'65 on average… Considering that I tripped so dramatically twice in a row, I'm surprised it's still that high.' Saiki thought, tracking the audience's favorability numbers. 'Goodwitch-sensei seems to be conflicted though, her number is fluctuating quickly.'

'He can handle himself well but yet the mistakes he makes are so… basic in nature. And there's this unshakable feeling that I get that he's not even trying…'

'Yeah, yeah. I get it. I get it. Annoying combat junkies.' Saiki complained. Moving his pupils over to the crowd under the shade of his glasses, Saiki sighed, 'And as for you two…'

'Wait… he handles himself better than I thought he would, and his instincts are good, is that his faunus traits amplifying his basic ability?' Weiss analyzed.

'Wait, why is he doing so well?! And why is he working so well with… her?! I'm not just imagining things, right?! Is there something between those two?!' Teruhashi worried needlessly.

'…Aren't teammates supposed to help each other?' Saiki cursed to himself. Glancing at Neo, he resigned, 'No, no I guess not.'

「Go have your own solo fight already, you massive sadist.」 Saiki waved Neo off, not needing to turn around and face her.

[Hah! You say that like you aren't one yourself, letting the girl fight the tough one.] Neo taunted.

「And you say that like you were an actual girl.」

[Ah, I suppose that's true.] Neo sent a mental image of herself shrugging before leaping towards Pyrrha in reality.

'Isn't that when you're supposed to deny that?' Saiki gave the straight man routine inwardly.

'Oh, are we s-switching? O-ok I guess.' Jaune thought as he stared down Saiki, who was currently standing stock still. It was the closest thing he had to a combat stance either way.

'Nervous even in thought, huh?' Saiki noticed. 'Well, I'll just have to let you hit me a few times. But I guess I need to get your aura levels low for Neo to instantly disqualify you, hm. Guess I'll have to get a test shot in.'

Saiki created a small ice cube in his hand before nonchalantly throwing it at Jaune. However, considering he didn't want to take the guy's head off, the tiny ice cube went at a speed similar to a heavy water balloon.

Jaune put up his shield and blocked it.

'Hm. I guess that wouldn't work. Helped lowered likability numbers for how awkward it was though, that's good. But I guess I do need to at least hit him. I'll have to be a little more careful with the next one.'

Creating another piece of ice out of sight, this time the size of a baseball, Saiki tossed a torrent water in an upwards arc towards his opponent.

'Oh! Uh, do I block it? It looks like water… no! It might be something worse!' Jaune fortified his shield to prevent the nonexistent chance of drowning.

'No… it's just water. And this is just ice.' Saiki chucked the baseball-sized ice straight at Jaune's newly unprotected legs before clenching his teeth. 'Oops, I accounted for the size, shape, and aerodynamics but I forgot about the difference in mass.'

As such, the ball of ice hurdled faster than Saiki intended before crushing itself against Jaune's left leg. From the sudden impact, Jaune fell face-first, veritably headbutting his shield to the ground.

'Annoying non-combat junkie.' Saiki could hear the numbers ticking up. Letting Jaune pick himself back up, Saiki started walking forward. 'Maybe if I get closer he'll actually try to hit me.'

Jaune rapidly assumed a combat stance, a fairly poor one although Saiki didn't know it. 'He's getting closer, what should I do?'

'Just hit me.' Saiki lazily lifted his arm to emulate a punching motion, adding a degree of awkwardness to the lack of haste in his attack.

'I-Is he trying to punch me? Uh. What.' Jaune's brain was overloading from Saiki's nonsensical fighting.

"Saiki-san!"

Saiki slapped his raised arm at a ridiculous speed sending the person in front of him sprawling to the ground before taking a step back. It also looked like Saiki was out of his right mind, considering he swung at nothing.

Normal people couldn't see ghosts, after all.

"That's cruel, Saiki-san!" Toritsuka nestled his slapped cheek in his hand. "You should respect the dead!"

「When you move onto the next world, I will. Now hurry up and leave, this isn't your scene, not that you deserve any. The only reason the audience cares about your existence is because you're dead and nothing else.」

"What?! First, you won't help me peep. Then you try to stop my peeping. Then you take away my peeping! You sent me to the stratosphere so I couldn't enjoy more peeping now that I'm a ghost! Oh, and you sent to a world where I died!"

「…Considering you put your death as the last reason, I feel like even you think it isn't important.」

"Why don't you-" Toritsuka's visage was interrupted as Jaune charged through him, shield first.

Saiki's eyes barely widened, distracted by the conversation before rushing backwards from a blind rush from Jaune. After taking a few steps, Saiki decided he would let himself get hit, revealing how he knew he needed to doge but failed utterly despite the attack being a straight line.

That was the plan before Jaune threw his sword directly at Saiki's knee.

Saiki barely had enough time to react as he lifted his leg to avoid his knee being impaled. 'Wait, what?! He didn't even think about that! Does he have a power-up or something?!'

Before any question could be answered, Jaune gripped his shield by both sides and sent it crashing downwards into Saiki. Normally, this maneuver would be a terrible decision, being too brash and forsaking subtlety and defense altogether for a low range attack. However, with Saiki off-balance from the sword throw, there was little room for counterattack. In addition, if the attack landed, Saiki would be grounded and easily taken out of the fight as Jaune would be in prime position to continue the assault especially if Saiki's leg would've been crushed into the sword underneath it.

