"..." : normal talk

"(...)" : individual thoughts

*(...)* : mind talk

000000

In a training facility, there were two figures present in the place.

One was still running, and the other was sitting on the field, overseeing the individual running on the track.

It was 5.00 a.m. in the morning, and after seeing Jaune running for the past few hours, he had remembered that he had a question for the blonde boy, which he had forgotten.

It was a yesterday's question, which somehow had slipped away from his mind.

"(Am I getting old?... nah...)"

Currently, Jaune was sitting on the ground after a good 10 laps around the field, his clothes drenched in sweats.

One thing Rufus had found about aura infusion was that the water lost by Jaune would be restored when aura was being infused into his body, and that was a good thing.

Water did make up 70% of the human body... or is it 75%?

Regardless of that, it was time for him to do a bit of questioning.

Rufus sat next to Jaune, waiting for the right moment to start a conversation.

Awkward as it seemed, Rufus still managed to start the conversation, thankfully.

Rufus turned his head towards Jaune, with his question ready, "Jaune... I wanted to ask you something..." He said as he observed Jaune for a surprise reaction.

Fortunately, Rufus didn't see any.

"Sure. What is it?" Jaune said innocently as he faced Rufus.

"Do you have someone you like here?" Rufus said to the blonde boy.

Rufus's eyes were on Jaune as he looked for any reaction to his question... and he did.

He was sure of it as he saw Jaune flinched a bit.

He was sure that his eyes didn't deceive him.

Rufus could see how the blonde boy tried to avoid looking into his eyes, gazing at the ground like something was there... well, there were grasses.

Rufus pressed on, "so... do have someone you like? Who is it?"

"I-wait... why are you asking me this?" Jaune questioned back, clearly, he seemed restless.

"Hm... just asking." Rufus said plainly.

"Well..." Jaune muttered.

Rufus waited for his answer, but when the silence continued for a few minute, he started to think why.

Was the question that hard to answer?

Well... maybe it was a bit hard, since he was asking like a busybody, but what could he do?

He was curious!?

Then again, seeing Jaune not approaching the girls... there was one suspicion that Rufus had made.

It was just one out of the many speculations that he had thought due to the changes in the RWBY universe or something.

But it might be probable with all the events changing a bit, but still...

Rufus looked at Jaune as he put a bit of distance between the two of them.

If this one speculation of his was true...

He was okay if Jaune was... homo... but he didn't want to be the target of Jaune's homo assault.

"Are you homo?" He asked with a grave tone.

"No!"

Hearing that reply, Rufus sighed in relieved.

But his question still went unanswered as he looked at Jaune.

Jaune looked down, "I... I just don't feel like it's time yet..." He said, in a weak voice.

Letting the situation calmed down, Rufus didn't ask him any question for now as he was thinking.

"(Not time yet?)"

Rufus raised an eyebrow as he remembered that Jaune was all high and ready to flirt with girls, like at the club where he forged his transcript.

"(Well, Jaune did get rejected by some girls at the club... two... it can't be.. can it?)"

"Jaune... are you still depressed being rejected?" He asked.

Judging from the way Jaune had flinched and looked away, he hit the mark.

"It's fine, Jaune. You'll get over it."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one that was rejected."

"True... but that's how life work, Jaune."

Rufus looked at the ceiling as he contemplated on his own life.

"Are you okay?" Jaune said, breaking Rufus out of his dazed. "You looked... sad."

He was sad... but it was inevitable.

He still had conflicted feelings, whether to treat this event of him being in Remnant as a blessing or a curse.

Meeting with the characters that played in one of the many favourite shows that he had watched, he felt happy.

But after some passing time, he realized that with him being here on Remnant, he had left his family, his friends... everything that were connected to him.

"Aren't you getting ready for your class?" Rufus said, trying to change the subject.

Jaune stood up, but not before giving a side glance towards Rufus, "Are you okay? I can skip class-"

"I'm fine. Just needed some time for myself."

