Days passed as Jae continued to train himself while trying to balance his school studies alongside trying to learn more on the Demons with Blake's help.
Over time, Jae was able to hone his technique little by little on his own to fight better but his Aura and training it to last longer had a little less progress then he would've liked; Jae wasn't sure what he was doing wrong about it, he had tried just about everything….he used trial by fire by sparring with Yang but all that earned him was a broken nose and a stern lecture in the Nurse's office from Goodwitch, meditation didn't seem to help much either as being alone with thoughts can be either good or bad…and for Jae; it wasn't good.
However Jae was still taking everything that the teachers threw at him seriously; one such lesson was combat training with Goodwitch, this particular sparring session had him pitted against Cardin Winchester; the two had long since butt heads and even in training lessons, the two were always quick to snap at each other.
Cardin rushed forward with a powerful swing of his mace though it missed when Jae side-stepped out of the way, the sword wielder made an attempt to swing at Cardin while he was on the downswing of his mace and landed a kick on his face.
The sight of Cardin swinging wildly following the kick to the face was a cathartic one for Jae as he followed up with another sword swing, however the combination of Cardin's angry swinging and Jae's aggressive style was not a good one as Jae got caught in the stomach with the upswing of Cardin's Mace; knocking the wind out of him and onto his back as Jae tried his hardest to keep his aura focused.
"You better bow out now Cielo or I can turn you into a stain on the floor." Cardin warned with a smarmy grin on his face as he raised his mace up high to add to his threat. Jae grimaced and was ready to swing a kick into the armoured boy's stomach when suddenly the lights clicked on with the sound of a buzzer going off.
"That's enough you two." Goodwitch broke the tension as the room illuminated into a larger arena with the other students spectating and watching a giant screen showing both of Jae and Cardin's icons; "Now, as you can see on the board here; Mr Cielo's Aura levels have been decently in the green however over time and attacks had slowly dwindled into the red. At this point in time; an official can call the match and declare Cardin the winner…"
Jae grimaced as he got up off the ground before staring up at the screen, his aura levels were showing as one blip above the red while Cardin's was still barely into the yellow. Considering that his Aura was able to hold out for this long was AN improvement, it still wasn't enough to be up to standards in class…let alone in the Vital Tournament.
"Mr. Cielo, I know that there are some improvements but it's been weeks since you started here….you need to get a handle on your Aura, not to mention that your aggressive tactics is not appropriate for an Aura as…fragile as your's, it can be more prudent to keep back and adopt a more defensive strategy." Goodwitch admonished Jae as he sheathed his sword. "Because no one here would want to see you get gobbled up by the Grimm, now would we?" She remarked in an attempt to motivate him though didn't seem to hear Cardin's rebuke to the contrary under his breath.
"I don't get what I'm doing wrong…." Jae thought to himself as he left the arena and grabbed his stuff following the end of class before leading into the next one; Doctor Oobleck and Remnant's History; and for most people, this particular lesson came in two categories: for people like Ruby or Nora, it was hard to keep up with the highly charged teacher and his rambling but Jae was one of the few who surprisingly enough kept up with them and while note taking was an olympic challenge, he still found the subject of history interesting.
"It is still prudent to remember, that even though the War were decades ago, it is still classified as recent events…." Oobleck paused for a breath and a deep sip of his mug of coffee before zipping to the other side of the classroom; "Now, who here among you has been discriminated or judged for any heritage you may have?" the teacher asked the class and noticed that a few hands have gone up including a bunny girl named Velvet.
"Dreadful..jus-just simply dreadful, remember class; it is precisely this kind of ignorance that can breed violence in people like the White Fang or the Demons if you look back far enough in the history books, the biggest difference was that Faunus had been able to thrive and grow even way back but the Demons were chased out of most civilised areas and driven into the mountains…Now, who here can tell me the biggest contribution to the ending of the war….Yes?" Oobleck would ask as Weiss gave the answer of a battle at Fort Castle. "Very Good! Now, which young scholar here can tell me the advantage that the Faunus had against General Legume's forces?"
Cardin seemed intent on bugging Jae today as he flicked a ball of paper at his latest target while he was writing notes; "Hey!" Jae grumbled as he perked his head up from his notes; unintentionally drawing the attention of Oobleck who was on top of him like a fly on stink.
