Problems

Jaune Arc wants to be a Hero, a Huntsman. He desperately craves for a chance to uphold the Arc legacy and help people, so he did something not so bright.

Honestly, it was downright stupid.

Jaune applied to Beacon Academy, one of the greatest Secondary Huntsmen Academies on Remnant. Only the best of the best are even considered for enrollment and he, well, to be truthful he has no right even dreaming about attending the school.

Not for a like of trying though. His parents never supported his dream in becoming a Huntsman, denying him combat training every time he asked, censoring any and all information concerning the profession with gusto. Teachers threw him out of lessons about Huntsmen, his scroll blocked from all websites concerning them or combat in general, adults with any combat experience were told to keep away from him.

Anything they could do to keep Jaune's knowledge about the profession to a bare minimum, they did. It's only thanks to his years of saving his allowance, along with his friends' help that Jaune was able to purchase falsified transcripts and apply to the Beacon.

Not very noble but this is his dream and he wasn't going to give up on it. Now Jaune just has to wait for next August for the fall semester and he'll become the man he always wanted to be.

"JAUNE! You need to hurry up or you'll be late for school." His mother, Jupiter Arc, calls to him.

Jaune groans as he rolls out of bed, "Give me a second!" Standing up with a yawn he unzips his bright yellow onesie, allowing it to pool around his feet, revealing a lean and wiry frame proof of his only real training he was able to do for his future career.

Stepping out of his pajamas, he walks over to his dresser and gets himself dressed in loose, comfortable clothes.

Grabbing his backpack from his desk, he walks out of his, down the stairs and out the front door, "Bye mom! Bye dad! See you guys later!"

The walk to his school wasn't a long one, barely thirty minutes if that. The school itself wasn't all that big, it didn't have to be for the size of Orleans, the village he lived in which had a population of five hundred give or take a dozen. With only a quarter of that population under seventeen and compulsory school not starting until ten, it is exactly the size it needed to be; two stories tall with less than a dozen rooms on each floor, the first floor for those under thirteen and the second for those thirteen and over.

Jaune hated school with a passion.

Though what sixteen year old boy didn't?

It didn't help that despite being five foot-ten and fitter than most of his peers, he has the coordination of a bull in a Mistral shop, painfully awkward, and has the temperament of a docile bunny. Jaune's prime bully bait… well, bully and his cronies.

"Ugh!"

Jaune fell onto his ass in the middle of the narrow hallway, rubbing his shoulder as the slightly shorter green haired bully, Derek Emerald, shoulder checked him as they walked past each other.

"Watch it, loser!" Derek yells at him as he walks away before laughing like a hyena with his gang.

With a scowl Jaune stands up, getting to his next class. No use making a scene, he didn't need getting the snot beat out of him if he could help it.

The rest of the day drags with classes almost putting him to sleep and Derek taking any chance he has to mess with him. Eventually the second floor lunch comes around and they walk out of the back of the building to the eating area, where he sits with his two best friends; Edward Glass and Amethyst Cazador.

Edward is a wisp of a boy, while Jaune is one of the tallest in their year, Ed is the shortest, standing at an even five feet. He has ginger red hair, hazel brown eyes, and freckles littering his warm ivory skin.

Amethyst stood in-between them in the height department at a respectable five foot-five. She has a sand complexion with long purple hair that rests at the middle of her back, and lively pink eyes.

Jaune is sure that if she wasn't friends with them she would be one of the popular kids.

As the teens ate their homemade lunches, none of them noticed Derek and his lap dogs coming up behind him. A second later the boy pours a smoothie all over Jaune's head, laughing all the while, "You looked like you needed a treat." The bully says with a cheerful tone before crumpling the cup and throws it at Jaune's head before walking away.

He could hear Derek's pink haired girlfriend, Rebecca Salmon, who's always hanging off his bully's large gorilla-like arms, snicker, "Brothers, he's such a fucking loser!" She exclaims, the whole group laughing in agreement.

