Sleeping Fountain Plaza - Kanzakai
After walking what seemed like forever from the cathedral, Jaune now found himself in what appeared to be a shopping plaza, with a giant water fountain placed at the center of the buildings surrounding it. Above the fountains were wireframes illuminating patterns like constellations from space. It was quite a beautiful sight to behold, but the beauty of the fountain couldn't put Jaune at ease, knowing he still needed to find out what happened to the rest of his team.
"Still having no luck finding the others," thought Jaune. "And again, I've wandered into some weird place I haven't seen before. I wonder if Kanji and Makoto are doing any better."
Jaune decided to sit at the edge of the fountain to go over everything that happened so far. His team were brought into a weird dimension that also involved people from other worlds. Some of them were hostile and had attempted to cost Jaune's chances of going home, while a couple of others appeared to be in the same situation Jaune was in.
"Now that I think about it, there seems to be a lot of people who were dragged into this and have to search for people close to them. Were they also given Keystones like me? Did the voice tell them they can't go home unless they get the Keystones too? But then there are others who just want to fight for the keystone and don't care about anyone else! Just what the heck is the point of this tournament anyway?"
What got Jaune frustrated more than being away from his team was not having a single clue as to what was really going on. All he was told by whatever voice was announcing all these fights was he needed to keep his Keystone and reach the goal to go home. But why did he need the Keystone and not those big guys he fought earlier? What was the Keystone supposed to even do to get him home? And just where or what exactly was this "goal" he was supposed to reach?
"If this Keystone wasn't likely so important, I would chuck it into this fountain and be done with it! Maybe I should throw it and wish for someone to explain what's going on!"
Jaune took out his Keystone and stood up, very tempted to throw his crystal into the water just to see what would happen. He turned around to get a look at the giant fountain when he suddenly noticed someone pacing around the opposite end of the fountain. He couldn't quite tell who it was, but they appeared to be a boy around his age half-blonde/half-black hair.
"Huh? Looks like there's someone standing at the other end. What could he be up to?"
Jaune quickly pocketed his Keystone as to not attract attention to himself and silently got closer, making sure he stayed out of sight. The boy had his arms folded and looked like he was anxiously waiting for somebody to show up.
The kid pacing back and forth in front of the fountain was a high school student named Hyde Kido. He had been out on patrol during the Hollow Night happening in his hometown when suddenly he and his partner Linne were somehow teleported into an entirely different world and were told they were competing in a tournament over Keystones. Without any clear information as to what was going on, Hyde and Linne simply fought whatever strangers they came across just like they did during the Hollow Night, hoping to find answers along the way. A couple of minutes passed before Linne finally showed up again; Jaune was surprised to see a little girl fighting in this tournament.
"Is that who he was waiting for?" thought Jaune. "That girl looks like she's ten! How did someone as young as her get involved in this?"
"Any luck finding the other Keystones?" asked Hyde.
"None," replied Linne. "No one I've come across had a Keystone on them."
"Fantastic. At this rate, we're going to be stuck here forever."
"Only if you keep whining instead of actually searching."
Hyde sighed and went to sit by the fountain; Jaune quickly moved back to make sure he wasn't suddenly spotted.
"I'm starting to think that voice is lying about there being other Keystones," said Hyde. "Hell, why are we doing this in the first place?"
"I haven't figured it out yet myself," says Linne, "but until then, all we can do is keep fighting."
"He mentioned other Keystones!" thought Jaune. "They must have a Keystone like me!"
"Look," said Hyde, "I'm more than willing to fight, but we've pretty much been going around in circles fighting these random people from other worlds. Maybe we should start asking them to help us out."
"Don't be an idiot, Hyde," replied Linne. "You should know better than to rely on anyone from the other worlds."
"They can't be all bad, Linne. What if we come across someone who happens to want the same goal as us?"
"Better to be safe than sorry. I'm going to keep investigating up ahead. If you find someone with a Keystone, do not hesitate to take it from them. Got it?"
"Yeah, I got it."
Linne rolled her eyes; she clearly would have tried to do this herself if it weren't for that stupid tag rule. It wasn't that Hyde was completely useless, but Linne was far more experienced about these sorts of situations than Hyde, and deep down, she was worried about getting Hyde involved in something he shouldn't, just like that dreadful night. In the blink of an eye, Linne suddenly ran out of sight. With seemingly no one around him, Hyde reached into his pocket and pulled out something; Jaune couldn't exactly tell what it was, but it was purple and definitely shining.
"Is that his Keystone?" thought Jaune. "I have to get a closer look!"
Jaune stood up and leaned over to try and see Hyde's Keystone without getting caught, only to suddenly lose his grip on the edge of the fountain and plunge right into the water. The sound of Jaune making a big splash startled Hyde; he shoved his Keystone back into his pocket and turned his attention to Jaune.
"Who's there?" yelled Hyde.
"Jeez that's cold!" said Jaune, jumping out of the fountain and trying to dry himself off.
"Who are you? Were you trying to get the jump on me?"
Jaune panicked, realizing he was busted.
