A/N: New Story and my first for the illustrious RWBY FNDM! Hello, I'm decent I swear!
Standard Disclaimers Apply.
"Not that I don't enjoy seeing Jaune getting beaten up, it's one of my favorite pastimes, but why are we all wasting time watching this." Weiss complained as she watched Jaune get tossed around effortlessly by a patient but increasingly frustrated Pyrrha. She wasn't kidding about enjoying it. Jaune wasn't a bad guy or huntsman, but he was very persistent with his… affections.
Blake silently agreed but she was more invested in her book than the show and she would have been reading it regardless of location so this made no difference to her. Ruby was here to cheer on her friend even if he spent more time on his butt than not. It was the principle of the thing, shut up.
Yang was a similar story, but for entirely different reasons.
"C'mon, Jauney boy! You almost had her! Kick her in the lady balls!"
She was bored.
"No heckling in the stands." Pyrrha chastised lightly, not really expecting anything. No-one really had any control over Yang's actions. You could only hope she got bored and goes to bother someone else.
"That ain't heckling. That was cheering. This is heckling." The fiery blonde chuckled and took a deep breath, cupping her hands. Blake, sitting next to her, shifted away in anticipation of what is to come.
"Pyrrha you SUCK! Break his legs already! Jauney boy, you're prettier than she is, ya fairy!"
After the comment she immediately calmed down.
"Actually I can't even lie about that. Pyrrha is waay beyond his league. She's almost as pretty as me."
Blake heard that even with her ringing ears and elbowed Yang's side.
"What? It's a fact. Pyrrha is gorgeous. I'd like to see you deny it."
The woman in questioned decided to ignore all that in favor of continuing her training Jaune who had yet to get back up.
"Jaune, get up. You almost had it this time." The boy simply groaned and rolled over. "No I didn't. I'm done. Just kill me already."
Usually Pyrrha had an inspirational line or speech about growth and practice and how Jaune was amazing, for a complete novice of course. But today, she just wasn't feeling it. Jaune was right. He didn't, in fact, get it and they've been at it for a week now, with his evasion not showing any improvement.
"What's the point anyway? I'm not fast. Why bother with evasion? Just build me up tough enough take any hit." His voice came out muffled from underneath him, sounding more tired than ever.
Pyrrha liked him. Honestly she did, ask anybody. But he was really tiring to work with sometimes.
She was still trying to like Jaune again before answering when the audience interrupted.
"This isn't about running fast, Jaune. You'd think I'd be faster than this golden ball here but those gauntlets put her just behind Ruby in movement speed. I'm actually the slowest in the team." Blake had put her book away once Yang made it clear she didn't like her not paying any attention to her.
"Wait, really? Weiss is faster?" Jaune got up immediately onto a sitting position once this information came to light. "What's that supposed to mean, Arc?" Weiss cut in sharply. Her partner made the mistake of chuckling beside her. "You have to admit, Weiss. Those noodle legs of yours don't really scream speed or athleticism."
Blake ignored the scream the youngest of RWBY gave, under attack from the heiress. "She uses glyphs. But that doesn't make her more evasive. It all depends on your fighting style."
"She's talking about agility. That's the difference between combat speed and traverse speed." Weiss continued, having had a deeper interest in studies, she felt the need to comment on this lesson even if it was to help Jaune.
"The point they're trying to make is that you being slower doesn't mean you can't dodge and move around a close combat situation." Pyrrha summarized. Between a girl who couldn't communicate to save her life almost literally and a girl who was too wordy to understand easily, Pyrrha doubted Jaune was following properly. She was grateful either way.
"So just get back up and we'll keep trying okay?"
"Alright, cut it out. It was fun watching Jaune get his butt kicked the first million times but it's been like a month now and it's just getting sad." Yang unexpectedly threw her hat into the 'Help Jaune' ring as she leapt onto the arena. "The problem isn't Jaune. It's you."
Pyrrha was genuinely startled by the assessment and motioned for the blonde to continue as Jaune watched, equally intrigued at the possibility that his multitude of shortcoming might not be at fault for once.
