Beacon Gym

Chapter 2

Yellow Dragon I

Jaune looked at the contract on the table, then at Ozpin, then back to the contract.

"Wha-"

"This is a contract Mr Arc, if that's what you're asking."

"Wha- No, I know that's a contract. I-I mean… A coach? Me? How? Why!?"

Ozpin seemed unfazed at his increasing volume, "Because I believe you fit the position quite well."

Jaune's eyes could not have gotten any wider, "I-I'm sorry sir, I just don't see it. I mean, aren't coaches usually retired pros? I think finding one of them would be better."

Ozpin chuckled, "That's far from the case, Mr. Arc. There are more people currently boxing than there are retired and still alive. It isn't a 1-1 ratio." Jaune's head fell, and he stared at the contract, "I see there's still some trepidation."

Ozpin pulled the contract back to him, rolling it up, "How about this: I am willing to let you in on a trial period, let you test the water as they say. If you find that you still don't feel like it's a possibility, then you are free to leave."

Jaune's mind was still catching up with what was going on. The stare he was being pegged with on Ozpin's end caused a spike of anxiety in his chest, and on reflex he nodded and said, "Y-yeah ok."

Ozpin tapped the folded-up contract on his desk, "Perfect." He then sat down, pushing his chair forward. A landline was right next to his computer monitor, and he held one of the buttons down.

A voice came through on the other side, "Yes sir?"

"Hello Glynda, can I get you to come to my office? Mr. Arc has agreed to a form of trial period and I would like you to show him around the building."

"Of course sir."

"Very good, thank you." He looked back over at Jaune, who's eyes seemed to be stuck in a fully wide position, "Glynda is a manager here at the gym, she is usually my proxy for any concerns that the occupants might have. If I'm not available, she's just as good."

Things were moving way too fast for Jaune to keep up with, "Wait, so I'm starting tod-"

Suddenly, the door to the room flung open. Who stepped through was a woman with blonde hair tied into a bun. She had a pair of spectacles on her nose, in front of steely green eyes. The woman he assumed to be Glynda wore a straight black skirt, as well as a white buttoned shirt.

"Glynda this is Jaune, Jaune this is Glynda."

Glynda nodded at him, making him notice that she had a tablet in one arm, "A pleasure." Her general expression seemed very business-like, and she exuded a different aura than Ozpin.

"Uh, yeah, nice to meet you."

"Now, I will see you later Mr. Arc, I hope you enjoy the tour. Glynda will also be introducing you to your first client."

Jaune looked like he wanted to say something, but Glynda spoke up first, "This way, Mr. Arc." She held the door open for him, and with one last unsure look at Ozpin, Jaune stood up and walked out the door. Glynda followed, the door swinging shut behind them.

Once he was alone, Ozpin leaned back in his chair. He chuckled at the thought of what had just happened, "He's an honest boy, most would just take the money and worry about doing a good job later." he whispered to the empty room.

He opened a desk drawer, taking out an old black and white photograph. It was of a much younger Ozpin, his fist raised up on celebration. He mirrored the man standing next to him, who, even with the low quality and lack of colour, you could tell held some resemblance to the young man who had just been in his office.

"He's definitely related to you, Alexander…"

His pleasant reminiscing was unfortunately interrupted as his pocket vibrated, and Ozpin set down the picture. He grabbed his phone, and looked at the screen

A heavy frown came upon his face.

"The floor we're currently on now is for offices. The owner's and my own office are located here, as well as a few other important people you will eventually meet." She paused for a second, "If you decide to stay with us."

Jaune nodded, and he couldn't really do much else. There was something about this woman, Glynda, that had this authoritarian air to it, almost like he was back in school.

Jaune shook his head. No, don't judge a book by its cover, she might be a very nice person.

They walked back into the elevator he had come up on. She pressed the button for the first floor, and the elevator closed with a 'ding'

"There are six floors, each floor has general fitness equipment, however most floors also have specialised training facilities for various sports. Our main income is from our athletes."

Jaune nodded as the door opened once more. They stepped out into a very populated wide-open area; tens of machines lined up next to each other. He could see that each machine was grouped into what part of the body they worked with.