"Okay..." Jaune said as he walked away.

--New Scene--

In a shop at Vale, customers were starting to increase as many businesses started their operating hour in the morning.

Rufus could see that the shop was an old antic wooden store... okay, he didn't know how to describe the store, but he could see many chairs, tables.

Basically, it was a restaurant, and Rufus was working as someone that handled the heavy work... dish washing.

Not many people may know, but dishwashers were the backbone of a restaurant.

Then again, it was kind of boring, rubbing the dishes, watching the water running down, bubbles of soap floating in the air.

But this was what he had suggested to Jaune, and it was beneficial to them both.

"Another stack coming up!" A male said as he brought a stack of plates onto Jaune's sink.

"Awww... more!?" A girl next to Rufus complained as she took the dirty plates and started scrubbing.

Rufus looked at the pile of plates and sighed.

But a job was still a job, and it was a beneficial, good time waster for him, rather than going to school.

He looked out of the window, and saw the dissipating ray of sunlight as the weather started to change.

It was starting to rain outside as many tiny droplets hit the windows, accompanied by the sound of wind blowing gently.

*crash*

A commotion had occurred as Rufus continued to rub and rinsed the dirty dishes.

"Hey! What do you think is going on out there?" The girl beside Rufus asked him as if he had the answer.

Then again, he was also curious by the sound, but he casted it aside as somebody dropping something.

"Nothing maybe." Rufus replied as he squeeze the cleaning agent onto his sponge, and proceeded his scrubbing spree.

*crash* *crash*

Once can be cast aside as normal, but two times were pretty unusual.

Now, he was genuinely curious at the sound as he decided to go and checked it out.

He put down his sponge and plates, cleaned his hands with water first, and then moved to see what was the commotion all about.

There, he saw four guys in black clothing thrashing the tables, chairs and anything in their sights as the employees tried to stop the aggressors.

Other customers scrambled outside as they didn't want to get involved or got hurt by the four mobster.

There were 8 employees that were working in the restaurant, which included himself.

Four female workers worked inside the kitchen, added with himself working as a dishwasher.

And the other three male were now facing with the four aggressors, trying to bring them out of the restaurant.

Beside, they were breaking the tables and chairs, which would cost a lot.

As someone that worked there, Rufus went to help the other employees as he approached the four aggressors.

"Sir! Please-" Rufus words were cut short as he was kicked away by one of the aggressor, causing him to fall down on the floor.

This had became a signal for the others to attack as it had turned into a fight.

"(Okay...)"

He was powerful, and the urged to just used his power was quite strong, but that would be foolish of him to cause a scene.

Then again, as a worker in the restaurant, it was his job to help removed the threat.

He grabbed the man's neck with his right hand, and applied a bit of aura, which pushed the man's head towards him.

His aura acted as if a small explosion had occurred, which increased the force of his pulling.

Then, Rufus kneed the incoming face with his left knee as he felt something had broke.

The man grabbed his nose in agony as he stumbled back.

Rufus didn't waste time as he turned to his left, seeing his coworkers being overwhelmed by the three aggressors.

He went to the nearby aggressor as he uppercut him successfully three times with each hit pushing the aggressor up floating into midair, before gravity took him down.

He managed to slap the man, before he was tackled by the aggressor's friend into the ground.

He applied a bit of aura, and punched the man sideway, flinging him towards his left side.

Few minutes later...

After a series of punching and kicking, Rufus to aggressors and aggressors to Rufus and friends, Rufus had decided to just end the problem instantly.

"(Why did I overthink? I should have ended this farce earlier...)" Rufus thought as he sighed.

In front of him, the aggressors had been tied with a rope as the Vale Police Department escorted the guys to their cars.

With that, Rufus went back to finish his cleaning duties.

--New Scene--

"Now then class. Today, we will learn how to be calm. As you all know, the Grimm had the capabilites to sense negative human emotions. Hate, anger, jealousy and fear... now, follow me."