Unsure if this would be the best decision, Saiki let himself fall backwards faster than the shield could hit him. As soon as he hit the ground, he shot water out of his hands and telekinetically pulled him clothes backwards to create the illusion that the water's propulsion sent him out of range.

'Seriously? They're both this strong?! I thought this one was supposed to be easy to manipulate!' Saiki got himself onto his knees before Jaune was on top of him again.

With a quick kick, Jaune had dislodged his sword and rushed forward past his airborne sword. Passing by it, Jaune gripped the handle behind him to get a full swing on the grounded Saiki.

'Great… how annoying. But this looks like a good attack to take to help get me out of this fight. I'll just have to use this aura thing around where he's about to hit, right?'

Clenching his teeth, Saiki let the sword try to slice the area between his shoulder and neck. Without context, it would've looked similar to an executioner doing his job. Jaune's eyes even seemed to lose some of the color they once had as the swing was about to land.

TINK.

'Tink?' Everyone in the room thought, enamored by the fight between the guys rather than the girls for once. It was natural thought, it sounded like metal upon metal, similar to the sound a house key would make when thrown at a metal fence.

The spectacle only grew as Jaune's Crocea Mors was launched at an absurdly high angle and dug itself into the ceiling. No one knew it, but it was only a testament to the sword's constitution that it hadn't snapped like a twig from the force.

The rebound of the attack even set Jaune visibly bouncing backwards. Saiki narrowed his eyes as he saw Toritsuka's ghost, which had strangely disappeared during the fight, also bounce himself out of Jaune's body.

He would need to question that later. But now Saiki needed to figure out a course of action while everyone was too busy looking at his health bar to see whether or not a pixel was even missing from such a violent attack. Honestly, he should've seen that coming, when you need a jackhammer just for a message.

The obvious course of action was to just fake pain and just make it seem like an odd quirk compiled with an electronical glitch. However, with that came the necessity to constantly lower his aura after every single attack during future spars and fights, and if this incident didn't make it clear enough, Saiki didn't have much control of his aura, just like any of his other powers.

Another option would just leave it as is, allowing everyone to know the massive size of his aura. This was also clearly out, since there wasn't anything that made that power 'fair and balanced.' Being paraded as a prodigy did not seem very appealing.

The option he would've liked as also out: fake passing out, once again making people think some sort of glitch happened. But then a different hell on Earth… or Remnant, Dirt, whatever, would happen… an annoying Neo who did not get her favor.

And so came the compromise, one that seemed relatively safe, played into the faculty's understanding of the otherworlders, and let him keep fighting. The one where the biggest risk was simply forgetting about it.

Saiki didn't move. Rather, he refused to move. He decided thirty seconds or so should be fine. Even Neo and Pyrrha had paused their rather heated conflict to stare at the still Saiki when Jaune's sword had went flying earlier.

'I can feel everyone's eyes on me. I hope they're smart enough to understand what's going on.'

[Hey, you dumb shit. What are you doing?]

'Case in point.' Saiki thought, continuing to not move a single muscle. 「I got hit. So I'm pretending that I can be completely immune to attacks for a short period but I can't move during it.」

[Oh. Like stasis?] Neo wondered, keeping one eye on Saiki and the other on her opponent, who had been doing the same.

「…Sure.」

[That's stupid. You just look like you're doing jack shit like you normally do but to a further degree. Why not add a golden sheen to your body? Or make yourself shoot lightning on a regular basis?]

「…How is that supposed to help.」Saiki replied, making sure not even to blink. Standing this still should basically be impossible, especially with how uncomfortable his crouching position looked. Considering he wasn't even showing the slightest flinch, people started to catch onto his idea but still treated it with disbelief. Goodwitch had been the first amongst those present to hypothesize what was happening but was still unsure.

In the meanwhile, Jaune had recovered himself from his attack before gawking at his arms in realization of what he just did, as well as what just transpired. Looking back at Saiki, Jaune nervously held his shield in front of him despite being unsure of what Saiki was doing. 'What's he doing…?'

A few more seconds passed in silence. Jaune was still unwavering. 'Why's he's just standing there?'

Well, if he doesn't get it, it seemed Saiki needed to ham up the next bit.

Suddenly, Saiki shifted and fell backwards onto the ground. He rapidly turned his head and patted his chest a couple of times before taking a moment to stare at his hands. His thoughts were far more composed than his actions would suggest but it seemed that most people bought the 'stasis' act. 'I'm going to admit, remembering that I need to fake this is going to be an annoying pain…'

Glaring at the dizzy ghost of Toritsuka under the shade of his glasses, 'Also, we have another annoying pain right here. The repercussions eluded to in the last chapter was not supposed to be like this. Ugh.'

Saiki could hear mumbles in the audience, utterly confused as to how Saiki's semblance must've been that stasis thing and that he was just using hidden dust before then. They would eventually be corrected, but Saiki certainly didn't need to do it now.

Well, now that everything was about as on track as they ever were going to be, Saiki needed to let Jaune get a clean hit, one where Saiki would need to personally drop his aura at the right time. Of course it was just one thing after another.

