I've got some explaining to do. First, for anyone that reads my Naruto/Fairy Tale story 'Blessings,' I'd like you to know that ive been working on it on and off. But after typing around 6,000 words of it the chapter... got lost somehow. So I'm going to try and work that out, but just know that I plan to update it.

Second, I am very lazy and procrastinate a lot. So my updating schedule is pretty terrible.

The third statement will me on the bottom. I won't do review responses on this chapter, I might on the next chapter.

While Jaune excelled in the combat portion of Beacon, he was still not academically up to speed with most of the classes. Seeing as how he had gone to any hunter prep schools he had little to no knowledge in most of the classes that were taught within Beacon.

He was still surprised with how well he was doing in the combat classes. He had only been in four actual matches, mostly because of the random odds of the roulette system, but he felt like Glynda was purposefully keeping him out of the ring as much as possible. He tried to downplay his own abilities, but whenever he held his sword and shield it was surprisingly difficult to not perform counters and parries. His only options were to surrender, or refuse to fight in the first place. The only problem with that was he wanted to get good grades so he wouldn't get removed from the school. Beacon only accepted the best after all.

He wanted to ask someone about it, but how to you ask someone why you are suddenly much better at wielding a weapon than you ever have been since being able to hold a weapon? Not only would they most likely question the legitimacy of his skills, but also they may question his transcripts. Neither of which were good options, so he opted to keep quiet.

He had narrowed down the possible reasons for his newfound abilities. He figured it was either his aura or Crocea Mors itself. The weird symbol had appeared on his hand when he had his aura unlocked, which was a huge clue. However, Crocea Mors is a tool of war that has seen combat for several years, and his great grandfather had never actually revealed what he had made the sword and shield combination out of. There was the rare possibility that he may only be this skilled with Crocea Mors and nothing else.

He was currently in the lunchroom eating with his team and team RWBY. He tried to keep up with the conversation, but he was distracted by something occurring at the other end of the cafeteria.

This event would be team CRDL harassing a rabbit faunus. After his match with Cardin, the large mace-wielder became quite aggressive towards others. Unfortunately, his main targets were timid faunus. He looked around the lunchroom and saw that most people were either ignoring what was happening, or purposefully looking away after glancing in the general direction of the blatant racism.

"I can't believe them. They're deplorable." Blake said with disdain. It seemed that she had noticed what was going on as well. Almost instantly, everyone at their table turned towards the harassment. Each set of eyes had a different look of annoyance or anger. Jaune looked around the table, but nobody appeared to be moving to stop the bullying any time soon.

"So are we not going to do something about this? That girl is clearly in pain." Jaune pointed out, his ire starting to rise even more. Back at his home this sort of treatment towards a faunus was not tolerated at all. Some of his closer friends were faunus, so seeing people ignoring this situation was starting to make him lose his respect for his fellow classmates.

"If she can't stand up for herself in a huntsman school, then she doesn't deserve to be here." Weiss answered bluntly, going back to filing her nails. She still looked a tad conflicted, but it appeared easy for her to ignore the issue at hand than it was for everyone else.

"While I would not have put it so… simply. She does have a point. We are training to fight monsters and even some criminals. If she can't stand up to bullies, then what might happen to her out in the field?" Ren stated. By no means was he racist, but he didn't quite approve of people who were too scared to defend themselves if they had the means to.

Jaune looked back and forth between his friends and the girl who CRDL still hadn't ignored. He knew it was probably a bad idea to get involved, but then again he beat Cardin in the arena. Perhaps he can use that to his advantage. Suddenly more confident about his decision Jaune stood up from the table, tuning out the warnings his friends gave him. He didn't care about some stupid unspoken rule about self-defense in Beacon. All he cared about was stopping someone from being hurt.

As Jaune got closer to where the rabbit faunus was, team CRDL noticed him. They each sent their glares towards him, but none was more intense than Cardin's. The hulking team turned away from the faunus in favor of the blond who humiliated him in the arena. His fists were clenched so hard he heard his own knuckles crack. If the blond punk thought that he was going to stop his fun, then he had another thing coming.

