Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.

Blue

By: Imyoshi

Team JNPR occasionally overlooked Nora's borderline insanity.

Today happened to be one those days.

Dust class—the last place anyone wanted to leave Nora Valkyrie unattended, especially since today of all days, Professor Port covered for their usual professor after a freak Dust explosion that might or might not have been Team RWBY's fault.

Too many wrongs existed in that statement.

Working in their typical Grimm Studies class, students took careful steps into making sure no other freak Dust explosions occurred, well, not all the students per se. In reality, it was only just one. Nora—it was Nora.

While everyone took wary measures and prudent caution at carrying their vials of Dust back to their teammates, Nora gleefully skipped toward her team with a vast amount of jars of Dust tucked between her slippery arms, humming a cheerful melody. Her team had been too busy reading the assignment instructions to notice her leave and fetch the vials. An error in their lack of common sense, one that would cost them dearly.

She stopped halfway from her skipping to stare at the far corner of the wall of Port's class, wanting to observe the Grimm heads Professor Port had hung up. She always loved to do this, stop and look. It was one of her favorite past times, next to explosions and waking up Ren in the morning. Each one of those thoughts made her smile brightened, especially the last one.

She loved waking up Ren in the morning.

Turning her head, she noticed a new Grimm skull that Professor Port added at the remote corner of his wall. Strange? It didn't resemble a Grimm's head. Unlike the others, this skull lacked both black fur and blood-shot eyes. In its place were decayed bones and abnormal canines.

Her eyes grew the closer she moved, wondering what type of Grimm it was. The Valkyrie, through her misadventures and battle-prone life, had seen many Grimm, but none ever like that. Bears? Sure! Scorpions? Of course! Birds? She killed some last week! Tigers though, maybe, but never one like this. Such little things amazed her, and this tigerish Grimm hit the nail on the head.

Walking over to it with arms still full of a haphazard assortment of Dust vials and jars, she stopped in front of the skull, eyes shining and thoughts racing. Curiosity soon grabbed her. She desperately wanted to know what Grimm this was. More so, she desired to touch it.

"Ah!" A voice startled her from behind, joyous and jolly like her own. She almost dropped her vials. "I see you found my newest addition to my collection, Miss Valkyrie. It's wonderful, is it not?"

Looking over her shoulder, she found Professor Port behind her, happy and all. Hands tucked behind his back, character glowing, he moved beside her. There was a small twinkle in his eyes as his mustache moved to empathize with his boisterous smile.

Nora grinned in return, leaning toward the skull. "What is it, Professor Port? I've never seen this Grimm before?!"

"Ha-ha!" Port laughed, touching the skull. "Would you believe me if I told you it wasn't a Grimm?"

She paused, touching the skull as well. "Really?"

"Really! It's an animal skull—an extinct animal skull to be exact!" Port grabbed the plaque holding the skull, chuckling to himself. "My dear friend Doctor Oobleck gave me this beautiful gem after finding it on one of the numerous adventurous expeditions he likes to take."

"Do you know what animal it was?"

Port gazed over to Nora, grinning at the way her eyes filled with childlike wonder and enthusiasm. The old teach shook his head in amusement. Ah! To be so young and curious. Such a notion reminded him of his youthful days as a Huntsmen.

Placing back the decoration on the wall, he turned to address a student who was raising their hand for assistance. A raise of his finger instructed the other student to wait for a moment and then he turned back to a waiting Nora with his fingers pinching the ends of his pristine mustache.

"Ah! Yes! Professor Oobleck said the animal was an extinct family of the big cat." Port began rubbing his chin in thought. "He told me the animal's name was something along the lines of the saber-tooth cat. Ha! Looks more like a tiger to me, but alas, I didn't choose the name. Fierce hunters they were. Stories were told of their monstrous roars that could frighten the strongest of foes and boost the morale of their allies strength. Quite the tale, eh? Now, if you'll excuse me, Miss Valkyrie, I have another student to aid."

Port adventured off to help the desperate student, not paying any attention to the excited girl. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was thinking that his brief description alone would satisfy Nora's curiosity. Mistake number three was leaving Nora Valkyrie alone.

