To say that the next few days had been unnerving for Jae was an understatement; since he had come clean with Ozpin and Glynda about his past "accidents", Professor Goodwitch was somewhat less critical and giving Jae more leeway when it came to working and training…She was still watching him and maintaining that same stance when it came to his studies but he wasn't the only one that noticed this either.
"This field trip couldn't come at a better time." Pyrrha mentioned to Nora who was jumping on her bed and Ren who was ironing his clothes while Jae was doing some extra training in the arena; "A change of scenery could help with getting us to relax."
"Yeah, but try telling that to Jae…he's been a little…I don't know." Nora would mention; "Does he even know we have that tomorrow? We do all need our rest!" She declared as she flopped on her bed.
"With the way he works in each class and how hard he trains, I'm not surprised if he forgot about it." Ren mused; "Besides, ever since that spat with Cardin; he's been a little on edge."
Pyrrha had already filled them in to a degree about Jae's situation with the school but she still hadn't told them that a failing grade meant expulsion for him…thinking it might exacerbate the situation. "It did land him in trouble with Professor Goodwitch, though I think that she understands that he isn't someone who goes picking fights by himself."
Jae however was walking down the halls towards his room when he bumped into Ruby; "Oh uh…Hey Ruby." He said and waved a little as she was currently on her way back too.
"Hey Jae, it's been a while…you doing okay? we haven't really heard much from you in a while." Ruby mentioned to him; ever since the fight in the cafeteria, Jae was hanging out less and less with them and was spending more time training or stuck studying in detention.
"Yeah, sorry about that…I just got a lot to focus on at the moment." Jae apologised as he leaned against the wall; "Even with you guys sticking up for me with Goodwitch, I still ended up copping the blame for what happened…though I did technically start the fight." Jae remarked as he looked to Ruby.
"You shouldn't blame yourself about that...Cardin was a bully and he honestly deserved it, you did what a good person would do in that situation…" Ruby pointed out to him; "Besides me and Yang miss hanging out with our first Beacon friend." She said to him with a small smile; "Though I think Blake's growing on you as well…What exactly is it that you two do in the library all afternoon?" She asked him curiously.
"Oh, it's uh…it's just history stuff from Professor Oobleck's class, I know she's real smart so I figured it's best to ask her about it." Jae mentioned as he realised that he was both lying and not lying about it; "Any luck with thawing out the Ice Queen's heart?" He joked a little to Ruby.
"Heh…it's a work in progress, I think a lot of it just comes down to taking stuff seriously with her…but I'm hoping that I can earn that bestie role." Ruby said optimistically; "Though she does still have issues whenever I talk about you though…so…baby steps I guess."
"Thought so, I've given up on trying to understand her in any case, gives me more time to focus on getting my aura fixed up in the meantime…especially with the Vytal Tournament coming up." Jae mentioned, the topic of his Aura was a little better since Ruby could understand a little more.
"Yeah, but hey! With that field trip tomorrow, you can take some time to not worry as much…" Ruby pointed out as she smiled before grabbing her scroll; "Have a good night Jae, remember to let yourself relax once in a while." she said caringly before heading into her room.
Jae nodded, smiling to himself as the pep talk seemed to mellow him out for a little while, though some things still bugged him: nothing in the history books that he looked in ever mentioned about Grimm weapons when he tried to see if anyone before could, then there was the recent intrusive thought he had about trying to use his Semblance to galvanise himself which he had yet to try. Though these seemed to vanish when he felt someone's shoulder knock him.
"Oh, Hey Cielo, how's it going?" Cardin would say as he held a box under his arm; ever since their little "Talk" on the roof, things had been less argument and antagonism prone which seemed to unnerve Jae more than him trying to pick a fight.
"Cardin…" Jae replied tersely and crossed his arms; Detention with the taller boy was more than a little tense but Civil Cardin was no better than Regular Cardin.
"You all set for the field trip, Professor Peach is supposed to be taking us to the Forest." Cardin said with a half hearted smirk; "It's a cool difference to being in that stuffy classroom all day."
"Yeah…cool, so what's with the box?" Jae would ask, still feeling a little apprehensive that Cardin was being all…nice and polite with him after all the nastiness from before.
"Oh this? it's that anthropology specimen for Port's class, I chose a specific animal to show off research for." Cardin mentioned as he gave off a fake smile before turning to leave; "Anyway, see you around."
"You got it…" Jae shrugged; "Apology or not…I still really don't like him." He would think to himself, Cardin and Jae were forced to apologise to each other during the first parts of their detention but if Jae remembered one thing from foster care; it's that 9 times out of 10, jerks like him would normally be back to their old schtick in a week.