"Mr Cielo! Finally a contribution to the class, wonderful news! Now….What is the answer?" Oobleck was focusing his gaze down on Jae.
Oddly enough, Oobleck's history lesson seemed to be one of Jae's stronger suits in a non combat scenario but the very intensive stare from Oobleck was giving him second doubts as he tried to remember the tangent he was on, Jae tried to wing it as he listing off different advantages Faunus have over some humans; "They had…..Night Vision?" Jae asked uncertainly.
"Perhaps…you think they did or you know they did?" Oobleck was a historian first and a teacher second so when it came to teaching; he could sometimes be a hardass.
"I-They did." Jae straightened himself up as he reiterated his answer but was relieved when he saw Dr Oobleck's impressed smile.
"That is correct Mr Cielo….so HOW was that used to their advantage? Perhaps you would like to contribute, Mr Winchester?" Oobleck asked Cardin as he was now keen on keeping the ball rolling.
"Well, I do know that it's easier to train an animal then a soldier so there's that." Cardin remarked brazenly which seemed to earn him a glare from most of the class; "You got a problem, Red?"
"You really aren't the most open minded of people, are you Cardin?" Pyrrha remarked; "Besides, it's like what Jae said; the Faunus soldiers have near perfect sight in the dark."
"General Legume had the belief that he could attack the Faunus at night while they slept, only to find out to be driven back." Blake added as she continued the story from where Pyrrha left off.
"Maybe if he actually paid attention in class rather than picking on other people, then maybe he wouldn't have been seen as a joke in books." Jae finished it as he was more then willing to rub it in Cardin's face, causing the bigger student to get up and probably start something…However it looked like Oobleck beat him to it.
"Mr Winchester, please take your seat." Oobleck would sigh as he talked them both down from what would probably become a fight in the classroom; "Now, both you AND Mr. Cielo can join me after class for some additional input….now onto our newest side point, can any of you tell me why did Demons get so ostracised by both humans AND Faunus alike?" he would quiz the rest of the class and then pointed to Blake who had her hand up.
"Demons were like Faunus in that they had some non-human features on their body or their abilities, however their deviations looked more like the Grimm than anything like the animal features seen on a Faunus." Blake explained; "The fact that they looked more like Grimm alone inspired a lot of negativity in people that saw them and that some Demons were seen as incredibly aggressive attracted Grimm to their settlements, making it difficult for Faunus or Humans to co-exist alongside them."
Oobleck was surprised someone knew this much but also impressed that Blake took her history seriously; "Precisely, while Humanity has been able to welcome the Faunus enough to let them work and co-exist alongside each other. It was said that one of History's most notorious Demons called Sparda...tried to expand their own settlements and domains to declare themselves superior to both Humans and Faunus because of how they were treated by the two other factions." Oobleck expanded on Blake's summary; "Though with how quickly they faded into obscurity and what we're discovering about old Demons and their ways…it's hard to find definitive facts but THAT is the true joy of history; being able to discover new things….until next time." Oobleck finished as the bell rang for the end of class where everyone but Oobleck, Cardin and Jae had left.
Pyrrha looked back to the classroom and then to Nora and Ren; "You two go on ahead and save us some seats for lunch, I'll wait for Jae." she offered as they were starting to think the same thing; especially with how Cardin was around Jae.
"Gentlemen, you two have been constantly having problems with each other in my class since Day 1….Mr Cielo; You have been doing adequately in your studies for my class but it is disappointing to see that this performance is brought down by your quarrels…." Oobleck would be lecturing them both, Cardin scoffed as he heard Jae getting chewed out; "HOWEVER, Mr Winchester; you on the other hand have been just below average with your grades in my class and have less then stellar control with your comments to Mr Cielo and to my class in general. Now I am not sure if this is because of differing beliefs or it is your natures but I can assure you this…" Oobleck took a sip from his mug and made a more prominent press down on the desk with it; "It. Stops. Now. You have both worked very hard to get into this academy to become professionally trained Huntsmen and I expect you to act like it…History is an important thing to remember because if you do not learn from your mistakes and your actions then you will be destined to repeat them….I am not so eager to dole out detention for debating but your actions are still culpable so I will need an essay from you both by the next class…pages 51 to 91, now run along to lunch." Oobleck dismissed them before zipping past to go to the cafeteria.
