Chapter Two: The Red-Haired Girl is Lovesick?! Champion's Spirit! Maiden's Heart! The Tutorial Starts Here, Jaune-kun!


"Why are we hiding?" Jaune asked as Weiss shushed him. They hid under a stand in the training arena as they spied on a woman training alone. They were able to sneak in as several students walked through the door to the locker rooms.

"Seriously, why are we doing this? Pyrrha's my partner and I thought we were going for the uh, what did you call it?"

"Tutorial. And we are! You're looking at her."

"How is Pyrrha the tutorial?"

"Ugh!" Weiss facepalmed quietly, lest their tutorial catches on to them, "Have you seen the way she looks at you?"

Jaune just stared at her, "Looked at me how?"

"You know," Weiss gesticulated with her left hand, "Her eyes linger on you whenever you talk, even when you finish a conversation, how she always helps you out and encourages you."

"Pyrrha's nice," Jaune shrugged as they both sat behind the wooden stands.

"No you idiot! She likes you!"

"Sure she does, we're partners."

"Aaaaggghh!" Weiss groaned into her palms, "She like-likes you. A crush, she has feelings, amour, affection, infatuation, do you understand?" she grabbed onto his shoulder and shook it. Hard.

"Ah! Yes! At least some of those words!" Jaune shrieked.

"Good!" Weiss snarled.

"Hello? Is someone there?" Pyrrha stopped her exercises and asked the seemingly empty arena. Weiss clamped a slender hand over Jaune's mouth and shushed him.

Her eyes glared daggers at him, commanding him to "stay down, keep quiet, and listen!" without an actual word said.

Then, she stood up from her spot and faced Pyrrha, "Hi Pyrrha! Sorry to bother you. But you know how it is," she rolled her eyes, "Your blonde idiot of a partner asked me out again. It's grating on my nerves to say the least. I have to know what you see in him. Because for the life of me, I can't see beyond his annoying generic blandness."

Pyrrha's eyes lit up, "Oh! Well, I'm surprised you're asking."

Weiss waved her hand, "No no, it's overdue. He's attempted three times now, and I must know what you see in him, because I'm barely getting anything besides an annoying swagger and overconfidence on par with his incompetence."

"Well it's simple, Weiss," Pyrrha carefully placed down Milo and Akouo on a nearby weapons rack, "All of those weaknesses you've listed, I don't see them as such. In my eyes they are endearing qualities and obstacles to overcome."

"I simply don't follow."

"What you see as incompetence I see as potential. A determination to grow stronger and learn, even if he can procrastinate quite a bit," she smiled, "He's the weakest in our year, but you've seen him improve yourself. He won his first match today after all."

"A man with potential in fighting does not equal a worthy suitor," Weiss said. Then she frantically motioned with her arms for Jaune! To! Get! Back! Down! while Pyrrha was luckily looking in the opposite direction.

Once Jaune was under the stand again, Weiss continued, "You're going to have to try harder than that."

Pyrrha turned around and smirked, "Well, he has the most charming personality. He's a goofball, a really lovable one. He's sweet, kind, and always tries to help whenever he can, even when it's difficult. Overcoming obstacles is how he lives, even if it's the obstacles of others. Jaune is a great friend."

"I see. Thank you for enlightening me," Weiss nodded before walking back to the stand, where Jaune was right below.

She sat down in it and pulled out her scroll and pretended to read her notes. Weiss handed her scroll to Jaune, which read "Wait for a distraction."

"How long will that take?" he hissed at Weiss, who kicked him.

"Shush and wait," Weiss said through closed teeth. She then began to do actual schoolwork with the binder she brought with her.

Jaune grumbled and waited. A minute passed before the door opened and Glynda Goodwitch entered. She walked down the aisles of stands and approached Pyrrha, "Miss Nikos, do you have a moment to spare? There is something I need to ask of you."

"Now!" Weiss quickly whispered as she closed her binder. Jaune quietly escaped from underneath the stand and they ran for the door.

Once outside, Weiss stopped to point back in Pyrrha's direction, "There we go, a quick summary of everything Pyrrha feels about you. No need to change much of yourself either. She truly is a tutorial."

