PFK 35 - Hearts of Gold (Patreon)

“Well, you’ve got guts, I’ll give you that much,” Qrow mused two hours later, stomping on a piece of the shattered table and flipping his untouched flask into the air. He caught it easily, flicked the top open with a practiced motion of one thumb, and took a single pull.

The hackneyed saying ‘Those who can’t do, teach’ was very much not a thing in Hunting schools. Training the next generation was a job for the best of the best, and whatever Qrow’s real level was it was more than sufficient to wipe the floor with me without his Aura ever dropping below green.

I was laying flat on my back amid the splinters of the other half of the table, meditating to restore my HP from where it had dropped below 10% and mentally clearing some notifications.

[Duel Alert!]

[Combatants: Jaune Arc, Ruby Rose, and Yang Xiao Long vs. Qrow Branwen]

[Victory Conditions: Reduce Qrow Branwen’s HP to 25% or obtain a surrender.]

[Loss Conditions: Surrender, all members reduced to 50% HP.]

[Victory: 50,000 EXP, greatly increased closeness with Qrow Branwen, eventual attention from Raven Branwen.]

[Loss: 5000 EXP, advice from Qrow Branwen, increased closeness with Qrow Branwen, increased closeness with Ruby Rose, increased closeness with Yang Xiao Long.]

Yeah that was never gonna fucking happen.

“Just too bad we had to see what was in them, Vomit Boy,” Yang joked from where she was sitting against the wall with Ruby.

Sure enough, Qrow had walloped me in the gut hard enough to make me puke a little, securing a return of the canon nickname I’d managed to avoid last month. Hopefully it won’t stick; it’s not any more amusing being on this side of it.

“Big talk from someone who tapped out half an hour in,” I sniped back playfully.

[Duel Alert!: Jaune Arc, Ruby Rose, and Yang Xiao Long vs. Qrow Branwen]

[Result: Defeat by teammate incapacitation.]

[You have gained 6950 EXP! Increased closeness with Qrow Branwen, increased closeness with Ruby Rose, increased closeness with Yang Xiao Long.]

[Level up! Your level has increased by 1!]

[Your skills have increased. Tap for a full list.]

Oh neat, that did get me the ding. The Skill Up notification was followed by a list of icons that referred to my skills, some of them with a multiplier superimposed. Overall, it was much easier to read at a glance. Biggest jumps were [Bludgeoning Resistance] and [Reinforcement], not too surprising. [Xíngquán] didn’t fare too badly either… looks like I’ll have to ask Ren for the rest of the basic forms sooner rather than later; I could almost feel the gaps where I should be inserting a different stance.

Yang was shrugging in response to my last comment. “Uncle Qrow always makes us stop when we hit yellow; says waiting for red can be dangerous.”

“That’s bullshit; I’ve been running on fumes for the past twenty minutes with every hit causing Aura Shock. I call favoritism.”

“You literally asked for it, Punk,” Qrow pointed out. “Repeatedly.”

[Duel Alert!]

[Combatants: Jaune Arc vs. Qrow Branwen]

[Victory Conditions: Reduce Qrow Branwen’s HP to 25% or obtain a surrender.]

[Loss Conditions: Surrender, be reduced to 10% HP, unconsciousness]

[Victory: 150,000 EXP, greatly increased closeness with Qrow Branwen, immediate attention from Raven Branwen, greatly increased reputation with Branwen Tribe, new quest thread.]

[Loss: 15,000 EXP, advice from Qrow Branwen, increased closeness with Qrow Branwen.]

Shit, probably for the best I couldn’t win that fight fairly. Then again, I don’t know how strong he is, so I might not even be able to win unfairly.

The good-natured ribbing continued as Qrow broke down the mistakes he’d seen from each of us. I tuned out his analysis of his nieces and returned my attention to my HUD.

[Duel Alert!: Jaune Arc vs. Qrow Branwen]

[Result: Defeat by HP reduction.]

[You have gained 21,000 EXP! Increased closeness with Qrow Branwen.]

[By pushing your body repeatedly past its limits, you have increased your physical endurance! Your CON has increased by 1!]

[Your skills have increased. Tap for a full list.]

Oh cool, I don’t get those kind of stat points often anymore.

[Secret objective complete: Impress Qrow Branwen.]

[New quest unlocked. Greatly increased closeness with Qrow Branwen. Increased reputation with Ozpin’s Guardians.]