—The Next Day in Forever Fall Forest—
"Yes, Students…at this time of year, Forever Fall is indeed a beautiful look but you must remember that we are not here to sightsee…Professor Peach had been unable to chaperone the trip so it's my responsibility to make sure you fill out their assignment on this field trip." Glynda would explain to the students as they were split up into their team groups.
Jae nodded along with what she said as he was carrying a box plus 4 empty jars for his team, listening to Glynda telling them about their assignments: Get a jar of sap from the trees while being careful of Grimm in the forest.
"That doesn't sound too bad, we can get it in no time." Nora cheered optimistically as she skipped alongside Jae and Ren while Pyrrha was taking in the sights of the forest; "We got time, so let's coast it."
"It may be an easy task but let's not get too comfortable about it." Ren mentioned as the four headed off into the forest to start with collecting sap, most of it was Pyrrha scolding Nora for eating the sap and the combo of Jae and Ren trying to wrestle away Nora from eating more of it.
"Aw come on! Just one more! I promise that's the last one!" Nora whined as she was making grabby hands for the jar in Jae's hands.
"You said that about 3 other "Last Jars" ago, Nora! You're getting cut off." Jae retorted as he held the jar over his head before handing Pyrrha the jar, but Nora seemed to be insistent as she put her arms around his waist.
"You know I could always find different ways to be sweet to you guys~" Nora said with a smug grin on her face, bringing a blush to Ren and Pyrrha's face but earning herself a light chop to the forehead by an equally blushing Jae.
"N-None of that, Nora!" Both Jae and Ren reprimanded her as Pyrrha gathered up the other three jars to put away and went to go get the fourth jar while Ren and Jae were calming Nora down.
As time went on and everyone went about their task, Ruby was being watched as she tried to follow Nora's example on tasting the sap but Weiss stopped both her AND Yang from doing it, Blake however was in a different mindset as she absentmindedly filled up her jar; "I can't help but still wonder why Jae wants to learn about Demons…He did mention about hearing about it a lot…Maybe it's a childhood thing?" She thought to herself as she screwed a cap on the jar when she heard a rustling in the trees not too far from where they were.
Jae was looking for Pyrrha after he managed to get the jars locked away in their box, his mind still dwelling on what Cardin said to him on the roof so he wanted to at least tell someone he could trust…at least before Cardin backs up his bluff and started to tell people all that stuff.
Pyrrha on the other hand was partway through filling up a jar when she saw her Leader climbing through a bush; "Jae? You're just in time, I was just about to finish here…is everything okay?" She asked as she saw the conflicted look on his face.
"I…uh…I wanted to tell you something, because I get the feeling that…well…some things are going to be said and I'm not sure how it'll be taken." He mentioned as Pyrrha stood up, giving him her full attention as she realised he was being serious.
"Some things…Like what exactly?" she inquired and crossed her arms; this now peaked her curiosity as she saw him walk over, "Jae, whatever it is that you're worried about; you can tell me." Pyrrha assured him as she smiled a little towards him.
"Well, You know how my Semblance lets me…make Grimm into weapons…I think some people might see that as something a little more then just a coincidence…" Jae would explain; "Plus there's a little more to it then I think…it's still something I'm looking into…about a ma-CRASH!"
Jae was cut off when he heard the sound of smashing glass as Pyrrha fell backwards onto the grass, rubbing her eyes as she was now coated in a thick layer of the purple goop they had all been collecting; "PYRRHA!" He rushed over to help her up when he saw a glint in the air coming from the ridge, he pulled out his gun and fired off a shot. The glinting object quickly shattered into bits and saw the grass get covered in what looked and smelled like sap.
"JAE, I can't see! What's going on?!" Pyrrha asked with worry as she was starting to get a little afraid from not being able to see.
Jae was about to grab his scroll to call someone when he heard the sound of buzzing getting closer to them, as he peered through the tree line; he could see some small white blurs closing in on them; "Rapier Wasps? But I thought that…." Jae quickly put the pieces together as Ruby and Yang both ran through the brush when they heard the gunshot, followed by Nora and Ren.
"We heard a gunshot, what hap-PYRRHA!" Ruby yelped when she saw the sap covered Pyrrha, both her and Ren quickly shot down the Wasp grimm coming their way and looked to Jae for an explanation.