"Yeah except she just likes me as a friend," Jaune replied.

"Oh Jaune. Simple, naïve Jaune," Weiss patted his shoulder, "You only heard the text. What you need to look for is the subtext. Read between the lines. 'He's a goofball, a really lovable one.' Lovable, hear that? Sweet, kind helps others. That's you."

She turned to face him and poked him in the chest, "You've already got the tutorial's affection meter maxed out. All you need is to push and you're in. One thing to tip the balance."

"What thing?" Jaune scratched the back of his head.

"Ask her out. Not as a friend, but with clear romantic intentions."

"What?! I can't do that!"

"Why not? You do it all the time to me."

"Three times! And no, it's just, well, doing it could ruin our friendship!"

"Oh? Is your relationship with the tutorial that flimsy that it can't handle a little embarrassment?"

"Why do you keep calling her that?"

"Answer the question, Jaune."

"Yes. No. I don't know. We've fought together, we study and live together, and we've done that for months but, this is different. It's a big change," he was now scratching the back of his head with both hands.

"You can never succeed if you never try," Weiss declared, pumping her fist to the ceiling and keeping her stern expression.

Jaune sighed, "Fine, I'll ask Pyrrha out."

"Yes you should. And none of that swaggerly nonsense you pulled on me either. Just ask her out to the movies, just the two of you. And stress that it isn't as 'just friends'."

Jaune frowned.

"Say it's a date, nimrod."

"Oh. Okay," he paused, "Now?"

"No not now! Wait until Goodwitch has left, then wait at least an hour otherwise Pyrrha might connect the dots back to me," Weiss said.

"So what do you want to do for an hour then?"

Weiss shrugged, "I'm going to go and finish the first three routes of Tenisu Ai to Dansei. You're welcome to watch."

Jaune scratched his neck and waved, "No, but thanks. I'm going to psych myself up for this. Wish me luck?"

"No. You don't need luck."

"Thanks I guess."

"Not to you, you've been unintentionally filling out her meter since you met her. That's no feat. But I am confident that my discernment of your relationship is accurate. Now, wait an hour and go get 'er."


The pressure was real. It was a steady pressure that Jaune could feel in his chest, although much different than Pyrrha stepping on his sternum after winning a spar. Good times.

It was always a light step, and Pyrrha only really did it to stop him from rolling after she pummeled him to the ground.

… Anyway, he was nervous. He fidgeted with his uniform and the earpiece Weiss had given him. She was sitting in a nearby room, scroll in hand as she played through her blasted dating sim.

"I'm going in Weiss."

"Go on ahead," he could still hear the faint sounds of beeping.

"As our protagonist entered the training arena, his eyes laid upon the red-haired amazon that he called 'partner'. For she was truly the embodiment of the ideal huntress: strong, capable, caring, cunning. She moved with grace as her shield blocked the incoming projectiles and parried the others with her blade. As she swung with all her might, came a fluid motion that accentuated different parts of her body one after another, from her powerful arms to her well-sculpted shoulders, down to her voluminous—"

"Weiss shut up," Jaune whispered as he walked down to the stage.

As he approached, Pyrrha stopped dodging projectiles and turned off the machines. She turned around and smiled at him, "Hello Jaune. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, Pyr. I just have something to ask you, is all."

"What is it Jaune? I always have time for you," her smile gave off such radiance that even Weiss felt it despite being in a different room and only has access to audio.

He took a breath, held it, then…

"Jaune, exhale," Weiss berated.

He did. Then he took another breath, "Pyrrha, I've been doing some thinking, and um," he scratched the back of his head again.

"Yes?" Pyrrha placed her weapons on a nearby rack, then walked right up in front of him.

"Do you want to go to the movies with me sometime?" he blurted out. He took another breath and added, "Not with friends like Ren and Nora, just the two of us and we could call it a date?"

A moment passed. Silence. Pyrrha had a quizzical look on her face.

Then, she smiled. But it wasn't her usual smile. No, Jaune knew that smile. It was the same smile his parents made when he was younger, back when he told them he wanted to be a huntsman.

