"You go on ahead. I'll wait for Jaune." Pyrrha told the others as Teams NWBY and JNPR exited the classroom.
"I will wait with you." Haruka stated as she leaned against the outside of the doorframe, closing her eyes. Rosenkreuz obliged a quick mental command, and the latest of her device's analyses on potential workarounds for Remnant's AMF flashed through her thoughts.
"Yes?" She asked out loud after a few seconds, practically feeling the Mystralian Champion's gaze, as five sets of footsteps walked away.
"Nothing, nothing. Sorry." At Pyrrha's hasty apology, Haruka opened one eye and glanced her way.
"If you have something to say, say it. If you have something to ask, ask it. I do not bite." Haruka smiled slightly. Also sort of amusing, that phrase is almost unchanged across the different cultures of the worlds, within and without Administrated Space.
"Well… Can we talk later? Alone?" Pyrrha now sounded, and looked, apprehensive.
"Okay?" Haruka opened her other eye, meeting the other girl's gaze. There was a light blush on Pyrrha's face. "What about?"
"Not here. I just, wanted to talk?" She said, tilting her head slightly and glancing away, as if embarrassed.
The Knight blinked once. Then twice. Then a green-and-white blur raced past the two, and Jaune followed said blur out into the hallway, Cardin behind him.
Haruka glanced back at Pyrrha, turning away when she heard the sound of someone falling and an "Ow" from Jaune.
Cardin laughed, and walked away from where Jaune half-sat on the floor.
Haruka scowled at the retreating student, making a mental note to take up the topic of bullying with Ozpin the next meeting. Patience is a virtue, but I am almost out of it.
"You know, I really will break his legs." Pyrrha commented, pulling Jaune to his feet as Haruka stepped away from the doorframe. The boy sighed softly.
Pyrrha seemed to notice this, then looked as if she'd come up with the solution to a problem. "I have an idea! Here, come with me!" With that, she started to pull Jaune down the hallway. Haruka followed.
After a few minutes, they came to a rooftop overlooking the Beacon Courtyard, the Beacon Tower dead-center of the view. It was late enough the sky had grown dark, and clouds barely allowed the moonlight to show through.
"Quite beautiful here."
"Indeed. Want me to take a picture?" Rosenkreuz asked.
" Please do."
Jaune's voice sounded to her left, and she glanced over, to where Jaune and Pyrrha stood, at the edge of the roof.
"Pyrrha, I know I'm going through a hard time right now, but I'm not that depressed." He glanced over the edge of the roof as he spoke.
Haruka was moving before the words registered. Her hand lashed out, taking rough hold of the back of his collar, before she spun around, hurling Jaune into the center of the roof, where he landed on all fours.
"Not happening." She declared.
"I wasn't gonna in the first place." Jaune said, slowly standing. "I can always be a farmer or something…"
Haruka glanced over at Pyrrha, opening her mouth to give the Champion a severe verbal lashing, but stopped when she saw the look of guilt and mild horror on her face.
"That-that's not why I brought you up here!" Her face flushed. "Jaune, I know you're having a difficult time in class and that you're still not the strongest of fighters, so… I want to help you! We can train up here after class where no one can bother us!" She sounded quite enthused with her idea, Haruka noted, as the two of them approached Jaune.
"You think I need help?" Jaune asked, sounding quite offended. Pyrrha opened her mouth to reply, before Haruka pre-empted her.
"Yes." The Knight bluntly stated. "You do. Your stance and sense of timing are horrible, you have no form in combat, and you seem to have no real idea how to use a shield or sword. Your only asset in single combat is your physical strength." She crossed her arms, ignoring the shocked expression on Pyrrha's face and the look of depressed hurt on Jaune's. "You are worse at personal combat than my sister Uno."
"That's enough, Haruka." Pyrrha tried to interrupt. Haruka continued to ignore her.
"You need an instructor. Someone to teach you the art of battle." Haruka nodded at the Mystralian Champion. "Fraulein Pyrrha has offered her assistance in doing so. I personally would recommend taking her up on the offer." Glancing at the expression on Jaune's face, she continued. "Do not think that it is somehow dishonorable to recognize one's own failings and to request help when it is required. I will admit, there are still aspects of combat I struggle with. I am supremely lucky I have had such good instructors myself, and I am still learning from them."
"Haruka's right about that, Jaune! Everybody needs a little push from time to time, it doesn't make you any different from the rest of us. You made it to Beacon! That speaks volumes of what you're capable of!" Pyrrha added as Haruka finished.
"Easy for you two to say. You actually belong here." Jaune didn't raise his gaze from his feet as he spoke.
"You say that as if you do not belong at Beacon." Haruka observed.
"And that's a terrible thing to say, Jaune! You belong here, too!" Pyrrha again added to the end of Haruka's statement.
"No, I don't. I wasn't really accepted into Beacon…" Jaune said, sighing and turning away from the other two.
"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked the boy, as Haruka just sighed and crossed her arms.
"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any tests, I didn't earn my spot at this Academy!" He turned back to the Champion and the Knight. "I lied! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied!" His hands had balled into fists as his voice became higher and higher with every word.
"Now, tell me something actually relevant, please." Haruka interrupted him. "So you used fake transcripts. So what? Why should that matter at all? You successfully passed the entrance exam. That should be all that matters on that front."
"What?" Jaune and Pyrrha both looked over at Haruka, shock the dominant emotion on both faces.
"I did not go through any of the Four Kingdoms' approved combat schools. I never studied at any of the Academies. I have no transcripts at all. Kaiser, I do not have any records of my existence at all beyond a few months ago." She told the two.
"You still earned your place here!" Jaune responded, starting to get angry. "I've seen you beat everyone you've fought! You're here because you're actually good at this!"
"Because I learned how, by admitting what I do not know and taking steps to correct it. I did not simply wake up one day with these skills, I was not just born with them." Sort of. "I trained for several years under Ritter Vita, Lady Takamachi, and my father. The three of them can be credited with practically all of the combat skills I have.
And that is my point, Jaune Arc. You are not expected to be an Ace immediately. You are, however, expected to learn. Pyrrha has offered you the opportunity to train. Most of the students here would be supremely jealous of that, if her reputation of being 'The Invincible Girl' and the 'Champion of Mystral' are even close to accurate. Given what I have seen, the reputation is well deserved.
In short, my advice to you is this: take her up on her offer. Let her help you." Haruka finished her little speech and sighed, quietly. Pyrrha looked impressed with Haruka, but Jaune just turned away for a moment, before turning back, anger clear on his face.
"I don't want help, I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero! My father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather were all warriors! They were all heroes! I want to be one too, I'm just not good enough! I'm tired of being the lovable idiot, stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives! Don't you understand? If I can't do this on my own, then what good am I!?"
Haruka sighed. He's too stuck in this mindset for right now. He's not really listening, just fixating onto a handful of things and using those to justify his current feeling of inferiority.
The Knight sighed again, as Pyrrha reached out towards him, as if to console him.
"Just… Leave me alone. Okay?" Jaune leaned away from Pyrrha's hand.
"If that's what you think is best… " Pyrrha trailed off, looking completely dejected.
Haruka tapped her on the shoulder and gestured to the door. Pyrrha nodded, and left the rooftop with Haruka.
As she reached the door back into the building, Haruka paused, turning back to glance at Jaune.
"Think on what we said. Pyrrha and I did not speak for our own benefit." With that, she slipped through the door, where the Mystralian Champion was waiting for her.
"Well, that could have gone better." The Knight sighed, and turned her attention to Pyrrha. "You said earlier that you wanted to talk with me?"