"Sap got on Pyrrha and now Rapier wasps are coming for it….Ren, see if you can keep the Wasps away while Ruby helps get Pyrrha to safety!" Jae would get into his Leader mode and started his order.
"Yang, you and Nora go get Professor Goodwitch! We need to get Pyrrha patched up and cleaned." Ruby added on as she helped Pyrrha to her feet; "What about you Jae, where are you heading off to?" Ruby asked as she noticed Jae's expression get darker while he walked into the underbrush.
"I'm gonna go talk to Cardin." Jae as he clenched his fist tightly and started running for the ridge.
—Back on the Ridge—
Much to Jae's suspicion, Cardin and his team were laughing their asses off as they watched from afar, the fact that Jae was too quick on the draw to get hit was a bummer but Cardin was just satisfied with the knowledge that the redheaded know it all was probably getting stung to high Hell. "Who'd have thought it'd be that easy to catch her like that? Now all we gotta do is convince Goodwitch that the jar broke in their hands as part of an outburst between the two of them." Cardin gloated with the biggest and smarmiest grin on his face.
"Aren't you worried that Cielo's gonna catch on to you about this? He's not exactly an idiot…" Sky would ask in concern, Cardin was more then happy to pick on and bully kids smaller then he was but Team CRDL also saw Cardin get laid out by Jae's right hook in the cafeteria so the outcome could go either way.
"That jackass? He's too focused on what's going to happen when I tell Goodwitch about his little Grimm collection to realise that I got one over on him." Cardin boasted as he leaned himself back against a tree; "Plus he's probably still down there, trying to not turn into a walking welt…"
"Hey Cardin."
Everyone except for Cardin felt their blood freeze up when they heard the all too familiar voice of Jae as he got to their level; "Oh hey, Cielo….How's it going?" Cardin said casually as he waved at Jae like he hadn't just done what he did, "I heard some Grimm around here and I saw that girl in your team get hit with a bunch of sap…shouldn't you go help her?"
"I'm going to give you one chance to tell me the truth Winchester...Did you throw those jars at us?" Jae asked the team with an oddly calm look on his face, one that made sure everyone except for Cardin know he was in absolutely no mood for any vague talk.
"What jars? All I saw was you smashing a jar in your hands and getting your own team mate chased by wasps." Cardin remarked, not picking up on Jae's warning but also not hiding his disdain and outright malice.
That alone was all Jae needed to hear for him to rush forward and try to hit Cardin, however they were more prepared this time and managed to wrestle him down to the ground, holding on to Jae's arms and making him prone to Cardin.
"You know that wasn't the smartest thing to do, Cielo…So I think I'm gonna work off some pent up feelings after all those detentions you put me through." Cardin snarked before punching Jae in the face hard; "That one was for the cafeteria…And what's coming is something I've long wanted to do."
—A Few Minutes later—
Jae was collapsed on the floor with his face and body being completely bruised after Cardin and his group were finished whaling on him.
"Trust me when I tell you, Cielo…You've had this a long time coming. All those times you talked back, sniped at me or just glared at me…but don't you worry, once I let it slip that you've got a demon in you then I'll make sure that you're all packed up in little pieces for Goodwitch to boot you back into the orphanage shithole you came from." Cardin sneered as he stomped on Jae's chest. "And once you're out of the school, who's gonna stop me from becoming the top guy at Beacon? it's certainly not gonna be that redhead friend of your's…once those wasps are all done then she won't even see straight, let alone fight back."
"You think I care…about what you think of me?" Jae wheezed as he glared at Cardin through swollen eyes; "The only way that you can win is by using your goons to hold me down."
"Oh really? You think that you're a tough guy just because you're still conscious? Suddenly you're a big strong man just because you can make your own weapons, you Grimm loving Demonspawn?" Cardin snarled as he then booted Jae in the face and knocked him on his back before grabbing a small jar of paint.
"Now then…From what I heard in those old stories, Demons have those big red marks on their body, but lucky for us…you got that ugly birthmark…Hey Russel, see if you can show it off. If we're gonna convince the others…then we need to make it legitimate." Cardin remarked as his team mate pulled out his dagger and sliced open Jae's shirt sleeve, bringing some uncomfortable memories and making Jae's body go into Red Alert as he thrashed and struggled.
"Le-LET GO!" Jae yelled out and lunged himself forward; head butting Sky in the face as they manoeuvred to hold him down better while Cardin dipped a brush into the paint, Jae felt a cold sensation trailing along the mark on his arm; noticing that the black-ish grey markings on his arm were slowly turning into a deep red.
