RWBY Re: Jaune Arc - Chapter 29

“It’s like there was a fight around here.” Ruby noticed as she studied the wreckage.

Jaune walked over to where the damage was largest, as he inspected the grounds, Jaune noticed something out of the corner of his eye, “Ruby, I found blood.”

Ruby flew over and stopped next to Jaune, “Someone must be wounded!”

Jaune frowned, he didn’t recall any news of Hunters being killed or wounded, and he doubted such a thing as a Hunter dying on Beacon’s property would be noticed, and he also didn’t recall hearing about any Deaths in the Forest of Forever Fall.

“Somethings not adding up,” Jaune said as he looked for more blood.

“What’s not adding up?” Ruby asked as she helped Jaune in his search.

“A person doesn’t just Die in Beacon without someone noticing it,” Jaune answered.

“Yeah, but, it just happened, it would take a while for the teachers to notice,” Ruby said tilting her head.

Jaune shook his head, “I don’t think we’re looking for a Hunter, or Huntress, not unless someone snuck in here from the school, and a civilian being here is even crazier, nothing about this makes sense.”

Jaune used his perception skill and tried to look for an Aura, after a few minutes searching Jaune found another pool of blood, this time there was a trail.

After following it, Jaune and Ruby found a large pure white Dire Wolf that was bigger than both of them, it was heavily wounded and on its last legs, most of the fur on her stomach had been stained by her blood, and her eyes were beginning to fade into a hazy mess.

Jaune recognized this state as he too experienced it, Ruby ran close to it when Jaune quickly grabbed her by her hood and jerked her back, before Ruby could complain, the Dire Wolf snapped out at Ruby with its final breath and fell over.

Ruby stared at the deceased wolf and sighed, “This doesn’t make sense, Grimm don’t attack animals,”

Jaune shook his head, “Not normally, but however, Jaune walked over to the wolf and closed her eyes, moving her away from the trunk of the tree, Jaune revealed a small hole by the roots.

Ruby then heard a small ‘yip’ as Jaune reached his hand inside to pull out a two-toned dire wolf, the top half of its body was white, while its underbelly was grey.

“This little fella was Born with Aura, and we both know how Grimm react to those with Aura,” Jaune said as he held the pup up that was no bigger than Jaune’s hand.

Ruby stared at the puppy with love as she walked over to it, but suddenly stopped next to the mother.

“Did she have Aura?” Ruby asked as she petted the mother wolf on the head.

Jaune walked over and handed the puppy to Ruby and said, “No, but it was still her child, Grimm or not, she would have fought to protect it.”

Ruby took the pup and sighed, “I’m sorry little guy, we couldn’t save your momma.”

Jaune then used his shield and surrounded it with his Aura as he started to dig into the ground.

Ruby figuring out what he was doing offered to help, but seeing how fast Jaune was plowing up the earth, she knew he would be done in less than a minute.

After Jaune buried the wolf mother, he looked back to the pup and sighed, Ruby then said, “We’re going to keep him, right?”

Jaune took the puppy back and said, “Beacon has a strict, no pets policy, we can’t keep him.”

Ruby frowned and shouted, “But Jaune…”

Jaune raised his hand and said, “We can’t keep him with Glynda’s approval, so we’ll just have to sneak him in.”

Ruby grinned and shouted, “Your the best Jaune!” as she jumped into his arms.

Jaune grinned and hugged her back, he wanted to freeze this moment for as long as he could, Ruby smiled and felt warm as she clung to Jaune’s neck, she pulled her head back and said, “Zwei might be a little jealous at first, but he’s a great dog and a perfect role model for little Drei.”

“We are not naming Terra that,” Jaune rebuked.

Ruby laughed and noticed how close there were, in a forest, all alone, Ruby suddenly separated herself from hugging Jaune and quickly hid her ruby red face.

Jaune felt a sense of loss as she let go and sighed, he then walked up to Ruby and placed the puppy in the back of her hood.

Ruby giggled as she felt the Dire Wolf Pup clawing out and poking the back of her neck with its nose as it investigated her scent.

Jaune smiled and said, “Keep him back there until we get back to the Dorm.”

Ruby nodded her head and laughed, “That tickles.” she then pulled the Puppy into her arms and rubbed her nose against the puppy’s nose.

As they walked back, Ruby continued to coddle the Wolf Cub and shower it with affection, “Who’s the cutest little pup on the world, yes you are, ah, you’re a girl.”

Jaune smiled thinking of how great a mother Ruby would be and sighed, “We’re getting close, hide him.”

Ruby nodded her head and placed the pup inside her hood, as they met up with the class, Yang hopped over to Ruby and shouted, “Sis, where were you?”

Ruby felt Yang squeeze her and shouted, “Yang not so tight!”

Glynda walked over and said, “Miss. Nikos informed me of what happened, I must say you handled the situation admirably.”

A small ‘yip’ came out from the back of Ruby’s hood causing everyone to look in her direction, “Sorry, Yang was squeezing me too hard.”

Jaune felt like slapping his forehead, but Glynda gave Ruby a strange look and said, “Ri~g~ht…”

Yang, realizing something was up, let go of her sister and started to walk back to the rest of her team.

