So… Here we are. Another chapter. I don't know how to begin this other than the fact that I'm excited to start this chapter. At the time of writing, it's around 50 days away from the launch of CyberPunk 2077 (a game I like many others am extremely excited for.) I can't say if that will affect my writing schedule (I haven't preordered it despite the insane amount of hype I have) but hopefully I can balance the two things together.

Also, in case I haven't already said this, any of the Mistral city and town names I make up follow a similar method to the one RT uses (find a flower, find the japanese name and transliterate it into English.) I can't think of names good anyways so it made sense to use the rules that had already been established.

With that over with, let's go.

"Dang, Izuku! I didn't know it'd be this nice," Ruby asked with a bright grin, taking in the room around her, "It's not fair how you get to have this awesome workshop room! Where's mine?"

"Have you tried becoming an A-0? That gets you one pretty easily," Izuku responded, booting on his desktop and moving his laptop onto the desk, "You can use my laptop, I'll use the computer. We'll share a file and, hopefully, put together a working electro-gauntlet."

"Hm, okay," Ruby examined the laptop before nodding, "I should be able to use this. Also, just so you know, I've got a rating of H-25. It may not be the best but it's not like I tank my shots like Yang does so I'm all good."

"Okay, good to know I guess. Maybe you should join in our evasion training?" Izuku said before remembering how it went only hours prior, "You know what, scratch that, I can't even deal with my own team, it's best not to add another."

"Ah…" Ruby started before stopping for a second to examine Izuku quickly, "You have leadership issues too?"

"Er…" Izuku held his tongue for a second, she said 'too' which implied she was having issues herself, "Well, I wouldn't say issues but I wasn't exactly expecting to be put into the leadership role. What about you?"

"I have that too but there's also the fact that, well, Weiss has been a pain to deal with," Ruby looked over her shoulder quickly, as if she'd been expecting the older girl to appear out of thin air, "My already low self-confidence and lack of leadership is kinda, erm, increased, I guess when I keep being nagged at. You know, I was hoping that Yang would be the leader and I could be some sort of secondary character with their own little character arc but being the leader, the main protagonist, wasn't something I wanted. I mean, now I have to have a decent character arc and development or I'm a failure of a protagonist!"

"You're putting too much pressure on yourself," Izuku waved away her worries, "You're a better team leader than I could be. I mean, I can't really lead as much as I can support. You know how I fight."

"Yeah, you're more of a support with occasional attacks. Still, you can give orders around and stuff. I can't even do that without being looked down upon," Ruby swung her arms upwards in frustration.

"Looked down upon?" Izuku repeated before thinking for a second, "Just Weiss or the others as well?"

"Weiss does it the most outwardly but I just know that everyone else is feeling the same way. The way they talk, the way they treat me like a kid. It's like I don't belong here…" Ruby said before mulling over her words, "I'm only fifteen-years-old, I'm the youngest person in Beacon-"

"To be fair, you're also the youngest person to get into Beacon," Izuku interjected, shining some positivity on the girl's actions.

"I have the least experience here! It doesn't matter how good I am at combat training and stuff, I still didn't do all of the stuff they did!" Ruby responded with a bitter smile, "Me being brought into Beacon early was a mistake."

"Didn't you beat the number one criminal or something? How can you do that and think you're not ready?" Izuku replied back, feeling ever so slightly motivational, "I mean you were picked early! How does that work by the way? Were you sent a letter or something?"

"No. Professor Goodwitch kinda saved me when I was about to get hit by a dust fireball. At least, I think it was Dust. Kinda hard to tell between Dust and an actual semblance. Anyways, stuff happened," Ruby answered before murmuring the rest out, "And-then-I-was-picked-by-Ozpin."

"What?"

Ruby sighed, "And then I was picked by Ozpin..."

"You were picked by Ozpin himself to skip two years!" Izuku gasped in disbelief, "And I thought I was special for being put on the short list because of him?"

"You were put on the short list?" Ruby raised an eyebrow, "When did you meet him?"

