If Vacuo was known for anything it would be for its sand.
Vacuo was by a wide margin, the weakest kingdom on Remnant. Similar but opposite climate to Solitas but at least Atlas and mantle had technology to help combat their near inhospitable weather. Vacuo had already been pillaged and ransacked of all the resources that could've brought about its own technological revolution by the other kingdoms. Leaving it a poor kingdom, held together by the powerful people such harsh conditions nurture.
Vacuo today was split into three commonly regarded regions; Eastside, Central plains, and the Far Reaches. The regions being labeled by their unique characteristics.
The Far Reaches were a big no-no, no one lived there. The Grimm were just too numerous for anyone to survive in the isolated jungle in the far corner of Vacuo. The Central plains was basically the capital and some surrounding settlements.
Survival on the Eastside wasn't a liberty but a struggle that had to be fought for under the everlasting sand storms that roamed the region. Uprooting settlements in their cataclysmic wake, it didn't help that the air was so bare of water that lien melted. Rain only reaches the destitute region twice a year on a good year. Thankfully, because of how harsh it was, the Grimm were scarce. Sadly, the Grimm that did live were monsters in their own right.
The same goes for the humans that survive there, the Eastside is where all the most talented huntresses are born but it is also filled with nice people as they have bigger issues than each other to deal with. That's what her grandmother always told her of her homeland, a place bare of life but filled with love.
With the sweetest smile on her aged face that always filled her with warmth. Back then, Jade couldn't see the pain behind her grandma's eyes, she never got the full story before grandma passed.
It was obvious that the new travellers were from the Eastside, each step made it apparent as the gap only grew further between her and the tireless huntsman. Blonde hair swayed so fluidly through the gales of his own speed.
Blinking away the burning sweat from her eyes, forcing her leg to push harder as wisps of exhaustion clinged to her lungs. She had to do this, she had to prove that she could be a huntress! To prove that she could be strong!
So why—why was she slowing down? Why was her body betraying her?
Her body couldn't keep up, tripping her. Rolling to a stop, her bones ached, her lungs burned, her hair clung to her face and yet she wasn't any closer to reaching her goal. "Why… why can't I keep up?" she couldn't even see the plums of sand that the huntsman kicked up, why was she so useless.
Grit…
"No…"
Jade… Jade was not someone so weak to give up!! Why the hell would she prove them, forcing her hand—clammy— under her. Pushing her body up, she felt so damn hot, heat emanated from her gut as rage boiled and churned within. Hatred without direction overwhelmed her, how could it not? When all everyone did was call her dream a childish dream.
Choking as her throat constricted involuntary—stupid pathetic body— each breath came out harder and harsher than the last as the heat spread through her stiff cold body. Her Aura blazing to life as she shakily stood, basking in the incandescent yellow glow that felt just right, so right.
It almost made her smile, a wicked smile filled with nothing but anger and glee at proving herself—to who?— to hell with it. "Aaaah! I'm not done yet!" she didn't care, not about how much her face hurt or how low her Aura was, she'll show them, show all of them just how strong she truly was. Shove it into their stupid faces just how wrong they were over the little faunus girl.
Perhaps that was why she didn't hear it, the tiny shifting of sand, soft clicking of bone on bone yet her body did.
It was almost instantaneous, her body grew cold, hair standing on end as her eyes felt too small. A heat far harsher than her own rushed her from behind—
Tang!!
She wasn't fast enough to dodge, her cloak took the brunt of the attack, shielding her from the heat giving her just enough time to take out her hammers and deflect the two following attacks.
"Grimm…"
It skittered back, its singular eye glaring at her in the way only Grimm could. It was small, far smaller than Jade had expected, only reaching up to half of her calf with the stingers coming out of its butt being at least three times its own height.
Its body was like a mouse with bone plating acting as an exoskeleton with two horns at either side of its eye, where the tail would be, the base was bone plating that extended a little ways into the air, meeting the glowing stinger that couldn't be described, it was too shiny to make out any detail. Its legs were the regular Grimm dark, a very visible weakness to exploit.
It skittered back again.
She glowered, risking a glance at her cloak—it was fine the Sulfurfish's stinger didn't scorch the threading, expensive threading. So worth it.