Before Toritsuka had interrupted, Saiki thought it would probably be a good idea to set himself apart as a ranged fighter then and there. Gave him an excuse to get taken out of a fight if people got close and importantly, people don't normally look at their own ranged support often. Melees would just end up as a bigger hassle.

And if he set himself apart now, people could charge at him whenever Saiki was forced to spar. Including Jaune. Right now. Because said Jaune was trying to circle around him, but seeing Saiki continue to stand still, he would just awkwardly shift in the other direction for the same result.

What is with that circular pacing anyway, what purpose does that even serve?

'Whatever.' Saiki grumbled. Yes, he had a plan, but that was the long term. Short-term… this was probably going to make him look cool, particularly to a certain chuunibyou. 'Let's get this over with.'

Saiki shifted his body sideway and held up his index finger like a finger gun. A dumb childish motion that everyone assumed it was some sort of taunt after Saiki took no damage, and Jaune's weapon was currently lodged in the roof.

And then Saiki shot a fireball out of his finger, and reeled his hand back like it had recoil from a gun. Jaune blocked it easily, only since he only had his shield at the moment, and permanently had it in front of him.

Saiki proceeded to rain hell upon Jaune in form of fireballs, ice crystals, small rocks that he kept in his sleeve specifically to keep up the earth part of the whole ordeal, and lightning. Saiki heard the excitement in the audience's thoughts as their childhood mimicry was brought to life.

Saiki twitched his eye. Jaune was literally letting him do this. Jaune just kept holding up his shield despite the fact that he could just charge forward at him. Had the thought not occurred to him yet?

Fine then, Saiki would just keep this up until Jaune's aura ran low and then Saiki would do a reckless charge that made it look like he wanted to wrap everything up. That would hopefully seem believable. Longer he kept up this finger gun act, the more 'cool' he might seem… rather, the audience seemed to be more focused on wincing at something happening with the girls.

Perhaps Saiki should just hold out both hands and become a temporary water pump until Jaune's aura reached that threshold.

'…I'll kill you.'

Saiki shot up both his hands and released an unparalleled torrent of water in front of him.

-Ψ-

[That's stupid. You just look like you're doing jack shit like you normally do but to a further degree. Why not add a golden sheen to your body? Or make yourself shoot lightning on a regular basis?] Neo taunted.

「…How is that supposed to help.」

Neo puffed out her cheek, unable to form a kind of reply, as she had already gone through almost all the insults she had ready and prepared after all of these years of silence. Sure, there had been a few left, but then the conversation wouldn't flow properly and then the insult wouldn't come off correctly. She was not going to compromise on her primary form of entertainment these days.

'Well, fighting's still fun.' Neo shrugged.

Pyrrha had her focus split on both of her opponents, one of which was a statue and the other proving herself a competent adversary. Pyrrha knew Beacon was going to be different than her average tournament fight, but to have such an even match on the very first day of classes was not within her realm of expectations. From the initiation alone, she had figured that most of the people around her was going to need some proper training before they could even touch her.

But then Saiki was able to dodge the initial onslaught despite being caught off guard and his combat stance completely off. She wasn't sure if it was an accident that her spear had been thrown at her when he had tripped, but either way, he had good enough instincts that he could possibly survive a bout with her longer than more trained individual could have. Not to mention he was either smart enough to hide enough Dust on his person, or that level of elemental control

And his partner, well, it was quite clear why they were allowed to transfer in without the initiation. In only the minute since they switched sparring partners, Pyrrha had been parried three times, dodged seven times, and retaliated against for all ten attempts. She had been considered invincible for good reason, but Pyrrha had been dangerously close to being hurt for the latter half of the minute.

At this point, Pyrrha already understood that Neo was likely a fighter who abused her opponent's openings, an archetype that she had met before but not quite trained to this extent. She had to wonder who Neo's mentor was or just what she experienced to become like this, at least at the back of her mind. Sure, with her experience, Pyrrha could adapt her strategy to either wider attack ranges to limit retaliation, or to simply move better than her, but that same experience told her Neo was adapting perhaps even quicker than she was.

Honestly, she had been glad when Saiki brought an awkward tension. Pyrrha could feel her heart beating against her chest… a feeling she had lost quite a while ago.

Neo knew of Pyrrha's invincibility, but she hadn't quite expected to hold up in practice. From Saiki's mention, she had actually felt her blade being pulled in directions which were not the assassin's intention. Without his notice, Neo probably wouldn't have quite figured it so quickly. Saiki didn't lie about that part, but she did need to get him back later anyway.

Honestly, Neo was wondering whether or not to win. Sure, with her semblance, it would be fairly easy to get a few opportunities to finish an unaware Pyrrha, but revealing her power would close so many future possibilities. At this point, she realized that losing a close match wasn't quite that bad of an option.

But screw Saiki and his correct opinions.

At the moment Saiki began moving again, the two charged at one another. Pyrrha had been taken aback for a split second at Neo's first initiation, but she had already figured that Neo had at least a few offensive maneuvers in her repertoire.

However, blades didn't clash. Neo may have been primarily relying on her sword until then, but a little sleight of hand was never under her.

Lacy pink fabric suddenly expanded as Pyrrha attempted a simple downward strike. Without any warning, just as the blade should've cut through the fabric, the umbrella was pushed forward, Neo sacrificing a small portion of her aura to completely negate the attack.