"At the end of the I-Island Incident, I met him just after fighting one of those criminals in the control room. He complimented my skills and my armour and I kinda, erm, met him, I guess. He said that he might put me on the short list and, when I took the test to apply for Beacon, I found out that he wasn't kidding," Izuku admitted, deciding to skip over the fact that he passed out almost immediately after Ozpin complimented his armour, "But that's besides the point. If Ozpin himself brought you here and made you a leader, there's not really a reason to doubt yourself is there?"

"But he admitted that he's made mistakes himself. According to him, he's made more mistakes than any man, woman and child. You know, typical wise, vague stuff that the old mentor archetypes say in books… wait, that's besides the point, what matters is that he's made mistakes and me being the leader is one of them." Ruby pouted, thinking back to what Weiss had said before, "And even if he was right, that doesn't stop the fact that I'm not leader material!"

"Neither am I, Ruby. Neither am I," Izuku breathed a long sigh, "But, take it from someone who's Auraless, who really shouldn't have a place being here. You're meant to be here, no matter what anyone says. I mean, what's their word against Ozpin?"

"Yeah, but…" Ruby drew a long sigh, "Perhaps you're right, perhaps you're not. I don't know anything other than the fact that Weiss can be a pain… Although, to be fair, she does have moments of being nice."

"She's trying at least," Izuku thought his next words out quickly, "That means she accepts that she should be nice to you and that's some progress, right?"

"Right… wait, three motivational speeches in two days? I don't know why I'm worried; you're definitely the protagonist!" Ruby snickered light-heartedly before scratching her chin, "So, er... when should we begin?"

"We can start now if you want. Nora said that she'll do the exterior design tomorrow because she wanted to hang out with Ren today. That means we don't have a reason not to begin," Izuku answered, waving around to show his team member's absence, "But... I don't mind talking about the team thing a little longer if you have anything else to get off of your chest."

"Not really, I got everything I really needed out. I guess it goes without saying that I'd prefer if you didn't bring it up," Ruby paused for a second before her eyes widened, "You definitely aren't telling any of them, right?"

"Of course not. Your secrets are yours to share, not mine," Izuku waved away her worries before opening the document from earlier and setting the sync up, "Anyways, Nora has already told me what she wants so we should be good to go. Any time you're needed back?"

"I have an hour before Yang said she wanted me back. That should be enough for the basic planning and stuff. I'm going to push in a bunch of offensive stuff, you get the electrical stuff down," Ruby answered before sliding into one of the chairs with the laptop in hand, "Been a while since I've used a physical keyboard. Ah, feels tactile and stuff."

"You use those scroll computers?" Izuku asked idly as he started writing down some ideas, "They're pretty cool when it comes to coding but they're a little too closed-source for my taste. Plus, I just prefer using a physical keyboard and carrying one of those scroll keyboard addons kinda defeats the point of a scroll's portability."

"It's something you need to get used to. It's a trade off, sure, but I don't mind. Still, this laptop's pretty nice. I might consider using one when it comes to designing Crescent Rose."

"Isn't Crescent Rose finished? Are you talking about upgrades or full-scale redesigns?" Izuku thought back to the girl's weapon, "I can't think of anything off the top of my head to improve it "

"Yes and no. Just because Crescent Rose hasn't seen any major design overhauls doesn't mean it's the final design. I'm a weapon fanatic, what would I be if I didn't upgrade my weapons?" the girl questioned before cutting off any answer Izuku could think of, "I'd be a sham. And I, Ruby Rose, am no sham. I'm the truest, bluest… er, reddest weapon fanatic you've ever seen."

"I get that… But what upgrades are we talking about here?"

"Like, erm, Dust integration, some sort of short-range weapon integration in case someone gets past my scythe blade and I'm backed into a corner and stuff like that. I've also been thinking about allowing my weapon to split in half and turn into a sickle. Or, maybe I could make it retractable and one-handed? Or, better yet, hard-light blade projections! I saw a demonstration in Atlas, a weightless blade that's formed from refined hard-light Dust. Of course I could make it double-sided but should I go opposite ends or..." Ruby was about to continue before realising what she'd been doing moments earlier, "But, you get the point. Upgrades, a lot of upgrades. Maybe I'll test them with you later but right now, we have to do Nora's gauntlets. Let's see, an easy idea would be spiked knuckles."

