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Chapter 6: Acceptance

Slash, Slash, Stab.

Stab, Bash, Block.

Slash, Slash, Counter, Stab.

Nonstop fighting, nonstop training. That's all Pyrrha needed. That's all that would make the difference. Kicking Jaune in the leg, before quickly slashing his chest with her wooden sword, Pyrrha tried knocking him off his feet with her shield.

Ever since she and Jaune started training, neither one of them had a good measure of when it was time to stop, between Pyrrha's unwavering tenacity and Jaune's stamina as a vampire. Mostly, Pyrrha tried to stop when Jaune was starting to get tired of being beaten.

Over the last two days, he had been starkly improving his skill with his sword and shield, and while he was still yet to land a strike against her, Pyrrha could tell his skill was finally starting to improve. The practice was paying off. Jaune's strikes were less and less improvised and were more effective overall.

But he was still a long way from Pyrrha's level, as was evident by how soundly she had beaten him in their previous duel.

"One more." She demanded, still not content.

"Pyrrha, you and I have been at this for at least four hours without a break! We need to rest!" Jaune replied, getting back up.

"No! We can't rest yet. We aren't ready." Pyrrha shot back, surprised at how stern her tone had gotten.

"Pyrrha, you can't keep doing this forever. You can't just keep on going on for days without sleep and proper food. Did you even have your lunch today?" Jaune asked.

"I had some bread and berries; now can we get back to training?"

"What?! No! You seriously think you'll be able to keep going like this with only bread and berries?" Jaune asked, concern seeping into his voice.

"Jaune, I need as little distractions as possible right now." Pyrrha shot back, raising her sword and shield.

"NO! What you need is rest! I'm sorry Pyrrha, I'm not going to sit by and watch as you work yourself to death." Jaune snapped, surprising Pyrrha with his tone.

"Jaune… Ruby's gone. She's gone because I couldn't get to her fast enough, she's gone because I couldn't bother to stick around and look at all the signs. She's gone because I couldn't do my duty as a Huntress!" she replied, throwing Milo into the wall.

"That wasn't your fault." Jaune meekly replied.

"She stuck out there in the wilderness at the mercy of a vampire because I couldn't get to her fast enough. Assuming she doesn't get killed by that vampire, she's still stuck as a werewolf. All because I wasn't attentive enough. So, tell me Jaune, does it look like none of this was my fault?"

"Pyrrha, Ruby chose to go out during a blood moon. You tried your hardest-"

"And that wasn't good enough!" she snapped.

"Alright, then Pyrrha. Tell me this."

"What?"

"Would she have wanted you to go down this path? Would Ruby want you to spend all your time training in this manner? When you, yourself, know your body can't possibly handle the stress, would your friend have wanted you to do it?" Jaune asked, finally breaking some of Pyrrha's defenses.

For so long she had been believing that this was the only she could ever make up for how badly she failed at protecting her friend. To train so hard that such an event would never need to happen again. So that no one else would need to go through what Ruby had.

"No good friend would ever want to see you have to put yourself through so much guilt and pain." Jaune calmly stated, placing his hand on Pyrrha's shoulder.

Looking to his face, she could barely even recognize the vampire she met four nights ago. Instead of nervous energy, there was now nothing but understanding and pity on his face.

"Please Pyrrha, take care of yourself. Not for me. But for Ruby." Jaune added.

What would Ruby have thought if she saw Pyrrha like this? What would she have thought of the invincible warrior she saw as her idol? Jaune was right. All this stressful, obsessive training wasn't going to help her. In fact, it was going to destroy her. And when that happened, who was Ruby going to look up to for help. Who was Ruby going to look up to become a better huntress?

Above anything else, Ruby would've wanted all her friends to be well. And here she was breaking Ruby's wish. All this destructive effort she was putting in, all of it was only going to destroy her.

The very thought of all her efforts only serving to be the reason for her downfall, broke her. She tried wiping away her tears but more kept coming. But as she wiped away the tears from her right, she felt another hand wipe away the tears on her left.

Hugging him close, she finally accepted his embrace and fell into it for once. Sitting down on a bench, she sat down and let out all the unkempt pain she had been hiding since Ruby was taken. And this time, she was no longer alone. This time she had someone she could at least trust to pick her up when she fell.

