Oh, What a Spectacle!

Chapter 4

Eye of the Tiger

Advanced Semblance Utilities was something of a gimme grade at Beacon Academy. If, by the time of the final exam, you showed a well-developed mastery of your Semblance, you passed with an A. All things considered, students who had relatively straightforward Semblances, like Cardin, or had used them in training for many years prior to the course, as with Pyrrha, never had a problem with the class- hell, Qrow didn't even care if they showed up except for the final.

Which, along with the fact that Jaune didn't have any more classes until after lunch, led to this being his and Pyrrha's training time.

Unfortunately, in her half-sleeping stupor, she was five minutes late- in her family's book, that means she might as well have not shown up at all. So, she barreled down the hallway to JNPR's dorm like a crimson bullet, including running over a very flustered Dove Bronzewing. She threw open the door to the room, rushing inside to change into more comfortable attire, throwing clothes across the room trying in order to take as little time as possible. Having done that, she stepped into the bathroom to give herself a once-over.

Yep, all good.

She left the room almost as quickly as she came in.


Jaune had to admit, he was shocked Pyrrha wasn't here yet. One of the first things she learned about his partner was that she was very schedule-driven. No matter what she was doing, she was always early. Her morning run, JNPR's team building exercises, class, ANYTHING SHE DID, she wouldn't be caught dead arriving late.

It was a little worrying, to say the least. Although, his better judgement reasoned that she simply was tired after the long night, and wasn't working full steam.

Sure enough, he looked up from his Scroll to find her throwing open the rooftop access door.

"Sorry I'm late! I kind of forgot our training session."

"All good, P-Money."

She had yet to understand just why Nora had come up with that nickname. She'd figure it out eventually, she supposed.

"Where are your weapons?" Jaune asked, pointing over her shoulder. Ah, shit, she knew she forgot something.

"Uh... today's a hand to hand combat training session," she lied, putting up her fists awkwardly. "Fisticuffs, and all that."

"Alright, then, guess I don't need Crocea," he said, laying the sword and shielth down behind him. "You know I can't hit a girl, right?"

"Jaune, for the purposes of this training, I'm going to ask you to hit me."

He chuckled. "Not sure if that's possible..."

"No, it's fine. The worst that could happen is I could get a bruise."

"Pyrrha, I was joking. I meant that I probably won't even be able to hit you."

She frowned. "No, stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Doubting your ability."

"Alright, alright... just don't beat me up too bad, okay?"

She smiled. "No promises. Now, let's get started. Come here."

Jaune stepped up to her, hands at his sides. Pyrrha then proceeded to smack him in the face with a quick jab.

"Ow, what the heck!?"

"First rule, keep your hands up."

"You could have illustrated that without punching me in the face!"

"I just figured that would be an ample demonstration!" she said, throwing another jab at him. This time, he had his hands up, and he caught it with his forearm, causing him to flinch.

"Don't flinch, it's going to hurt. If you give, your opponent can capitalize on it."

"Alright, alright, alright." He stepped back, and leaned back, getting ready to throw a punch. The move was sloppy, coming from far out of right field slowly enough that she was able to catch it in her hand and punch him twice in the stomach, before kicking him in the chest and knocking him back.

"And I'm supposed to hit you HOW, exactly?" he said, righting himself.

"You have to be less predictable. Come back up here."

"You're going to punch me again!"

"Yes, but it's for demonstration purposes!"

"Why don't you just punch the air?"

She sighed, assuming a tight kickboxing stance. "I'm going to show you the different types of punches and kicks." She shot out with a quick fist, following it up with another one from the same arm, before firing off another with the opposite. "Those are jabs. They don't hurt as much as a big punch, but they can punish an opponent who isn't guarding, and they're quick enough to follow most other attacks."

Jaune imitated her, a little less straight than she did, but acceptable.

She threw another jab, followed by a looping right. "That right was a hook punch. You can use a hook to try and get around a block, or hit an opponent hard enough to stagger them."

She continued on, Jaune imitating her moves. His kicks were a lot sloppier than his punches, and those weren't fantastic either, but he was starting to pick up. It seemed that he felt most comfortable on the defensive, as his jabs were surprisingly fast, although slightly crooked. He leaned too much into his uppercuts, which would give any potential opponent a good opportunity to punish him with a jab or a haymaker. His kicks were wobbly and unbalanced, to the point where he nearly fell in his attempt at a roundhouse kick. But, his knee strikes were surprisingly stiff, as were his forearm strikes. Sure, those were the hardest parts of the body, but he seemed a lot more comfortable with them than extending himself with kicks or fancy combos.