"Was probably going to add them in anyways. Well, that or throw in some extra metal reinforcements on the knuckles," the inventor started typing away at how the circuitry was likely going to work, "Nora's pretty good at punching so it likely wouldn't go unused if she drops her weapon."

"I didn't think of her as a hand-to-hand person. Hm, do you think an integrated push blade is a good idea?" the girl tilted her head, "Nah, she'd work better with blunt weapons."

"Yeah, I think it's better to just reinforce her knuckles, perhaps throw in studs or small spikes in case someone catches her first, " Izuku supported the girl's sentiment, "But, there are some other ideas. I'm thinking of zapping her in the forearm so she doesn't loosen her grip by accident so keep that in mind when you suggest something."

"Grappling hook or razor wire? A focused ranged attack of some sort would be beneficial," she answered back, "Since we keep mentioning zapping her, is it to do with her semblance? Could we channel that electricity through the wires?"

"Oh, right. You went to go find Weiss with Pyrrha so you must have missed Nora's demonstration. She can absorb electricity and conduct it around her body to either increase her own strength or let it loose as an electrical attack," Izuku explained before thinking over her suggestion, "Grappling hook might work though. Since I've already got Black Whip as a foundation, I could tweak it to get into Nora's gauntlet and use a simpler control mechanism."

"Should we attach it on top of the gauntlet or integrate it inside? Integrating it inside might cut down the space we can use for storing electricity but attaching it to the top might make it unwieldy," Ruby scratched her chin, "I should get a grappling hook sometime; it'd help with verticality. Probably can't fit it into Crescent Rose though… Ideas for later."

"What about a crossbow? You know, throw in some utility arrows for smokes, fire arrows or oil arrows for area denial, gas arrows for similar area denial and even that grappling hook," Izuku suggested as he drew a basic outline of the gauntlet and roughly labelled where things would go.

"I dunno, I'd like everything to be in one place," Ruby breathed a long sigh, "But, fitting a crossbow into Crescent Rose may not be all too viable. Plus, it's a weapon my mum used on occasion with her dagger and sniper. I don't know if I'm ready to fill those shoes just yet. Like, have you heard that one story where she fired a bolt through a tree and into the Grimm behind it? Or that time she was able to hit another invisibility semblance user with a crossbow bolt?"

"Yeah, who hasn't? She fought against a notorious criminal with invisibility, a suppressed shotgun and better knowledge of the area and somehow she ended the fight with only a single bolt and dagger push. She's easily the most famous crossbow user in the modern day, only being compared to some of Vacuo's ancient warriors," Izuku remembered reading that story in a book about huntsman weaponry, "I guess I can understand why you wouldn't want to use a crossbow; you'd end up being compared to her a lot more than you'd want."

"Heh, yeah. Way more attention than I want. Then again, the fact that I'm using a sniper is going to get me compared to her anyways," Ruby gave a long, drawn out sigh, "But… I might consider it if only for the utility you mentioned. Maybe slipping a thermal scope onto Crescent Rose to capitalise on smokes isn't a bad idea. Again, ideas for later."

"Mhm. I'll run the idea of a grappling hook by Nora, see if she likes it. If we get a go ahead, I'll tell you," Izuku said aloud before creasing his eyebrow, "Alright, so when it comes to the electrical shock, should we use a single impact area or multiple? The difference being that with one impact area, there's less that can go wrong (and we can get away with using only one electrical store) whilst with multiple areas of impact, she can charge herself much faster."

"Shouldn't we go for the second one? You know, extra power is kinda what we're going for," Ruby pointed out as she typed out yet another idea: energy-Dust powered shockwaves or just some servomotors, "Also, would throwing a piston on be a good idea or no?"

"Perhaps… It would depend on whether she wants the grappling hook or the piston? It'd also be quite a bit clunkier to carry around and might get in the way of her hammer swings."

"Why not just move the grappling hook to the side and leave the top part for the piston?"

