After my two fights and taking Blake to the infirmary I decided I was going to spend the rest of the day alone. Most of my gear needed to be fixed up so that it was back to one hundred percent. The thing that needed most work was my helmet that Blake shot the camera out of making it useless. Luckily I had been working on a new camera for it so all I need to do was install it and then place a bullet proof piece of glass on it so no one else could shoot it out.
Most of my other gear just needed to be adjusted or given a quick clean up. I cleaned my armor and gave it a new paint job since it began to chip off. Next, I moved on to my trench coat. There was nothing I could do for it. Sadly since I started here at beacon plenty of people had cut and put holes in it and it was now beyond repair. I opted to switch to carrying my ammo in an ammo belt removing the need for the coat.
Across my chest, I also decided to wear a sling that could hold shotgun shells and dust rounds for Life and Death. I decided that having I was going to switch Death over to a shoot shotgun rounds instead of the 7.62 mm rounds. Hopefully, this would allow me to do some damage up close.
It took me close to three hours to switch out the parts for Death since they were small and still needed to be able to collapse down. In the end, I ended up with a shotgun that could launch a slug at high speeds at my opponent. The rounds weren't explosive like Yangs but they would still hurt. Plus I could switch them out for some shells that used dust for some fun.
I looked over at the clock and realized I had spent more time working on my gear then I had wanted. It was now close to 1 in the morning and I couldn't return to my room unless I wanted to face three angry girls. I decided to head to my spot on our dorms roof since that's where I spent most my nights anyway.
The breeze always helped me sleep even though it was only for a few hours and a light few on top at that. Since tomorrow was saturday I decided and the fight wasn't till three I would go to the gym when it opened that way I didn't have to wait till everyone woke up at ten.
It was the next day and I was in one of the schools many gyms test out my weapons on a handful of targets set up in the gyms training floor. Luckily no one ever came to this gym since it had the oldest equipment but for me it was perfect. I began practicing shoot a burst of rounds from Life then following it up with a slug or two from Death.
The new improvement to Death was working without any problems other than I needed to get used to its recoil. The power would be enough to do damage to an Ursa tough armor while Life could hit its weak points with its precise rounds.
I charge the nearest Dummy and sliced forward with Death while shooting off a round. The force f the shot increased my arms momentum and slammed the blade straight through the dummy. The idea a got from Ruby worked well since it would give me an upper hand if I ever got into a fight similar to the one I had with Blake.
A caught behind me startled me as I pulled the blade free from the dummy I had impaled. Ozpin sat in the doorway leaning on his cane like usual. "I do say I'm very impressed with how well you've done in the tournament so far. Especially that fight against Cardin."
I smiled thinking about how funny it would have been to see team CRDL cutting Cardin out of his armor. "Ya well he deserved what happened and if I'm to be punished for it I really don't mind. I say it was worth it."
Ozpin made his way across the gym till he stopped standing a few feet away from me. "I have no intention of punishing you Boone. You simply disabled your opponent in a fight so that you could win. There was no cheating the way I see it. This is not why I came to see you, though. I have some news for you."
I knew this couldn't be good whenever Aria said she had news for me it was never good. "Ya, what is it?" I tried to sound as positive as I could but it didn't mask it at all.
"Since we found you in the forest we have been looking into you past and Aria's death. I don't know how you'll feel about this but I wanted to tell you we found Aria's will and it contained information about your past. I know this is a lot to take in but please do come find me when you're ready." With that Ozpin left the gym leaving me to think about what he had told me.
Since Aria saved me from that fire I grew not remembering anything about who I was. I alway thought Aria was just the person who saved then raised me but she knew about who I was. This information was almost too much for me to handle. I sat down on the gym's floor still trying to get my head back together.
After five minutes I got up deciding that I had more important things to worry about rather than my past. I shot the rest of the rounds I had into one of the dummies leaving it riddled with holes.
I went into the guy's locker room stripped off my gear and took a shower to clean the sweat and grime off my body. The entire time I could feel the thought of my past creeping up trying to make me remember but I wouldn't let them. I wasn't going to let fear control me like it did when I was stuck in that forest.