"There, a nice picture perfect image of a Demon hiding among Humans…Now there's no way that he'll be allowed here anymore, all we have to do is convince everyone that he's the real thing." Cardin thought to himself before he got kicked in the stomach when Jae's leg wrestled free of Dove's grasp, grunting in pain as he felt the wind leave him; "You just don't know when to quit, do you?" He would grimace before rearing his hand back to punch him once more, but the area got washed in a grey-ish flash of light and Cardin was holding a swollen hand as Jae was bathed in that same silvery light that showed up when he was sparring with Yang…which then shattered completely when Cardin swung at him with his mace; "Alright, Demonspawn…Let's see how much of a monster that you really are." Cardin reared his weapon over his head, ready to smack Jae again.
Jae weakly raised his arms up to defend himself but with his aura dissipated, Jae would be lucky to see a hospital. Whether anyone could call it good luck or bad; something else intervened with a guttural and loud roar.
Then from out of the woods came something far worse then a Rapier Wasp; drawn to them by either their accumulated negativity or the smell of the sap that been spilled nearby had attracted the attention of an Ursa Major, an Alpha that towered over the 5 of them at twice their height and three times their width. That alone was what made everyone but Cardin and Jae run away with the cries of "GIANT URSA!"
"Heh…Of course, if you can't win on your own then you resort to your "friend", don't you?" Cardin taunted Jae as he kicked the injured boy in the side; "Well then, how about I show you that I can deal with that as easily as you can." He gloated as he gripped his mace and rushed in to attack the Grimm.
—Meanwhile down in the forest—
The roar from the Ursa echoed through the trees and grabbed the attention of Ruby and Yang plus Ren. Since Jae ran off; They had rushed the blinded and badly stung Pyrrha over to Glynda so she could be treated, Russel getting caught in a quick grab from Yang quickly got him to spill the beans about Cardin and the Ursa. "Ruby, Jae ran over that way, right?!" Yang asked Ruby which earned her a nod and prompted her to sprint before she was grabbed by Ren.
"I'll go with you, Nora…you stay here with Professor Goodwitch." Ren assured Yang as Nora nodded before helping Glynda walk Pyrrha to a nearby stump to sit at while the others dashed towards the cliff.
"You have any idea what happened back there?" Ruby asked Ren as both her and Yang weren't as clued in while they ran.
"I can't tell you for sure…but if my suspicions are right then I think it has something to do with Cardin…" Ren would muse out loud as they made their way up.
"Cardin? Someone that muscle headed came up with something like this?" Yang asked as she loaded her gauntlets with rounds; "Sure he's a jerk but to go this far?"
"With the way things have been; the detentions with Jae, the fight, not to mention everyone calling him out in Oobleck's class…it wouldn't surprise me." Ren pointed out as they reached the top and saw what was going on.
When they peeked over the edge; they saw an injured Cardin with Jae standing over him with his sword drawn, facing off against an Ursa standing bigger and angrier than they were. With a loud yell, Jae rushed forward and rolled under the Ursa's swipe at his head before slashing upward to cut it's hand and make it draw back.
With a pained growl, the Alpha reared it's head back to snap it's jaws down on Jae; however the still beaten boy aimed his gun and fired off several shots at the Ursa's chest, it may not have damaged it all that much but each round was able to push it back little by little. "Damn it…I'd have hoped not to do this but preservation takes precedence over wallet!" Jae thought to himself as he twirled the gun in his hand and slapped the side of the barrel, making the double barrelled gun rotate from it's usual barrel into a larger one more fitted for a hand cannon and then took aim up at the Ursa who was stampeding towards him and Cardin.
With a battle yell, Jae then summoned his Beowulf Spear to throw it and pin the Ursa in place. But while he took aim, his arm was weaker from the beating he took and whether it was a boost of adrenaline or someone else's "input" he managed to raise his gun higher and fired off a Fire Dust imbued bullet into the Ursa's head; combusting it into a cloud of red and black smoke.
Cardin was rendered far more then speechless, not only did Jae take on an Ursa alone but he had also did it to stop the both of them from getting ripped to shreds; "Holy crap….Jae?" he could only mumble as he realised just who he had been targeting as a victim.
Jae lifted his hand forward and out of the mist of the Ursa, a bright white orb zipped towards him and disintegrated into Jae's palm, before he turned and pulled Cardin to his feet; "Don't ever go after my friends…or me, ever again…Or I will do to you what I did to that Grimm, got it?" Jae would warn him darkly as the others rushed over to see if they were okay…Jae more specifically.
