"What colossal Grimm, seen only once, was defeated by the silver-eyed huntress Ruby Rose in Argus, year 82 post-war?" Snow read from her sheet of practice questions. She looked up to Caspian.
"Leviathan," Caspian replied with certainty.
Snow nodded. "Correct. And what special ability did Leviathan have?"
Caspian pursed his lips. "Well, it was huge... Oh! That beam thing, right?"
"The Leviathan could let loose an energy blast from its mouth. This energy blast was capable of breaking through Argus's hard-light barriers," Snow replied.
"Yeah, that's a better way of putting it," Caspian admitted with a laugh. He scrolled down on the screen in front of him. "Let's see... what special ability was possessed by the Wyvern Grimm that attacked Beacon Academy during its fall?"
"It could drop Blackened Pools, which spawned Grimm."
"Right!" Caspian confirmed. His eyes narrowed. "The Blackened Pools that spawn Grimm were supposed to all be eradicated after Salem's defeat... Weird."
"Cas! There you are!" Rowan greeted, shuffling into the booth next to him.
Caspian sighed. His quiet study session with Snow had come to an end.
"So, remember what your uncle said about getting yourself out there?"
"Yes..." Caspian hesitantly responded.
"I pulled some strings and got us invited to a party tonight!" Rowan proudly announced.
"A party?" Caspian repeated. "Finals start Monday!"
"You'll do fine!" Rowan encouraged.
"Will you?"
Rowan paused for a second, and waved his hand. "I'm sure I'll do fine enough!"
"I don't really think parties are my thing. Too loud," Caspian continued.
Too loud, too many people, and he still wasn't quite over Lilly.
"It's an academy party, you gotta at least go to one!" Rowan insisted. He looked to Snow. "Girls get in without a problem, you wanna come?"
"No."
"I think my dad would have a heart attack if we brought Snow to a party anyway," Caspian figured. "...And fine. I'll go."
Caspian could hear the muffled music of the house party from a block and a half away. He and Rowan walked together along the narrow residential streets just North of campus, streetlights casting the shadows of bare branches onto the cracked sidewalks.
"Whose house even is this?" Caspian pondered as he and Rowan made their way past a group, boisterous enough to draw their sobriety into question, and to the front door.
"Not sure. Some fourth-year, I think," Rowan explained. His lack of certainty did little to assure Caspian.
"Holobands?" the faunus at the door asked. Caspian held his wrist out uncertainly, and the man held his own up to it. "You're good," he said, once a green light flicked on from within his own Holoband.
Once inside, the music threatened to burst his eardrums. The song was a strange hybrid of rap and electronic, but not a particularly good song for either genre. Caspian wedged his way between a crowd and the wall, offering apologies he was sure they couldn't hear. Lights flashed throughout the otherwise dark room at the end of the hall, coating the mass of people in randomly alternating shades of blue, pink, purple, and yellow.
It had to be a fire hazard, having all these people crammed in such a tight space. Rowan said something from behind him.
"Whaaat?!" Caspian shouted back.
"I said, let's get something to drink!" Rowan repeated. Even with his loudmouth friend shouting next to his ear, he could barely hear him.
"Let's get water, it's hot in here!" Caspian decided, making his way toward the sink.
Rowan chuckled. "Water? Nah, I'm talking one of these!"
He held out a tiny glass of a clear mystery liquid.
"That's not water?" Caspian questioned. He held the drink up to his face, and recoiled at the stench. It smelled like some kind of cleaning solution, and he wasn't entirely sure it was safe for human consumption.
"We'll do it together," Rowan suggested, holding out a glass of his own, then pulling it back to just under his chin. "Three, two, one!"
The deceptively colorless liquid that ran down Caspian's throat was putrid. His face twisted in revulsion at the taste, and his throat burned with the disgusted breath he let out. He continued to grimace as the liquid's remnants lingered on his tongue. As he held the back of his hand to his mouth, his eyes flicked to the several tables that had been laid out, looking for water, juice, a spare slice of pizza. Anything to mask the flavor.
Rowan clapped him on the shoulder. "How was your first shot, man?" Caspian let out a disgusted groan as a reply, and Rowan laughed. "Now, to the dance floor?"
Caspian held up his empty glass. "I'm gonna need a few more of these before I start dancing."
Over the course of the next hour or so, he had a few more. He stopped caring as much about the music, the lights, and how many sweaty strangers were crammed into that one room. As his head began to spin, he even did a little of what resembled dancing. Eventually, the heat of the room got to him, and his thirst was unbearable.
"Can we get some water now?" Caspian asked, stabilizing himself on Rowan. "My throat is... needing water."
"Yeah, mine too," Rowan agreed. The two shuffled out of the crowd and into the side hall that led to the kitchen. They grabbed a plastic cup each, and drank deeply from the tap. Usually, Caspian preferred filtered water, a degree or two away from frozen. But by this point in the night, he couldn't care less.