The odd parry worked as intended, and Neo was quick to sweep at Pyrrha's legs, assuming she would be off balanced. However, Pyrrha decided to borrow a certain maneuver before the attack could reach.

And she tripped.

Tripping is always an awkward motion, difficult for the opponent to track since it wouldn't normally factor into an average fight, and it honestly shouldn't be used as an actual skill since the unpredictability worked both ways and the danger of leaving yourself completely open was often never worth it.

In this instance, however, Neo didn't have the time to capitalize on the purposeful fall, and Pyrrha was quicker on the literal draw, blasting Neo with a point-blank rifle shot.

Of course, despite the speed, the sloppy motion was easy to block, Neo opening her umbrella to take the full brunt of the shot. But Pyrrha had never meant for it to hit, as the recoil from the rifle shot sent her flying backwards. Ignoring the slight drain on her aura as she skid across the ground, Pyrrha rolled backwards with the momentum and placed herself in a crouched position to continue raining bullets.

In the background, it could be heard that she wasn't the only one raining artillery on their opponent. 'Jaune might need my help, and it would be trouble to have a two-against-one, even an uncoordinated one.'

Neo's umbrella could take bullets fairly efficiently, only requiring a small portion of her aura to tank through attacks, but it was aura nonetheless. Pyrrha caught onto it, and took the opportunity to chip away at it as much as she could with the time she had before Neo would counter.

That time wasn't long.

The top half of the umbrella was suddenly launched at Pyrrha, the residue aura taking the last bullet Pyrrha shot. Hastily switching to her javelin mode, Pyrrha used the back end of her lance to topple the makeshift projectile behind her while positioning herself to slam down the pointy end onto a charging opponent.

Only to find no one.

Even without her illusions, Neo understood the art of line of sight. The umbrella certainly was launched, but that didn't change the fact that she was right behind it. As her lacy projectile was deflected, Neo flipped alongside it to get a clean shot at Pyrrha's blind spot. A precise maneuver that was completely impossible for a majority of even trained fighters, and was meant as one of Neo's many trumps.

Trump cards were not invincible. Pyrrha didn't plan for it, but her decision to topple with her javelin versus striking away with her sword was more correct than she planned. The motion left the javelin perpendicular to the floor and parallel with her body.

Rather than confusion, instincts drove Pyrrha into action as she slapped the back end of her spear further forward so the sharp end was facing in the direction of her blind spot.

Neo was once again unable to react in mid-air as the javelin shaved past her right leg, dangerously close to a more sensitive area.

Adrenaline rushing through her, Pyrrha slammed her javelin down in front of her as soon as she felt something connect. The audience winced, feeling the pain of being thrown down head first, with a spear between your legs.

Even so, Neo's aura hadn't dropped into the red, but it was dangerously close. Pyrrha was ready to apologize, realizing the severity of her attack but her tongue was stopped as Neo popped from the crack in the stage.

'…I'll kill you.' The murderous intent was palpable, but Pyrrha's spine hadn't even begun to shiver when it was cut off.

Before Neo could fully stand, something slammed into her from behind, and destroyed the remaining amount of her aura. A something with pink hair's back had made impact with her own back and pushed her back into the stage.

Saiki had crashed into Neo from behind and were both knocked out o the fight.

The ensuing silence, only holding a few grunts from a literally washed-up fighter, was broken as Goodwitch broke out of her own stupor and announced, "Jaune Arc, Kusuo Saiki, and Neopolitan Sunday have had their auras drop into the red and are unable to fight further. The winners of this match are Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc."

It looked absurd. Saiki apparently got annoyed and used both hands to finish Jaune with water but the recoil was too much and he was launched with uncanny accuracy at his partner. No one had even felt any sense of murderous intent until Neo began picking herself up once Saiki got up himself.

[Where do you get off?! You fuc-] Neo's murderous intent once again dissipated as she met an intensely hateful glare from Saiki.

「You lost the right to say anything.」

From an outsider's perspective, it looked like Saiki was apologizing via mere eye contact. For the three still standing on the stage, it was anything but.

'He looks so angry! But shouldn't it be the other way around… unless he knew?' Pyrrha's gaze was Saiki's cue to dissipate his hate as Goodwitch began approaching the arena.

"First, before I delve into anything else, I would like to congratulate these four as the first participants in battle for your time here at Beacon." Goodwitch announced, lightly clapping in an effort to rouse the crowd into doing the same.

The effort was not wasted, the students getting the hint and clapping themselves. Some, including Kaidou even decided to give a standing ovation.

"But!" Goodwitch silenced the room nearly instantly, using her semblance to fix the holes in the stage and retrieve Jaune's weapon from the ceiling. "While I admit the caliber of the fight was beyond my initial expectations, there are a few things I must nonetheless comment upon."

"Pyrrha Nikos." Glynda started with the one furthest away from her position on stage, hoping to allow Jaune enough time to recover to get in line himself. "Firstly, I will commend you for having no glaring issues in your fighting prowess within the realm of this spar. However, it was apparent that your time as a tournament fighter has pit you against far more tactical fighters and you are far too easily caught off guard by the unpredictable. You adapt well, but while fighting the Grimm, that tiny bit of hesitation could lead to tragedy."

