Chapter 29

Thankfully, I managed to get to the front of the line in time to get the prized strawberry flavor...after a bit of pushing and shoving that is...

"Jaune." Ren said between bites of his food. "I'm a little concerned at how obsessed Cardin seems to be with you..."

"Ren's kinda got a point." I said stuffing a few fries into my mouth. "Last time he trapped you in a locker and launched you out of Beacon. I mean, it was funny but...maybe a LITTLE too far. This time, he went out of his way to try and humiliate you in front of the class. And since that failed, you can be certain he's cooking up something for you later." It's a little annoying Cardin is messing with Jaune, but this IS what happened in the original timeline. And certainly not worth disturbing the sequence of events. I've already changed enough of the future as it is...

"Guys really, I'm fine." Jaune lightly laughed, taking his seat next to us at the table. "It's not like I landed too far from the school. Besides, it's not like he only picks on me."

I sighed, shaking my head. "You shouldn't let that background character pick on you so easily."

He wrinkled his brows in confusion. "Background character?"

"Jaune, let me tell you how bullies work, you see-"

"Oww, that hurts!" The four of us looked up from our conversation to see Cardin pulling on Velvet's bunny ears. Cardin and his team laughed as the brown-haired faunus lightly struggled to get her ears free.

"Please stop..." she said weakly.

Ah shit, seems we've finally gotten to this part in the timeline. I didn't like this when it happened in the show, but it's much worse seeing it in person. Seeing Velvet whimpering while Cardin and his lackeys laughed and called her a freak was enough to make my blood boil. I could ignore a few annoying jokes aimed at Jaune. Hell, I could ignore a few annoying jokes aimed at ME. But this...THIS is too far. I want to go help her, I should go help her but...

'Come on, keep it together Nathan...' I could feel my nails silently digging into the palms of my hands under the table. 'This is an event that is supposed to happen, you can't interfere! Otherwise, events will start to change more and more.' I tried to turn a blind eye and get back to my food, but I could still hear her faint whimpering. "Goddamn it..."

If I sat back and watched these schmucks pick on her right in front of me, I couldn't call myself a man anymore. Against my better judgment, I stood up and stormed over to Cardin's table. "Hey!" I yelled reaching out and grabbing his ear before yanking it and pulling his head backward.

"OW OW OW!" he let out a light cry of surprise and released Velvet's ears.

"Doesn't feel so nice to have your ears pulled does it?"

Unfortunately, Cardin didn't cower and start apologizing like the fantasy in my head. 'Of course he wouldn't, what the hell's the matter with me?' Cardin glared at me, smacking away my hand and rising to his full height, almost an entire head larger than me. 'I hadn't realized he was that much taller...' Maybe I should've stayed in my seat.

Cardin's friends immediately stopped laughing, the cafeteria suddenly became quiet as everyone looked towards the disturbance.

"What do you think you're doing?" Cardin asked, grabbing the front of my shirt with a vicious sneer.

'Well, I've come this far, and can't back down now...' Straightening my back and feigning confidence, and glared back at him. "What do you think YOU'RE doing? Last I checked, that girl was just trying to eat her food!"

"What, are you her boyfriend or something?" he scoffed.

"Well...no, I'm not."

"Then buzz off!" Cardin released my shirt, giving a heavy push causing me to stagger and almost fall.

'Okay Nathan, just go sit back down in your seat, you did what you could, don't say something stupid you'll regret.' "NO! You buzz off!" 'Goddamn it mouth!'

"No?" Cardin looked surprised for a second before putting on a malicious grin. "Then you can take her place." Why don't I ever listen to that nagging little voice in my head? Cardin walked forward and cracked his knuckles causing me to involuntarily take a step back. All of the sudden, I felt a hand from behind on my shoulder.

"That...would not be wise." said a familiar voice. I turned around and saw the rest of my teammates standing behind me prepared to back me up. All of the sudden, I'm liking my odds a lot more. However, the rest of Cardin's team stood up as well. The eight of us faced each other with tension in the air. Everyone in the cafeteria was looking at us now, most of them wearing excited expressions. The next action would very likely be the spark to start a sudden 4 vs 4. The silence was absolutely deafening until...