"What?" said Jaune. "No! Not at all, I swear!"
"Then what are you doing here?"
Getting caught red handed and soaking wet, Jaune knew there wasn't going to be a point in trying to lie or run away, so he might as well come out with the truth.
"There's no use hiding it," said Jaune. "I overheard everything you and that girl were saying about the Keystones."
"You know something about them?" asked Hyde.
"The truth is...I have a Keystone too."
Jaune reluctantly pulled out his Keystone. Hyde was surprised that by dumb luck he wound up finding another person with a Keystone like his. Hyde pulled out his own Keystone to make sure they were the same. Sure enough, Jaune and Hyde's Keystones were the same size and shape; the only difference being Jaune's was colored red and Hyde's was colored purple.
"So there really are other Keystones after all," said Hyde.
"Yeah," said Jaune, "and now comes the hard part. I...I need your Keystone as well."
Knowing where this was inevitably leading towards, Hyde put away his Keystone and clapped his hands together. When he separated his hands, his signature weapon - a long red-tinted katana known as the Insulator - suddenly emerged from his left palm.
"You do realize I need this Keystone as well, right?" said Hyde, pointing his katana straight at Jaune's face. "I lose this Keystone, I lose any chance I have of going home!"
"I'm in the same position as you are, man!" said Jaune, pocketing his Keystone and pulling out his own sword and pointing it at Hyde. "I need to get the Keystones so my friends and I can go home!"
"Well, one of us is going to have to lose their Keystone, and I'm not going to let it be me by any means!"
"Same here! I've got friends that are counting on me!"
"And I've got people I need to save!"
Hyde and Jaune gripped their swords tight as they stared into the eyes of their foe, waiting for their opponent to make the first move. Both slowly started to move around in a circle, keeping their blades held high to protect themselves. Both teased making the first move, hoping to throw the other man off. Barely a minute passed by between the two young swordsmen but standing around doing nothing made it feel like an eternity.
"Well?" said Hyde. "Didn't you say you need my Keystone? Are you going to attack me or what?"
"What about you?" said Jaune. "You want my Keystone so badly, why not start attacking me?"
"I do want that Keystone! I just..."
"...you don't want really want to do this either, do you?"
As badly as these two wanted each other's Keystones, in the back of their minds, they really didn't want to fight each other. It would have been so much easier if the person standing across from them were clearly a villain or at least acted obnoxious enough to warrant a fight, but neither of them were malicious enough to justify taking serious action.
"Damn it, I can't do this!" said Hyde, taking a seat by the fountain. "I don't care what that voice said! This just doesn't feel right!"
"Yeah," said Jaune, taking a seat as well. "I mean, I want to get back to my world as well, but at the same time...I don't want it to be at the expense of you and everyone else trying to do the same thing!"
"I agree. Besides, I have no idea how these Keystones are supposed to do anything anyway! Do you have any idea about what's going on?"
"I'm about as clueless as you are."
Both looked up to the sky, with only a full moon lighting up the area; or rather, whatever the being behind this tournament was using to simulate a full moon, but neither Hyde nor Jaune wanted to give themselves a headache trying to think about it.
"Since we're not fighting each other," said Jaune, "we might as well get to know each other. I'm Jaune Arc; my friends and I got dragged into this tournament while we were training."
"Hyde Kido," said Hyde. "At first I thought this was another case of the Hollow Night and more In-births emerging, but nobody aside from people I know look to be In-births."
"In-births? Is that what they call the freaky super powered people in your world?"
"Yeah, but I really wouldn't describe them as...actually, now that I think about it, that fits a lot of the In-births I've seen. What do they call the people with special powers in your world?"
"Well, most of the people who have a special power known as a 'Semblance' become Huntsmen. We train to fight monsters who try harming people."
"Monster fighting, huh? I know a little too well what that's like."
"Let me guess: It's dangerous as all heck, but somebody's got to do it, right?"
"But were you dragged into it like I was?" asked Hyde, gripping down on one of his shoulders.
"Not really. I take it the way you're holding your shoulder, that wasn't the case with you?"
"I didn't exactly sign up to be an In-birth. I just happened to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. So whether I like it or not, I'm stuck fighting monsters for who knows how long. One day I'm going to end the Hollow Night for good and go back to being a normal kid with-"
"Normal knees?" said Jaune.
"What? Normal knees? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, um...never mind, I was thinking of someone else."
"Pardon the interruption, gentlemen!" said a posh feminine voice.
Hyde and Jaune looked around to see who was talking but didn't see anybody. They then noticed someone or something floating down from above; it appeared to be a young girl with body-length pigtails dressed in a frilly black gown, coming down from the sky with an umbrella with a giant cat's head on top. The girl gracefully landed in front of the two; she appeared to be just slightly older than the little girl Jaune saw talking to Hyde.
"Who are you?" asked Jaune.
"My name is Rachel Alucard," replied the strange girl.
"What are you supposed to be?" asked Hyde. "An In-birth, a Huntsman, or neither?"
"In-birth? Huntsman? I have no earthly idea what you're talking about. I am here because I believe you two have Keystones upon your persons, do you not?"
