Polls for Paring

Blake - 117

Pyrrha - 107

Ruby - 80

Raven - 84

Winter - 40

Glynda - 40

Yang - 40

Weiss - 23

Looks like Blake is still going strong, and Pyrrha isn't far behind. I can smell some Darkos if we get a really close vote, and Raven got a huge jump too from the votes. Although I have on complaint. I would ask you guys to STOP VOTING IN THE COMMENTS! It gets hard to keep track, use the poll. Please? Anyway, here's the next chapter, and be sure to read my AN at the bottom.

Chapter 3 - Here they come

The village was in panic. Citizens were scrambling around trying to seek shelter, and anyone brave enough was gathering things like farming tools to try and defend their homes. Masanori, Jaune, Mitch and Rachel burst out of the tavern to see people, mostly young women and children, heading towards the tavern.

"Quickly, get all the children inside at once!" Mitch yelled to the crowd.

"Mitch, stay here and watch over the place. I'm going to go on the offense," Rachel said.

"You got it boss."

Rachel was about to go, but turned to Masanori.

"Listen, these people are not huntsmen, and are going to need more help out there,"

The message was clear. Masanori knew that the village would need his help against the Grimm. Nodding his head, he turned to Jaune, who was holding his leg, and bent down to his level.

"Jaune I need you to stay here and wait for me to return. Listen to Mitch and do not leave the Inn. Alright?"

Jaune looked up at Masanori with some worry. He knew he could trust him, he knew he would come back, but the idea of him going out there didn't sit well with him. But he couldn't find the words to say so.

Masanori saw the look of Jaune's face, and knew exactly what he was thinking. Making a decision he reached behind his back and inside of his sash, and pulled out a tiny knife from inside it. He then took Jaune's hand, and placed the blade in his palm.

"I know you might be scared, scared that I might not come back. But Remember what we agreed on. I will not abandon you, and I need you to stay here and be safe. I am giving you this blade of mine to let you know I will come back for it, that I will come back for you. Take it Jaune, and remember that no matter what, I promise to never leave your side. Whether it be physical, or in spirit."

Jaune looked at the blade in his hands with a surprised expression, and then back up to Masanori who had a small smile adorning his face. He then grasped the blade in his hands, and nodded his head.

Masanori then turned to face Rachel, who had a small smug smile on her face.

"And you say you're not his dad?"

Masanori just shook his head and sighed.

"No, i'm not."

"Hah, could have fooled me. But enough chatter, let's go."

As Jaune watched as the two adults rushed through village, passing through citizens and obstacles in their way. He griped the blade still in his hands tighter than before, and held it close to his heart as he watches Masanori disappear in the distance. He was interrupted from his musings from the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see Mitch above him giving him a reassuring look.

"Come on kid, let's go."

Jaune looked up to the adult with a blank stare, and only gave a silent nod before turning his gaze back to where Masanori and Rachel were running.

Masanori and Rachel then ran down the main road of the village, and bolted towards the entrance. When they got there, they spotted some of the villagers making a makeshift barricade of crates and barrels at the entrance. Some of them had rifles in their hands taking shots at the grimm, while others had pitchforks or axes in their hands. Across from them were the Grimm. There were dozens of them, and other then the Wolf like ones Masanori already fought, there seemed to be some bear like ones as well. Masanori saw that Henry was also with them, and in his hands was a giant steel warhammer, and wearing steel gauntlets with linear patterns on them.

"Henry!"

Henry turned around to see Masanori and Rachel coming his way and greeted them.

"Rachel, Masanori. Boy am I glad to see you two here."

"What's the status on the Grimm?" Rachel asked in a serious tone.

"Straight to business huh? Well from what we could see, about over 3 dozen of them," Henry said, surprising Rachel.

"What! We have never had that many here."

"How many do you usually get?" Masanori asked.

"The largest we had was little over a dozen. Why are there so many?"

"It doesn't matter, we need to take them down quick before they get to close," Henry said.

"Right, speaking of which, did you bring her?"

Henry didn't say anything, but instead had a bright smile on his face as he reached behind his back, and pulled out a large blade inside a holster.

