Of forests, Grimm and Special Brew

Jaune yawned blearily as he watched the students begin to stumble to their feet, the early risers already making their way out of the showering rooms with a vigour that made him want to cry. His eyes were fighting a losing battle for wakefulness, and his legs had given up on him hours ago.

When he'd offered to take this responsibility away from Miss Goodwitch he had been expecting a number of things. Firstly that it would help her, and thus would ingratiate himself with her. She was his best source of information and advice at this academy, and he could honestly say his best supporter. Beyond that he had hoped to take what he knew would be a relatively simple task, lest the Headmaster assign him something else, something that he might not have been able to handle.

Either way, he'd expected to have to watch a few students get ready for bed, maybe sort out some arguments at the worst, and then catch some rest himself.

Oh you poor fool. His treacherous ego tormented in a sing-song voice. Watching the students was the job... how can you watch them if you're sleeping?

He and Port had been forced to remain awake, all night. Every single minute while 99.9% of the student body slumbered away, on the off-chance that one of them might wake up and try something stupid.

What, he didn't know. They were hardly going to try and do something illegal in a room full of trained combatants who could wake up at the slightest noise of struggle. Perhaps it was more in case any new lovebirds decided to get a little cosy during the night.

None had.

Not a single person had woken up for so much as a bathroom break, leaving Peter and he to sit leaning against a wall for a few hours, before both giving up on that and finding some chairs. His only companion the lingering tales of Peter in his youth, which had become less and less boisterous as the night went on.

Even Peter had begun to lose interest it seemed.

"Soon lad..." The older teacher mumbled as he too rubbed at his eyes. At least his tiredness seemed to be hidden behind his thick brows and long moustache. But Jaune was beginning to see the signs in him too. "Soon it'll all be over... and then... sleep."

"I cannot wait." He yawned back. His eyes picked out the figure of Ruby Rose from last night, who was making her way into the women's bathrooms to shower and change. Somehow it didn't surprise him at all to see her so energetic, nor to see her blonde sister look like a zombie as she followed her. He could relate.

"Why don't you get some breakfast Jaune." Peter offered as he nodded in the direction of the cafeteria where a few students were heading. "A quick meal and some coffee might wake you up."

"Are you sure?" He asked uncertainly, while the offer did sound tempting, he was loathe to abandon his new brother-in-arms to the waking horde.

"You've done enough my boy. Besides, the students in the cafeteria might need watching too." The man winked at him as he said that, and Jaune let a small grin to come to his face at the sneakiness.

"Right you are. Wouldn't want them to fall prey to a rogue bagel." He joked back, and was pleased to see the man laugh in response.

"Ask for a teacher's coffee!" Peter whispered to him before he could leave, a serious expression on his face. "But let no one hear you."

"Umm.. okay?" He shrugged as the older man let go of him and ushered him away. Jaune was quick to take the signal. His body craved nourishment almost as much as sleep, it had been over twelve hours since his last meal.

The Beacon cafeteria was a stately hall. With large oaken doors, and tall ornate windows along an entire wall. Long wooden tables made the room look orderly and incredibly long. From the entrance he could make out a number of serving stations with cooks bustling away in sight, but there were also numerous vending machines dotted around the hall as well.

I suppose I should get a coffee like Peter said... He thought to himself as he wandered towards one of the empty stations. He wasn't a particular fan of the thick drink, finding it disgusting, but the caffeine would certainly be appreciated right now.

"What can I get you." The large man dressed in white asked in a friendly manner as he smiled at Jaune. Before him was a few plates arranged out, with various cooked meats and eggs, along with other fruits and bakery products.

"I'll just have some fruit and bread." Jaune shrugged as he helped himself to one of the plates, and also added some jam to a bowl for himself. "Just finished working the shift watching the students and I don't think I can handle anything bigger."