"And why exactly would you want to know?" asked Jaune.
"I think it's obvious as to why!" replied Hyde, standing up and gripping his sword. "The real question is what does she know about them?"
"Answer my question first!" said Rachel. "Do you or do you not have any Keystones?"
Despite being a tiny girl, something about the way Rachel spoke intimidated Jaune enough for him to quickly pull out his Keystone to show Rachel. Hyde wished Jaune didn't immediately do that, but since Jaune jumped the gun, Hyde pulled out his Keystone as well.
"The purple and red ones...perfect! Now, be so kindly as to hand over the Keystones, please."
"Um...no?" replied Hyde. "I'm not just going to hand over my Keystone to you."
"Same here!" said Jaune, standing up and grabbing his weapon. "These Keystones are too important for us to lose!"
"The both of you want to escape this world and return to your own respective worlds, do you not?" asked Rachel.
"No kidding?" said Hyde. "That's why I'm not giving you my Keystone!"
"That goes ditto for me!" said Jaune. "If you want our Keystones, you're either going to explain exactly what they are or fight us for it!"
"I don't have time to explain the details to two imbeciles who wouldn't understand," said Rachel. "I need those Keystones to ratify this situation we're all in."
"Like we're going to trust some random stranger who just shows up and starts making demands?" replied Hyde.
"Yeah!" said Jaune. "I've already got a random voice telling me what to do!"
"Random voice?" said Rachel. "Are you referring to the Moderator of this tournament?"
"The voice that just comes out and makes matches out of nowhere? Yeah, her!"
"Wait a minute," said Hyde. "Do you know who that voice is? You know something important about this tournament, don't you?"
"As I said before!" said Rachel, getting flustered from Hyde's accusations. "I don't have time to waste on details! Hand over the Keystones or else neither of us will make it home!"
"No thanks," said Hyde. "Linne would kill me if I made such a stupid decision."
"I'm with Hyde!" said Jaune. "That would be the one mistake my friends wouldn't forgive me for!"
"All right then," said Rachel. "Time for plan B. Noel! Come here at once!"
Suddenly, a girl with long blonde hair and wearing a small blue cloak and skirt quickly came running towards them. The most notable thing Jaune and Hyde noticed about her were the giant handguns she wielded in each hand.
"What is it, Rachel?" asked Noel. "Were these two trying to attack you?"
"Why do you assume WE did something wrong?!" said Jaune.
"If anything," said Hyde, "you two are the ones coming off as the bad guys!"
"These two have the Keystones we need!" said Rachel. "We must defeat them in order to retrieve the stones!"
Before Jaune or Hyde could explain what was happening, Noel pointed her guns at Jaune and Hyde.
"Please, surrender your Keystones or we'll use force!" said Noel.
"We're not giving up our Keystones!" said Hyde. "I don't care who I have to fight; no one is going to ruin my chances of getting home!"
"Me too!" said Jaune.
"Then use force we shall," said Rachel. "Moderator, please make this match official."
"Already on it! It's a battle between Jaune and Hyde vs. Rachel and Noel, with the winner walking away with not one, but TWO Keystones! That makes this match twice as exciting!"
"So, which of you foolish gentlemen shall dance with me first?" asked Rachel.
"Allow me!" said Jaune, stepping up to face Rachel.
"Be careful, man," said Hyde. "Something tells me she's more dangerous than she appears."
"I'll be keeping an eye on you!" remarked Noel, pointing her guns at Hyde.
"Hey! I just said we're not the bad guys here!"
"All right, break it up you two! You'll have plenty of time to pummel each other as soon I officially begin the match! Is everybody ready?"
"I'd rather you'd just get to the point already," said Rachel.
"Oh, you're no fun. Very well! Get ready...annnnd...FIGHT!"
Jaune charged at Rachel as soon as the fight was officially started. Rachel simply waited for Jaune to get close before raising her hand up and causing a strong gust of wind to suddenly come up underneath Jaune and tripping him to fall flat on his face.
"Oh my," said Rachel. "Are you always this clumsy?"
Rather than respond, Jaune simply got up and swung his sword at Rachel; the part of Rachel's dress that looked like bat wings suddenly transformed into a giant fork and knife and blocked Jaune's swing. Jaune kept swinging at Rachel, only for Rachel to transform her bat wings into all sorts of weird objects to block Jaune's swings.
"Your dancing is dull and a blight on the eyes. Allow me to show you a truly elegant dance!"
Rachel's umbrella suddenly sprouted a giant arm and grabbed Jaune's sword, allowing Rachel to slash at Jaune with the wings on her dress. Rachel spun around like a ballerina as her wings turned into thorns, slashing Jaune several times across his armor. As Rachel flew high into the air, her bat suddenly transformed into a giant spike as Rachel quickly came falling; Jaune jumped back before he was crushed underneath Rachel. Rachel's cat umbrella transformed into a pillow, allowing Rachel to sit on the ground and relax.
"I didn't have any expectations about your dancing," said Rachel, before letting out a long yawn. "But I must say I'm quite disappointed by your complete lack of grace."
