while holding that in your hand and I'll come as quickly as I can."

His piece said, Shirou turned and left in the direction of the village's wall. I watched him go for a few moments before placing the blank coin he had handed me inside my wallet and heading towards one of the nearby trees to begin my old exercise routine.

"Why are you staying here instead of just heading home and practicing with your Semblance? Your physique is one of your only aspects that doesn't need significant improvement."

"There is someone coming this way, remember?" Ruler provided helpfully. "It might be suspicious if said person were familiar with Jaune's routine and found him skipping on it now."

'Right. Also, I can just start the actual practice after whoever is coming leaves. While I could just head home and train, I figure it will be easier to keep it a secret if I do so away from the house filled with people.'

I didn't hear a reply so I nodded to my own reasoning as I began a series of stretches. My exercise regime was a familiar thing, something I had been doing for literally years. Every action was so ingrained into my body that each motion was automatic. It left me free to think about everything that had happened recently which led to a small but sudden realization.

I was happy.

I was really, really happy. I mean, it wasn't an overwhelming thing that eclipsed everything else; I could put it aside when there was a task at hand. When I was sparring with Shirou I had to give him every bit of my attention if I didn't want a severe trouncing and I had to pour all my heart, mind, and soul into archery practice if I were to truly master the bow. Outside of that, though, when there wasn't something I needed to give my everything to, it felt like I was holding a little spark of laughter close to my chest and I didn't want it to go out.

My successes with my Semblance and training only enhanced that feeling. I wasn't a natural born genius like Shirou, but even he said I had some talent with the bow. My soul wasn't a sword nor did it contain them but both Ruler and Avenger agreed that I was picking up swordplay fast.

I knew that being a fast learner was actually a necessity since I would be competing against others with years more experience than me. I also knew that there would be plenty of people better than me once I got to Beacon and that I still had so much farther to go. I knew that.

But for all that I knew the disadvantages of the situation I was in, I couldn't bring myself to care about them. That wasn't to say that I didn't plan to work as hard as I had before, I did. It was just that the possibility of me not getting into Beacon now seemed almost farfetched.

Even yesterday, my goals hadn't felt entirely achievable and not because of a lack of resources, I was sure that I now had the best teachers and equipment in the world, but rather because I was the one trying to achieve them. Jaune, the person who had worked for years without getting even close to how strong his sisters had been. Jaune, the one who had been stupid enough to think that training alone would let him reach their level. Jaune, who knew as little about fighting Grimm as he did about fighting in general.

At first glance, my Semblance seemed a bit mocking. What else could you call something that made you put your faith in a klutz, a weakling, and a failure?

But…that wasn't all I was. Not anymore. I was also Jaune, the chosen wielder of a sword of legend. Jaune, the student of a hero of myth. Jaune, the fast learner, the one who had talent for the bow, the person who awoke their Semblance within a single day of awakening their Aura.

When thought of in that light, my soul wasn't mocking me at all; it was encouraging me. It was telling me that I was someone worth believing in and that, as long as I did so, it would continue to support me.

I had been frozen for a long time, and when I finally started to move I had had help at every step I had taken so far, but that had accelerated my progress from a crawl to a dead sprint. I felt my Aura, the light of my soul, and it filled me with a sense of validation. My inability to grow hadn't been due to a lack of talent or effort on my part. All I had needed was a little push.

The sound of slowly approaching footsteps brought me out of my thoughts. There was a sort of soft clap after each step that I found a bit distracting. Whoever was coming was either wearing sandals or lightly clapping each time they moved their feet. Probably the former.

I was surprised when the source of the sound came into view. Not because they were clapping after each step, they were wearing sandals, but that the person coming into view was my own sister.

"Coral?"

Her head turned towards me at the sound of my voice and she nodded after a moment before coming closer.

"Hey," she greeted while turning her head every which way to examine all our surroundings.

"What are you doing here?" I continued, trying to keep my voice even. Her looking around so intently was making me a little nervous even though I had no reason to be. Shirou had fixed any damage we may have dealt to the area after each of our meetings and there was nothing here to hint at what was really going on. "You don't normally take this path back home. No one does. In fact, I don't think you've come this way in…Have you ever taken this route?"

