What Good is Love? Ch. 10: Convincing Qualifier
So yes, I gave Blake parkour because her semblance and Faunus heritage matched that the best, only reason. I will say that iMS0KILLR got it correct, this will be a very non-subtle copy paste of ANW, or American Ninja Warrior. And huh, a conversation between Ruby, Weiss, and Weiss' father. You're right Cata, that never came up. How peculiar... So yeah, that's all I got for this A/N, let's get going.
"No," came Weiss' response. "No, no, and just in case you missed it, no." Ruby and Weiss were sitting in Weiss' room, though Weiss had stood up, and Ruby had just received the message from Yang that Blake was going to a tournament. Ruby had thrown up the invite for Weiss, and needless to say the heiress wasn't exactly taking it in a positive light.
"Weeeeeeiss," Ruby whined. "Think about it."
"No," Weiss repeated. "Why do I need to think about it? Par-whatever holds no interest for me."
"You don't even know what it is!" Ruby cried indignatntly. "Please, Weiss, just go to the qualifier with me. I promise, if you don't like it, I won't ask you to the next round."
"What makes you think that she'll advance?" Weiss asked, noticing Ruby's choice of words.
"Because it's Blake," Ruby explained easily. Weiss sighed, and realized one thing. In the two years that she had gotten to know Ruby, the little girl in the red hood had never once given up. Not on Weiss, not on friendship, not on anything. If she were to say no, all that would bring was endlessly hounding from Ruby.
"Fine!" Weiss gave in. "I'll go, but only for the qualifying round. In support of Blake, and for you, I swear."
"Thank you," Ruby said, throwing her arms around the heiress. Weiss hugged back, and then sighed. She really hoped that this would end better then what she anticipated.
Ruby and Yang's Apartment
Blake finally stepped out of the bathroom, and did a spin.
"Well?" She asked. "Do you think it still works?" Most of the parkour athletes always picked a signature to go by. Blake had decided to follow through with something besides her Faunus nature, as most of the other Faunus had chosen to do. Blake decided that an old nickname would be appropriate to follow through with, and she went with a ninja outfit. She traded out her normal attire for a black robe, and a black mask. She topped it off with two holes at the top, and her cat ears blended in seamlessly with the rest of her outfit. Most other people would of have seen the limited eye sight that the single band allotted as a hindrance, but Blake had used light fabric so she could still use her peripheral vision.
"You look hawt," Yang teased. Blake nodded, understanding that was as close to the answer she was looking for as she was going to get. She stretched out her back, and then gave a questioning glance at Yang. "Ruby and Weiss will meet us there," Yang explained.
"Good," Blake said. "Then we better get going. I have to warm up still." Yang smiled, and slowly stepped forward.
"How about you warm up here?" She asked, putting on her best seductive voice.
"How about I warm up where I'm supposed to?" Blake challenged. Before Yang could rebuttal, Blake had already left the room. Yang sighed, and just followed her out. If Blake ever had an opportunity to compete, she was strictly professional. It was the one thing that Yang hated about her girlfriend.
The Qualifiers
The long limo pulled out to the front, and Geoffrey quickly let both Ruby and Weiss out.
"I'll wait out here," Geoffrey said instantly. "Tell your friend I wish them good luck."
"Thank you Geoffrey," Weiss said. "We'll see you after she runs."
"Well, she will," Ruby mumbled. One of her favorite things was to see parkour runners go, even if they weren't Blake. Ruby had already told Weiss that no matter what her opinion was, Ruby was staying for the whole thing. Weiss had challenged her for how she would get to her home, but Ruby already had the route and made a playlist. Sometimes Weiss hated how ready to run the girl was.
Both girls walked down to the warm up area's, and started to look for Blake. Luckily, there weren't too many people in a ninja outfit hanging around next to a busty blonde.
"Guys!" Ruby yelled out. Blake dropped down from the pull up bar she was using, and walked over to Ruby and Weiss.
"Sup little red," she greeted. "Hey Weiss."
"Are you excited?" Ruby asked immediately.
"Of course I am," Blake said with a smile. She knew how much Ruby loved this sport. She even tried to learn it, but Ruby was a hopeless cause in parkour. She didn't have the patience to spot the holds that were necessary. "There are a lot of people who aren't parkour athletes here, and they look like pretty easy targets for the first few obstacles." Ruby looked over at the course that was plainly displayed, and took a moment to guess what was happening.
The first obstacle was a set of five, staggered, tilted platforms spaced decently far apart. Ruby guessed that you had to bounce off of the platforms until you made it safely across. The next obstacle was a log shaped thing, placed on a downwards slope, with several hand and footholds. Ruby was pretty easily able to guess that you had to roll down the hill and jump off. The third obstacle was a set of domino shaped things that looked like they toppled over fairly easily, with a plat form on the other side. Another easy guess, run across before you fell in the water. The fourth obstacle was a set of five floating chains, with footholds placed on the bottom of every other chain. The fifth obstacle was a trampoline, with two sets of nunchuck bars suspended over water, and they looked like they were hooked up to a pendulum. It looked like you had to jump onto the first one, grab hold, and then throw yourself to the next set, and then get down. The final obstacle was a single wall that went up about 15 or some odd meters, with a button at the top. Ruby guessed you had to climb up it, using the curve as the advantage, and hit the button.
"Impressive course," Ruby muttered.