Grinning to herself, she approached the late animal skull and plucked the plaque right off the wall with one free hand with the other busy holding her stockpile of Dust flasks in a haphazardous way. Upon closer examination, she awed at the cracks in the skull and the deep-dark sockets where the eyes used to be. This animal must've been top of the food chain when it was alive! Look at those chompers! Animals and prey beware! Those could probably bite through steel!

"Nora!"

Nora looked over her shoulder to see Ren looking for her, checking under his desk to see if she was playing her game of surprise hide-and-seek again. The surprise—it was always her turn to hide. Meanwhile, Pyrrha was trying to explain the Dust lesson to a confused Jaune and was failing. To be fair, from where Nora stood, Pyrrha was just as lost as Jaune-Jaune. It was like watching a depraved sponge trying to absorb the knowledge through a rock.

Poor, poor sponge.

Not wanting Ren to tire himself out, she ran over with the saber-tooth cat plaque still in her hand and loads of Dust vials tucked underneath the other. She jumped expertly in front of her best friend, dropping the Dust vials on the desk near Jaune. The plaque, for the meantime, remained safely tucked underneath her arm.

She saluted, smile too innocent. "Here I am, Ren!"

For the class time remaining, Lie Ren pointedly chose to ignore how she carelessly dropped the Dust vials on the desk, and instead punctually resolved to ask her a rather unusual and needed question.

"Nora?"

"Yes, Ren?"

He pointed at the skull plaque, watching her already grow in excitement. "What is that underneath your arm?"

"Oh, this?" Nora held up the plaque to a nodding Ren. She bounced in place, shaking the thing in total delight. "It's our Professor's new skull. Except this time it's an actual animal and not a Grimm! Isn't that amazing?! He called it a saber-tooth cat! Weird, huh? I think it looks more like a tiger! Roar! Roar!"

The Lie fought the urge to sigh; he sincerely did and instead settled to close his eyes for a quick breather. He then opened them a few seconds later to respond, but their Fearless Leader beat him to punch.

"Nora..." Jaune cut in with Pyrrha behind him. He looked back to see Port still busy with many students. "Shouldn't... you know... maybe put that back before Professor Port sees?"

"I agree!" Pyrrha added. "It appears to be very old, and I do not wish to see it break."

She waved them off, shaking the plaque extra-extra hard. "Aw, you guys worry too much. See!" Nora shook the plaque up and down even faster. "Nothing to worry—oops!"

The plague slipped out of her fingers and flew straight into the air. Team JNPR and a good portion of the students in the class stopped to see the plaque spin in the air dramatically. All eyes focused on how it continued to spin in the air for a long time before finally falling back down due to gravity's cruel design.

For a room of trained Huntsmen-in-Training, their reflexes sucked. So much for being Humanity's protectors.

Nobody even tried to lunge for the priceless artifact.

Finally, the fossil, skull-down, crash-landed on top of the vials of Dust in front of Jaune, smashing the skull and numerous Dust together. A blue smoke erupted from the small pile of bones and Dust, and all in front of Jaune.

Nobody in the room moved for a whole minute, waiting for an explosion or anything to happen, but Lady Luck wasn't so cruel and spared them. Nothing happened, and Jaune finally breathed a breath of relief, wiping his forehead.

He grinned weakly, sweating a little. "Phew! And I thought something terrible was going to—!"

Boom!

A thick cobalt smoke engulfed Jaune in a cloud of Dust ash, and the explosion shook the entire room, and some of Beacon, with the intensity of an active volcano. Chaos erupted in the room shortly after. Everyone scattered and screamed, acting very un-Huntsmen like, resembling more toward the headless chicken side of the spectrum. Papers flew from the confusing panic and students rushed toward the door, pushing against each other. One person, a courageous soul, plunged out the window, forgetting that the class resided on the third floor.

It was only seconds later—after everyone had escaped out of the room—did Professor Port notice they were missing one student. They were missing the only unfortunate student that had been caught directly in the explosion's path, Jaune Arc.

By Monty Oum what a travesty!

...

A few floors above a table shook from the explosion, setting off alarms in both Beacon Academy's security systems and her nervous system. The last of her nerves, mainly the one, burst and she stood up, slammed her palms flat on her table, spilling her pile of paperwork, and growled like a cornered animal.

One Dust explosion had been bad enough, but two? In the same week!

