One of the advantages of not having something important to do. Or anything to do at all for the matter, is that it leaves you with a lot of time to think.
And thinking is all I've done in the entire month since my arrival into this new world.
All this introspection has both given me some answers while also raising several new questions.
And the first and most important topic that I've come to reflect on is:
'What do I want?'
He isn't in this situation by his own choice, he had no plans or preparations in place before being forced into this situation.
In his Reincarnation, he never met a ROB or any all powerful being to tell him why they did it or what they wanted from him. If that was the case he would at least have some answers to the various questions that tormented him at every moment.
Why was I, a boring and uninteresting teenager chosen out of everyone else to be reincarnated? What does it hopes for me to achieve by bringing me here? Why was this body chosen to house me out of the many other choices? Did I really die in my former world and can't remember it or I was just given someone else's memories while being put on this body just for the entertainment of someone else? Why was so much effort put into ensuring that he had no attachments to his former life?
But since he was never given a task by somebody else and so far he is yet to recieve any magic letter or divine revelation in this last month to clear things up, it is up to him to find his own purpose and objective to pursue in this life.
In his last life, he must've had dreams and aspirations like everybody else, but they are now gone along with anything that alludes to his identity.
Now that he thinks about it, every alteration on his memories was made in such a way to turn him into a blank slate, a completely white canvas that is ready to be painted by all his experiences on this world. Maybe the reason I can't recall my death is that there was a chance that this knowledge could deeply affect him, thus going against the idea of a blank slate.
And all of that returns to the question of: What will I do from now on?
Stop Salem and save the world? Although this idea is very enticing, he is well aware that he still holds no attachment to this world and the only reason he would go through with this is simply to save his own skin.
Become strong to protect his loved ones? Even if gaining strength in order to obtain control of his own destiny is something that he already plans to do. He still lacks a reason to use that strength. Although he is willing to fight for this new family, it would be due to the sense of guilt he feels towards the 'original Jaune' for taking over his body, so he would repay him by protecting 'his' family, currently he still feels like he doesn't belong among these people.
Become a white Knight and follow the footsteps of my ancestors like the original Jaune would have wanted? That is rejected by the same reason as becoming a world saviour but on top of that, living my life just to please a bunch of people that are already dead wouldn't sit right with me.
The second question that I pondered upon was:
'What will I do with my past life's memories of the show?'
They are an invaluable resource which is capable of drastically changing the course of the two immortal's shadow war. But they are also very tricky resource to utilize since the more I use them the less reliable they become.
I can either use them fast to gain an early advantage and just deal with a completely different chain of events in the future or I could hold on to them until I reach a tipping point and things are already set in motion so that they have maximum effect.
Both options have their benefits but I'm still not too sure how long should I hold off on using my future knowledge in order to not completely change the original's events or if I should even worry about this at all.
The next thing that came to mind considering that he definitely plans on becoming strong is:
'How exactly will I become stronger?'
According to what the original Jaune said:
His road to become a huntsman was a uphill battle, with his family despite its legacy and the many heroes that it created stubbornly refused to train him due to his parents becoming disillusioned with the huntsman career and I would also assume that his lack of even the most basic knowledge about being a huntsman is also a method they used to sabotage his chances to enter a huntsman school.
One thing that he had in his favor were his natural leadership abilities that compelled Opzin to accept him into beacon despite his lack of training. But unfortunately he was never able to fully realize his potential due to his lack of experience, so if I inherited his talent when I took his body it would be essential for me to invest time so that this talent can really bloom.
So just asking my family to train me would be an useless endeavor and training by myself would never work since I had no recollection of ever being in a fight in my previous life or practicing any skills which could help me in a fight such as martial arts, archery or fencing so getting stronger without an instructor or just swinging a sword until I'm overpowered would be wishful thinking.
I could try to enroll into a combat school to receive training, but I would need my parents approval which is unlikely and even if I got falsified documents to enroll, that would still leave me having to find an excuse to fool them for when I'm attending classes, but eventually they would find out and bring me back.