It seemed he had just gotten there before the morning rush. Most of the machines were in use, and even then, there were people walking about, taking breaks and even chatting.

'This place really is popular…' Which made the reason why they wanted to hire him even more confusing.

"This is our biggest general fitness floor. Any machine you can think of, we have here." He could hear a bit of pride in her voice, "We also have a sizable selection of weights." She gestured to a corner where he could see various people benching, lifting dumbbells and just generally being more muscular than he ever could be.

"We also have yoga and Zumba classes, depending on the day." Glynda readjusted her glasses, "Ah, I almost forgot." She brandished a card from her pocket and presented it to Jaune, "This is your card to access the building, so you don't have to go through reception every time."

He accepted the card, 'Guess I'll just go with the flow for now…" He decided with a sigh.

Glynda then turned around on a dime, startling Jaune, "On to the next floor." She really didn't want to waste time it seemed.

"The second floor is home to the wrestling and Judo classes."

They stood on the edge of a room, Jaune staring wide-eyed. A crowd was in front of them, cheering and hollering at a circular ring in the middle. The ring held two vastly juxtaposed individuals. One was a massive hulk of a man, a bit shorter than him but still about six foot tall. He wore a mask and latex shorts, his muscles large and bulging.

On the other side of the ring was an orange-haired woman. She wore a pink latex suit and a mask over her eyes. The most concerning thing was how tiny she looked in comparison to her opponent.

He looked at Glynda in shock, "This doesn't seem fair. Shouldn't we stop this?" he went to take a step forward but an arm from the shorter woman stopped him.

"Just watch."

He reluctantly stayed where he was, his hands clenched into fists as he continued observing.

The crowd didn't share his concern; they roared their approval as the referee started the match. The large man let out a battle cry as he charged at his smaller opponent.

"THIS IS THE DAY I GET MY REVENGE, VALKYRIE!"

All he got in response was a confident grin as he closed in. With a shout he attempted to bear hug and crush the ginger wrestler. Only to make a sound of confusion as his target wasn't there as he followed through.

"In your dreams, Bear-Hugger!"

'Bear-Hugger' looked up in surprise, and was met with a pair of powerful legs wrapped around his face. 'Valkyrie' lifted her arm up to the crowd.

"You know what time it is!?"

The crowd roared so loud that it shook the room, so much so he thought it could've been measured on the Richter scale.

The light reflecting off of Valkyries cocky smile could've blinded a man with sunglasses on. With one heave, she swung around Bear-Hugger's head, sliding down his back so that she had a firm grip around his waist.

Bear-hugger's eyes were the size of dinner plates.

With surprisingly little effort, Valkyrie lifted the much larger man up into the air-

"VALKYRIE-"

-and slammed Bear-hugger into the mat head-first.

-SUPLEX!"

The referee slid across the floor to start a pin count down, "1! 2! 3! That's it! The winner is... Valkyrie!"

The crowd roared once more, and Jaune swore he could feel his eardrum about to pop.

"VAL-KY-RIE! VAL-KY-RIE!"

Jaune's jaw couldn't get any lower, and his eyes couldn't get any wider. His head creaked as he turned towards Glynda, looking for an explanation, but was nonplussed to find she was in the middle of walking out the door and back to the elevator.

With one last look at Valkyrie waving to crowd, he ran to catch up with his guide before he was left behind.

"The third floor handles things such as Karate, jiu-jitsu and taekwondo."

The contrast in atmosphere was drastic compared to the last floor, a mostly silent room with sparse sounds of flesh hitting other flesh or wood, or bodies hitting matts.

There were even a group of people sitting in meditation on the other side of the room, their legs crossed and eyes closed. He couldn't even hear the noise from the floor below.

'The soundproofing on this place must cost a fortune.' Jaune thought.

A tap on the shoulder drew his attention away from the meditation session, and Glynda gestured towards a crowd that was slowly forming. People stopped hitting posts and sparring to watch a tall lithe man dressed in a green Gi, a black belt around his waist.