It was also the same smile his sisters made when they were asked out.

He knew where this was going.

"I'm sorry Jaune. I really like you, but you're like," she made light gestures with her fingers, as if trying to explain herself through sign language, "You're my best friend. You're like a brother to me."

His shoulders drooped as the words hit him. This was worse. Worse than any rejection Weiss ever gave. He… he thought he had a chance.

Weiss took it worse, "This can't possibly be right. She's the tutorial! What on Remnant is going on? She's gone off script, off the mark!" Jaune heard an electronic screech in his ear.

"Jaune? I'm sorry," Pyrrha pursed her lip, "I hope this doesn't make things worse for us. I'm just not looking for a relationship now."

"No, no," Jaune waved his hand, "It's my fault. I was the one who asked. I just heard from… someone that you liked me in that way."

Pyrrha giggled, her hand reaching to her mouth, "Oh Jaune, you really shouldn't believe everything you hear," she shook her head, "I swear, people get the strangest ideas in their heads."

"Heh, yeah," Jaune said, "I'm gonna go now. There's something I need to do."

"I hope you have a better time than right now," Pyrrha waved him goodbye. He waved back.

Jaune left the training arena and stood against the wall. He sighed. Then he pulled out his scroll and called Weiss.

No answer. He frowned then called Ruby.

"Hey Jaune. What's up?"

"Have you seen Weiss?"

"Yeah actually. She just rushed into our dorm and took a bunch of supplies. Even my cork board and red string! Then she muttered something and left. I think she's going to the library."

"Thanks."

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, just some romance troubles."

"Bleh," he could hear Ruby fake gagging, "No thanks. Bye."

"Bye," he hung up his scroll and began walking.

Why did he feel this way? Just an hour ago, he never thought of Pyrrha like that. And neither did she, as it turns out. Before, he was chasing Weiss, and Weiss alone. Now… he wasn't sure anymore.

Weiss was wrong.

He entered the library and looked around for her. He scanned the large room before walking towards the quieter, more hidden sections. Walking led him to pass by Blake poring over her new book in a little nook.

In the farthest corner he found her. Weiss was scribbling notes onto Ruby's cork board, each one tied with string. Well, scribbled as in quickly. They were way neater than anything he could write up.

She looked up at him and gave a manic grin, "Jaune! I've figured it out! I know what happened out there."

Weiss took him by the hand and sat him down in front of the board.

"See, most games utilize an affection meter to represent one's relationship status to a girl. That seemed to be the case for Pyrrha, but in light of new evidence, she must actually be operating on a different model!" Weiss tapped the board, "The vast majority of dating sims use the one meter approach for affection, as it allows for simple and easy understanding of one's standing."

She then pointed at an image of a halfway filled up meter, "Filling it up means the other person likes you more and more in general. It works on the theory that one's feelings and emotions for another exists on a fluid spectrum, that feelings of trust and companionship can easily bleed and change into something more. However, there are other theories."

Weiss then tapped the image next to it showing two meters, one filled and one empty, "There are other schools of thought, such as this one, where individual emotions are considered discrete from one another. For example, a person can be a friend with no romantic affection, or a romantic partner while not necessarily being good friends."

"This model is a perfect representation of Pyrrha's current feelings to you. You've maxed out her friendship meter, but haven't done anything to fill up the romance meter."

Jaune nodded, "She sees me as a friend."

Weiss slapped his shoulder, "Exactly! Which is why we must begin working to increase her second meter."

"How?" Jaune asked.

A grin spread on Weiss' face. Jaune did not like that grin.


"Hey Pyrrha."

"Hello Jaune."

"I got something for you."

"What is it— oh!" Pyrrha took the splendid bouquet of red and yellow flowers, "Well this is very sweet Jaune, but um—"

"No don't worry, Pyr. This is just thanks," Jaune smiled, "For everything. Really. Being a great partner, a great friend, and a great tutor. No hard feelings?"

She giggled as she took the bouquet, "None. Do you want to train later?"

Jaune shook his head, "Sorry, I've got another tutor for today," he pointed at Weiss, "It was her idea. Something about giving me a chance?"