"We could… Then again, that might cause the hook to snag on things like Nora's clothes which will cost her some time to set it for another shot," Izuku thought over his ideas, "If it came down to one or the other, I'd choose the grappling hook just because it means she can rush opponent's better and, with her strength and choice of weapon, that could be pretty deadly. Why not just use servo motors or some sort of energy Dust shockwave creator? Wait… you already wrote it down, why suggest pistons?"

"Meh, best to give multiple options you know," Ruby scratched her chin, "I wonder if I should give Yang a grappling hook? It'd work as well as it would with Nora with the plus side that she can use it to throw a punch. I mean, she's strong, but… That'd be something else, no?"

"Sure. Yang's a hand-to-hand combatant so she has relatively short range, especially when considering her only long-range option is a shotgun. Having a grappling hook should let her close distances quickly and ensure her opponent stays in range," Izuku visualised the blonde using the grappling hook and couldn't see anything majorly wrong, "It depends where you put it. We might not be able to fit it onto… what's the weapon's name again?"

"Ember Celica."

"Yeah, we might not be able to fit it onto Ember Celica without either reworking it to give it more space or giving her an incredibly short-range grappling hook," Izuku started forming the basic circuitry on a little program, "Or, we could make her a separate sleeve that she should slide on before equipping her gauntlet. If we're giving grappling hooks to everyone, why not give one to Blake? She's a hit-and-run fighter if I recall."

"Nah, her weapon works as one. Although, maybe I could give one to Weiss? She's probably the most fragile member of our team and her semblance works well for support so it'd be better to keep her in a safe spot," Ruby said before coughing slightly and blushing, "But, she's also too prideful to accept that. She barely trusts me so accepting a tool I made her might not work."

"Then again, maybe it'll help her trust you?" Izuku thought about it and shrugged, "Then again, you'll need to get her measurements. I don't think she'll just give you her measurements. I guess all you can do is take them when she's sleeping, right?."

Izuku was about to continue with his work before he spotted Ruby's expression in the corner of his eye, "You're not… actually planning on doing that are you?"

"W-Wha… no…" Ruby's eyes darted away from him and she sheepishly rubbed her elbow.

"You know if she catches you, there is no way she'll trust you. Ever."

"I know… But she doesn't trust me anyways so…" she met Izuku's disapproving, incredulous look and shrunk underneath it, "Fine…"

"Alright… Perhaps you should ask her. I may not have good people skills but even I would just ask someone for their measurements instead of measuring them in their sleep," Izuku said aloud before stopping in disgust, "God, it sounds wrong to say."

"Eh, perhaps not. It's not like she needs a grappling hook anyways. Yang and Nora, on the other hand, need it but don't know they can have it," Ruby decided to keep away from the topic of Weiss for a little longer, "That's what we're for, right fellow team leader?"

"Er, sure, I guess," Izuku answered before remembering that Ruby only had an hour, "What's the time?"

"I dunno, check on that computer you're on?"

"Ah, right. I forget there's a clock in the corner," Izuku admitted sheepishly, "8:11. When did you say you needed to go again?"

"8:25ish. We have time… So, whilst we've been talking about the grappling hooks, how are we going to do them? Are we using buttons and sliders to shoot the hooks and then another button to retract?"

"Since these won't have the same sensitivity and fine movements I can make with Black Whip, we'll also need to add a button in order to lock the grappling hook in place. Or… we could use a slider? Push it towards the wrist to shoot forwards, push it into the middle to lock it in place and then pull it back to retract would be good enough… Though that means that two hands are needed which may not be viable for Nora, who uses a two-handed weapon. Actually, since she grips the handle of the hammer with her right and uses her left for momentum… If I put the slider on the inside of her right arm, she can grab it with her left whilst retaining grip on her hammer. I should ask her when we meet in the dorm room."

"Don't you have her number?"

"No… I should probably do that before I need it for something that's genuinely important," Izuku shrugged, "I guess I'll ask her when we meet up at the dorms."

"Are you saying that this isn't important, Izuku? We're making grappling hook gauntlets. You know what would make it better? Grappling hook gauntlets with guns! Grappling gunlets!"

"I thought you didn't like puns?"

"Only when Yang says them. Also, hers aren't about weapons which means they don't get any brownie points," Ruby scratched her chin slightly, "I thought you didn't like them either? I mean, the way you acted oblivious to them made it easy to notice."