They watched as he moved a pink strand of hair from his face, his pink eyes set in serious concentration. In front of him was a wooden contraption, three punching bags hung from increasingly higher places on it.

The man took a breath, before getting in a ready position.

In a flash, his legs struck out. The first bag was kicked up into the contraption within a second. The second one following just as fast. The third fared no better but that kick was easiest to see as Jaune's eyes adjusted to the speed.

Polite claps and cheers rang out around him, and the man bowed low before standing straight. The crowd dispersed on its own, people going back to their own activities.

"That was... Really impressive." Jaune said in awe. It was the first time he had seen eastern martial arts in person.

"Mr. Lie Ren is one of our finest, one of the best black belts we have." Glynda informed him, that pride he heard before slipping back into her tone. She had been so professional and robotic, that those small moments of emotion seemed to depressurize the atmosphere.

"Huh." Jaune let out as Glynda gestured to follow her once again.

"The fourth floor is where we have most of our MMA."

Jaune looked at Glynda in confusion as they rode the elevator up, "But… Wasn't the last floor mostly mixed martial arts? Why have another?"

Somehow, despite being shorter than him, Glynda still managed to look down her glasses at him, "Well other than there being more than three types of martial arts, it is a way for people from different floors to mingle and even spar. Each floor is specialized in competing in those specific sports, while this floor lets them take what they le arn and compete in an MMA format."

'Oh…' "I see." He looked away, and his eyes widened as the door to the elevator opened. They stepped out into a wide-open area, like the third floor had been, but it seemed to take up the entire floor instead of just a large part of it.

Jaune could see small hexagonal cages dotted around the entire floor, the sound of rattling and flesh hitting flesh coming to his ears. There was a space to the side with punching bags and general fitness equipment like always, but the biggest draw, the real crown jewel it seemed…

Was the massive cage in the middle.

He wasn't a big watcher of MMA; his knowledge was limited to the basics. But even he could guess that this was as big as a professional ring. His eyes were drawn to it, and by proxy the spectacle going on inside of it.

A familiar red ponytail danced around the edge, it's owner swiftly moving out of the way of a punch and grabbing the offending arm. She turned the attacker around and pushed forward, sending him tumbling into another person attempting to take a swing.

The second attacker caught the offered body on reflex, and that's when she struck. With grace, she jumped, kicking off the wall and bringing a kick around to land directly against the person's temple.

They dropped like a sack of bricks, falling to the floor with the other combatant on top of them.

Jaune's mind struggled to put two and two together, but as soon as he caught a glance of green eyes it hit him.

"Pyrrha!?"

"Ah, I see you're familiar with Miss Nikos." Glynda said next to him, "Then again, anyone with some knowledge of Mixed martial arts probably is."

"No- I mean, I didn't know she did MMA, she just helped me in the lobby earlier."

"Really?" Glynda looked at him in surprise. "Well, she is a rising star in the sport. She won the national under 18 championship two times in a row. She's won her last three professional matches also." There was that pride again.

Wow, all of that on top of being beautiful and a nice person? Damn.

He watched as what he assumed was her coach handed her a bottle of water, which she gratefully accepted. He didn't know why, but something about the smile she gave them seemed... Off.

He frowned as he heard Glynda walk back towards the elevator, his eyes lingering for a moment before he turned to follow.

"And finally, our fifth floor. This is the one you're probably going to be spending the most time on. This floor is dedicated to our boxing."

Jaune, taking Glynda's word, scanned the room with his eyes. If anything, this floor felt… familiar in a weird sort of way. It was probably because, if not for the size and better-quality equipment, it could've easily been The Ansel Knockout. Hell, it could've been any other boxing gym he had ever been to.

There was always a feeling of comfort whenever he entered one, like he belonged.

"Boxing is actually our most profitable sport." Glynda explained as they walked past a few people lifting dumbbells and shadow boxing, "We have our most conventionally successful athletes on this floor, as well as boxing being the most widely coveted martial art."

He nodded along absentmindedly as he looked around, seeing a number of small boxing rings dotted about similar to the last floor. People were sparring or hitting pads mostly, but a few small crowds gathered around some of them. He guessed that there was some kind of money involved in those spars.