Her ear twitched as her heightened senses picked up more shifting sand, unnatural shifting sand. Her lips pressed together as her options were quite limited, her Semblance was useless against a Grimm.
The fierce hot glow of Sulfurfish tails illuminated her surroundings because the stingers surrounded her, it was quite hot. The cloak thankfully mitigated most of the heat but a thin sheen of sweat still layered her face.
Swinging at the closest one, a soft pop followed by the rebounding of Twintrouble made her roll away to catch the hammer. Leaving her in the range of another Suflurfish, mecha-shifting the other half of Twintrouble into its pistol formation—unloading two bullets directly into its grotesque eye. The harsh scent of carbon filled her mouth, eyes sweeping the field as she shot off the jitters. If her sight wasn't already unimpaired by the darkness the mussel flash wouldn't ruin her night vision—her sight was still spotty at focal points.
This is what a huntress did.
"Four to go, two clips and only twelve bullets. Great…" Verbally listing out her supplies, she didn't like her odds. Not in the slightest, if she used only two bullets per Grimm it would leave her with four and that wasn't even accounting for any other Grimm she came across.
Her thumb brushed the bullet with a hammer symbol, their hammer formation was also an option. An option she quickly dismissed, the Sulfurfish's marrow was too dense for her to kill one without interference from another. She needed more bullets, plain and simple, there was only one place where she could resupply and her home was halfway across the Village and she still needed to be on lookout for any survivors.
"So annoying."
Grumbing, her index fingers returned to the trigger, if she lost here they'd probably eat her alive but that would only mean she was too weak. She just had to be stronger, stronger than anyone—aiming for the furthest Sulfurfish, the slide rocked back harshly making her wrist quiver as her mussel flashed.
She missed.
They all rushed her, so what? She rushed them, transforming one Twintrouble into a hammer to knock away a Sulfurfish that stung at her wrist, nearly making her drop Twintrouble, flipping her grip to use the claw to stab into a Sulfurfish's skull.
Bang! Bang!
The damage the hammer did was superficial but it was never meant to cause damage but act as an anchor so her bullets wouldn't miss and they didn't, the Grimm twitched. Mandibles clicking feebly before going slack, the plating dissolved first into a smoky black.
Twintrouble in hammer formation had its claw slightly dented, poor Rosemary.
Not enough.
Punting away a Sulfurfish that tried crawling up her leg, a shiver crawled up her spine as its critter-y legs. Raising Twintrouble, she aimed for the soft underbelly of the disgusting bug.
Her Aura protected her leg from the direct heat of the sting but it couldn't do anything about the heated air that permeated. Lifted her tube pants, blisters were already forming all around her calf and knee. A hiss left her lips as the adrenaline slowly left her, the burning intensified with her heart beat.
"You're pretty good for a kid."
Twitch, twitch.
Her ear turned towards the direction of the clear feminine voice, her brain lagged.
Wow…
She had just flawless and smooth skin, not a touch of sand dimpled her face even though her clothes didn't protect her face in any way. Blonde voluminous and shiny hair that had a gold luster even within the dark of the night.
A natural beauty.
Her body was slender yet voluptuous, not one that has been overly trained to perfectly combat the creatures of darkness nor does she have any weapon but given the woman's demeanor she's had her own fair share of battles against the Grimm.
It was clear what she was; a semblance fighter.
Semblance fighters were the rarest of all huntresses, being that it needed a huntress to both have a Semblance that could be used offensively and the talent to actually make it useful. The few who could make it were some of the strongest huntresses remembered in the little that existed of Remnants history.
Jade was so envious, the huntress had everything Jade ever wanted; looks, power and confidence. Scuffing her feet along the sand, fingers twiddling along her cloak smile filled her face, the envy was overwhelmed by pure awe.
"He-hello, ma'am—"
"Have you seen a man about this… tall?" The huntress cut Jade off as she leveled her hand half a head above her own, her eyes squinting almost as if she was unsure about the estimated height before softly shaking her hand, sending her voluminous hair everywhere.
It was like watching a waterful.