Pyrrha smirked, "Oh really? That sounds grand. I hope you have a fun time."

"I hope so too," Jaune leaned in and whispered, "Weiss is uh, intense. And I want to say passionate?"

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow, "Really now? In what way?"

"She has very opinionated views on almost everything," he said.

"It's true!" Ruby came up to them, "She's like Yang but with fancy words! Nothing stops her."

"She is not!" Yang ran up to Ruby, "She's worse. Jaune, you're so boned when you two start training. I've had to do a hundred single finger pushups for each finger. Ruby may be our leader, but Weiss is the coach."

Blake flipped a page.

Pyrrha rubbed her chin, "Now I want to see her workout regimen. It sounds interesting for certain."

"Did I hear Pyrrha wanting to train with me?" Weiss popped between Jaune and Pyrrha, placing an arm on one of each shoulder, "I'm terribly busy, what with my team's, my own, and now Jaune's training."

"I don't want to intrude, but I would be delighted with simply watching," Pyrrha's eyes twinkled.

"Very well. Tonight at six, Training Room Seven. You can fill me in on Jaune's progress thus far," Weiss nodded.

"Indeed I shall," Pyrrha looked into Weiss' eyes, who stared back.

Jaune laughed mildly, "Ah thanks you guys. It really means a lot."

"Oh no you don't Jaune. You only won your first match by a combination of luck and grit. Barely by the skin of your teeth. Against Dove," Weiss glanced at Pyrrha.

"It is a start," Pyrrha replied, "He's come a long way."

"But there is much to be improved upon," Weiss declared, "Quite a lot in fact."


Weiss daintily ate her sandwich as she waited for Jaune and Pyrrha to arrive. The awkwardness was now gone between the two of them, and were close friends again.

The question was, how to get him out of the Friend Zone? She pondered the problem and had a solution. Several, in fact. Just to be safe.

Jaune and Pyrrha soon arrived in the combat outfits, ready to spar. Weiss stood up and greeted them both, first talking with Pyrrha about strategy. After a while, she handed Jaune two small canisters of fire dust to put in his pocket. In secret. Super secret. With ear whispers and a wink.

First Weiss sparred with Pyrrha, and obviously lost. It wasn't a complete failure, as Weiss was able to dip Pyrrha's aura down a whole twenty percent!

Then it was Pyrrha and Jaune once again. As Weiss sat down to observe, she waited for the moment. The moment when Jaune would take out one of the fire dust canisters Weiss gave him and use it to startle Pyrrha, giving him a momentary advantage.

Hah! No, Weiss actually anticipated Jaune would mess up and have it blow up in his face. If he did use it competently, Weiss would just trigger the "accidental" malfunction button. If that failed, then the canister he didn't use would explode from contact with Pyrrha's magnetic field. Either way, her plan would work.

As Jaune very closely dodged Pyrrha's strike, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out the canister. He held it out in front of him a pressed the button. The entire canister burst into flames, enveloping Jaune's arms, spreading over his body.

He yelped, but the wave of fire quickly flashed over him and snuffed out. The briefest second passed as he realized he was fine. Then he started panicking.

His shirt had melted off. The straps of his armor were burnt to a crisp and snapped, leading to his breastplate hitting the floor.

The entire font side of his body was now in plain view of his partner standing in front of him, gaping.

Weiss peered over and thought the redness on Pyrrha's cheeks wasn't bright enough. So she set off the second canister in Jaune's back pocket.

Or she tried to at least. Unfortunately for her, the mechanism in the canister was unresponsive. Well, the dust grenades were experimental after all. Fifty percent reaction was good enough, if the slowly increasing redness on Pyrrha's face was any indicator.

Weiss jumped down to the stage and said, "I will admit, you have decent latissimus dorsi."

Pyrrha's cheeks were redder than her hair.


Ren came into the arena holding a spare shirt. He looked upon the scene before him: a Pyrrha with her face in her hands, a Jaune with his hands over his chest and a smirking Weiss who was also chortling.

He raised an eyebrow as Weiss walked up to him.

