Multiplayer

by NeoShadows

Life is a game. In an attempt to save a friend during the Breach, Jaune Arc died. Brought back to life with powers of a Gamer, he must now attempt to beat the game called life. He's not alone though. Every win or lose ends in a Reset, so how will he beat a game that never ends?

21. Try Again

Hmm, maybe my beta Fan1204 is right? The Great NeoShadows may need to check into rehab due to the length of chapters I've been uploading. Eh, great way to meet some hot crazy chicks. Rawr~!

Alright, another Saturday, another chapter. It's been hard finding some time to write lately with how things are going in my life. Nothing bad, but moving is busy work. After a lot of talking and signing applications, the family's finally moving! Just finished signing the lease and dropping off the first deposit, so its official. Man, do I feel light and relaxed! The whole deal has been stressful as hell, feels good to be free of one weight. Thought now I'm just as busy fixing the apartment up and packing our things along with moving our light and cable providers to the new place, so expect my uploading schedule to remain unstable until we've finally unpacked the last box into our new home.

I'm also happy to note that we're at 1,000 Followers! And we're aiming closer to the same number with Favorites. It won't be long till we're at a thousand reviews. We'll probably reach 800 by the end of the volume if we're lucky. So keep those reviews coming!

Now let's get some Reviews out of the way.

Axel 4-1: Naw, Ren's good. They were still locked into PVP, so he'll revive.

GhostHornet: You got some weird ideas on ya. Though I do like Twenty One Pilots too. The Dance Battle was a random idea that just popped out of nowhere due to time restraints, but it was definitely one of my favorite battles.

Remzal Von Enili: . . .Who says Weiss isn't already looking at me like that?

ChronoTimeGuard: Again, the chapter was literally at 5K before I went back to finishing it up in six days time. Take as much time as you need. And yes, Episode 10 really was a god send as I was finishing the chapter up that morning.

Digital Emperor001: Glad you liked the chapter. The DLC's will return, I have 2 more planned before the end of the chapter. Though the last one won't be an extra, it will be its own separate chapter of its own.

The Khahit Ra'Kool: Sheogorath? Don't think I've ever heard of that before. Sounds intresting, I'll look it up.

Zachary2: It truly was an intense chapter, left me exhausted. I wish I could find me a Weiss body pillow, don't think that exists. . .in these states. And Log Horizon was great, better than I had guessed. Not too action packed but the world building is amazing along with its characters. It's also funny to see the main protagonist stuck in a love triangle with a college girl with the body of a loli and a middle schoolgirl.

HowToRedux: I think that's a first. I think I just made up a new pairing. I only need to figure out a name for it now.

DragonSoul28: That's alright if you don't like the Ren/Pyrrha moments. Nothing is set in stone, we're only on the first Volume. Who knows what's in store for the future. . .Oh, wait. I do.

AmuseBeard: Yeah, I was lucky for that episode coming out as I was finishing up the last of the chapter. Boy, did it help wrap things up. And you should know that I am much more then a simple writer! Even when you think you understand what I'm doing, I'll just suck you in the gut the next chapter with a twist.

DoubleDam: That's what I was going for. I can't wait to play Neir when it comes out.

SwordMagic51: Kingdom Hearts really helped me in designing how the Dive would work. For your question, the Reset point for all Players is fixed, it doesn't matter if their aura's are unlocked. It's a special moment that will be explained for all Players later.

L337 M4n: Who knows what the Will was planning, something wrong and mischievous. Oh, The True End is something beyond your comprehension. The real Final Boss is. . .surprising to say the least. But that's way way ahead of ourselves.

Benthino: I'm being sponsored by a weapons manufacturer? Cool. I think you'll like this chapter.

Hirshja: Yeah, the chapter size came out of nowhere. I didn't even know how long it was until I finished. Sorry about that. Blame these fingers.

Unchanined: Seeing as this is a Game, it was bound to be full of battles. Nothing is that simple. I based it all on what it would be like if it was actually a video game, which is why it was such a big chapter. Sorry that it dragged for you. This is also an Adventure fic along with being Action, there are going to be more battles to come down the road.

DarkLegendarySoldier: Who knows if The Game is being rigged? We'll just have to see in the future. The Three 'God's' and The Game are separate entities. That will be explained later on.

TheLoserWhoDoes: Don't worry, you'll get your DLC. It's still being produced, bud. We'll have one ready for you on the next chapter. You'll get your money's worth, my beloved Season Pass holder!

And to those who didn't like the massive chapter size, again, sorry. Especially seeing as this one is 30K+. This time there was no need to cut it in half like the last chapter. I hope you still like it.

Now, let's get to reading!

---

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to RWBY, they belong to RoosterTeeth. It's time for this old dog to pack his things and move on to charm a new neighborhood. Where all the white woman at!? And Asians, I don't discriminate.

. . .Somehow I feel I'm going to be really acquanted with the police there. Good thing I'm familiar with there procedure by now.

---

Chapter 21: Try Again.

"You're going to have to kill me."

"I'm sorry. What?"

Little Ren chuckled at the gob smacked expression on Jaune's face as he stared at the ninja boy with a hanging jaw. He had warned him that he wouldn't like it.

Within the Core of Ren's soul, the Eastern boy was finally free of the corruption created from his negativity that was swallowing him whole. His soul was at ease in a sense. No longer would he be in danger of losing his ability to house The Gamer. Now he could continue with his life. Maybe even give this game another chance. If only his real body and mind came to that agreement though. After all that he had been through, there was certainly a hope that the Ren in the real world will come to his senses.

But first, he needed his memories restored. All of Ren's data had been eaten up by the darkness within. It wasn't gone forever. A simple reset of sorts and he would be able to return everything back together. And to do that there was only one simple thing they needed to do seeing as The Will was forbidden from working its will in his core.

All they needed to do was kill him in his corrupted state.

"Again, really sorry, but what did you just say? I could have sworn you asked me to kill you." Jaune laughed weakly, getting a flat look from the raven-haired boy in return.

"It's exactly what I said. Look, my core was infected by my darkness, corrupting me to Fall. If I died while in this state, my data would be impossible to recreate as I once were because The God of Darkness would take me to his domain. I would be reduced to an NPC incapable of ever housing The Gamer again. Now that I'm free of the corruption, my death would reset everything and return me to normal." Ren explained, not helping in the slightest as Jaune grimaced. Ren sighed at his friend's good nature. He had to learn that sometimes death was the only answer. He might as well teach him a lesson while he was at it. "I know you don't like the idea of killing another human being. Your refusal to do so is admiral if not naive. But not every fight will be solved by knocking your opponent out. Trust me, you've had your hand forced to spill blood before for the greater good. And in doing so, you saved more people than I could count."

The reminder that Jaune had been forced to kill made him flinch back as a dirty blond haired man with brown eyes grinned at him mockingly in his head. Holt's death was still fresh on his mind. It had been almost a week since then. Regret filled his being at the thought.

"Is it so wrong to not want to kill? I've already done it once despite what my other selves have to say. And once is more than enough." Jaune replied with a somber expression. At night, he was still haunted by the corpse of Holt egging him on to dig his blade deeper into his mangled body. Jaune's body trembled, still hearing the man's words float around his mind.

"Well it's the only way to save me. Whether you like it or not, you're going to have to go through a decision like this again in the future." Ren said softly, "It's not wrong to preserve life. But you need to learn to not only Save, but to End lives. This is a lesson you must learn before it's too late. Trust me, you weren't the only one who had to learn this lesson the hard way."

In Ren's many lives, he had come to learn that such ways would either get himself killed, or many others. It was on his fifth life that he had committed the sin to protect Nora from some bandits when they were still homeless, roaming the wilds to survive. He could still recall the feeling of the dead pile of cold flesh leaning against his horrified body.

"This is the only other way. I shudder to think what The Will was going to do to 'fix' me. He's incapable of messing with my core, but this was the one moment where the iron clad law meant nothing in order to repair the damage. I know it's difficult, but please."

Ren's pleading eyes gazed back at him, asking him to do him this one favor.

"You have to put an end to me."

Jaune found it hard to breath as he looked into those magenta eyes. This was the only way, the only way to save his best friend. To return their lives to some small form of normality. His hands were shaking at the revelation.

He had no choice. He had to kill him.

With a look of defeat, Jaune nodded begrudgingly. All of this was exhausting him. He didn't want to kill his best friend, but he had no other choice. If it meant saving Ren from himself, then he would have to spill his blood.

"Fine. I'll. . .I'll kill you." Jaune sighed solemnly.

Ren smiled brightly, "Don't worry, Jaune. I'll be resurrected anyways, so there's no need to worry. It's just one death. I won't hold anything against you for it." he said honestly. "Call it payback for how many times I've killed you."

'It may be one death for you, but it's just another nightmare for me.' Just because it was the only way, it didn't mean Jaune was fine with it.

Taking in the serene air of the world within Ren's Core one last time, Jaune decided now was as good as any to leave. It was better to get it over with than stall. He closed his eyes, already feeling his body begin to waver and turn to light.

"I guess I'll see you back in the real world?" Jaune tried to smile as he patted his smaller friend's head as bits of light streamed off his body.

Ren nodded, his face calm and collected once again, "Don't worry, I'll be back good as new. It will take me a bit for my mind to process all the changes you've created in my core though. I can't say that I won't resume attacking you either. What happens next is beyond me." he shrugged.

Right, Jaune almost forgot what the whole point of their fight was about. It was about proving to Ren that he had the strength to fight in this game they were trapped in. If Jaune won, then Ren would follow him and try to beat the game with him. If he lost, then the knight was to leave him alone for the rest of their cursed eternity. They still had a fight to finish now that he thought about it.

"Let's hope I can prove to you that I have the strength to survive this game." Jaune sighed tiredly before giving little Ren one more smile, "Though I think I'm more than fine if you decide not to play along. I can wait as long as it takes until you muster up the strength to try again. It's all up to you. So, I'll be waiting, Ren."

With a flash, Jaune's body dispersed into tiny balls of light, floating to the heavens to return him back to his world. Ren watched with a small smirk. Two warm presences fell beside him as he closed his eyes in peace.

"You have good friends, Little Lie."

Yeah, he did. He almost forgot about that. It hard to believe he could. Such a simple fact should have been engraved in his memory.

"So, do you still have the strength to act once more?"

Looking up to the skies of his home village one last time, Ren nodded his head before turning away from the bridge of water flowers and walking forward. A brown-haired woman with magenta eyes and a raven-haired man with light yellow eyes followed behind him, their hands pushing him along in support.

"I've always had. I've simply forgotten."

---

Forever Fall.

Gushing red liquid splashed against Jaune's trembling form as his shaking arms held Crocea Mors in place. Its gray blade sunk through Ren's chest, exiting out his back as his blood continued to gush out of the stab wound. He could feel his body locking up, growing colder as his heartbeat began to grow silent. Magenta eyes stared back at his tear filled azure orbs, frozen still with no emotion as Ren's body lost its warmth.

Ren's HP was draining, sinking like a rock in an ocean until it reached the negative threshold. With one final struggling beat of his heart and a twist of his blade, Ren died.

+4,500EXP!

Don't cry. Jaune sucked in the pain and despair as Ren's corpse slid along his sword and smacked into him. He was done shedding tears. This was what needed to be done. This was completely different than when he had killed Holt. But still, the warm blood on his face was chilling as the seconds ticked by. Jaune had killed his best friend. And that would be a memory that would never leave him.

Even as he watched Ren's corpse turn into data pixels to resurrect him, the guilt within wouldn't follow along. He could thank god for the fact they were still locked in PVP. It was the only reason Jaune hadn't broken down. Now all he had to do was wait for the flickering cross appearing in front of him to drop Ren back in to the game.

Exhaustion and pain rammed at Jaune's body, enough to make him flinch as he struggled to stand on his two feet. Even if his wounds were healed from within the Core, he was still suffering from the ones he had been dealt before diving in. Not to mention he could feel his energy drained from both fronts of battles. Another fight was out of the question. It would be like slugging a training dummy around at this point. He didn't have the energy to continue any longer.

From inside the resurrection sigil, Lie Ren took his first step onto the world with a blank expression on his face. His pink eyes were unfocused and struggled to regain their sight. Sudden pain pierced his temples, causing him to grimace. He rubbed his head as if he had just woken up from a very long sleep, his blurry vision clearing up to a confusing sight. Jaune Arc, the dork knight, the fake huntsmen, the so-called ladies' man and all around dense idiot, stood before him in a horribly wounded state. His clothing had been torn into, visible gashes and cuts littered over him, his face was bruised in ugly shades of green and blue, and he looked dead on his feet. Blood stained his face, drying as if he had just finished with a murder.

The memories of his current life began to come back to him. Ren remembered it all. His countless lives, the despair, finding his friend cursed along with him and killing him on the spot, and everything from there to now. As it all came back to the silent raven, an odd emotion struck him.

Guilt. Regret. Things that he had forgotten many lives ago. Despite all the hatred he harbored for Jaune, he couldn't believe that he had done such despicable things to the one who thought of him as a brother. A strong surge of exhaustion hit him, draining him of his own energy. It felt like he had just gotten off an emotional roller coaster after an entire day of riding on one. Ren sighed as his shoulders slouched, his tense muscles easing as he felt the cool breeze of Forever Fall kissing his skin.

"How you feeling?" Jaune asked after giving Ren a minute to collect his thoughts.

Ren frowned gently as he flexed his fingers, "I feel. . .lighter. As if some massive weight has been lifted from my back. I can't recall the last time I've felt so. . .rested? Is that the right word?" he asked himself. It was hard to describe it. Almost as if some horrible sickness had been purged from his body. Looking back at Jaune, Ren felt some strange form of deja vu hit him, "What did you do to me? Last thing I remember I was lobbing off your arm and stabbing you through the chest with Horizon before blacking out." Everything after that was a blank.

Jaune weakly lifted his lips, happy to see all the hostility gone from Ren, "You were Falling. You were a single .1% from losing yourself to your negativity and becoming an NPC again. It turns out one of the perks of being The Heart is being able to cross into others' Cores to free them from their negativity. And you had a lot." he chuckled with as he scratched his neck. He could still feel the Grimm Lie's long claws stabbing him through. Today had just been full of his body being trashed and stabbed, "I dove in and cleansed the sources of corruption poisoning your system. Had to fight some nasty bosses too. By the way, DDR? Really?"

The shamed stare Jaune was giving Ren made him look away in embarrassment. He had no idea why, but he knew he should feel ashamed of his love of dancing games.

"And that's it? All you had to do was destroy the sources of corruption to save me?" It sounded a lot easier than he thought. Falling was a very serious condition. All it took was few bosses to cure it?

At that, Jaune decided to lie about the last bit inside Ren's core. No need to make him recall all that had happened. It would only embarrass him. Better off saving it for another time when he wanted to humiliate him.

"Pretty much. But your core didn't make it any easier. I'm lucky to have survived through that gauntlet."

Hearing what Jaune had done to for him, even after all the crap he had put him through, Ren felt the guilt grow stronger. He almost forgot about how it felt to be. . .human. To feel emotions again instead of bottling them all up. It made him wish to feel nothing again if only to stave off the annoying sense of guilt.

"Why? Things would have been much easier if you had just left me to Fall. You would have had no one to get in your way or bring you down. After all the things I've done to you, why would you risk your life for my sake?" Ren asked, not understanding the blond's sense of logic.

Jaune looked back at Ren with a flat expression, not believing what he was hearing. And they called him dense? Pot was best friends with kettle.

"What have I been spouting nonstop this whole time? Do I really have to repeat it now?" Jaune chuckled, shaking his head with an amused glint in his eyes, "We're friends, best friends. You're as close to a brother I'll ever get in any world. I would risk my entire existence on a slim percentage of saving your ungrateful lazy ass." Jaune grinned, his body swaying a bit as he blinked several times from an odd weakness in his legs. The world spiraled around him as he lost the feeling in his legs and began to fall forward.

"Because that's what friends do."

Ready to hit the unforgiving ground of red leaves, Jaune was instead met with Ren's back, the silent Player appearing to catch him in his fall. Ren grunted from the weight he now carried on his back as he fixed the dead tired blond for better leverage. His own exhaustion was catching up to him. Whatever Jaune had did to his core had drained him as well. Carrying Jaune alone was difficult as he was now.

"Don't get the wrong idea. Whatever you did to me has my thoughts messed up, so I don't know what to think anymore." Ren said tiredly before opening his menu and scrolling past the options. PVP met his eyes. His finger hesitantly hovered over a particular option.

End PVP.

[WARNING! Ending PVP while a Match has yet to finish will result in loss of Prizes and EXP! Why not one more Kill? To decide it all! You know you wanna~!]

Ren couldn't have smashed his finger into the icon any faster if he could. If there was one thing he despised more than anything in his existence as a Player, it was The Will. And he was done listening to the manipulative little wisp of flames several lifetimes ago. The invisible coded walls cutting them off from the real world shattered to pieces, ending their death match in an instant.