Seeing Pyrrha break down wasn't an easy experience for Jaune to get through. He didn't want to hurt Pyrrha but even he was able to see just how obsessive she had been getting with her training. Not sleeping properly, eating minimally, not even talking with her friends especially when she should be for their support?

All these were clear signs that Pyrrha needed her friends more than ever. After helping Pyrrha finally get back into her house, he immediately moved her to the bed and told her to rest. Pulling up the covers on her sleeping body, he watched as the redhead, after 2 days of constant and relentless training finally rested.

He debated calling Ren and Nora, but he found that it would be better to call them when Pyrrha was also awake. So instead he headed over to the pantry.

As the days went on by, Jaune himself was able to notice his appetite fading. His requirement for food and water had already been fading since he became a vampire but now, he wasn't even feeling the need to drink or eat. Which is what made him Pyrrha's perfect training partner.

He couldn't get tired, he didn't need to slow down to catch his breath any longer, he could keep going, keep fighting. Not being held down by a human body certainly had its perks. But was it worth losing his humanity?

To Jaune, his humanity was what made him special. It's what kept him tethered to his world. It was what made him different from the monsters people like Pyrrha hunted. But now, what was he?

Pyrrha always reminded him that he wasn't like the monsters, but Jaune didn't hesitate in attacking the werewolf mercilessly. He didn't hesitate to suck its blood, till it was dry to its bone. If the same situation came again, could he really trust himself to fight off his instincts?

No. He was Jaune Arc. To his family, to his few friends, to Pyrrha, he was just that. A kind man, maybe a little too kind for his own good but nevertheless at his core, a kind man. He wasn't going to let some vampiric curse change that. Not for Ruby. Not for Ren and Nora and most certainly not for Pyrrha.

Finally getting a grip on his thoughts, Jaune opened up the pantry and took out some eggs, bread, and some cheese. He would go for bacon too, but it kept on burning him all the time he tried to eat. He felt that, if he didn't need to eat, he may as well make something for Pyrrha.

Given how the sun was soon going to come up, he decided that he could at least make her a good breakfast to give her a proper start to her day. Lighting up the pan and setting the eggs down, he watched as they sizzled and slowly cooked themselves. As he went to season them however, he noticed he wasn't feeling any of the heat. After taking out the eggs, he was also able to notice the fact that he wasn't going to burn his hand if he got too close to it. Maybe he could finally make some Bacon!

Finding some of the meat, he put it down on the pan and began to let it fry. However, he quickly found out that he had no idea how to cook bacon. He overcooked the meat, caused hot oil to splatter all over the floor, and was a general mess overall.

As he was trying to clean it up with a cloth, he heard knocking on the door. Shuddering, he ran the cloth through the floor, unable to feel the heat of the oil. As the knocking got louder, however, he gave up on sweeping and tried to rush to the door.

Right as he made his first step however, he realized his mistake. Silently cursing his lack of foresight, he tripped and tumbled, the heat of the oil being nothing compared to the burning shame he was feeling. Recovering from his embarrassment, Jaune carefully made his way to the door.

Opening the door, he was shocked to find both Ren and Nora at the door waiting for him.

"Hey, Jaune! Where's Pyrrha?" Nora said, not being held down by her crutch.

"Hey, Nora. She's been… uh sleeping for some time."

"Is she okay?" Ren asked.

"She's doing better." Jaune admitted. "Come in."

He didn't know how much Pyrrha wanted her friends to be back in her house, but he had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to be a lot more accepting of having some friends around her.

"What is that smell?" Ren asked, wafting away some odor from his nose.

"Yeah, Jaune what is that?" Nora also asked, leaning against a wall.

"Oh. I tried making some bacon." He replied sheepishly.

"Need some help with that?" Ren asked.

"Yeahhhhh. That would be appreciated."

Rest wasn't something Pyrrha was used to. Especially after failure. But, thanks to Jaune, she was finally able to see the way she was going about it was going to destroy her. But it still didn't mean she didn't fail. Ruby was still gone, Weiss Schnee was still out in the wild and Jaune was now stuck as a vampire.