A flicker of movement down the hall running parallel to the dancing room caught his eye when he left the kitchen. It was the big fluffy tail of the squirrel faunus he had seen around quite a few times since the Entrance Exam. She looked up to him, and flashed the same smile he still remembered from his first day at Sentinel. He smiled back, and felt a hand pull him back into the kitchen.
"I saw that!" Rowan hinted with a wink and a nudge.
"Saw what?"
"That squirrel girl. She's totally into you!"
"That? Nah..." Caspian dismissed. He pulled up a chair and sat, hoping Rowan would dismiss his reddened face as being due to the alcohol. "She's probably just really nice."
"You gotta give it a chance! We're gettin' out there, remember?" Rowan insisted.
"No, I've seen her around a ton before, it would be weird if I talked to her out of nowhere now," Caspian reasoned.
"You've seen her arou- okay. Listen. I want you to repeat after me," Rowan instructed, holding Caspian's shoulder and leaning in, pointing between his eyes. It seemed the drinks had caught up with him as well. "You're cute, wanna dance?"
"No! She's gonna like... run away or something," Caspian protested, sloppily brushing Rowan's hand off his shoulder. "What if I tell her I've seen her around before, and say I wanna introduce myself? Then, just hope the conversation continues from there."
"So, you gonna do it?"
Caspian sighed, and stood up. He took a couple of seconds to let the kitchen settle into place, then looked at Rowan. "I think I got this."
He stopped upon reaching the mouth of the hallway. The faunus still sat in the same chair, but a young man with a captivating grin stood next to her. He couldn't tell what they said, but judging by her smiles and nods, the conversation was going better than any he could've hoped to have with her. She finished off her drink before walking with him to the dance floor.
She was just really friendly, he realized. The smile meant nothing special, and he felt stupid for letting his half-drunk euphoria tell him otherwise.
"Can we go?" Caspian suddenly asked.
"Huh? I thought you were having a good time," Rowan asked in return.
"I was, but... I want to leave," Caspian decided, shaking his head.
"That was one girl!" Rowan argued. "This party is packed, there has to be at least a hundred more here."
"I know, and I don't care anymore. I don't want to be a part of any of this. It's hot in here, and I want to leave."
Caspian shuffled past the crowd that had gathered in the hall and toward the front door, leaving Rowan no choice but to follow. He stumbled down the steps and out of the driveway, making it about a block toward campus before taking a seat on a set of concrete stairs, bathed in the orange-brown glow of a streetlight. He could still hear the bass, and muffled lyrics of whatever song the party host played. He didn't envy their neighbors.
"What happened in there, man?" Rowan inquired. Caspian could hear the worry in his voice.
"This whole thing, getting drunk and finding some random girl to dance with, and... whatever else. It just feels so shallow," Caspian complained. "Lilly and I have been friends for years. I thought we could've had a relationship built on that. It's not like I'm mad at her or anything, I just can't replace something like that at a party."
"Hmm..."
"And I know Uncle Doug said to get out there, but he also told us to be ourselves," Caspian reminded. "This isn't me."
"You want someone who knows the 'real' you," Rowan said. "What about Snow?"
"What about her?"
"She's cute, isn't she?"
"I guess..." Caspian admitted. "But I don't think of her that way, really."
"Oh, right. If your uncle took her in, isn't she technically your cousin?"
"No!" Caspian nearly shouted. "I... I mean, it's not like that. That's not why."
"Then why not Snow?"
"I don't know how to put this without sounding mean. I don't mean to be, because she's such a good friend and all, but she's kind of..."
"Weird?"
"No, that's-" Caspian disputed. He sighed. "That's not what I was gonna say. Look. We have training tomorrow, and finals start on Monday. Can we just go home?"
The young man in purple grunted as he slammed chest-first into the ground, his weapon clattering out of the arena.
He groaned again as he turned onto his side, and began to sit upright. "Just my luck to be partnered with her..."
Lazula made her way down from the practice stage, and back toward her team. Another easy match. If this was what to expect out the Vytal Tournament, it surely would be another win. Of her teammates, all but Ichigo had won their practice matches, and he was more of a supportive member, anyway. Team LSLI was looking like a serious contender among the first years of Sentinel, and Lazula couldn't wait for the tournament.
"Thank you, for the matches," Cascara, who had been tasked with overseeing the day's first-year practice duels, commended. The holographic screen above the stage cycled through dozens of faces, before settling on two more teams. "The following four matches will be between Team CRLN, and Team BLCM."
Caspian breathed out a deep breath. A dull, nagging pain wracked his head, and his stomach felt both empty and uneasy, even after choking down his breakfast. His fight against the admittedly gorgeous magenta-haired girl would come last, according to the order on the screen. He recognized Rowan's opponent too; the faunus he had almost struck up a conversation with the night before.
"I've gotcha, man," Rowan assured. "I'll get revenge for last night."
"R-Revenge?" Caspian repeated. He chuckled. "Good luck and all, but that's really not necessary."