"But killing you repeatedly will get me nowhere. It never did." Ren said with a solemn frown as he began to make his way out of the red forest land. From the looks of his map, they weren't too deep in Forever Fall. It wouldn't take them long to reach the others from here. "I'm tired, tired of all this conflict between us. I just want it all to end and go back to my usual lazy routine."

Going silent, Jaune didn't know what to say next as the raven-haired Player gave him a piggyback ride back to their team. Just moments ago, Ren had been more than happy to kill him over and over again. It was a little odd for his friend to be acting as he was now.

"What about our fight? I still haven't shown you my strength." Jaune slurred, fighting the exhaustion luring him to sleep. He frowned, feeling his wounds continue to bleed, albeit slowly. His aura should have been mending them. What was going on?

At that Ren chuckled, "Still, you wish to prove yourself? You never change." It looked like Jaune still wanted to show him that he had what it took to survive in this twisted new reality. And to drag him back into it. That was the entire point of this fight. To prove to Ren that he could trust Jaune to follow him along his playthrough and beat this cursed reality.

'Take action, son.'

The words of a past long forgotten whispered into his conscience, reminding Ren of his first playthrough. His Reset point would always drop him back into the moment he had saved Nora from the Grimm, so he had almost forgotten the words of his father. The words that had once kept him moving forward, always forward. All this time he had been ignoring those wise words. Instead choosing to give up and let the cards fall as they were fated to.

Sometimes the worst action one could take was no action at all. His mind may have been older than the kingdoms of Remnant, but it seemed that Ren was still just a child.

Growling reached their ears, turning their attention to the open forest clearing up ahead. Stepping past the trees, several Beowolves greeted the two Players as black smoke drifted off their bodies. It was confusing to see them so soon when they had just ended their PVP. Something wet soaked into the back of Ren's waistcoat. He grit his teeth as he turned his crosshair to Jaune as he continued to struggle to remain awake.

Jaune Arc, Heart of The Gamer.

772HP/6,000HP[Curse]

0MP/120MP

A status condition? Ren cursed their luck as he summoned his own status. 'Of all the times to be Cursed.' he fumed inwardly. He couldn't exactly fight with Jaune on his back.

When fighting some of the deadlier Grimm capable of more than just biting and scratching their prey, they had to watch out for a status condition they could inflict with some of their attacks. Curse, a status that prevented regeneration, healing, and attracted Grimm like honey to bees. And while they hadn't been fighting any Grimm, Falling inflicted the same condition.

Dark puff clouds appeared around Jaune and Ren, summoning more Grimm ranging from Beowolves, Ursa, and even mini Deathstalkers to cage them in the middle of the clearing. A cluster of red eyes leered at them, ready to sink their teeth into their tender flesh in a frenzy of claws.

Ren knew that as they were, they would fall to the Grimm. The two were in the same boat. Tired and wounded. Just like a normal NPC. He chuckled at the thought as he lowered Jaune to sit on the ground behind him. Storm Flower fell into his trembling hands, clenched tightly as he turned his eyes to the sea of dark monsters popping up for a meal.

Take action, huh? Well he didn't want to disappoint his parents anymore than he already had.

"Stay back, I'll handle the Grimm." Ren spoke firmly to Jaune. The blond knight stared back at him surprised, only to find his friend's dirtied back. "Once I've made an opening, run as fast as your feet can take you and signal our team our location. I should be able to hold up long enough till help arrives." he smirked as he loaded a fresh cartridge into his pistols.

Jaune shook his head with a tired laugh. As if he was doing something like that. He didn't save his lazy ass just so he could throw it away like that. With a grunt, he stood back on his two feet even as his knees buckle. Crocea Mors slid out of its home to stare back at the Grimm. Back to back, he grinned.

"I ain't leaving you to die, I won't be responsible for that again. I don't even think I have much energy to move my feet off this spot. All I can do is stand and fight. So, it looks like I'm staying by your side."

Ren scoffed as the dark mob edged closer, "Idiot. You'll only get yourself killed."

"Like you're one to talk."

The Grimm grew tired of the two humans banter. With a chorused roar, the Grimm jumped in to tear the Players apart. And nothing would get in their way.

"My, my, my, how do you get yourself into these predicaments, darling?"

From the ground underneath the Grimm, the bed of red leaves came to life. Picked up by an unknown force, the leaves spiraled around the huntsman to shroud them from the beasts. Like a shredder, the leaves began to shred the Grimm that touched the spiral tornado of red, stopping the lesser monsters from attacking. The larger of them were wary but charged in to try their claws against the defensive shroud.

A large Ursa Major roared as it tossed any of the lesser Grimm in its path away as it charged to swipe at the two Huntsman. It raised its claws up, fighting against the shredding leaves slowly cutting its tough hide apart.

"Don't. Touch. Him."

Snaking around the Ursa Major's neck, a wooden like rope yanked it back just as it dropped its claws. A hard-knuckled fist rammed into its chest plate as it was pulled after the attacker, blowing a clean gaping whole right through it. The attacker's hand flew for the dark bear's neck. And with a gurgling cry escaping its maw, it had its neck snapped with a loud crack. Professor Antheia smiled brightly as she dropped the evaporating bear to the ground without a care, her always shut eyes falling back to the option of her affections. Her eyes snapped open, blinking as she found another student standing back to back with him.

"Mr. Lie? What are you doing out here all alone with my dear? Don't tell you two have been up to some forbidden fruit?" the orange haired professor pouted as she called back her whip. It stiffened, hardening into an oak staff with a sharp cane like hook. She snapped her fingers, calling off the spiral of red to free her students as she walked over the mangled corpses of the Grimm.

"Why does everyone keep thinking that?" Jaune groaned. Every time the two of them went off to talk about matters of The Game or went out to grab some things for the team, the girls always thought they were doing unmentionable things. It made his face green.

"Professor Antheia? What are you doing out here?" Ren asked, taking a small moment to smack the back of Jaune's head. The more they talked about the disgusting matter, the worse it became.

Antheia pursed her lips, tapping her cheek as she absent-mindlessly whipped her staff around her wildly, slashing apart the Grimm that dared to jump at her. "There seems to be a powerful ripple of negativity attracting a large number of Grimm in Forever Fall. Several students have already been taken back to Beacon to attend to their wounds while others are helping in making sure the rest are safe. Of course, I couldn't stand by as my precious flowers were being trampled on, so I've been searching for any missing buds. And when I found out my darling was nowhere to be found, I just had to go searching for him!" she whined like a child, bisecting an Ursa with just one swing with little effort. Two Beowolves snarled madly at the orange haired woman, dashing after her with their claws ready to plunge into her meaty body. Antheia didn't mind them, not even sparing them a passing glance as she swung her staff in a wide diagonal arc to separate their upper chests from their waist.

She gasped loudly at the terrible condition she found her students in as she stood in front of them. Ren was dirty and scuffed up so he was more than fine other than the lack of energy. But her sweet darling sunflower Jaune was the one she was more focused on. It looked like he had been mauled by some wild beast! His handsome, innocent, boy pretty face was filthy with dried blood and dirt caking his kissable face. Multiple open wounds littered his body, he was bruised worse than a banana, and even the sleeve to his coat was ripped off like he had lost an arm.

"MY SWEET DARLING!" Professor Antheia wailed as she snatched the sweating blond knight in her arms. "What did they do to you?! Who did this to you?!" she cried, cracking Jaune's back with her smothering embrace.

Now Ren was sweating. Even as the plant loving professor was crying over the state of her favorite boy toy, she was still capable of producing a terrifying aura. One that shouted a war cry of pain and suffering to the poor soul responsible for the horrendous crime to her. . .lover. Case in point, Ren.

Never had Ren been happy to see Grimm attacking them in his life. They made the perfect scapegoats.

"We were actually attacked by the Grimm while scouting the area. I did my best to protect him when he suffered a strong blow, but alas, I too was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the beasts." Ren said in his best impression of an honest man. He even gave the teacher a shameful sigh while looking away.

And it was more than enough for her to believe the lie.

". . .Am I the only one who noticed everything going silent?" Jaune mumbled as he felt Professor Antheia stiffen.

Indeed, even the Grimm grew mute as they felt a horrifying presence stand before them. Only the wind dared to make a sound.

Sighing grudgingly, Professor Antheia reluctantly released Jaune from her loving embrace. She moved her hand to his dirty scratched cheek, caressing it with such affection Jaune felt his entire face heat up as he gulped nervously. Her giggle sounded so light and warm before she surprised him with a light kiss to his scarred temple.

"My silent Lotus flower, will you and my darling please close your eyes and cover your ears for a moment? This will only just take a bit, I promise!" she said warmly. She turned back to the large mob of Grimm hesitantly gazing back at them. A sense of thrill hit her core as she extended her staff for wider reach.

The Huntsman looked at each other in confusion but decided to listen. Better to listen to what she said. It was probably for a good reason.

In the split second that Jaune and Ren closed their eyes and covered their ears, the warm smile on Ivy's face withered away to reveal a grim lift of her lips as her green eyes leered at her prey. She licked her lips, her staff's cane straightening before two budding petals grew out its side. The red petals came to life, growing rapidly to form the pseudo blades of a double sided ax that she lifted skillfully to rest on her shoulders.

Shadows gathered underneath her eyes as she spoke, her voice losing its warmth as it grew husky, "Filthy weeds, I'm going to enjoy mincing you shit stains for touching my beloved sunflower. Nadar Faerg's been dying to soak in some blood." she said with a dark wide grin on her face before vanishing from sight in a hazy blur.

If Grimm could shiver they would. Instead they could only vainly fight off the mad laughing Huntress tearing them apart in droves. There was a reason why she asked her students to close their eyes and ears. No one needed to see the carnage of blood and limbs showering the clearing.

---

Beacon Academy Airship Docks.

Pyrrha was worried. Really worried. She was sure she was on the verge of a panic attack right now.

The little field trip to Forever Fall was unfortunately cut short only an hour and a half since they touched ground. From what the teachers were saying a large ripple of negativity had summoned the Grimm from the forests in large packs in search of prey. Many were saying it had to do with the tearing blade of darkness that had cut through the red forest land. Because of the ridiculous surge of Grimm now roaming the forest, all students were to evacuate for the Bullheads awaiting them to return home. And all students seemed to be a counted for. All except Jaune and Ren.

Waiting along the deck of the airship docks, Pyrrha paced back and forth as she bit her thumb in ever growing worry. None of her messages were getting to either one of them. If only they had searched for them first instead of helping the other students, then maybe they would be here and out of harm's way.

No, she sighed as she stopped pacing, feeling shame in the horrid thought. It wasn't right to think of such things. They did the right thing in saving their fellow classmates from the Grimm. She just wished there had been a way to do both.

"About time she stopped walking back and forth." Yang whispered over to her partner as they watched the Spartan themed girl fret, "I was pretty sure she was digging a hole through the floor. You can even see the skid marks smoking."

"She has every right to worry. Jaune's fighting with only one arm and there were more Grimm than even we could handle. At least we know that Ren's beside him to make sure he's fine." Blake said, trying to quell her own worry over the knight.

Nora wasn't as worried as the others. She patiently waited for her partner and leader to come back while dipping her fingers in a spare jar of sap she had brought with her to snack on, "Don't worry, Ren is stronger than he looks. He's just really lazy most of the time. I've once seen him take down an Alpha Beowolf with his barehands when we were younger because it woke him up from his beauty sleep. If anyone's got Jaune's back, its him." she mumbled brightly, stuffing her whole sap coated fist in her mouth.

Weiss leaned back in disgust at the sight, "Nora, use a spoon! It's not attractive to stuff you whole hand in your mouth like that! Where are your manners?"

"In the woods where I buried them long ago. And I'll have you know that men find it arousing to see a woman fit their whole fist in their mouth!"

"Uncivilized men, maybe."

"And your dad."

"WHAT?!"

Ruby winced as one of Weiss' flailing arms smacked her face, the little reaper doing her best to hold back her partner from assaulting the grinning Nora. The white-haired heiress could not take a joke.

"The point is that we shouldn't worry about those two. They're Huntsman, not little kids." Yang butt in, trying to calm down the situation as she laid her hand on Pyrrha's shoulder. She smiled gently at the redhead, easing her worries, "Jaune and Ren will be fine. Professor Antheia even promised to bring them back! Well, she promised to bring back Jaune and even then, the matter of his virginity is a different matter altogether. She had sultry glint in her eyes. . .I think. The woman hardly opens her eyes."

That did little to ease Pyrrha's worries. If anything, she now felt some annoyance towards her Field Studies teacher. Now she was worrying over her leader's innocence.

"I mean look at Ruby." Yang gestured over to her little sister. Said girl was the least worried among them as she struggled to keep her partner from drawing her rapier as Nora began wiggling her chest at the heiress tauntingly, "She believes in her fellow team leader, even if he's crippled. Least you can do is have more faith than her as his partner. Don't you think?"

Yang was right. Smiling back in appreciation, Pyrrha calmed her nerves as she stared up at the sky for her friends' return. Ren was with him, she couldn't forget that. Together they should be able to come back home alright.

Above the girls, a solitary bullhead came into view, gliding along the wind before easing down onto the docks. The side door for dropping off hunters for their missions slid open, easing the two teams' thoughts as the sight of Jaune and Ren came into view. Pyrrha did growl in jealously seeing their teacher hugging her partner closely to her chest as she patted his head like a pet.

"REN!"

Ren flinched, sweating nervously as an orange torpedo launched for him. He gasped loudly from the tackling hug from Nora nearly knocking him off his feet. The girl had no restraint. He did smile though as he found her grinning up at him giddily.

"Good to see you too, Nora. But I wasn't gone for too long." he chuckled lightly, ruffling his partner's hair affectionately. She pouted, removing her arms from his waist before poking at his dirty nose.

"You two were gone for nearly two hours! What the hell were you two up to? You weren't sneaking some hanky panky in the bushes without inviting me, were you?" she glared as she crossed her chest.

Jaune grumbled under his breath, his face going green as he slumped in Professor Antheia's arms, "What does a guy have to do to prove his sexuality? I know I got some feminine looks and I don't look half bad in a dress, but come on!"

"You could always do me." Antheia purred in his ears, rubbing her cheek affectionately to his own, "Right here, right now."

Jaune stared flatly at the very arousing woman whose hand wandered dangerously close to his pants zipper, ". . .You never did answer me. Did you. Do things. To me. When I was knocked out?" he asked with a twitch his eyes, recalling his first RWE match against Nora.

"All we did was cuddle! Swearsies." she answered with a quivering lip. The very thought that her beloved believed that she would do such a thing as take advantage of him like that hurt her deeply. Jaune felt some guilt at that.

"Oh? Well, I guess that isn't so bad." Compared to what he had thought originally, it was fine. At least that was one question about his virginity solved. Lost Fairy Tales was a different subject entirely.

"I mean, some clothes may have been thrown to the side, and I may have gotten a little handsy and given you a kiss or two, but all was fine! I've yet to truly sink my teeth into you."

Nope! He was molested. She took advantage of him while he was sleeping! There was a word for that. But he currently had no idea what that was at the moment. Whatever guilt he felt was beaten to a corpse as the orange haired fox eyed woman pressed herself closer to her beloved.

Someone save him. Dear god he wasn't going to last much longer. It was stiffening!

Luckily Pyrrha had enough of watching her crush being cuddled so intimately by an older woman, let alone her teacher. Jumping onto the ship, she gave Antheia a strained smile, holding herself back from simply ripping Jaune out of her arms. The only one doing any of the hugging with her leader was her, damn it!

"Thank you very much, Professor. But I'll be taking care of our leader now." she all but demanded, rising a grumbling pout from the woman.

Professor Antheia sighed in defeat, handing her lovable knight to his partner. She had much to do anyway. With the spike in Grimm and the number of students wounded during the trip, she had to head on over to Headmaster Ozpin's office to debrief on the situation. They also needed to send over a few teams to take care of said rise in Grimm. Forever Fall was more than just a training ground, it also had a ship docking bay and even a few camps stationed around the edges of the place.

But before she headed off to take care of her teacher duties, Antheia reached into her one of her pockets to toss several small vials three inches tall to Pyrrha.

"Seeing as I must leave my darling with you and Ren as well, I want you to give them each one of those potions. They're called Purity and alleviate any harmful effects from the Grimm." she explained as Pyrrha looked them over. The small vials were crystal clear, containing a water like substance with a light emerald hue and a holy cross like crystal cork. "You've yet to learn this, but some Grimm are known to inflict harmful effects with their attacks that can go as far as shutting off a person's aura. Both Mr. Lie and my darling are suffering from said effects and need to be treated with this medicine in order for their auras to completely heal their injuries. I've already treated the more worrying of their wounds, so they should be fine with some bed rest and a nice meal."

Antheia smiled warmly at Pyrrha, patting her shoulder as Nora tossed an indignant Jaune and Ren over her shoulders before jumping off the ship to head towards team RWBY.

"Please, take care of those two. I don't know what they had just gone through, but it seems whatever tension between them has disappeared. I trust you can watch out for them, boys can be quite stubborn and bullheaded sometimes."