Pyrrha smiled a little as she saw Jae coming out but frowned a little when she saw Cardin leaning in to whisper to Jae as he passed.
"You better watch yourself Mr Cielo, talk to me like that again and I'll make sure you regret it…" Cardin growled to him before pushing past him roughly with his shoulder.
Jae narrowed his eyes at Cardin as he walked past and flashed him the finger before seeing Pyrrha walk towards him.
"You know if Nora suggests we break his legs, I think I will take her up on that." Pyrrha admitted to Jae as the two walked to get lunch.
—At the Cafeteria—
Team RWBY and JNPR were sat at a table facing each other; Nora and Yang were wolfing down food while Blake and Ren picked at theirs, "So how's the training going Jae?" Ruby would ask as she noticed Jae's rather pensive look; "You getting any better with your Aura?"
Jae looked up in surprise as he was taken out of his thoughts by Ruby; "Oh uh….yeah…nowhere nearer…." he mumbled as he pushed the food around on his plate.
"Is this about the stuff going on with Cardin? Because you shouldn't let that get you down, we've seen you kick ass in the forest." Yang said to try cheering him up with a smile.
"Nah, it's not exactly that….I've been working on it but it's still nowhere near good enough…." Jae would say as he looked up from his plate.
Pyrrha was about to say something when the loud raucous laughter of Cardin echoed from his table as it looked like he and his friends were ganging up on Velvet. "Jae, Cardin's been hassling you and done nothing but push you since the first day at school…you need to stand up for yourself." Pyrrha pointed out as she hated the bully but seeing Jae getting pushed around like this didn't help either.
"Cardin's all talk, he says he going to do all kinds of stuff but he's never once followed through on his threats…I've met plenty of guys like that and if I fight back then I'll be the one in trouble for it." Jae explained as he then found his gaze turn to Velvet when she yelped out in pain.
There was a look of shock on most of their teammates' faces when they watched Cardin harshly tugging on one of Velvet's rabbit ears and joking all the while; "See? I told you they were real." he sneered while the rest of Team CRDL were laughing at her.
"What a freak!" one of them snarked loudly while Pyrrha and Blake narrowed their eyes at the sight.
"That is atrocious, I really can't stand people like him…." Pyrrha would let a brief sting of anger slip out as she tried to stop herself from going over to him.
"That's the problem, he's not the only one to do or say something like that." Blake growled as she wasn't any happier with this while Yang simply sighed.
"It really must be hard to be a Fa-wait….where's Jae gone?" Yang asked as she saw Jae missing from his seat with his plate still sitting where he was but the fork he had been using had been bent forward to look like a paper clip with teeth.
Her question was soon answered as they saw Jae grabbing Cardin's wrist and squeezing it to let go of Velvet; "Leave her alone, Winchester…" Jae warned Cardin as he was glaring holes into the taller boy.
"Or what, Cielo? you gonna run to Goodwitch and tell her I've been bad?" Cardin mocked him and quickly got to his feet to stare back down at him; "Or are you actually gonna grow some balls and do something about it?"
"I don't think Professor Goodwitch or Ozpin are going to like hearing that one of their team leaders is a bully that's too cowardly to pick a fight with someone who can fight back." Jae snapped at Cardin which brought the other three teammates to leer.
"Like you're one to talk, face it….you are a spineless coward who can't stick up for himself and if anyone should have a hottie like Nikos on their team, it's me…I can probably get more of a chance with her then you can." Cardin smirked as he finally let Velvet go.
"She'd cave your face in before you could try." Jae retorted with his typical snark but plenty of his friends could see Jae's knuckles on his hand turning white.
"And what? you think that jumping in to save that Faunus is gonna make her your girlfriend…or is that what you really want? Because you don't have a chance with anyone…either at school or anywhere else. You're nothing but a wimp that can only talk big but if you stick up for her then you're just a weirdo…" Cardin poked Jae in the chest with a superior smirk; "Then again, since you're that desperate and no one will ever love you….I guess mongrels like her and freaks like you WOULD be good for ea-"
There was no warning or time to react but everyone could hear the loud and visceral sound of Jae's fist sinking into Cardin's cheek.