It wasn't an uncommon thing for two people to wager money or something else on who got hit first.

Glynda stopped in front of him, causing Jaune to almost smack into her back. He looked at her curiously, before the sounds of heavy slaps on a punching bag reached his ears. He looked around Glynda's head and caught sight of a woman hitting the punching bags.

Each punch caused the heavy bag to swing back a fair distance, which was a feat considering the bag was almost the same size as her, and probably heavier. She seemed to not have noticed them approach, as she didn't stop nor slow down at all.

Long blonde hair swayed with the rhythm of her punches, and lavender eyes focused intensely. He was in slight awe at the sheer ferocity she was displaying on a mere punching bag,

As he stared, Glynda spoke, "Miss Xiao-Long."

One final monumental punch was delivered, causing the bag to fly backward. It swung so far that Jaune thought it might swing round the other side. It did not however, picking up momentum and swinging back at the one who delivered the blow.

For a second worry shone in his eyes, but that was quickly replaced by amazement as, with one powerful hand, the shorter blonde stopped the bag dead in its tracks.

She looked at Glynda, one eyebrow cocked, "Yeah?" Then she caught sight of him, "Who's the scraggly dude?"

"Scraggly…?" Jaune mumbled.

Glynda sighed, "That is what I'm here for." She turned to Jaune, "She is your first trainee." She turned back, "Yang, this is Jaune Arc. Jaune, this is Yang Xiao-Long. She will be your first coaching job."

There was a moment of silence, before it was broken by a snigger from Yang, which soon developed into a full-blown laugh.

A few people walking by looked over, but soon dismissed the scene with fond shakes of their head.

Jaune stood there, an unsure and awkward smile on his face, and waited for the laughter to die down. When Yang finally calmed herself, wiping a tear from her eye, she was met with a deadpan look from Glynda.

"Wait, you're serious?" Yang's smile faded.

"Yes, I am."

Yang's face morphed into disbelief, looking up at Jaune, "You can't be serious. This guy? This is the guy that's replacing Jason? He doesn't look much older than me."

"Age isn't a defining factor, Miss Xiao-Long."

"No, but experience is." Yang deadpanned, "And you cannot tell me this guy has more experience than me."

"Um, can I-"

"Not talking to you, wire-frame," Yang cut Jaune off, "What's the gimmick here, Goodwitch? You trying to give this guy an easy ride? Give him a low-maintenance starter job while I go and bust my ass to win? Fuck. That."

She turned around, "I'm not interested."

"He can help you, Miss Xiao-Long."

Yang's head whipped back around; her eyes narrowed. She looked at Jaune for a few seconds, before a grin that Jaune thought looked outright savage appeared on her face.

"You know what? Prove it," She reached down and picked up a pair of boxing gloves on a nearby bench. She pointed at a ring close by, "One round, me and wire-frame. In that ring. If he can survive, land a few punches and not get floored, I'll let him be my coach."

Jaune's brow furrowed at the offer as Glynda stepped forward, "Don't be ridiculous. There is no need for-"

"Ok."

Glynda turned around, looking at him in shock.

Yang's grin widened, "You got some balls at least, or you're stupid, Wire-frame."

"My name is Jaune,"

"Psh, whatever you say, Wire-frame."

Jaune stood in the corner of a ring. A familiar place. He tied the string of his boxing glove tight with his teeth. It had probably been his longest stint without having worn a pair in quite some time, and he was enjoying the feeling.

Glynda, who was standing just next to him outside the ring, called up to him, "You don't have to do this, Mr. Arc."

He shot her a small and somewhat tired smile, "If I don't, then you're going to have to force her. I don't think that'd be very fun for either of us." He looked over at Yang. who was already ready and bouncing from foot to foot. Her savage grin didn't leave her face.

"I think I've got this." And he was mostly telling the truth. In a full-on fight, he had no idea if he could win or not, he just had that little information on his opponent. But, in this context, with the conditions laid out, he thought he could probably pull through.

Sure, he had lost three fights, but he had never been knocked out round one. He was fairly confident he could land a punch or two also, given the size and reach difference.