"Oh, you're the new teacher!" The large man laughed. "The graveyard shift is always the hardest I hear. Hey..." The man whispered as he looked left and right before leaning in. Mind still half-clouded by lack of sleep, Jaune didn't see anything particularly wrong with the idea of leaning his face close to a stranger who was wielding a kitchen knife, and so dipped himself forwards. Thankfully death was not his immediate reward.

"You looking for a special brew?" The cook asked, in the manner one might if they were looking to offload some particularly volatile contraband.

"A teacher's coffee?" Jaune guessed, hoping it wasn't anything more incriminating. The cook shushed him loudly, but nodded. "I'll take one, yeah. I could use the caffeine."

"I hear you. I'll be back in a second, wait here." The man quickly vanished into a sideroom as Jaune sat waiting, idly nibbling on a croissant to sate his stomach before it could eat his spine. A few moments later the man came out, walking slowly as he balanced something before him. "Here you go. And remember... keep it secret, keep it safe."

"… Thanks..." The blonde mumbled as he walked away, wondering exactly what he'd gotten himself into. The coffee looked the same as any other, a brown so dark it was close to black with a lighter edge where it hugged the white rim. He didn't think Peter Port would honestly trick him into taking anything illegal though, so perhaps it was just something heavily caffeinated, that they didn't really wan to give to teenagers. It kind of made sense.

Finding an empty table was easy enough given how early it was, and he settled himself down before immediately lathering an overly indulgent amount of jam onto his croissant and biting into it with gusto. The food was wonderful, still warm and fresh from baking. In the back of his mind he questioned if the late wakers would even experience the true beauty of it, before dismissing it as unimportant. He was experiencing it.

Still... time to try this... special brew... He thought to himself as he lifted the cup in front of his eyes challengingly. The white porcelain offered no answers. No clues, and no hint of the possibilities that lay within.

Because it was a mug.

Sighing he lifted it back and took a long sip.

Before the world exploded.

Ghostly arms settled around him, the warmth of his mother hugging him from behind as she whispered into his ears that it would all be okay Jaune. The fresh breeze of the morning seemed to break through stone and glass to invade his nostrils and invigorate him, even as the muted noise from the students was erased.

Bird song. There was so much, they were so high in the air, and the birds had found Beacon to be a home. Their morning trilling filled him with an inner peace that was hard to describe in words. It was an epiphany, as though he had realised the meaning of it all, and was able to block out all distraction. No worries for the future, or the past. Only the beauty of the now.

A tear of happiness pooled in the corner of one eye, before slowly trailing down his cheek before hanging there, forgotten.

"HIYA!" A voice screamed from nearby, causing him to rear back as his peace crashed into a million pieces around him. Instinctively his hands formed a protective barrier around the ambrosia, and he shifted his body in preparation to throw himself in front of whatever might seek to hurt it.

"Umm..." The voice, which he could now recognise as female asked, as he looked up to see an orange-haired girl clutching a plate of pancakes staring at him. She looked vaguely confused. "Did you just hiss at me?" She asked.

"You must have imagined it." Jaune deflected, unsure of what he had actually done from being brought out of his happy place. Idly his eyes glanced down to see that his mug was empty, when had he drunk it all!?

"Okay!" The girl cheered as she plopped down opposite him, waving to her companion to do the same. He was an exotic looking man with pink eyes and jet black hair, though he had a lock of pink hair running through it. "My name's Nora, and this is my best friend Ren! But we're not together-"

"Thank you Nora." Ren interrupted, before the girl could continue on. "Lie Ren, and this is Nora Valkyrie. I understand you're one of the Professors here. Good morning to you."

"And yourself. The name's Jaune Arc, you can call me Jaune outside of class." He offered with a shrug, helping himself to another generous slice of croissant. The student, Ren, nodded in thanks but didn't say anything as he started to eat his own breakfast. Jaune's eyes were briefly brought back to the orange haired girl as she stabbed her fork into what looked like a stack of eight pancakes, before lifting the entire stack up as one. She then proceeded to bite into it like the sugariest ice-cream in history.