Huh, I guess he really wasn’t just talking about the girls impressing him. I’ll look at the new quest in a minute.

A bit over three and a half minutes later my HP was full once more, so I sat up and folded my legs, deactivating [Aura] and beginning to regen my MP instead.

“–how much you resemble your mom, I’m guessing you’re always going to be on the shorter side, and you really need a better option when you don’t have Crescent Rose. Animan martial arts are famous for a reason, so I’d recommend a Western internal style that doesn’t rely on brute strength. I don’t think Xíngquán like the Punk uses would suit you, so Baguazhang would probably be the easiest to find a teacher for–” Qrow cut off mid-word and turned to stare at me, eyes widening. “Why are your Aura levels spiking?”

I raised an eyebrow. “My Semblance, remember?”

“You said it heals and restores Aura; you didn’t say anything about filling your own from empty in a matter of minutes!”

I shrugged very slightly so it wouldn’t disrupt [Gaia’s Pulse]. “Takes at least five minutes to refill if I’m completely immobile and focused on it; that’s not exactly something I can do in combat. If I wasn’t meditating it would take probably…” I did some rough math. “Forty-something minutes?”

Qrow continued to stare. “Kid, do you know how many people would kill to fully recover from Aura depletion with less than days of bedrest?”

I fixed him with a stare of my own. “I don't care what you call me, but if you start treating me like a kid we're gonna have problems, Branwen.”

At last he blinked. He took another swig and said, “Sheesh, Punk, I told you to just call me Qrow.”

I took the unspoken peace offering for what it was. “I spent the summer volunteering at the hospital, and I’m grateful for the hands-on experience, but I decided I would be a Huntsman even before I lost my memories. If healing was all I could do, I would still think I have a role to play out in the field, but considering it makes me tough enough to get back up after a thrashing like this, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than between people and Grimm.”

[Charm has increased by 1!]

Yang let out a little whistle. “Dang, Ladykiller, you really have a way with words.”

I shrugged, but Ruby had stars in her eyes. “That was such a cool speech! No wonder you’re the team leader.”

I reached up and ruffled her hair, not caring that it broke [Gaia’s Pulse]. “I think you’d make a pretty good leader yourself.”

Ruby’s eyes widened and she shook her head rapidly, but Yang agreed with me immediately. “Definitely.”

“Huh!?” Ruby spun around to face her sister, waving her arms frantically. “But being a leader means you have to talk to people and be inspiring and stuff, I stink at peopling!”

Yang shrugged. “You’re inspiring when you get passionate about something, Rubes. Uncle Qrow’s right, it kinda reminds me of Mom. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be tough for you, but I’d follow your lead.” Her lips thinned. “You’d be better than the Ice Queen, for one thing.”

Ruby blinked. “Really? She seems pretty cool…”

“Cold is more like it!” Yang burst out. “I thought she was just shy and would warm up to us, but it’s always study this, training that, ‘Stop leaving your dirty clothes lying on your bed, Yang’!” This was clearly something that had been bothering her for a while. Then again, Weiss is her partner, and it’s no exaggeration to say they’re fire and ice. “Nothing we do is ever good enough for her, she always has to find something to nitpick! And whenever I try to extend an olive branch, she never wants to do anything fun, and the only things she every asks about us are what we can do for her. Ren doesn’t seem to care and Nora laughs it off but it’s driving me crazy trying to keep up a positive attitude with her; she’s–!”

“A manically-driven perfectionist who treats every relationship as transactional because she thinks that’s the only way anyone will pay attention to her, on account of her father being an emotionally-abusive bastard, her mother a neglectful drunk, and her sister a prodigy who she never felt like she could measure up to,” I finished.

All three of them stared at me; Ruby and Yang’s mouths hung open, while Qrow simply raised an eyebrow.

I shrugged before starting [Gaia’s Pulse] again. “She’s also pretty damn racist, though you might not have seen that since your team is all humans.”

“How… how do you know that?” Yang asked shakily.

“She’s not all that complicated; it’s honestly pretty textbook when you think about the way she was raised. You’re probably doing a better job getting through to her than you think, but it’s going to take time before she actually starts letting you in. She has to learn how to trust people again.”

“Knowing the Schnees, he’s probably right,” Qrow offered. “Jacques is definitely a prick and Willow…” He trailed off, looking at the flask he was still holding, then grimaced and slipped it back into his vest.