"Here she is, right and ready for the fight."

Rachel took the blade and removed it from the holster, revealing a large machete. The hilt was wrapped in green cloth and the blade was a dark grey. On one edge was a straight blade that looked like it could cut through bone, and the other was toothed like that of a saw. Rachel took the blade with a bright smile on her face.

"Good to see the old girl back in my hands again, thanks Henry."

"Well, first you surprise me with your drinking, and now you're going to fight?" Masanori asked.

Rachel had a smug grin on her face as she looked towards him and twirled the blade in her hands.

"Got a problem with that?"

"Quite the opposite. I am rather curious to see how you fare against these demons," Masanori said.

"Well seeing how we are all well acquainted with one another. Shall we show these bastards what it means to mess with Everwinter?" Henry asked while holding his war hammer.

The response Henry got was Masanori drawing his sword, and Rachel getting ready to charge in.

"Let's go!"

Back in the tavern, everyone was busy trying to stay calm, or trying to calm down others. Mothers were tending to their children, and some of the adults like Mitch were making sure the tavern was secure in case the Grimm get too close.

Jaune was sitting back in his seat by the bar, silently praying that Masanori was going to be okay. He would be lying in saying he was scared. The possibility of his savior dying from the hands of the Grimm, and leaving him alone plagued his mind. The image of his father screaming how he was so weak right now also haunt him. His voice becoming a phantom pain he wanted gone.

'Look at you! Sulking and hiding like a weakling. A real man would get out of this place and go face the Grimm head on, not cower like the stupid brat you are!'

Was he right? Was he weak for staying here?

"Are you okay?" A soft voice called from behind.

Jaune looked behind him to see the fox girl from earlier right behind him. She was wearing what looked like some sort of red sweater which was a size too big, and white shorts, and had a fox tail swishing behind her.

Being the awkward and shy kid he is, in front of a cute girl no less, he had no idea how to respond.

"um...Hi?" He said.

"Hello, who are you?" the girl asked cutely.

"I ugh...I'm Jaune."

"My names Maeko, are you new here?"

"Y-yeah. I arrived here about an hour ago."

"Maeko, who are you talking to?" A voice called out.

Both Jaune and Maeko looked over to see someone standing a few feet from behind Maeko. She looked to be around the same age as Jaune, maybe a year older. She had lightly tanned skin, bright silver hair with a pair of fox ears atop her head, and a swishing silver fox tail behind her. She was clad in a long sleeve light blue shirt and black shorts. Though one thing Jaune noticed about her was her lilac eyes that stared into his blue. It was like she was staring into her soul.

"Hey sis, look at the new friend I made just now," Maeko said.

The silver fox girl said nothing, but continued to look over Jaunes form, as if she was judging a pig at a fair. Jaune found it a bit uncomfortable the way she was looking over him. Now normally any guy wouldn't mind being looked at by a pretty girl, but Jaune found it weird and awkward.

"So, what are you doing here in this town?" She asked.

"I… I was just resting here w...with my friend."

"You mean that sword guy in the funny clothes?" Maeko asked.

"Who is he your dad or something?" The silver haired girl asked.

"Wha! Nonono, he isn't my dad. He's my, ugh, guardian."

"Come on now Machiko, leave the poor boy alone," And familiar voice said.

The three kids turned their heads to the side to see none other than Jade slowly walking towards them. Maeko was the first to react, and ran forward to envelope the woman into a hug.

"Grandma!"

Jade replied by returning the hug with the small fox girl before looking towards the silver haired girl.

"Machiko, you know better than to interrogate someone like they're in trouble," Jade said with a stern voice.

"I'm sorry Grandma," Machiko said, her fox ears drooping as she said it.

"Uh uh uh, not to me, to him," Jade said while pointing at Jaune.

Machiko turned to face Jaune, a small blush on her face as she began to apologize.

"I'm sorry Jaune, can you please forgive me?"

Jaune just stared at the silver haired girl known as Machiko, and after realized he was staring waved his hands in front of him dismissively.

"Wha... oh it's fine."

"No, I was wrong. I was just worried my sister was talking to some creepy guy," Machiko said.