"You noticed?" Pyrrha asked in slight shock. She thought she was the only one other than Nora who had noticed the heavy air between Jaune and Ren. Antheia nodded her, her eyes gazing back to the two as team RWBY crowded around them with questions and accusations.

"I'm your teacher, of course I noticed! I am your teacher, it's my job to watch out for my precious flowers. But this was a problem that the two of them had to settle themselves. As Hunters, this kind of thing will naturally happen in your line of work. It's better to learn how to deal with such problems early on before it's too late." Antheia had seen it before, the underlining tension that had broken several teams apart. All because they couldn't learn to talk to one another and work out their problems. She was truly happy to see that Jaune and Ren had been able to settle whatever their problems were and cooperate. They had learned an important lesson that would save them in the future. "Ms. Nikos, you're a very promising Huntress and your skills are leagues above most of my first years, maybe even second years. But you mustn't be afraid to speak up when you see a problem despite what I've just said either. You're their teammate and friend, if they ever have this kind of problem between them you shouldn't fear pointing it out. They need a strong woman to help them out. And while Ms. Valkyrie is strong too, she can be a bit childish and... wild sometimes."

Pyrrha turned her eyes to said girl, threatening to break the boys backs with a joint hug as their faces turned blue. Couldn't argue there. Other than Ren, Pyrrha was the sanest one in their team.

Nodding her head firmly, Pyrrha pocketed the vials as she thanked the plant loving professor.

"I'll be sure to watch over them closely. It seems I have work on more than just my fighting skills." she smiled before jumping off the ship to head back to her team.

Professor Antheia looked onto the two teams gently. They were good kids with a lot of potential. She was glad to have taken Ozpin's offer to teach here. It wasn't often that she had come across such promising buds. All they needed was a little nurturing and sunlight, and they would blossom into colorful flowers that even the darkness couldn't defile. Especially her lovable blond knight. It looked like he had a special gift to draw in others from all walks of life.

What a truly perfect candidate.

Freeing her teammates from her monstrous hug, Nora was ready to start teasing them about their disappearance again, only to blink. She blinked again, three more times, rubbed her eyes and pinched her arms with yelp. She gawked at Jaune, pointing her finger at his right arm free of its cast.

"What did you do to your arm? I thought it was broken?" she asked, poking said finger at the scarred skin of his arm.

Jaune flinched, inwardly cursing at himself for not thinking of an excuse for his now functioning arm. Right, they would have noticed that. How could he forget? He had enough sense to switch out of his new combat attire, but not come up with an excuse? He wracked his brain around for a logical answer and soon found even Ruby joining in to poke at his arm curiously.

"I thought it would take another week for you to be able to move your arm again?" Weiss said in suspicion, leaning over to inspect his arm. Other than the scarring from the surgery and whatever force had shattered the bones in said appendage, it seemed to be back to tip top shape. How odd.

Watching the girls question Jaune's healed arm, Ren sighed as he knew he had no other choice but to step in. They couldn't really tell them that the knight had let himself die to resurrect and heal his arm.

"That's actually the real reason why we were gone for so long. I was busy healing Jaune's arm with a family secret technique." Ren explained, catching all their attention, even Pyrrha's as she walked in to their conversation. She finally caught notice of Jaune's healed arm and was curious as to how the magenta eyed pseudo ninja had fixed him, "It's a sacred art that takes a long time and perfect concentration to perform. Not to mention it drains a large chunk of my own aura as well as the one I'm healing too. I was finished fixing him up when we were attacked by a large mob of Grimm. We were lucky to have had Professor Antheia find us in time. We were down to the last of our strength." he chuckled in embarrassment.

Nora seemed to have perked up in realization at the mention of his so called secret technique, "Oh! I know the one you're talking about! Is it the fancy pulse of green aura you used last time to fix my broken leg when we were attacked by that Boarbatusk years ago?"

Ren nodded, glad to have Nora to cement the lie. She wasn't wrong. He actually had an Ability that could mend a broken appendage. It was called Miracle Pulse and it cost him half his HP to fix a broken bone of either himself or an ally.

"I didn't want to use it before because I thought it would be better for him to heal his arm naturally. But seeing as we were on a mission and that he begged me to help him out, I decided to use the technique."

"It was just a bad stroke of luck that we were attacked by the Grimm." Jaune sighed, playing along with Ren's lie. "We're alright now other than some scratches here and there. Our aura should be able to fix the rest."

Hearing the mention of their aura, Pyrrha quickly brought out the vials Professor Antheia had given her before handing one to each of them, "That reminds me, the professor wanted me to make sure you two took this. This potion should heal your afflictions and allow your auras to work their magic." she said as they inspected their medicine.

'Purity(x1): A medicinal potion created with the purest of water and curative herbs. Heals all Status conditions. Bitter taste.'

Shrugging their shoulders in sync, Jaune and Ren popped off the fancy corks and gulped down the medicine. The bitter taste made them cringe in disgust as it worked its magic. Their Cursed status was lifted and their aura immediately began to seal their wounds.

"I think I need something to wash out the taste." Jaune blanched, sticking out his tongue to show his distaste, "Not to mention all this has left me hungry. Were you guys able to grab our stuff at camp before you all left?" he couldn't help but ask. Tsuki's boxed lunches were among the things back at camp and he was hoping to dig into it. His stomach was growling for something to eat.

Pyrrha nodded her head, giggling as she heard his stomach speak up for an answer, "Luckily, yes, we were able to gather our things after receiving orders to head back to Beacon. Everything can be found back at our dorms. Which I suggest we head for now. You two," she gestured to the dirty Huntsman who pointed at themselves with quirked brows, "Need showers. We've all had a long day today, so we should head back to unwind and rest. Our class has been suspended and the Headmaster has ordered all the students who participated in the field trip to enjoy the day after being checked up."

Ruby couldn't have agreed more. Now that she knew Jaune was safe and sound along with Ren, they could all go back to their dorms. A hot plate of cookies and cold milk sounded pretty good right about now.

"Right! Teams RWBY and JNPR are all accounted for now! So, let's head for the showers people!" The red hooded reaper grinned cheerfully as she began to lead her team back to the dorms.

Nora liked the sound of that. Grabbing onto the hands of her team, she began to follow after their sister team as she dragged her teammates along.

"You heard her! Shower time! It's time for some good old fashioned skinship! Let's find us a big old bath tub and dive in!"

Their indignant shouts went on deaf ears as they struggled. Nothing on Remnant was capable of stopping Nora from getting what she wanted. If she wanted a team bath, then by god she was stripping them naked and shoving them into the bubbly baths.

---

JNPR Dorm.

With a relieved sigh of satisfaction and a pat to his stuffed stomach, Jaune laid back on his bed in a fresh set of blue pajamas. It was a hard-won fight, but they had wrestled Nora out of dragging them all into a shared bath. Literally, she had already gotten them down to their underwear before the three of them pinned her down. Team RWBY had heard the commotion and decided to lend hand, taking the hyperactive ginger girl along with them to the showers with Pyrrha in tow. After that was taken care of and they went on to clean themselves up in peace. Jaune was the first one to return to their dorm.

Tsuki's lunch had immediately called out to him from atop of his bed. Pyrrha must have left it there for when he came back. Finding some utensils inside he had dug right in, savoring the taste of the rice balls first. It wasn't long until he was done stuffing his face and laying back on his bed.

Today had been a hell of a day. Three, three times he had died by Ren's hands. Each death had drained him of his stamina and diving into his Core didn't help with the gauntlet of enemies and bosses lying in wait. Now that it was all over with, Jaune was just about ready to turn in early for the day and forget about all his troubles.

But before he could shut his eyes and let sleep take over, the sound of the door cracking open reminded him of one last piece of business. And it looked like Ren had the same idea as the world was frozen still with the door shutting behind him. The Third Player crossed his arms, resting his back against the door in his sleepwear made up of a simple green pajama shirt and cotton pajama pants.

"I'm guessing you've been waiting to know about our fight?" Ren went straight for the point, looking back at Jaune as he sat up on his bed. He was done with all the drama, it was better to get this over with after he had finally gotten his thoughts together.

"We didn't exactly get to finish it. I promised to stop bothering you about helping me beat the game if you won and you promised to try again if I won. Now I don't know where to go from here." Jaune said with a tired sigh. After everything he had just gone through in Ren's core, he didn't know if he even had the right to ask Ren to join him. The guy deserved his peace. Jaune had no right to disturb him.

Ren scrunched his face in inner conflict. Old habits die hard as he held back his tongue from saying the same spiel of being done with these games. Something had changed since he had been saved from Falling and being corrupted by The God of Darkness. The memories he had thought were buried by despair that reminded him of why he had once tried to make a difference had been shook lose. And the wise words of his father were stuck in his head.

Nothing would change, they never did. So, what was the point in taking action? Doing nothing though was practically spitting on his father's memory. Ren brought nothing but shame on the Lie name by standing by and leaving things as they were. Time and time again he had given up, accepting the cruel fate and frankly he was tired of it. Tired of doing nothing, of complaining, of watching by, and saying nothing. It was almost as if a fire had been lit in his soul again.

At this point, Ren had two options in front of him. Either continue living by some scripted path and let the cards fall as they did, or try once more to find the True End hidden by the game. To others the answer may have been simple. But none of them had ever gone through literally hundreds of lives repeating the same old same old with no results.

"I don't know either. Usually I would say something snarky and ignore you. Now though?" Ren stared up at the ceiling, pondering his answer in deep thought, "I'm at loss of what to do."

Jaune was in the same boat as he scratched his head awkwardly. He had already said enough to his younger version back in the core. What else could he say that hasn't been said? In the end, he could only say what was in his heart.

"You've been through an endless nightmare since entering this game, suffering torture that no human should endure. Asking you to continue trying wouldn't be right. But I know you still want to." Jaune said firmly, recalling the glimpses of hope he had found in Ren's memories, "You've kept going this long to see your friends. The least you could to do is try saving them from whatever threats are waiting for them. Only with one difference this time." he smirked.

Ren raised his brow at the confidence in Jaune's eyes, "Really? And what difference would that be?"

"You'll have me working alongside you to make a difference. You're not as alone as you once were. It's about time an idiot like myself tried their hands at this. Don't you think?"

For a good minute, Ren didn't say a word as he shut his eyes. His lips quivered, lifting slowly before he erupted in a fit of laughter. He nearly doubled over as he held his sides.

That was Jaune's answer? That simply having an idiot like himself try would change things? What a joke! As if it was that easy.

But there was some hope in what Jaune said. In only a month he had changed Cardin's fate from a simple bully to a Huntsman wanting to change for the better and even caused Blake to open up a little. That was on Jaune's first playthrough without any knowledge of what impact he would have on their lives. It was the little things the knight had changed that spoke out the most.

Maybe. . .maybe he could try again?

Pushing himself off the door, Ren walked over to Jaune with his mind finally made up. He opened his eyes, resolved as he spoke sternly.

"Don't kid yourself. You're lucky to have made it this far on luck and persistence. This game has only just begun, you won't be lucky next time." he smirked smugly, his words causing Jaune to hang his head. The smirk on his face soon evolved into a smile as he held out his fist to his fellow Player, shocking Jaune with the action as he looked up at him with confusion, "Which is why I don't really have a choice but to help you along the way. I said it before, I don't want to go through the drama of your death again, too depressing for my liking. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and try once again. Sleeping all day sounds nice, but it's about time I got up and did something with my life."

Jaune face broke out in a hopeful grin as he registered Ren's words, "You mean you're going to try again?"

"It's time I took action. So, you better prove to me that you can make a difference." he said softly.

Nothing would have stopped Jaune from bumping his fist against Ren's any faster.

'Monty's Missing Page, Page #9, Unlocked!'

---

Streets of Vale.

Saturday morning greeted the streets of Vale with brilliant rays of sunlight to illuminate the peoples' day and bring in the festivities of the day. From the simple shops selling discounted goods to a few stands opened around just about every corner with their own wares and food for sale, Vale was celebrating the new day after the week of terror from the Friends of Faunus with a little festival to calm down the masses. A day where human and Faunus could simply enjoy some fun and forget about their differences. It also allowed Vale to prepare for the bigger festivities that were to come with the people of all four kingdoms arriving in a few weeks' time to participate in the Vytal Tournament. Yes, there were a lot reasons to go out and wander the streets with friends and special someone's today.

In sync, both Jaune and Ren's brows twitched as they were dragged by the arms by a very hyper Nora through the streets of the city, their sights only seeing the annoying notifications on their HUD.

'Equality Event, begun! The damage of the FoF still lingers in the air, so the council of Vale have decided to hold a small fair of equality for all to enjoy! Games, rides, discount food, and a gaggle of beautiful woman! For today only, all quests have been suspended if any are in effect along with fighting. And anyone in their Beacon Uniform will receive a 10% discount on the grounds. Simply enjoy some time of peace! . . .Because it won't last forever.'

'What an asshole.' Jaune and Ren thought collectively, sighing as Nora tugged on their arms harder for them to stop fighting her pull. From what Jaune had recently learned after talking with Ren for a bit about the game, it was Will who created these messages that they received in their scrolls. But while he did make the notifications up, the azure wisp had no control on the Events that they participated in. That was something even the three supposed gods couldn't manipulate.

Teams RWBY and JNPR had decided to go out for the day together after the girls of the teams had talked about it while Jaune and Ren had been busying fighting. It didn't really take much to convince the two to come along, using some guilt tripping on Jaune's part. All Nora had to do was beg her partner to join them, using her big green eyes to stare him down. It also helped that she had been caressing Magnhild in her arms in a not so subtle threat of sorts. Besides, they had shrugged, agreeing with the idea. Going out together with friends didn't sound so bad.

"Don't tell me you two are still tired from the other day?" Pyrrha giggled lightly as she walked beside Nora to the fair. Dozens of folks walked about the streets, enjoying the warm feeling of tranquility in the air after the night of fires a week ago, laughing and grinning with one another despite what they looked like. The sight of it all made her close her eyes in peace, glad to have everything back to normal.

Gently prying Nora's hand from his sleeve, Jaune shook his head as he let his eyes wander around the streets, "Kinda am, really. She woke all of us up at six in the morning to head out. And while my aura has healed all my wounds, I'm still a little sore." He swore he could still feel the Grimm Lie's deadly claws stabbing through his chest and the phantom pain of his having his arm chopped off by Ren's towering blade of darkness. Nora could have been more gentle.

"That's because I knew that the place would eventually be packed! The early bird gets the sausage link is what I always say!" Nora chided her leader with a shaking finger.

"Since when have you ever said that?"

"More times than you could ever realize." Ren groaned, snatching his own hand back as they walked alongside another. Team RWBY was waiting for them at the town square, having beat them early to prepare for their plans for the day. One of Ruby's Best Day's Ever. Ren could already see the small girl proudly displaying the binder filled with ideas and the Schnee emblem stamped on the back along with Weiss's name scratched out with red marker.

Other than the usual cannonball wake up, Ren was actually glad to have a simple event. Anything noncombat related was always a godsend before things went crazy. And if he remembered right, there was one more Story Event to participate in before the First Act came to a close. It was a small one but it played a major role in the development of Blake's character. The real trouble came in the memory of a certain cigar smoking bowler hat wearing ginger that always involved himself in the Event.

Eh, Ren could leave this one up to Jaune. The knight was more involved with Blake than he was. Plus, he would have one of his questions regarding the final Player answered.

It wasn't long until their team met up with RWBY waiting for them at the square. Ruby grinned brightly at the sight of them, hugging the binder closer to her chest before running toward them excitedly as her team followed.

"About time you guys got here! I've been going crazy with what we should do first on our Best Day Ever!"

"This isn't going to be like the last one, is it?" Weiss groaned, already mentally thinking of the closest supply store nearby. She wasn't getting her binder back anytime soon. Nor would she want it now that it was dirty with crumbs, strawberry jam, milk stains, and crayon doodles.

"Well we can't all get up so early in the morning, you know?" Jaune said as he ruffled Ruby's hair, "How did you even get Yang up this early? Compared to Ren, she's the second hardest to wake up from what I've been hearing across the door." To make his point he gestured over to the half-awake zombie that was Yang standing up. Her eyes were lidded, hardly paying attention to anything going on as a string of drool hung from her mouth.

Weiss snapped her fingers in Yang's face with a wrinkle of disgust, "Wake up already! It's been an hour since we got you out and you're still falling asleep? I swear, I'm this close to pouring a gallon of coffee down your gullet."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea actually." Jaune said with a yawn. He was better off than Yang, but a nice piping hot mug of coffee sounded like a good way to start the day, "I know of a good place nearby that serves good coffee at a decent price along with music. I've been meaning to stop by anyways to download a new album for my scroll. Been a while since I was there." he smiled in memory.

That was where he had met Ann a month ago. And where he had participated in his first Event. How things had changed since then.