"Tch." Cardin clicked his tongue in irritation. "Don't bother guys, he's not even worth all of this." The three of them stood there for a little while longer, still skeptical about letting us go before finally listening. As his teammates turned away, I let out a sigh of relief. Cardin turned a pair of glowering eyes to me. "But you..." he said pointing a finger my way before leaving. "I'd watch my back if I were you."

'Well that's just great...no good deed goes unpunished it seems.' Most of the other students turned away with disappointed faces, clearly hoping a fight had broken out. Not all of the students were disappointed however, Pyrrha sat with the rest of team JSPR, practically beaming a smile at me. I felt a soft tugging on the back of my shirt, and a voice that seemed like a whisper.

"Um..." Turning around I saw Velvet with a nervous expression. Holding her hands together with her ears down, she barely managed to make eye contact. "Thank you... all of you. For helping me out back there I mean."

"Aw don't worry about it." Nora said playfully punching Velvet on the shoulder causing her to flinch and let out an adorable squeak.

"Er, sorry about Nora." I said putting a hand on her shoulder to calm down the bunny girl. "She's a bit...rough, but she means well."

Despite what happened before, the faunus managed to keep a straight face. "It's fine, I've rather gotten used to things like this happening."

"You SHOULDN'T just get used to this, it only encourages people like Cardin. Don't you have a team to help you with these problems?"

Velvet looked down with a guilty expression, lightly biting her lip before responding "I do but..."

"You don't want to drag them into this?" I finished. Velvet was silent, meekly nodding. "I get what you're saying, you don't think this is worth troubling them over, and you'd rather just endure it. But would your team agree with you? Tell them about what happened, they'd really want to know." As I looked around, there were still quite a bit of eyes on us from my little outburst with Cardin. "Anyway, we should probably get back to lunch."

"Oh...yes...sound idea." Velvet lingered for a moment eyeing me thoughtfully giving a thankful bow of her head and leaving. As I sat back down Nora slid next to me on the bench and elbowed me.

"Look at you Mr. Smooth." she giggled. "Helping out a damsel in distress like that."

"It isn't like that, it just...really bugged me, felt like I had to do something." If I stood around and let myself be intimidated by Cardin and his goons, then I wouldn't forget that. It would make me feel like all my effort up to until now was pointless. Why bother working hard and overcoming your fears if you can't act when it's needed? "In any case, thanks for having my back. I doubt I'd look very heroic while getting my ass kicked by four angry guys."

"Hey don't worry." Jaune said sitting back into his chair. "Like you said, we're your team, so we've got your back. Now come on, let's finish up eating so we can go watch team RWBY's card game."

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"I cast grudge of the living!" Yang announced holding her card high in the air. "You're going down Blake!"

Blake for her part simply shrugged. "I'm fine with that."

"With every victory against a living enemy, their negative emotions allow me to launch an additional attack at the cost of a card per extra battle! After beating you, I'll use these attacks on Atlas!"

"Not so fast sis." Ruby chuckled, flipping over a card. "I activate my trap! Atlesian Intervention!" Yang gasped, her eyes going wide. "Your card's target is transferred to me instead. And since my soldiers aren't living, you don't get your attack bonus!"

"You fiend! I can't believe I once called you my sister!" Yang laid her head and the table and pounded it with her fist. "Sweet oblivion here I come..."

Weiss looked at the dramatic scene in front of her with a perplexed look. Before turning to me and my team. "Did you understand any of that?"

"A little I guess..." I used to play Yu-gi-oh card games when I was a kid. You know, BEFORE they added a shit ton of rules that basically took away most of the fun. "I mean I got the concept of attacking the walls directly and traps. Not that much though. Anyway, how are things with Ruby? You two getting along now?"

"Things are...better. I...thank you for your help back then." Weiss paused. "Must be nice to see the future like that."

"Oh! Oh!" Ruby interrupted. "Could you tell me about my future? I've heard Weiss and your team talk about it before. I have like a million questions! I'm sure everyone does!"

"Sorry Ruby, I'm not doing that." Telling so many people about future events is still kinda dangerous. I know that no matter what minor events happen, Salem will still try and attack Beacon like she did before. But if I pile on too many minor events, it might become a major event that attracts attention.

"Yeah come on." Yang said chiming in. "It'll fun, please?"

"Well..." 'Don't give me those puppy dog eyes.' "Fine. I'll tell the future of ONE of you, but only one. The person to win the next match gets a psychic reading."