Glynda Goodwitch felt a vein throbbing. This time there would be hell to pay. There wouldn't be enough detention slips to go around. Not this time!

Not even waiting for Ozpin to message her, she swiftly grabbed her riding crop and straightened her skirt, more than ready to ruin the student body's weekend plans. Best to strike when the iron's hot!

Another few floors above her, Ozpin glanced at the way a drop jumped from his coffee, before splashing back down. He felt the rumble, noticed the ongoing fire alarming blaring on his monitor, and felt Glynda's anger from up here. A tired smile graced his lips as he turned his chair to find a thick smog of cobalt smoke emerging from Port's classroom.

Ah yes. Just another day at his prestigious school.

...

The funny thing about explosions, they were nothing more than a bomb. Bombs, while initially dangerous, were quite simple to create. Remarkable in simplicity and devastating in destructive power. That was what an explosion was. A vigorous extension of energy in an outward force, be it light, power, or emotion, explosions were either irregular or foreseeable by miles.

A Dust explosion was something entirely different, while fundamentally the same, down to its characteristics and core properties.

Now a Dust explosion mixed with DNA fragments and Aura changed the game.

Jaune Arc, basked in his Aura, soon succumbed to an explosion that was a mixture of feline DNA and Dust. The fragments of the saber-tooth cat sped toward him, digging deep into his skin and body, mainly his head where he remained unclothed, reacting violently to the Dust bits ingrained into the marrow of the skull fragments. Aura protected him, but the bits of Dust counteracted the balance between protection and activation, allowing the tiniest of bits to lodge themselves into his ears, cheeks, and overall bits into his head's skin.

Now the Dust reacted violently with his Aura and marrow, infusing the bits of scraps into his bone structure. Dust messed with his DNA and saber-tooth cat DNA mixed with his Aura and his skull. Somewhere in between, his humanity fell into the dense jungle of animality, and animal features grew from where the overall bits of skull fragments embedded themselves into his body.

A new Jaune Arc was born.

...

Outside of Professor Port's classroom, the blue smoke lessened, and the air dissipated somewhat.

Port bolted.

Peeking his head through the door, various other students followed his example, including all of Team JNPR, and stared into the cobalt smoke-filled room. Papers drifted in the air carelessly, and there was a large amount of smoke centered on where Jaune had last been standing. The desk before him was practically gone, planks of wood of its former glory.

"Jaune!" Nora called out into the room, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry for accidentally blowing you up!" she paused, sticking her head into the room. "Are you still alive? If not, can I have your sweater?!"

"No!" Jaune wheezed, which came out as a coughing fit from where the smoke was centered. "My sisters made me that sweater!"

Stepping out of the bluish smoke, he came out coughing, bits of his hair burnt with embers and cheeks covered in soot. His eyes hurt and the smoke tasted horrible, like really, really dry dirt. No one should bother asking how he knew how dirt tasted. Fine! His sisters dared him, alright! A nickel well-earned in his honest opinion.

Meanwhile, the entire class stared in wonder at the Arc's somewhat sudden new appearance.

Out stepped Jaune Arc in his torn up school uniform with a few noticeable differences. First, he had a pair of bluish cat ears on his head with a hint of his natural blondness mixed in. Two black lines came from behind his head and ended less than halfway to his cheeks. His eyes adopted a darker shade of blue with a dark eyeliner shade of black resting underneath them. Finally, upon closer scrutiny, two large canines protruded out of his mouth, longer than any other of his teeth, appearing ominously robust.

He walked over to the door and cracked his neck along the way, completely unaware of the stares he was getting. He bluntly ignored the smoke and destruction behind him, figuring he got the worst part of it anyways. Besides, there was no way Nora was getting his sweater. He'd be damned if he allowed that to happen.

Spilling out the door with an uneven strut, the other students moved a few steps back from him, unsure how to react. Even Professor Port didn't have anything to say, surprisingly. Jaune, however, did. He stopped right in front of his stunned teammates—more specifically Nora.

"Look what you did, Nora!" Jaune moaned with a dark cloud forming over his head. He pointed at the destroyed room, fingers shaking and smoke trailing from his burnt body. "Why? Why me? I just know I'm going to get blamed for this."