"Okay, not you so much as your relationship with him. How you two see each other." Yang continued and the Amazon was quick to blush and mumble denials at any relationship they had. "Not that kind of relationship, perv.
"I mean… Look. Let's have a practical demonstration. Jaune. Off your butt."
Jaune obeyed automatically, used to stronger, intimidating blonde females ordering him around since birth. Yang got into a stance across him, worrying him. The ominously pleasant sound of Ember Celica arming only added to his trepidation.
"Now! Imagine I'm Pyrrha. Can't be too hard. I'm going to attack you like she's been attacking you this whole time. Only it's one punch to your gut. Dodge it. Ready?"
Jaune barely got a nod in when Yang moved. And by moved he means moved. It really was easy to imagine her as Pyrrha when she was already in front of him in less than a second.
No time to dodge. He thought as he brought up his shield instead. It was just like every round before with Pyrrha. The shield barely didn't make it and sparks flew as Yang's fist clipped it, shoving it aside entirely as the attack continuing on to its intended target.
He even flew back the same distance as when Pyrrha hit him.
The girls were already talking by the time he found the strength to get back up.
"Are you saying I'm not giving him enough time to react? Because I swear I was holding back…" Ouch. There goes his pride.
"Nah. But what you just said is part of the problem. Now step two."
She waited till Jaune recovered his Aura and self-esteem to continue.
"Now! I'm attacking you as Yang! You've seen me fight, right? That's coming your way. Same deal as before. One punch. Your gut. Dodge. Ready?" She called as Pyrrha started to get the point the brawler was trying to make.
Jaune was visibly less confident this time around but nodded shakily anyway. Yang made a note to herself to lay off of him a little. He's much braver than she thought.
"Go, Jaune! You can do it!" Ruby cheered from the sidelines and even Blake and Weiss seemed interested in his performance this time around.
Yang clanged her fists together and flashed her grinned her usual predatory smile before allowing a slight glow in her hair. Just to help him realize that when I mean me, I mean it.
Jaune was too preoccupied by fear to notice but their audience noted that this attack was much the same speed and Jaune had much the same time frame to dodge.
He was already moving by the time Yang got to him. Not fast enough but the fist was off target, smashing painfully into his side, shaving off a good bit of aura. He flew back only a bit this time.
"Goooo!"
"You almost had it!"
"Well done!"
Whoa. Jaune thought. Weiss was cheering me on!
A goofy smile made its way on to his face not just at that but having almost done it and immediately leapt to his feet, far more confident.
"Good dodge, Jaune. But I haven't made my point obvious yet. Now. Imagine I'm a Grimm. A suuuper strong one." The glow in Yang's hair was more like a flame now and her aura flared to match as her Semblance kicked in.
"Er. Y-Yang? You've made your point! I get it!" Pyrrha tried to step in when it looked like Jaune was too frozen to act but was ignored.
"You have absolutely no chance against this next attack." This wasn't necessarily true but fear didn't always make sense. "If you don't dodge. You die. Ready?"
Of course she had no intention of waiting. Her eyes glowed red dangerously. He looks kinda like dad if I don't think too hard; Yang thought as she fueled some of her family issues and hatred into this next attack. Need to make this look as authentic as possible after all. And if she was blowing off some steam… well. No one needs to know.
Jaune was already feeling overwhelmed when Yang asked and didn't even hear her. With Pyrrha's worried cries, Ruby's screams of encouragement and Blake's yelling at Yang to stop to even Weiss' quiet murmuring as she wondered whether to admonish Yang like Blake, cheer on Jaune like Ruby or sit back and enjoy the show, it was very distracting.
But all that vanished when a golden, red eyed monster roared and was barreling its way at him with a bang. The only thing that mattered was that he was not in its way. This was not play fighting with Pyrrha, the kindest person he knew this side of Remnant. This was fear.
Not even a year ago, if faced with situation, Jaune would surely have been frozen in place and he would, in his mind, promptly be killed.
But thanks to Pyrrha and her literally Spartan training, the crazy missions Beacon put them through and the sheer insanity Jaune had to fight to survive was not for nothing.