"Come on sis, Jaune seems pretty cool," Maeko said in Jaunes favor.

Machiko only sighed at her sister's innocent attitude. She always went to the conclusion that everyone she encountered was a nice person and try to make friends with them. Machiko was only worried about her sister.

"Yeah, you were just scared for your sister right, it's fine," Jaune said, no longer shy to talk to the girls.

"Well isn't that nice, what do you say to him Machiko?" Jade asked.

"Thank you Jaune," Machiko said with a small smile, which Jaune kindly returned.

"Look at you two, already becoming friends. Why don't you two go wander off and play."

"Yeah, come on Jaune lets go play!" Maeko said, grasping Jaune's arm and running off.

"Huh? Maeako wait up!" Machiko said while running after her sister.

Jade smiled as she watched the three children run off. Jaune was such a sweet and polite boy. And from what Jade could tell, he seemed like someone who could use some friends. Hopefully he would make some more friends

Back on the front lines, things were not looking so well. Masanori just got done slicing down another Ursa, and dodged away from another coming to swipe at him.

"These things just keep on coming," Masanori muttered as he cut the ursa down.

He looked over to were Rachel and Henry were, and saw something that peaked his interest. Rachel had a bright forest green aura around her, and Henry had a brick red one. It was also weird since they just got done cutting at least over 2 dozen Grimm, yet they haven't shown the slightest big out of breath. Instead Rachel just grinned as she cut the throat of one of the beowolves, and Henry smash an Ursa with his hammer.

'What in the world?'

Masanori was so focused on his two comrades, he almost didn't notice the beowulf charging right towards him. His instinct kicked in at the last second, and he was able to jump back at the last second, but the beowulf still managed to get a cut in with its claws, ripping the front of Masanori's robes, and leaving a deep cut on his chest.

'Dammit!' He thought to himself.

Masanori ignored the staggering pain, and quickly cut the beowulf's neck, and assessed the situation around him. There were at least 6 more beowulf's alive, and 3 were beginning to circle around him. It didn't help that he was both feeling out of breath, and the wound on his chest was starting to bleed heavily.

"Masanori, are you alright!?" Henry yelled out.

"I might be in need of assistance!" Masanori yelled.

Before anything more could happen however, one of the beowulfs decided that it wasn't going to wait any longer for it's meal, and lunged. Masanori held his sword out to try to block the incoming attack, and braced himself. But thankfully it wasn't needed. Masanori saw that out of the blue, Rachel was now right in front of him, her blade right in the beowulf's left eye socket.

"Don't you think of giving up on me now Roka, I ain't letting nobody die on my watch."

Rachel then ripped her machete out of the beowulf's eye, and ran forward to the other two beowulf's. She slashed the first one in the chest, and jumped back as the second tried to swipe at her. She then shot forward as she landed on the ground, and delivered a flying ax kick to the second one in the head, knocking it into the first. She then stabbed the second in the heart, and ripped it out of it's chest, span around, and stabbed the first in the back where its heart would be. Both dropped to the ground dead, and begun to incinerate.

Masanori stood there in shock. Rachel moved at speeds that he thought would be humanly impossible, and the acrobatics she performed were incredible. Rachel seemed to notice him staring, and sent him a teasing smirk.

"Like what you see there Roka?"

Masanori blinked once, and shook himself out of his looked around to see that the horde appeared to be defeated, and all the Grimm on their side appeared to be either dead and disintegrating.

He was about to say something to Rachel, before he heard something behind him. He looked back to see Henry, who just smashed an Ursa right on the head, caving it in. There was also a second Ursa, the very last Grimm of the horde, in front of him. This one was different however. It was much larger than the rest of them, and had tons more bone like armour on it.

"Well looks like Henry here gets to fight with the alpha. Hope you brought your popcorn Roka, you're in for a show."

Masanori wanted to ask a ton of questions right now, but decided to just watch.

Henry stared down the massive alpha, and threw his war hammer aside, and readied his fists. Masanori looked at this with wide eyes. Was this man that crazy to fight off this demon with only his hands. He was about to yell out to him to stop him, and tell him to try and run, but he felt a hand upon his shoulder, and looked to see Rachel next to him.