In theory, this shouldn't be that hard.

He saw Glynda pinch her nose and let out a sigh, "If I cannot convince you otherwise, then so be it. Just know that we can set you up with a different athlete if necessary." Jaune nodded, and Glynda stepped back.

A part of his mind sort of agreed with her, but a larger, more vocal part of his mind was kind of riding the high of how great this gym was. If this was the person Ozpin chose, he'd rather not have to tell him she'd straight up laughed in his face. If anything, he wanted Ozpin to hear about how he'd impressed her.

Also, it kinda felt good to have someone believe in him for once.

He locked eyes with Yang, who walked forward with a confident swagger. Rising to the challenge, Jaune stepped forward. They stood a few feet apart, locked in a stare down.

Eventually, Yang spoke up, "Anyone wanna ring a bell?" she called out impatiently.

A moment later, a bell rang out. And then Yang moved.

She was on top of him in an instant, swinging a heavy haymaker at his face. Startled, he fumbled backwards, avoiding the meat of the blow but getting clipped on the edge of his jaw

His legs shook at even that, and fear ran through his mind as he went into fight mode. He did not want to get hit full on in the face with that. Just as quickly as before, Yang moved again, bringing her other fist around to nail his face once more.

He stepped around and avoided it this time. He took note of how Yang put the entirety of her body into every punch she swung, and with his superior reach, bent his arm around and delivered a hard punch directly into her exposed cheek.

Only for Yang to not budge at all.

Alarm shot through him as his opponent didn't even flinch. Despite her cheek being smushed, Yang still shot him a smug smile.

"That's all you got?" She said, half muffled.

Jaune went to hastily remove his fist from her cheek and try and create distance. Yang was still faster however, and with one hand she smacked his glove down. The sheer strength she used to do so caused him to stumble forward slightly, leaving him wide open for Yang's eager fist.

A blow hit him dead in the nose, and his eyes filled with stars. A more conscious part of his mind was thankful he felt no crunch, though the pain was still pretty bad.

His shaky legs almost gave out, but he held them up with sheer determination. He felt a bit of blood leak out of his nose as he re-adjusted and looked back at Yang.

Only for a second punch to land and send him through a loop.

He stumbled back a few steps, nose now freely bleeding, before dropping backwards. He landed against the ropes, reflexively clinging on but slowly slipping down to the ground anyway. Jaune heard the sound of heeled steps behind him, as he was pulled to look into the face of Glynda.

"Are you alright Mr Arc, can you hear me?" He gave a heavy nod and she sighed in relief, turning around to address someone behind her, "Could you get us some water please? Quickly."

"Gonna need more than just some water to help with that one." Yang called from the other end of the ring. She leant back casually against the rope, an unimpressed look on her face, "Guy's gonna need some therapy after losing like that." She smirked.

"Then again, you did better than I expected. You actually landed a punch, though calling that love tap a punch would be stretching it."

Jaune let out a cough, blood splattering slightly, "Y-you… commit too much… when you throw. If I was...stronger, or faster, things… might've been different." He hadn't meant for it to come out like he was being a sore loser, he wasn't, he just wanted to offer some advice.

Yang's eyes became half-lidded as she stood up from the ropes, "Really? You want to give me advice after losing like that? Maybe actually prove it to me, and then I'll listen to your 'advice'. I can tell why you aren't boxing."

With that, Yang stepped through the ropes and started walking away.

Glynda opened her mouth to say something, but Jaune grabbed her wrist. Confused, she looked over to a shake of the head from Jaune.

"She's…" Jaune sucked in a breath, "She's right." He stood up, stumbling a bit but shooing away the offered help, "Tell… Tell Ozpin that he picked the wrong guy. I don't think I deserve to be here."

"Mr Arc…" Glynda protested, but Jaune was already slipping through the ropes. She saw him stumble away, "At least let me take you to see the doctor!" She called after him, but he had already entered the elevator.

The door closed, and Jaune exited her view.

The screeching of Jaune's door rang out throughout his apartment as Jaune stumbled inside. If he was more there, he would've been thankful that the door decided to be less difficult. Now though, light headed and hating himself, he paid it no mind as he slammed the door behind him.

