Semblance Sapience by WalletzFailz

Yeah! Go Yang! That's my sister!" Ruby cheered a bit louder than the rest of the audience as the blonde brawler won her bout. Yang was all smiles as she left her opponent humiliated and his aura in the red, making her way out of the ring.

"While I congratulate you on your win, Xiao Long, showing off like that is not necessary. Your goal should be to quickly disable your opponent, not play games with them." Goodwitch's stern voice chastised. "Now, our next spar will be between Thrush and Arc. Do not keep me waiting."

"Kick some ass out there, vomit boy!" Yang patted him on the back as Jaune walked past her and towards the ring. His team, as well as Ruby, cheered him on as they watched him go. He couldn't share in their excitement. It was only the second day of spars, and while Pyrrha had unlocked his aura for him, she couldn't just transfer her fighting ability in the same way. He was a total beginner, and from what he had seen the day before, he was the only student to make it into beacon this year with no previous experience. Sure, there was quite a bit of variance in the others. Pyrrha was a champion fighter apparently, whatever that meant, and Weiss seemed to only have learned from private tutors. There was no way Pyrrha would lose in a fight between the two. But Weiss, unlike him, would be able to win against some opponents. He was outclassed by literally everyone here. He resigned himself to being a punching bag as he prepared to fight.

"Good. Now, the fight will end when one of you has your aura enter the red or- hold on a moment." The instructor's eyes narrowed as she looked at her scroll. "Arc. Would you mind explaining why your aura is so low?"

Confused by her question, he glanced at the display of their aura readings. While Russel's was showing a full aura, his own was at roughly 60 percent.

"I- I don't know." His brows furrowed as he tried to think of the cause. "I haven't used it at all since yesterday's spar." Having only recently unlocked his aura, he wasn't sure if Pyrrha had forgotten to mention something to him, but he thought that unlikely. His partner didn't seem the type to forget something important that would cause this.

But then the display changed. It wasn't by a large amount. They only noticed because they were actively watching it, but his aura dipped slightly lower, right before their eyes. Goodwitch glared at him. "Arc?"

"I'm not doing anything, I swear!"

"Aura doesn't just randomly drop for no reason. Perhaps… would you happen to know what your semblance is?"

"My semblance?" Despite his overall lack of knowledge on topics relevant to being a Huntsman, the various spars that he had seen so far and the initiation the other day had made him more than aware of a few semblances, even if he struggled to hide his surprise when seeing them for the first time. Pyrrha, being the great partner that she is, had graced him with an explanation when he quietly asked her later on. "I haven't unlocked it yet, why?"

"I can think of no other cause for this. Xiao Long! As you have already finished your spar, you get the pleasure of escorting Arc to Dr. Oobleck's office. We do not know if there are any other side effects to his current… condition, and I will not see him collapsing on the way there."

Said escort rolled her eyes. "Ugh, laaaame. Come on vomit boy, I want to get back in time to see Pyrrha demolish someone." His team looked on in worry as she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the halls. In any other situation, a girl as beautiful as Yang grabbing him and leading him away from the group would lead his teenage mind in rather obvious directions, but that was outweighed by more pressing concerns at the moment.

"Um, Yang, should I be worried? Why is she sending me to Oobleck? He's a history teacher, I would have thought this is more of a nurse issue." Jaune's nerves started to get the better of him as he was pulled behind her.

"How should I know? I've been at this school as long as you have, and I've never seen whatever you have going on before."

"Right, that makes sense, sorry… but she said something about my semblance didn't she? You have yours unlocked, you really didn't experience anything like this?"

"Randomly having my aura drained? Nope. Like I said, never seen anything like it, and I've seen quite a few people unlock their semblance back at Signal. Hopefully it's nothing too bad, but just in case, you're not allowed to die on me."

"You care? You were just complaining about having to escort me."

"No, but Ruby cares, and if you've got problems then I'll have to deal with her moping about how she can't save you from it or whatever. She's kind of lacking in the friend department and you seem to have made a good impression on her."

"Oh." He wasn't sure whether to be insulted by Yang's words or glad that at least her sister liked him, but he didn't have time to worry about it with their destination having been reached.

"She just mentioned an escort, I'm not sticking around, have fun!" She quickly ran back towards the combat class, leaving him alone before the office door.

"Ok. Oobleck. Excitable but if I was specifically sent to him…" Gathering his nerves, he knocked on the door, but before he could even get a second rap in, it was swinging open.

"Greetings Mr. Arc! Not that I am unhappy to see one of my students, but may I ask what you're doing here at this time? I believe you should be with Glynda at the moment and she isn't exactly someone that you want to upset, as I'm sure you well know already. That woman is quite the stickler for the rules and all." He took a heavy sip of his coffee, his foot tapping as he stood in the doorway.

"Professor Goodwitch told me to come see you? There's something wrong with my aura."

"I see. Well, come in, come in, we best get down to it. I happen to be quite the researcher on the subject."