O-kayyyy...

"Forgive me if this sounds rude." Ren interrupted, dragging Jaune's attention away from the impressive spectacle in front of him. "But you seem quite young, how did you come to be a teacher here?"

"Chance more than anything." Jaune offered with a small smile, internally wondering how much he could give, both to protect himself, but also to play along with Ozpin's scheme of not appearing too inexperienced. "I'm 20 years old, and was invited to teach here by the Headmaster." Perhaps that was enough to say here, if they had any further questions then they would need to seek answers from the Headmaster himself, which he doubted they would try.

"You must be super-strong then!" The girl crowed as she invaded his personal bubble, leaning across the table. Where had the pancakes gone, she couldn't have eaten them all, surely!? "Can we spar some time Jauney!"

"Professor Jaune." The polite boy corrected as he took a sip of orange juice.

"What I said!"

"Perhaps when you're a little more experienced Nora." Jaune simply offered with a smile, sweating a little inside at the idea of fighting this crazy girl. Maybe by that time, he could become more experienced himself!

"Well of course!" The girl agreed, as though his comment was the most obvious she had heard in her life "There's no way I could beat a teacher now, but just you wait!"

"Sorry about Nora, she is always like this." The more taciturn boy apologised as he nodded at Jaune. In return Jaune just smiled and shook his head.

"It's fine. I'm not above casual conversation with students." Quite the opposite, he complained in his own mind... these people were of his own age group, they could have been his best friends, or his teammates... this Nora could have been his... No. That thought made him feel unsafe. Friends, and teammates, that sounded better.

Instead he found himself acting older than them. And not only, but feeling older than them too! As though the mere act of speaking and reacting in a more mature manner was building a barrier he was struggling to overcome. The mere fact of it threatening to tear him down.

"Arc!" A voice called out over the ruckus, as more students made their way into the dining halls. Jaune leant back to see Peter making his way into the room and calling for him.

"I shall see you all another time, good luck with initiation." He excused, smiling awkwardly at the girl as she made a whine of disappointment, while Ren just nodded in polite farewell.

"Have your breakfast lad?" Peter asked as Jaune nodded in response. "Good, good. I'll get mine now and cover the cafeteria. I need you to watch over the lockers to make sure nothing goes on. Just out the doors, and the hallway on the left, you can't miss it. Plenty of students heading that way now."

"Sure, sure. Is there anything else after this?" Jaune asked in return, invigorated from the special coffee he'd had the good fortune to be blessed with, but knowing that the rush would leave him soon enough.

"They'll be called to the cliffs for initiation soon. We'll be watching over them, but then we can retire." The man grinned at Jaune. "Two hours max lad. We're nearly there."

"Alright, I'll hold the lockers then. Catch up with you later." He waved as he headed off in the direction Peter had indicated, using the crowds of students more than the directions to navigate. Thankfully Peter had been correct in saying he couldn't miss it, as there were at least thirty students or more in the area, collecting weapons from lockers.

Rocket lockers if he remembered. He'd read about them in Glynda's notes. The idea was that you could summon your locker using your scroll, launching it to your destination so that you could have your weapons to hand. A valuable aid, the notes had said.

Downright stupidity, his mind had argued. Really, if you were caught unawares by Grimm then that meant you had somehow wandered into the clearly marked forests without a weapon... Or even worse, gone outside the walls of Vale. A civilian you might expect that from by accident, but a Hunter?

Though who was he to judge? Maybe it was something that only made sense to legitimate Hunters.

It was while he was considering the blue lockers, that someone bumped into his back, causing him to spin about even as the female voice complained at the nudging.

"P-Professor!" The white-haired girl from yesterday gasped as her eyes widened at having bumped into him again. The poor girl looked half-horrified and half-frustrated, and despite himself being the same age as her, and secretly finding her quite terrifying, he rushed to calm her.