"Don't worry about him. Henry has this one in the bag already."

Masanori was about to retort, but he heard a fierce war, and saw Henry charge forward towards the Alpha, his body glowing a fierce red along the way.

The alpha attempted to claw at him, only to find Henry holding his arms up in a X formation, and the claws to bounce right off with a small flash of red. The alpha reeled back from the force, and Henry hit the alpha right in the jaw with his armored fist.

Henry kept the blows coming, until the alpha jumped to the side to avoid getting hit. It then got on all fours and readied to pounce him. Henry responded by making a 'come here' motion with his hands, to which the alpha responded by rushing towards him, and then jumping. It's arms were spread out and ready to claw at his innards, but Henry extended his own, and caught it's wrists.

Both fighters found themselves on the ground, Henry being pinned right on his back. The alpha attempted to take small bites off him, only for Henry to use his legs and kick the ursa's legs from underneath, causing it to slip and fall on Henry loosely. Hendy then threw the beast off of him and onto its back. He then quickly got to his feet and jumped onto the Ursas stomach, pinning it to the ground. Rearing is fist back began to unleash a barrage of punches onto the beast's face.

Back on the sidelines, Rachel watched the whole thing with her arms crossed and a smile on her face, while Masanori swore his Jaw hit the floor.

Henry stopped the barrage of punches as he gazed down at the already disintegrating Ursa, but he wasn't done yet. Rearing his fist back once more, he hit the beast right in its jaw, dismembering its head from its body.

Henry then got off the half disintegrated corpse and cracked his neck and hands with a satisfying pop, then proceeded to retrieve his war hammer before returning to his comrades

"Nice show there Henry, I should have brought some popcorn if I knew you were going to do all that," Rachel said.

"Well i'll be sure to remind you next time we go out," Henry replied before turning to Masanori "You did pretty good out there for someone for isn't a Huntsman Masanori, i'm impressed."

Masanori blinked for a second, before remembering that the show was over, and all the Grimm seemed to be taken care of.

"Oh, well thank you. I tried my best."

"Oh come on put a little more pride in yourself. You did pretty good, though they did kind of slip up a bit back there," Rachel said.

"Now now Rachel, leave the man alone for now. We all had a rough day, and I would prefer to get some mead in my belly before the sun goes down," Henry said as he strapped his war hammer to his back.

"Yes, let us go and rest. I also should go check up on Jaune to see if he is alright," Masanori said in agreement, pushing the questions he had about the fights to the back of his mind for later. He needed to check on Jaune first

"Fine, let's go." Rachel said with a sigh, beginning to walk back to the village.

The two men behind followed suit, but Henry looked towards Masanori to see that he was clutching his chest, a wound visible on his chest with no sign of being healed by his Aura.

"Say Masanori. Why hasn't your Aura healed your wound?"

Rachel peaked at hearing Henry speak, and looked back to see that Masanori still had the scratch mark on his chest.

"Now that I think of it, shouldn't your Aura have protected you?"

"My what?" Masanori asked, surprising the two.

However, before anyone could further question Masanori, one of the villagers rushed towards the group at an alarming pace.

"Rachel we got a problem, a beowulf managed to get into the village! It's heading towards the inn!"

Everyone was further surprised by this news. Henry rushed forward to get to the in, Rachel following behind, but she stopped to look at Masanori with a gaze that told him 'we're talking about this later.' Masanori ignored the glare, and instead focused on the thought of Jaune being in possible danger.

Back in the inn, some of the people were beginning to calm a bit down. Everyone was trying to take their minds off the Grimm attack now, and we're trying to stick close to family and friends to take the edge off. Jaune was still sitting in the corner of the inn next to the fox twins, and were busy playing a game of tic-tac-toe using a piece of chalk and the wood floor.

Suddenly the twins felt the hair on the back of their necks stick up, and felt the need to run. Something bad was going to happen.

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard through the inn, and everyone looked over to the door to see that something was trying to break in. Everyone began to panic, and run to the opposite side of the room, or find cover under something. Mitch grabbed his rifle and aimed it at the door, preparing himself for whatever was coming.