I could try becoming a personal disciple of an active or retired huntsman and leave my home but ignoring the issue of getting them to accept, I would also be found out since Nicholas is an active huntsman and Alexandra is a retired one, so they must have plenty of connections within the huntsman circles and would eventually be able to find me and bring me back.
And lastly, I could earn some money, leave my house and hire a private instructor to train me. Earning money to pay housing, food and my training using my previous life knowledge wouldn't be a problem since I could plagiarize one of the popular works from Earth to earn easy cash, but I would then run into the issue of if someone would even allow a minor to rent a hotel without the approval of an guardian or if an trainer would even train me without my parent's permission and lastly I might have known this family for a measly month but I'm sure that if I run away before hitting 17, they would scour this continent to find me.
So I have yet to figure out an reliable method to get training before the age of 17, that is a very pressing issue that I must resolve as soon as possible since living in such a dangerous world without training will be a death sentence. More thought must be put into it so I can make a reliable plan.
The next issue I'm going to face is my relationship with my new family.
For now I've been just been putting it off and avoiding the issue but once I grow up, this issue will become more and more obvious to them and when they find it they will try to get to the bottom of it.
I could try and tell them the truth but that would only make them think that I have a mental issue and they would send me to a psychologist to get some help. Not to mention what would be their reaction if I just walked up to them and said:
'Yo, I'm someone who comes from another world and this one we're currently in is based on a show I watched while I was there. Oh! and by the way, I've taken your son's body when I came here, my bad.'
So revealing this secret is completely out of the question. That leaves me with having to either become very good at pretending that everything is fine or somehow come to terms with it and let go of the guilt that is eating away at me.
Those topics were the ones that he spent the most time reflecting on and also the ones he has yet to find the best solutions to but in this time he didn't just face dead ends as he was able to formulate a few plans for the future and come to a few conclusions.
The first conclusion is that he needs to gather allies, no matter how strong he trains himself to be, he will be incapable of winning this war alone since he can't be at multiple places at the same time. So gathering trustworthy people and training them should be one of his priorities.
The second is that he will have to work with Ozpin even before the start of Canon, finding a way to subtlety feed him information in order to try and prevent a few events prior from the start of the series from happening such as the attack on the fall maiden is something he must do even if it means enduring the ensuing butterfly effect.
The third is that he must find better ways of gathering information, sooner or later his future knowledge will be rendered obsolete and he will have to find another way to maintain himself a step ahead of his enemies.
And lastly, the fall of beacon is an event that I must prevent from happening at all costs. The sheer morale, strategic and structural damage from the attack has not only compromised one of the few institutions capable of producing warriors to fight off the grimm but also reduced the main cast to a rag tag group of survivors that have been trying to catch the villains but were always one step behind.
This time he will not watch as the kingdoms are divided and picked apart by the forces of Salem, instead he must work towards uniting them in order to face her under a single banner.
And in order to see all of his expectations coming into fruition, he has already made some plans on how to make better use of his time in such a way as to get the most out of his days, he just need a little more time to consider some variables and iron out a few flaws.
But one thing that I'm sure of is that I should cherish this simple and peaceful time while it lasts because the path I'm currently in is one that leads to the eye of the storm and in a few years I will be in a constant race against time in order to prevent the events I've seen on the show from happening.
I will have to live with the constant reminder that several lives could be affected by any of my choices, that one wrong move could send me and all my allies over to the abyss and that the only two people on this planet that I can relate to on this specific aspect is an a thousand years old reincarnating wizard and a immortal monster that command the forces of grimm.
Such is the burden I must bear for having all this knowledge. Along with all the solitude I will have to go through as I can't confide this knowledge to anyone else, not even my family.
But let's cut this line of thought here before my thoughts go to even deeper and darker places, I don't have time to be pitying myself and it will not help me one bit.
Let's take things one step at a time, shall we? Let those big problems be solved by the future me and focus on dealing with my current problems such as the endless boredom and 7 sisters trying to cross-dress me at every opportunity.
Not exactly easy problems to solve but at least much more manageable for my current self.
One step at a time Jaune, just do things a single step at a time.
I hope I haven't bored you guys with this slower and more introspective chapter.
This should serve to give the readers a better understanding of Jaune's thoughts and future plans while still not giving all the answers away.