The students watched as Jaune fell to the floor on his knees and slammed his fist repeatedly into the floor, muttering why over and over again. He did have a point though. As the team leader, he took full responsibility when it came to team projects, and Glynda Goodwitch was not going to be a happy Huntress when news of another obliterated classroom reached her ears.

"Um, Jaune?" Pyrrha finally reached out, shaking their poor leader's shoulder.

"Not now, Pyrrha. I'm sulking."

"But... you really need to look at yourself."

Jaune lifted and tilted his head up. "What—?"

"We heard an explosion!"

All the students and Professor Port turned to see Ruby Rose, her team, and the rest of their class running toward them with Glynda right behind them, her glasses fogged and radiating.

No!

Glynda glared hard at the students in the hallway and then back at the smoke filing out Port's classroom. Her frown only grew stronger each second, but then her eyes fell upon Jaune Arc on his knees, and her eyes swelled.

"What happened?"

Everybody wanted the answer to that question when all eyes turned to the fallen Arc. Jaune immediately noticed everyone was staring hard at him and quickly got up, giving his best award-winning smile. The leader even scratched his head for good measure, laughing like it was all one, big, elaborate joke.

"Well... you see... " Cue one long story of tale and wonder, plus the accident Nora caused. Of course, Jaune didn't pin the blame on his bubbly teammate. He could never do that. Ren so owed him. "And that's why the room blew up."

No one from his class bothered to correct Jaune on any part of the story, still stuck at his new appearance. Well, except Nora. She loved every second of that story, already chalking down ideas for her next tale of wonder and excitement, the Nora Valkyrie Edition.

Sold separately.

Clearing her throat, Glynda pushed up her glasses, still fixated on Jaune's new ears. "Thank you for that... interesting story. However, that doesn't explain your sudden change in appearance, Mr. Arc."

He took a step back, one brow raised. "Change in appearance?"

The atmosphere froze, despite the ongoing Dust fire in Professor Port's classroom. Suddenly all eyes adverted their attention to the top of Jaune's head, deathly quiet for a bunch of teenagers. When he noticed the unexpected attention, anxiety gripped him, and students gasped, holding their tongues.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha whispered behind him, making said blond turn around. She subtly—not so subtly—pinched her hands above her head. "Touch your head."

"... What?"

Feeling sorry for his team leader, and figuring he probably should've stopped Nora from causing all of this, Ren grabbed Jaune's hand and placed them right on his newest ears. Everyone paused, holding their breath collectively as he stopped to run his hand over his furry ear. He pinched it a few times then moved over to the next one, doing the same thing.

Eventually, both his hands found their way to his head.

Jaune kept checking them for a bit before the Arc finally ran to the nearest bathroom, didn't care what gender it was for, and looked straight into the nearest mirror. It wouldn't be until five minutes later that Pyrrha would check up on him to only find her leader and partner passed out on the bathroom floor.

...

Gossip belonged to the youth.

Huntsmen or Huntress or Faunus or civilian, it didn't matter where, what, when, why, or how, it was an unspoken rule of humanity. Gossip traveled far and traveled fast, but those with big mouths and too much time on their hands helped it spread like wildfire.

Before nurses came by to carry the unconscious body of Jaune Arc out the lady's bathroom and to the nurse's office, pictures quickly got snapped and sent around Beacon. An incident such as this quickly became the talk of the academy. Classes were canceled for the remainder of the day, not to mention another Dust fire had to be put out, leaving the student body to share pictures and talk amongst themselves.

Team RWBY was no different.

Pinch!

"Ow! Yang! Why'd you pinch me?"

Ruby rubbed her cheek, sighing miserably. Yang grinned. "Just making sure this isn't some sort of crazy dream. And would you look at that? No dream!"

"Hmmm! Then pinch your own cheek!"

"What was that? You still think this is a dream? Hold up! Let me pinch your other cheek!"

"Gah!"

Weiss rolled her eyes at the way her dolt of a partner used her as a shield from her merciless sister. Still, the Heiress pitied her poor leader. Yang Xiao Long was pure muscle, cheek-pinching muscle. That must've hurt like Monty knew what. Thank Dust Winter didn't pinch cheeks.

"Enough. Are we going to discuss what happened to Jaune or not?"

