CHAPTER 22

JAUNE ARC POV

To say that the Forever Fall was beautiful would be like saying that the sky was blue or that he was falling in love with Pyrrha.

Words failed him as he climbed down the Bullhead along with his team and took in the sight of the forest in front of him.

He saw Professor Peach take another group of older students and leave with them deeper into the forest while Professor Glynda Goodwitch started to gather his own classmates and told them to follow her.

He felt an arm slip his waist and turned to see Pyrrha giving him a smile.

Yeah. He was definitely falling for her.

He smiled back and wrapped his arm around her shoulder as she leaned in his chest.

He saw Professor Glynda give them a side glance but the woman didn't comment on their behavior and started leading the way.

"Jaune and Pyrrha sitting on a tree~" he heard Yang's annoying voice come from behind him "K I S S I N G."

He turned to look at her and gave her an unamused look. But that look only served to embolden her even more as she continued.

"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage~"

How was this song even a thing in this world.

"Yang. Leave them be." Ruby said from beside Yang while Weiss and the rest of their team walked beside her. Except for Blake who followed them at a slight distance.

What was Blake's deal anyway. She acted far more skittish than she did in canon.

He knew that she was a cat faunus and had a thing for running away when things got tough but why the hell was she avoiding his team like the plague.

Well, if she didn't want to be friends then he wasn't going to force her.

"But Ruby… They're so fun to tease~"

He felt Pyrrha's arm tighten around his waist and a bit of focus with his Telepathy told him that she wasn't enjoying the attention that Yang was inadvertently bringing to them.

Okay. Time to nip this in the bud then.

"Yang. Stop before I kick your ass."

Yang paused and turned to look at him with a huge smile "Ooohh~ Was that a challenge Jaune?"

"Oh I don't know. Would it shut you up?" he asked with a raised eyebrow even as he started to wonder if she should have challenged the girl.

Sure he had defeated Cardin Winchester last week but it wasn't because of his skills but because of his tenacity and his ability to read his opponents and defend against them.

But Yang was on a whole different level than Cardin Winchester.

A non powered Pyrrha was able to fight Cardin's whole team in canon and win. She would not have been able to do the same with Yang.

Still, even if he lost against Yang, it wasn't a big deal.

They all knew that how inexperienced he was. And even if he was learning at a rapid rate, it was still not enough to close the gap that came from years of training on Yang's part.

But even if he did lose against the girl, it would be good for him and he had no doubt that he'll learn a lot from fighting Yang.

"If you're serious then I just might." Yang replied and he felt Pyrrha's arm tighten around his waist once more.

He gave her shoulder a squeeze, telling her that he'll be alright as he turned to face Yang. "Very well then. You and me. We'll have a 1v1 next week."

"You're on!" Yang said as she shadow punched the air, her punches faster than he was usually able to react and he knew that this was going to be a painful experience for him.

On the plus side, Yang did leave the two of them alone afterwards and they once again immersed themselves in enjoying each other's presence as well as enjoying the scenic view around them.

"This is beautiful." Weiss murmured to herself with Ruby and Yang nodding alongside her.

"Yes students, the Forever Fall is indeed beautiful." Professor Glynda Goodwitch said from ahead of them "But we're not here to sight see. Professor Peach asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest. And I'm here to make sure that none of you die while doing so."

As the Professor said so, he wondered about the purpose of this exercise.

Sure, the sap that they collected from within the tree was tasty and attracted Grimm but he very much doubted that the Professors brought them here to eat the sweet nectar within these trees.

He remembered Kakashi telling his students to look underneath the underneath and quickly came to the realization that while this exercise may seem like a picnic, the main reason behind this outing was to teach the students how to enter a Grimm infested area and retrieve the personal from that area.

The Aroma from the Tree Sap acted as a substitute for the negative feelings that untrained people usually feel when in a Grimm infested area. So this whole exercise was probably a substitute for a civilian retrieval mission and to get him and his classmates more used to working in Grimm infested areas.

A good strategy to train the students as far as he could tell.

Mostly because while the Forever Falls forest could be classified as a Grimm infested area, it was also near the City of Vale and the Council sent a few Hunters every now and then to keep it clear of any dangerous Grimm.

But that was what laid underneath the surface. He wondered what laid underneath the underneath.

Was this a way for Ozpin to survey his students and see which one of them could make for a useful pawn against Salem?

Or maybe he was just looking too deeply into things when there wasn't anything there.

He paused in his thoughts as he fell a spike in maliciousness coming from a person behind him.

Looking at the mind of that person, he instantly recognized it as that of Cardin.

Oh... he had almost forgotten about Cardin's stupid plan to attack Pyrrha with the Rapier Wasps during this expedition.

His eyes narrowed at the thought of that toad hurting Pyrrha and decided to do something about that.