Professor Port led the students into a large room as there were something being put at the end of the room.

Cages filled up the room at the right and left as there was only a single path, which was quite narrow.

"As you all can see, the cages are filled with small Grimm..." He said as he pointed at the nearby cage.

Jaune looked at where Professor Port was pointing, and was asking himself, what kind of Grimm were inside the cages, but he held it in.

A few minutes had passed as he let the information from Professor Port to sink in.

Students were required to bring back a cup filled with water, and made sure to not spill any of its content beyond the mark.

"(Pretty simple enough... I guess.)" Jaune thought to himself as he saw Ren walking through the narrow path like it was nothing.

The lights were pretty dimmed, probably for the task.

Soon, he saw Ren gracefully made his way towards them, completely relax... like usual.

Jaune swore that Ren's expression didn't change from the start till now, and it made him wonder if he was a human or not.

One by one, the students managed to bring the cup filled with water, although there were a few that had spilled the content of their cups since the Grimms in the cages had went ballistic, probably sensing a bit of fear.

Jaune was glad that not all the students his age were all immune to fear.

People should have fear... right? Or maybe it was just him?

And now, it was Jaune's turn as he was beckoned by the professor.

"(Okay! Calm down... they're just Grimms, I mean, Professor Port can get them in safely, right? Then again, he is a professional huntsman... no! Cast it aside! Ok-ok-ok! Take a deep breath, and exhale. Take in, take out-)"

"Mister Arc, you can go now." The professor's voice reached him.

Slowly, Jaune walked through the path as he chanted "calm down" repeatedly under his breath.

*roar*

A womanly screamed had spurred the other cages as Jaune ran towards the end of the room, grabbed the cup of water, and successfully brought it back.

Only that he looked like a frantic waiter, but surprisingly, the water in the cup didn't drop by a bit.

Guess living with seven sisters had its perks.

He remembered the training they gave him as they played house, which he played as a waiter, waiting for their order.

Then, there was that time that he remembered being taught how to cook by his sisters.

A very useful skills if he ever got lost in the wild.

*bell ringing*

"It seems like our class had ended, so goodbye class. Tomorrow, I'll promise to bring my valiant-"

Jaune ignored the speech, and looked at the cages as it had made him wondered.

How the heck do walking passed the cages filled with Grimms was a thing to helped him calm down!?

"Are you okay, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked as she approached him.

"I'm okay. Not hurt. He he..." Jaune said weakly.

"It's okay to be-" Pyrrha's words were halted as she was a little bit surprised when something appeared between her and Jaune.

Out of nowhere, Nora decided to join the conversation, "Oh Jaune! How do you hit that high note! I think it was just like a sloth!!" Nora said as she turned towards Ren that was behind her.

"I don't think sloth scream..." Ren replied, gaining a shocked expression from Nora.

Ridiculous as it seemed, Jaune also wondered if sloth could scream, but only for awhile.

But then, Nora's expression when back to normal, "Hm? Well, at least we could pinpoint your location pretty easily with that skill!

Yeah... pretty useful.

Looking elsewhere, he saw Weiss was looking at him, which was not weird in any way.

In fact, she seemed to be amazed, though she still had her cold stare up.

"Getting dibs on Jaune, Ice Queen?" Yang smirked at Weiss, prompting a "Hmmph!" From Weiss.

"I'm just acknowledging his more... refine skill. And as a Schnee-"

"Cockcroach on your shoulder-" Yang pointed at Weiss.

"Where-where-please-get-it-off-me-get-it-off-me!!!" Weiss screamed as she frantically tried to remove a cockroach that didn't exist.

Yang snickered, "So graceful~~" as she laughed out loud.

"So... where's Rufus? Is he inside?" Ruby said as she somehow had appeared out of nowhere.

Probably her semblance.

"He's working, right now." Jaune said, ignoring the commotion made by Weiss.