"Nah, I just thought it was high time for me to see for myself where my big brother goes every day to train to be a big, strong hunter," she said with a tone that a less experienced person may have thought was sincere. "Really, seeing as you don't have anyone else to talk to about it with, shouldn't you be grateful your little sis is taking an interest in your hobbies?"

Her question was accompanied by a grin that was, much like her, both audacious and challenging. At the sight of it, I closed my eyes and tried to formulate a response. I couldn't just ask her why she was here now of all times, when I was finally improving myself. It could just be coincidence that she was here, like she had said, but the timing was suspicious. Maybe I could get back to practicing after she left. It was probably best to just play along.

"There isn't really much to show you," I gave in lieu of an answer while gesturing around us. "Here's the branch I use for pullups and there are some heavy rocks next to the tree on your left that I sometimes use." I gestured to each feature as I spoke and tried to give her an innocent, disarming smile and a shrug. "Even though you came all the way out here, there really isn't much to see. Sorry."

"You aren't going to show me your routine?" she asked, entirely undeterred, and I knew any chance of her leaving without me were slim. Her eyes were those of a predator seeking to embarrass or find fault with her prey. Either outcome would see her satisfied.

"I…would rather not. I mean, uh, exercising while someone else is watching you just feels a little awkward, you know?" I admitted.

"Even when it's just your sister?"

"Especially then. Besides, I've already done part of it, so how about I just walk you home? Your big, strong, soon-to-be-hunter brother will make sure no Grimm get us on the way!" I gave a self-deprecating chuckle to deflect her while I turned to grab my backpack.

"Ha-ha. Like such a thing would ever happen with mom and dad guarding Anthem," she responded while I picked up my bag and strapped it over my back, silently agreeing with her but thankful she wasn't pushing the topic. It wasn't necessary for me to train with my Semblance here, I would just do so in my room later. The only advantage doing so here had had was that there wasn't anyone around to see me.

When I turned back to Coral she was wearing the same suspicious look she had yesterday in the kitchen, but it was gone in an instant and I wondered if I had just imagined it. I then realized that I didn't have to wonder at all.

'Did she just-?'

"Momentarily look at us in a suspicious and interrogating manner? Yes."

'Gotcha.'

I began to walk in the direction of the house and Coral did the same as we both took a few steps before simultaneously stopping and turning to look behind us.

I had trained here for years without anyone else ever interrupting me, so why did I hear another set of footprints approaching?

Coral shot me a look.

"I thought you said no one ever took this route?"

"They don't!" I responded, a little unsettled at two people coming out here on the same day. My sister seemed to find my shocked response as proof of something else judging by the scandalized look she was giving me as she recoiled before leaning in close and whispering furiously.

"Are you using this as a secret meeting place to-to…to hook up with a girl?!"

"No!" I whispered back, blushing at such an accusation coming from my own sibling. "I-I don't have a girlfriend and I don't know who's coming!"

"Don't worry, Jaune, that won't be an issue for too much longer."

'Well, yeah, we're about to find out who's coming since they'll be entering into view,' I replied, wondering why Avenger was stating the obvious.

"…Yes."

I paused for a moment before widening my feet a little while remembering what Shirou had said about being mindful of my base in a fight. I felt a little silly considering that whoever was coming probably wasn't going to attack us or anything, but this situation was suspicious and it couldn't hurt to be careful. I only realized I wasn't being careful enough when the newest intruder entered into view.

I think I had told Shirou and Jeanne that my parents were the only hunters in Anthem, which was true, but they weren't the only ones in town that had had run-ins with Grimm. The town's pilot had told me some stories about his encounters with both Griffins and Nevermore, and I once heard that the mother of the baker who worked at Petite Patisserie had clashed against quite a few hordes during the Faunus War, but that she didn't like talking about it.

The only other person in town that I knew of to have fought Grimm at some point was an old man who claimed to have been a vagabond that had spent most of his life travelling from kingdom to kingdom and exploring the world. He was so old, late eighties to early nineties, that anyone who could have confirmed his stories was already deceased.

I talked to him once to see if he had any advice on killing Grimm and during said talk he claimed to have fought in the Great War. When I pointed out that he would have had to have been a child for that to be true, he said that he had used his jacks as caltrops and his jump rope as a garrote.