"I'll show you lack of grace!" yelled Jaune.
Jaune gripped his sword with both hands and went for one giant swing on Rachel; Rachel snapped her fingers and suddenly turned her cat pillow into a throne. As soon as Jaune struck the throne, he suddenly got electrocuted and was sent flying back.
"Indeed, you have," said Rachel. "I've barely used any of my power and I can already tell you are hardly a match for me."
"You tell him, princess!" said Nago, her talking cat familiar.
"He doesn't stand a chance against you!" said Gii, her talking bat familiar.
"Shut up you...whatever you things are!" said Jaune, angry to hear unnecessary commentary for his fight. "Just so you know, I haven't used the full extent of my power either!"
"Please tell me you aren't bluffing!" said Hyde.
"I'm not! I have a lot of power! I just..."
"Just what?" asked Rachel.
"I...don't-know-how-to-really-use-it," mumbled Jaune, not wanting to admit he had no idea how to tap into whatever his Semblance supposedly was. Hyde couldn't quite understand what Jaune said, but he knew it couldn't be good.
"Seriously Jaune," said Hyde, "maybe I should step in for you on this one."
"I concur," said Rachel. "This dance has become quite boring. I'll allow you to switch out unharmed just this once."
"I'm fine!" said Jaune. "Go ahead and throw out whatever weird stuff you've got! I'm ready for it!"
"If you insist," replied Rachel, turning Nago back into an umbrella as she stood up. "Let us continue this dance of ours!"
Rachel created a glyph and summoned a fat bat to throw at Jaune. As Jaune dodged the attack, the bat fell to the ground and suddenly transformed into a pole. Rachel threw two more bats at Jaune which also turned into poles behind Jaune. Hyde could instantly tell Rachel was setting up a big attack.
"Watch it, Jaune!" said Hyde. "Something tells me those things aren't just for show!"
"What things?" asked Jaune. Jaune turned around and noticed the poles created by Rachel's familiars. "Trying to set me up for a trap, huh? We'll see about that!"
Before Rachel can use her attack, Jaune swung his sword at the poles, cutting each of them apart. The bats used by Rachel all collapsed to the ground, looking like they couldn't get back up.
"I'm not that dumb!" said Jaune. "You'll have to do better than that to beat me!"
"Oh, darn!" said Rachel. "And here I thought I had you cornered! Curses!"
"Why did that sound heavily sarcastic?" thought Hyde.
As Rachel was acting like she had been caught red-handed, the bats Jaune knocked over suddenly got up and were flying towards Jaune.
"Jaune, look out!" yelled Hyde.
"Look out for-?"
Jaune was suddenly cut off by the bats suddenly bursting into bolts of lightning that electrocuted Jaune upon contact. After that last attack, Jaune was down on one knee, feeling his aura getting low.
"Was that better?" asked Rachel, in response to Jaune's boastful remark. "And now for your punishment!"
Rachel turned Nago into a cannon and fired several bats at Jaune, all turning into poles surrounding Jaune. With Jaune on the verge of getting himself eliminated, Hyde knew now was the time to tag himself in.
"Jaune, duck!" yelled Hyde.
Jaune laid on the ground as Hyde swung his katana and released his Black Orbiter projectile towards Rachel, cutting off Rachel's familiars. Rachel quickly turned Nago into a shield to protect herself from the attack.
"Looks like you're not quite as foolish as your partner," remarked Rachel.
"And you're not clever as you think you are!" said Hyde as he helped Jaune get back to his feet. "I'll take it from here, Jaune!"
Barely able to move at that point, Jaune didn't protest as he simply nodded and shuffled aside to get out of Hyde's way. Hyde held up his katana and looked down the blade of his weapon towards Rachel, as if taking aim and getting ready to lunge his sword at Rachel. Hyde held out his sword and swiftly rushed towards Rachel; before Hyde could reach Rachel, Rachel used her power over wind to fly several feet up, distancing herself safely away from Hyde.
"I doubt even someone like you can reach me-"
Just when Rachel thought she was in the clear, Hyde suddenly jumped towards Rachel with his blade, catching Rachel off guard and slashing upwards across her body. As both landed back on the ground, Rachel turned Nago into a blade to thrust at Hyde; Hyde ducked and swept Rachel off her feet with a roundhouse kick. As Rachel tried to get up, Hyde swiftly jumped towards her and kneed her in the face, following up with several upward slashes with his sword, sending both into the air. Hyde knocked Rachel back to the ground with one final swing; Jaune was surprised to see how good Hyde was with just his sword.
"Whoa!" said Jaune. "How are you able to do that?"
"Would you believe me if I said this thing's got a mind of its own?" replied Hyde. As much as Hyde would love to brag about how strong he was, he knew it also helped his weapon sometimes acted on its own and his body simply followed suit.
"Princess!" said Nago. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," said Rachel, getting up and dusting herself off. "It seems I've underestimated the opposition. Care to dance in my stead, Noel?"