"Should I ask?"

"You could if you want to, but I doubt you'd understand my machinations."

He glanced at them then back at the heiress, "You wanted Pyrrha to see him as more than a friend, correct?"

Weiss' smirk grew wide, "Oh that is indeed. Perhaps you have potential of your very own," she took the clothing, "Tata, Ren."

Ren rolled his eyes and left the arena. Weiss hummed as she handed the shirt over to Jaune. She loudly exclaimed, "I'm so sorry! I was given these experimental dust grenades to try, and I hoped Jaune could use them in a spar. I'm so sorry this happened!"

Pyrrha was frowning. Then she glanced at Jaune putting his shirt over his abs and blushed before turning away, "It is alright Weiss. His aura protected him and there was no harm done besides some lost clothes."

"And my armor too," he grumbled.

Pyrrha turned to him, her cheeks still burning red, "We can always buy new ones, what matters is you're safe."

Weiss smiled once more, "Money is no object. I must take responsibility, since it was my dust grenade after all."

Jaune rolled his eyes at that, "Schnee quality product, eh?"

"Oh like anything else you have is better," she crossed her arms.

"Back home in Ansel, everything is homemade or at least sourced from an independent maker. Because you don't need a big company to make a sword."

"But you do need one for your scroll," Weiss shrugged.

"Not dissing big companies, only yours."

"Hah! SDC is best C," Weiss exclaimed.

"... What?" both Jaune and Pyrrha looked at Weiss with confusion.

Weiss sighed, "Nevermind. My cultured expressions are beyond you."

Jaune rolled his eyes as hard as he could, "Sure."


The next day, Jaune was slightly more prepared. He knew about the flaming canister, but he did not see the clothelessness happening. When Weiss texted him "Drastic measures are about to unfold.", he did not expect that.

And so morning came after another awkward-but-in-a-completely-different-way night in the JNPR dorm, as well as some ribbing from Nora, both Teams JNPR and RWBY sat down for breakfast.

Jaune sat diagonally from Pyrrha and next to Ren, an unspoken agreement between the team. All except for Nora.

"So how was it?" she nudged Pyrrha with her elbow, "Come on, I wanna know! Does he have a twelve-pack? Are his pecs shaped like sunny-side-up eggs? Is he an innie or an outie?"

"I don't know, I turned away right as the flames died down," Pyrrha said. That was her story and she was sticking to it.

"Suuuuuuuure you didn't," Nora munched on her sunny-side-up eggs.

Pyrrha sighed and continued eating her fruit. As she did so, Weiss spoke up, "Again, I apologize. Perhaps I shouldn't have used prototype technology that was only recently developed."

"You should!" Yang grinned, "It's still the riskiest thing I've seen you do outside of hunting."

As the two girls bickered, Jaune looked up at Pyrrha, who was pointedly avoiding looking in his direction. He sighed. Then his scroll rang.

He took it out and glanced at the text message he received. It read: "This is only the beginning."

He sighed just a bit harder.


The next week for him was a barrage of training with Weiss and attempting to "boost the meter" with Pyrrha. When training physically in a spar, Weiss would multitask and shout out the next day's plans as they traded blows.

Or rather, as Weiss struck Jaune in multiple parts of his body repeatedly. His face most often.

The first day of the week, after morning classes had ended, he grabbed Pyrrha by the hand and brought her to a secluded place in the Beacon courtyard.

"Jaune, what are we doing here?" Pyrrha asked.

"Well, I was cooking earlier…" Jaune started. At the look Pyrrha gave, he rolled his eyes, "Come on, I have seven sisters. You pick things up with them around. I can name every Princess Poppy toy on the market thanks my youngest sis, Cerise."

Pyrrha shrugged, "I wouldn't know. Only child."

"It's a mixed bag," Jaune laughed, "But because of it, I cooked some food early this morning before I trained, and I have a lot of leftovers," he pulled some plastic containers from his bag, "Want some?"

She gave him a smirk, "And the reason why you didn't invite Nora and Ren along?"

Jaune sheepishly smiled, "Am I that easy to figure out?"

"Yes. But I am famished, so I'll let it slide."


