Fighting. The word can mean many things; a tactical plan of ambush, guerilla warfare against a large enemy, large scale battles that destroyed many landmasses. But the most common description anyone can guess is a duel.

A duel against a team or individually. Several factors play into each fight but the one most hated within every fighter is 'Pity.'

A few weeks have passed ever since the fight between Ruby and Weiss and as suddenly it was they resolved it within the day. Weiss apologized and will work hard to become the best member in team RWBY while also becoming the teams' support with her many Glyphs which enhances their Semblance capabilities or control the battlefield to their advantage. Ruby was very relieved about her partner apologizing and decided to will herself into becoming a good leader by studying various tactics, figuring out the strengths and weaknesses in everyone's fighting style while also becoming strong enough to handle Grimm all by herself.

Y/N was a bit surprised when Weiss apologized to him as well from her outburst and will make up for him. He tried to call it off but Weiss suddenly went into 'heiress' mode and completely shut down his attempts. Despite wanting to become a Huntress, Weiss still uses her teachings very harsh when it comes to deals of a solid so now Weiss owes Y/n something. He still doesn't know what he wants; Money is manageable thanks to his often grinding and working at Monty's, equipment maintenance is thanks to teachings of Peach and Dust is just purchasable. So for now, he will hold off the favor until he absolutely needed it.

And now, we cut to the present.

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It was a Thursday at that meant Combat Classes by Professor Goodwitch, a class many were excited about. This is just a excuse to beat the crap out of someone.

Currently, there was an ongoing match between the two team leaders and one of them is losing badly. So bad in fact, everyone cringed when he tried to launch a strike only to be parried and get hit with a larger counter.

Jaune heaved deep breaths as he tried to control his breathing. Looking very tired, he weakly looked at his opponent with a tired gaze. Cardin Winchester smugly perched his mace and walked around Jaune. The audience spoke silently about the fight and most agreed Arc doesn't have training on his weapons.

{OBSERVE}

NAME: Cardin Winchester

TITLES: Bully, Son of General Winchester, Leader of Team CRDL, Coward

WEAPON: Mace Induced Dust {The Executioner}

SEMBLANCE: Explosions {With the help of Fire Dust, Cardin can initiate a series of explosions.}

FIGHTING STYLE: Heavy Tank

INFO: Coming from a line of duty, Cardin Winchester was always thought to be another Lagune. He holds strong prejudice to the Faunus as he believed it was they who started the Great War as well as the ones who killed his grandfather, Henry Winchester. Since then, Cardin had a hard time making friends thanks to his family line of hatred and will easily exploit any emotional weakness just to gain the upper hand. In short, Cardin is the epitome of 'School Bully'.

With the last of his strength, Jaune ran towards Cardin with an overhead swing and betted on this strike. But with the difference in terms of experience and strength, Cardin simply blocked his strike and disarmed the blonde knight. With his sword gone, Cardin did another strike but Jaune held his shield in time to stop it. "This is the part where you lose." Cardin snarked at him.

Jaune countered, with a superhero quote. "Over my dead-" Cardin stopped his monologue with a fist to the face, leaving him stunned. Seeing an opening, Cardin struck his legs and made him fall on his back. Winchester was about to finish it with a strike to his head-

BEEEEEEEEEEEP

"That is enough." Goodwitch stopped the match from ongoing any further before calling paramedics. "Winner is Cardin Winchester of team CRDL." Cardin stepped away from Jaune. She then turned to the audience around her.

"Students." Her voice echoed around her to see if any were sleeping or doing something else during the match. "As you can see, Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red." The screen came to life and showed the contestants Aura gauge. Cardin's was barely shaved while Jaune's Aura took a lot of damage. "In a tournament-styled duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and the official will call the match."

Goodwitch turned to Jaune and stiffened from her gaze. "Mr. Arc, its been weeks now. Please try to refer to your Scroll during combat." How they do it while the enemy doesn't attack during is anyone's guess. "Gauging your Aura will help you decide when its time to attack or dodge one and move to a more... defensive strategy." You can practically see the lines from her words when she spoke and pause. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowulf now, would we?"

"Speak for yourself," Cardin spoke lastly, rudely ending the conversation.

At the stands near the arena, Team RWBY watched in anticipation to fight one another. Yang was punching the air, Weiss shook her fist in excitement and Ruby was shaking with energy. Blake was the only one in the group who wasn't interested in a fight, more on reading her... 'Adult Literature.' Y/N was also the same but was filled with concern for the blonde knight. Sure, after Forever Falls he becomes a better fighter and leader but seeing his display first-hand was downright pitiful.

He was thankful for Pyrrha for helping him and his devotion to keeping the ship from sinking was renewed.

Goodwitch still had more to say before ending the session. "Remember everyone, The Vytal Festival is only a few months away. It won't be long before students fro other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the Combat Tournament will be representing all of Vale. Good luck, to all of you."