"Don't worry, it was my fault." He held his hands out in front of himself to calm her, but refrained from actually touching her. "The teachers who watched over the hall didn't get to sleep, so I'm afraid my mind is a little scattered."

"O-Oh. I see." The girl recovered as she looked up at him, before taking a deep breath. "I would like to formally apologise for my actions last night Professor Arc. I was out of line, and promise I will not act in such an undignified manner again." She finished the words by bowing her head to him briefly. Truthfully, he was more than a little surprised at the apology. He had pegged her as a particularly prideful person, and had expected her to just do her best to ignore him.

"Oh that's no problem." He waved the apology away as he laughed at her. "I can understand that tempers fray so soon after moving to a new place. We'll leave it all behind us. You can call me Jaune outside of classes by the way."

He would have that known by the end of the day. if he had to carve it into all their minds by hand.

"Thank you, Professor Jaune." The girl nodded, causing him to twitch a little at the worse title. "My name is Weiss Schnee, while you're here, might I introduce you to Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Hi." The girl with Weiss greeted, as Jaune turned to face her.

Black lace.

"Good morning." He greeted back, hoping his eyes weren't twitching as he looked at the red-headed goddess stood before him. She was dressed in ornate bronze armour, mixed with red cloth that matched her brilliant red hair.

And black lace.

"I had heard about a teacher close to our age, it's a pleasure to meet you. You must have studied extensively to gain a place here." The girl complimented as her green eyes regarded him with clear friendliness.

You. Have a very sexy ass. His mind greeted back.

"No more than anyone else, I'm sure." He deflected with a little laugh, that she joined in with. Oh Gods, why was it so easy to talk to women and get them laughing when he was pretending to be a teacher!?

Water, water, everywhere. Yet none that's fit to drink.

"That's a good point." Weiss spoke, dragging his attention reluctantly away from the redhead in front of him. It was probably better this way. "Where was it you studied if I might ask Professor?"

"Not a problem Miss Schnee. I studied at the Vacuo Academy for the Gifted." He replied with a small smile, before wincing as all conversation about them went dead. From the corner of his eye, he could already see a few others turning away from their conversations to stare at him.

"T-the Vacuo Academy?" The redhead whispered in surprise, her eyes wide and her face twisted with concern. "I've heard about what happened. I'm sorry for your loss." She whispered to him, her green eyes clouded with sympathy that honestly had him surprised.

"I'm so sorry for asking Professor!" Weiss interjected quickly as she shook her hands in front of herself. "I'm sorry if I brought up bad memories!"

Did everyone know about this place, other than him before it became a part of his alleged history!?

"It's fine Miss Schnee." He accepted with a small smile, content to refer to her by her last name since she seemed like a more formal person than he was used to. Honestly, she seemed icier than Glynda Goodwitch, and that was saying something. Though despite that attitude, and the small scar running down one eye, Jaune could admit that the white-haired girl was very beautiful.

"Even so, I'm sorry." She apologised again. "I should not have let my curiosity get the better of me, not when it comes to a member of the teaching staff."

"Please don't worry." Jaune urged as he laid a hand on her shoulder briefly, before smiling at her. Really, he hadn't even been to that place, but he was starting to feel incredibly guilty at having unknowingly used it. How bad had it really been for the poor people trapped there? "Not all my memories of Vacuo are bad, there were more good times in the years I spent there."

"I think that's the best way to remember them." Pyrrha offered as she smiled at him, a gentle smile that almost seemed to be congratulating him on making the more mature and pleasant answer. It almost made him blush. "If it's not too rude Professor. Might I ask how old you are?"

"I'm 20." He lied easily with a small shrug. "I was seventeen when the Academy went down."

"Three years. Did you spend the time training again?" Pyrrha asked as she tilted her head to one side, the move doing interesting things to her hair and her long, smooth, neck.