"Would you believe that I really never caught them?" Izuku blushed slightly in embarrassment, "A-Anyway, back on topic, gun gauntlets likely won't work with Nora: she prefers melee with occasional explosions and I know from first-hand experience how different using a firearm is to using gun gauntlets."

"They're not that different? You punch stuff and it booms slightly more than normal."

"Huh…" Izuku thought on her words for a few seconds, "Wait, did you mean gauntlets like the one Yang has? I thought you meant full-automatic gun gauntlets like the WMG?"

"WMG?" Ruby repeated, "Wazzat?"

"Wrist-Mounted Gun. I made them way back," Izuku reminisced slightly, "They were an older weapon of mine but I decided to scrap them when it comes to the Dreamcatcher since, you know, I have the explosions and a handgun. The machine guns wouldn't come into use often so…"

"Why would you scrap that? You have to show me them! How many bullets could it hold?"

"I forgot how much exactly but it was around 200-"

"200! How?" Ruby interrupted, "That can't possibly fit in your arm!"

"Nah, it did. I used a revolver-like design that would switch between magazines so that once one was emptied, it would switch to another magazine. The bullets went along my forearm in case you're wondering," Izuku towards his left forearm and pointed between the wrist and elbow, "I fit enough bullets that I could throw in 250."

"Wouldn't that have been straining on the arms and, y'know, hurt? You know, no Aura and stuff?"

"The first ones did hurt a little. Then I discovered shock absorbers and shock dampeners which, for the most part, made them easy to use for long periods of time," Izuku's arm tensed in phantom pains, "If we're talking about weights, I made sure that the gauntlets went all the way up to my back so that my arms weren't supporting all of the weight. Even then, it meant that I ended up with relatively decent upper body strength which was helpful when I fused with Dust and needed to up my physique."

"Hm… well, d'ya you still have them on you? I have to see this!" Ruby looked around the room in search of any gauntlets, "Please?"

"My hands are tied. I didn't bring it with me since I wouldn't be going back to the design. It's likely still at home in my bedroom. With a bunch of other stuff I made, now that I think about it-"

"Yo, Izuku? Are you there? I need Ruby ASAP!" Yang's voice rang over their conversation followed by a few knocks on the door.

Deciding that this was probably some sort of team emergency, Izuku zipped over to the door and opened it before pointing at Ruby with her thumb. In almost an instant, Yang ran over to Ruby before hoisting her over the shoulder and running out of the room. Somewhat confused, the inventor poked his head out of the doorway and into the corridor only to see Yang's shrinking figure with a squealing Ruby over shoulder.

"Hm, that happened," Izuku shook his head to clear the confusion, "Probably some team emergency. I guess I have some alone time to myself… Should I write down some Huntsmen notes or go back to the dorm?"

The clock read 8:19.

"I'll just send this all to Nora and then I can do some notes. It's not like 10 minutes of note-taking ever hurt anyone."

"So, a grappling hook, huh," Nora repeated Izuku's question before grabbing her hammer and going into a combat stance, "Which hand did you want to put it on?"

"The right. You should be able to grab the hook easily with your left hand whilst still keeping your grip on the hammer's handle," Izuku explained, causing Nora to do the motions mentioned.

"It'll work. You don't have to, of course, since I thought we were only doing the electric thingy but, y'know, this is pretty cool," Nora shifted positions energetically and would have continued if not for the fact that she'd almost destroyed her own bed, "You're team leader, you'll probably be right. Since you're probably done with that, d'ya want to play some video games?"

"What?"

"Video games. I just bought some on my scroll and need someone to play with. Why you? Well, why not you? Well, other than the fact that you're the only person that's free since Ren is reading a book," Nora waved at the boy, who was reading a spiritual book from his bedsheets, before turning back to Izuku, "And Pyrrha… Actually, where is Pyrrha?"

"Here," Pyrrha made a small noise from her bed, "I tried working my semblance whilst everyone was busy with their own things. I'm worse than I expected with Polarity."

"Oh, yeah. I should probably ship Pandora over here so you can use it to train your semblance. If I ask today, we can probably get it here between… four and six days? Somewhere around that time frame," Izuku said aloud, remembering Pyrrha's request during their training.