"But I wanted us all to go check out the small rides they have in the streets!" Ruby grumbled, shoving her 'borrowed' binder in Jaune's face, "Besides, I don't like coffee unless it's mostly milk and they add whip cream and sprinkles on top. That and they've banned me from drinking the dark stuff."

Something about turning into a tamer Nora. And any type of Nora was impossible to handle.

"How about we just split up for a bit?" Blake suggested, pushing Yang's head from leaning on her shoulder with her finger, "I have my own things to take care of as well now that we have some free time in Vale. We can always meet up later and enjoy the street fair, we have all day."

Split up? Already? Ruby pouted at the idea. What was the point in stealing Weiss's binder to plan a perfect day if they were all just going to go their separate ways?

"Actually, I have to stock up on Dust and ammo while we're here too." Ren said in agreement. Yesterday's fight with Jaune had drained him on ammo and now that he was back in the game he could start working on his Dust techniques.

Nora wasn't so thrilled with the idea from her partner as she joined Ruby in her pouting.

"But I want to see what kind of treats they got selling on the streets!" Nora whined.

"Then how about sticking with Ruby for a bit until I've finished my business? Once I'm done, I'll come find you and we'll go around doing whatever you want." Ren suggested with a shrug. It would give him some time to himself for once.

The two hyperactive girls blinked together, slowly turning to another before their faces broke out in wide grins. A shiver ran down their spines. Add one Ruby and one Nora together and all hell was sure to break loose. It didn't help that the streets were full of sugary treats.

"I think I'll stay with Ruby and Nora for a bit." Pyrrha mumbled to Jaune as they watched the two girls huddle together and open the binder to plan their chaos, "Someone responsible has to watch over them."

That was awfully nice of her, "Thanks Pyrrha. Hey, you and I can go out to the arcade later. I did promise you to show how to play some games." he smiled.

To Pyrrha, it looked as if the sun was beaming down onto her. She had to hold back from nodding her head vigorously.

So, she smiled politely with a simple nod, "Sounds lovely."

"Great! We'll all just meet up later then. We got the whole day off, so let's make it count!" Jaune grinned before grabbing onto Yang's shoulder and leading her off to the coffee shop. He knew just the coffee to get her day started.

As the others waved and went on their separate ways, Jaune was taken by surprise as a certain white haired heiress followed in step. Weiss quirked her brow at him, wondering what he was staring at.

"What? You two aren't the only ones in need of a warm drink." she huffed before giving Jaune a light glare, "And don't think of this as some kind of date either. We're just two friends dragging their other friend for a cup of coffee. Nothing more, nothing less."

It was times like this that Jaune cursed the world for resetting Weiss' memories. They had been getting along so well in the last world. God's sake, she kissed him! Sure, it was because he was dying, but it still counted. Still, at least he would be spending some time with Weiss. Nodding his head simply, he pulled out his scroll to take a moment to look over the Friendships of his friends. Specifically, Weiss. A chibi Weiss greeted him from his screen, elegant as ever as she walked beside him with a pleasant smile alongside a zombie like chibi Yang.

'Weiss Schnee. Friendship: Lvl 5. Affection: Locked. Status: Content, drowsy. Available Perks: 1. Soul Link: Locked.'

Out of the six girls of the two teams, his Friendship with Weiss was the lowest. It would have been even lower if the hospital event hadn't given an EXP boost in Friendship. All the other girls were just a few more points from reaching level seven in their Friendship levels but Weiss wasn't even at 25% in her current one. She was the hardest to talk to when he thought about it. That hadn't changed one bit even with his experience from his past life to help. Most likely due to the fact he couldn't talk much about the more sensitive things he had learned about her.

'At least she's content. That's a small start.' he smiled, taking a peek at her peaceful expression as she walked beside him. Hell, she was closer to him now then she had been during his first month in Beacon before he died. She even talked with him and helped him out in Dust Studies when he was having trouble. A major leap in comparison to his last life. 'Maybe we could actually talk for once. I don't think we've ever had a real conversation with each another. That might have been due to me always trying to ask her out. I should have really cut back on that.' he winced, remembering his constant pickup lines. Dad said girls liked confidence, just not fake confidence apparently.

The Vibe Cafe soon came into sight. Passing by its door courtesy of a smiling employee holding the door for them. Weiss scanned for any open seats nearby. To her displeasure the morning crowd was packed with all available spots taken. The street fair was really drawing in a lot people it seemed.

"I'm going to wait for a booth to open up." Weiss said to Jaune as she reached for her wallet. Taking out a black laminated card that seemed to twinkle in the light, she gestured for the line of guests as she handed it to him, "You can go order out things. I've never really been here before, but seeing as it serves coffee you can get me a Caramel Twist Latte. And find something strong for Yang to wake her up, it's unsettling to see her like this." her face scrunched up as said blonde's head lulled on her shoulder, dripping drool onto her blazer. She couldn't tell if it was intentional or not, "You can also grab yourself whatever you want while you're at it. Consider it a gift for not getting on my nerves these last few days." Weiss said with a smug smile on her face.

Taking the card in hand, Jaune shrugged his shoulders at the gesture before turning towards the line. It was going to be a bit of a wait, he might as well check out the new changes to his game menu.

Talents. Along with his stats, a new page to his status had been born from his nerf or as they liked to call it, patch. Having seven sisters with many different talents to them had helped immensely in filling his Talents page up. Culinary, Sewing, Dancing, Sketching, Gardening; they were only some of the Talents he had gained on him before entering Beacon. Since then he had gained Sword Play, Dust Handling, Survivalist, and Lore. Each one had an EXP bar below them that displayed how far until he reached a new level. It was pretty neat to see. But compared to what he had learned in Beacon recently, his skills not involving combat were at higher levels. Hell, his Dancing Talent was ten levels above Sword Play. 'At least it saved me during that fight with the Grimm Origin. I still can't believe I was trapped in a dance battle of all things.' That was a crazy fight he wouldn't be forgetting anytime soon.

"I can help the next guest, please!"

Snapping his head up from his scroll's screen, Jaune turned to the open space in front of him and the patiently awaiting cashier. How long had he spaced out? Smiling in apology, Jaune walked ahead to order their things.

"Good morning! I'll have a large Caramel Twist Latte, a large Dark Roast coffee, a large Atlas Vanilla coffee, and," Jaune hummed to himself as he looked over the display case of treats behind the counter, "Three blueberry muffins. Oh, and Jeffrey Will's newest album, Just Live."

"Alright then, that's. . .37.75L, please!"

Ready to hand over the fancy looking card to the cashier, Jaune frowned lightly before thinking against it. Instead he handed over the amount from his own pocket. It wasn't much compared to all the Lien he had been awarded after the last Event. Everyday items were no longer so expensive compared to the items invoked by The Game. Abilities and Potions were expensive.

Thanking the worker for his change and receiving the number for his order, Jaune went to see if Weiss had found a booth for them. He breathed a sigh of relief catching the heiress vigorously wiping down a table with the mini towel and sanitizer spray snatched from a nervous worker. Yang was already sitting down, or in her case, dropping her head onto the now clean surface. Was she dead?

Weiss rolled her eyes watching Jaune hesitantly poke the blonde brawler's planted head, "She's still breathing, sadly. Trust me, even after her coffee it will take her a few minutes for her muscle headed brain to boot back up to what she calls normal." handing the cleaning items back to the patron, Weiss edged her teammate further into the booth while gesturing for Jaune to sit across. "For now, just enjoy the peace of the moment. I know you must feel the same way seeing as your own team can be a handful."

The mention of his team actually made Jaune lean back with a sigh.

"You could say that. Pyrrha and Ren are no problem. It's Nora alone that's starting to make me grow gray hairs. You know she wants me to dress up in my Jaune-Cena persona next week?" Jaune chuckled as he recalled an earlier conversation with the hammer girl, "Says she wants to hold an event called Queen of the Castle. I'm worried that Ozpin will give her the okay on it. Last I heard, the school made about 20,449 Lien on the first night of the RWE before the council of Vale had it under investigation."

That was hardly surprising. Weiss nearly reached across the table to slap Jaune across the face at the memory of the little event. To think he could ever pull off such a dirty, perverted, underhanded maneuver, even if it was against Yang of all people. The moment she had been forced to step in the ring to face the knight Weiss immediately knocked him out with a simple smack to the face. Focusing her aura had helped to take him down as well. After the live streaming show had ended, the council of Vale along with several others had ruthlessly pulled the plug on the show, ending it in its early prime. Sadly, she had heard rumors of the council mulling over lifting the ban. Knowing the kind of people who ran such things, they probably wanted a share of the action that was grossed.

It was times like this that Weiss regretted ever signing that contract. She didn't even know it was a legal one. How in god's name did Nora do that? Goes to show you can't judge a hyperactive book by its cover.

"I can only pray that Ms. Goodwitch talks the Headmaster out of it. That wrestling getup Nora had Coco design does not leave much for the imagination." she grimaced, recalling how breezy it felt in those tight skimpy clothing.

'So much skin.' Weiss' pearly, white, creamy thighs came to mind in Jaune's head. It was the last thing he had seen before everything went dark.

Shaking away the thoughts before the white-haired heiress could notice, Jaune suddenly remembered the card she had handed him.

Weiss raised one of her fine brows up as Jaune returned her credit card. Right, she almost forgot about it.

"How much was it anyways?" she asked curiously as she pocketed it back to its home.

"Don't worry about it. It was 37.75 Lien and I used my own money."

Surprise painted itself onto Weiss's face as Jaune waved it away, "Why didn't you use my card? I have more than enough to pay for it all without you spending your own money. It wouldn't even scratch the balance of what I have." she said with a look of disbelief.

Jaune shrugged his shoulders, easing into his seat, "My dad always said to pay for the girls' drinks. And because I didn't want you to spend your money on me. I would feel bad, like I'm taking advantage of you."

Weiss didn't know what to say to that. He seemed to have finally come to understand the importance of her name. So, she would have thought that Jaune would jump at the chance to have her pay for his things, even if it was simply a cup of coffee and music.

'Even stunned, she has a cute face.' Jaune couldn't help but admire Weiss as she tried to comprehend what he had done. Gazing at her smooth face and blue diamond eyes, he found his eyes quickly falling on the one imperfection on her face. The scarred slash down her right eye stared back at him, peaking his curiosity. He always wondered how she had gotten such a thing.

"Order 87? Here you go!" Snapping out of her thoughts, Weiss smiled gratefully to the worker handing them their things. Turning back to Jaune, she was taken back as she found him staring intently at her face. A lit dust of pink colored her cheeks.

"W-What are you looking at?" she asked, cursing herself for stuttering.

"Hmm?" Jaune blinked before waving his hands around in apology and an embarrassed grin, "Sorry, Weiss! I was just wondering something."

"Something that had you glued to my face?" she said flatly, taking a moment to grab the dark coffee meant for Yang before prying the blonde's mouth open and pouring it straight down her throat. Yang didn't seem to mind, the scalding caffeinated drink not even making her flinch as her head slammed back down with a thud.

"I guess I was curious about your scar is all." Jaune said honestly, making Weiss flinch back at the mention of it. Again, he apologized, feeling like he just touched a sensitive subject, "Not that there's anything wrong with it! Even with that scar, you still look like a beautiful snow angel! I'm just surprised someone as perfect as you would ever get hurt like that." he frowned in thought.

Perfect? Her? Weiss almost laughed at the comment. Despite being the next in line to take over one of Remnant's wealthiest companies, she was far from perfect. At least not yet.

"There you go again with that Snow Angel nickname. I swear, I could pester you for an eternity to knock it off and you wouldn't listen." she sighed in defeat before looking away with a far-off gaze. A colossal suit of knight's armor came to mind, its heavy great sword lashing out at her with killer intent.

Jaune was. . .her friend. As hard as that was to believe, the blond buffoon was nice to be around when he wasn't trying out his pickup lines on her. And he proved to be a capable Huntsmen despite his scrawny appearance. Stirring her coffee straw around the topped whipped cream of her drink, she made up her mind.

"Before I left Atlas, my father wanted to test my capabilities to see if I had what it took to be a Huntress. He was strongly against the idea, wanting me to stay at home and focus my studies on the business instead, but I wanted to do more with my talent. So, for my test of strength, he had me test out an experimental project from his DTD wing." she said softly, taking a sip from her drink.

"Experimental project? DTD?"

"DTD stand for Department of Technology and Dust. Along with mining and selling Dust to the countries, my father also works alongside the top scientist of Atlas and its military in certain. . .projects. One of them being an AI armor Mech that he had me fight." she explained, lying about the possessed armor. Experimenting with the Grimm was an illegal practice, going back to Merlot's Law. No need to let him know about that ugly bit. "To make a long story short, I was wounded in the fight from a miscalculated dodge. My aura had been shattered and by the time it had recovered the damage had been done. Leaving me this little 'beauty' scar that you see now." she said with a small huff. The ugly scar was a constant reminder of an annoying mistake that would never leave her.

"It's not that bad. I actually think it brings out your eyes." Jaune smiled, "It makes those blue oceans pop."

"You just can't help yourself with those pickup lines, can you?" Weiss mumbled as she looked away. It was like he was hard wired to hit on her constantly. Still, it was nice to hear from a mouth not interested in her family's riches. Speaking of scars.

"What about you? I've told you about my scar, it's only fair you do the same."

"But I've already told you about it." he gestured to the faded bullet wound on his temple, "I was lucky to escape the attack at the very last second. Otherwise I would have a gaping hole in my head."

"That and you'd be dead." And that wasn't even what she was talking about. No, as defying as that scar was, she was referring to the real scar. Weiss rolled her eyes, "I'm talking about the other wound that should have killed you. You know? The one that literally almost cut you in half diagonally?"

"Oh. . .that."

Jaune was now stuck in a pickle. Blake was the only one who knew of the fake story he had created. It wasn't exactly something he wanted to let others know about. And it wasn't even a complete story to begin with, just something he had come up with on the spot. Just talking about it reminded him of that fateful day.

A sad reminiscent smile grew on Jaune's face as Weiss questioning gaze was overlapped by the memory of her dirty, bloody, pale face crying out his name in vain. It wrung his heart.

Weiss had lived her life with the memory of his sacrifice once. God only knew how jarring that had made her life before the reset. He had just been another problem for her even in death.

Seeing the odd expression on Jaune's face, Weiss thought it would be better to leave the matter alone. Whatever had happened to him must have been traumatizing. There were times he would grip his chest in pain during classes. It looked like the wound wasn't completely healed. It was a miracle he was even alive. And as cold as she acted, she wasn't cruel.

"If it's a sensitive subject, you don't have to talk about it. I understand if it can be painful to speak about it." Weiss reassured him, waving her hand off lightly to the matter. She would be lying if she didn't say she wasn't curious though. Jaune was a goof, a dork, a romantic, but an all-around nice guy. To know that he had gone through an event that nearly killed him gruesomely and was still able to smile without a care was baffling. Things like that left scars, emotional ones.

Jaune shook his head with a small chuckle, "It's alright. It's only fair that I tell you about it seeing as you told me about yours. And I can't exactly say no to you." he smiled before frowning in thought. Looked like he was going to have to go off the top of his head again.

"When I was younger, I had a mentor who taught me how to fight when no else would. My parents never wanted me to become a Hunter, they said it was too dangerous even though my dad was one. So, I had found someone to teach me how to fight, someone who didn't see me as weak or scrawny." he said with a fake fond smile. Truthfully, the very thought of Adam made his blood boil but he needed to fake the act to make it believable. "But my mentor wasn't the kindest guy out there. But he was doing his best to lead the world into peace, to make the world see the wrong they've been ignoring in whatever way possible. Even if it meant using violence. Despite that, I followed him, not caring what it took to grow stronger. It didn't matter to me that he was leading a group that was being labeled as violent extremists."

Weiss felt her blood run cold. He couldn't mean the White Fang, right?

A bitter expression stared back at Weiss, confirming her thoughts as Jaune nodded, "My mentor was leading the White Fang outside of Menagerie. I truly thought they were only trying to bring about the equality that they said they were fighting for. It wouldn't make any sense for a human hating group to train a human, right?" He let out a humorless laugh, mocking his own foolishness more than anything else. "So, I trained with him and just ignored the smears thrown at the White Fang. Then one day I saw with my own eyes what they were doing. It made me sick to see what his so called 'peace' entailed. I couldn't be a part of that and I confronted Adam. He was my mentor, I genuinely believed he would listen to me. Instead he lashed out at me for betraying him. He cut me down and left me to die in a pool of my own blood. I shouldn't even be alive." His voice came out cracked towards the end, his mind racing with images of the White Fang Lieutenant cutting up his torso. His body shivered as the scar flared up painfully in the first time in quite a while. He quickly gripped his chest with his hand, trying to desperately suppress the pain that the memory brought up.

An air of silence fell between the two. For Weiss, it was hard to comprehend what she had just learned. Of all the people she knew, she would have never thought that Jaune would have any sort of connection to the White Fang. It was so surreal. Her eyes softened though as they ghosted over to his chest. Another person hurt by the White Fang, just like her family.