Jade was busy trying to comfort the fox sisters, and Jaune stood next to them, holding the knife Masanori gave him in his hand, which was shaking a bit.

The banging went on for a few seconds, till everything went quiet. No one made a sound, the sound of a pin dropping would drop and everyone would hear it. Mitch kept his rifle aimed at the door, and walked towards the door slowly, sweat visible on his face. A few more seconds passed and Mitch lowered his gun

"I think we'r-"

*Crash*

Suddenly the door burst open, pieces of debris flying into the Inn, revealing a lone beowulf in the door.

*WRRAAAA*

"Shit!" Mitch screamed as he fired his rifle.

The shot hit the beowulf right in the shoulder making it take a step back, but not killing it. The beowulf rushed forward and swiped at mitch, who attempted to dodge, but received a swipe at the shoulder that knocked him to the other side of the room.

The room erupted in panic, and everyone was running like chickens with their heads cut off looking for a safe zone. In the midst of the Panic, Maeko was knocked down from a running villager, and knocked closer to the beowulf. She got up enough to gaze up at the beowulf right in the eyes, and saw the lust for hunger in it's eyes. The smell of the fear of a young child acting like a shining beacon among the crowd. Licking its dark lips, it slowly approached its soon to be prey.

"MAEKO!" Machiko screamed.

"Somebody save her!" Jade yelled to the crowd.

No one attempted to move in to save the day out of fear, and Mitch was still on the ground unarmed dead injured, leaving the poor little fox girl to die.

Jaune watched the whole thing with shock. Was nobody going to help her? Was there anything he could do?

Weak

The word his father always called him was echoing in his head again, as he just sat there watching as this poor little girl was going to die.

No, he wouldn't let her.

Remembering the knife he had, he looked over to where He was previously playing games with the sisters and saw it on the ground.

Machiko found herself backed up against the wall of the inn as the Grimm was just within reach of her. This was it for her, she was going to die.

"Leave her alone!"

Machiko and the beowulf looked over to the side to see Jaune rushing towards them with a knife in his hands. He ran right towards the beowulf, and slashed it right in the eye causing it to reel back in pain.

"Machiko! Run!" Jaune yelled, right before the beowulf backhanded him away.

"Jaune!"

Jaune was sent flying to the side of the inn, the knife out of his hands a foot away from him. He looked up see the beowulf still next to Machiko, except it was glaring at him with only one eye. He could see the rage coming out of its remaining eye. It wanted to devour him for handicapping it. Jaune looked for a way to get out of this situation, and saw the knife next to him. The beowulf suddenly lunged right at Jaune right as he reached for the knife. The beowulf was right above Jaune, it's limbs spread out on the floor, and its jaws right above Jaune's small frame. Acting on pure fear and instinct, Jaune held the knife tight in his hands and lunged it forward with closed eyes, just as the beowulf leaned its head forward to tear into Jaune's flesh.

But it didn't.

Slowly Jaune began to open his eyes, and looked above him. The beowulf was still above him, but it was still and not moving. He looked to were his hands were, and noticed he was still holding the knife, which was lodged right on the top of the beowulf's jaw, and going through its skull, and into where it's brain would be.

He killed it.

Everyone watched as the beowulf went limp, its form collapsing to the side of Jaune, and slowly began to disintegrate to dust.

Everyone was quiet, so quiet you could hear a pin drop through the whole inn, until two voices shouted out.

"JAUNE!"

The two fox sisters bolted from their spots and ran towards their new friend, who was still on the floor, looking up at the ceiling in shock, eyes wide as dinner plates.

"Jaune, are you okay!?" Maeko asked, but was met with silence.

"Jaune?" Machiko asked while shaking Jaune a bit.

Jaune said nothing for a few seconds, before he took in one breath of air, and fainted on the floor.

"JAUNE!" The sisters yelled again.

This time more of the villagers began to gather around the small boy, checking to see if he was alright, everyone worried for the one who actually managed to kill the Grimm, and just might have saved their lives.

"Alright people break it up! Give The kid some room," Mitch said as he was back on his feet, dispersing the crowd.