"Nice, Pyrrha can join us as well. This is almost a team activity," Nora's eyes shifted briefly to Ren, "Almost. Now then, time for some team unwinding!"

"Hey, this is great and all but you haven't mentioned which game we're playing," Izuku pointed out.

"Oh, I bought a bunch on sale since, well, they were on sale. I got the new G-1 game so if you want some fast racing game, we have that. I also bought the new Battle Sisters so if you're feeling a little competitive, we can do that. Oh, and if we're feeling really daring, we can try out the new Rise of Civilizations."

"Rise of Civilizations… I think I've heard of that one," Izuku scratched his chin slightly, "It's the one where you start an empire and get a religious victory before the game really begins, right?"

"Well, I usually went the warmonger route but yeah, that's the one," Nora paused for a second and thought back, "Well, to be fair, I only played the game six times when I was staying at this one family's house on Mistral's west coast. I... lost them all within 60 turns."

"How come you were on Mistral's west coast?" Pyrrha murmured, interested in the lives that Ren and Nora once led, "Or, well, why were you staying in a random family's house?"

"Ah, well, one of the Huntsmen that we'd been living with for…" Nora scratched her chin, "Was it a few days or a few weeks, Ren?"

"If I remember correctly, Riku only stayed with us for three or so weeks?" Ren scratched his chin, "That time flew by so quickly we never really got to know him, did we? I wonder if he's still alive; it has been a few years."

"Of course he's alive, Ren! Don't you remember how cool he was?" Nora cheerfully pumped her fist into the air, "Remember that time he shot an Ursa's eye whilst jumping from tree to tree. Heh, you never could copy that."

"He did only fire one bullet per jump," Ren pointed out, "My weapons are automatic so I usually did three or four to guarantee hitting somewhere rather than firing a single shot at a specific place. He made it look much easier with a revolver."

"Yeah, he was great!" Nora almost sighed when she was reminiscing, "Made a killer soup. I wish I remembered those ingredients but that's in the past. Anyways, that's besides the point, have we decided on playing that then?"

"Well, how are we all going to play Rise of Civilizations then? I'm sure you needed multiple copies of the game to play multiplayer?"

"Oh, right… G-1 or Battle Sisters?"

"I don't really mind. Both games seem equally good to me," Izuku answered, letting the others decide which game to play.

"I don't believe I have the right to choose. After all, I haven't played either franchise ever so I might not be the best person to judge which one we should play," Pyrrha tried to think back on whether she had played one of those games, "In fact, I don't think I've played a video game since my dad bought the newest Road Brawler game… when was that?"

"It's been that long? What have you been doing with your life?" Nora asked for a second before her eyes widened, "Wait a minute, since you're so successful as a tournament person, you must have like zero free time, right?"

"Not exactly. Whilst tournament fighting does limit my free time, I do have a little bit of time to spend on things I like."

"Which are…"

"Shows and movies mainly," Pyrrha answered, "It's a form of entertainment that can tell a story and convey all of the information with as little time as possible, That makes it optimal for someone like me who barely has enough time as it is."

"I guess that means the game we play is all up to me..." Nora seemed unsure which to pick, eyes glancing at both of the icons on her scroll, "Battle Sisters it is!"

"Alright, if we've all decided on the game then let's begin," Nora tapped on the game's icon before smiling at the two of them competitively, "Just so you know, I've been playing this series for a while so don't expect to win."

"Heh, you're about to be crushed, Pyr!" Nora said as flamboyantly as she could, eyes glaring daggers at the screen in front of her.

"As if, you're already three lives down and you've already lost four matches!" Pyrrha responded with slightly less vigor, "I think I have this game in the bag!"

Izuku's eyes glanced at his own life count: 0. Yep, he was completely outclassed. Well, not by a huge margin, he did pull a single win but that was likely a fluke. Try as he might, he was nowhere near as good as the other two were as they quickly chained attacks like they were nothing. Still, it wasn't like it wasn't enjoyable to watch the two play. It was a team bonding activity and that was important considering they'd only met each other a few days ago.