Weiss was furiously scribbling down notes. Pyrrha was a lot more aware than she anticipated. Her plans would have to account for that. Now, how to turn this playful attitude into something more genuine?

What if… Yes, Weiss had an idea. She grinned to herself as she circled in red her plan for tomorrow.


The second day of the week, Jaune asked Pyrrha to go on a walk with him in the Beacon gardens. It laid opposite to the cliff side, and was a holdover from generations past, when the old Kings of Vale ruled the land.

She said yes, after a tough day of studying, it would be nice to relax before her daily training. As they walked through the maze made of tall bushes, they idly chatted about school, training, and random things that came up.

Then there was a shriek. They turned around to see not a damsel in distress, but rather a damsel in delight. She wasn't a student, no, she was a tourist.

"Eeeeee it's Pyrrha Nikos! Guys guys look!"

As a small group of curious tourists grew larger and larger, Jaune and Pyrrha bolted.

They rushed down the maze, making turn after turn before stopping, their hearts racing.

"Is today Open Park Day?" Pyrrha whispered.

"Uhh," Jaune paused, "Maybe?" Weiss didn't mention that when she told him about the gardens.

… Damn it Weiss.

"How should we leave? They're blocking the exit."

Jaune's eyes shifted back and forth. He pulled out a map of the maze on his scroll. Pyrrha scanned the map and pointed out, "If we make a distraction here, we can escape from that side."

"They'll follow you, then you go around this side to… No, that leaves us with another group of tourists most likely," Jaune frowned, "The exit and entrance are at the same place."

Pyrrha clicked her tongue, "We were fortunate to make it this far into the maze without anyone else seeing us."

"The gardens just opened to non-Beacon students half an hour ago, that's why," Jaune said as he looked at the schedule, "With that one tourist, people are going to be on the lookout. We're going to have to find an alternate route."

Pyrrha estimated the height of the hedge maze, "I don't think I can clear it in a jump, and there weren't any gardeners or tools nearby. No ladders."

"What if—"

"There she is!" they turned around to see three tourists pointing at Pyrrha, "Miss Nikos can we have your autograph?"

"Hi I'm a big fan! Can my boyfriend and I take a picture with you?"

They ran in the opposite direction, only to be cornered by a large hedge. It was a dead end.

Jaune turned to face the growing crowd, now with ten tourists. He grabbed Pyrrha's wrist and took a leap of faith. He closed his eyes and stepped backwards.

And they went through the bush.

And came out the other side.

Because it was a bush.

He opened his eyes and looked at Pyrrha. She looked at him too and grinned widely, "Well, that was something."

"Yes it was."

They decided to finish their walk on Beacon grounds not open to the public. It was nice. They saw two butterflies.


For the third day, Weiss bought Jaune a large collection of arts and crafts, "Make something nice for her."

"Why?"

"Not everything can be bought with money," Weiss said, "And think about who's saying that."

"That's… actually a big thing then."

"Right? Make her something from the bottom of your heart and she'll love it."

Then she left him alone to work on that instead of training. Jaune was glad he didn't have to upside-down crunches while reciting dialogue from a Sutekina Osama no Dakusukai.

He reached for the scissors.


"Hey Pyrrha."

"Hello Jaune. What's that?" she pointed at the large object Jaune had hidden under a white sheet.

"Nothing in particular. Just something I did in between training yesterday," Jaune couldn't decide whether to play it cool and aloof (as Weiss recommended) or to act natural (also recommended by Weiss), so he ended up shrugging and scratching the back of his head at the same time.

Pyrrha shook her head and laughed, "Are you sure? I've been noticing a trend lately."

"If you're curious…" Jaune began. When Pyrrha giggled again and nodded, he pulled the sheet off, "Tada!"

It was… a paper mache circle.

"What is it?"

"It's Akoúo̱!" he smiled. It was colored pink.

A moment passed in silence.

"It is a work in progress," he stated, resolute in his creation, "I'm also going to make Miló in its javelin form."

A small chuckle escaped from Pyrrha's lips, once she caught the slight tremor in Jaune's own.