He knelt down to Jaune, who was being shaken by the fox sisters, yelling for him to wake up.

"Easy there kids, let me take a look at him," Mitch said as he began to assess Jaune.

"Is he going to be okay Mr Iris?" Maeko asked.

"He's going to be fine kid, just unconscious at the moment. No doubt from the shock of what he just witnessed. I need you two to take him to one of the rooms and lay him on a bed, let him rest for a bit okay?"

"Right!"

With that, the two fox sisters lifted/dragged Jaune through the crowd towards an empty room to let him rest.

Mitch watched as the two dragged him away, and smiled a bit. He then looked over his shoulder to see the damage, and while his shirt was torn from the beowulf's attack, his Aura managed to protect him from any bleeding, but was still bruised a bit from the force of the attack.

"Let me take a look at that Mitch," Jade said as she approached Mitch.

While everyone was trying to recompose themselves over what had happened, they recalled everything that just happened. A beowulf managed to break into the inn, and was stopped by a kid no older than 10.

"Damn," was the only thing Mitch said as he watched the beowulfs corpse disintegrate.

He then turned his head towards the broken door, only to find Masanori, Henry and Rachel all standing there.

"Boy did you guys miss quite the party," Mitch said with a sigh.

END

Hello my fellow readers. Let me just say it wonderful to be back. I am happy to say that my little family issue had been resolved, and my mom is back to her cheery self. I would like to thank you all for the support, it really means a lot to me when I read all your comments, and my mother and rest of my family really appreciate it too. of course there were some rocky subjects revolving around school, but everything is going to be okay. Adding more good news to the fire, I am happy to say that I have been accepted to my first choice for college. YAY ME. And I had a very pleasant new. But onto more pleasant topics.

I am sure many of you were ready to see Masanori go head to head with some giant alpha Grimm, pull of some sick moves straight out of Naruto with that 1000 folded Nippon steel. Well you didn't, and there is a reason for that. Now before all you testosterone and Adrenalin junkies go off on me for not including some sick battle scenes (If you don't include Henry or Rachel), you have to understand more about how I am writing Masanori, and Jaune for that matter.

For starters, they are only Human.

Masanori is a simple samurai (Who doesn't fully know about Aura) and isn't some man who can do sick back flip kills, or kill three people with only slightly taking out his sword. He is a simple swordsman of a specific class, taught how to fight against people. He isn't some super strong hulk. He managed to hold his own sure, but it took a lot out of him. Even with his Aura unlocked (Which will come later) He won't immediately become like 10 times faster than a normal person, or now be able to lift bloody boulders 10 times his weight. Instead he will have to learn how to adapt with this newfound power, and how to change his fighting style to the new surroundings. He will become faster, stronger, and more, but it will take lots of time to become the appropriate level I want him to become, same with Jaune. I don't want to make 2 warriors who are too op, but above average warriors who can hold their own. They will win many fights, but might lose many as well. They aren't invincible. In terms of where I want them to be, I plan on making them on par with Samurai Jack, and Mugen and Jin from Samurai Champloo.

Semblances are also something to take into effect, and I already have them set in mind of what I want to give them, so I won't be taking requests sadly.

As far as character development, I plan on spending the next few (Maybe More) chapters on Jaunes childhood, and developing a bond with Masanori. Together they will train, laugh, and might possibly cry. They are going to grow together. Nether of the two have it better than the other. They are both outcasts in a way, trying to adapt to a new life, and grow stronger to survive.

Hopefully many of you won't get mad at me for wanting to pace myself, and try to develop the characters personality and lives more. I spanning this story for a long time, and at the very least get over 200K words in it before it concludes.

I already have an ending in mind, but I will have to work on it. Most of this is either planned in my head, or winged.

Wish me luck, and remember to follow this story.

Also on a side note, I plan on closing the polls in like maybe a month or so, since I received so many votes. I sense some close knit Darkos people, can it be true? I sure as hell don't know, I just write this shit.

As far as the AN last chapter, i'll probably replace it with an OVA or something.

Also yes Maeko and Machiko are from Sakura spirits, I won't deny it.