Pyrrha bowed in respect as Goodwitch finished off her point. "Neopolitan Sunday. I am glad that you were able to show the class exactly why you were permitted to enter Beacon through other means. Your combat ability was impeccable… at least against human opponents. Relying on counters like you have been doing may work a majority of the time, but you can be overrun even at your most careful. Additionally, you seem to quite enjoy playing with your opponents, if your initial bout with Mr. Arc was to show. Please refrain from such behaviors in the future, and you may perhaps win."

Neo puffed out the cheek opposite of Goodwitch's point of view in annoyance. "Kusuo Saiki."

'Oh joy.' Saiki deadpanned. 'Pyrrha is already boring holes in the back of my skull, now everyone gets their shot.'

"While I understand you have not been traditionally trained for combat like the rest of the students, you left your guard open for the entirety of the fight after the initial clash… and it seems we will need to work on your sense of balance, even if it was a help in what is presumably, this one case. Additionally, you should work on paying attention to your own teammates as to not hinder them. Otherwise, you seem to have good instincts but you will need to polish up on personal tactics and define your own style of fighting."

'…I don't think I'm going to be the one responsible for that at this point.' Saiki could hear a constant babble from Weiss's thoughts, coming up and scratching off tactics and formations to use with Saiki. At the least, in most of them, Saiki was not the vanguard.

"Jaune Arc." Goodwitch came to the final fighter, drenched but finally in line. "While you surprised me with the occasional quick thinking and defensive capability, I will be honest that your current level of fighting leaves much that needs to be explored. You fail to create strategies that require only yourself as the component, and you do not seem to grasp when the correct time to actually initiate offense is. Relying purely on defense, without even thinking of a counterattack, will only lead to your own defeat.

A quiet "Yes, ma'am" was uttered as Goodwitch looked down the four participants of the showmatch.

'They did much better than I expected. I can only hope the rest of this year's class is as promising.' Goodwitch thought. "You four are dismissed. There is still enough time for two more timed matches. Firstly, are there any volunteers?"

Saiki proceeded to storm off the stage, swiped at the air, and entered into the locker room. It was slightly questionable, swiping at nothing and he had never changed or anything beforehand, so most had wrote it off as him simply getting tired and wanting a deserved break.

-Ψ-

「Seriously, give me a break. You're already dead, how can you still be such a pest? 」 Saiki was very tempted to throw Toritsuka into the locker, only to realize he would probably just phase through it. Instead, the esper opted to simply throw him forward with enough force to spin him around a few times.

After the spinning stopped, but not fully recovered, Toritsuka clutched at his head and complained, "It's not like I know what happened either, Saiki-san! I was talking to you one moment, then my head started hurting really badly and now I'm here! Shouldn't you treat me nicer?! People should respect the dead!"

「Only if the person demanded at least a minuscule amount of respect in life. Otherwise, they just end up dying and no one cares.」

"People care about me! I'm on the news and everything!"

「People don't care that you died, it's how you died.」 Saiki pinched at the space between his eyebrows in irritation. 「A couple of people might come in here, just hurry up and tell me what happened when you went into the blonde person.」

"I-I went into him...?" Toritsuka tilted his head in confusion and held his chin in his palm. "Oh, that's what happened, huh? Huh? Huh?!"

「What are you doing?」 Saiki asked with clenched teeth. The people he was forced to fight or the next combatants may come in any moment and he did not want to be seen to be talking 'to himself.'

"That means I possessed him… but only spirit mediums should be able to get possessed at all! Unless, because I'm a ghost of a spirit medium, the inverse becomes possible! Or maybe the superpowers in this world work in the same way! Either way, Saiki-san, BANZAI!"

Toritsuka tried to get Saiki to throw his hands into the air as well, only to get sorely denied and he proceeded to do it on his own. Several times.

"If I get used to this, so I don't get overwhelmed like I did just now, I can totally possess people! Banzai! Specifically, girls! BANZAI!"

Suddenly the ecstasy was halted as Saiki grabbed Toritsuka by his ghostly uniform's collar and carried him so they were out of view of the locker room's entrance. 「I can't get you to stop yourself. I doubt that any threat I give you, no matter how much I would be willing to follow up on it, would not deter you from your own idiocy.」

「But I will warn you now. If your nonsense creates attention, or you try and possess any of the people on my team, you will regret the very fact that being a ghost makes you invisible to the world.」 Saiki felt like his death glare was getting used excessively today.

Slightly perturbed, Toritsuka nonetheless managed to spout with envy, "A-Are you building your own harem, you bastard! Why not help me with it before if you're doing it now, dammit!"

Saiki's right eye twitched. Toritsuka, despite his stupidity, shut up after seeing the complete disgust that was on Saiki's face. 「They already draw enough attention as it is, they don't need any damn more to make my life even more miserable.」

'…Speak of the devil.'

[Whatcha doing, weirdo?] Neo asked, perched on top of one of the nearby lockers.

「Toritsuka can possess people now.」

[Huh? Who? Tori…] Neo's eyes went wide before being replaced with a very similar look of disgust. [That's just creepy. I have a favor. Make sure he doesn't every try shit with me.]