He then yanked each of us back to our feet and herded us into the elevator. When it reached the ground floor, Qrow ruffled both his nieces’ hair. “You two head back to your dorms and relax. I’ll come see you again before I go; the Punk and I need to talk to Oz.”

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“Qrow, what a surprise,” Ozpin murmured, glancing up from the computer in his desk. “And Jaune. What brings you to my office?”

“I wanna take the Punk with me on a mission,” Qrow said bluntly.

Ozpin sighed, getting up and moving over to an elaborate espresso maker set against the wall. “Jaune is a student with responsibilities to his team, Qrow. Not to mention, by the look on his face, this is the first Jaune himself is hearing of it.”

Well, not strictly true; I knew this was coming at some point because of the secret objective reward from that last duel, but he definitely hasn’t given me the details.

“That wasn’t a ‘no’,” Qrow observed. “Meaning you’re not actually against it, you just need an excuse.”

Ozpin didn’t answer him, instead glancing at me. “Cappuccino?”

“Please,” I nodded agreeably. I’ve mostly given up trying to figure out how things get Terran names on Remnant, but what the actual hell? Was there an order of Capuchin monks in Anima? Was there a Francis of Assisi for them to emulate? This makes no fucking sense.

Ozpin’s hands blurred as he expertly pulled a double shot of espresso, then added hot milk and steamed it into foam before dusting it with cocoa powder and passing it to me in less than a minute. I took a sip and had to suppress a sigh of satisfaction, because it was fantastic.

Qrow, who hadn’t been paying attention, scratched his stubble. “How about an apprenticeship?”

Ozpin sat back down and looked at him seriously. “That is not something I will approve lightly, Qrow. Certainly not as a mere circumventing of the rules. You will have a genuine responsibility to your apprentice, and you will not be allowed to vanish as you so often do.”

Qrow hesitated, but his jaw firmed and he nodded. “I know.”

“Not to mention, I believe there is someone you ought to ask before me.” Ozpin gestured at me.

I was staring flatly at Qrow with my arms folded when he glanced my way. “Why should I agree to that?”

His red eyes blinked, clearly taken aback. “Wha- Do you know how many people would kill to apprentice under me?”

----------------------------------------“So go ask one of them.”

“If I thought any of them would survive the kind of shit I get into, I might–”

“So this is something dangerous enough that most people would hesitate,” I interrupted. “And you’re asking a Freshman. Surely you can see why I’m asking questions.”

“I said call me Qrow, not ‘Shirley’,” he grinned.

I rolled my eyes. So Yang gets it from him, not Taiyang.

“You know damn well you’re not on the level of other Freshmen. Don’t forget, I was a teacher; I know how good Combat School graduates are. Yang is probably one of the strongest kids her age, and from what I saw today you’d wipe the floor with her even without your weapon.”

“I’m still not hearing any reason I should accept,” I said pointedly.

“And what about the opportunity you’d be missing by turning down the chance to work with one of the best Huntsmen in Vale?” Qrow challenged.

“Humble, too,” I quipped, and he shrugged.

“If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

“In that case, I’m a legal adult with an Amateur license–”

“Journeyman,” Ozpin corrected, sitting with his fingers laced in front of him. “Theodore put you up for promotion on recommendation from Professor Rumpole and Legionnaire Denium when he discovered you had only an Amateur level license.”

“–a Journeyman license,” I corrected. “I have an unbreakable sword and my girlfriend is a magical girl. What do I need you for?”

Qrow stared at me in disbelief. He glanced at an impassive Ozpin, who offered him nothing, then looked back at me. “I… I need help with some things, and since Tai stopped taking missions I haven’t had any backup I can rely on. Autumn trusts you enough to sleep in the same bed. Oz made you a team leader and trusted you enough to bring you in to meet the Guardians. You’re way more mature for your age than I was, and I think you can both help me and stay alive doing it.” He swallowed. “Oz wants me to hang around Vale until at least the Vytal Festival. That’s not enough time to get my old job back, but… I honestly liked teaching, and you’ve got a lot of potential that I think I could help bring out.”

“Okay.”

“And I know you don’t really know me, but– eh?”

I smirked. “I’m not going to just turn down a Master Huntsman who wants to mentor me out of stubbornness. All I said was to give me a reason I should accept. I’ve had people dragging me all over Remnant and trying force me into molds since I woke up. You asked. That’s enough.”

“That’s all it takes to get you to agree?” Qrow asked incredulously. “Just… ask you for help?”