"But that was a long time ago." Jaune smiled weakly as if he had said nothing wrong. Taking a bit out of one of the blueberry muffins on the table, he shrugged his shoulders lightly in hopes to drop the matter, "Yeah...it happened and it sucks but I didn't really have any choice but to move forward. It's all that I really had left. So I learned to live with it."

"But you were betrayed by someone who taught you how to fight! How can you be okay with that!?" Weiss almost shouted in disbelief. How could anyone be okay with that? To have someone cut them down when they had been teaching them and helping them, it didn't make sense? Jaune couldn't be that stu-

"Who say's I'm okay with that?" A cold tone entered Jaune's voice as he broke Weiss off from her thoughts. She was taken back by the sudden shift. Even his eyes had darkened.

"One day, I'll make him pay for what he did, for everything that he's done. I'll make him regret leaving me to die like some worm."

As if he was okay with how Adam did things. Killing whoever got in his way simply because they would respawn in the next reset. He didn't see them as people, just numbers with no value. It pissed Jaune off. Thinking about what the bull Faunus could be doing now only made his anger grow, knowing that whatever it is was, it was wrong.

Once he had grown strong enough, there was no question about finding Adam before he could do anymore damage. The guy would come back to life, so killing him wouldn't be a big deal. Right?

"Jaune!"

"Eh?" Jaune shut his eyes tightly, blinking as he was abruptly snapped out of his dark thoughts. What was thinking? Didn't Will say that whatever bug was messing with his thoughts was gone? The voice was gone though. Did that mean. . .those thoughts were really his own?

Whatever had come over Jaune didn't sit well with Weiss. Such a dark look didn't fit with his personality. It was her own fault for asking him to tell her about his scar. Like opening a can of rotting worms.

The muffin in his hand had crumbled into a mess around the table from his death grip. His hand was trembling, twitching from whatever memory she had dug up. Moving her own hand over his shaking one, she wrapped her fingers around his own to try and calm him down. It seemed to work as he visibly relaxed.

"Yeesh, Vomit Boy. What crawled up your ass?"

Together, Jaune and Weiss spun their heads to the muffled voice of Yang. She stared back at them with a quirked brow as she busied herself eating one of the muffins, taking a large bite before speaking again.

"You know, just because someone's half-conscious doesn't mean they're also deaf. Gotta say though, I never took you as the vengeful type, Jaune. Spins my whole world upside down." she mumbled through a mouthful of blueberry goodness.

"It's not like that." Jaune said with a regretful grimace. He dropped the ball for a moment there, "I just don't want anyone else to suffer through with what I suffered. No one else deserves that kind of pain."

"That's fine and all, but you shouldn't let it cloud your judgment. I'm pretty sure our Snow Angel over here won't fall for a guy who's gloom and vengeful." Yang smirked even as Weiss smacked her shoulder.

Huffing, Weiss turned her eyes back to Jaune's, flicking her eyes away from him for a moment before speaking, "You're. . .not the only who's been hurt by the White Fang. As a Schnee, my family is always being targeted by those low life degenerates because of the mistakes of my ancestry. So, I know where you're coming from all too well. But I don't let that get in the way of my life. I hate the White Fang, but I won't let them turn me into something I'm not." she said firmly.

Jaune looked down in shame, his eyes sticking to the delicate yet firm pale hand over his own. When did he develop a hatred for the White Fang? Why hadn't he ever noticed it until now? Thinking back on it, it had all begun during the original Breach and he had died to the White Fang Lieutenant's chainsaw. Only growing more once he discovered the third Player in this twisted game was the one leading the misguided Faunus. A seed of hatred had been planted, growing steadily without his notice. It seemed even a goof like himself could hold dark emotions.

There was no denying that he could honestly say he hated Adam and the White Fang. All his problems had stemmed from the terrorist organization planning worldwide genocide. Gritting his teeth, Jaune found his own hand gripping back Weiss hand as he took a deep breath.

But he'd be damned if he allowed the hatred turn him into another Adam.

"Thanks for the little talk. I'm sorry you had to see that ugly side of me." Jaune said with a weak grin, "Sometimes I forget about that part of me. I'm just happy that I have you all to snap me out of it."

"Don't mention it, Vomit Boy! I can't lose one of my greatest sources of entertainment because of some fucked up past. Though it's alright to be angry occasionally, we're not all perfect. Hell, the dark glint in your eyes kinda revved my engines." Yang purred, leaning over the table counter to grin openly at the blushing blond, "If you get my drift?"

Weiss glared at the flirting buxom boxer, her eye twitching as she noticed Yang wiggle her chest, "I don't completely agree with Yang, but she is right. We're not all perfect. But if you ever start to feel like you need someone to talk to about these kind of things, know that I'm here for you." she smiled gently, giving his hand a comforting squeeze, "We may not have started off on the best of terms, but I've come to know you rather well since then. You may be an idiot, a dork, a shameless flirt, dimwitted, goofball,"

"Is she. . .complimenting me?" Jaune with a painful grimace. Because it sounded more like insults. Yeah, those were definitely insults. Yang just shrugged her shoulders, shaking her hand in a so-so gesture.

"But you're also kind, thoughtful, brave, intelligent in your own right, and chivalrous." Weiss finished off softly, fighting off the very light dust of pink on her cheeks.

"You're my friend. And I would hate to lose what makes you, You."

'Weiss Schnee's Friendship has risen! A new Ability has been unlocked! Frigus Mors, Unlocked! A Special Gift has been rewarded! Download Gift at a later point.'

The coffee paled in comparison to the warmth of Weiss words spreading throughout his being. Funny, she had only ever been this kind when he had died. It made him wonder if he had lived that day, that maybe she would have begun to see him differently.

Yang whistled at the scene she was witnessing. Aww, how adorable. She always knew that it was simply a matter of time before Jaune was able to melt that cold demeanor of Weiss.

"So, how does Jaune's hand feel, Weiss? You've been holding onto it for a quite a while now. Do you like how big and firm it feels in your hand?" Yang grinned widely with a leering stare.

Weiss froze, forgetting about her hand in Jaune's own before blushing a bright red in embarrassment. She quickly snatched it back with a cough. Jaune grumbled to himself at the lack of contact. There went the moment.

"Thanks, Yang. No really, thank you." Jaune said sarcastically.

"It's what I do." Yang shrugged as she laid back, taking a sip of Weiss's latte, "I see a moment, I ruin it. Nothing brings me any greater joy." she sighed contently.

'I... I held his hand? Why would I do that?' Weiss was bewildered as she looked at her hand strangely. Weird part was. . .some part of her soul was overjoyed with the simple little gesture. Her own heart was beating like crazy. She suddenly blinked as the slimmest of tears slid down her cheek, thankfully going unnoticed by her friends.

What was that about?

Whatever it was didn't matter right now. No need to be emotional for reasons she didn't understand. With a huff, Weiss snatched back her coffee from Yang.

"I think we've had enough drama for today. It's only morning and I've yet to fully wake up. No wonder I've been acting so strange."

"Yeah, guess it's too early for all that." Jaune chuckled before downing the last of his steaming vanilla bean drink. With a sigh of content, he rose from his seat and cracked his back, "I think I'll be heading on now. The coffee's already working its magic and my body is trembling with energy to burn off. The longer I sit, the closer I run to having a heart attack."

"Meh, that's fine with me. I wanna hang around a bit and see what else they got to eat. This little muffin isn't enough for this lady." Yang smiled, waving him off as she found a small menu on the table.

Weiss nodded, flicking through her scroll, "I'm actually going to order myself another latte seeing as Yang finished half of my own. We'll see you in a bit once we all meet up with Ruby and the rest. Hopefully Pyrrha's been able to handle those two sugar junkies." she said with a slight shiver down her spine. Nora and Ruby together in the streets selling various sugary treats was a terrifying thought.

Jaune shared the thought as he felt a shiver run down his own spine. Note to self: save Pyrrha when he had the chance. Turning his back on the girls he began to make his way out of the nice little cafe. But he paused, mulling something over before turning his head back to Weiss. He smiled fondly at the white-haired heiress, the memory of the last time he had seen her in his past life overlapping her own again for the barest of seconds.

No matter what it took, he wouldn't leave Weiss with such a face again. Never again.

Yang watched Jaune leave with a fond expression, having caught his stare. She wasn't sure she had ever met such a guy before. Someone who could connect so easily with others. She didn't want to admit it, but she was oddly glad to have met him that day on the ship even if he had thrown up on her shoes.

'A Special Gift has been rewarded from Yang Xiao Long! Don't forget to Download it!

---

Walking the streets casually, Jaune decided to stop around a small park to download the gifts he had been rewarded. He stood still, raising his scroll up in the air and waited for the contents to finish loading.

Ding!

The world froze as two decorated chests appeared in front of him, allowing him the freedom to open them with a tap of his sword. The separate orbs of light that sprang up slammed into his scroll with a chime.

'You've received Glazial Band! You've received Long Nu Earring!'

'Glazial Band [Accessory]. A silver white band crafted from the coolest of metals and designed with icy patterns. Grants a 10% bonus to Defense and Negates Freeze. Chill to the touch.

Long Nu Earring [Accessory] A golden yellow earring designed after a serpent dragon in an S design. Grants +5AP and a 10% bonus to Attack. Its ruby eyes are fierce with rage.'

Done receiving his Special Gifts, the world went back to its original flow. The items he was looking over were useful. He made a mental note to equip them later as he switched the game menu to its original form.

"Hey, it's Jaune!"

Hearing a familiar voice call out his name, Jaune spun his head around the park and quickly found Russel grinning at him as he ran up to him followed by his team. Jaune waved at the all boy team as they fell in front of him.

"Hey, guys! I'm guessing you're all taking the chance to enjoy the fair too?" he asked as they nodded their heads.

"We would have been out earlier, but someone had to waste a near half hour staring at himself in the bathroom mirror." Cardin glared at said time waster as Sky winked at the reflection of his pocket mirror.

"Well Ren and I were dragged out by the girls. Literally, when you have teammate like Nora sharing a room with you, you'll wake up to being dragged out the halls in your PJ's while wrapped up in your blanket. It's even worse when she strips you down."

"I don't see how being stripped by a hot, albeit insane girl is a bad thing." Russel said dryly with a small glare of jealousy, "Seriously, you have to be the luckiest guy in Beacon for always being surrounded by hot and pretty chicks every morning. I would kill you right here and now if it meant switching places with you." he whined, his finger clawing in the air for Jaune's neck.

Luckiest guy in Beacon? Jaune scoffed as he met Russel with a deadpan, "You say that, but all that glitters is not gold. If you lived one day in my life, you would understand."

"I can see that." Cardin nodded. As much as the idea of always being surrounded by woman sounded great, he was a firm believer in not every idea was perfect. And the idea of woman always standing around him, judging him, messing with him, or worse, flirting with him in a joking manner was scary. Too much of a good thing was bad for you after all.

"Imagine the horror of all the girls falling for you? And their all Huntresses. It would be a blood bath with you caught in the middle of the carnage."

Dove shivered at the image, "I... can see that. One woman would be just fine with me."

"At least you two understand. Though I doubt that any of them would ever fall for me." Jaune almost laughed at the thought. Before feeling his body freeze up as he remembered that he was a Player with the ability to make almost any woman fall in love with him with enough progress. The realization made his body go still like a stone statue.

"I think he just realized his position." Dove whispered to Cardin as Russel began to poke the still blond knight with a stick he found lying around. Russel whacked Jaune's head seeing as he wasn't getting anything out of his friend.

"I still think he's lucky."

Cardin chuckled to himself at the sight. Poor bastard, doomed to some crazy love. . . what would you call it? Love trapezoid, octagon? They were going to need to make up new expression for Jaune's situation.

"Come on, the idiot's obviously in need of some guy time. Let's take him along to the Grifball game in the park. About time he got away from those girls." Grabbing onto the status that was Jaune, Cardin began to drag him back to the park where a moderate sized crowd could be seen gathered around an odd game.

As the boys left for the game, Sky was left alone as he kissed his reflection. He stopped suddenly, confused as he found himself alone.

"Where did everyone go? Did I miss something?"

---

"The hell did I just watch?" Jaune asked in disbelief as the five of them walked away from the oddest game he had ever seen.

Dove laughed at the expression on Jaune's face, careful not to choke on the hotdog he was eating.

"That's what I said the first time I watched a game on ScrollTube! It's the craziest game to have ever been invented by Hunters meant only for Hunters. It's been gaining a lot of popularity these days, even going as far as professional teams being planned for next year. I think Headmaster Ozpin is also thinking about starting a team in Beacon along with the other academies." Dove couldn't help but grin in excitement. If the rumors were true, then he was going to make sure he was one of the first to sign up for try outs.

Jaune felt a vein in his face pulse at the mention of the game possibly being brought to Beacon. Was he the only sane one here?

"The game involves two teams trying to plant a ball that's basically a bomb in the others side with gravity hammers. Why does the guy carrying the ball even turn orange?" Jaune asked with wide eyes, still finding it hard to believe such a game existed.

"I don't know? I think I may have heard that original creator of the game hated orange. That and a person named Grif."

That didn't answer any of Jaune's questions. It only raised more in its stead. What sane person played such a crazy game? No wonder only people who've unlocked their auras could play. A normal person would die! Hell, it didn't matter if the guy carrying the ball was hit or made the goal, they would explode!

"You're over thinking it. Besides, the damage dealt is lowered and no one's died from the game so far." Cardin assured Jaune, tossing some popcorn into his mouth as they walked around the streets. He did frown though as he scratched his head, "I mean, ten people have been in small comas in the last ten years since it was started, and several others have received medical attention for third degree burns, broken bones, and a few cases of concussions, but that's no different than any other sport in Remnant."

"How you can say that with a straight face, I'll never know."

"I am frowning, you know? What are you, a pansy?"

"No, but I also like not being blown up. I'm not a masochist."

Cardin scoffed, thinking back to the several times Jaune had been smacked around in Combat Class and outside of school, "You could have fooled me."

Jaune was ready to say something clever back, but wound up sighing in defeat. He had nothing to say to that given his situation. With his rise in Intelligence, he now understood that he had the potential to make girls fall in love with him. Which explained Professor Antheia's and Tsuki's behaviors. But he also understood that their Affections varied on the type of person they were. Affection could simply mean a strong emotion of friendship, like Pyrrha and Blake. Because there was no way they could even have a grain of romantic interest in him. Right?

He was seriously going to need to think over his relationship with the girls around him.

"Cheer up! Life's too short to be worrying about love and dying by explosions!" Russel laughed as he slung his arm over Jaune's shoulder with a wide grin, "We're still young and full of energy! Might as well enjoy being stupid and naive while we can! It's how I live my life, and I'm perfectly fine!"

"Coming from you, that's horrible advice." Sky scoffed, flicking his hair back carefully. He ignored the glare from his partner and the middle finger salute accompanying it as he turned to Jaune, "Listen, we lady's men have to stick together. So, if you want my advice, I would advise to be careful with how close you get with all the girls. I know I've suffered some beatings back in my combat school for leading several girls on." he grumbled as he rubbed his arm of the phantom pains. Nothing worse than a gang of Huntresses in training beating the loving crap out of you.

"I find that really hard to believe coming from you. What girl would remotely fall for your crap?" Cardin snickered, batting away the punch to his arm. Pushing the pretty boy of their group away, Cardin decided to add his own two cents in the conversation, "I do agree with the parrot idiot, you should be careful with the girls. I already know of one that's been eying you recently." he said, hinting carefully towards Blake.

Since the FoF incident, things between Cardin and Blake had been… tense to say the least. He no longer wanted to kill the cat girl, but it was still difficult to deal with her normally after finding out she had a hand in the deaths of his mother and sister. But even so, he didn't want the girl to be hurt by a small crush if Jaune ignored her for another girl. He may have been an ass, but he wasn't a bastard. It was why he wasn't out right stating the fact that Blake had a crush on Jaune. That was her business, not his.

Jaune blinked at the thought that one of the girls close to him was interested in him. There was just no end to the revelations he was finding out today.

"Can't I just continue playing the oblivious idiot? I think I have enough on my plate to be worrying about girls right now." Jaune grumbled. Like the game he was stuck in. He already had to worry about the troubles to rise in the future created by gods that simply desired to see an entertaining show of hope and despair. Why couldn't he just have one girl fall for him? Like Weiss.

The vibrating hum of his scroll took Jaune's attention away from the matter to see what was up. He almost squealed in joy at the notification on his scroll.

'Hey, you're Limited Edition Variant copy of X-ray and Vav#14: Dog Gone Days, has arrived. Be sure to pick it up today before someone makes me an offer I can't refuse. Tukson.'

It was finally here! The hard to find Limited Edition Variant that was only sold in seven copies! In Jaune's down time, he had been searching for the copy since he had first heard of it before he had talked to Tukson about it. Turned out he knew a guy that was selling his comic collection for a fair price and promised to buy it off him and sell it to Jaune at an upped price considering its value. Times like this Jaune was happy to be in a game simply for the amount of Lien he was rewarded with.