The next couple matches were intense. Lily and the blue haired dust-wielder Lake were evenly matched, but Lilly's close-combat ability saw her coming out on top. Noxis went even with Team BLCM's leader Blaise, a bodybuilder with a crest of crimson hair. Yet once he slung Renegade back over his shoulder and unleashed his semblance, he too won it for Team CRLN.
Rowan faced Moka on stage. He pulled Sanguine Storm from his back with a grin, pointing it to his foe. Moka hopped on the balls of her feet as a quick warmup, then stretched her shoulders.
"Where's your weapon?" Rowan asked.
Moka raised her fists. "They're right here!"
Rowan chuckled, spinning his massive blade for show. "I'll go easy on you, don't worry."
Moka smiled. "Oh, I'm not worried!"
After the usual countdown, their match began. Rowan led with a spinning strike, using the weight of his blade to guide his attack. Moka twisted around as she ducked under it, and the instant she was clear of the blade she sprung up with an uppercut to his stomach. He stumbled back with a grunt as another punch landed, finally managing to raise the broad side of his blade to block her next strike. He pushed her back and struck toward her, but she easily hopped back and out of harms' way.
"Huh. She's pretty good," Caspian noted.
"Oh, she's on the Sparring Team with me," Lazula recognized. "Nice girl. Never stops talking, though."
When Caspian looked back up to the fight, the tread of Moka's boot was locked on the edge of Rowan's blade, at the end of a roundhouse kick. Brown sparks worked from her leg, to her core, to her chest as she pushed off his blade and reversed her momentum. A powerful hook met Rowan's jaw, and she followed through to finish the fight with a spinning kick.
"Hey! Are you alright?" Moka asked, offering her hand.
Rowan took it, and was helped to his feet. "Well unfortunately I can still remember everything that just happened, so I don't think I have a concussion!"
"The final practice match between teams CRLN and BLCM will be between Caspian Skye, and Cattleya Ophrys," Cascara announced, once Rowan and Moka had returned to the sidelines. "Please come up to the stage."
Caspian breathed out a deep breath. He was more used to the practice matches by now, and knew almost no one remembered who won or lost on a given day. Yet having the eyes of every single first-year at Sentinel fixed on him was still a bit nerve wracking. His heart leapt into his throat as he locked eyes with his opponent. Had he seen her in a movie, or as a model in one of the giant ads in downtown Port Cyrreine, he wouldn't have had a second thought. But in person, it was surprising to see someone with such a marked lack of flaws.
As the countdown started, he suddenly remembered he had to fight her.
When they engaged, his first strike was blocked by Cattleya's rapier, as was his second. She redirected its force to his right, but Caspian managed to block her follow-up with a swift strike.
The two traded slashes and swipes for a minute or so. Compared with Noxis and Lazula, Caspian realized it was enjoyable to spar someone closer to his own skill level. Fun, even. He unlocked his blade from Cattleya's and backed off, transforming his weapon to fire off a few shots. All but one hit their mark.
Cattleya lashed out with her rapier in response, and it extended toward him like a whip. Its gleaming tip whistled through the air, and Caspian barely managed to block it in time. A vein of glowing pink coursed its way along Cattleya's whip all the way from her hand to Undertow. As she wrenched back, the glowing pink acted like a powerful, instant adhesive, and his weapon was ripped from his grasp.
Undertow clattered noisily across the ground until it settled a few feet behind his opponent. Without giving Cascara the chance to call the match, he ran for it.
Cattleya struck at him as he neared, but the blow glanced off Caspian's armguard as he slid for his weapon. He grasped it and transformed it back into a pistol as he turned and stood, firing off a few more shots.
"Ow!" Cattleya cried, holding her arms up and wincing at the barrel of Caspian's gun.
Caspian pulled back with hesitation, lowering Undertow a hair.
Cattleya smirked and lashed out once again. The tip of her blade met the center of Caspian's chestplate, and the pink vein linked them. He was wrenched toward her, and as he neared the link between them faded. She collapsed her weapon back into a rapier and jabbed Caspian's stomach, nearly shattering his aura.
The lights around the arena turned on. "Alright. The winner of the practice match between Caspian Skye and Cattleya Ophrys is Cattleya," Cascara concluded. "Thank you, both teams, for the matches."
"Caspian Skye?" Cattleya inquired, turning to him with curiosity.
"Oh- y-yeah, that's me!" Caspian confirmed with a nervous laugh.
"You're Lazula's brother then? And the Headmaster's son?"
"Yeah, th-that's me!" Caspian repeated.
Cattleya laughed. "You're cute! I'm Cattleya." She poked at her Holoband's screen, then held out her wrist with a smile. "That was a fun match. Text me if you wanna spar again sometime, or if you just wanna hang out!"
Caspian held his wrist out, still a bit star-struck. As his Holoband pulsed once with vibration. He couldn't help but smile at the "new contact" projecting from it.
So, to spare her who knows how many chapters of being called Cattle-ya, I'm gonna clarify now that it's pronounced CA-tel-EE-uh. Also, her team name (BLCM) is pronounced Blossom!