Standing up from his seat and trying his hardest to not let the tears fall from his eyes, Jaune quickly walks towards the building, trying his hardest to ignore the cruel laughter of his peers.

"Jaune, wait up!" Ed jumps out of his seat to follow the other boy.

"Wait for us!" Amethyst wasn't far behind.

The three travel back into the building to the boy's bathroom and Jaune heads to the sink to rinse out his t-shirt.

"Gods above what is wrong with that boy!" Amethyst grits her teeth angrily as she grabs a couple of paper towels and helps Jaune clean out his hair.

"Who knows." Ed shrugs with a frown of his own.

Jaune remains silent, he wasn't going to let their taunts, pranks and insults get to him. It didn't matter in the long run anyway, he's going to be a Huntsman. Like his parents and grandfather and great grandfather and great-great grandfather.

So, it really didn't matter what they did. It doesn't matter that they laugh and make fun of him constantly.

Jaune Arc is going to be a Hero.

The school day continues because of course it does but like all nightmares it ends. Walking home he's suddenly stopped by an annoyingly familiar voice.

"Hey there, Arc!" Jaune sighs and turns around to face Derek, he had hoped to avoid the boy when the school day ended but of course he wasn't that lucky.

"what do you want–" "AGH!!" 

Jaune yelps in pain as a bright orange basketball hits his nose, blood stains his hoodie before he can stop the bleeding, tears leaking from his eyes.

"Ahhh, Is the little baby crying?" Derek asks as he walks over, he leans forward too close for comfort with a mocking pout.

"Hey, um, I think that's enough man." One of his goons with bright blue hair and crimson eyes tells the bigger boy.

Derek rolls his eyes, "Whatever." He stands straight and shoves past Jaune.

"Ah… I am sorry about him." The blue haired boy mutters as he walks past before jogging to catch up with the others.

Jaune grits his teeth and stands up, he waits until he can't see the group anymore and walks home, as he does he turns his hoodie inside out.

The journey isn't long, taking him about thirty minutes to reach his three story home. The house is quiet when he enters, which isn't surprising as over the last few years most of his siblings have been moving on with their lives.

Rouge, the oldest at twenty six, works as the Sheriff and frequently does over-time, only coming home when she has to sleep or eat.

Saphron, the second oldest at twenty-three, works as a novelist and recently published another best-selling story; something with ninjas and love. She moved out a few months ago and now lives in Argus, a port city in Anima along with her fiancée. 

Verte, the third oldest at twenty one and the definition of a tomboy, works along with Orleans local blacksmith spending all her time in the forge.

Bleue, the fourth oldest, is nineteen. She is a legitimate genius having finished her compulsory education at thirteen and her apprenticeship under a doctor in the Orleans Clinic at seventeen.

Then there are the twins, Indi and Igo, they're a year older than him with a passion for dance. A few years ago they created a successful WeTube channel to share their talent across Remnant and even won a national dancing competition.

After him is Violette, the youngest of the Arc children at twelve years old. She is a talented artist and taking inspiration from the twins created a website to showcase her creations and had recently been getting requests for commissions.

Out of all his siblings he is the only one with an abundance of free time. About the only thing he had in common with his overachieving sisters is his blonde hair, blue eyes, and beige skin tone which they inherited from their father, Noah.

Jaune quickly finds the stairs and climbs a few only to be stopped by the voice of his father.

"Hey there, Sport." Noah, a burly man, greets him from the kitchen table, despite being a little over forty years old he didn't look a day over twenty, though the stress of his job gave him a few streaks of gray in his hair and beard.

"Hey dad." Jaune greets back without slowing his pace, "Tired, I need a nap. love you."

"No problem, kiddo!" Noah exclaims, "Get some rest!"

Jaune doesn't say anything in return.

"Teenagers." His father mutters with a shake of his head.

Jaune enters his room and tosses his backpack on his bed before entering his bathroom and checks on his nose in the mirror. It was swollen and red but didn't look broken.