Yang pushed her grin over to Weiss. "Aw! So you do care for Vomit Boy. I knew there was a heart underneath all that frost."

Weiss humphed. "Nonsense. I happen to find his sudden change of appearance odd and nothing more. From what his teammates had mentioned, his transformation came from the result of a Dust explosion. At least they assumed so. Reports from the student body certainly back up their claims."

"Yeah!" Ruby added. "Did you see his ears? They looked so adorable that I just wanted to pinch them! They remind me of Blake's!"

"Speaking of Blake?" Yang hummed, wondering why her partner was so quiet. "What'd you think of Jaune's new look? Good or bad?" When no sound was heard, Yang blinked. "Blake? Yoo-hoo! Hello? Blake?"

When Ruby zoomed away from Weiss to check Blake's bed, they found the cot missing one Blake Belladonna. In its place was Zwei, using her pillow as a cushion to rest his sore paws. The adorable reaper saw no problem or repercussion for this and dropped down from her friend's bed, glaring around the room like a lost puppy.

"Huh? Where she'd go?"

No one had noticed Blake's absence.

Outside the hall, outside Team RWBY's door even, their stray cat had her eyes deep into Beacon's gossip, strolling through message and message on the Beacon's Online-Bulletin Board. News traveled fast, a curse and blessing in disguise for someone of her skill, and soon enough leaked photos of Jaune Arc filtered the pages. Some messy. Some clean. All incriminating.

A cord struck with her animality upon reflecting on the photos.

Those ears. Those teeth. Those markings. Those eyes. The tint in color change. All of them distinctly resembled Faunus features, but that couldn't possibly to be true. No Faunus, not one with canines as large, markings as prominent, or colors saturated with such a hue existed, especially all put together like that.

Four Faunus features rolled into one?

She lowered her scroll, biting her lip hard. No. A Faunus like that didn't exist. Moreso Jaune Arc was one-hundred percent human. He was, by definition, not a Faunus. Furthest thing from a human-animal hybrid. Nothing bad happened. The Dust explosion did not create a Faunus, an absurd idea in its own right, even if comments already filtered across the message board, and this was nothing more than some aftereffect of the Dust. Yes. That was what it was, a simple explanation with a not-so-simple result.

So why did her instincts and gut scream out no?

Why did the hairs on her neck rise from looking at the picture? How come zero comments from any Faunus students surfaced into the mindless message boards? What was going on here? Where were those messages? When would they come? She expected to see some, if not a few, but none? Now that edged on absurdity. Blake couldn't have been the only Faunus to piece together the correlation.

She flipped to another picture, unable to narrow her eyes entirely. Something kept her from doing so, like the idea of glaring down this animal wasn't a viable option, no matter how much she wanted to. It felt like fear gripped her neck in a vice-hold and wouldn't let go.

Ridiculous.

"This isn't making any sense."

Slam!

The door to her team's room slammed open and out stepped Yang, instantly spotting her with a teasing grin permanently plastered to her face. Before Blake managed a word in, she wrapped an arm around her neck and pulled her close with Ruby and Weiss poking their heads out the door.

"There you are! What are you doing out here? The party's inside!"

Blake humored Yang and closed her scroll. "Well, what are doing out here? I thought the party was inside?"

Yang's stomach grumbled. "What can I say, the tank's running on low. It's time for lunch."

Blake blinked.

Lunch?

After a second of consideration, she sighed.

Yes.

Lunch sounded perfect. Something to take her mind off of transparent dots and fabricated concepts. A distraction! Something her partner had a knack for doing. Blake needed that distraction. So she allowed her partner to lead her away to Beacon's Mess Hall.

Tuna—some brain food—would solve all her problems.

Her breathed hitched at the memory of the photos. Jaune Arc wasn't a Faunus by any means, her instincts were clawing at the inside of her scroll, and everything would return to normal soon enough. None of those of things added up together. Not one. However, she was willing to chalk it up as nothing more than preemptive jitters of the thought of a Faunus being created from bones and Dust.

Once she saw him, she was sure her hypothesis would prove correct.

Why did her instincts disagree?

...

It was the smell of fish that pulled him out of his unconsciousness.