"I spent a year or two in the ruins, helping people escape. Once I had come to terms with what happened I travelled a little, helping people where I could, before applying to study here."

"Applying to study?" Weiss asked incredulously, causing Jaune to curse angrily in his mind. Damn it, he'd gotten so distracted by the two girls, and his memories of one of them less dressed the previous night, that he'd forgotten the lie Ozpin wanted him to stick to.

"Ah well, please keep it quiet but I wanted to join here as a student, even if I am a little old. But the Headmaster reviewed my credentials and decided I would suit far better as a Professor. In his words, three years fighting alone in the Grimmlands of Vacuo is more than any training can achieve. In his eyes, it is training and graduation all in one."

"You mean you could have been a student here?" The white-haired girl asked again, before bringing her hands down in front of her in apparent upset. "You could have joined our team!" She complained loudly.

"I agree, that would have been fabulous." The redhead smiled at him easily.

"No way, our team!" A male voice from nearby crowed, as students gathered about the three of them.

"Ours!" Another argued, as the voices raised and Jaune sighed.

Yeah... he would have loved that...

~~~~~Professor Arc~~~~~

"I see you survived the night." The Headmaster welcomed once the students had been launched off the cliffs and into the forest. If Jaune was honest, he would admit that he was glad he didn't have to face that prospect. He wasn't sure how he would have survived the fall, and still wasn't sure with these students. He didn't show his discomfort though, trusting that Ozpin and Goodwitch would not have literally killed this many students in front of his eyes.

"Yes, though I'm a little exhausted." Jaune admitted with an easy shrug. Beside Ozpin stood Glynda Goodwitch, who was busy monitoring things on her scroll. Jaune could also make out Peter looking at his own behind them.

"That's to be expected. We won't keep you for too long here. In fact you and Peter are excused from the official assigning of the teams. We just need to get the initiation out of the way first." The man took a long sip of his coffee, before his eyes glanced to the left, where Glynda was busy. "Speaking of Mr Arc. Did you perhaps enjoy a nice cup of coffee this morning?"

"I did." Jaune nodded easily. "It was a very... impressive brew." Which was saying things lightly, he still felt energised, and the memory of the drink was almost enough to make him consider attacking the man in front of him. Who was drinking it in front of him!

"I am glad to see you agree Mr Arc. Very glad to see."

"What's that Headmaster?" The female deputy asked with a raised brow as she regarded them. To Jaune's surprise, he almost thought he saw a brief flash of panic on the Headmaster's face before it was erased.

"We were talking about the launching." Ozpin lied easily, causing Jaune to feel a small amount of confusion. "Mr Arc. Not all agree with what we do, or why we do it. But we must protect what is important to us."

"The launching is perfectly safe in most cases." Glynda offered in agreement. "Thinking on the fly is an important skill for future hunters, I'm surprised anyone would disagree with this."

Jaune meanwhile raised an eyebrow at the Headmaster, who was ignoring Glynda and instead had raised his mug in front of his face, as if toasting it to Jaune, while his eyes slid to Glynda, and he nodded his head sideways in her direction.

"I agree it is baffling. But some believe it is unhealthy, and dangerous." The Headmaster replied. Again lifting his coffee towards Jaune, and nodding towards Glynda.

Oh... Jaune realised, nodding once towards the Headmaster to show he understood. Still, it was strange to think Glynda could be against what was obviously the best coffee on the planet. Perhaps she simply hadn't been enlightened yet.

"Well yes... being launched into a Grimm infested forest could be considered unhealthy..." The woman in question offered with a bemused expression on her face.

"Ah, we have our first pair!" Peter interrupted with a shout, causing the three of them to quickly pull out their scrolls and activate the feeds that had been put into them. Jaune watched as the scroll began to display an image which showed the girl from earlier, Pyrrha, as she clapped a brown-haired girl on the shoulder, smiling kindly.

Wait were those bunny ears? He zoomed in a little further to see that the girl indeed had a pair of brown bunny ears on her head, a rabbit faunus by the looks of things.