"Okay, I think I'm ready," he said, and, despite all of Pyrrha's inhibitions about his technique, she figured it was best for him to learn by trial-and-error. And by error, she meant 'a lot of getting decked in the face'. She'd at least try to be gentle, for his sake.

"Very well, let's begin."

Jaune smiled, slowly approaching her, hands raised. He at least had the stance right. He threw a quick jab, which was effortlessly blocked, as were its two follow-ups. Jaune went for a hook, which she swatted aside before throwing a snap uppercut that caught him in the jaw, rocking him. The next few jabs were aimed at his gut, then followed by a wide right hook he barely was able to block in time.

Undeterred, he swung, barely missing her forehead and sending a slight breeze through her hair, forcing her to duck to the side and sock him in the abdomen, before sweeping his feet out from under him and kneeling beside him. "One to nothing, Jaune."

"Okay, then!" he said, brushing off her offer to help him up and shaking his head. "Let's try this again."

Pyrrha couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. "Good luck!"

He lowers himself, rushing in with a jab to the abdomen, following it up with two more, the second of which Pyrrha sidesteps, countering with a kick that lifts him up from his lower position to full height as he tries to regain his senses. She throws a roundhouse to follow up, but he's surprisingly able to duck it, and kick her shin, causing her leg to buckle slightly as she goes to turn and face him. He follows it up with a hook that she has to rush to block, leaving her unable to stop his follow up jab. He throws a knee, which she bats aside. She retorts with a kick that catches him in the chin, followed by sweeping the leg right to catch his face with her shoe. He spins, trying to hit her with the back of his fist, and actually connects, his knuckles smacking into her mouth hard enough to stagger her.

"Oh, crap, Pyrrha! You okay!?" he asks. "Didn't mean to hit you that hard!"

Her Aura almost instantaneously heals the cut that blow made on her lip, and she smiles at him. "You hit me, congratulations! You're getting better, Jaune."

"That's it?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, noooo. I was going easy on you."

Jaune HATED when he accidentally brought out his partner's competitive side.


"Oooow..."

Pyrrha awkwardly looked away as Jaune clutched an ice pack to the big whelp on the side of his head from a flying back kick.

"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha clutched her hands nervously, expression downcast.

"No, it's okay. Now we're even for me getting you in the face."

"Jaune, you busted open my lip. I gave you bruises on 65 percent of your body, a black eye, and nearly gave you a concussion. That is NOT even."

"Seems fair to me."

She groaned at his obstinate defense of her, holding her head. "Still, I hit you a little harder than I needed to, and I apologize."

"Pyrrha, it's fine. Don't beat yourself up about it. Beat me up instead, you're pretty good at that."

"JAUNE!" She blanched at that. "Y-you!"

"Kidding, kidding. I like it like that!"

"Wait... you what!?"

Ren looked up from his book. "Kinky."

"That's not what I meant, Ren, and you know that!"

"So you say, Jaune, so you say..." Ren muttered sagely as he looked back at his book.

"So... wanna get lunch? RWBY should be back from second hour by now," Jaune stood up, dropping the icepack on the bed.

Pyrrha thought about it for a moment, and nodded. "Let me shower and change first, okay?"

Ren gave a sly wink to Jaune, who did not understand what the hell he meant. "I'll meet you guys there, I guess." With that, he walked out, throwing his bag full of books over his shoulder, shutting the door behind him.

"You're not really going to shower and change, or go down to the canteen, are you?" Ren asked his teammate.

"No," Pyrrha snapped, before flopping onto her bed with the grace of a drunken tortoise in high heels. Her thoughts were everywhere but lunch, or RWBY, or really, anything that wasn't Jaune. Ah, 12:30 introspection: the worst part of her schedule.

"How do you do it, Ren?"

"Do what?"

"Live with having the person you like... you know, not liking you."

Although he was tempted to tell her he had found out otherwise and that she and Sun owed her 500 lien apiece, he figured that what Nora, Sun, Pyrrha, and anyone else in the betting pool didn't need to know that.

"Jaune likes you, Pyrrha."