The bell rang, signaling the end of class and students were already leaving. Team RWBY had already left but JNPR stayed. The team members looking in pity at the fallen knight, Pyrrha with sadness in her heart. Y/N walked to where Jaune was and offered a hand. "Come on, I'll buy you lunch."

Jaune looked up to Y/N and saw his smile. With a small nod, he hoisted the knight from the ground. Ren and Nora smiled at the kindness he showed while Pyrrha touched her heart with the compassion Y/N showed Jaune.

He may not be his legitimate sibling but Jaune felt it in his heart. It told him that Y/N would be his brother.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The cafetria was bustling with students chatting it up from various topic to topic. Team RWBY and JNPR was no better as they were listening to a story told by one of its members.

"So! There we were, in the middle of the night..." Nora said in a spooky tone to make her story feel... spooky.

But Ren corrected the pink bomber. "It was day." His tone practically felt dead. Years of saying the same thing made Ren want to say something to Nora about changing certain aspects of the story.

Blake from RWBY paid no attention and continued to eat her lunch and read her book. Yang listened closely to the story Nora was telling to everyone.

"We were surrounded by Ursa's..."

"They were Beowulves." Ren calmly sipped from a cup with tea.

"Dozens of them!" Nora screamed suddenly to prove her pride as a Huntress-In-Training and stood on the table they were eating.

Weiss was ignoring her as she filed her nails. Ruby and Pyrrha were listening politely while Jaune was messing with his food. Y/N was still getting his food but got Jaune's first.

"Two of them." Ren corrected his partners' words.

Ruby and Pyrrha looked at Jaune with concern. Whatever was happening to him, they wanted to help.

"But they were no match... And in the end, Ren and I took them down and made a buttload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs." Nora finished with a triumphant smile on her face. It was destiny to sell all those rugs for her and Renny.

Ren sighed from Nora's energy and tried to ask help. "She's been having this recurring dream for nearly a month now."

Y/N appeared and sat next to Blake with his tray of food as well. "Sorry, what did I miss?"

Blake answered as she looked at Y/N from her book. "A storytelling."

"From who?"

"I DID!" Nora went into a pose; she stood on the chair on one leg and the table with the other and pointed to the sky.

Y/N was mildly interested. "I see..." Then he turned to Jaune still playing with his food. "Jaune, what's wrong?"

That seemed to snap Jaune out of his trance. He saw Ruby, Pyrrha and Y/N looking at him with concern. "Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?" Despite his cheery tone, Y/N can still hear the dread on his voice.

Ruby went further to what Y/N started. "It's just that you seem a little... not OK..." Trying to think a better word, Ruby just put a negative to a positive.

Soon, everyone now paid attention to the blonde knight. Seeing the stares, Jaune wanted it to stop. "Guys, I'm fine. Seriously look..." He tried to smile happily to fool everyone but saw his tactic wasn't working well.

"Jaune... 'You can't trust a man when you tell him to smile'  You're hiding something from us and we want to help." Y/N said to him with concern.

Before they go any further, a bunch of voices made them turn their heads. It was Team CRDL, harassing a student- no, a Faunus. The girl in question looked very uncomfortable against the 4 teens surrounding her.

{OBSERVE}

NAME: Velvet Scarlatina

TITLES: 2nd Year at Beacon, Adept Bunny, Bun-Bun

WEAPON: Camera-Projector {Anesidora}

SEMBLANCE: Photographic Memory

FIGHTING STYLE: None {Changes when Semblance is active.}

INFO: A second year at Beacon, Velvet Scarlatina is a proud member of Team CFVY {Coffee}. But with her Faunus heritage, she was constantly bullied from her childhood until her encounter with Coco in Beacon. Since then, she always went to her in case of a fight that didn't require her Semblance.

Seeing the harassment, Pyrrha pointed out something ever since the first semester. "Jaune, Cardin had been picking on you since the first week of school!"

But Jaune played ignorantly. "Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah... He just likes to mess around! You know, practical jokes!"

Y/N proved another point. "If they were pranking you, shouldn't they apologized as well?"

Ruby ended the point with a single sentence that summarized the entire discussion. "He's a bully."

Jaune then retorted to his friends. "Oh, please. Name one time he's 'bullied me."

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1: Jaune was walking down a hallway carrying his stuff and passed by Cardin. When they did pass, Cardin rudely knocked his stuff to the floor.

2: Jaune and Cardin were about to pass through a doorway but Cardin pushed a button on Jaune's sheath which made the shield stuck on the doorway and cause him to bump into it.

3:  At the locker room, Goodwitch explained to the students there about the rocket-locker system and each of their own. Cardin then rudely pushed Jaune into and launched him to the Emerald Forest. How Glynda didn't call him out was anyone's guess.

________________________________________________________________________________

Now everyone was eyeing Jaune as he squirmed in his seat. He then tried to laugh it all away. "I didn't land that far from school."

Pyrrha has had enough about Jaune's attempt to just laugh it off. "Jaune, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask."

"Ooohhh." Nora suddenly had a devilish grin on her face and smacked her fist to an open palm. "Let's break his legs."