"Something up?" Russel asked curiously as he tried to look over what was on Jaune's screen.

Jaune quickly hid the message with a nervous laugh. No way in hell was he letting someone else know about this nugget of comic gold! There were vultures, vultures everywhere!

"Nah, it's nothing! I just remembered that there's somewhere I need to be right now!" Jaune smiled, trying to play cool despite the nervous sweat on his face. "Like, right now."

"Oh, alright then." Russel shrugged, not noticing Jaune's odd behavior. He patted his blond friend's pat with a grin and a thumbs up, "Just remember that we at team CRDL have our doors open if you ever just want to chill out with the guys! You can also bring Ren along too, I have a feeling he could use some time away from the girls too."

Cardin nodded along as he bumped Jaune's shoulder with a smirk, "Us guys need to stick together. So, when you ever want to hang out or even spar, let us know. Bro's before ho's!"

"I wouldn't say that, but we gentleman must keep in touch." Sky agreed with a dazzling wink. It oddly reminded Jaune of the Lie Shade during the Dance battle. Which wasn't a good thing.

"We can even practice Grifball! We just need a few more players and we'll have a team of our own!" Dove said excitedly, rubbing his hands together eagerly at the idea.

"Saying that makes me have second thoughts on this broship." Jaune said flatly. What part of not wanting to be detonated did they not understand?

'Congratulations! Sky Lark's Friendship has been Unlocked. Dove Bronzewing's Friendship has been Unlocked! Russel Thrush's Friendship has risen! A new Skill has been Unlocked! A new Ability has been Unlocked! A new Skill has been Unlocked! Aerial Recovery, Unlocked! Stalwart Edge, Unlocked! Dual Dust Cast, Unlocked!'

With the newest updates in hand, Jaune waved good-bye to the all boy team with a promise to hang out again.

It was weird. A year hadn't even gone by since he was once bullied by them. And now they were hanging out as friends. It made Jaune wish he could have done the same with team CRDL before he had died.

---

Tukson's Book Trade.

Blake was frustrated.

Originally, she had planned to stop by her favorite book store to pick up some new reading material. That and her copy of Ninja's of Love: Blades of Passion had been ruined by milk stains and cookie crumbs. There was no question as to who the culprit to that was. Ruby was a growing girl, so no need to reprimand her. All she asked was for the reaper to pay her back the Lien to replace it and Blake wouldn't say a word to Yang.

Honestly, if Ruby wanted to read her books, all she had to do was ask. Blake already had Pyrrha reading them. Adding another fan to the series was never a bad idea. Even if said fan was only fifteen.

But there came a personal problem with her favorite books store. Tukson's Book Trade was run by an old ally of her's. Tukson was also a member of the White Fang to this day. Even though he wasn't involved in the more gritty and dirty acts they had performed, he was still an active member that took care of their book work from weapon costs, storage, and marketing propaganda.

And right now, she was having a tense stare off with the puma Faunus over the counter of his empty store.

"For the last time, no." Tukson said in frustration, refusing to back down from Blake's stare.

"Even after what happened with the Friends of Faunus? You're still not willing to leave the White Fang behind after coming so close to being found out?" Blake said in disbelief, her yellow eyes wide before shaking her head at what she was hearing.

Being the older of the two, Tukson decided to drop the stare off as he continued to move back behind his counter and grab a few brown cardboard boxes. He then walked over to the register and began to unload the newest books he had received to their proper places.

"Look, I know how close a call I had come last week. If those maniacs had been any closer to my shop when they began attacking, I'm pretty sure I'd either be clawless and half dead, or locked up behind bars. But I can't just abandon my status as a member of the White Fang. It's not that easy." Tukson grunted, not bothering to turn his eyes back to Blake as he worked.

That, Blake could understand. To this day, she was always careful and watched her back for any signs of White Fang spies. Adam hadn't taken her leaving very well. She always worried that one day he would show up out of the blue and ruin the life she had made for herself in Beacon. But doing nothing never solved anything.

"I know it's not easy, but you can't tell me that you actually agree with what they're doing. You of all people know how wrong Adam's plans are. And I know you don't hate humans as much as the others do. All I'm asking is that you start thinking of plans to leave Vale." Blake pleaded, urging him to at least think about his options. She walked over to him, not caring as his shoulders sagged and he sighed in annoyance. She would not back down now, not after the past events.

"Adam was in the city. Which means he's planning something. And whatever it is, it's going to end up with more lost lives. Don't tell me you're just going to follow along like some loyal dog?!"

The bookshelf in front of the bookstore owner audibly snapped as he smashed his fist on top of it with an angered growl.

"AND WHAT ABOUT YOU!?" Tukson roared furiously, standing straight up as he towered over the stoic cat Faunus with narrowed eyes, "You think you know what's right? Don't forget that you're the one who's done his dirty work. I may be part of the White Fang, but at least I'm not a killer!"

Blake flinched back, his stinging words causing her to take a small step back as her cat ears visibly deflated. But still, she hardened her resolve as she refused to back down. She wouldn't stand by and let a good friend make the same mistakes she once did.

"I did horrible things, I've accepted that. And I may never be able to make up for those stupid mistakes, but I won't let that stop me from making the right choice. You shouldn't either. You're a good person, Tukson. I know you don't want to continue living down this path of bloodshed and strife." she said softly, gripping her right arm tightly as she remembered her time in the White Fang. It wasn't pleasant. There were nights she would wake up in a cold sweat from nightmares of what she had done. If she could go back in time and speak with her younger self just once, she would beg for young Blake to stay home with her loving parents.

"It's scary, terrifying, to think about leaving such a life behind. We've had fond memories, but those good times shouldn't be an excuse to stay. As your friend, I just want you to think about what's right for you, and not what's right for the White Fang."

Tukson grew silent as he stared back at the defiant yellow eyes of the White Fang traitor. She wasn't wrong. He had grown so tired of the backroom deals and illegal finances, of always having to look behind his back for cops, and helping his people hide their dirty deeds. It was to the point he could no longer get a decent night's sleep. He sighed tiredly as he rubbed his aching head.

Maybe Blake was right. Maybe it was time started thinking about leaving such a life behind.

'I really must be losing it if I'm listening to some high school girl's advice. I'm a grown man for crying out loud and she knows better than me.' Tukson chuckled to himself at the thought.

Blake was taken back as she soon found the older Faunus patting her head gently with a tired yet warm smile on his face.

"I can't promise anything, but I'll start thinking about what's right for me. As long as it means you'll stop pestering me. This is a bookstore, not some gossip shack after all."

"That's all I ask." Blake smiled, glad to have her friend finally listen.

The tension hanging over the two old friends died away with the new resolve. And peace fell onto the quaint little bookstore.

For about five seconds.

"WHERE IS MY LIMITED-EDITION VARIANT COPY OF X-RAY AND VAV!?"

Swinging the door to the store wide open with war cry like shout, Jaune spun his head furiously for any sign of his precious comic book. And anyone who would dare get in the way of his new life's mission. No one was in sight, so that was a good sign. Crocea Mors vanished from his grip back into his inventory with a mental command as he stepped inside. Walking over to the counter, Jaune was surprised to find Blake inside the store, looking just as surprised to see him as she stood by Tukson.

"Oh, hey Blake! Guess I shouldn't be too surprised to see you here. Here to buy another Ninja's of Love?" he couldn't help tease as he walked over to the two Faunus.

At that, Blake blushed as she glared back at the knight. He knew her all too well in such a short time.

"That's none of your business. I'm simply out gathering some reading material, that's all." she grumbled, looking anywhere other than him. Tukson chuckled at the rare sight. It wasn't every day that he would see the closed off cat girl act like a normal girl.

"I'm guessing you're here for that comic you wanted me to sell you?" Tukson asked with a smirk. Jaune nodded his head vigorously with stars in his mind.

"I'm more than willing to pay you the 500-L for it right here and now!"

"500 Lien?" Blake said slowly, trying to wrap her head around what she just heard. All for a comic? Was he crazy?

Tukson ignored the baffled expression on Blake's face as he clapped his hands together with a pleased grin, "Glad to hear, kid. Just give me a few minutes to take it out of the safe in the back and place it in a proper case that you requested. In the meantime, look around for anything else that catches your fancy. We got more than comics here, you know?"

Might as well, Jaune thought as he turned for the many shelves of literature around him. It was about time he found something else to read other than his precious comic books.

"What would you recommend, Blake? You know, other than smut."

With her glare back, Blake decided to help him search for something other than picture books.

"I would suggest anything by Luna Yard seeing as you're more of an Action type kind of guy. My favorite book of his would be City in the Heavens. It has a down to earth protagonist stumbling onto an adventure in the clouds of an ancient city and saving several princesses. The romance is well done as well, with a bit of a harem vibe to it despite the ending. I'm sure you'd love it." Finding the book with a quick scan of the many books, Blake handed it over to Jaune. The cover of the green bulky book was depicted with a dark-haired teen in tattered armor standing on a cliff overlooking the massive cities in the sky as he clutched a small luminescent azure dagger in his hand.

"I'll take your word for it then. If you think it's a good book, then it must be. Even if you read smutty literature, you have good taste in stories." Jaune grinned as he tucked it in his armpit.

"Can't you let it go? And I'll have you know that Ninja's of Love is much more than sex, it has a very good story and some of the best world building I have ever read." Blake huffed as she followed him over to the register while grabbing her copy of the book from the shelf. Her own copy was left behind in Menagerie, it would be nice to reread it once more. Along the way, she also steathfully snatched the Ninja's of Love book she had originally came for. Now she had two books to look forward to.

"That may be true, but as Ruby once said, it's also filth." Jaune said before looking back to her with a flat stare, "And I saw that."

How? Since when could he see through her so easily?

"Well I'm old enough to read whatever I want. Besides, you don't have to worry about the things I read seeing as you don't need me by your side anymore." she grumbled, setting down her book on the counter alongside Jaune.

"Hmm? What do you mean you don't have to be by my side anymore?" Jaune frowned.

Blake gestured to his fully healed arm as she returned to her stoic demeanor, "Now that your arm is healed, you no longer need me to help you with anything. I don't have to sit next to you in the lunchroom anymore to help you eat, I don't have to help you with your books to class, and I don't have to help you with your work in class. There's no longer a reason for me to be so close to you anymore." Blake could go back to her usual self now and no longer have to dot over him like some mother hen. And that was fine with her, she was losing her stoic attitude since she began helping him out. It was better for all of them if they just returned to how things had been.

So why did that fill her with disappointment?

Jaune wasn't having none of that. Only Blake would think that their time together was simply to pay him back the favor of saving her life. Velvet didn't think that way and neither did Cardin. Saving them all from the FoF may have been the trigger to the two of them finally connecting as friends, but it didn't mean that it would just end like that after all they had gone through. For a bookworm, Blake could be an idiot. And so, could he.

"Blake, just because you don't have to help me out anymore, doesn't mean that we have to stop being friends. I'm actually hurt that you would only hang out with me out of guilt. I thought we were closer than that." Jaune said with a look of sorrow in his eyes.

"We are!" Blake panicked, almost stuttering as guilt hit her like a bullet wound to the chest. She looked down, shyly kicking her feet around as she felt a sense of awkwardness at this new situation she found herself in.

"It's just, I always thought I was acting like a pest when you've always said that you didn't need my help. Now that you're healed, you don't need me to worry over you. I know how annoying I could be." she sighed.

"No more than Pyrrha, and she's my partner." Jaune laughed as he laid his hand on her shoulder comfortingly. The action turned her eyes to meet his own as his eyes softened at the confusion in her eyes, "We're friends, Blake. If there's one good thing that my broken arm brought out of all this, it's that we've finally got to hang out. I would break my arm a thousand times if it meant we could be friends all over again." he grinned widely, unknowingly causing Blake's face to heat up.

A small giggle escaped Blake's mouth as she bumped her shoulder with his own with a content smile. She should have known better than to think that Jaune would just let things go back to normal. For a goof, he could be stubborn. It was a relief to know he thought more about their friendship. And here she thought her recent behavior had been nothing but an annoyance to him.

As friends went, Jaune Arc wasn't so bad to come by.

Seeing Blake's change in attitude, Jaune brought her in for a quick one armed hug, making her jump in surprise as he couldn't stop grinning.

"So, don't think you can just take a seat somewhere else now. We're lunch room buddies! We even know more about each other than the rest do. We've come too far to let things return to how they once were. Don't forget, we're fellow book lovers!" he chuckled as he raised said book she had picked out for him as proof.

Blake couldn't help but stare at the dorky blond's face, finding herself not able to look away from the grin on his face. She smiled softly.

Even if Jaune was odd, she was glad to have him around.

'Blake Belladonna's Affection has risen! Friendship has risen! You've received an Item! A new Ability has been Unlocked! HP Boost, Unlocked! Lunar Divider, Unlocked!'

"I repeat, this is a book store. If you two want to mess around, then I suggest the hotel by Pancake Overlords."

Jumping back from each other in embarrassment, the two Hunters glared back at a laughing Tukson as he came back with a small picture display with Jaune's comic book safely within.

"I guess you were right, Jaune. Ladies do love it." he snickered as he gave Blake a teasing look. The ex-White Fang girl didn't seem to appreciate the joke as a certain book smacked him in the face.

"Hey! Don't got throwing merchandise you haven't paid for!"

"Sorry, I thought I saw an annoying bug. I think I got it." Blake said casually as Tukson returned her book back while rubbing his red forehead.

"Tch, damn brat." With a reminder to find an ice pack for his now aching head, Tukson turned back to Jaune, sliding the display frame to the boy as he rang him up. "That will be 500 Lien, plus a finder's fee of 50 Lien."

"50 Lien? You're lucky I really want that comic or I'd report you for extortion." Jaune grumbled as he went to look for the money in his wallet, subtly calling on his inventory to take out the Lien, "I'll also be taking City in the Heavens too while I'm at it."

"A book by an actual authentic author?" Tukson said with a look surprise, impressed that the kid would buy something other than a picture book. His eyes moved to Blake, having an idea to what made Jaune pick it out, "About time he listened to someone with some taste. I've been trying to get him to read something else other than children books with flashy colors and bold letters."

"What part of adult graphic novels don't you people understand." Jaune muttered in annoyance.

Blake smirked, "Now you know how I feel."

"Alright then, that total's up to 570 Lien." Tukson said as he rung Jaune up. With the colorful laminated cards quickly handed over to him, the puma Faunus handed over the items in their plastic bags.

Ecstatic, Jaune dropped the books into his inventory without a thought. Taking Blake and Tukson by surprise.

"How did you do that?" Blake asked, her eyes wide as she watched the books vanish in a brilliant bubble that popped.

Cursing himself for the slip in his excitement, Jaune decided to use the good old excuse that was his supposed 'semblance', "It's part of my semblance, Summoning. I can summon things from thin air from my inventory located somewhere safe and send them back. It's how I'm able to perform some of my attacks."

Tukson whistled, "That's a rather nifty gift. Makes me feel jealous."

"It's saved me a lot of trouble." Jaune shrugged before turning for the door. He looked back at Blake expectantly, waiting by the door, "You coming along Blake? We can look around the fair for a bit before meeting up with the others."

As nice as that sounded, Blake shook her head with an apologetic expression.

"I still have to pay for my stuff. And I was planning on finishing a couple of boring errands while I'm at it. You go on ahead, we can always hang out at some other time." she smiled as she waved him away.

Jaune shrugged his shoulders and waved back before heading out. He would hold that to her later. Might as well see what else the fair had to offer while he had the chance.

"I'll see you later then."

With the ringing of the door's bell signaling Jaune's departure, Tukson couldn't help but smirk teasingly at the glaring cat Faunus in hiding.

"Sooooo, you like blond's?"

The hard leather bond copy of a crappy vampire love story smacking his head was Blake's answer.

---

With a fresh battered corndog drenched in ketchup and mustard in hand and an Everybody Love's Grape slushy in the other, Jaune wandered the fair in relative peace. He would have been completely in peace if it wasn't for one thing.

That being a missing Ruby.

The blond knight held back a sigh as he held his scroll with the support of his shoulder so he could still continue talking with Pyrrha and enjoy his treats, "You shouldn't worry too much, Pyrrha. Ruby should be fine on her own. I actually feel sorrier for anyone who would try to mess with a speed demon that could be mistaken as a cute grim reaper." he chuckled.

Over the line Pyrrha pouted, doing her best to hold onto Nora as said girl tried to escape to hijack the cotton candy cart passing by, "I'm still worried. One minute we're all enjoying some pizza on the grass by the park, then the next thing I know she vanishes in a blur of roses. I think something must have caught her eye."

"Knowing her, it must have been weapon related." Ruby had the hots for weapons. Which was worrying in some aspect he didn't want to touch. That was for Yang to deal with, not him.

"Well if you see her, bring her back to me. Nora and I will be waiting by Dunkelman park." The line on Pyrrha's end went silent for a second before her voice seemed to cheer up, "Oh! I think I see Ren walking over. Message me when you find her. I'll see you later."