Lulled by the sudden sweet, delicious aroma, Jaune Arc sat up quickly with the fish being pulled away by an amused Ozpin. It took him a few moments to notice he was on an infirmary bed, surrounded by Beacon's professors and his fellow teammates. Machines chirped, and the smell of anesthetic filled the room, but nothing beat the elegant aroma of that fish the Headmaster held.

Ozpin sipped his always available coffee mug. "See, I told you that would work."

"What's going on here?" Jaune demanded, however, he was more focused on the fish in Ozpin's hand if anything. The fish suddenly didn't seem important as the earlier events of what transpired today rushed back into his mind. "Actually... can somebody give me a mirror?"

Ren did, permitting Jaune to take in the reflection glaring. The room was deathly silent until he finally found the strength to speak, hard as that might've been. His ears drooped after putting the mirror down, sighing for the love of Oum.

Why did things only happen to him?

"What happened to me?"

"The explosion happened..." Glynda answered, tilting her glasses up and rubbing the nook of her nose. "When the ancient bones of that saber-tooth cat mixed with all the various Dust... it created an interesting result."

"Result?"

"You became a Faunus!" Nora cheered before Ren could stop her, arms out. "It has something do with the chemicals in the skull and the mixing of the Dust and boring doctors' tests—but who cares! You became a Faunus! And a totally new one! There's never been a saber-tooth Faunus before! Our Fearless Leader is one-of-a-kind!"

Jaune weakly smiled at her. Leave it to Nora to break the news in such a dramatic way. Although, it did make it easier to handle the way she said it, however difficult that may be, and he was having a difficult time swallowing the truth.

"I became a Faunus?" Jaune said to no one in particular. He instead chose to touch his new ears and lick his larger canines. Somehow they didn't impede his speech. "A Faunus... me? Really?"

"Ahem, yes." Ozpin murmured, sipping even more of his coffee. "And I know this must be an interesting... experience for you, Mr. Arc, but know we are here for you if you need to talk. But as of now, we have other duties to attend to." He smiled. "So I'll leave to the care of your teammates. Take care."

Glynda, Port, and Ozpin escaped the awkward situation in haste. Oobleck, however, stayed behind and studied him like an artifact, spectacles shinning in bliss wonder. Jaune honestly felt like a display case to the extreme professor. Not to say he blamed him for his interest. A new, one-of-a-kind Faunus didn't just drop out of the sky.

It surfaced out of smoke and ash.

"Fascinating! Simply extraordinary! This creates new possible theories as to how the creation of Faunus came to be! Marvelous!" Oobleck wrote down a few notes, grinning like a madman. "Think about the possible discoveries or Faunus species waiting to be discovered. You're quite literally a living fossil! This could prove to be the missing link!"

Jaune laughed awkwardly under his watch. "Yeah. Wait? What?"

Oobleck nodded vigorously. "Nothing, my good boy. But I must request you come to my office hours when you have spare time. I would love to discuss how the changes from human and Faunus has affected you over a longer period of time."

He blinked at the offer. "Uh, sure, yeah. I can do that."

Oobleck smiled and propped the charts underneath his arm, mood grand. "Good, good! And if you need an ear to talk to, I shall listen. Good day, Mr. Arc! I hope things turn out well!"

Zooming out the infirmary in a blur, the last of Beacon's professors skedaddled away, leaving Team JNPR to deal with the fallout. As pointless as it was, Jaune's only real concern was one thing and one thing only.

That bastard Ozpin took the fish with him.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha gently moved closer to Jaune, holding his shoulder in a supportive way. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah! Jaune! Are you?!" Nora added. Ren merely shrugged his shoulders, content to letting Pyrrha and Nora do most of the talking.

Thinking of the question, their Fearless Leader picked up the mirror again and stared at his face, touching his cheek. His fingers tipped scratched park of the markings on his cheek, unable to discern the difference between skin or ink if it was even ink at all.

"I don't know?" he touched his one ear. "I guess I could guess used to this?" He looked at his new canines and went for a grin. Jaune slowly started to appreciate the look of his new teeth, piercing cheek lines, and compelling eyes. "I guess it's not that bad."

"Yeah!" Nora hummed, looping her fingers around her eyes. "And you probably got night vision like all the other Faunus have—but yours is probably like a billion times better! Maybe all your Faunus senses is a billion times better!"

