When Jaune reached the edge of the town, he patted down his shirt and brushed away the dirt that had covered some parts of it.
He then walked through the town with a smile on his face as the people greeted him.
"Jauney boy! I got some ice cream here! Here, take some for you and your sisters!" A kind old man offered Jaune a bag of popsicles for all the help Jaune had given him.
"Thank you, Mr. Howard! How is your back doing today? Do you want me to help you with the lawn again?" Jaune asked Mr. Howard with his ever-shining smile while he grabbed the bag of ice cream that was offered.
Howard smiled kindly at how a boy so young could be so loving and kind, and he couldn't help but thank the Brothers for allowing a person to have this much love and kindness inside of them.
"No worries, Jaune! Just go and play with your sisters, Jaune!" Howard smiled and ruffled Jaune's hair, and Jaune chuckled, unbothered by the fact that his hair now looked like he had walked through a tornado.
"Thank you, Mr. Howard!"
When Jaune walked again, he stopped when he saw the kind old lady, Mrs. Nina, carrying a few grocery bags by herself.
"Mrs. Nina, here, let me carry it for you." Jaune took the grocery bags from her hands.
"What would I do without you, young man?" Mrs. Nina lovingly kissed the top of Jaune's head and led him to her house.
"Now what's a young man like you doing here helping an old lady like me and not playing with his friends?" Mrs. Nina asked Jaune while she opened the door to her home.
"Well, I love doing this, Mrs. Nina! Helping people is what I love!" Jaune answered her while putting the bags on the floor in her doorway.
"Next time when you see me, Mrs. Nina, please just ask me if you need something to be helped with, like the lawn or even taking out the trash."
"I will, dear." She chuckled and thought about how kind this boy was before she offered him a handful of candies. "Here are some candies for how kind you are, Jaune..."
Jaune chuckled and accepted the candies before running off in the direction of his house. "Thank you! And don't forget to tell me if you need something!"
"Oh, wait... the ice cream." Jaune sighed before he shook his head and continued walking. "Mrs. Nina can give them to her grandchildren..."
While he walked to his home, people kept greeting and talking to him, and he stopped to help them with anything they needed. From the busy shopkeeper to the local doctor, everybody in the town knew about the kind boy and loved him for how helpful he was.
When Jaune reached his house, he was carrying bags upon bags of things that the kind people had given him, and they included toys and snacks.
"I'm home!" Jaune opened the door and announced his arrival as he walked to the kitchen to drop off the bags. He saw his mother carrying the sleeping baby, Olivia.
"Hey, Mom," he whispered to his mother, not wanting to wake up his baby sister. "Do you want me to hold her so you can prepare to go to the mall, Mom?"
Luna smiled and wondered how Jaune still loved her after she had given his father the green light. "It would be wonderful, Jaune."
Jaune then held the baby, and she leaned her whole body deeper into his hold. He then sat on the couch holding the baby while waiting for the rest of the family to be done preparing themselves.
He hummed happily to himself about how today was going to be a family bonding time, and it could maybe even lessen the guilt that his father still had for him.
'I already told him many times before that I forgive him... but he still can't get over it...' Jaune sighed to himself. 'Well, I guess he also doesn't know that I never actually stopped training...'
While he waited patiently for the rest of the family to come downstairs, one by one they arrived from their rooms and saw Jaune holding the baby.
"Jaune... where's Mom?" Blancheur, the quiet person she was, asked Jaune gently.
"Yeah! Where's Mom?!" Noir, the loud one of the twins, asked Jaune excitedly as she couldn't wait to go to the mall.
Jaune looked at the two before he put a finger to his lips, and they finally noticed the baby that he was holding.
"Well, where's Mom then?!" Noir whispered excitedly, and Jaune chuckled softly at how excited Noir was.
"Mom's getting ready... now let's wait for the others..." Jaune whispered to Noir before they waited for the rest of the family.
A couple of minutes passed before the rest of the family trickled in, and Jaune handed Olivia back to his mother before they walked out of the house and got into the car.
An hour of driving passed before they arrived at the city's mall.
When they got out of the car, Jaune couldn't help but feel a little sad at the fact that his father still distanced himself from him by trying to talk as little to Jaune as possible, no matter how many times Jaune tried to talk to him.
Mordred noticed this throughout the car ride, and the only reason she didn't have another screaming match with their father was because the baby was in the car with them. Now that she wasn't stuck in the same space as her father, she had calmed herself down before she walked over to Jaune and slung her arm over him.