"No problem!" said Noel, running in and pointing her guns at Hyde. "This is your final warning! You can still surrender the Keystones peacefully and avoid this fighting!"
"How many times do we have to say 'no' until you finally get it?" said Hyde. "Don't you realize what will happen if I lose the Keystone?"
"But I'm just trying to-"
"Enough, Noel!" said Rachel. "There's no point in talking to these fools! Now hurry up and dispose of them!"
Seeing Noel hesitating to fight, Hyde tried to take advantage by created a large Black Orbiter and launching it at Noel. Noel ceased arguing with Rachel and instead slid under the Black Orbiter, then quickly got back to her feet and ran towards Hyde, firing several rounds of her Ars Magus bullets. Hyde held up his sword to block the strange magical bullets Noel was firing. Hyde swung his Insulator at Noel, but Noel easily dodged Hyde's swings as she kept firing her revolvers no matter her position, all without missing a beat in her step. Desperate to land a hit, Hyde swung for Noel's head. Before the blade got near Noel, Noel suddenly spun herself towards Hyde and was able to get behind him in an instant, avoiding his attack and shoulder tackling to the ground. Noel aimed her revolver and fired several rounds on a fallen Hyde. Even though the Ars Magus bullets didn't penetrate through Hyde, they still caused some serious back pain for the young In-birth. Hyde slowly got back up to one knee as Noel kept her guns pointed at Hyde.
"You can see now how outmatched you are," said Noel. "I'll still give you one more chance to give up."
"Give it up, Noel!" said Rachel. "These fools are too arrogant to give up now."
"Yeah!" said Jaune. "We're too...I mean, we're not giving up! Right, Hyde?"
"Sorry Jaune," winced Hyde, "but I'm not sure we can take them."
As Hyde was gripping his shoulder with his left hand, his right hand was shaking as his Insulator was slowly covering itself in dark energy. Noel noticed the sword being covered in its dark aura.
"What are you up to with that sword?" asked Noel.
"You tell me!" said Hyde. "Sometimes my hand doesn't listen and does something like-"
Before Hyde finished, he suddenly jumped up and swung his energy covered Insulator upward at Noel; the power of the sword's mysterious energy was enough to send Noel flying back.
"...that," finished Hyde. With Noel thrown off by Hyde's surprise attack, Hyde went back on the offensive, trying to keep pressure on Noel with constant slashes of his Insulator. Between Noel's hesitation and his strange sword, Rachel knew Hyde was not going to be as easy to defeat as she first thought.
"That boy with the katana is stronger than I thought," thought Rachel. "Perhaps it's time to employ the assistance of one George XIII."
Rachel created a small summoning glyph and brought out a large frog, who proceeded to crawl towards his intended target. Meanwhile, Noel was trying to counter Hyde's slashing with her mix of kicks and gunfire, avoiding most of Hyde's attacks from the way she danced around him. Jaune was watching how Noel was fighting and tried to find a flaw to her style he and Hyde could use to their advantage but couldn't find any weakness to exploit.
"That girl with the guns is so fast and unpredictable!" thought Jaune. "Unless she somehow runs out of ammo, I'm not sure what we can do to beat her!"
As Jaune was watching the battle unfold, Jaune noticed something crawling on the ground near where Noel and Hyde were fighting. Jaune got a better look and realized it was a large frog. Jaune couldn't help but turn his attention to the frog, wondering if Hyde or Noel would stop in order to not accidentally hit the frog.
"Is that a frog? Did that thing come out of the fountain? I hope it doesn't accidentally get in the way. Although, now that I think about, this is the first time I've seen any kind of animal in this..."
As Jaune was realizing he never saw any animals since coming to this strange world, he noticed the frog stopped and look up, as if trying to watch the fight itself. When Hyde and Noel stopped to catch their breath, the frog started crawling towards Hyde.
"Wait a minute...it must be another one of those weird girl's tricks! I have to stop it from reaching Hyde!"
Hyde and Noel stopped for a few seconds to catch their breath, both evenly matched and unaware of the little amphibian about to attack Hyde.
"You're not a bad fighter!" said Hyde, holding up his katana. "But I'm just getting started showing how strong I really am!"
"Look out, Hyde!" yelled Jaune, suddenly jumping towards Hyde with his shield. Hyde quickly stepped aside as Jaune dove to the ground hiding behind his shield, blocking George XIII as he tried to hop onto Hyde. As soon as George made contact with Jaune's shield, he let loose a burst of electricity that would have done serious damage had Jaune not used his shield to absorb some of the electricity. Once George discharged, he quickly vanished into thin air.
"What the hell was that?" asked Hyde.
"That weird girl tried to use one of her animals on you!"
Despite George XIII not reaching Hyde, he did ultimately provide a distraction as Rachel planned. With Hyde distracted by Rachel's familiars, Noel knew now was the time to break out the big guns. Noel ran up to Hyde as she transformed her revolvers into her Gatling gun, Fenrir. Noel knocked Hyde back with the barrel of her Fenrir, then proceeded to fire powerful rapid rounds into Hyde. Hyde was unable to shield himself from the onslaught of Ars Magus rounds coming from Noel's Fenrir; Noel eventually used the force of her Ars Magus rounds to launch Hyde into the air. As Hyde was in the air, Noel then transformed Fenrir back into her revolvers with a small rocket attached one of the gun's barrels. Noel took aim and fired her rocket at Hyde, dealing a serious amount of damage.