--New Scene--

The restaurant was closed for a break as the employees went into the restroom specifically build for them.

Rufus sat on one of the chair as he leaned back on the chair, eyes closed.

"Hey, you asleep?" A female voice asked him.

"No, just conserving some energy... Do you know that our eyes uses the most energy in our body?" Rufus explained without any specific purpose.

"(Not that I needed any... sigh...)" Rufus mused to himself.

"Really? Hm... maybe I'll try doing it next time!"

The silence in the room was starting to make Rufus felt nervous, so he opened his eyes as he looked at the girl beside him.

He looked around, and saw that it was only him and the girl... in a room.

Not that it would lead to anything, right?

Nope, he might be too self conscious, so he dismissed that thought far, far away.

And beside, the awkward silence was starting to suffocate him as he looked at the girl beside him.

"...thank you..."

"(Well, that was... out of nowhere.)" Rufus thought.

"For what?" Rufus said as he looked at the girl to his left.

He looked at her silky smooth black hair that reached her shoulder.

He appreciated the beauty of her silky black hair as he trailed it back towards her face...

Seeing that she was not looking at him, he continued his... observation...

"(Hormones begone!!!)" He screamed... in his mind, feeling guilty... maybe not.

"For protecting my family's restaurant..." The girl said, which snapped his attention back to her.

"(Her family's restaurant?...) He thought for awhile.

A bit of thinking had connected the puzzles in his mind.

He looked at the girl, quite surprised that she was doing the dishes rather than overlooking the restaurant like a manager awhile back.

Now that Rufus thought about it, he never did meet with the manager of the restaurant.

Never did he thought that the manager was next to him all this time.

A young one at that...

"This place... they're precious to me..." she said as she lowered her head towards Rufus.

He looked at the girl in front of him, and then towards an envelope that had just appeared on the table.

"This.. is your payment for-"

Rufus held the envelope, "No... I won't accept this." He said as he looked at the girl, and slowly shoved the envelope back towards her.

"Don't cry please..." He said as he could see another tears threatening to spill out of the girl's eyes. "Beside, what's in the envelope?" He asked, trying to confirm his assumption, which were lien.

"...it's our way to repay you... for helping us... so we have collected-"

The girl's voice was soft, but he got the gist of it, and it didn't sit right with him.

"Keep it."

The girl had a conflicted look on her face, her eyes bore into him, looking at him in confusion... while looking so adorable.

An "eh?" Escaped from the girl's mouth as a palm had latched onto her face.

Yep... he had just put his palm on a girl's face... great move, but it was out of reflex.

Rufus stood up as he removed his palm, and walked towards the door, his back facing the girl. "...what's your name?" He said as he tried to look cool.

The girl looked at Rufus, still shocked about the face palm, but she recovered, "Karen... Karen Lawson.."

He registered the name in his mind, since obviously, she was the manager of the place where he was working.

"I'll go back to work now." He told the girl.

--New Scene--

"Mr Arc will fight with Miss Nikos."

Jaune swore that Miss Goodwitch tried to bring a death sentence to him.

"(Like, come on! It is Pyrrha Nikos for goodness sake!?)" He screamed in his mind.

Wouldn't she pick someone easy, like... umm... ok...

*(Rufus!)*

*(yes?)*

*(I'm sparring with Pyrrha!!!)*

*(so?)*

*(well... maybe you can help or something?)*

Jaune's aura: 500 -- 600, Rufus's aura: 4315 -- 4215

*(there... I've given you extra aura)*

"Start!" Miss Goodwitch's voice reached Jaune's ear, and by instinct, his shield was up as he felt a tremendous impact, which had flung him backwards.

Pyrrha was never one to be soft hearted during a fight.

--New Scene--

Rufus was tending to a customer, a female to be precise, and she was really dangerous.

Rufus wouldn't say she was beautiful, but instead, she was really, really alluring.