Abandoning everything but his training and survival instincts, Jaune threw himself out of the way with everything he had, barely making it as Yang barreled past him.
He fell rather ungracefully on his side but his training kicked in and he rolled with the momentum and ended up steadily on his feet with his sword and shield at the ready. His mind was blank as he waited for the next blow.
Which never came. Only cheers.
Ruby was squealing at full volume and he didn't even register it until Weiss gently congratulated him and he heard more than saw Pyrrha admonish Yang while Blake smacked her.
"What are you hitting me for? It worked dinnit'?" Yang complained halfheartedly. She could admit she went a bit too far but results were results.
Pyrrha grimaced but had to agree. She could see the problem clearly enough now and the most obvious solution was… not exactly troubling but certainly disappointing.
"That was so cool, Yang! You were all like 'it's not Jaune, it's you' and then you flew at him and he like, dodged real fast and he wasn't exactly cool but it was a million times better than watching fall on his butt again and you just knew it would work and it was just like back home when we used to train with uncle Qrow and-"; Ruby launched into an excited tirade as she launched herself into her sister who happily caught her.
"Shut up, Ruby." Yang scolded fondly as she instinctively hugged her tight.
"Um. Yang?" Looking up from her giggling sister, Yang saw Jaune stand awkwardly like he wanted to ask Weiss out again. "Y'arent gonna ask me out after all that are ya, vomit boy? Cause then you just might have serious issues."
While Pyrrha reacted uncharacteristically violently to the question, Jaune reacted remarkably tamely, with only a light blush dusting his cheeks and a slight shake of his head. Out of all the girls at Beacon, even though she was definitely one of the most attractive, Yang was the only one Jaune would never in a million lifetimes consider romantically. Besides Pyrrha of course but she didn't really count. She was far too much like his sisters back home, in both appearance and behavior.
"Er, no. I was wondering if you could… um… train me maybe?" Ruby seemed to vibrate with excitement in Yang's arms at the request which cemented her opinion in the matter but Pyrrha's heartbroken expression was what Yang was looking at.
"Jaune… I'm not that great a teacher. I think Pyrrha is really good for you." Of course Yang tossed in a hint about the redhead that everyone caught but sailed way over his head. He blustered anyway. "NO! No! I mean… Of course I want to still train with her! She knows me better than anyone else. She's my partner." Pyrrha was disappointed that she was being partner-zoned but couldn't bring herself to be too down about it when she learned his feelings about her.
"B-but, I think there's a lot you can teach me, too. If that's okay? I mean, it'll be good for Pyrrha too since she won't have to babysit me all the time and you can have a regular exercise partner cause you get bored easy, right? And having more correspondence between RWBY and JNPR would be cool and me and Ruby could hang out more if we both train with you and if I hang out with you more I-I think that maybe-" He rambled but was interrupted by Yang's full bodied laugh, jostling along with the red ball in her arms that seemed to be trying to vibrate out of the visible light spectrum.
"You hang out with Ruby too much, I think! I like it! I'll take you!"
To Weiss' concern, Ruby was starting to disappear.
"First lesson! Outside of class, in training, you may only address me as Master!"
Jaune did not hesitate. "Y-yes! Master Yang!"
Blake wanted to die. This was going to go to Yang's head and she was going to be insufferable. But while she was still alive, she wondered what privileges a Master's partner got.
A/N: If you endured this story all the way to the end, thank you so much for reading! Any support and feedback would be appreciated!
About the story itself...
Believe it or not I started this story before the Season 5 Yang short so I didn't know Yang actually taught Ruby to fight hand to hand. I finished after it got released so I tried to incorporate that into it.
I don't claim to be an expert on combat so don't take that whole combat speed thing too seriously, it's just my opinion.
Another one of my opinions, which is guaranteed to be more controversial, is that I'm not a huge Arkos shipper. I'm sorry but I just think Pyrrha was too good for him. I hope that doesn't spoil your experience with my story.
With that in mind, please tell me if you wanna see this continue! I'll leave this as the oneshot it was intended to be till then. The title means that I intend more people to train Jaune if this continues.