Seeing Hyde nearly knocked out by Noel's attack, Jaune stumbled back to his feet and tried to get under Hyde to break his fall. Hyde landed on top of Jaune, both collapsing to the floor and barely able to move.
"You okay, Hyde?" asked Jaune.
"I feel like my entire body is suffering a headache," said Hyde. "Yourself?"
"Yeah...same."
The two couldn't help but give sheepish smiles to each other at the thought of two complete strangers appearing to be one in the same, at least in terms of how messed up both were feeling now.
"Moderator, I believe this match is now over!" said Rachel. "Declare us the winners now!"
"Sorry Rachel, but I still sense some fighting spirit in these two! The match goes on!"
"Are you sure?" asked Noel. "Because neither of them look like-"
"Very well!" said Rachel. "Which of you shall step up for one final dance?"
"I've still got plenty of energy left in me!" said Hyde, standing up and holding up his sword.
"Wait!" said Jaune, slowly getting back to his feet as well. "You've done more than enough in this fight! Time for me to make up for it!"
"But you can barely move, Jaune! Just sit back and let me handle this!"
"No way! I'm not going to let you lose your Keystone because of me!"
"And what if you get taken down? That means you lose your Keystone as well!"
"I have no time for this!" declared Rachel. "If neither of you fools can decide who falls first, then I shall decide for you!"
As Rachel charged towards them, Jaune held up his shield and decided he was going to step up against Rachel. Once Rachel was close enough, Jaune tried to swing his sword down on Rachel, only for Rachel to suddenly conjure up a tornado that launched Jaune into the air and falling into the fountain behind Hyde. With Jaune out of the way, Rachel could now focus on the In-birth causing her so much trouble.
The damage done by Noel was a lot worse than Hyde wanted to let on. As Hyde was trying to fight off Rachel, his swings were noticeably weaker and slower than before, allowing Rachel to easily block them with her transforming bat wings. As Hyde kept making blind swings, Rachel threw several bats at Hyde, surrounding him with the lightning rods she used before. After blocking another swing from Hyde, Rachel kicked Hyde hard in the shin, then back-slapped him so hard he fell to the ground, positioned right between the lightning rods.
"I must say you were quite a lovely dancer," said Rachel. "But I'm afraid this is where we must bid adieu."
With Hyde too weak to get up in time, Rachel spread out her wings and created a giant lightning storm with the help of her rods. By the time Jaune finally got up, the storm had already ceded; Hyde collapsed to the ground, unable to keep fighting. A soaking wet Jaune stumbled out of the fountain and ran over to Hyde.
"Hyde!" said Jaune. "Are you all right?"
"Dammit," said Hyde. "I wasn't as strong as I thought. Sorry I couldn't hold out longer, Jaune."
"C'mon man, you can still do this!" Jaune tried to pick up Hyde to get him back to his feet, but Hyde swatted Jaune's arm away.
"Forget about me, Jaune. It's all up to you now. But hey...no hard feelings if we lose, all right?"
"A strong effort from our rookie In-birth, but I'm afraid he's in no condition to continue! Tough break, Jauney-boy!"
Jaune barely knew Hyde, but seeing Hyde lie there in defeat upset him. He could only imagine the friends Hyde had likely let down; how they would feel knowing their chances of going home had gone up in smoke; how Hyde may never forgive himself for screwing everything up.
Even though she was half responsible for it, Noel felt somewhat guilty having to take down Hyde the way she did.
"Is he going to be all right?" asked Noel.
"He'll be fine...eventually," said Rachel. "Now to take out the other ruffian and obtain his Keystone as well."
"Do you even realize what you've done?" asked Jaune.
"I beg your pardon?" said Rachel.
"I said do you know what you've done? Or maybe...you just don't care!"
Jaune turned back towards the pair, tears coming down his face as he tightly gripped his shield and sword.
"We need these Keystones to go home...to save our friends...and you...you just took that all away from him! He could have just taken my Keystone like his friend told him to! He didn't have to help me protect my Keystone at the cost of his own, and now he might never get home! Does any of that matter to you?!"
"Were you not paying attention to what I said before?" asked an annoyed Rachel. "I know what we need the Keystones for! Had you only obeyed my instructions instead of whining like petulant children, you could have avoided all this! You and your friend have no one to blame but yourselves!"
"But Rachel," said Noel, "don't you think you're being a bit harsh on them? I mean, if you told them the truth about the Keystones-"
"I've wasted enough time babbling! Prepare for your final dance!"