Ending the call, Jaune was left to bite down on his corndog, holding it still so he could pocket his scroll. Now all he had to do was look out for Ruby. That shouldn't be too hard. He just needed to find a small reaper with a red cloak chowing down on cookies and chugging milk.

"Now that's a katana!"

Bingo.

Locating the source of the giddy voice, Jaune quickly found Ruby fawning over a weapons display case in front of a local armory. She was practically drooling all over the nicely welded sword in her hand.

"I'm pretty sure they have a drool on it, you buy it policy, Ruby." Jaune snickered over his fist as he stood beside the small Huntress in red while tossing the remains of his snack in a trash bin.

Snapping her out of her reverie, Ruby snapped her head up to find Jaune's blue eyes looking down at her in amusement.

"Jaune! What are you doing here?" she asked innocently.

"That's what I was going to ask you. Pyrrha's worried sick because you up and vanished on her. Care to explain that, little missy?" he asked with a mock stern glare.

Ruby laughed in embarrassment, poking her two fingers together shyly, "My weapons senses were tingling and the next thing I know I'm standing over a double-sided ax that could change into a great sword. I couldn't help myself! I'm weak to temptation." she grumbled with a pout.

"I can see that. But you should have at least messaged Pyrrha where you were. Imagine if Yang found out we had lost her little sister? She'd go super nova on all of us." And that was a terrifying thought.

Ruby stomped her feet in a huff, her pout still in place as she glared at Jaune. Just because she was fifteen didn't mean they had to watch over her like a child. She was a growing woman for crying out loud! It wasn't like she was dumb enough to fall for some stranger's trick and follow them to their van for the promise of cookies. She was a big girl, darn it!

"I was going to go back. I just wanted some Ruby time is all."

"I can understand that, just don't worry us like that. I know you can take care of yourself just fine, way better than I could myself." Jaune grinned as he ruffled Ruby's hair. That wasn't even a joke. For a girl as short as her, she could wipe out an entire pack of Beowolves with no problem. "Now how about we head back with the others? After I've taken Pyrrha out for some games we can all get started on your Best Day Ever plans."

"Really?" Ruby squealed, her silver eyes sparkling with joy as Jaune nodded. She was ready to bolt away with him in hand but stopped as she suddenly found the ground more interesting to look at. She bit her lip, almost afraid to ask Jaune what she wanted to say.

"Actually, do you think we could just hang out for a bit first? I can't remember the last time you and I hung out. And I still want to see what kind of weapons they're displaying." she asked softly. In all the time they had shared together in Beacon, Ruby couldn't recall a proper time the two leaders had hung out while not under the pressure of school and their responsibilities as leaders. Not since the first day of school when Jaune had stumbled onto her while lying in a crater. They were friends, best friends. All she wanted was a few moments where they could freely walk around.

And maybe buy a weapon or two while they were at it. . .and some sweets.

Maybe some strawberry milk too if they sold any around the streets.

Jaune couldn't say no to the adorable silver eyes staring up at him pleadingly. It was even worse once Ruby added a quivering lip for more oomph. The girl was manipulative, she was just too innocent to realize it. Well it wouldn't hurt to wander around a bit. Just as long as Ruby stayed by his side where he could see her.

"Sure, we don't need to leave just yet anyways. I'm actually interested in what they have on display." Jaune smiled, submitting to Ruby's stare. The little reaper pumped her fist in victory, thanking the gods above for the gift that was her natural cuteness. Now if only she could find a way to weaponize it.

Taking Jaune's arm in hand, Ruby began to lead him around the many weapons laid out on the stands, each tagged with their respective price and descriptions. She couldn't help but babble on about the weapons as she pointed them out.

"This one right here is a short sword that doubles as a lance by extending the pommel for longer reach. And this ax by it? It's actually two hatchets with lightning Dust coating the edges. Oh! This rifle doubles as a shotgun and has an edged handle for close combat! Oh my god! Are those drill gauntlets!?"

A slight ringing entered Jaune's ears as Ruby squealed loudly and let go of his hand to rush over for an odd pair of armored gauntlets with drill like fingers. He winced from pain, glad that she had stopped so she could drool over the weapon with stars in her eyes. Ruby truly was a weapons dork. Watching the red caped girl try them out, he couldn't help but laugh as she began to pose dramatically and point to the skies. Now she was going on about piercing the heavens. The girl had some imagination on her.

Turning his eyes to the many unique arms and firearms on sale, Jaune decided to see if any would actually suit him. All he had on him to fight with was Crocea Mors and Anubis. Now that his life was basically a game, he was going to need to find new ways to fight. A simple sword and shield wouldn't always get him by anymore. Finding a black revolver with a gray handle and barrel caught his eye, Jaune picked it up to look it over.

"I wonder what this does?" he murmured, turning it over in his hand. Just about everything he had come to seen from weapons outside of his home had a hidden function. The revolver looked tame compared to everything else. If anything, it was larger than a normal gun, nearly the length of his old hunter's knife he had lost to Holt.

"It kills things. What else would it do?" A rough grizzled voice spoke from behind Jaune, nearly stopping his heart in surprise. With the gun still in hand, Jaune turned around to find a single light brown eye staring back at him passively.

That man watching him had bright shaggy red hair that fell over his shoulder along with a single bang hiding his right eye. He had dark oak colored skin and wore a simple black kimono decorated with red flowers, a yellow scarf tied around his neck, and wooden sandals. The man's hands were bandaged but in a way that allowed him free use of his fingers. And at a height of 6 foot the stranger appeared even more intimidating in the eyes of Jaune. Despite the deep tone to the man's voice he didn't appear to be older than thirty.

With a nervous gulp under the eyes of the stern looking man, Jaune stuttered, "I-I know that it can kill. I was just wondering if it could do anything else besides shoot bullets is all." he chuckled weakly, fearing whatever the stranger might say back.

The red-haired man nodded in understanding before gesturing his open hand to the gun in Jaune's hand. Not wanting to do anything to upset the man, Jaune handed him the weapon before watching the dark-skinned man play around with its handle.

"Mamba appears like any other revolver, but the switch to its second form can't be found easily enough. It has to be activated, like so." To demonstrate, the stranger swung the revolver back a bit with a little force, surprising Jaune as the gun straightened its handle with a click. Its trigger guard retracted to form a better handle and a retractable bladed edge sprung up from below its barrel, forming a hunter like knife.

"Whoa." Jaune breathed. Even if it was a simple transformation he couldn't stop himself from awing the weapon.

The stranger smirked, pleased at the reaction from the blond kid, "It's nothing too fancy like most weapons these days, but Mamba gets the job done all the same. It's great as a second weapon or when you're in a tight space and can't swing a large weapon around. And it's compatible with certain Dust ammunition that can even augment the blade for a short period. All that and it's only 500 Lien."

"Only 500? But it's so cool! I'd think it would be more than that." Jaune said in awe as the man handed the small weapon back.

Shrugging, the strangers stuffed his hands in the pockets of his kimono, "Well most of my weapons are on sale today. Just about everything in Vale is on sale after the huge donation the city received a few days ago. It's the main reason we're celebrating."

Huge donation? "When did that happen? I don't remember hearing anything about the city being handed a donation, especially one big enough to cause a celebration. I thought it was to celebrate equality?" Jaune frowned.

"That too, especially after the events of last week. But how else do you think the city has been able to repair all the damages to the buildings and businesses so fast?" the red-haired stranger mused, pointing one of his thumbs at a shop close by that was newly constructed, "They received a large check from what I've heard, just about 200,000 Lien in all. Weird part is that the charitable person didn't give out a name or any form of identifying them. They just dropped it off out of the blue."

Who the hell had that kind of money to give out? Jaune frowned in thought, something about the whole story scratched his brain. But before he could figure out what that something was, Ruby popped out of nowhere beside him in a shower of rose petals.

"Professor Kusanagi! I didn't know you were the one selling these weapons. I should have recognized your craftsmanship by now." Ruby smiled happily as she waved at the red-haired man.

Professor? Jaune spun his back to the stranger, his face scrunching up in confusion as he tried to understand what Ruby has just said. The intense looking man was one of their professors? Since when!?

"Ms. Rose, it's a pleasure to see you outside of school hours. I knew I recognized the squeal of joy from somewhere by now." Kusanagi smiled politely as he patted the scythe wielders head.

"Wait, this guy really is a professor at Beacon?" Jaune said in disbelief. Kusanagi frowned at the blond as he found him pointing at him, "How come I've never seen him?"

"You're a student in Beacon as well? Odd, I've never seen your face before." the red-haired man scowled deeply, staring at Jaune intently as he tried to remember seeing the boy.

"Of course, he's a teacher! Haven't you ever stopped by the forge in school?"

Jaune blinked, "We have a forge?"

Ruby smacked her face in shame. What was she going to do with him? Jaune was lucky he had a pretty face.

"How else do you think the students repair their weapons and armors after missions? Or when they want to add some modifications and make new ones? It was in the school guide book for crying out loud!" Ruby shouted as she waved her arms around frantically.

"There's a school guide book?"

"I'm going to punch you now."

Professor Kusanagi chuckled, watching as the tall blond boy held back Ruby's barrage of fists. Well, wasn't this surprising? Shaking his head with a content sigh, he turned his attention back to the boy.

"My name's Ise Kusanagi. I don't teach in a classroom like a normal professor and my class isn't a requirement, but I am a teacher. I don't usually leave the classroom but I have my own weapons shop in Vale where I make an extra Lien to visiting Huntsman and Huntresses. And I'm just as shocked as Ms. Rose, I would have thought a Huntsman in training like yourself would have at least stopped by the forge for some whetstone or spare metal." Professor Kusanagi said with a hum.

"I've never really needed to sharpen my sword. Even after surviving the Great War, Crocea Mors has still retained its sharp edge. It just has a couple of scratches and nicks here and there." Jaune answered back with a casual shrug.

The forge professor grew curious at the mention of the Great War, "It must be made of some quality metal then. I don't know many weapons that have survived the test of time like that, especially if it had been used during such a war. But," he frowned, scratching his chin as he stared at Jaune, "Does that mean you were simply handed down the weapon? You didn't create your own?"

Jaune nodded his head, only further deepening the red-haired man's frown, "Pretty much. I don't even know how to use a gun if I'm being honest." he said sheepishly.

The weight of Mamba disappeared from Jaune's hand a second later, leaving him puzzled as he looked at his empty hand.

With said gun/knife in hand, Professor Kusanagi shook his head in disappointment at the blond-haired boy, "I'm sorry, but I can' sell a weapon like this to a student who doesn't even know how to wield it. It would be like handing a loading magnum to a five-year-old." he deadpanned, sliding the weapon into the sleeve of his kimono.

"Aww, but I wanted it!"

"Case in point." Professor Kusanagi sighed before crossing his arms over his chest. He was not happy with what he just heard, "I should honestly ban you from standing in front of my shop. As a Huntsman, your pride and joy should be the weapon you've worked tirelessly on for months. It's an extension of your soul, a part of you that you take into battle so that you're never alone. It's the heart and joy of our people! But instead you march into battle with the soul of someone long ago, fighting not as yourself but as your ancestor. And while that is a kind gesture to the departed, their battle is long done. This here?" he gestured toward Jaune, his face stern as he narrowed his brown eyes with a passionate fire inside them, "This is your battle. And you should be fighting it with the metal soul you've created."

Hearing those words so bluntly was enough to make Jaune flinch back visibly. When he had left for Beacon, he didn't think much about the kind of weapon he would taking with him. Which made receiving Crocea Mors from his father not much of a big deal. It was a sword and shield, it would do just fine, he had thought. Now that he knew that every student entering Beacon had made their own weapons to suit their styles of combat, Jaune had felt some shame in carrying around his great great great grandfather's weapon. And what Professor Kusanagi had just said cemented those feelings.

But still, it was said weapon that had saved him countless times since stepping foot onto Beacon. It may not have been made by his own two hands, but his own blood had seeped into it and made it his own.

"It may not have been made by my own hands, but I would still proudly carry Crocea Mors with me to battle." Jaune scowled, "And I'm not alone, my ancestor's soul fights with me just fine. I would rather fight with his sword and shield then take anything else, even if meant giving up being a Huntsman. Because I can't imagine a life of fighting without Crocea Mors by my side."

Professor Kusanagi simply lifted his brow at Jaune's little speech, not saying as word as he stared at him with no emotion. As hard as he tried, the weapon's smith couldn't contain the proud smirk on his lips.

"It seems that weapon doesn't belong to your ancestor anymore. It's got a new wielder that's willing to fight to keep it by his side no matter. I can respect that." he chuckled before turning away for his shop. Passing a glance back at Jaune, he continued, "I like your spunk, kid. If you're ever feeling like learning how to smith your own weapon, or even add some upgrades to your current one, stop by my building in school. If you pass the first few lessons, I'll even throw in a little gift your way. Just follow Ms. Rose if you need any directions. I hope to see what kind of soul you can create soon."

Watching the teacher vanish into his shop, Jaune was going to ask Ruby more about the blacksmith, only to be tackled to the ground by a running hug.

"WHY!?"

Ruby gushed with joy as she crushed Jaune's chest with her embrace, "Oh my god! Are you really going to make your own weapon!? Can I help!? I wanna help, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna!" she cried, practically begging him to let her join him. There was nothing better than designing weapons! Second only to her dream of being a Huntresses, Ruby also wished to one day make her own line of weapons. Crescent Rose was a testament to the kind of jewels she could create!

Squirming under her, Jaune nodded his head feverishly in hopes that it would end the threat of his lungs dying, "Yes, you can help! Just let me breath! I don't want to die when I've yet to lose my virginity!"

Whatever happened in Fey didn't count.

Releasing the knight, Ruby sat back on his crotch with an overjoyed grin. Her whole body was trembling with excitement! She couldn't contain it, she was bouncing up and down with joy.

She did stop for a moment in confusion as she felt something poke her bottom. Jaune groaned, dropping his head back to the ground in shame as the small reaper pressed her hands on his stomach and leaned over to stare at him with an innocent gleam in her questioning silver eyes.

"Jaune, are you carrying a knife in your pants? What kind of metal is it made of? Feels kinda squishy yet hard and should it throb like that?"

In his defense, Ruby was the one that started bouncing on his dick.

---

As the day was going, Ren was having a pretty good time. After the drama of fighting his best friend to leave him along only to wind up giving in and joining the game once again, he had been hoping for some time to settle his thoughts and nerves. Things weren't going to go smoothly even with Jaune working alongside him, but they would have to endure and at least try. For too long the stoic ninja had done nothing and let things go because of his laziness and despair. It was time to take action.

But for today, he was content with sitting back on a bench besides the very woman who he had tried repeatedly to save from her cruel destiny.

Once Ren had finished stocking up on supplies, he had decided to relax at the local park nearby. And to his delight he came across Nora and Pyrrha. Knowing how tiring his partner could be to handle, he decided to take her off her hands for a bit. Pyrrha had been grateful for the helping hand and decided to stay back and relax for a bit. It didn't take much to sedate Nora, not when you had known her as long as he did. A quick stroll around the streets, a couple of games of chance and a promise of a towering cone of ice cream, and she'd calm down. And she still had enough energy to play a few games with the kids in the park while he sat back and watched with Pyrrha.

It was the simple things in life that Ren enjoyed the most. The small moments he found in every world that made it all worth the curse. He had almost forgotten that until Jaune had brought him out of his own despair. For that, he was grateful to his old-time friend. Now that he was clear of mind and soul, he could go back to enjoying life. Ren smiled, the first honest expression he had in Oum knows how long.

He was back in The Game. But he wouldn't let it break him again.

"I'm guessing you and Jaune have finally settled your differences?"

Snapping out of his small moment of peace, Ren found Pyrrha staring ahead as Nora played tag with the city kids, smiling happily. Following her eyes, he nodded back, not surprised that she could see the change.

"When you're back to back against a horde of Grimm, you learn to realize how stupid some things are. Funny how nearly dying makes you see things differently." he chuckled. Or how dying by your friend's sword could bring you hope. Weird how things like that worked.

"That reminds me." Raising her hand up, Pyrrha brought her fist down onto Ren's head with an annoyed frown.

"Ow! What was that for?!" Ren grimaced. That had never happened before. It wasn't like Pyrrha to do such a thing.

"Don't worry, Jaune will be receiving his punishment as well. It's what you get for worrying me half to death yesterday." she huffed, turning away from the Eastern Huntsman as he rubbed his head, "Your silly squabbling nearly got you two killed. I don't even want to play around with the thought of what may have happened to you two if the teacher hadn't found you. If it wasn't for the fact that the others were stopping me, I would have charged into the forest and brought you back myself. I don't think you could possibly understand how worried I was about you." she said softly, refusing to look back at Ren. Her fingers dug into the wood of the bench at the memory of their wounded states.