"Lil bro! Let's go to the arcade and play that new Street Hunter game that just came out! I'll bet you that you won't even come close to beating me!" Jaune smiled at his sister as she offered to take his mind off the thought of his father.
"Yeah, Jaune... while you kids go and play, your father and I are going to go shopping for Olivia." Luna told them this as the sisters dragged Jaune with them to go to the arcade, and Saphron went with them to watch over them.
While they played at the arcade, Jaune was walking with Saphron as the others were playing.
"Jaune, did you go out to the town again today?" Saphron looked at her loving brother with a gentle smile on her face while she walked beside him as they both carried drinks for the others.
"Yeah, I did. Some of them gave me snacks to share with you girls!" Jaune smiled up at her, and she smiled back, knowing that Jaune was safe in the town because the whole town practically loved him, being the town's golden boy.
Saphron always thought that Jaune wore his heart on his sleeve with how kind he was to everyone. She had once asked him about how he could be kind to everyone he met, and the answer he gave her that day made her wonder how her little brother could be so loving in this Grimm-infested world.
("How I can be kind to everyone, Saph? Well, that's easy! Because strangers are just friends you haven't met yet!")
Saphron shook her head to stop herself from reminiscing about that day. She then looked in front of her where her sisters were playing on the arcade games, with Mordred and Artoria in an aggressive match on Street Hunter with Noir cheering them, while Jeanne was using the claw machine to get some dolls for Blancheur while she silently watched.
As they came and put the drinks on a nearby table, Saphron thought that it would be better to give them the drinks later when they were done. She then looked at Jaune, who was looking at them with love.
She always wondered where Jaune got all that love from. Even their parents didn't look at them with as much love as Jaune did.
Out of all the Arcs, she reckoned that Jaune was the one who was the most honest when it came to matters of the heart. As young as he was, it was pretty obvious for the rest of the family to see that he was the one who loved them the most. Not only them, even the people in town knew how loving and kind Jaune was, and they themselves loved Jaune back with as much love as they could.
Whenever she came to town to buy groceries or school-related things, the people always recognized her as Jaune's older sister, and they always gave her something as thanks for whatever Jaune did, or even a huge discount, sometimes even forty percent off.
Saphron shook her head and sighed. With how much of a loving person Jaune was, the whole family would have to prepare for how many girls were going to be heartbroken by him.
As the day went by and they were done having an outing at the mall, now it was time to go back home.
Jaune sat in the car as the sisters chattered. He was currently contemplating what he should do when it was time to become a huntsman.
First, he should unlock his Aura, and second, he could not let his parents know about it. He could not and would not want to be another source of drama for his family to fight over. His heart could not handle it if any more of his sisters fought because of him.
Jaune sighed as he shook his head to get rid of the thought of the future.
A few hours passed and Jaune was in his bedroom just laying down on the bed thinking about life.
As the night grew darker, Jaune was laying down on his bed with a wary heart. His instinct was telling him to go to the forest.
He knew that it was a stupid idea, but he trusted his heart, as stupid as it sounded. So he then stood up from the bed and walked to the door before he put his ear on it and listened closely for the sound of his family still out and about.
All he could hear were slightly muffled sounds and silence, so he reckoned it would be safe enough to sneak out of the house and go to the forest, to the place where he usually trained.
While Jaune snuck out of the window, he carefully climbed down from the pipe before he walked down the hill where his house resided and into the path of the now quiet town.
Jaune walked through the town discreetly, not wanting some of the people still awake to recognize him. When he managed to reach the outskirts of the town, he quickly scurried into the forest while hiding from a couple of patrolling Huntsmen who were thankfully a few blocks away.
While he walked through the forest quietly, he could hear the sound of crickets and the occasional rustling of small animals. He could feel the eyes of the animals who resided high up in the trees looking down on him, wondering if he was a predator hunting for them or just another prey to be hunted.
Jaune walked through the deep forest with his heart beating loudly, wondering why he had come here anyway. His heart was telling him to come here, and he still wondered why. He shook his head to get rid of the thought of Grimm ambushing him and killing him.
'Damn... hopefully my luck is not that bad... right?'
When he reached the river where he normally trained, his hand suddenly itched to hold his sword.
His instinct suddenly blared in his brain to dodge, and he desperately rolled to his side, narrowly dodging the claws of what could only be an Alpha Beowolf.
'Damn! My luck is that bad!' Jaune shouted inside his mind when he rolled on the ground.