Jaune didn't have a strategy for winning, so he just charged head-on towards Rachel as if blinded with rage. Rachel waited for Jaune to get close before Nago changed forms to strike Jaune with an overhead chop. Jaune held his shield up to block Nago's attack, then Jaune swung his sword at Rachel with everything he had, able to land a decent hit on Rachel and pushing her back. Seeing his chance to follow-up, Jaune went for another swing before Noel suddenly slid in and fired her Ars Magus bullet at Jaune's feet to trip him over.
"This isn't personal!" said Noel. "I'm just doing what I must!"
With Noel taking Rachel's place, Jaune got up and swung at Noel, only for Noel to easily dodge his swing and fire another bullet into Jaune. The more Jaune kept trying to swing, the more Noel dodged and fired another bullet into Jaune.
"This is bad," thought Hyde. "Jaune doesn't stand a chance. I guess this really is the end for both of us. Sorry, Linne."
Eventually, Jaune was too weak to keep going and needed to catch his breath, barely holding himself by a thread.
"Now, Noel!" commanded Rachel. "Finish him off!"
Noel nodded and jumped high into the air, firing several powerful rounds with her hand guns. Without any way to reach Noel, Jaune held up his shield and tried to block the oncoming rain of bullets, but even blocking barely helped as the force of the bullets still damaged him. Noel then transformed her guns into her rocket launcher Thor and fired. The rocket collided into Jaune and caused a massive explosion, covering the area around Jaune in black smoke.
"Is it over?" asked Noel.
"Of course, it is," said Rachel. "That boy was down on his last legs; there's no way he could have withstood..."
As the smoke was starting to clear up, no one could believe what they suddenly saw. They expected Jaune to be out cold, but instead, he was still standing with his shield held up, covered in a bright blue and white aura. Despite being shot several times by Noel, Jaune appeared to have taken no damage. In fact, it was looking like he was getting some of his health restored. Even Jaune was surprised by this sudden turn of events.
"No way!" said Noel. "He survived it somehow!"
"Was Jaune telling the truth about his power?" thought Hyde. "That guy must be incredibly lucky."
"Whoa," thought Jaune. "I feel like I'm stronger than ever! Is this how Kanji and Makoto felt before? Either way, I'm glad it kicked in now!"
"Where did THIS suddenly come from?" thought Rachel. "Could this be that power he said he couldn't tap into? Or perhaps...if my theory about this place is true..."
Not wanting to let his newfound power go to waste, Jaune immediately ran towards Noel. Noel spun around Jaune and attempted to shoulder tackle him from behind; Jaune immediately turned around and blocked Noel's tackle with his shield, then swung his sword to knock Noel's guns out of her hands.
"Sorry," said Jaune. "But I too am doing what I must!"
Without her weapons to defend herself, Jaune made several wild swings against Noel, chipping away at whatever health Noel had left until she was knocked out.
"Whoa! Jaune is on fire and he looks like he's taking no prisoners! It all comes down to this final moment!"
"Sudden power surge or no," said Rachel, "you are still a sloppy dancer that I will annihilate in no time!"
Jaune ran towards Rachel with his shield held up. Rachel waited for Jaune to get close as usual before she would attack and make Jaune look like an idiot. Rachel summoned another tornado to launch Jaune, only for Jaune to roll to the side at the last second to avoid getting hit, then get up and jump towards Rachel with his sword. Rachel used her wings to block Jaune's sword as usual, but this time she could feel Jaune put more force into his swing. Jaune kept on the offensive, constantly swinging at Rachel as she kept transforming her wings to parry his attacks. Rachel could tell Jaune's swings were faster and stronger than before; while parrying Jaune's attacks with the help of her familiars, she tried to piece together the mystery of Jaune's sudden strength.
"Even if this boy has some hidden power, there's no way he could suddenly be this strong! There's definitely something afoul about this world! If the other participants tap into this power as well..."
While Rachel was thinking to herself, Nago tried to punch Jaune as hard as he could; Jaune held up his shield to block. The force from hitting Jaune's shield was enough to cause Rachel to stumble back. Jaune jumped towards Rachel and swung down with everything he had; Rachel moved back as the tip of Jaune's sword scraped across her cheek. Rachel held two fingers to her cheek where Jaune had slashed her, and noticed she had a small trickle of blood coming from her cut.
"I'm not sure how long this surge the boy has will last, but I can't risk getting myself injured! Perhaps it's time to execute my backup plan!"
"Enough!" said Rachel. "I submit!"
"Not if I defeat you first!" said Jaune, ready to keep fighting. It took him a few seconds before he realized what Rachel had just said. "Wait...what?"
"Princess!" shouted Nago. "Surely you can't be serious!"
"We can take him down no problem!" said Gii.
"I'm afraid I've been bested for now," said Rachel. "But do not worry my loyal servants! We will obtain all the Keystones eventually once I employ 'her' help instead."
"Her?" asked Jaune. "Who's 'her?'"
Rachel opened up Nago and created a strong gust of wind to fly herself away from the battle. Jaune's aura wound down back to normal as he stood there puzzled as to why Rachel suddenly decided to just up and leave.
"Well...since one of our contestants has decided to forfeit, our winners are Jaune and Hyde! Congrats on your successful Keystone defense! That fight is definitely going down in the Keystone Tournament history books!"