"How about not." Y/N said to Nora, imagining the crawling bodies of CRDL. "Don't want more trouble than there is Grimm."

"Guys, really, it's fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone."

As he finished, the group heard a shrill coming from CRDL and was very surprised. Cardin is grabbing the poor girl's ear very harshly and tugged on it.

Velvet pleaded with the leader to stop it. "Ow! That hurts!" When she saw it was fruitless, she continued. "Please, stop..."

"I told you it was real!"

"What a freak!"

"Go back to the den, you animal."

Pyrrha was shaking in anger as she clenched her fist. "Atrocious. I can't stand people like him."

Blake was glaring daggers at Cardin for tugging a Faunus' appendage. "He's not the only one."

Yang sadly continued to stare at the ongoing bullying. "It must be hard to be a Faunus."

Y/N merely stared at them but was furious. It was shown when he dropped his utensils and walked over there. 'This is the last straw. No more...'

Everyone looked at Y/N as he walked over there. Confusion filled their heads to see what was happening.

When Y/N was near, he coughed on his palm to get their attention. Cardin looked behind him and saw Y/N there. "What do you want, pretty boy?"

Y/N then glared hardly at Cardin and spoke with venom laced in it. "Let her go or else..."

Cardin looked at him and his teammates before laughing loudly at him. He let go of Velvet as she ran behind Y/N. CRDL then surrounded Y/N with Cardin in his face. "Or else what?"

When Y/N didn't answer, Cardin then threw his fist covered in Aura at Y/N. He expected to take the hit and fall down, what he didn't expect was his fist being grabbed by Y/N.

"I warned you." Y/N said, applying pressure to Cardin's fist.

"GAAAHH!!!" Y/N continued to put pressure as if crushing it to dust. When he tried to use his other fist to punch him, Y/N did the same. "Let go, you bastard!"

"Not until you apologized to her." Her, pertaining to Velvet behind him.

"Grrr, get him!" The other members tried to take a shot at Y/N while he was defenseless.

Y/N then gave each of them the glare and all froze in fear. He turned his attention back to Cardin and put more pressure. It made him kneel as Y/N kept his hands above him.

"Apologize."

"NEVER! Graaaaaaaaa!!!" Y/N was already crushing his knuckles into submission and if he were to go any further then blood will be spilled.

Y/N continued to do so until he felt someone touch his shoulder. When he traced the hand, it was Velvet. "Please stop. He's had enough... No more..."

Y/N looked at what he was doing, to Cardin and Velvet and let his hands go. Cardin then used his Aura to try and heal it. "You... goddamned..."

"You should be thankful, Winchester. If it weren't for her, I would have sent you to a one-way ticket to the hospital by now." Y/N stopped him before going any further. He then leaned down to him and whispered in his ear. "If you so much as touch her or any Faunus again, I will make sure it won't be your hands next time." He leaned back to Velvet.

The members of CRDL went to Cardin and helped him up. He shook away their attempts and held his hands. "I'll get you for this!!!" An angry retort for someone to lose a strength match. He walks away from the scene with his lackeys behind him.

Once they were gone, Y/N turned his attention to Velvet. "Hey, sorry if I scared you there. I wasn't trying to scare you as well."

Velvet shook her head at the teen. "N-No, no. I'm sure it was well-intentioned. Thank you, for saving me."

Y/N nodded at the bunny Faunus. He looked to the side and saw her ruined lunch. "Here." Y/N gave Velvet 10,000 Lien to spend on lunch and herself.

"H-Huh?" Velvet was a bit surprised to see this amount of money in her life. The highest she ever saw was when Coco needed to buy ammo and that took a lot of time and Lien. "A-Are you sure? I-I mean-"

"Yes." Y/N's answer stopped Velvet. "Listen, if you need help don't be afraid to call me alright?"

"B-B-But-"

"See ya, little bunny." Y/N patted her head before leaving her to her lonesome.

"... Wait!" Y/N stopped when Velvet shouted. He turned around and saw her looking at him. "I-I'm Velvet."

Smirking, Y/N gave a two-finger salute to her. "Y/N." Then he left the girl alone.

When he made it back to the table, he saw everyone looking at him. "What?"

Nora suddenly shot from her seat and got to his face. "THAT! WAS! AWESOME!" Nora, of course, was pertaining to how well Y/N took care of CRDL. Ren grabbed her from Y/N's face and made her sit down next to him.

"That was very kind, Y/N." Pyrrha commentated on Y/N's actions and threats used against Cardin and his cronies.

"You think? I may have overdone it there." Y/N bashfully scratched the back of his head.

"Whaaa? Pfft, no way. If I was the one, they would definitely have more than broken knuckles." Yang said as she cracked her knuckles. "But yeah, that was badass."

The sound of the bell alarmed everyone to get to classes. Blake didn't say anything but deep in her heart, she was very grateful and satisfied with what Y/N did to that girl and Cardin. To be honest, she counted that his hands broke. Jaune looked at Y/N to see him smiling with his friends and sighed to himself.