That moment made me realize for the first time I was happy. I didn't have to worry about being killed every second of the day or when I was going to eat next. No, I had a team who looked after me and treated me like I belonged so whatever happened isn't important. What matters is what I do from this day forward.
I got out of the shower dried off and put on some short and a t-shirt grabbed my gear and went back to the room. When I arrived it was close to 11:30 and everyone was sitting around the room. Blake was reading a book on her bed, Yang was playing one of her fighting games like usual and Ruby was cleaning Crescent Rose.
When I entered the room they all looked up from what they were doing and Ruby slammed into me giving me one of her bear hugs. "Boone where have you been. Ozpin ame by looking for you and we had no idea where you had been." I looked down into Ruby's silver puppy eyes and immediately felt bad for not telling them where I went.
"Ya sorry I spent the night at the workshop and in the morning went to the gym. Sorry to make you worry."
"Well from now on tell us where you are. I really don't like it when we can't find you and what did Ozpin want to talk to you about?" I knew I couldn't tell her the truth so I decided to only tell her part of the conversation. I told them the part about the tournament and how he was proud of me and cut it off there telling him he left. All of them believed it and let it go."
Blake spoke up looking over as I took a seat at my desk. "So how do you feel about today?" I hadn't really thought about how I felt and took a second to think. "I don't really feel anything. I mean I should since I'm going against the girl that literally is on a cereal box!"
Yang jumped down from her bed and rested a hand on my shoulder. "Don't forget she knocked me out in under two minutes." Yang gave me a wink and sat down in the chair next to me. "Thanks, Yang I feel well … worse."
"Ya, that's my job so get used to it" Yang looked away from me over at Blake who let out a little giggle. I took the chance and hooked my foot around one of the chairs legs. I pulled on it and the chair tipped over with Yang in it. BLakes giggle developed into full blown laughter at the sight of the blonde hitting the ground.
"How does it feel to be knocked to the ground twice in under twenty-four hours." Yang grabbed my chair and picked it up with me still in it and threw it to the other side of the room. I pushed off the chair mid flight and landed softly on top of mine and Ruby's bunk bed while the chair hit the wall and broke apart. "Hey, you owe me a new chair."
Yang proceeded to pick up her chair and chuck it at me. "Here have mine." I caught the chair and placed it down on the ground as I got off the bed. "Why thank you, Yang, this is the best present I've ever gotten."
"Well, then you must not have gotten any good presents have you." Her comment made me think I never got a present that Ic can remember. "Actually I've never gotten one I can remember." all three girls gave a serious look and gathered around me. "What is that a problem?"
BLakes voice was surprised when he stare ended and turned into a shocked look instead. "You mean to tell us you've never gotten a present. Not even a birthday present." I looked towards Ruby and Yang but they still both stared at me in shock. "No, I haven't. I don't even know when my birthday so I never expected to get a present."
Ruby was the next to break free of the sudden shock. "Wait you don't know when your birthday is. Why don't you and how do you know how old you are?"
"Well I really don't want to talk about but the records were destroyed when I was little so doctors just guessed and figured I'm close to sixteen give or take a year."
Yang finally fell free from the shock and asked her question. "So you don't you could be either mine and Blake's age or Ruby's." I gave it a thought remembering Ruby is one of the youngest girls ever accepted into Beacon. "Ya. I just never found it important and didn't give it any thought."
"So we need to give you a day to call your birthday then." I stared down at Ruby trying to understand what she meant. "If you don't have a day we can choose one to celebrate it on and give you a proper birthday party you deserve."
"I don't know how about we come back to that. Right now I'm hungry and wanna eat lunch. How does that sound? The three girls nodded and we headed out to eat lunch.
Three and a half hours later I was standing in the middle of Vales fighting arena with a large crowd ready to see a fight. To my surprise, the crowd was a mix of both students and adults. Most of the seats had been filled including the suites holding the "special guests" invited to watch. In the press box, Dr. Oobleck and Professor Port were covering the fight as the announcers. It didn't take me long to spot Blake, Ruby, Yang and the rest of team JNPR up in the crowd since the stuck out with their almost complete coverage of a rainbow.