Ren looked apologetic, "I'm sorry for worrying you. I know I put Jaune into a lot of danger, but he's fine now. Better than ever really. Now he can go back to flailing his sword around with both hands." he chuckled, laying a comforting hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, "I promise I won't let anything bad happen to him again. I know you must be upset at me for placing him in danger."

"And you?"

Ren was confused, "What about me?"

Smack!

A red blush bloomed on Ren's cheek along with a stinging pain in the form of a hand print. His face was completely frozen in shock, not moving a twitch as his eyes fell on Pyrrha and her outstretched arm. Her hand was trembling and her green eyes were glaring at him with anger he had never seen before.

"Jaune wasn't the only one I was worried to death over. He may be my partner and I can even go as far as to call him my best and closest friend, but he's not the only one I care about on this team! You're just as important as he is Ren! And I don't ever want you to think I don't care about you any less ever again!" Pyrrha shouted with tears in her angry eyes.

The trembling tone in her voice and the sight of her shoulders shaking stabbed at Ren's heart. Hurting Pyrrha of all people was the last thing he ever wanted. But even so, his soul was happy. To know that she cared about him even though he hadn't shared much with her since this reset was heartwarming. She truly was too kind for her own good.

Sniffing back the small tears in her eyes, Pyrrha was ready to apologize for slapping her friend before she found Ren taking said hand into his own. He gave her stinging hands a gentle squeeze, looking her in the eye with regret.

"I'm sorry I made you think like that, Pyrrha. I know you care about me just as you do Jaune and Nora. But I'm just use to always being the one worrying about others instead of the other way around. I never had anyone else do that, not when Nora thinks I'm some awesome ninja that can make pancakes out of thin air." he smiled.

Pyrrha smiled back, happy that Ren didn't hold it against her for her outburst, "You're my friend too, Ren. And I wasn't lying before when I said I wanted to be just as close as friend as you are with Nora. We'll be spending the next four years of our lives in Beacon with each other. And I want to get to know you down to the letter." she said brightly, her body radiant with joy in his eyes. Her emerald eyes sparkled, free of any kind of lie or negativity and only happiness.

"I'll always be by your side, no matter what. I hope you remember that."

Bringing the silent magenta eyed Huntsman in for a hug, Pyrrha had missed out on the somber glint in his eyes.

That's right, how could he forget?

"Yeah. . .I'll be sure to remember that."

Glad to have settled the matter, Pyrrha released her embrace to Ren's silent disappointment. It was good to have things to a relative normality. Now they could start working together as a team.

"NAVES! AS YOUR QUEEN, I DEMAND ONLY THE FINEST OF SWEETS AND THE RICHEST OF LIQUORS IF YOU ARE TO PRESENT ME WITH OFFERINGS! FOR YOUR NEGLIGENCE, I BANISH YOU TO THE SAND PIT OF DESPAIR!"

Leave it to Nora to shatter normality's back and dig its grave in less than a second. Both sighing, Pyrrha and Ren found Nora standing over a small crowd of children bowing before her and the two children at her side gripping foam bats as security. Where she got the plastic gold crown from, they had no idea. They were more worried about the cowering ten-year-old being dragged away to the sandbox where a large hole had been dug up.

How the hell did Nora make herself queen of the little people in only five minutes?

Ren didn't question it, chalking it up to the wonder that was Nora's logic. An iron clad rule that basically meant that the norm didn't apply to her and she made society her bitch. And to make things worse, Nora had actually lived out her dream of ruling her own kingdom in past playthroughs. It was the only time he had ever thanked the game for resetting at the end of the final battle. He shuddered to think of what kind of rule Nora would command. Sloths and pancakes were bound to be everyday things.

A familiar dot came into Ren's HUD map, alerting him to a certain blond and silver eyed girl edging closer to their location. Well good things never last forever. Ren wasn't bitter about it though, not anymore. He was more than content with the small moments he was allowed with Pyrrha.

"I think it's time someone dethroned her majesty from her throne. She's gone mad with power. . .again. And only I have the power to stop her before she's barging into the city council's office to start a rebellion." That was not a lie. If you left Nora alone for a good half hour there was no telling what that girl could accomplish. Patting Pyrrha's shoulder gently, Ren rose from the bench seat to save the children from Nora's wrath.

"And send Ruby over, I could use some help while you're out with Jaune."

Pyrrha didn't understand what Ren was talking about until she heard footsteps approaching. Leaning her head back, she was happy and relieved to find Jaune and Ruby walking over. At least she wouldn't have to worry about Yang punishing her for losing her little sister.

Jaune immediately zoned in the odd scene of Nora towering over children while Ren was tackled to the ground by her personal guard. Was it sad he wasn't even fazed by this?

"I don't want to know." he said plainly. Ruby winced beside him, watching as Ren was pummeled by toy bats with little mercy. "You're probably in need of a break after watching Nora for so long. How about we head to the arcade like I promised? I know just the spot not too far from here." he smiled brightly.

"Sounds wonderful!" Pyrrha beamed. Finally, some alone time with her beloved partner! She turned to Ruby, her eyes pleading as the small girl sighed, catching her meaning.

"Don't worry, I got Ren's back." Ruby nodded firmly, pushing up the sleeves of her uniform as she marched forward. May the gods watch over her.

Jaune and Pyrrha watched on as Ruby charged in, tackling Nora off her throne of stolen tricycles and wrestling her to the ground. All while Ren tried to pry off the pancake queen's guard and her loyal subjects cheered on the new redhead girl to free them from her reign of terror.

"That. . .escalated quickly."

"We should go before we're dragged into it."

---

It didn't take long to reach the arcade Jaune had found on his map. He didn't even need it to know its location, 16-Bit Heaven was an old hang out he use to frequent back in his earlier life. After exchanging some Lien for tokens, the blond knight had immediately brought Pyrrha to the closest game to try out.

"You Lose!"

Safe to say that Pyrrha was horrible at this.

"You. . .died by the first Joombah that came your way?" Jaune said slowly, staring at the pixelated screen of the arcade machine. He'd always heard stories of people dying to the first grunt in Starboy, but he always thought it was a joke on noobs.

Pyrrha hid her face behind her hands in shame, the music playing on her third death taunting her relentlessly.

"I told you I had no experience in these kinds of things." she moaned, dropping her head beside Jaune's shoulder to hide her depression. The vibration of his scroll distracted him from his partner's humiliating defeat, only to find her status displayed for him to see.

'Pyrrha Nikos. Friendship: Lvl 7. Affection: Lvl 7. Status: Depressed, embarrassed. Wants to crawl inside a hole and disappear. Perks: 1. Soul Link: Locked.'

Chibi Pyrrha stood in front of the video game machine with a dark rainy cloud over her, smacking her head repeatedly into the stand. The sight was adorable and sad at the same time. A little text bubble floated above her head, selling out her innermost thoughts.

'Senpai is ashamed of me!'

What the hell did Senpai mean?

With a comforting pat on her back, Jaune tried to bring her out of her slump, "It's alright, Pyrrha. Not everyone makes it on their first time. I'm mean you did run straight at the enemy the first time, tried jumping over the second time and failed, and then attacked it with your fist only to miss and die on your last life, but these kinds of things can be thought of as experience. It's only a grunt."

"That was a grunt?" Pyrrha said in disbelief, her depression only growing further. But it looked so intimidating!

As intimidating a walking grape monster could be.

"Maybe we should try another game?" Jaune said nervously. Clearly platforms weren't her specialty. Maybe a first-person shooter was more her game? She did use a rifle. Something as simple as a plastic gun and fake pixel monsters should be no problem for a tournament champion like herself!

"Loser!"

Jaune's scroll suddenly displayed Chibi Pyrrha slumped in front of a zombie shooting game. She held the black plastic gun to her head, pressing the trigger only for confetti to shower her head as she cried. Dear god did that turn dark fast!

"Why did you shoot the bystanders? The zombies were literally in your face." Jaune said dully, trying to comprehend the impossibility he had just witnessed.

"The sights to this gun aren't accurate! I wasn't trying to kill that civilian child licking a lollipop! What was he doing out in the streets of a zombie apocalypse anyways!?"

Taking the display gun bending under Pyrrha's grip slowly from her hand, Jaune turned his eyes to another game they could play. Spotting a racing game with twin motorcycles as controllers, he dragged his ever-depressing friend to try it out. He hopped aboard the blue one, patting the seat of the yellow motor bike for the nervous redhead to sit on while he dispensed the necessary tokens.

"Come on, I can guarantee you that nothing will go wrong this time."

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha said nervously, hesitantly sitting her butt on the seat. Jaune nodded his head with a calming smile as they turned their heads to the large screen showing off the starting line of the race.

"What could go wrong?"

Not even a minute later and Pyrrha had crashed her bike. Both figuratively and literally. The yellow toy bike controller bellowed smoke, crashed right into the high def screen of the video game displaying their avatars racing as the two Beacon students stared at the scene with blank expressions. Pyrrha's face had gone pale, the life in her green eyes dimming as she looked on with an empty smile.

'Must. Resist. Urge. To. Obliterate.'

The text bubble for Chibi Pyrrha was horrifying as Jaune watched the little Spartan stare at the machine with a twitching smile before unleashing an unholy scream of anger and rage. Someone was not happy.

"I think we should find something that doesn't involve a screen." Leading Pyrrha away from the now broken piece of expensive hardware before anyone in the gathering crowd noticed, Jaune went on to find something, anything that the girl could win at.

"Shouldn't we notify the manager?" she asked with worry.

"I'd rather not. As far as we know, it was like that when we got there."

He was not going to pay the large bill for that.

Pyrrha's mood wasn't improving in the slightest. For her first real time alone with her partner, things weren't going as smooth as she had hoped. Who knew playing video games took skill? Or that she had horrible luck at them? With dejected eyes, she watched by as the other people in the arcade enjoyed the games without a care. Funny how something as simple as video games made her feel unlike the others. She could win several matches against other Hunters with no sweat, but when it came to something so simple a child could do it without any real skill, she could only lose.

And for some odd reason, the thought made her smile. She even laughed, nearly doubling over as she lost control of her laughter.

"Uhhh, Pyrrha? Are you okay?" Jaune asked with a worried frown, watching as the invincible girl erupted with laughter. He didn't break her, did he?

Controlling herself, Pyrrha fought back a snicker as she nodded. She sighed, rubbing some tears from her eyes as she smiled happily.

"Yes, I can honestly say that I am okay. I'm just not use to being called out as a loser is all." she said brightly, snorting as her laughter had yet to die down. Seeing the confusion on Jaune's face, she decided to explain, "I've always been the best at what I've done. Even at an early age I was considered a prodigy, learning how to read, to speak, to fight, it all came naturally to me. And everyone has showered me with praise for those accomplishments. I've even had a fan club back home that would call me as goddess of victory." she said fondly.

"But all those wins and accomplishments ostracized me from others. No one wanted to play with me as a child because I would always win, no one wanted to study with me seeing as I was already done with the work, and no one would be my friend because they thought I was too good for them."

Pyrrha's childhood had been lonely. It wasn't anyone's fault; her gifts were just too intimidating for everyone. She was like a brilliant light that blinded them the closer they came towards her. An impossible dream they had no hope of achieving. She was doomed to victory.

"But it turns out I am a Loser. I can't even win the simplest games." she giggled, the humiliation she had felt vanishing into the wind, "And that makes me happy. I'm not as perfect as they had all made me out to be. I'm just a normal girl who's horrible at video games!" she cheered in joy.

"That's not something you should be proud of." Jaune sighed with a deadpan. This was a side to Pyrrha he had never seen before. Just looking at the overjoyed expression on her beautiful face was breathtaking. He blushed as he found her face popping up inches away from his own, her emerald eyes wide with a childlike wonder he had never seen.

Was this really Pyrrha?

"Let's go see what other games I'm terrible at! I think I saw a game where you whack these little robotic moles with a rubber mallet by the DDR machine!"

Now it was Jaune's turn to be dragged along as Pyrrha pushed past several of the arcade patrons with a giddy grin. By the end of the day, there were going to be more demolished games in their wake. And a large bill mailed to his dorm for destruction of property and disturbing the peace.

'I guess I can't complain.' Jaune thought with a gentle smile as he watched Pyrrha excitedly grab the rubber mallet once he dropped in a few tokens into the machine. Starting the game, he watched as the Spartan girl missed several of the animatronic moles with wild swings, and chuckled as she successfully smacked a few with an upset pout. 'I've worried her to death several times now. I would pay a fortune just to see her happy like this. It's the least I could do, especially after I left her all alone in my death in the last world.'

What kind of life did Pyrrha live when he died? The thought alone clenched his heart in a vice as he grit his teeth inside his mouth. Knowing her as he did, she probably blamed herself for his death. She would be haunted by it, never forgetting about the partner she had left to die. That was just the kind of thought process a girl as kind and caring as Pyrrha had.

Jaune would make sure that she never had to go through that again. And that she never lost that loving smile on her face.

"Aww, I won."

Broken out of his thoughts, Jaune found Pyrrha grumbling as the whack a mole machine dispensed a small number of tickets. The sight made him snort in a repressed laugh.

"That's the first time I've heard anyone sound sad about winning a game. Ever."

"Which only means I have to try harder!" Pyrrha pumped her fist in determination.

"To lose? There really is a first for everything." he shook his head with a grin. "There are other games we can try. And it's not all bad, the tickets you received can be used to exchange for a prize. Like those over there."

Gesturing his hand to the counter area by the main entrance way, Jaune pointed out to the many prizes on display, each with a ticket prize tagged onto them. Toys, stuffed animals, even video game consoles were up for grabs. Pyrrha didn't seem to care much for the junk in her eyes, passively gazing at the items without a care. That is until her eyes laid upon a marvelous relic, the very sight of which made her mouth drop in awe and her eyes widen with stars.

A vintage, life size, Jaune-cena plushy greeted her. It was modeled with a winking face and his fist waving in front of his eyes. And it was at that moment, that she knew what her mission in life was. To get her hands on that wondrous beauty of a prize.

"Jaune, how long do we have until we have to go back to the others?" Pyrrha said slowly, sounding as if she was in a daze.

Checking his scroll for the time, it looked like they had a few hours to kill before the clock reached two. That was when Ruby wanted them all back at the square to complete her Best Day Ever binder.

"I'd say three hours? Why do you ask?" he asked in confusion. He was suddenly taken back by the redhead roughly pulling him dangerously close to her face, her green eyes lit with a strong fire of determination.

"By the end of this day, I swear I will have that doll back at our dorms even if it kills me!"

Jaune frowned, "What doll?"

Following her trembling finger, he gawked in shock at the sight of his large stuffed wrestling form. 'Aw, come on! I thought they only sold that stupid thing in school! And why the hell is it so big!? They're seriously going too far with this RWE thing!' Wasn't this what they called copyright infringement!? That was his image, damn it!

Pyrrha wasn't wasting anymore time. Practically smooshing her crush's face to her own, she growled as his face grew beet red, "Take out all the Lien in your wallet. Even if I keep losing, I will earn enough tickets to take Jaune Jr. back home with us."

"You gave him a name?"

"No more questions! Let's go!"

There was no fighting Pyrrha's strong hold as she ripped him off the spot to find another game that rewarded tickets for a low score or loss. There was no logic in her line of thinking at this point. She couldn't lose a game and strive to earn enough tickets for a prize that big. It looked like he was going to have to play along and win the majority of the tickets to keep her happy.

As Jaune stood by Pyrrha, watching her in amusement as she began to fling the wooden balls to a ski ball machine poorly, he couldn't help but wonder at the expression of carefree joy on her face.

This new endless reality of death and reset was strange and horrifying. He had no idea if there truly was an end to it all. And there was so much more to come, events that test his resolve and will against odds that seemed impossible to overcome.

But times like these, where he could simply enjoy the company of his friends for just a day, were what he would look back to for hope. And he would never forget that.

'Pyrrha Niko's Friendship has risen!'

---

And so the tension between two Players has been lifted. A new road lays ahead of them. The First Act is drawing closer to its end. What hurdles will our heroes face before the semester ends?

The Fourth Player is waiting. And what a night of mischief it will be.

On an important note, I have been talking with my buddy with finally solving a little problem of ours. I haven't added the list of abilities and what they do yet for all the Players, not to mention a few other things in terms of information. So, I've thought up a solution!

A Multiplayer Forum! At the end of the volume, I will upload a forum that will act as a journal of sorts, like you would find in Kingdom Hearts. It will explain certain terminology that's slowly introduced, have information on new enemies, skills, abilities, and weapons and items, and more importantly, list what Monty's Pages say. That way it doesn't pad the word count on the story. It will also reveal what Quirks each Player is capable of and how they work. Now I just need to find a place to upload it on once all the information is finished with during the break. Let me know a place you would all like to find it.

We're down to three chapters now. And one last piece of DLC in the works. I can't wait for you all to see what I got planned.

Now, as a recently turned 22-year old, I must beginning packing for my new house. I'll see you all again once Chapter 22 is wrapped up with. I'm going to play some Pokemon Moon for a bit before getting back to my writing duty.

Read and Review, it's common courtesy.

NeoShadows fading in and out.