"What do you want, blondie? Can't you see that my team and I are busy?" Cardin asked, but his voice was anything but polite.

Jaune seemed a bit intimidated, but his resolve didn't waver. "Cardin, I want you to stop what you are doing. Can't you see that you're hurting her?" Jaune gestured towards the brown haired girl, who the remainder of team CRDL continued to harass, but only through gestures and words. Jaune could tell that they were watching the conversation closely.

"Oh? And what the hell are you going to do about it?" Cardin said, taking one step closer to Jaune. Jaune had to resist the urge to take a step back. Sweat started to form on the back of his neck.

'This isn't working at all! I thought he would be more intimidated since I beat him before. Maybe he needs a reminder.' Jaune decided, and at this point it was his only card left to play.

"Do you really need a repeat of what happened in the arena Cardin?" Jaune asked with as much confidence that he could muster. He made sure his back was straight and his eyes never left Cardin's. Cardin was still taller and wider than him, so Jaune had to look upwards. Not the best for intimidation.

"No, because it won't happen." Cardin simply responded. Before Jaune even knew it Cardin took a swing at Jaune. Jaune was able to dodge the first punch, but his eyes stayed on the outstretched fist for too long. Cardin's knee found its way into Jaune's stomach. Even with aura it made Jaune cough and hold his stomach. Jaune tried to ready himself to actually dodge the next attack, but Cardin was on upon him far faster than he had anticipated. Cardin kicked outwards and sent Jaune to the floor.

Jaune heard several gasps as this was going on. Someone yelled out to get a teacher, and Jaune could hear people running towards him and Cardin. Cardin loomed over him, a sneer on his face.

"Just as I thought. You're a damn coward without your sword and shield. I bet you were never trained to fight hand to hand." Cardin pointed out, but his observation was more accurate than he would ever possibly know. Cardin looked like he was about to take another swing at Jaune, and much to his dismay, Jaune clenched his eyes shut and held his arms in front of his face.

"Enough!" Pyrrha shouted, suddenly in front of him. Cardin took a step back in surprise at the intrusion. Not only did Pyrrha stand in front of Jaune, but so did the remainder of his team. Ren adopted his normal martial arts stance, ready for if Cardin or any of his team tried anything. While Pyrrha and Nora weren't armed, they both looked ready for a fight. Jaune felt multiple people behind him as well, and turned his head to see team RWBY standing behind him. Yang outstretched a hand to help him up. Jaune gladly took it.

"Pitiful. You have to hide behind your own team. You really are a coward." Cardin motioned at his team, and on command they fell in a messy line behind him. Almost like some sort of gang. Cardin was fine with pounding Jaune into the ground, but he was not as confident in dealing with the rest of his team. Also with teachers on the way he didn't want to stick around. They left with no opposition, but both of the teams surrounding Jaune watched them like hawks. They didn't remove their eyes from CRDL until they were each out of the cafeteria.

He would have tested either suspect, but he had been doing poorly in his other classes since day one. He had decided to spend most of his time into his studies and when the first break came around he would finally consider this weird phenomena.

His poor academics led him to where he was now, which was Oobleck's class. Doctor Oobleck focused heavily on The Faunus War. If Jaune recalled correctly it was because if Doctor Oobleck could teach them about mistakes made in the past, they would be able to prevent them in the future. Jaune wholeheartedly agreed in spirit, but his mind couldn't keep up with the speedy professor. That coupled with the stress of other classes meant Jaune was not doing well in this class.

Which was crappy for him, because Oobleck seemed to like calling onto Jaune for answers to his questions.

Jaune felt something wet hit the back of his neck. Upon moving his hand to the area he found a small, white, mushy sphere stuck to his neck. He has seen these before, and it wasn't hard to guess where it had come from.