“I’m a paladin; I’ve sworn an oath on my soul to be and do Good. I happen to already trust that you’re trying to help the world, so yes, all you had to do was ask.”

“Paladin…” he repeated, looking at the headmaster again. “Oz, is this a magic thing?”

Ozpin inclined his head. “Indeed.”

Qrow looked back at me. “That’s how you refilled your Aura so fast. You’ve got some kind of magical connection to… what, the gods?”

“The planet,” I corrected.

“The planet?”

“Remnant is still full of magical energy, even today; I’ve been able to feel it since I learned how to sense magic. Where do you think Dust comes from?” I asked rhetorically.

“Jaune is correct,” Ozpin put in. “Dust veins are found along planetary leylines, with the richest lying at junctions called nexuses. Beacon, Shade, and Haven were each built on a nexus, which has led to frequent attempts by the Schnee Dust Company to obtain mining rights to the Dust beneath the schools.”

“Anyway, that’s technically separate from my oath,” I went on. “It’s a meditation technique from a Mistrali monastic tradition. My oath is just what allows me to share that regeneration and heal others.”

“I’ve actually heard of that kind of meditation,” Qrow mused. “But it was from ascetics way older than you, and that’s disregarding you having less than twelve months of memories.”

I glanced at Ozpin myself, finding him as impassive as always, but considering what I’d said to Ruby earlier I decided it was only fair I elaborate slightly. “I’ve been passing the power granted by my oath off as my Semblance. My actual Semblance is… complicated, but part of it is enhanced learning. It’s why I was able to catch up with everything I need to know as a Hunter so fast, and in this case, let me learn to meditate and tap the collective Aura of Remnant’s biosphere without decades of asceticism.”

[Acting has increased by 1!]

“That’s why you seemed to get better as you fought,” Qrow realized. “It wasn’t just a matter of getting used to the level I was showing. You were literally improving with every exchange.”

I grinned. “You got it, Boss.”

“You’re gonna be wasted on 90% of the Academy,” he told me.

I shrugged. “I still have a lot of learning to catch up on, and besides that I have a team to lead. If I end up ahead of them, I’ll just have to drag them up to my level.”

“Ain’t that a scary thought…” Qrow said, though the smirk on his face belied his words.

“So what’s the mission?”

Qrow waved me off, heading over to the elevator and punching the call button. “Relax, it’s not that urgent, so go be with your teammates and do whatever you do on weekends while Oz pushes the paperwork through and I make arrangements. I’m gonna take the girls out for dinner tonight, and you can treat Autumn to a nice date; I’ll pick you up after breakfast on Monday morning and we’ll get started.”

“Fine, but for the record, I don’t love the ‘mysterious’ thing,” I sighed. “Don’t make a habit of it. If you actually can’t tell me, just say it’s for opsec, don’t be cryptic for no reason.”

Qrow laughed. “Oh, you and I are gonna get along just fine, Punk.”

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Name: Jaune ArcLevel: 59 (Next: 67.87%)Title: Academy StudentRace: HumanAge: 18Job: Beacon StudentClass: PaladinSemblance: The GamerHP: 7834/7834MP: 4335/4335STR: 222 (100)CON: 274 (101)DEX: 155 (53)INT: 133 (50)WIS: 110 (52)CHA: 148 (52)Points: 102Money: 953,788LStatus: Cursed – Yellow Death [High]

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A/N: If you’re enjoying this story, feel free to check out my discord server at https://discord.gg/H6V854Fvbg

The others are probably surprised by Jaune’s analysis of Weiss, but as I implied, it’s pretty easy to piece together why she is like she is — at least at the beginning of Volume 1 before her entire character arc got skipped between V1 and V2.

Cappuccino was indeed named after the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, specifically because the brown of the coffee with milk added resembled the brown of their habits.

I know most people attribute the puns to Taiyang, but he doesn’t really make any in the show that I can recall; he’s more of a blunt, tells-it-like-it-is, occasional dark humor kind of guy. Consequently, I’m assigning the terrible jokes to Qrow as yet another coping mechanism for the misery of his Semblance.

Did you know the plural of ‘nexus’ is simply ‘nexus’? TIL, though ‘nexuses’ is also accepted in English, since as a loanword it is now subject to English pluralization rules, but the vaguely-common ‘nexii’ is based on incorrectly applying Greek pluralization to a Latin root.

Finally, on to the next arc!