They had a bunny girl...

This is just fucking unfair! I want to be on that team! His mind wailed at the injustice, even as he couldn't stop his eyes trailing over the girl's cute face. God damn it all.

"Velvet Scarlatina." Glynda Goodwitch spoke from nearby, and to his surprise he could hear a faint level of sadness in her voice.

"Is there something I should know about her?" Jaune asked, noticing that even Peter had a slightly fond expression on his face.

"Velvet was a second year at this academy, and already part of a team." Glynda answered him. "She was a member of team CFVY, also known as team Coffee." As the woman paused, Jaune spared a moment to take another look at the Headmaster, this time with a flat expression on his face. Yes it was the best drink ever, but really!?

The man in question simply took another sip, a lost expression on his face. Jaune couldn't tell if he was thinking about the girl they were talking about, or was simply lost in his own coffee-induced haze.

"What happened to the team?" He asked of the two other teachers instead.

"Team Coffee is still active." Peter answered for him. "The four of them were a good team, close comrades too. Real aspiring hunters. Close as family."

"Velvet was injured on her first practice mission however." Glynda interrupted. "Though not life-threatening the injury to her leg was bad enough that it took months to heal, and beyond that a few months of physiotherapy for her to regain full usage of it. Though she is an adept dust mage, she also relies on martial arts involving her legs, so she could not fight if she did not recover."

"Before we knew it, ten months had passed before she recovered. Though she had kept up with all her school work thanks to the help of her team..." Glynda trailed off sadly. "She could not pass the year. Her combat skills were too low, and she would have been at great risk on future missions. It was for her own good that we made the decision to make her retake the year."

"Did she not take it well?" Jaune guessed, wondering how he might feel to be taken away from friends like that.

"Velvet's a gentle one." Peter replied as he shook his head. "She was understanding as always. Her team on the other hand..." He laughed before grinning. "Like any true team, they were not happy and refused a new member. Said there could be no replacement, and that this was just til Velvet got back on her feet, and that they would take her back."

It sounded nice, Jaune thought to himself with a smile. This was all things he would miss out on as a teacher, so it was nice to imagine himself in that situation.

"That is unlikely to happen however." The Headmaster entered the conversation, showing that he had been listening all along. "For now, she is a first year once again. And Pyrrha Nikos is to be her new partner."

The conversation moved onto more casual topics as Jaune scrolled through the various camera feeds, paying attention half-heartedly as names he didn't recognised were paired together. He even pointed out a few guys meeting himself to the others. The first to make eye contact rule had been easy enough to enforce, especially since most of the pairs had stuck with their preferred choices without too much complaint.

From what he could find of the people he had met, Ruby had been paired up with Weiss in what was sure to be a rather volatile partnership. The last he had seen of them hadn't left the best impression, as the two had almost hurt one another in a friendly-fire accident. For Ruby's sake, he hoped they could put aside their little differences.

Yang... He shivered as he thought name in his mind. The blonde devil had partnered with the quiet book girl with the legs from the previous night, Blake Belladonna as Glynda had made him aware. That partnership was bound to turn a few heads, all of them male. Ren and Nora had partnered so quickly, that he had to assume some level of foul play, but the teachers didn't seem to care, and he liked the two enough not to bring it up.

From Ozpin's explanation, the ruins in the centre contained chess pieces, and the piece chosen by each pair, would dictate the teams of four. Bishops to bishops, knights to knights, and vice-versa. Apparently they'd skipped the pawns and used both the black and white pieces from the back row. Odd, but he supposed it made sense, and was fairly simple in terms of sorting the teams out.