Cardin had been messing with him since their fight. While Cardin never did anything too confrontational, he annoyed Jaune with small things. Firing spitballs at him during class was one of them. Others would include tripping him as soon as he walked into the door of a class, pressing the button of his shield so it would deploy in a doorway, and even 'accidentally' falling into Jaune. This fall had managed to shove him in his locker and fire him into the woods. Jaune had encountered a few Beowolves in the woods, but they were easily dispatched thanks to his ability.

Jaune never did anything about it because he felt that he wouldn't have to. Cardin focused more on him than anyone else, which Jaune was fine with since he didn't like the thought of others getting bullied. There was one incident where Cardin and his team were bullying a rabbit faunus. Jaune had stepped in, hoping that reminding Cardin of the results of their match would force him to back down.

The opposite happened. Cardin struck him hard enough to make him stumble back. Jaune's friends stood up to defend him, but teachers arrived on the scene before anything too major broke out. The damage had been done though. Cardin had identified that Jaune was weaker than him outside of the ring, which meant as long as Jaune didn't have an actual reason to use his weapon, Cardin would be able to bully Jaune just as easily as everyone else.

Back to the class, the motion of Jaune reaching to his neck must've looked like he wanted to answer Oobleck's next question. Jaune really should have seen that coming, and he wish he had been paying attention right now.

"What is the answer?" Oobleck asked Jaune with great anticipation. Jaune's eyes darted from side to side, hoping to all that was holy that some answer would appear and bail him out of this situation.

"Uh… the answer, right." Jaune started, "The advantage… the faunus had over that guy's stuff…" Jaune trailed off, not sure where to go. Jaune saw his light at the end of the tunnel in the form of Pyrrha. She was making a gesture with her hands in circles over her eyes. It kinda looked like…

"Binoculars!" Jaune exclaimed confidently, only to be met with laughter and Oobleck's look of disappointment.

"Very funny mister Arc," Oobleck scorned, before turning his attention to the other problem student of the class, "Cardin, perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject?" Oobleck asked. Cardin seemed to be lounging in his seat, feet propped up against the desk.

"Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier." Cardin responded, not a shred of subtly with his racism towards the Faunus.

Pyrrha retorted almost immediately, "You aren't the most open minded of individuals are you Cardin?" Pyrrha said with almost well-hidden disdain. Her eyes were squinted with scrutiny. Cardin didn't seem intimidated.

"What, you got a problem?" He challenged heatedly.

"No, I have the answer." Pyrrha said instead, not caring enough to challenge Cardin verbally head on in the middle of class. It wasn't worth it. "It's night vision, many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark."

Cardin grunted, but didn't respond otherwise.

Blake followed up with her own input. Jaune noticed that Blake knew a lot about The Faunus War. "General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured." Blake concluded. Jaune actually felt jealous of all of the impressed stares that she was receiving.

Blake wanted to get her own insult towards Cardin, so her next words worked well for that. "Perhaps if the general had paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

Hearing the students give their stereotypical 'ooo's was pretty funny, but Jaune was worried for Blake when Cardin moved to stand up. Thankfully Oobleck was quick to tell Cardin to sit back down.

Jaune had to laugh at Cardin's predicament, but as always this landed him in hot water with Oobleck. Oobleck made Jaune and Cardin stay after class to address the issue with the two of them. Jaune wanted to admit that he was very stressed and he was trying to pay attention in class, but Oobleck was not giving him a chance to speak. Oobleck quickly wrapped up their session by assigning them additional readings and an essay for next class.

Jaune walked out of the classroom slowly, only to fall over as Cardin shoved him to the ground. That had been the most aggressive that he's been so far. Cardin must be testing his boundaries with what he could get away with involving Jaune.

Cardin left without a word, and Jaune was quickly helped up by Pyrrha. He hadn't expected her to wait for him, but it was certainly nice of her to.