「I'm doing it for more than just you.」 Saiki resumed glaring at a nervous Toritsuka. The spirit medium was getting a very bad feeling.

[Great. Another favor, then. Can you punch the everloving shit out of him?] Neo asked with a sweet smile.

「While I haven't said Toritsuka did anything, I'll try one better.」 Saiki dropped Toritsuka's collar, the latter psychic sighing in relief as Saiki tapped Neo on the shoulder when she dropped down from the top of the lockers. 「Try it yourself.」

[This gonna work?] Neo asked, only to get a shrug in response. Unsure, Neo gave a light jab towards Toritsuka.

Contact. Silence. Smile.

And Toritsuka thought that Saiki's evil smile was terrifying. However, this made him even paler than a ghost. Because he's already a ghost.

-Ψ-

「Now that you've had your fun…」 Saiki said, sitting back down in the auditorium for the rest of the matches. For now, Neo and Saiki were sitting apart from Teruhashi and Weiss since Saiki simply didn't want to deal with them right now. 「We need to have a talk.」

Neo's previous smile of sadistic glee grew uneasy as their gazes from the corner of their eyes met. […Fine. I can guess what this is about.]

「You were going to kill her.」

[Pfft. I was just thinking about it. And you went against your favor so does that-]

「Don't pull that.」 Saiki's invasive thought left a tone that silenced Neo's protest. 「I've been psychic for a really long time. I know when feelings and thoughts are real. And that, that was real. Even if you couldn't actually kill her, you were going to damn well try.」

[Are you doubting I can?] Neo asked, offended. Catching another package of instinctual threats, Neo backed off. [Right, not the point.]

「I get that you want to stand on top of people. I want you to get that I don't care. I'm being forced to go along with your plans, so you aren't going to jeopardize mine. We are here to blend in. Your whims don't matter.」

[Blegh. You're sounding like that Cinder bitch now.] Neo blanched. Saiki let that one pass as Neo had thought that on instinct. [Right, right. I get it. I'll play nice.]

「You don't need to play nice. You need to play normal. It's harder than it looks.」

[Not to mention, incredibly boring.] Neo rolled her eyes.

「…」

「By the way, considering I saved your reputation, you lose a favor.」

[Wha-!] Neo flinched at the tonal shift. Any sense of dread or urgency left the air as she retorted, [Like hell! I didn't ask for your help! No count!]

「…That's not how favors work.」

[That's how my favors work.]

「You mean, dysfunctional? Not surprising, considering the source.」

[Meh, functional's overrated. I'm keeping that favor.]

「Hm. I object-」

"I hereby declare Kaidou is no longer able to continue!" Goodwitch claimed. Interrupting Saiki's thought process. It had only been two hits into the match, but with how Kaidou's aura worked, that's all that was needed.

Going against a bigger opponent, their name not having been caught, was already a handicap, but when Kaidou did the incredibly obvious teleportation strategy of going behind the guy, Kaidou's opponent responded with a heavy right hook. The audience winced as Kaidou's aura bar dropped to almost zero from the single hit.

And then proceeded to refill back to a hundred percent, quick enough before the aura could even hit its bottom. Apparently Kaidou's aura had an odd quirk of being incredibly tiny, but it never actually goes away no matter how much it's destroyed. Due to this quirk, Goodwitch decided Kaidou's losses would be determined entirely based off of his own endurance, playing to the advantage of such a quirk.

Unfortunately, with Kaidou's physique, as well as absolutely no training with the aura itself, Kaidou was knocked completely out by the next hit.

For the second time that day, Kaidou was draped over Kuboyasu's shoulder like a sweaty towel.

-Ψ-

「It's just one after the other, isn't it?」 Saiki commented as he took another spoonful of soup into his mouth.

[Do you think they're being discreet? Does that make them idiots or delusional?] Neo asked with a spoon of ice cream in her own mouth.

Across the dining table were the other two members of team WNKK, each with their own very easily read expression. Psychic powers were just unnecessary.

'How do I bring this up? Do I just ask outright? I need their opinions on how the team should work, but they haven't said a single word. I need to know whether or not their teamwork was a fluke as well…' Weiss contemplated while silently eating her seared chicken. Her face was oozing with irritation for the two people on their team who actually fought to say something as well as discomfort as she didn't know how to breach the subject.

Teruhashi was far less subtle. Her face was red, her hair was frazzled but still somehow perfect, and she was fidgeting in her seat as she ate her yellowtail. 'How do they know each other? How do they know each other? How do they know each other? I want to know. I need to know. What's going on with those two? Is there something going on with those two?!'

Finally done with the day, the four of them gathered for dinner in Beacon's cafeteria. Although they were sat in a fairly secluded table away from both the edges and the center of the room, the group had garnered more than enough gazes. Saiki felt it would've happened either way, but with what happened, he was sure at least quite a few more had been added to the probable count.

It also didn't help that the group had been dead silent since entering. It seemed that the 'cool beauty' archetype was beginning to build up. Up until this moment, Weiss and Teruhashi's focus had only been broken once from their thoughts.

While the other three had partaken in far more balanced meal options, Neo's plate was almost entirely comprised of sweets. Neo relished in the gazes of envy for her figure from her fellow female teammates.