"You know what I mean, Ren."

"Look, as your not gay gay best friend, I'm going to be frank with you. You need to be honest with him."

"He still likes Weiss! I thought after the dance, he finally realized how I felt, but he went right back to pining after her..."

"Look, Weiss is eventually going to get tired of this charade and come complaining to either you or me- Nora would just go and beat Jaune over the head with Weiss' body- and then it will be as simple as telling him. Pyrrha, you're a great teammate, and a wonderful person, but you have the self confidence of a home-schooler in a game of shots."

She was silent at that. Mainly because she didn't know what 'shots' was. Maybe she'd ask Yang later.

"I'll tell you what, give me a few days. I'll think of something."

Pyrrha chuckled, sitting up. "Don't waste your valuable time on me, Ren."

"Pyrrha, I have spent so much brainpower on you two, it might kill me if I stop. Please, don't worry about it."

Pyrrha stood up, stretching her arms. "I'm going to take a shower, thanks Ren."

"No problem."

She walked into the bath, but stopped, looking back out of the doorframe. "Why do you not talk to anyone in public as much as you do here? Just wondering."

Ren looked up, as if staring through the ceiling at something. He eventually looked back at his Amazonian teammate. "I guess I just like you all more than everyone else."

As she stepped back into the shower, Ren thought about just what he had walked himself into yet again. For some reason, Ren hated seeing people upset- perhaps it was because of him being bullied so badly during his childhood due to his lack of a family, or maybe it was a deeply entrenched belief in the power of joy, or something like that, but he knew, as of right now, only one thing.

'I WILL be a groomsman at least ONCE in my lifetime.'


"Jaune, what the hell happened to you!?" Yang asked, staring at the blonde noodle across the table from her. He looked like he had tried to fight a speeding train and lost. Yang was many things that may or may not be insulting, but she was RWBYJNPR's unofficial 'big sis', and if someone fucked with anyone in her brood, they were gonna get put in a body bag.

"Me and Pyrrha were sparring, and we got a little overzealous..." he explained, eye still half-shut. "I'm okay, I promise."

"Jaune, are you sure?" Blake asked, looking concerned. "You can go to the nurse."

"I'm fine, it's only 65 percent of my body!"

"FRICKING MONTY, JAUNE!" Ruby shouted, slamming her fists on the table, "65 percent of your body is beat the shiz out of!?"

"Uh... no?"

Weiss facepalmed, shaking her head. "I will never understand any of you... even Pyrrha has joined in the insanity..."

Blake's cat ears perked up as she started looking around. Jaune noticed that she seemed disturbed by something, and looked where she was looking. Sure enough, Asher Maddox sat not that far from their group, looking at them.

"You seen that redheaded chick?"

"Which one?" Yang asked, looking confused. "And who are you again?"

"Uh, the one with the really long hair. I'm Asher Maddox."

"Oh, I have a class with Asher," Weiss said. "He shouted some inane thing in our class one day..."

"Why are you looking for Pyrrha?" Blake asked.

"Wanted to see why she ran out of class like she was about to miss an appointment with the almighty."

"She's still in our dorm, I can tell her you were looking for her," Jaune informed him.

"Yeah, thanks, guy."

The main cast of our story all looked away from the guy they didn't really know that well at all, due to his bit role in this story that up to this point was simply 'oh he's JNPR's nice neighbor man.' What he wanted with Pyrrha was beyond their comprehension, although Blake instinctively didn't like it, and made a note to say something to Ren. Everyone else found his presence unusual but believable, because this is a fanfiction, and you can do that in fanfiction-

"Guys, it sounds like someone's trying to punch a hole in the wall," Ruby noted, looking around the building for any sort of visual evidence.

Whoops.

Ren and Ruby really need to stop cramping my style, guys.

Anyway, the plot thickens! Another character decides to go get some dank eyewear, Maddox ends up in the middle of a shipping pool because he can't keep his goddamn nose out of people's business. Pyrrha continues to have vague and passive-aggressive interactions with Jaune! Nora... Noras!

By the way, I apologize for the weird schedule. I finally caught up with Dangan Ronpa, and my favorite character literally died right at the beginning of the arc (well, I think she's dead, Junko's died already, and she's still kicking aboot.), so fuck me, right? Anyway, I'll see everyone in the next update! READ AND REVIEW!