"How am I going to explain this to mom and dad?" Poking at his nose, he flinches at the pain, "Maybe that I ran into a door or something?" Sighing, he exits his bathroom and sits on the edge of his bed with his head in his hands.

Taking a deep breath through his mouth, he looks out of his bedroom window and looks out to the amazing forest sitting on the edge of Orleans.

After a minute of enjoying the view Jaune makes up his mind, after his family goes to sleep, he would take a stroll and clear his muddled mind.

He feels anxious like he always does when it's time to leave, getting up from bed and slipping his shoes on as he walks out of his room and down the stairs with soft barely perceivable steps. Getting to the end he keeps a steady pace and leaves the house, a large smile splitting his face.

It takes Jaune about half an hour to reach the forest but as he enters the greenery he knows it all worth it. Briefly, he thinks back to the old family camping trips to Mistral and feels content. An hour passes and another but the boy doesn't care, he just wishes he could smell right now, smell all the trees and flowers but just looking is more than enough.

He gives a wave to a magnificent deer and examines a few cool plants, the peaceful setting wraps him in a warm feeling of comfort and safety.

Jaune chuckles as the few squirrels stop by him and tilt their tiny heads, probably wondering why he was back so soon but worry grows when they scurrying away in what he's sure is terror. As he walks, distracted by the animals bizarre behavior he trips over something and lands in dirt, "Of fucking course." He mutters to himself as he looks at the offending object only to feel his heart skip a beat.

A person. Half a person. It's a woman with their bottom half missing, her entrails staining the forest floor.

Needless to say Jaune starts running, dread gripping his heart as he desperately holds the vomit in his mouth. A million thoughts spin around in his head; Who was that? What happened? What could do something like that? Was it a Grimm? Are Grimm invading?

"RAAAGHHHH!!"

Jaune's eyes widen, the noise helps push his body faster, to its limit or at least what he thought was his limit until he heard the thumping of something behind him.

He didn't look behind him, if he looked he was sure he would die. He could feel it in his soul.

So Jaune runs faster and eventually the thumping stops and he's sure he's safe. For a brief moment he cheated death.

A second later he's tackled to the ground and agony fills his side, daggers bite into his flesh.

"AGHHHHH!!" Jaune screams echo through the woods, the pain so intense that his vision blurs and blackens. He's sure he died for a moment but he didn't want to die like this.

'No… no, it can't end like this…' His mind fills with regret.

Only for his eyes to snap open at what feels like moments later, a soundless scream ripping from his throat. He wildly looks around breathing heavily and it takes him a moment but he recognizes where he is, 'I'm in my room?' A confused expression soon finds itself home on his face but it melts away into a sigh as he realizes what happened.

"Just a dream. It was just a dream." The boy mutters in relief, he holds his head in his hands as he cries, after a minute he pushes the blanket off of himself and sees it soaked with blood.

Jaune's eyes blew open as he threw himself off his bed, "Wh..what?" He looks down at his bare torso and examines his side and sees dry blood over smooth skin. Rushing to the bathroom, he collapses at the toilet and releases the contents of his stomach.

Taking a moment, Jaune pushes himself to his feet and feels himself shiver, he passes the mirror and freezes, he looks at his nose, his normal, non swollen nose, "What. The. Fuck."

"Jauney~!!" A light voice of Violette speaks behind his bedroom door, "Mommy said you need to get ready for school!"

Jaune barely responds as he continues to look at his nose.

'What happened.' Jaune can't stop examining himself, this shouldn't be possible. A possible broken nose shouldn't heal overnight and life threatening wounds don't just disappear.

A person dying in the woods shouldn't wake up back in his bed, 'Oh my Gods, there's a dead body in the woods!' 

Jaune closes his eyes tightly and his breathing becomes labored as he tries to make sense of what's happening. It had to be a dream, right? But what about his nose? His acne? What about the blood?

He can't explain it, can't rationalize but…

Jaune runs out of his bathroom and quickly gets dressed, before leaving he empties his backpack and stuffs his bloodied sheets into it.