—Hours Later—
After some explaining and more then a little questioning from the others, Jae found himself in front of Goodwitch and Ozpin yet again.
"So here you are again, Mr Cielo…I trust you understand why you are here?" Ozpin would question Jae from behind his desk, however unlike last time; the two seemed more…curious than anything.
"B-Because I got into another fight with Cardin…or because I took on an Alpha Grimm by myself?" Jae would ask, knowing the fact that everything about him and especially what he tried to hide was either out in the open already or if Cardin had been spreading his "truth about Jae"
"Those are both things that we will discuss but there is something else that is being spread around the school that I think you are already aware of?" Ozpin answered for him cryptically; "Professor Goodwitch explained about what happened in the forest; what with Ms Nikos' trip to the Medical Centre and Mr Winchester's….quite frankly heinous idea of fun…"
"I understand that it's something that you'd like to not discuss but what has been said is rather serious….about you having a pet Grimm…Or that you were a Demon." Glynda explained with a concerned look on her face as she remembered what she saw; back at the forest, Goodwitch saw the tail end of the fight after getting Pyrrha seen to. She saw Jae summoning up Fenrir to attack the Ursa and him absorbing a white light when she reached the hillside where everyone had run for.
"I…" Jae would feel his stomach tie in knots but he knew that hiding this once was probably not the best idea, but no coercion was more effective than being stared down by the Headmaster and Goodwitch when they fully know that something was up.
"Mr Cielo, I can assure you that our agreement remains the same….We're your teachers, if something is concerning you or anything like that then we are here to help you." Glynda assured him quietly as Ozpin did what he did for Ruby and placed a plate of cookies and a mug of hot chocolate on the desk in front of Jae.
Taking a deep breath and knowing that there was no point in hiding this anymore…he decided to explain it all, from when he first heard about Demons from his parents, the fact that his Semblance seemed to pick out Grimm essence to use as a weapon base and finally… "This, right here." Jae would finish as he hesitantly rolled up his sleeve and showed off the mark on his arm for both Ozpin and Goodwitch to get a better look at.
"My word…" Ozpin mused to himself as he peered over his glasses, he himself had read up on Demons in the past and came to realise that this explained a lot about Jae's previous attitude as the mark on Jae's arm both did and didn't look like a Demon's marking. The marks on a typical Demon's body was a deep red to match the Grimm's but Jae's was a murky grey in colour after they washed off the paint; with the combination of the sword, the Deathstalker's tail, the Beowulf and now the Ursa's head made it look like a tattoo at a basic glance. Though closer examining showed that it slowly pulsated like it was breathing on it's own.
"I don't think I've seen something like this before…when did this start showing?" Glynda would ask Jae as she ran her thumb over the mark.
"When I first started training, my dad put a sword in my hand and it showed up ever since." Jae mentioned as he looked to Goodwitch, "I've been able to summon it and draw it back but that's all I can do with it."
"Interesting….Your semblance and this could make for a very coincidental argument about you being a Demon." Ozpin remarked, making Jae flinch a little; "If what you say about your parents is true then there's no definitive way to trace it…without their honest answer. If you want solidarity then I can discuss it with a friend of mine in Atlas, they should be able to help with determining your…potential heritage, now I think it's best that you be on your way; I think your team mates could use their leader."
"Thank you, Professor…" Jae said quietly as he got up and headed for the elevator; feeling somewhat relieved that he had no threat of expulsion or being targeted anymore, but something still nagged at him…throughout his childhood, he remembered his parents calling him a little monster or a demon but with more and more information from the library and Ozpin's input, he was starting to doubt that he was.
"It certainly answers a lot of questions that we had about him…" Ozpin mentioned to Glynda as they were alone; "Parents that can openly call their child a Demon with such conviction yet neither are willing to admit being the one with the ancestry."
"I can't imagine…but besides the mark, I've not seen any other traits that could out him as such…Being a FullBlooded is near impossible and with such vague information from him and from what could be in the libraries, it's hard to tell WHAT exactly he could be." Glynda added to it as she adjusted her glasses; "But regardless, I think that getting in contact with James could be the right thing to do…but with how the General gets, it might not be the best thing for Mr Cielo…" She said bluntly.
"I know that James can sometimes act harshly with what's best but if Jae IS indeed a Demon…whether it's a Dormant or a late blooming Recessive, then it might be prudent to verify while we have the chance rather then having an outburst or a sudden change further down the line." Ozpin mentioned; "The only thing we know for now is that after decades; A Demon has finally found it's way back to Remnant..."