Ruby and Blake gave me a wave when they saw me looking at them while Yang started shouting something incoherent. All the eyes made me feel uncomfortable as I felt like they pierced through me with their gaze. Pyrrha, on the other hand, seemed to be fine with all of it. I mean she should be she is known as one of the best tournament fighters in all of the remnant.
Ozpin walked out to one one of the suites and stood on a balcony looking over the crowd like an emperor in a colosseum. Ozpin stood in front of the mic and gave a quiet cough to get everyone's attention.
"Once again just like every year since the founding of Beacon Academy. We have the annual first-year tournament. This is not a fight to see who the best is in your class but to see show your potential as hunters and huntresses." With that, Ozpin walked away and took his seat.
Port and Oobleck took over commenting giving a quick sum up of the rules for those who didn't know it. They were the same as usual. The first person to bring their opponents Aura down to the level won.
After giving a quick sponsor advertisement a four sided jumbotron showed displaying a picture of pyrrha and me with our Aura levels. A count down started at ten and Pyrrha deployed Miló and Akoúo. I followed suit by activating my helmet and then Life and Death allowing for their blades to deploy. A few gasps came from the crowd seeing my skull helmet for the first time.
The countdown hit zero and I let loose at Pyrrha with a barrage from Life. Pyrrha Used Akoúo to block the shots and charged. Using Miló in its sword form she stabbed forward while blocking with Akoúo. Counted with Life knocking the strike out of the way and shot Akoúo with a shotgun round. The forced push Pyrrha back and gave an opening to slice at her chest.
The attack missed her by a fraction of an inch and she hit me on the side with a side kick. The force opened up a gap between us and Pyrrha turned Miló into a rifle and began to shoot at me. I held of Life and Death to block the shot and ran towards her. The distance made her switch back to a sword. I swung at her only to be blocked. When she counter her sword skipped off Life's blade and hit my shoulder.
Something was off I know my swing can be off but not my blocks. I summoned flame on my boots and charged back at Pyrrha stabbing at her with Life. Once again the attack missed but I followed it up with a kick to her side. She got her shield up in time but the force made her go down to her knee.
I stabbed at her with Death while shooting a shotgun shell. The momentum sped up the attack but once again it missed flying over her shoulder pulling me with it. With my arm over her shoulder, she grabbed it and flipped me over her shoulder. I land on my feet but Pyrrha spun and slammed Akoúo into my back.
My last attack confirmed what I had been thinking since the fight started. Pyrrha was contring my attacks somehow. The last One I felt something pull me over so that it missed. Suddenly it all made sense why she was called the invincible girl. She could control magnetism and that's why only my kick landed since should couldn't move it out of the way.
I jumped back from Pyrrha and returned Life and Death back to their compact form. I then pulled them off and threw them to the side. Everyone in the crowd gave me a weird look as I used my aura to form two metal gauntlets on my hand. Since they weren't made of real metal Pyrrha couldn't control them and I still had a weapon.
What I did surprised Pyrrha when she realized I had figured her out. I charged forward to light a jet of fire on my boots that thrust me forward. Pyrrha held up Akoúo and absorbed the attack by dropping to one knee. She then turned Miló into its javelin form and struck me on the side.
I pushed into the attack allowing the blade to slide across my Aura forcing it into the yellow. I came closer to her and sent a kick into her shield opening her chest up fro me to throw a punch in. The attack landed but Pyrrha responded by hitting me with Miló's shaft then followed it up with Akoúo.
Jeez, I can't keep up with her with my blades. I knew that she had both range and power against me as long as she had both Akoúo and Miló. I changed tactic and began to shift my full assault onto her shield. Pyrrha just held it up and absorbed the blows. Finally, I sent a Right hook into its side and it fell free into the sand.