Rushing down the stairs, he mumbles out an excuse to his family and runs out of the house like a man possessed.

If that body is still there then, then everything that happened is real and something is seriously wrong with him.

'And there's a Grimm loose in the fucking woods!' Jaune skids to a stop, 'There could be a Grimm in the woods! I need to talk to mom and dad!' He turns around only to stop. 'But what if there isn't? What if it's all in my head? What if I cause a panic for nothing?'

Jaune is torn by indecision but he ultimately decides to check for himself first, not wanting to cause his family to panic if it's truly nothing. Which is what it most likely is because everything he knows about Grimm tells him if that's what attacked him then he would be dead.

He turns back around and runs to the forest, it takes over twenty minutes before he enters the lush land and he carefully retraces his footsteps from last night. Hours silently pass and he's sure he's in the spot he was last night when he found the body but he sees nothing, not even blood, "Hugh~" Jaune sighs and rests his hands on his knees.

"Hey." He hears a masculine voice call out from the side, he turns towards it with surprise,"You're on private property." A young man about a dozen feet away and around Saphron's age, Preto Hele-Nui, tells him.

He had pale ivory skin, amber eyes, and black hair. He stands about a half a foot taller than Jaune with a medium build. To the boy he looks like every mysterious bad boy on t.v dramas.

"I..I am?" Jaune questions with surprise, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to trespass. I… w..was um here last night and um… I thought I saw something that apparently I didn't."

Preto's expression doesn't change at his explanation, "You mean the dead body?"

Jaune's breath catches, he takes a step back and the man takes a step forward.

"That was my sister you found." Preto says.

"Oh, um, so..rry for yo..ur l..oss." The boy stutters.

"Thank you." He gives a nod and the space between them is stale in fear.

"Um, ah, I am going to go. I hope you have a good day." Jaune turns and walks away slowly.

"Hey."

Jaune flinches at Preto's voice, it sounds like the man was right behind him. Turning around his heart stutters to a stop because yes, the stranger is right behind him, without warning the man's eyes turn from amber to a blindingly bright silver.

Jaune closes his eyes in pain, feeling like someone is pouring lava over them, "AGHH!" He collapses to his knees and holds the palms of his hands over them. It takes a few moments that feel like eternity but eventually he removes his hands and looks up, Preto looks down at him with an unreadable expression.

"You're not going anywhere, Newborn."

Jaune's heart seizes in a panic before the man punches his lights out.

He wakes up in a fit of fear and shock, his head thumping with a developing migraine, "Ugh…" He leans forward and rubs his aching temples. Looking around, he sees that he was laying down on a worn down couch, in a house that was literally falling apart at the seams, scars from a fire littering every inch of it.

"Hey there, Newborn."

Jaune flinches at the increasingly familiar voice. He looks towards the man who kidnapped him, he's sitting on a rocking chair across from him, "Listen man, my parents don't have a lot of money so if you're looking for a ransom you kidnapped the wrong kid."

Preto chuckles and leans on his knees, "Calm down. I'm not looking for any money, I just wanted to make sure you didn't kill anyone." 

"What?" Jaune face twists.

The man rolls his eyes and in an instant his face becomes something like a demon. The only thing that hadn't changed is his eyes.

"WHOA!" Jaune lashes out with a kick but the other catches it.

"Nice try, Newborn." Preto compliments. 

Jaune tries to pull away but the apparent monster keeps a tight hold, "Wh..WHY DO YOU KEEP CALLING ME NEWBORN!" He screams, tears traveling down his face, confusion and fear clear to see.

"Because that's what you are." Preto tells the weeping boy, "A Newborn werewolf." Jaune freezes at the answer.

"Your fucking crazy, man!"

"Really?" The man shifts back into something much more human, "If you don't believe me that's on you." He tells the boy, letting go of his foot. "Go back to your family and rip them to shreds because you were too much of an idiot to listen when someone was trying to help."

Jaune starts to hyperventilate, "Ho.. how do you know am… am.. a Newborn?"