Rufus looked at the outfit she was wearing... pretty tight fitting.

Pretty high class... okay, he was really bad at describing clothes.

He was pretty sure that she was wearing a black t-shirt underneath her shirt, her shorts with length above her knee, which allowed a good view of her beautiful thighs...

He switched his sight towards her face, and saw how she was smiling at him, almost like she was flirting with him.

"(Busted...)"

"What are your orders, miss?" Rufus asked as he gave her the menu, eyes on his notepad.

She picked up the menu as Rufus was prepared to write down what she wanted to say.

"Green tea. That's all."

"Alright miss." Rufus said as he finished jotting down the orders.

The female looked at the blonde waiter that had picked up her orders, and then switched her attention towards her scroll.

After a few minutes...

"Here's your order, miss."

"Thank you." She said as she took a sip, albeit slowly.

Rufus went away as he took a glance at a clock on a wall, and saw that his shift had ended, so he went into the kitchen to tell the others that he was done for the day.

It was a tiring day, fighting bad guys... four of them in the restaurant, and then, there was the manager.

Speaking of manager, Rufus's eyes met with Karen, the female manager of the place he was working.

He could see that she was washing the dishes like usual.

Question was, why was she washing the dishes?

Rufus saw that she was looking his way, and started to approach him.

"You're going home?"

"Yeah..." He said as he faced the girl.

She picked her left pocket and handed him an envelope, "Your payment for today's shift. 64 lien for working for 8 hours."

He took the envelope and gave his thanks before going away, a few fist bump with the other employees nearby before he went out.

Back to the female drinking green tea...

She had just finished up her drinks and pay up.

Soon, she moved out of the building as she freely moved through the streets.

Walking through the street, she had garnered the attention of others, especially the male as she was quite a sight to look at.

Her destination soon changed towards an alley, which was quite dark.

A few bystanders saw this and decided to chase after the female as they moved into the darkness of the alley.

--New Scene--

Having finished his work, Rufus was going towards a place since he was feeling a bit curious about something.

What was aura? Some said it was related to the soul.

He remembered how he had seen Ruby's mom, Summer Rose... only once, and she should have died... in the animation... or maybe there were some plot twist in the latter episodes.

He wanted to meet with her, but he had never saw her again after that one time.

With that plan out of reached, he decided to do another task, going to the Cemetery...

Why? Of course to see if there were other souls lingering about, and maybe learned a bit about... well... something.

Unfortunately, there were only a few people in the Cemetery, probably visiting the deceased, and paying respect to them.

And he also tried to avoid disturbing the people there as he walked in further and further from the Cemetery's entrance.

Due to his lack of focus, he was at a less popular places of the Cemetery as he only could see two people nearby the area, a child and a man.

The child was holding onto a parasol, but Rufus pried his attention away as his objective was not with the two people.

Then again, he got this weird feeling in his chest... like something was not right with the two people.

He turned his sight back towards the two individuals, and found that they were gone.

Honestly, he might thought that he was in some kind of a horror story setting.

Nevertheless, he continued onwards towards the last sighting of the two individuals.

He looked at a tombstone that had a name being engraved on it.

"Ace Droger?"

--New Scene--

In the library, eight individuals were doing their assignment, which was to write an essay about 'How do Huntsman affect the society?', which was due tomorrow.

And they must wrote it in about 1500 words.

Jaune looked at his paper that was still clean, obviously from the lacked of writing as he couldn't think of how to start the essay.

Then, he felt a small power surged inside his body, "Rufus? You're back?" He spoke, obviously not to the people nearby.

He was talking to Rufus, but by using his voice, it seemed like he was talking to someone nearby.

Evidently, the others didn't get distracted by Jaune's voice as their attentions were fixed on their own paper.

Too tired... too much information to squeeze out of their brain.

*(yup. I'm back. So, what are you doing? Oh? Essay is it...)* Rufus said as he looked at the paper in front of Jaune.