I had tried to steer clear of him afterwards.

My failure to do so now was the reason for my current annoyance and the sweat on the back of my neck.

Coral looked at the old drifter, looked to me, and then repeated the process a few more times before elbowing my side with a snort.

"I wish you two a lifetime of happiness and will now give you some privacy." She then turned, gave me a once-over, and began running towards our house, leaving me alone with him.

Damn it, Coral.

"JAUNE!" I winced a little at the old man's voice. He always spoke in a loud manner and claimed it was because he had trouble hearing. I, however, had seen the guy pin a buzzing fly to a wall with a fork from halfway across a room without looking. He just shouted for kicks.

I nodded to him as greeting.

"DID YOU SEE SOME SPACE COMET FALL FROM THE SKY YESTERDAY?! YOUR PARENTS COULDN'T FIND IT." His head was pivoting every which way as he spoke as if it might be hiding behind one of the trees and he would catch it peeking.

I shook my head.

"AH WELL, MIGHT AS WELL WAIT HERE TO SEE IF IT SHOWS UP AGAIN. AFTER ALL, A METEOR ALWAYS RETURNS TO THE SCENE OF THE CRIME!" He nodded at his own twisted logic before walking just a little bit off the beaten path and quickly setting up what I thought looked like a trapping net before covering it with leaves. He suspended a water bottle from a nearby branch over the very middle of the setup and punctured a single hole into it, allowing its contents to slowly drip out. He looked to my slightly slack jawed expression and seemed to take it as a compliment as he nodded sagely to me. "I THINK IT'S QUITE CLEVER TOO! YOU NEVER HEAR MUCH ABOUT WHAT METEORS DO IN THEIR DOWNTIME, BUT I FIGURE THIS OUGHT'A ENTICE IT WELL ENOUGH!"

'What…Why…Nope.' I felt my left eye twitch as I opened my mouth for a moment, tempted to correct or question him, but closed it right afterwards. That would accomplish nothing but getting me sucked into his argument. His logic was an insidious thing, and once you were pulled in, the only way out was through an investment of time and sanity that would leave you feeling both robbed and more confused than when you started. I turned in the direction of my house and began to run to catch up with my sister.

"Bye, Hendrickson!" I shouted to him over my shoulder.

"WHAT?!"

I kept running.

'So,' I thought once I was back in my room with the door locked and the blinds closed, 'I'll start now unless you two have any more ideas for how I should go about this?'

"This might not help immediately but there is something I think you could benefit from in the long-term."

'Go on.'

"Whenever you're sitting down, sit up straight. Whenever you're standing up, stand up straight. Don't slouch but rather keep your shoulders up."

'So, have good posture?'

"Essentially."

'But…how does that help?'

"I think there's a psychological term that this idea is loosely based on-"

"Cognitive-behavioral Therapy."

"Yes, that. What I'm trying to say is that not only does how you think affect how you feel which affects how you act but the reverse is also true. By acting like you believe in yourself you'll be more inclined to actually do so." She explained helpfully. "It's also something that might help when the time comes for you to deal with Grimm. Care to take a guess as to why?"

'Sure. You're saying that I need to feel positive when facing Grimm. I mean, not happy or anything like that, but determined, and if I freak out, then that's only going to draw more of them.' It was pretty simple logic, really, even if it was easier said than done; panic equals more Grimm, so don't panic.

"That's part of it, but there are several more facets to it…Tell me, who would you say is the most valuable person in a group of strong fighters?"

'Whoever's the strongest.'

"Looks like he does take after you, Alter." I heard a low growl in response, but Ruler ignored it. "While the strength of each individual is something to consider, the true strength of a unit is its ability to fight as a whole. With that in mind, who would you say is the most important to the success of such a group?"

'Then that would be the group's leader or whoever their strategist is, right?'

"Correct, and how do you think a team will react if their leader is panicking?"

'They'd probably start…Wait. What makes you think I would be a team leader?' I asked, seeing where her questions were headed. 'I mean, yeah, I've gotten a lot better since meeting you two and I'm sure I'll make a lot of advancement still, but what makes you think I'm cut out for something like that?'

Ruler gave a small, good natured laugh at my question as if such a thing were obvious and I was just being modest.