A few minutes had passed since then, leading to where they were now. The tension seemed to start getting to the two members that weren't used to the silence.

"So how-" These words were all Weiss could speak before deciding to cut herself off.

"How do you two know each other?!" Teruhashi's voice almost came out as a screech as she leaned forwards far enough to get up. Catching herself, she sat back down in embarrassment at any attracted looks and whispered an apology to Weiss. "Sorry, you can go first."

Weiss waved her off, although not without a slight hint of ire building up. "No, no. It's something I was wondering as well."

Saiki sighed as he felt his three teammates look at him, one of which only doing so since she didn't feel like explaining through text. Resigning himself to the expository position, Saiki replied, "We've known each other for what amounts to a day. Not much else."

Neo, uncaring about the conversation, began playing with a piece of cake by repeatedly stabbing it.

"But you two came to Beacon together, and there was a moment that you two worked together without saying anything, and you two look comfortable with one another…" Teruhashi rattled off a few points.

Before she could continue, Saiki and Neo synchronized their hand waving motion of denial.

"Like that!" Teruhashi pointed at their shared antic. The two of them stopped their hands and met each other's gazes of exasperation.

"No." Saiki voice his denial. "I can say without a doubt that we could care less about one another. If it was a choice between hate and love, it would definitely be hate."

Weiss and Teruhashi flinched at Saiki's complete lack of tact, and looked towards Neo to find their restraint unfounded. Neo, with an arrogant smirk on her face, nodded in agreement.

"If we work 'together,' it's more likely that we're trying to bother one another if at anything." Saiki explained, a slight tone of exhaustion behind his words.

Neo, grin slightly growing at that statement, nodded once more.

"We got stuck with one another, and neither of us are happy about it. Well, I'm sure she's happy when I'm not."

Neo nodded even more vigorously without any remorse for Saiki, with that incessant smile still on her face.

"And as you can see, her only character trait is being a nuisance." Saiki finished, serving a hand towards Neo to emphasize the blame.

Neo did not fall for the comedic gag and shook her head. She tried to slap the side of Saiki's head only to find her efforts thwarted as he deftly dodged the attack.

While Teruhashi was still annoyed at how synchronized the two of them were at that moment, she did feel somewhat better. Weiss, on the other hand, had her own grievances. 'Does being a leader really involve this much babysitting? First its love, now its hate, and they're both on this annoying faunus!'

'Pot meet kettle. And please figure out that even if they're abnormal, that they are hair pins… Is anyone going to correct her on this or do I actually need to set apart time to take off a control device when no one's paying attention?'

Weiss sighed, closed her eyes, and held back her face using her fingers. "Would you two please get along? It doesn't have to be friendship but we're a team for our remainder of time at Beacon."

Saiki mimicked Weiss's motion of exhaustion. "I know."

Neo's smirk returned as chewed on another cookie. [And I know, too.]

"Moving aside, I'd like to go ov-" Weiss was forced to cut herself off again.

"Saiki! What the heck was that?! That was so cool! When did you learn how to do that?! It looked just like that scene from That Particular Technical Launcher!" Kaidou suddenly blinked into existence besides Saiki and launched his own barrage in the form of dialogue. Kaidou shook around Saiki by his shoulder, but his weak strength just made it look like Saiki was vibrating in place.

'Oh yay. Kaidou's conscious again.' Saiki's sarcasm bled past his thoughts as his expression became more annoyed.

"Oh hey there, what's up, Team Ice?!"

Saiki saw someone with annoyingly bright blonde hair walk up alongside Kuboyasu and a younger-looking girl with red highlights in her air. There was also the person that got away with wearing a damn hair accessory! Why does she get to be called human when she's actually a faunus?! Why does the world treat the faunus so unfairly?! And not in that bothersome racist sense!

Weiss recognized the group from their particularly showy version of being late and knew that she didn't want anything to do with them. It would probably be a wasted desire, however. She knew that there was a pre-established group of friends that got split up between the two teams. If Toritsuka had survived, then Weiss would probably have been forced to interact with another team on top of that. "It's not Team Ice. It's Team WNKK."

'Actually, isn't that even more embarrassing to say?' Weiss thought to herself. Saiki agreed with that opinion.

"Huh?! Nah, don't worry about it! You guys are definitely Team Ice!" Yang quickly dismissed the truth of the matter. It didn't help that her voice was loud enough that other people could hear.

"I mean, come on." Yang shrugged before pointing at Weiss. "Ice Queen."

"Hey!" Weiss protested.

"Ice Cream." Yang went on to point at Neo.

Neo didn't know this person. Neo already hated this person. Neo decided that she would hurt this person given the chance.

「It's not like that's inappropriate.」 Saiki commented.

[Shut it. Your opinions never matter!] Neo threw her arms up in the air with ire, and people assumed it was an immediate response to Yang's nickname.

Yang pointed towards a flinching Teruhashi with a lecherous grin on her face. "Ice Melt."

Teruhashi blushed at such a direct comment. It wasn't like she hadn't been given such comments before, but the fact it was so publicly announced and the source was female left her stunned for a moment. "Wait, wait! There are so many other people that are definitely beautiful than me! Like you, for one!"