The first thing he did was make a beeline for the bathroom, walking in and opening up a cupboard attached to the wall. The white cross of a medical kit met him as he took it out, walking back into his living room.

He had bought one just after joining Ansel, thinking it would come in handy.

He sat down on his couch and opened it up. Taking some tissues out of his nose, one he had procured from a restaurant on his way home, he grabbed some bandages, some tape and some cotton.

He had a decent idea of how to bandage himself up. He had had it done to him enough times.

'I'm such an idiot...'

Jaune thought this as he leaned back, bringing the bandage around his nose. The cotton was positioned so it was applying pressure to the sensitive area, stopping the blood flow.

'Why did I even go there…'

He tied the back of the bandage up, pulling on it multiple times to make sure it was tight enough. Once he was confident it wouldn't fall loose, he stood up.

The headrush he experienced as he did almost made him fall flat on his face. Sitting back down, he resigned himself to the fact that he might have to wait to wash the blood off of his face.

'Another failure...'

He had been through this all before, so many times. He couldn't escape it. Even as a coach, he ended up bleeding on his couch after fighting someone better than him. His mind whispering at him thoughts he was familiar with, ones he had experienced before. Ones that he thought he had dealt with.

So why did they hurt more than his nose did?

"I can see why you aren't boxing."

To be honest, Jaune could too.

A bandaged up Jaune stood behind the counter of the bakery, elbow resting on the table and hand on his face.

He sighed, thankful that the store was quiet for once. Though a part of him wanted a distraction to keep him out of his own head.

Scratching at the bandage across his nose, Jaune sighed. He really shouldn't have got his hopes up, but the more he saw of the gym, the more excited he became.

He still had no idea why they wanted him as a coach. As bad as he was, offering to take him on as an athlete still made more sense. He had no idea how to coach someone.

Jaune stood up as he saw the last person finish their food, stretching and waving at the regular as they left. He let out a long breath.

Guess he was gonna be stuck in this shitty job forever.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Usually Jaune wouldn't answer calls during work time, but technically they had already closed, and all that was left was clean up. Nothing too strenuous.

He took his phone out of his pocket, seeing an unknown number and shrugging. He answered and held it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Good evening, Mr Arc." The familiar voice of Ozpin sounded back.

Jaune's face dropped, "Oh, hey. Look, sir I'm-"

"Did you know that Miss Xiao-Long had a fight today?"

Jaune's brow furrowed, she did? "Uh, no."

"Her first professional one in fact."

"Huh." Jaune let out, "I'm guessing she steamrolled them, right? She packs a hell of a punch; god knows she didn't need my help."

"Actually, she lost." Jaune's eyebrows shot up in surprise, "It was quite a convincing one too. In the first round she came out attempting to 'steamroll' her opponent, as you said. However, her opponent was slightly taller and had more reach, so when Miss Xiao-Long committed to a punch and missed-"

"She was countered and hit hard…" Jaune mumbled. Harder than he did at least.

"Exactly that, Mr Arc."

"Well, uh, that's too bad sir."

"Indeed, it is." There was a moment of silence, "Glynda told me about your little makeshift sparring session with Miss Xiao-Long. She also told me of the advice you gave her afterwards. Maybe if she had listened to you, she might've been able to win."

"Uh, where are you going with this sir?"

"What I'm saying is that you would be a better coach than you realize."

Jaune sighed, "I appreciate the compliment sir, but I disagree. I haven't even won a match-"

"That does not matter, Mr. Arc, do you know why? Because you understand the sport. You don't need to win a single match to get a feel for the flow of the sport. To find strengths and weaknesses. To analyze matches. Even if you cannot put the information into practice yourself, the great thing about being a coach is that you can pass it on to someone who will."

Ozpin was silent for another moment, "Another thing: Miss Xiao-Long is talented, and she does not understand losing. She is taking this loss hard, Mr Arc, because she has not experienced one before."

"I think, in my personal opinion, talking to someone who understands what it's like to lose is exactly what she needs."