“So, what were you and Jaune doing out in the forest, all by yourselves,” Yang said with a teasing smile.

Ruby blushed and said, “Nothing happened, we just found something together is all.”

“Ohh, what’cha’ find?” Yang asked looking at the back of Ruby’s hood.

“Not now, Yang, we have to wait until we get back to the Dorm,” Ruby hushed her sister.

“Okay guys, now that the coast is clear, check out what Jaune and I discovered in the forest.” Ruby pulled out the pup causing everyone to have a single reaction.

“AWWW!” Everyone but Ren, Jaune, and Blake shouted.

“Jaune and I found this guy in the woods…” Ruby then explained how they tracked the Ursa back to the Mother Wolf. When Ruby said that the mother died protecting Terra, many of them started crying.

“So we need to take care of this baby girl.” Ruby said petting the puppy and showing off its cuteness.

Weiss walked up to her and petted Terra as she said, “Who’s the cutest little puppy ever.”

Yang joined her as well, only Blake seemed to be keeping her distance, however, after hearing about how it had Aura and how she lost her mother, Blake swallowed her instinctual fears and petted the wolf as well.

Jaune grinned when he saw Blake move forward, it reminded him of that story of cat adopting a puppy, and how cats maternal instincts were truly something to behold.

“So who’s the adopting parent?” Pyrrha asked.

Ruby was about to claim ownership, when Jaune said, “I found her, so I’ll raise her.”

Ruby made a sad expression, Yang placed her hand on Ruby’s shoulder and said, “We still have Zwei.”

Ruby nodded her head as she handed off Terra to Jaune, Jaune smiled and took her as he said, “You know we live in the same Dormroom, it’s not like you won’t be spending the same time with her.”

Ruby shook her head, “It’s not the same thing, you owning him makes you the father.”

Jaune laughed and tried to bargain with Ruby, “How about we share ownership, Terra belongs to Team Juniper-Ruby.”

Yang saw the two going back and forth and grinned, she moved close to Ruby and whispered, “You could just marry Jaune, that way you both can be the owners.”

Ruby’s face froze and pushed Yang, “Not funny Yang.”

Yang laughed seeing Ruby’s embarrassed expression, she poked at her sister and said, “Ohh, do you actually have a thin…”

Ruby placed her hands on Yang’s face and said, “I don’t want you to say another word.”

Jaune continued to deal with Nora and the rest getting to know the puppy, however, he shook his head and said, “I have to go out. This guy’s gonna need food, or formula.”

Yang grinned, “Ruby will go with you, we have a Dog that we’ve raised from a puppy, so we know what to look for.”

Ruby stared Yang down with a displeased expression as she said, “What are you doing!?”

“Helping you out sis!” Yang said pushing them out of the door while taking Terra from Jaune’s arms, “I’ll hold on to this guy for ya.”

Before Ruby could retaliate, Yang closed the door on their faces, “What just happened?” Jaune asked scratching his head.

Ruby looked at Jaune and suddenly thought of what Yang said, her face lit up like a lightbulb, she quickly pulled the hood over her head and gripped her fist as she shouted in her head, “Stupid Yang!”

Seeing her flustered reaction, Jaune smiled and held out elbow like a gentleman and said, “Not exactly the first Date of my school life that I imagined, but with such a pretty lady accompanying me, who could complain.”

Ruby’s eyes darted left and right as she tried to think of something to say in response, “It’s not a date!” she shouted as she walked down the hall.

Jaune rubbed the back of his head and looked really depressed at her denial of a date, Ruby looked back at Jaune and after seeing his expression felt a little bad, suċkɨnġ in her embarrassment, Ruby turned around and with a face full of nerves placed her arm through Jaune’s elbow and started to walk away with him in tow.

Jaune smiled as he watched Ruby maintain a lead in their distance, just so Jaune couldn’t see her face.

“So~oo, is this a date?” Jaune asked knowing what her response would be.

“Nope! Still not a date!” Jaune couldn’t see it, but Ruby was actually smiling ear to ear.

Back inside the room, everyone was staring at Yang with a weird expression, only Nora seemed unfazed by her pushing the two out of the door.

Pyrrha looked especially worried and was twirling her hair as she tried to calm her nerves, “Why does this bother me!?” Pyrrha thought as Yang seemed to have noticed her melancholic attitude.

“Little sis has some competition, I almost feel a bit bad for her, Jaune only has eyes on Ruby,” Yang thought as she walked over with the puppy.

“What was that about?” Weiss asked.

“Just helping my sis out,” Yang replied.

“With what?” Nora said with a devious smile.

Yang shook her head, “With sister stuff.”

Ren gave a chuckle as he noticed Blake look a little worried, mistaking her nerves about Jaune spilling her secret to her team leader, Ren thought that Blake may have some feelings for Jaune as well, “Ah, to be popular.” Ren shook his head as he went back to his notes.

Jaune and Ruby had walked all the way to the nearest pet store that they could find, they ended up at a train station and purchased two tickets into to town, after riding the train in awkward silence for a while, they ended up near the docks.