"I have a feeling you're more suited for the position of leader than you know," she said in an almost amused tone but with a certainty that I didn't think I could question. "So, how do you think a team would react if their leader were to panic?"

'They'd probably panic too.'

"Indeed. Now, can you think of any other ways having a sure and confident appearance may benefit a hunter?"

'…What if they came across a town that was being attacked, or were already at a town?' I questioned, building off Ruler's original point.

"What do you mean?" She sounded pleased at my question and where it would lead.

'Well, I told you how Grimm are attracted to negativity, right? So, the more negativity a group is experiencing, the more Grimm will be attracted to said group, the more negativity the group will produce, and so on. It's a, uh, positive feedback loop! Normally, this would go on until either the people or all the Grimm in the vicinity are killed, but a hunter could change that and not just by killing Grimm.'

"How so?"

'By inspiring the people. Hunters are who everyone would look to in a time of crisis and if they're panicking then everyone else will too, but if they're calm then others will think that they must have a reason to be.' My mental voice had begun as a whisper but was growing louder with my excitement. I wondered how I hadn't realized this before, it seemed so obvious now that I thought about it. 'If the people believe everything is under control, that there is still hope or even nothing to fear at all, then that means that they'll be less afraid, less anxious, and less desperate, which means fewer Grimm to fight. Hunters could even stop Grimm from coming at all by just assuring people that they're safe through their presence.' I couldn't hold back the excitement in my voice as I finished. 'It's sort of like believing the thing makes it so!'

"Yes. From how you've described this world, belief has a power all its own." Avenger's response startled me as she had remained silent throughout almost the whole conversation. Her tone was a mix of both slight approval and inevitability. "Now, what happens when you apply that notion to an entire world, or even just a Kingdom?"

'Huh?'

"People believing they're safe actually makes them safer. The kingdoms must have already realized this, so how do you think they would apply it?"

'They'd…' I paused to give it some thought. If everyone believing they were safe made them objectively safer than the best thing to do would be to make sure everyone always felt secure even if…especially if that security was a lie, albeit one that became the truth once people accepted it as such. 'They'd make sure everyone knew they were safe regardless of whether or not it was true, but the kingdoms are safe.' I pointed out, not sure where she was going with this.

"Are they?" Avenger asked in a nearly conversational tone. "How strong is your world, really? What would it take to trigger global societal collapse?" Her voice became colder and she delivered her final line with scorn and the decisiveness of a blade. "What would happen if one of the kingdoms fell?"

My train of thought stalled at such a question. The kingdoms couldn't fall. They just couldn't. It was true that villages would be wiped out every so often, but kingdoms weren't like that. Everyone knew that.

"It's hard to think of such a thing, isn't it?" Avenger enquired in a manner that sounded almost consoling. "In a way, that shows how effective the kingdoms' teachings are. The highest populations of people reside in them so surely, they must house the greatest amount of negativity, yes? So how could they stand when the less populated villages fall? They stand solely because everyone believes that the kingdoms are safe while the areas outside of them are not."

'That can't be right. Each of the kingdoms has existed for hundreds and hundreds of years. I mean, yeah, it's true that the kingdom of Mantle no longer exists, but that's just because it changed its name to Atlas as a symbolic thing. The other three kingdoms have gone through similar changes in their histories while also not collapsing! Now, there are, like, airships and firearms to combat flying Grimm along with mass communication and combat schools in each of the four kingdoms to ensure that they each have a constant supply of protectors! How could one fall when all four kingdoms have so many more advantages now than when they were founded?'

"Because they now have a disadvantage that I'm betting they didn't have when they were created: population," she said with certainty. "They each likely had a much smaller population when they were first built, one that, when compared to their modern-day counterparts, may have produced more negativity per individual but less as a whole. They probably felt safer once the kingdoms had become well-established, which would serve as plenty of motivation for them to work on growing the population. Each of them has aged from a quick and spry calf to a fattened cow, ready for slaughter. Shirou said it himself, remember? The kingdoms have already reached the limit of how many people they can sustain and are having to create distant settlements to deport their excess civilians to. If one of the kingdoms were to experience a large enough panic, they could be overrun. That mass communication you mentioned earlier? It would only drive the rest of them into a more terrified state making them all more vulnerable. A little mayhem is all it would take for society to be pushed to the brink. Also, how do you know kingdoms have not already been destroyed?"