"You know, I really will break his legs." Pyrrha said in a serious manner. Jaune didn't think she would, but the sentiment was there.

"Thanks, but don't worry about it." Jaune tried to end the conversation there, but Pyrrha wasn't having it.

"Why don't you stand up to him? You've proven yourself in the ring. I know that you can make him leave you alone." Pyrrha stated with upmost confidence. That only made Jaune feel worse. In a way he felt like he was leading her on. Not in a romantic sense, but in the way that you tell a lie to someone because the truth hurts, but you drag out the lie more and more until it eventually blows up in your face.

"I'm sorry… I just…" Jaune tried to force out, but his words failed him. He wanted to tell her something, anything to relieve just a bit of his guilt, but then he remembered that he was in a crowded hallway. His eyes darted from side to side nervously, as if someone was going to read his thoughts and yell them out to the world.

Pyrrha seemed to catch on to Jaune's strife, because she suddenly grabbed his hand and proceeded to drag him off with a predetermined location with a smile on her face. Jaune didn't resist, mainly because he wanted to be anywhere else at the moment.

Even though Jaune felt terrible in more ways than one, he couldn't help but admire the view that this little rooftop provided. Before his very eyes stood a merging of architecture and nature. The marble arches overlapping beautiful trees only became more tranquil underneath the glow of the shattered moon overhead. This scene before him allowed him some piece of mind, before he was reminded why he was here in the first place, and who led him here.

"Pyrrha, I appreciate that you pulled me away from the crowd, but I really don't want to talk about this." Jaune insisted, having trouble actually looking her in her emerald eyes. It made it even harder since she still looked supportive of him and cared about him. He had a feeling that was going to change soon.

"Jaune, whatever this is I can tell it goes deeper than Cardin." Pyrrha remarked slowly. Jaune's eyes widened just a bit, but it was all Pyrrha needed to push further with this conversation, "It is hard for most people to notice, but I'm your partner. It's my job to look out for you, whether it be on the battlefield or in Beacon."

Jaune felt his heart ache even more. Here was Pyrrha Nikos, tournament champion several years running, top of their class in nearly every aspect, the Invincible Girl, looking out and caring for a boy with dreams of being a hero, but using deceitful methods to get what he wants. He didn't deserve such a friend and partner.

"Jaune… don't you trust me?" Pyrrha knew that was a harsh card to play against Jaune. Guilt tripping isn't a highly regarded means of getting what you need, but Jaune needed to let this issue out. Only then could they deal with it as a team.

"Of course I do!" Jaune shouted hoarsely, "You have been the greatest partner a guy could ask for. It's just," Jaune took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

"I'm not the person you think I am."

Pyrrha didn't move closer yet, she kept her distance knowing that Jaune was going to be guarded about this. This was a step in the right direction though, but Pyrrha had a bad feeling about it, " What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked, eager to get to the bottom of this.

Jaune looked at the ground, and slowly back to her, "I'm not Jaune Arc, huntsman in training. I'm Jaune Arc, a fraud and a liar." Jaune swiftly turned to face the lovely scenery again, fists tightly clenched.

Now that threw Pyrrha for a loop, "How can you say that? Jaune, you're a phenomenal warrior and have shown that you have the mind of a tactician in the making. You made it into Beacon, and that speaks volumes of your worth as a huntsman in training."

"That's the point!" Jaune shouted once more, although this time he sounded far angrier. Pyrrha realized that this anger was directed towards himself. "I didn't make it into Beacon. I lied, okay! I got my hands on fake transcripts, and I lied!" Although lately he felt more confident in the information that the fake transcripts provided, it still made him feel like he doesn't deserve to be where he was today.

"…What?" Pyrrah muttered, her hands slowly traveling to cover her ajar mouth. "You… didn't enter through standard means? But why?"

"Because I was never good enough. I was homeschooled by my father, who was a hunter." Jaune started to explain, "I tried so hard, but failed at every turn. The only thing I even had remote talent with was my sword and shield, and even that I had to steal!"