But she owed it to her allies to become better, to try to fix some of the mistakes she made. She owed it to bring Ruby back no matter what and she owed it to Jaune to make him a better huntsman. Her friends needed her to be strong for them and she had been failing that for the last two days.

So, she wasn't going to fail them any longer. She was going to try to correct the mistakes she made and this time, she was going to get it right. It's what every single one of her friends deserved.

Getting out of bed, she was immediately distracted by the strange smell in the air. It smelled like someone had burned something down in her kitchen? And what were all the noises in the living room?

Opening the door outside her room, she found Jaune and Nora sitting down in the living room with Ren being in the kitchen.

"Uh, Hello?" Pyrrha said, surprising them all.

"Hey, Pyrrha! We were just discussing making some breakfast!" Jaune replied, sheepishly.

"Hey! It's good to see you Pyrrha!" Nora replied, practically jumping out of her seat and walking over to her slowly. "Ren! Pyrrha's here!"

"I'm sorry. I wasn't being the best of friends to you over these last two- "she admitted, before being surprised by a hug from the crippled Valkyrie.

"Pyrrha. We were never unhappy about you not opening up to us. We were just worried you were going to be yourself." Nora openly admitted, cradling Pyrrha's head in her shoulder.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I found a partner too." She replied with a smile, a tear forming down her cheek as she looked to Jaune.

Wiping it away Nora asked "Who?" to which she pointed to the flustered vampire.

"I think I speak for both of us when I say thank you Jaune. It's good to see you well Pyrrha, although I would suggest you get some proper breakfast." Ren replied, coming over from the kitchen with four plates filled with bread, eggs, cheese, and bacon.

"It's good to see both you and Nora as well, I hope not much has changed in my absence?" she asked, finally accepting the offer to also sit down by the commons where Ren had placed the food.

"Well, Ozpin I believe has already set up a bounty for Miss Schnee and he has already begun recruiting every single Huntsman or Huntress he could find to help rescue Ruby. He has assigned his riftmasters to analyze the glyph the Schnee used to escape. I believe he was interested in meeting with both of you in a day or two." Ren explained, as all of them gathered around the table and began eating.

It had been far too long since Pyrrha had a simple meal like this with her closest friends.

"Has Nora been recovering well?" Jaune asked, taking a bite out of the bread.

"I would say she's been doing better," Ren revealed matter-of-factly.

"Better? I've been doing so much more than just better! I've managed to safely run lighting through my muscles again! In a day or two, I'll be ready to fight!" Nora replied, gesturing to her injured leg, which was having Pink Electricity flow through it.

"Nora. Please. At least make sure to train with me once before you go about smashing Grimm into pieces."

"Awww, come on party pooper I can handle myself!" Nora exclaimed with a pout.

"I know you can, but I would feel much safer with the knowledge that something like this won't happen again if you try fighting the way you did, alright?" Ren replied, with a warm smile.

"Fine!" Nora relented, crossing her arms." So Pyrrha, what's the plan for today?"

"Well I was going to keep training but it's evident that someone wants me to prioritize my own mental well-being instead." She replied, with a glance towards Jaune, who blushed at the compliment. "So instead, I might take some time away from training. Come back when I'm feeling a little more focused."

"Sounds like a solid plan, Pyrrha." Jaune replied back.

"It's the least I can do for my friends." Pyrrha said.

"Thank you both for being such great friends. And thank you Jaune. Thank you for being such a genuine friend even when I didn't want to listen. I'm lucky to have you all in my life."

"And we're lucky to have you in our lives as well Pyrrha. Let nothing else change that." Ren replied, finishing up his meals.

Reassured of her friends' support, Pyrrha finally let out a sigh of relief as she finally believed that, for once, things might turn out okay. She was going to find what happened to Ruby and she was going to put down Weiss Schnee.

But she was going to do it the right way, not by destroying herself but by trusting her friends to push her to become the best she could be.

A/N: First of all I'm sorry about the late upload but burnout is a bitch! I was having so much trouble thinking up of a way to progress this story and the burnout I had with Fantasy wasn't helping things either. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Let me know if you have any feedback from this chapter as it always helps to keep me going and as always keep moving forward!