Ah, now that she actually got to really look at the woman, she did have similar features to the huntsman that was training that boy. She didn't know whether to be overjoyed or melancholy that she has made more connections in such a short time in a tragedy than the past seven years.
The huntress was very observant.
"That damn idiot, which way did he head?" the huntress all but sneered, a sigh escaping not soon after. Even while very mad, her beauty had not lost an ounce of its charm, she was beyond jealous.
A part of her wanted to relate with the huntresses sentiment but she wasn't close to anyone with a relationship like that so she didn't really get the feeling.
"He, uhh… went that way?" Jade jerked her thumb over her shoulder, recalling the vague direction that the Huntsman went in before he completely dusted her. Thinking about the huntsmans jogged her memory—"shit! There's Grimm at the village!"
Before she could run off, the huntress's cool voice stopped her before she could even get a step in.
"You wouldn't happen to be a huntress in training, now would you?" her accurate assessment had Jade's mind reeling between multiple thoughts, she was getting a headache. Her smile seemed to grow sharper as she stared down Jade, Jade couldn't help but feel like a child in front of the huntress. "A prospect huntress, you'll do."
Gulp
"Ye-yes! Jade Ordain at your service, a future huntress, ma'am!" stuttering out her awkward introduction, it was a terrible introduction for how long she practiced it, three months down the drain. Overall, she wanted to die, it was just that terrible, the huntress probably hates her now and thinks she's stupid and thinks she's a child and—
"Huh… sure." wilting as the huntress turned her head away, she could see her shoulders rock. Her naturally better sense of hearing let her hear the huntress take a deep breath.
"Loosen up, will ya Opal, ya'r scarring the poor girl." The scruffy huntsman chuckled, a cocky smirk plastered on his face, the huntresses face scrouged up like a raisin, muttering intelligible words that Jade was seventy percent certain were curses.
The huntress's name was Opal, filing away that valuable piece of information for later.
"I felt multiple tremors Talc, what exactly is the situation?" it was instantaneous, the hunt—er, Ms. Opal's face harden, giving her the look of an experienced huntress that Jade would see on the wide scroll on the rare nights that sand storms mellowed out enough to let Mica connect to the CCT.
"Grimm attack, only Sulfur-fish though… they're, nah nevermind. Looks like a bed of Sulfur-fish." scratching the back of his neck, his gaze fell onto the village. Chest rapidly expanding and contracting yet even her ears couldn't pick up his breathing.
She didn't know whether to be impressed or alarmed at the fact. Chocking it up to huntress's being on another level.
"What's the current situation?" That was what Jade wanted to be, that authority and presence that commanded respect from everyone, a true huntress.
"They're still gathering, some civilians have been killed before I got there, most are evac-ing but without anyone with Aura, the most they can do is run. Ten minutes tops, five if we want to save most of them."
"And the kid? Wouldn't he be handling the evac?"
"Uhh, well. I…" Talc's mouth flapped uselessly as his eyes bugged around before landing on her, 'why the hell is he looking at me!'
"Where did he go, kiddo?"
'Oh right, he was last with me… crap.' scuffing her foot on the sand, Jade shrugged. Which seemed to be enough for them as they nodded and continued on.
"The boy got lost, he better be doing something useful, Talc—"
"Three, seven and eleven o'clock from the north star." spouting out some coordinates to change the subject, their communication was insane. Jade could feel a headache starting to gnaw at her brain.
"Culate handling the evac?" Although it was spoken like a question, Ms. Opal's tone made it seem like she was stating a fact. Talc nodded as he started doing strange moves that could vaguely be considered stretches.
It was… really uncomfortable to watch but also really hard to look away, he was just so bad at it and Ms Opal didn't even bother looking at him as if it was normal.
So strange.
"Enough of that, kid. You head to seven o'clock, Talc, you're at three o'clock. If you find anyone who can fight, send them to Culate. He should be around the town square, don't forget the priority." With that said and done, Ms Opal clapped once, the sand around her coiled and stretched as it moved her at speeds Jade could hardly see.
She was in a league of her own.
"Uhh, what's the priority?" she felt dumb for asking but she also thought it would be dumber to not know and possibly get called out later.