"There's a big battle at the ruins." Peter spoke suddenly from nearby, causing Jaune to spare him a worried glance before looking back at his own scroll and cycling through the cameras. "That's a large nevermore." The teacher commented as Jaune finally found the feed.

Oh Good Lord... He could make out eight students, literally the eight that he knew and had made tentative friends with, arranged in a group on a bridge as a huge nevermore dived at them. The books he'd read had said they ranged from between one metre to a few, but that thing had to be at least forty metres across!

"This looks interesting." The Headmaster whispered as the four of them all finally aligned on the same camera feed.

"It looks dangerous." Jaune spoke before he could stop himself, concern for his new friends warring with his sense of self-preservation. How could they be ready for such a monster, when they hadn't even started their first day of training!?

"Your concern for your students does you credit Mr Arc." The Headmaster spoke easily. "But worry not, Doctor Oobleck is nearby, and ready to intervene should the situation require it."

"Oobleck could kill that thing in his sleep." Peter laughed as he gave Jaune a thumbs up as encouragement. Jaune let out a deep breath in an effort to calm himself, but found that while the knowledge that they were safe did prevent some of the fear. He couldn't fully dismiss it.

It was so big, and they were so small.

"The two teams are splitting up." Glynda analysed, as the eight figures broke into two sets of four. Jaune watched as the black-haired gunman Ren shouted instructions to his team-mates, directing them to open fire on the Nevermore. It seemed he had a pair of automatic pistols from the look of it, while Pyrrha's weapon was capable of turning into a rifle. Nora... the one who wanted to fight him... had a grenade launcher.

Oh Gods no.

The bunny-girl, Velvet, stood in place but seemed to be speaking quietly to herself before pointing a hand towards the creature. From in front of her a large conflagration of fire seemed to form before hurtling towards the creature and slamming into its feathers. The monstrosity turned to face them, offering its back to the other four.

"They're distracting it?" He offered uncertainly, getting an agreeing sound from Glynda as she watched the scene on her own scroll. The nevermore dived towards the four, as the man in green once again shouted something that had them scattering. On the way past, the Nevermore clipped one of the students, sending the orange-haired girl spiralling as she slammed into the ground.

"It hit her!" He spoke quickly.

"Her aura absorbed the damage, no need for Oobleck to step in yet." Ozpin cut in.

Her aura? Jaune's eyes widened. Oh Holy flying crap! Aura! How had he forgotten. He hadn't, he'd planned to bring it up at some point when he had gotten in as a student and have it unlocked, but with the current change of plans and his constant state of near panic, he had forgotten.

He. Jaune Arc. Professor of Beacon Academy.

Hadn't unlocked his aura.

Can they sense it!? What if they notice? Well that was obvious. If they noticed, he was out, instantly. The mere idea that a hunter trained for seven years in the Vacuo Academy for the gifted would not have his aura unlocked was freaking laughable. He had to have it unlocked.

"See, they brought it down without too much problem." Peter cheered as Jaune blinked in surprise. Wait, it was over!? He'd only stopped paying attention for what felt like a short time. And yet as his eyes went back to the screen he could see that the beast was already crashing into the valley, sans its head. With Ruby Rose, the shy fifteen year old girl perched on a cliff, cape flowing behind her with a scythe in hand.

Okay. That's awesome.

"I'm sure you're glad to see your little addition working out, eh Ozpin?" Peter laughed as the man in question simply smiled enigmatically. Jaune wondered what he meant by that, but was still too frayed to question it.

"The teams are all making their way back here now." Glynda interrupted. "The locators in the chess pieces are signalling, so we know who has what. Now comes the difficult part." She sighed out as she massaged at her forehead, causing Jaune to look a little worried.

"Yes. This part of the year is always the worst." The Headmaster agreed, while Peter simply said something about wishing Oobleck was here to help them.

"Dare I even ask?" Jaune asked anyway.

"It is tradition for the teams to have code names to represent themselves. These must be four letters long, that use the initials of each member of the team. These must also then form a full word." The Headmaster seemed to sigh after he explained. "It is a tradition I've not yet been able to kill."