Jaune smirked a little, and then it was gone when he recalled a little spark of info. He turned back to lightly glare at Nora and smile accusingly at her with those newer eyes of his piercing her soul like a dagger. The sharp canines did absolutely nothing to quell her sudden fear, and he relished in it.

"Don't think I forgot who caused this, Nora." Being reminded, she pushed her fingers together, unable to speak for the first time. "As the leader... it's only fair I decide your punishment."

Ordinarily, Jaune wouldn't notice any subtle shifts in movement, but this time he did as Ren shifted a little toward Nora in a protective manner. His expression may remain the same, but Jaune could sense the protective layer of closeness he already surrounded her in.

What?

Jaune never said anything about physically harming her, only emotionally, and maybe spiritually if he managed to find a way. Not like she didn't deserve it. No. Nora most certainly deserved some form of retribution.

"As punishment, Nora..." he paused, watching something akin to amusement pass in Pyrrha's eyes. "For one entire week, Ren, Pyrrha, and I are going to enjoy eating pancakes in front of you... and you're not allowed to have any. Leader's orders."

Many students around Beacon fearfully felt their legs shake with abounding terror.

...

Once Glynda Goodwitch had Ozpin alone in his office, she cut straight to the point with a tone of annoyance and pity.

"You know once wind of this gets out, the press will be all over it?"

Ozpin ignored her, finding his seat all the more relaxing, and honestly, of course, he knew. What kind of question was that? Ozpin knew reasonably well the consequences of once this got out. Glynda knew firsthand as well, she only asked in the rhetorical sense. Still, like the fish in his pocket, he eventually took the bait.

"Well, we've always prided our academy in the unexpected."

"No, we haven't!"

Ozpin sighed wistfully. It was worth a shot. "What can I do, Glynda? You understand as well as I do that keeping this under the wraps is next to impossible."

She looked away, huffing. Truthfully, she expected nothing and still somehow felt disappointed. News stories worked differently than fairytales. While tales of old held respect and hidden truths, stories on Vale's Channel Eight were far from respectable and truthful.

The News Stations of the world were dogs and sunk their teeth into any story, ripping it apart until no one knew what was real or fabrication. Such was the way or publicity, good or bad, but the Headmistress only saw foreseeable headaches when this gossip got out to Vale, and it would eventually. After all, why wouldn't it?

A newly created Faunus?

Ha!

Channel Eight News would be all over that story once it reached them if it hadn't already. No doubt their version would avoid the how and why of the situation and settle to focus on the what and where. The what and where being Jaune Arc and Beacon Academy. Who knew what when would be?

Propaganda was more like it.

No student deserved to be torn to shreds by those dogs, even an incompetent Jaune Arc.

Sighing, she felt a headache forming and pushed her glasses up. "Should I prepare a statement now or after?"

Ozpin frowned, turned his chair to stare out into his courtyard, and sipped away at his mug. "After. Let's see what they say first."

"It won't be anything good."

"Try to have more faith, Glynda."

...

After much pleading for a less harsh punishment, which Jaune did not give, Team JNPR headed out for lunch with a teary-eyed Nora in tow. Jaune was beyond famished after smelling that fish in Ozpin's hands—damn bastard—and he couldn't wait to chow down on something at this point. It was as if his hunger had skyrocketed after his transmutation, and he needed food to suppress it.

Walking through the halls of Beacon, the Arc displayed his new Faunus ears proudly out, not caring for the whispers among the students. Gossip was to be expected. He figured as much. Still, what did he care? He had zero problems with the Faunus before, and the heightened senses made for an amusing perk.

Now he could make fun of Ren for using too much orange-scented shampoo!

Entering the Mess Hall, everyone became deathly quiet as Team JNPR strolled on through. Jaune didn't seem to notice as he grabbed a plate of meats and some pancakes. Ren and Pyrrha followed suit with Nora staring at the delicious pancakes begging to be eaten by her. Her hand reflexively reached out toward the mouthwatering morsel, only for Ren to stop her by a simple grab of her wrist.

"No, Nora."

"But, Ren!" Nora pleaded only for Ren to shake his head and pull her away from temptation.