After Jaune explained the situation, answered many follow up questions, and Oobleck scoured through various papers and reports he had on hand, as well as measuring Jaune's aura himself, they found themselves sitting across from each other at the desk. The doctor's many questions and frankly absurd speed had the boy feeling drained and a bit of a headache was coming on.

"Well Jaune, I think it is safe to say that the cause of your aura drainage is related to a semblance. Congratulations. Unfortunately, we have very little idea of what exactly your semblance is, and how to stop this drain. If you truly haven't noticed anything odd, or out of place, then there really isn't anything to go off of. I am going to recommend that you do not participate in any activities that may put a strain on your aura until we figure it out. Your aura should recover with proper rest, so assuming it doesn't activate in your sleep, it should have returned to proper levels when you wake up in the morning. I want you to come see me then, or if, and when, you notice anything odd, so that we may gather more data and see if we can't get your situation figured out. I'll be sure to let the staff know."

Jaune nodded, standing to leave. "Thank you sir, sorry ab-" Finally, I thought this would never end.

Jaune froze. Looking around for the source of the unfamiliar, but definitely male voice, he didn't spot anyone at the door or near the window.

"Jaune? Are you alright?" Oobleck looked on in worry. Oh, come on! What now? Haven't I suffered through enough of this? I guess I should consider myself lucky that Port isn't the expert.

"Who is that?" Jaune asked, the worry was clear in his voice. Only the two of them were in the room, but he had definitely heard another voice. It almost sounded like they were inside my head…

WAIT. YOU CAN HEAR ME?!

Jaune startled, jumping out of his chair in a panic as the professor looked on in confusion.

Thank Christ, this has been unbearable. Look Jaune, I need you to focus for me.

Wait, wasn't this just like a comic he had read? "Uh, Dr. Oobleck? Would you happen to know anyone with a telepathy semblance?"

"I'm afraid-" Really? A- "that such a semblance-" telepathy semblance? "isn't registered at the school." I mean I guess that's actually- "Are you suggesting that-" a pretty fair assumption- "you hear a voice-" on your part if you- "inside your head?" only just started to hear me…

The doctor looked a bit skeptical of the idea, yet excited at the same time. Jaune could only nod as he tried to listen to the professor over the voice in his head.

"I can't understand you both at the same time!" Ah, sorry, must be pretty rough on you as well I guess, I'll try to keep it down.

Oobleck waited for Jaune's eyes to focus on him once more before speaking again. "Interesting. So, you're hearing a voice that is not your own? What is it saying?"

"Uh… voice? Can you hear me?" Yeah, I can hear you just fine. I get your thoughts as well, just as an fyi, so try not to think anything too crazy or personal. Tell the doc that we're gonna have to get Ozpin involved. Oobleck seems nice and all, but I have a feeling this is a little out of his wheelhouse.

Doing remarkably well in tampering his internal freak out, Jaune focused very hard on not revealing to the stranger all of his embarrassing secrets. "He says that he can hear my thoughts, and that we need to get Ozpin, because he would know more?"

"He? A distinctly male voice then? I suppose if the occupier is external that narrows things down quite a bit. This is certainly troubling, but I'm afraid I can't see how Ozpin would have a greater expertise in this subject. The man is very good at what he does, but to my knowledge his studies into semblances do not exceed my own in depth or quality. What is the reasoning behind going to him? Not that I think it's a bad idea, of course, something like this is best brought to the headmaster's attention regardless." Oobleck had pulled out a fresh notepad, scribbling notes down at a mile a minute as he spoke.

Jaune paused for a moment, listening to the voice. "What? That doesn't make any sense."

"Come now, Mr. Arc, I can't help you very much if I don't have all the details here, share what he's told you even if it sounds outrageous."

"He says… a-and I'm quoting here, that secretive little parasite has a lot of experience in being a disembodied voice inside of a younger man's head. I need tips on how to separate our thoughts and as far as I know, there are only two ways to get that information. The second is a whole can of worms that I don't want to get into. That genie can stay in the bottle…"

"That is both very interesting, and seemingly nonsensical. Is it speaking in some sort of code? Is it a riddle? It would seem that the only way to solve this puzzle is to go along with the request! Come, Mr. Arc, I haven't been this invested in a mystery since Glynda hid the coffee supplies last year! Ozpin should be in his office at the moment, hopefully he isn't too busy!" The man was a whirlwind of activity as he gathered up all of the relevant notes and ushered Jaune out the door and down the hall towards the elevator.

A bit of a heads up Jaune, because as far as i can tell you're just the poor bastard stuck with me, and not the one responsible. When we talk to Ozpin… don't repeat every thought you get from me. This is a bit of a minefield you're about to cross, and I really don't want you killed. A hint of caution would be best.

With that terrifyingly ominous warning, it was too late to back out. While he was listening to the voice, Oobleck had brought him into the elevator and the doors were closing.

"I can't believe I'd rather be getting my ass kicked in Goodwitch's class right now…"