"People, saving and protecting people; it's our job as huntsmen to protect those who can't protect themselves, we're a light against the darkness after all." with that inspiring speech said, he took off himself, not any less impressive than Ms. Opal.
One second he was there and the next he was gone, already, at least, 50 meters away.
A hand covered her mouth. Why.. Why was that so cool…?
Shaking herself free from her revelry, flexing her thighs, she took off. Her chest felt much lighter than it had in years, they trusted her with an actual huntress mission, she could feel herself move faster at the thought.
She couldn't help it.
She had to prove her with, she just had to show them just how right their trust was in her hands.
A faint vibration passed the air around her, her ears flicked in its general direction. Her gaze followed not soon after, having to squint with how far the… eerie spirals of rock were. She only knew the columns were rock because she's seen them so many times before but… wasn't there meant to be seven spirals?
Shaking her head from useless thoughts, she had people to impress.
Bdm
Badm
Badum!
Her breath came out in shorter breaths, she could feel her heart drumming against her ribs. Whether from excitement, exhaustion or fear, she didn't know but it also didn't matter. Nor did the jittering in her fingers.
Eventually, she finally reached the edge of the city, from the houses she could, she recognized none of them. Cursing her lack of caring to learn about the people who she's lived alongside for years, she twisted her heel to around—
Something hot snagged on her foot, she couldn't see what it was, the wall that filled her vision didn't let her see much—
Thunk!!
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Break, break.
Welp… guess who's back? Yeah, it's me. I guess I took quite a while to write this one out but! I do have a reason, I just… had a lot to write which wasn't helped by the fact that college has finals that suck. Who gives out 20 pages essays as the final assignment before essays, gosh how was I supposed to find time between all my studies to continue writing!
Most of this note was written back when chapter 7-10 were a single chapter, yeah imagine reading all that in one go. Honestly I was quite keen on keeping it that way but then I found myself reading another fanfic (because what better way to learn to write better than to see how others do it) where one of the comments talked about consistency and I thought, hey, I should probably do that also I don't know what pacing is so I put the new chapters where I had page breaks. It was also done to give the beta's more breathing room, because they sort of need it with how hard they already work in their jobs, I didn't want to add too much unneeded pressure.
But hey, we're here now and honestly, I couldn't be prouder of myself for actually getting it done. After all, all that matters is that you can see how the story plays out, whether you like it or not, I hope my amateur writing was good enough to tell Jaune's story.
But I won't deny that now I have to backtrack a bit, I recently watched a video and it made me question. Who is Jaune at his core mainly because while he will change and grow, I want him to, at his very core; still be jaune. After all, if he's not jaune, this story could've been about anyone. Of course, it won't be the same as canon Jaune as he lived a different life and has cemented different beliefs but as his core, when he's stripped of everything, I want him to still be recognisable as jaune.
Which, after going through all that RWBY has of jaune, it's cruelty. Jaune early on is the happy but goofy guy, not all good as he clearly cheated his way into Beacon. But he became an angry mess after V3 which is where I get this early Jaune, still young and inexperienced. But of course at his core, Jaune is a boy who wants to save others, who wants to be a hero. Not a huntsman, a hero, which will be seen when I get to him actually being strong enough to save others.
Now, onto some lore bit; with how old Aura is, many techniques that have been created were lost to main remnant, most stored in the land without sun. Where is that? That's a lore bit I can't share yet but it will be relevant in maybe 1-2 years when Volume 2 comes out.
Also special thanks to my friend and his friend who beta'd this chapter, I know this has been a hassle and quite the work given the length but thank you none the less. They were very busy throughout the entire time they Beta'd with their lives but still made time to give me feedback when I needed it. They truly deserve all the praise I can physically give, which isn't a lot but I can try.
And for those who have hopefully been waiting for me to update, I'm sorry it took so long, coming next chapter they should hopefully be shorter and quicker to upload. Thank you very much for staying while I try my hand at the art of writing.
Small little afternote, this was supposed to be uploaded on the 31st of July but my beta readers didn't read it so I had to do it myself and given all the projects I'm already a part of, this took a while, sorry for another long wait.
This has been useless, out.