It brought back memories of the time that he needed to do a 5000 words essay... Rufus knew the pain.

Jaune sighed, *(yeah...)*

*(c'mon! Let's change our venue.)*

--New Scene--

It was already nighttime, as the sun had just slipped beneath the horizon, stars replaced the sun as they provided light for the people below.

At team JNPR's dorm, somehow, Rufus had became a mentor for them, giving them slight hint, and let them filled the rest of the blank with their own imaginative thoughts.

Beside, he suck at essay... but he could produce information... just that he suck at organizing thing.

All the structures and organizing...

Yang screaming in joy after finishing the assignment... Weiss looked of disbelieve... all sorts of things had happened, but sooner or later, they were bound to get sleepy.

--New Scene--

"Are you ready?"

Jaune nodded his head as he adapted a defensive position with Crocea Mor in his hands.

Rufus could see that Jaune had a proper stance now... wow... he sounded like an expert fighter... stance...

Back to the point, he could see that Jaune was getting better.

Today, Rufus was planning to spar with Jaune, and see who was the better one at a one versus one battle.

A spar between amateurs... with their pride as two individuals without any fighting experience.

Rufus could be seen holding two blades in his hands, blades made up of aura, which he had created beforehand.

Soon, the two indentical individuals clashed with each other as both were in a deadlock, while spurring the dust into the air.

Unknown to the both of them, someone had decided to eavesdrop on their sparring session.

--New Scene--

It was already twelve past midnight, which should be the time for most of the students to sleep, but Pyrrha didn't feel like going to sleep.

She turned around her bed, looking at a bed that seemed to be empty.

With her eyes had already adjusted to the dark, she didn't see any sign of Jaune in the room.

It was not the first time she had seen Jaune's bed completely empty.

But the thing was, Jaune didn't seem to be having a proper sleep, which was evident from the empty bed in her sight.

Sleep was important for the human body, and as a huntsman, it was the most important thing as their own life was on the line.

She didn't know whether Rufus had a way for Jaune to be able to cast away the need to sleep, but for curiosity sake, she had decided to visit the two.

She got out of her bad as she slowly made her way out of the room.

Walking through the corridor, random thoughts came to her as she remembered how Rufus had shown her and the others about who he was and all the interesting things that they had never seen before.

But... were all of it real?

She still couldn't decide about the things that Rufus had shown to them... as real.

But one thing for sure, Rufus was a friendly boy, though not a human nor a Faunas.

She saw her destination as she closed in, and peeking through the entrance, she saw two people were in a fight.

Pyrrha was watching the spar that seemed to be serious, but a bit lacking.

She saw Rufus jumped up, and brought down both of his swords onto Jaune, which was block with a shield.

"He could try to roll to the right or he could bash him while he was in the air... and that jump is unnecessary..." she commented.

Then, the two boys were in a deadlock as they were in a battle of strength, pushing against each other to see who would dominate the fight.

"Jaune could crouch and let Rufus tripped... rather than wasting his energy..."

Then, she saw something that was pretty ridiculous.

Rufus was hacking onto Jaune just like playing a drumsticks, while Jaune just stood there in his position, defending himself with his shield.

How she would like to give her advice to the lookalike individuals on how to fight...

Then again, it would be weird for her to just come out and talk to them.

Or is it?

"Hm?"

She felt like someone was closed to her, which had prompted her to look around.

But scanning around the area, it was just her at the scene, except for Jaune and Rufus at the field far away.

Casting the weird feeling she felt, she decided to go towards the two boys in training.

Rufus was defending himself, when he caught a glimpse of someone that was approaching them.

He motioned to Jaune to stop as he saw Pyrrha was approaching.

He was on his way to greet her, when he saw someone at the entrance... wearing a white cloak.

"(Ruby's mother!!!)"

000000

I decided this story would be on a hiatus... just kidding... semester break... yeah! For one week! Booo!!! I'm getting noob at writing...