Preto smiles, "Well, partly because of your smell but don't worry we'll fix that, it's also because your eyes responded to mine when I show them."

The boy furrows his eyebrows and smells himself.

"Not like that. We werewolves have a unique scent, especially Newborns, it makes it a lot easier to tell ourselves apart from humans and Faunus." Preto explains to him.

"An..and the eyes?" Jaune questions, the man hands him a handheld mirror, he looks towards Preto for a moment before opening the object and stares at his sapphire eyes.

"Newborn."

Jaune looks up and as their eyes connect, Preto's eyes flash silver, suddenly the burning pain in his own return, though less intense. looking at his reflection his once blue eyes are a glowing acid yellow.

He stares and stares, eventually the yellow fades.

"So, you believe me now."

Jaune nods his head. 

"Good," Preto smirks, "The names Preto Hele-Nui."

"...Jaune Arc."

"Okay, Jaune Arc listen carefully." The werewolf's teasing tone turns serious, "You've been bitten by a rogue Alpha; the top of the food chain of our kind and they'll do everything in their power to get to you because you're their Beta." He explains and Jaune's heart jumps. "But you don't have to worry because I found you first and I'm going to teach you everything I know. I'm going to help you control your abilities and together we're going to kill the Alpha." 

The boy swallows thickly.

"Do you understand?"

Jaune shakes his head, "I.. I can't kill."

"Jaune this Alpha already killed my sister, ripped her apart, left pieces of her across the forest floor. It took me days to find her corpse. Not only that but It tried to kill you and it will try to kill others, do you want that?" 

The boy shakes his head, "No bu.. but…" The thought of killing makes him shake but he doesn't want anyone to die. What can he do though?

"What if it goes after your sisters?" 

Jaune bends forward and grips his chest, his heart beating so fast he's sure it'll leap out of his chest, "Ngh!" He gasps as he feels his forehead widen along with his nose, the tip of his ears becoming pointed, and his hair becoming wilder like fur.

He can feel his muscles bulge and his bones hardening turning dense, stretching his skin. His canines extend into fangs, the beds of his fingers split open when they become claws, his mind is the last thing to change as it melts into something momsterous.

"RAagh!"

Jaune leaps from his seat and rushes to a nearby window and crashes through it.

Preto sighs, "...You came on too strong Preto." He mutters as he stands up and walks out the front door.

The forest blurs into shapeless green in Jaune's eyes, the smell of the forest overwhelming his senses, it's pure chaos but it's wonderful. The fire that burns through Jaune's veins cools into a shimmer and he stops breathing heavily, taking as much air his lungs allows and somehow he smiles.

Looking around he quickly notices he has no idea where he is, "Fuck."

"Ha, feels good doesn't it? To be free."

Jaune hears Preto and spins around in surprise.

"ho..How?"

"Jaune, I've been a werewolf my entire life." The man tells him, "Someone who can't even transform at will could never lose me for long." Preto smirks as he walks forward, Jaune takes a step back.

The man's stops and sighs, "Listen Jaune, I realize I came off too strong and that's on me." He taps his chest in admittance. "But you do really need a teacher or you will hurt someone." 

"I'm… I'm not a killer." Jaune looks down.

"... Yes, you are." Preto tells him, the boy looks up with a scowl, "As soon as that Alpha bit you; your nature, your very soul changed." 

The boy swallows thickly.

"So trust me when I say this; you are a killer and don't you forget it."

The two werewolves stare at each other for a long moment before the younger of the two looks away.

"... I… I don't want to be a monster." 

Preto shakes his head, "And you don't have to be." He smiles. "I can teach you how to hone your new gifts. I can teach you how to be more than just your instincts. I can teach you to be a warrior, a Hero. All you gotta do is take my hand." A palm is offered.

Jaune looks at the stranger's hand and for a second he thinks about walking the other way but… he also thinks about his sisters and what would happen if he lost control. Slowly he raises his own hand and accepts.

Preto's smile turns sharper, "Ok. Let's get to work." The two walk back to the man's house.