"I shall claim team CRDL." Glynda Goodwitch piped up quickly. "Henceforth, they shall be known as Team Cardinal, led by Cardin Winchester."

"Hardly fair... easy..." Peter grumbled as he began coming up with names for another quartet that Jaune didn't recognise. Miss Goodwitch seemed to ignore Peter's ramblings as she adjusted her glasses, looking for all the world like she considered herself done with the whole ordeal.

"I shall take the team with Miss Rose." Ozpin offered Jaune, leaving him with the only other team he recognised, consisting of Velvet, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. Idly he wrote the names and the letters out on his scroll, using the touch-screen to drag them about into different combinations.

Team NPRV... naprivo- okay, he couldn't think of any words to fit that. He continued the exercise for a few moments before becomign frustrated. Seriously, it was harder than it looked and there just didn't seem to be any words that fit. It was the V every time!

"Henceforth, the team consisting of Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao-Long, shall be known as team RWBY, short for Ruby, and led by said person." Ozpin declared after a few minutes, looking quite pleased with himself as he took a long sip of coffee.

Beside Jaune, Glynda stared at him. As did Peter.

"Ruby isn't spelled with a W." Glynda opined for the three of them. "And don't you think having the entire team named after her might go to her head?"

"I'm sorry. Cardin-al?" The Headmaster replied easily, actually making Glynda cough uncomfortably for a moment.

"A lovely name. CRDL and RWBY. Perfect." The woman surrendered.

"Can we use the last names?" Jaune asked quickly, wondering how far he was allowed to stretch the cheating. The Headmaster shrugged.

"Honestly you can use anything you can argue makes sense, as long as it gets the job done." The man answered back, with a bored expression on his face. Besides him, Glynda launched into a quick tirade on tradition, and the importance of, that he seemed to tune out.

Last names... but he could also maybe cheat on the V... much like how the W had been used to make a U...

Team PVRN. Short for... Team Pornogra- Okay, that was probably a bad idea. Especially since there was a bunny-girl on the team, and it was three girls to one guy... one lucky bastard. His hormones really were acting up too much if he was starting to think like this. That or the sleep deprivation was kicking in.

Still it was better that he had no sleep and was stuck with a brain puzzle than having to fight a big ass nevermore... wait... it wouldn't be spelled correctly, but maybe he could cheat on this one time. And it made sense considering he'd been the one to make the orders during the fight, so he was probably the best choice as the leader anyway.

"Team RVNN." Jaune spoke, drawing their attention as he did so. "Team Raven, led by Lie Ren."

"A fine name indeed." Ozpin concluded, a smile coming to his lips. "I think they will be most pleased with the name as well."

"And we finished earlier than expected. Good work Jaune." Peter congratulated as he stifled a yawn behind a meaty fist. Seeing the action caused Jaune to instinctively mimic it.

"Thank you for your work today, and taking over my shift. Why don't the two of you retire for the evening?" The female deputy offered with a small rare smile that Jaune wondered if he was only half imagining. She looked good when she smiled.

"Indeed." The Headmaster agreed. "We will handle assigning teams and rooms, Mr Arc will be aiding Port tomorrow in lessons, followed by Oobleck in the afternoon. For now, take the chance to rest."

"Will do. Come on lad." Peter urged as he nodded his head towards the Academy, and sweet rest. Jaune knew though, that rest wouldn't come until he had sorted out his recent problem. He needed his aura unlocking, and fast. There was no way he could talk to the teachers about it, and the students were an obvious no as well. It would need to be someone outside of Beacon Academy.

Someone who wouldn't rat him out, who would have no connections to the place... Perhaps he could ask that guy he'd paid for those fake documents if he knew anyone. It was risky, but surely there was someone out there who would sell the ability to unlock someone's aura... maybe even in the criminal underground...

Risky... but in for a penny...

What was his name again?... Roman?