Jaune opened his mouth to say something, but the words wouldn't come out. Many thoughts swirled around his mind, and he could articulate none of them.

"She is currently being seen by our medical professional, on the first floor. It is your decision whether to come see her or not."

"Have a good evening, Mr Arc." The line went dead.

Jaune took the phone away from his ear, staring at the screen for a while. Eventually, he let out a sigh.

"Goddammit…"

He put his phone back in his pocket, taking his apron off in one swift motion. Jaune called over to his co-worker, "Hey, I have something important to do, can you cover for me? I'll owe you one."

His co-worker thought about it for a second, before nodding at him. Jaune called out a "Thank you!" before rushing out the door.

As Jaune walked into a somewhat sizable doctor's office, the first thing he saw was Yang flinching back. A young-looking female doctor held a bit of cotton up to her face with tweezers.

"You fighters can take punch after punch, yet you flinch during a bit of medical care." The doctor chuckled, holding Yang's head still with one hand.

Yang grunted, "Well I'm allowed to flinch here aren't I? Not so much in the ring. Not unless you wanna get pummeled more."

"I suppose so." The doctor answered, bemused. She looked at Jaune, "It seems you have a visitor." With that she removed the cotton from Yang's face, wheeling back over to her desk with her chair.

Yang turned her head to him, her already annoyed face getting even grouchier.

"Well, if it isn't Wire-frame. I'm surprised you came back after how badly you got beat."

"Didn't stop you coming back here." he replied automatically.

Her face turned absolutely murderous for a second, before calming down slightly, "What the fuck do you want?" she spat.

He let out a breath, "Was I wrong?"

"Huh?"

"About what I said to you yesterday, was I wrong? About you overcommitting."

Yang glared at him, "What does it matter to you?"

"Well it matters to me because I'm going to be your coach."

Yang looked at him like he was crazy, "Uh, no you're not. That's what our little spat yesterday was for."

"Well, I think now that it's proven that I was right, you have to listen to my advice." Yang still looked at him disbelievingly. Jaune took a deep breath, 'I hope this works.'

He stepped towards the hospital bed she was sitting on, "I know how you feel."

"What? I doubt-"

"You're doubting yourself." He continued, "You were so sure you were going to win, that it was already a forgone conclusion, that losing never even entered your mind. 'Why think about it if it's never gonna happen', I'm guessing that thought went through your mind multiple times."

"But now, the thing you never thought was possible, happened. You don't know what to do. You don't know if the training you did was right, hell you don't even know if the way you're throwing punches is right anymore."

Yang grit her teeth and looked away, "...What's your point?"

"My point is that I went through the same thing, but the difference is, you're better than me. I got through my first loss, I got through my second, and hell I'm still getting through my third. But you, Yang, have the potential to make this your only loss. Because you're way more talented than I am. I could see it even from the short time we fought each other."

"If, you let me help you, you, no, we can make sure you don't turn out like me."

Jaune took a breath, having tired himself out from the speech he had just given. He looked at Yang and saw her staring at him with wide eyes. In his peripheral he could also see the doctor looking at him with the same expression.

His cheeks burned slightly.

Yang's face morphed in the next few moments, and he watched her internal dialogue intently. Eventually, she looked down and sighed.

"Fuck it. Don't have much of a platform to say no right now. But!" She held her hand up as Jaune's face lit up. "If we're gonna do this, I don't settle for anything but the best, you get me?"

Jaune nodded at her, "That was the plan from the start."

"Fine, what have I got to lose at this point?" Yang chuckled in a self-deprecating manner and offered her hand in alight reluctance, "But you're on thin ice buddy."

Taking note of the threat, Jaune grabbed her hand and gave her a genuine smile.

"Well, the idea is that you're not going to lose anything."

Author's note

Hello my dear readers, how goes it? Zakku and Numb back again with another chapter. This is the start of the first Arc: Yellow Dragon. This is the start of the story in earnest. Exciting stuff.

Can I just say me and Numb both really appreciate the general positive feedback we've gotten. Thank you so much!

Anyway, see ya in the next one.

One of your authors, Zakku.