"The first few obstacles and the last one favor parkour," Blake remarked. "But the flying nunchucks have me worried."
"Okay, I have to ask," Weiss gave in. "What's with the getup?" Blake looked down at her outfit, and smiled.
"My signature," she explained. "Every parkour athlete has one." Weiss looked around, and spotted out people in cowboy hats, masks, every cliche under the sun. She sighed, giving up on understanding the sport from that standpoint.
"Where do you go?" Ruby asked.
"I'm up in a couple of people," Blake said. She pointed to the large board that was displayed, and it showed her name near the end. There were four names with a completion time, but most of them had crosses going across them with a mark of progress. "If you don't complete it, you'd better hope that you made it far enough to qualify for the top 30," Blake explained. "Luckily, I won't need that."
"She's been like this the whole time," Yang complained. "I forgot how serious that Blake gets when she's getting ready to compete."
"You're worse, remember that," Blake remarked. "The stands are over there," she said suddenly. "I'm on deck." Blake rubbed her hands together, and watched as the next guy ran the course. Yang lead the other two over to the stands, and they took their seats.
Ruby instantly noticed the camera's. Yang had warned her that this event was going to be televised, but she wasn't expecting so many camera's. This was clearly going to be a big deal, meaning a large prize. Ruby had full faith that Blake could complete this, she had seen her work. But the fifth obstacle, that had her worried.
Yang was even more anxious. Whenever Blake competed, it generally involved ridiculous jumps, massive drops, and stuff that would make Yang's head spin. She always feared for injury, but now there was water. That should of eased her mind, but it didn't. Blake was competing in something huge, the biggest thing that any of them had ever done. If she messed up, the chance for ridicule was raised to massive amounts. She didn't want to see Blake go through that. She had already gone through the issues of being a bisexual Faunus.
Weiss was on the opposite end of the spectrum from the two girls. She was completely calm, but still slightly excited to see how this would work. Well, as excited as she allowed herself to be. She was simply here because her girlfriend asked her out on a sort-of almost date.
"Up next, Blake Belladonna," one of the announcer's said. "A parkour world champion, the youngest to do so, she's an early favorite in this competition."
"Absolutely," the other one added in. "Her cat Faunus nature made her natural ability at an all time high, and she trained to expand upon it. I'm interested to see how she handles the more upper body intensive obstacles. She has good grip strength, but I'm concerned how she'll handle the flying nunchucks." Ruby and Yang just listened on, the announcer's breaking down everything that Blake had said she had concerns about. This made the sister's incredibly nervous.
Blake stepped onto the starting line, and bent her knees slightly. The horn sounded, and she sprung off of the starting platform. She easily skipped off of the first platform with one foot, and then did the same with the next four. She comfortably landed, and looked up at the log. She had time to rest somewhat, but Blake didn't want to just qualify. This was going to be the easiest round she was going to face, it was time to make a statement, and get the fastest time.
Blake jumped onto the log, and pressed her body weight against it. The spinning made her slightly dizzy, but she just pushed it out of her mind. As soon as she sensed her body was over the platform, she dropped off. Blake sprinted forward, and skipped over the first three domino platforms in one jump, and then barely touched the fourth one before propelling herself to the next platform. She looked up at the floating chains, and rubbed her hands together.
Blake jumped onto the first chain, and swung herself over to the second chain. She grabbed hold, and placed her feet down on the foothold. She then swung herself over to the third chain, and grabbed onto it. She swung herself back one time, and then swung forward to grab onto the fourth chain. She repeated the process one more time, and grabbed onto the final chain. She easily jumped down, and looked up at the flying nunchucks.
Blake ran forward, and jumped onto the trampoline. She easily grabbed onto the first pair, and let her momentum bring her forward once. She had seen too many people fault on this obstacle by taking their initial momentum as enough, but it never was. Blake swung herself back once, and then used her extra momentum to grab hold of the final nunchuck set. She almost lost her grip with her left hand, but she managed to regain hold. She swung herself to the platform, and ran over to the wall. Without a moments hesitation, Blake ran up the wall and grabbed onto the top. She hefted herself on top, and hit the button.
Blake held her arms up in triumph, and took a bow for the audience. She then let her gaze shift over to the leaderboard, and watched as her name was placed at the top, the numbers 59.45 next to it. That should hold up, Blake thought, completely satisfied with herself.
The Faunus walked over to the stands, and was almost tackled to the ground by Yang.
"That was incredible," she said, crushing Blake in a hug.
"Let-go," Blake struggled. Yang finally set her girlfriend down, and just looked at her happily.
"You're awesome babe," Yang said. "When's round 2?"
"In a month," Blake said, brushing her arms off. "Until then, I have to train." Yang nodded, and pulled Blake in for a long kiss. She pulled out, and looked at Blake's confusion. She smiled, excited that she was able to surprise her girlfriend for once.
"That's your prize, my kitten," Yang purred. "Go the distance, and we'll see what I can do."
"Groooooooss," Ruby groaned.
End: So this is the most competition based chapter you'll get for a while. I'm going to try and steer clear of this for a while, and make it more romance centered. On the other hand, I'm going to hold this to know if I should prepare myself for this. If I get 10 reviews with the word, lemon, I will add it into the story. This poll is only open until the next chapter, but it probably won't be the next chapter unless the moment that I'd include it on somehow comes up. Just holding this in advance, so questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is still appreciated.