"Thank goodness!" said Jaune, breathing a sigh of relief. With his Keystone safe in his possession, Jaune went to check on Hyde. "You all right, Hyde?"
"A bit bruised up," said Hyde, "but I'll be just fine. So, that thing you did...was that your Semblance you were talking about?"
"I...really don't know."
"Wait. So... you don't know your own Semblance?"
"I'm sorry. I won't blame you if you think I'm some idiot who is new at this."
"Don't worry. I've got friends who think of me that way."
Before the two can talk about what to do now, they noticed that one of their opponents was still laid out.
"Should we...check on her?" asked Jaune.
"Might as well," said Hyde. "It would bother me if we just let her lay there like that, and I don't think that gothic girl is coming back."
Jaune nodded and the two went over to wake up Noel and see if she was all right. Noel opened her eyes and sat up between them.
"What's going on?" asked Noel. "Where's Rachel?"
"Your friend ran away," said Hyde. "So...still think we're the bad guys?"
"I'm so sorry!" said Noel, clapping her hands in apology. "I wasn't trying to prevent you from going home with your friends! It's just Rachel said it was important for her to get all the Keystones to get everyone out of the Phantom Field!"
"The Phantom Field?" said Jaune.
"This must be the name of this world we've all been taken to," said Hyde. "But why exactly does she need the Keystones?"
"She really wouldn't say," said Noel. "But...I have a feeling she knows what's going on."
"Yet she couldn't bother telling us anything and decides to try to take our Keystones by force. Yeah, THAT certainly was a brilliant idea!"
"Let me guess," said Jaune. "You were told to get the Keystones or else you couldn't go home either?"
"Yes!" said Noel. "Were you-"
"Told the same thing by that random voice," said Hyde. "It looks like there's a lot of us who all have the same goal...and I have a bad feeling only one of us will ultimately reach it."
"Only...one of us?"
"I mean, that's what I assume. Any tournament, even one as messed up as this, ultimately comes down to one winner. Maybe that's what the weird girl didn't want to tell us."
"But that would mean if she took your Keystones..." Noel shook her head, trying to get the thought of Rachel being that deceiving out of her head. "No! I refuse to believe Rachel would do that!"
"Well it didn't help she never bothered telling us the truth! I don't want to assume the worst either, but..."
An awkward silence fell between the trio. If Hyde was right about only one team coming out the winner, that would mean so many people were never going back home. For all they knew, they'd either be stuck in this Phantom Field for good, or possibly suffer a much worse fate.
"Well...maybe there is a way everyone can go home to their respective worlds!" said Jaune.
"But how are we going to accomplish that?" asked Noel.
"By gathering all of the Keystones!"
"Uh, Earth to Jaune?" said Hyde. "How is that ANY DIFFERENT than what we were already trying to do?"
"Because so far, we were just told to FIGHT each other over it, but maybe if we can get trustworthy people to come together with the Keystones without coming to blows, we might figure out a way of here!"
"That's a great idea!" said Noel. "That way nobody has to fight and take each other's Keystones! We might all go home at once!"
"I guess we could give it a shot," said Hyde. "Now here's the next problem: Just how many Keystones are we supposed to find anyway?"
"Rachel told me each respective Keystone is connected to the worlds involved in this tournament," said Noel.
"One Keystone for each world, huh?" said Jaune. "Let's see...there's my world, so that's one. There's Hyde's world with the 'In-births'...that's two. Earlier I met someone who had a weird power called a 'Persona', and there's Noel's world. So, unless more people suddenly show up, that makes four worlds in all."
"Which means there are four Keystones out there," said Hyde. "Who would have the other two?"
"Well, if you and I started out with our world's Keystones, someone from the 'Persona' world must have one, and someone from Noel's world should have the other. Noel, do you know anyone from your world who might have the Keystone?"
"There's someone I know who might have it," said Noel. "If I find him here, he just might have the Keystone!"
"Not much of a lead," said Hyde. "That's ONLY if he was taken here."
"It's better than nothing," said Jaune. "As for the Persona world's Keystone, if anyone finds the one with that Keystone, tell them about our alliance together! I'm sure we'll all bump into each other again!"
"Okay!" said Noel. "Good luck, everyone!"
Noel ran off in search of the one she believed to hold her world's keystone. Jaune was about to part ways himself when Hyde called out to him.
"Hold on, Jaune," said Hyde. "I need to tell you something."
"What's wrong?" asked Jaune.
"Since you were honest with me before, I'm going to be honest myself." Hyde held up his sword and pointed it at Jaune with a serious look in his eyes. "On the chance that this alliance idea doesn't work, and it turns out only one group of people from their world can really go home...I'm not going to hesitate in fighting you for those Keystones. You understand?"
Jaune didn't want to think about his alliance idea backfiring, but he couldn't disagree with what Hyde said. If Jaune was wrong, that would leave Hyde - and just about everyone else - having no other choice than to fight for themselves.
"Yeah...I understand," said Jaune, before turning around and quickly running off.
"And I hope it doesn't come to that."