"But… you're such an excellent warrior! You have yet to lose in Combat Class." Pyrrha pointed out. She slowly inched her way towards Jaune. Right when she was about to grab his shoulder to comfort him he retreated.

"Beginner's luck, good karma for all the crap I've dealt with up until now, I don't know! All I know is… is that I don't belong here." Jaune muttered. Jaune turned away from Pyrrha, not wanting to look at her anymore. She had been nothing but helpful and comforting up until this point, and he didn't deserve it.

"Pyrrha, please. Just leave me alone."

Pyrrha tried opening her mouth to say something, anything that would help, but she was sure that would only upset Jaune more. Perhaps he needed space for now.

"All right, just don't think too poorly about yourself. You may have entered through illegitimate means, but you are more of a hunter than you realize." Pyrrha said, hoping that Jaune would turn to face her once more, but he wouldn't budge. After waiting a full minute Pyrrha finally sighed and took this as her queue to leave.

Once Jaune heard the door leading up to the rooftop shut, he sighed and turned to face the door. He truly didn't want her to leave, but he was unsure of what he was supposed to do. He knew that he had the ability to fight, but he was the last person to deserve it. He had no skill leading up to this point, and if he had to guess he probably didn't practice as hard and as often as other students at Beacon.

As if Jaune's mood couldn't get any worse, he heard the one voice that started this internal struggle.

"Well, I guess I was wrong about you Jauney Boy." The voice of Cardin was heard from behind Jaune, where the ledge was. Jaune whipped his head around in disbelief only to see Cardin climbing up from the ledge, a dark smile etched across his face. "You are quite the little law breaker. Obtaining forged transcripts for a school that you don't deserve to be in. You've said so yourself."

"Cardin please don't tell anyone. If you tell any of the teachers, they could have me arrested!" Jaune pleaded to the bully. Jaune could practically feel his life crashing down around him. Much to Jaune's surprise, Cardin started to laugh.

Cardin wrapped his large arm around Jaune's neck with more constriction than necessary for a gesture like this, "Now why would I do that to a friend? Am I so heartless in your eyes Jauney? I'm hurt." Cardin said sarcastically, "No, I won't rat you out. That's not the kind of person I am."

"You… you won't tell anyone?" Jaune whispered, desperate hope filling his mind.

"Of course not. Think of it as a favor to a friend," Cardin said with a grin. Cardin rapped his knuckles against Jaune's skull, much to the blonde's displeasure.

"However," It was with this one word that made Jaune remember who he was dealing with, a bully, "Friends need to return favors, and since this secret of yours is pretty big I think that entitles me to multiple favors. What do you say?" Cardin asked, knowing he had Jaune wrapped around his finger.

"What do you want me to do?" Jaune asked in defeat. If there was a term for being between a rock and a hard place while your hands were tied and you were slowly drowning, Jaune was sure he would have used it to describe his dread right now.

"I'm glad you asked. You see, my boys and I have been swamped lately with homework, especially with this trip to Forever Fall coming up. I'm sure you have time on your hands, so if you would be so kind as to help us get caught up and continue to keep up?" Cardin asked, his arm tightening ever so slightly around Jaune's neck.

"Okay… is that it?" Jaune wanted to smack himself as he said that, because Cardin's smile got even larger, and a dark chuckle grumbled in his throat.

"Oh no, there's one more thing. Any fight that you are involved with in Combat Class you are going to intentionally lose, especially against anyone from my team. Can't have you hogging all of the glory." Cardin finally released Jaune, but not before shoving him to the ground. "You and everyone else need to know your place, trash."

With that final statement, Cardin climbed back down to his open dorm window, leaving Jaune alone on the roof once more.

"Damn it… I knew my lie would catch up to me eventually."

Not much going on with this chapter for the amount of time I spent on it huh? Yeah I had a hard time even getting this chapter to go anywhere. I swear the next chapter will have a lot more going for it.