'Why is a Grimm here!? Let alone an Alpha Beowolf!? The patrolling Huntsmen should have killed them! Did they miss this one!?' His thoughts screamed at himself while his heart beat wildly against his chest, but before he could think of any answer he was forced to roll over again to his side, missing the claws by a hair's breadth.
'I can't just roll all night long! I need something!'
Then an idea hit him. 'I need a weapon! Stupid Jaune! Should have thought of that in the first place!' He then saw the tree where he hid his wooden sword, but unfortunately the Grimm was blocking the way to the tree.
He needed to pass by the Grimm to get to his wooden sword. Even if the wooden sword was not enough to kill it, let alone injure it, at least he could meet his grandpa knowing that he fought till the end.
As the Grimm growled at him, he mentally chided himself for dodging away from the tree rather than towards it.
The Grimm then crouched as it prepared to charge at Jaune. It predictably leapt at him and Jaune rolled under it, missing the gaping mouth and its claws, though it managed to nick his back a little.
'I need something fast!'
He desperately stood up and tried to reach for the wooden sword, but the Grimm was faster than he was. It then smacked Jaune's left side, launching him into a nearby tree, away from the sword.
His back hit the tree with a loud thud and he slid down the trunk. Jaune started to cough blood and he thought he had broken his arm and some of his ribs.
He gasped for air, trying to catch his breath, but it only made the coughing become even worse.
Jaune looked up at the Grimm with half-lidded eyes, and he started to shake when he tried to stand on his feet, not wanting to keel over and die yet.
The Grimm looked at him as it started to play with its food. Jaune looked back at the Grimm in defiance and anger.
"I... I will not die tonight..." he managed to croak out of his bloodied mouth.
"I... I... I will... protect the people... I will not... let you... be free... to hurt the people I love!" Jaune declared, and he started to feel that his soul was ravaging through his body. He could feel the sound of chains breaking as his love was fighting through the pain.
RATTLE RATTLE CLINK
The sound of the last chains breaking and falling off echoed around him. His body started to glow white, and circuit-like white patterns started to cover his body as his determination grew even stronger.
Jaune started to feel more unrestricted with every moment that passed, and the Grimm felt a threat to its life before it rushed at him and swung its claws toward Jaune's head.
'What's happening to my body?' Jaune was confused about what was happening. The feeling of power and freedom was foreign to his body because, unknown to him, his soul had been freed from the chains that were holding it back.
'This is not the time to think, Jaune...' he mentally berated himself and shook his head, ridding the unnecessary thoughts out of his head. When he looked up from the ground, he finally noticed the Grimm's claws coming towards him.
Jaune looked at the claws in confusion while they came toward him slowly, as if they were moving in slow motion.
He then took a single step toward the tree and ducked his head slightly to avoid being hit by the claws. His vision suddenly blurred and his muscles ached.
Jaune blinked and found himself at the base of the tree where he hid his sword away. He found himself confused about how he had gotten there.
'What?... I was... at least ten meters away...'
Jaune shook his head and focused himself on the Grimm, which was now turning toward him and starting to run slowly in his direction.
He subconsciously reached into the hollowed tree and grabbed the sword before he took a stance with it. Jaune then felt as if he was supposed to let this unknown energy flow from his body into the sword.
Jaune then saw that his sword started to grow glowing circuit-like patterns over it, and he wondered what the circuit-like patterns meant.
The Grimm then swung at him again, and Jaune calmly dodged under it and swung upwards toward the Grimm's chin.
The sword hit the underside of the Grimm's jaw with a boom, and splinters of wood flew through the air as the sword exploded into pieces.
Jaune hurriedly covered his face with his arms, and after a few seconds he lowered his arms to take a look, only to find a headless Grimm and its body falling toward him.
Jaune stepped around the falling body of the Grimm, and when he looked down at his hand he finally noticed his right hand was now covered in the same white circuit-like pattern that his sword had.
'What is happening...' He wondered what had happened to make him so fast and to let him manage to kill the Grimm with one blow, and he examined the circuit-like pattern on his hand.
Jaune then saw the circuits start to fade away, and suddenly immense pain appeared everywhere in his body, as if his muscles were all torn apart and his bones were fracturing when the circuits completely faded away.
He didn't even manage to let out a scream before he fell down to the ground, his mouth open wide while he gasped for air. 'I... Mordred... help...' That was Jaune's last thought before his vision turned black.