Prologue

Vale Central Square: a common place for sit back and enjoy the view or spend some time with a friend or a lover. Basically, a place for be calm and happy. In fact, what everyone was doing.

Everyone except one person seated in a bench, in a rather shadowy place.

A teenager, a bit on the scraggy side, blond hair, blue eyes and a extremely sad face.

Jaune Arc.

Well, if someone could take a look in the young lad past, the 14 years old guy actually had his reasons to be sad. He started to see his dream of became a brave warrior, like many in the Arc's family, shatter before his face. And the young lad couldn't do a thing to repair his situation.

And wasn't the novice knight fault. Well, it's true that he wasn't the best in fights or a great weapon master or a dust expert or skilled grimm killer or versed in anything that is need to became a hunter, soldier or warrior. That's why the blond tried to enroll in one of the many combat schools in Vale. After all, if he already know all the necessary to be a huntsman, he would be a huntsman.

With a gloomy face, he took a look in the replies for his subscriptions: Signal Academy, Flare Academy, ILH, WTA and many others, all with the same content.

Reject.

Now he lost two years in his quest and started to see his path to enter a huntsman school going down the hill. Even if he make it next year, he would be too old to enter Beacon with 19 years. He was definitely doomed.

Unless he just fake his transcripts.

With a lot of things in his head, he stood up and began to walk home to tell his family. However, after a 15 minutes walk, the young men waked up for the real life when he suddenly fell after bump in something. Actually, in someone.

A girl, probably two or three years younger than him are in the ground. Wearing a red hood and black outfit, matching her hair, and a silver rose symbol, matching her eyes, she looked a little dizzy.

"What was that" he heard the fallen red girl saying.

"I-I'm sorry, I was distracted and..." the blond started.

"Oh, sorry'boutthisIhavetogo" said the hood girl, standing up and starting to run.

The Arc observed the girl till she was off the sight. After that, he stood up and look around.

A huge white building stand there. Actually, if his memory didn't fail, it had always been there, like the kind of building that you see everyday, but never know what really is. In the door, a emblem that consist in a sword and a musket in a cross, over a shield and some sort of chant decorated it:

For it is impassing that we achieve immortality.

Through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all.

Infinite, and distanced and unbound by death.

Hunter Association - Open for all in need

"Okaaay"

Jaune definitely wasn't a curious guy, but before the lad could think, he caught himself entering the building, like a iron piece close to a magnet.

When he entered the place, his mouth opened. The first room are so large that he guessed his whole house could be put in there. Lots of 4-sit tables and a some people could be seen in the hall. The walls are covered with mission boards and, in the end, a redhead attendant girl stays behind a counter and...

And then, the world turns black.

When Jaune woke up, the first thing that came in his mind was the soaring pain in his head. The second one was people whispering. He could identify at least three person: a loud, boisterous male voice, a rage female voice and a… well, he could describe as a drunk men voice. The buzz talk slowly turned into words and the blond started to understand the conversation:

"...chair would be a good weapon to kill an ursa. And even if it was, why in all Remnant would you test in the hall" the rage girly voice cried.

"Sorry, sorry, it looked like a good idea. I didn't think a chair could fly that way, shashashashasha" said the loud voice, not sounding even a little regretful.

"Chill Rouge, the boy is fine" the third voice start. "At most, it'll be a great story to tell his nieces when he wants to win a game"

"Shashashashasha" laugh the loud one. " Men are made of battles and scars. The boy will thank me when he wake up. I betcha.

Jaune keep his eyes closed and no one seemed to note that he woke up. Why he would thank someone who tried to break his head with a chair was beyond him. Oooh, this is the kind of thing that demand a pay back. His mischievous mind started to work up in a revenge plan and an idea came up. His eyes slowly open and he noted three heads turn in his direction.

"Where am I?" mumbled the young one. "Who are you guys?"

"You are in the Hunter Association Infirmary." explained Rouge. "You kinda get involved in an… accident when you come in and kinda get... accidentally thrown off the doors. Mister Branwen was passing by and… retrieved you. I'm Rouge Metz, desk clerk". Jaune could see a dark tanned skin woman, with no more than 23 years, auburn hair and brown eyes looking at him with eyes so gentle that he tried to find the owner of the pissed female voice he heard before. Obviously, he found none.

"Don't call me 'Mister Branwen', make me feel old and I already have a entire brat army that call me this. Name's Qrow, kiddo" the black hair, red eyes, drunk and nonchalant guy speak, with a mocking tone. He looked like a middle age man, with a whisk flask in his hand and a full "I'm-drunk-but-I-can-break-your-face-with-my-pinkie" attitude. He was the only who was seated in a chair.