'Well, I think we would have heard about one of them falling?'

"Not like that. I'm referring to the past. How do you know the kingdoms are as old as they say they are, or that there weren't others whose destruction may have been covered up? History is written by the survivors, after all. They could just all agree to alter their textbooks, tacking on a few centuries here and removing a few references there, to give people a sense that the places they call home are sturdier than they truly are."

'I…I guess I don't know. Not for sure, but if we ever go to a museum, then I could ask Shirou to read the histories of some of their displays to verify their stories,' I replied after a moment's thought. This all felt deeper than I was used to, questions about the very safety of everything and the accuracy of what I had been taught. It was daunting, to say the least, but…I didn't think it was something that I could allow myself to turn away from. In a way, this was what being a huntsman was, facing the things that the rest of the world couldn't. 'Also, while I don't think you're entirely wrong, I don't think things are as bad as you think they are. The kingdoms couldn't exist if they were that fragile.'

"I am simply saying that it is the belief that they are not fragile that is keeping the kingdoms from being fragile." I heard a sigh before she continued with a note of grim resignation. "I'm not saying the kingdoms are going to fall soon, or even in your lifetime. I'm saying that they continue to exist on the trust of the people, and that can be a very fickle thing."

"…I think we've gotten a little off topic, Avenger. The state of the world's governments is important, but not something that has to be immediately addressed. Jaune, do you remember why it's important to at least project surety in yourself?"

'Yeah,' I replied while thinking over what they had said. 'How I act affects how I feel and think, the appearance of a leader impacts the mood of their followers, and a huntsman's image influences the emotions of those he is protecting.'

"Good," she acknowledged before her voice became expectant. "Ready to master your Semblance?"

I smiled at her question, rolled my shoulders, got in a ready stance, closed my eyes-

"Stop." I immediately froze at Avenger's forceful tone. "Do you intend to close your eyes on the battlefield?" I shook my head. "Then don't do so while training off the battlefield."

"The habits you form now will stay with you, so you have to make sure they are ones you want to keep.Shutting out the world may make it easier to focus on yourself but that still means losing track of your surroundings, so make sure to keep your eyes open during this exercise," Ruler gently reprimanded. "Don't feel discouraged, this is why we're practicing now, to prepare you for what's to come. Ready to try again?"

I nodded and, with my eyes open this time, called forth my Semblance, once more encasing my hands in light.

"Twenty seconds."

"Well done, better than last time even. Perhaps you were just a bit shaken by everything that had happened then."

I smiled and let the light fade. Once it had, I called it to me again and it was there.

"Better still! This is progressing more quickly than I expected."

"Regardless, it needs to be about one hundred times faster. Anything more than a fraction of a second is unacceptable for combat, and just because you can summon it swiftly now doesn't mean a thing. The real test will come when you have to do so with a foe bearing down on you in the heat of battle where even the slightest hesitation could mean the difference between life and death."

"Yes, but practice in the present is what prepares one for the future. When the time comes, he'll be ready. I'm sure of it."

I nodded my head, hoping Ruler's faith wasn't misplaced, and continued the exercise. I did so until my parents called me down for dinner, where I told them an edited version of my day, watched a show with the rest of my family, and then immediately went back to my room to resume my training. I was determined to advance my Semblance as far as I could before I next saw Shirou.

Which, unfortunately, was not the very next morning.

Ending Notes: To any who didn't get the weird logic, it was a shower.

Minor spoiler: *The subsequent chapter will likely have a one-week timeskip to Jaune and Shirou's next meeting. *

On a separate topic, I think that some of the implications in the underlying mechanics of RWBY aren't really explored in-series as much as they could be, Grimm being attracted to negativity being one of said mechanics. I'm not saying that I am going to go super in-depth on it or anything, just that that tendency will be used. Avenger isn't necessarily correct in all her speculation, but she isn't completely incorrect either.

Saw Volume 5. While it did have some high points, I'm hoping that they make a lot of improvements before Volume 6. I really do like Jaune's canon Semblance as it has a good deal of potential that I hope they take the time to fully explore. Even so, that isn't his Semblance here. Also, Aura is still passive in this story.

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