'Although that's a lie.' Teruhashi admitted inwardly. However, she could tell her humble denial had gotten her even more support from those currently in the cafeteria. Saiki seriously questioned whether or not Teruhashi had her own likeability meter psychic power.

Yang, in response, stopped at her rapid-fire nicknames and blushed at the sudden comment. Yang scratched the back of her head nervously. "Yeah… that's totally right… right…"

'I'm bigger. I'm bigger. I'm bigger.' Yang chanted religiously in her head to regain her sense of self-worse.

'…Honestly, I'm having difficulty deciding who the bigger person here is.' Saiki noted as Teruhashi unknowingly beamed at what was the rare sight of an uncomfortable Yang.

Coughing into her fist, Yang restarted as her index finger was raised towards Saiki. "Anyways. Finally, Ice Shooter."

'…That better not turn into a dirty joke later.' Saiki vainly hoped as Yang was already preparing in her mind situations to do just that.

First impressions were always important. It they weren't, then Team WNKK wouldn't have been sure that they all decided to hate Yang.

Turning to Neo and Saiki's end of the table, Yang introduced herself. "Name's Yang, by the way. That's Ruby. Blake. I think you already know Kubo."

'Ugh. Guess it's better than Club.' Kuboyasu rolled his eyes at either shortening of his name.

Ruby, eyeing Neo's plate, poked Yang for her attention. "Yang~, food~!"

"Oh, right. We'll be right back!" Yang announced before running off towards the food stuffs with Ruby in tow. Kaidou and Kuboyasu reluctantly followed, prioritizing her stomachs.

"Um… Why are you still here?" Weiss asked the remaining Blake, who had instead sat beside the heiress.

"I'm apparently here to make sure you don't 'escape.'" Blake held up her fingers to motion air quotes around the last word.

"…Can't we just leave anyways?" Weiss asked the newcomer, who had already buried her face in a book, already turned to its bookmark.

"Yeah. Go ahead." Blake deadpanned as she turned a page. The ensuing awkward mood made it really difficult to leave.

Saiki then decided to get up and leave, even with the astonishment of his teammates. At least until his walking momentum was stopped as Neo lunged at him and pulled at the hem of his jacket, falling down and spreading herself across the seat bench. [You're not getting away that easily!]

「You could just leave yourself…」 Saiki trailed off as his eyes landed on Neo's plate, still holding half of its content. He understood everything. Sweets were not to be abandoned. At least his own. 「That doesn't mean I have to be here.」

Neo looked up at Saiki with a clearly sadistic smile. [What could possibly mean~? Just come and stay awhile.]

Saiki brushed off her hands quickly and tried to escape.

"Saiki, can't we talk a little more~?" Teruhashi pleaded in the background. Saiki stopped in his tracks, although not entirely voluntary. 'He stopped! He does care about me!'

'No. It's that I care about the numerous murderous gazes pointed in my direction. Actually, this might be a decent way of lowering my likeability count.' Saiki thought as he continued his stride.

Blake realized she was in a warzone of devastation and destruction and decided to try and hide herself in her book to drown herself in a fictional warzone of devastation and destruction. Weiss gagged at how any chance of her own escape was ruined as well.

…

Saiki put away his tray before walking back into hell, where they were waiting with open arms and subdued tears.

-Ψ-

No apologies for something that is basically par for the course at this point. I will admit that I got into a bunch of different shows, not limited to anime at this point which certainly didn't help anything. One of which is Fate, and that's just a bottomless hole if I've ever seen one.

There's always been this weird feeling that I have that there's a lot of people that write for RWBY to basically have a roster of primarily female characters just for male characters to show up in a crossover and outdo them. …Actually wait, aren't I doing the same thing? I can't just hide behind the excuse that Saiki is genuinely OP and that the entire purpose is for him not to be seen as it but it's basically the same isn't it?

Sigh. Guess that's another thing about writing for RWBY, all the actual characters can so easily fit into archetype molds and it can be difficult to show that they're not just that, and I'm not sure if I'm up to such a mounting task.

Honestly, thinking about it, Neo may be a bundle of headcanons that are probably accepted well enough that her personality will develop similarly if and when she makes another appearance. But to write her as much as I have, she is virtually an OC, created in a similar way to the GSIC that I talked about two chapters ago. Eh, whatever, I'm having fun with it.

Alright, review responses…

sassymelon: Don't expect it so often.

adv: I'll try my best to keep making them fun.

SnapDragon21: Ah, right. The self-deprecation bit. Sorry about that. Does saying sorry defeat the purpose? People I know in real life have gotten used to that facet of my personality, but it doesn't do much to help how annoyed they probably are with it. Also, the repercussions weren't exactly as advertised, huh? And I get that it's been two months, but no, this was one of the points I came up with early in the drafting if you want to believe that.

TheKrister2: I reply to everyone, I do these the day the chapter comes out. So eh. Plotholes are going to be evident at some point, no matter how much I've been keeping track so apology in advance whenever it shows up… unless it already did and I didn't notice. Oh and I did do that interlude interruption there on purpose, I personally thought it would've been a nice break but guess not.

Cliffhangers are cliffhangers, but honestly, they just happen because I feel like ending chapters before the word count gets past a certain average. Yup, revoking content sucks, completely agree. And I didn't really think it sounded that negative.

pltgrst: …. .

darkpit65: … .