"Vert Poule, lad" said a 2,10 meters tall, bronze haired and mustached man, with muscles so big that Jaune could bet than one of his arms are heavier than himself. "Sorry 'bout all this thing. I'm this place forgemaster. If wanna find me, search the third floor. Shashashashasha"

"Errr… Okay?"

"So, who are you boy?" asked Qrow

"I'm-" blurted the blond with a pained expression in his face (not hard to do, if accounted that his head actually was hurt). He stopped a full 10 seconds and spoke with a serious tone "I can't remember"

Surprise was not the right word to describe the face of the adults in the room. Rouge looked like she was impaled with a sword, Qrow's whisk flask and mouth fall to the ground and Vert mustache curled unnaturally. The scene seemed frozen in time for a whole half minute. Thankfully, Jaune couldn't contain his laughs.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm kidding. My name's Jaune Arc".

Seeing the boy laughs, the two men in the room released a relieved sigh and both started to laugh too. Even Rouge couldn't help but crack a smile while saying "Please don't do this kind of thing again".

The black haired man stood up and looked in Jaune's eyes. Liking what he saw, the man grinned and spoke:

"I like you brat" Qrow patted the knight head causing a little wince. "What brings you to this place?".

The youngster stopped. What had bring him there? He should've just go to home, talked to his family about the results and helped some of his sisters with a new dance form, a new cook recipe or a new clothe to fix. They always do this kind of things to make him forget about his problems. And usually works. But he entered the Association building for a reason and couldn't remember it. Maybe he really had lost some memories with the chair impact. So, he tried to explain why would he went to this place the best he could

"I-I don't really know. Well, I mean, I always wanted to be a huntsman and when a see the sign I think 'well, why not give a look there, must be cool and anyone can enter, so I can enter' aaaand that's all".

Everyone couldn't help but smile and think: "The boy is really simple".

"So, are you in a combat school Jaune?" asked a gentle Rouge, sitting in a chair behind his bed.

"Actually, I didn't make it this year... or last year" said the sad boy.

Rouge and Vert are hunters. They knowed too well the requirements to enter in Beacon. Later bloomers would have almost no chance to make it. And 19 was a old age to start train as a hunter. And, anyway, they don't think any combat school would let a boy with 15 years enroll. The mood turns really awkward and both wasn't sure about what to say.

But, for their surprises, Qrow gave a completely unexpected answer: "Ha, combat school, a bunch of snot nosed kids that can't put the G in Grimm. I'm tellin' you brat, you lose nothing. One day out there is worth months in a classroom. Even a day here worth at least a couple of weeks. You can learn all you need to be a hunter right here in the Association, if you have the courage to ask for help, the will to work hard, the must for learn and, most of all, if you don't stop moving forward."

Like a light, the other two realized what that mean. It would be hard, but could be done. And they couldn't see any better answer for the little knight problem.

"Shashashasha, he is right young Jaune. A lot of huntsmen and huntresses need help when they come here and would trade it for the information and experience they have. You can even earn some pocket money and spare weapons pieces" said Vert.

Now Jaune was confused. Apparently they are offering a job opportunity to work for the H.A., or, at least, in the H.A. How would this help him? Sure he would get some experience, but Beacon still looked like a distant dream without a combat school. However, before he could voice his concerns, Rouge spoke:

"While most of Beacon students come from combat schools, you don't really need it to enroll. You only need to pass the exams. It's hard, but isn't impossible"

Jaune wasn't sure about how he fell. A mix of happiness, expectation, hope and nausea, probably. But maybe this could work. He had always been the kind that learn more from experience than from books. He would help huntsmen and huntresses, learn things about their world and pass Beacon exams with flying colors. The blond was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't see Qrow wave a hand in front of his face.

"I would love to stay, but I have to find my niece before she get in trouble. See Ya" the drunken man blurted with a fist bump. And, in a blink, he jumped the window with a bye.

Like the act was as normal as walk off the door, Rouge turn her head toward the Arc and with a gentle smile asked: "So, do you want to work here?"

The novice knight sundely feel a light of hope and couldn't help but nod.

...

Hello there, I'm Shiro and this is my first fanfiction. The story will be about a Jaune that will be a weapon designer, trying to resolve his weakness with a mix of scientific innovation and hardcore training.

I'm sorry about any errors in this fic but English is not my first language.

Reviews are welcomed and any grammatical errors pointed will be corrected in the future

For this fic, I'll use hunter when I'm talk about both gender and huntsman or huntress when talking about only one.

Next chapter: Hunter Association.

P.S. where I live, height is in meters, 2,10 meters (Vert's height) is about 6,9 ft.