A few steps ahead of them, Jaune and Pyrrha already found Team RWBY. Taking their seats, he quickly tore a fresh piece of cooked meat off his meal, grinning delightfully from the new the context of flavor. Food tasted better with heightened senses and revamped taste buds.

Who knew?

"This is awesome!" Jaune grinned with everyone else around him still quiet. The whispers eventually started, and some form of normalcy returned to the Mess Hall. "I can taste so many flavors now. It's like the world all makes sense now."

Ren and Nora reached the table seconds later, each holding a salad of veggies, Ren's idea to further broaden Nora's horizon of foods. Not one of his best ideas. At least she thought so, pouting at her indifferent partner with wobbly stubbornness.

She jabbed the salad with her fork, waiting for it to push back her fork as fluffy flapjacks would, but the moss mixture never did. It! Never! Did!

"What is this?" Nora poked her fork in it again, pulling out a leaf.

Ren removed a stick of carrot and enjoyed a bite. "It's a salad, Nora."

Moving the food around, she picked a tomato from the corner. "When do I add syrup to it?"

"You don't."

"... I'm gonna die, Ren."

"You're not going to die, Nora." Strangely enough, Ren did not believe in his own words.

Hn? He'd have to bargain with Jaune later to lift Nora's punishment or at least lessen it, but he'd have to do it soon; he had a sneaking suspicion that Jaune was going to make fun of him for something.

"So... Jaune?" Ruby shifted her head away from the depressed Nora and awed at Jaune's new ears. "I love your new ears! They're so blue!"

"I know!" Jaune grinned, twitching his new ears to show off. "I can hear a lot better now! And they're so soft! Wanna feel?"

"Really?" Ruby didn't even bother waiting for a response as she appeared in a flash of rose petals beside him. She gently touched the mix of blue and gold fur between her fingers and absolutely cooed at their softness. "They are soft!"

Weiss rolled her eyes at her leader's antics and proceeded to calmly observe the way Ruby folded under something even remotely charming. Not like she thought his new ears were delightful or anything. They weren't. Stop harassing her!

Yang, on the other hand, awed at Ruby's antics. She never wanted poor impressionable Ruby to grow up. She'd stay young forever!

"Aw, isn't that cute, Blake?" Yang asked, waiting for Blake's one or two worded reply, but it never came. "Blake?"

What Yang saw wasn't unusual at first, just Blake lost in another one of her lewd books, except last time Yang checked, people didn't read books backward, and Blake wasn't making it too hard to notice her eyes were captivated on the blond and bluish Faunus in front of her. Even her bow twitched more than usual, flattening out on her head.

Looking back and forth between Jaune and Blake, Yang's grin turned mischievous as her inner trickster came out. Resting her head in her palms, she lightly flicked Jaune with some of her corn to get his attention.

"So... you're like some big, tough, almost extinct cat now? Right?" Yang sweetly asked, flicking even more corn now toward Ruby who pouted angrily, but she ignored her cute baby sister and focused on the big game.

"Yup! I'm one-a-kind."

"Really? One-of-a-kind?" Yang's eyes glistened. "That probably makes you all the more special now, who knows how much stronger you are now or faster. I heard saber-tooth cats were the strongest of all the cats. They had some roar that scared all the animals. They were top game!"

Jaune blinked. New strength? Faster speed? None of those ideas had even crossed his mind, but based on what he remembered from that one time in Doctor Oobleck's class, after getting detention, Faunus had certain advantages over humans. Eyesight being one of them. Maybe Yang was right? Heightened senses and whatnot.

"Yeah, you might be right." Jaune wondered with his head tilted up. His mouth opened to reveal his new canines as he lightly licked the new teeth at the mere thought of his new strength.

If she hadn't been paying attention, Yang would've missed the slight gasp and weak hum coming from Blake as she squirmed faintly in place, but she was paying attention, especially at how Blake seemed to be pressing her fingers down roughly into her book, stretching the cover above her nose with shaking eyes and hollowed breathing.

How Yang Xiao Long loved her life.

Going for the kill, she leaned back, using a protesting Weiss as an armrest. She made sure to say this as close as possible to Blake, practically whispering it to her squirming partner.

"So... do you plan to repopulate?"

Author Notes: Yes, this story is getting continued and the title has been rewritten as Blue. No, I don't know what the square root of Pi is.