Pyrrha held her hand out to it and it began to come back to her using her magnetism. I summoned a black box around the shield and forced it back down into the sand. Pyrrha gave a discerning look at me realizing she was down to only using Miló.
Pyrrha turned Miló back into a sword and sliced down at me I blocked the attack with my gauntlet and kicked her in the side and followed through with a punch. Pyrrha blocked the punch and sliced across my chest with Miló placing my aura level just above red.
Pyrrha's level had been forced down into yellow but One more attack from her and I was done. Holding my arms up like a boxer I entered into a full defensive mode. Pyrrha came forward with Miló in javelin form stabbing at me. I used began summoning walls around me and dove back behind one. Pyrrha began to shoot at me forcing me to stay in cover.
Pyrrha was moving around making it impossible to spot her without getting shot when I looked over the wall. I summoned an entire wall splitting the arena in half and allowed the rest to dissipate. Charging forward I allowed the large wall to dissipate so I could find Pyrrha. We spotted each other she swung down with her sword. I caught the attack by crossing my arms and locking the blade between the gauntlets.
Pyrrha began to force down on me with her sword making me drop to my knee. With me, lower than her It made it harder for me to push back. The sword began to come closer and it was less than an inch from hitting my Aura.
Suddenly my left eye began to itch and I could feel something flow through me. I pushed back against Pyrrha harder than before and found that my strength had increased. I easily rose off my knee and freed myself from the sword. I swung forward with a punch to Pyrrha's side and followed it with one to her gut.
The next punch was blocked by her sword as she thrust forward I knocked back kicked her leg. My attacks were getting through and Pyrrha couldn't defend against them without her shield. The last few attacks had brought her Aura down closer to red but it still wasn't enough.
Pyrrha got up and used her sword to cut and slash at me using her magnetism to speed them up and give her more power. I kept up blocking them but had no chance to counter.
Finally, Pyrrha's speed was too much and she thrusted forward at my gut. Knowing that there was no chance to dodge and she would win with the hit I dropped my Aura letting it pierce through.
Surprise flew through the crowd at the sight of the sword cutting through my side. Just like when I fought Nora I focused all my strength into my punch and pushed forward. The blade drove deeper and Pyrrha stared at me confused at what just happened. I threw the punch and it made contact with her face and sent her flying.
She hit the ground on the other side of the arena leaving the sword in my side. The buzzer sounded and The screen displayed Pyrrha's Aura level in the red zone. I had just barely won but I beat the invincible girl.
Over the speaker, I could her Oobleck ranting about the knockout as I pulled the blade out. Using my Aura I lit my finger on fire and cauterized the wound. Once my Aura levels increased it would heal leaving only a tiny scar compared to all my others. I walked over to Pyrrha who had pulled herself off the ground and brought over Miló and Akoúo. I handed them to her and she happily took them. "Congratulations. That was quite the fight. I never expected you to figure out my semblance or to let me stab you."
"I just did in the heat of the moment. Luckily it only hit flesh." The crowd was going crazy at the reaction to my win some getting a little out of hand.
Ruby Blake and Yang made their way into the arena and all three caught me in the hung. Surprisingly Blake squeezed the tightest out of all of them. "Jeez Boone, why would you do something so stupid?" I let go and looked at her. "I'm fine and I'm sorry if I made you worry."
The three girls gave me a smile and punched my shoulder. "Why don't you show the crowd your face and take off that stupid helmet. I clicked the button and the helmet retracted back into my armors collar.
Pyrrha, Blake and Yang took a step back and Ruby let out a gasp. "Boone what happened to your face." I stared confusingly at them. "What do you mean."
I turned and looked up at the jumbotron so I could see what the meant. The left side of my face had red veins running across my skin coming out from underneath my eyepatch. The veins color mimicked the red veins that ran through a Grimm's bone mask. The other thing that changed was some of my hair had turned from white to a dark shade of red.
I looked back down at the girls and immediately felt my head began to spin. The first thing that gave out was my knees as I fell to the ground. The last thing I heard was Blake, Ruby and Yang yelling my name then total silence as darkness enveloped my vision.