"Really now?" she coughed out.

"Well not so much," Jaune said, "Unlike Akoúo̱, this one changes forms."

He reached for the cardboard shield and pulled. A slender triangle came out that he tossed to the side, revealing its true design.

"Pyr, do you want to protect my heart or should I protect yours?" Jaune asked while wiggling his eyebrows.

She smiled, "Well when you ask it like that, how could I say no?"


The fourth day had nothing to do with Pyrrha, Weiss declared. It was time for the both of them to work on their actual studies and train to become huntsmen and huntresses.

"It's called boosting your stats. No man or woman wants to be with someone with low stats," Weiss said.

Jaune quipped back, which turned into a match of physical prowess and wit as the two sparred. Weiss won both portions after knocking the wind out of him.


The fifth day, Teams RWBY and JNPR studied together for a pop quiz that they all knew was coming after Doctor Oobleck left some not-so-subtle hints.

Jaune and Pyrrha sat by each other, and for the first time, Jaune was actually keeping up. His streak of good grades (if one exam in one class was a streak) was going to continue.

Pyrrha praised him, as well as Ruby. Inwardly, Jaune thanked Weiss for her academic help during yesterday's training.

Outwardly, Weiss boasted about her tutoring skills, which was only egged on by Ruby, who completely agreed.

Jaune snorted and reminded her about those who can't, teach. The heiress smirked and said that she can do both. He said that it's because she was great at talking nonstop, which got a laugh from the whole table.


The sixth day came, and Weiss had no plans set for Jaune. She just told him to be himself.

"Jaune? Are you free tonight?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you want to train together?"

"We always do."

"Not recently, Weiss has been training with you all week."

"Pyrrha, are you jealous of all the time I'm spending with Weiss?" he smirked and teasingly jabbed his elbow into her side.

"No…" Pyrrha's eyes darted. Jaune remained unconvinced. She sighed, "Yes. When you're famous like me, you get put up on a pedestal. That pedestal alienates me from others. And you're my friend Jaune, my best friend."

"I'm still here for you, I just also spend time with Weiss. It's not any different than the time I spend with Ruby, or Ren and Nora."

"It is!" Pyrrha grabbed his arms, "She— Weiss, she's," Pyrrha tried to grasp for the right words.

Jaune took a shot in the dark, "Taking me away from you?"

"No, no. I've seen the way you look at each other," she said, "You're at most friends. You banter with each other, you spend time together training and learning how to date," Pyrrha grimaced, "She's become your friend and confidante. I'd be fine with that, hell, I'd be fine with you dating someone, but the person you had to try to date was me!"

She made a grasping motion with her hands, "I don't want what we had to change. I don't want to take the risk and lose our friendship if it doesn't work out. Because you're my best friend. Ren and Nora, they have their own thing going on, and so do Team RWBY. Without you, I'd be alone."

"Pyrrha…" Jaune placed his hands onto her shoulders, "I'm your partner, your team leader, and your pupil, and that might change one day," he gave a warm smile, "But no matter what happens, I will always be your friend."

"Always?" she whispered.

"Always. Even if you turn into some crazed stalker, or I become an evil dictator of the multiverse, our friendship will always remain," Jaune said.

"Even if… we became more than friends?"

"Even then."

"Then there's no reason not to try," Pyrrha's mouth dove down into Jaune's lips.

He widened his eyes and began to protest, but eventually, he fell into the kiss.

No matter what happens next, they'll always be together.

TUTORIAL COMPLETE

Arkos End Achieved

Continue? [Yes/No]

Are you sure?


A/N:

And thus the story begins. Or ends, if that's your preference. Of course there are more routes to go through, and some will definitely be more interesting than this one, which was intended to be mundane. Pyrrha was the tutorial after all, she couldn't be too hard.

Before you ask, yes, this was heavily inspired by the manga and anime The World God Only Knows. One of my favorites. This story only borrows two elements from it though, an avid dating sim player using their knowledge in the real world and another one that's a spoiler.

Many thanks to The Immortal Doctor Reid, for coming up with the titles for each chapter. He's the best there is at this particular skill.