Deciding that, with his character dead, he had no real reason to pay attention, he decided to take a few steps back and talk to Ren, who was idly reading away. The monk-boy noticed him as he approached, eyes looking away from the pages and looking directly at Izuku. As if recognising something in Izuku's eyes, Ren offered a hand, as if asking for Izuku to give him something. After a brief moment of contemplation, Izuku handed his scroll to Ren and decided to watch what his team member would do.

The monk boy's lips curled into a small smile as she shut the book and slid between Pyrrha and Nora. There was a level of confidence that he had which Izuku was surprised by considering how passive he usually was. Ren also seemed to appear at just the right time considering Nora had just knocked Pyrrha's character off of the stage which meant that this match was over and they'd be taken back to the character select menu where Ren would be free to pick his own character.

"Ah, Renny. It's been a while since we played, huh?" Nora said off-handedly as she stared intently at the screen, "Not since that tournament in that one town south of Mistral. Hey, wasn't that the first tournament you won?"

"Tournament?" Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at the two of them, "They hold tournaments for these games?"

"Yes, eSports tournaments aren't all too uncommon. I only joined because the person we'd been tagging along with was a fan of the game and introduced it to me and Nora. I think it was only a week after he left that we found a tournament holding a competition for the game with a cash prize. Since we were low on money, I went for it and ended up third," Ren shrugged in indifference at not winning, "I got a small amount of money and ever since then, I kept an eye out in case there was another opportunity to get some money."

"Ah, so he's a pro at this game…" Izuku mumbled to himself, it explained why he had that confidence, "Let's see where this goes…"

Izuku's eyes were wide with shock. Ren demolished his two opponents with ease. Until that moment, the inventor didn't completely understand spectating sports or eSports but, after that show, he was beginning to understand why it was so popular. The way the attacks were chained together, the levels of prediction and foresight that went into each move, it was surprising how complex the game could get when you saw someone with a good understanding of the game play.

"That was unexpected," Pyrrha seemed to be equally as confused but her soft smile showed that she had no ill will whatsoever, "But, I don't think that's a bad thing. It seems like the Invincible Girl has been beaten once more."

"You seem a little too happy about it for someone who got freaking destroyed by Ren like I was. I'd thought you'd be upset considering you're almost always the strongest person in the room," Nora asked, eyes narrowed in confusion.

Pyrrha rubbed her arm in slight embarrassment, it seemed that things were getting ever so slightly touchy.

"Ah… Now I get it!" Nora clicked her fingers as if she'd made a groundbreaking epiphany, "You're really good at hiding your losses. You know, cos you're a celebrity and all and they barely show their emotions ever since most of them are lizards... You know, that doesn't sound too healthy, not the lizard bit but the emotional repression. If you're hiding your emotions, you can let it rip on us you know! Ren's a certified therapist!"

"Wait, really?" Pyrrha raised an eyebrow before thinking back to the boy's semblance, "Although it does seem like a perfect fit."

"When we were wandering around Mistral, we ended up in a city called Hasu. We were wandering around for a while until I ended up needing to use my semblance on a drunk man. As it turns out, that person was a chronic alcoholic and it was rare for him to be perfectly coherent so the therapist there quickly took note of that and tried to turn me into being the city's therapist. I was granted a certificate as well as a place to live for a while until Nora won the heart of yet another Huntsman and we hitched a ride with them," Ren handed the scroll back to Izuku before stretching his fingers and facing the redhead, "Would you like to talk?"

"Oh, not particularly, no," Pyrrha said, remembering why they were even talking about the topic in the first place, "I'm actually quite alright, thank you."

"Don't worry, I won't judge if there is something you do want to talk about," Ren reassured her before shooting his team members a smile, "Anyways, I believe you said that you bought the new G-1. Would you like to play?"

"Don't tell me he plays that game competitively as well!" Izuku murmured to himself before wondering aloud, "Do people play G-1 competitively? It is just a racing game after all."

"Course they do. I'd been hearing a lot of hype around G-1 DX's release so I decided to buy it whilst on sale," Nora eyed Ren for a quick second, "Also, Ren doesn't play G-1 competitively so we have as equal of a chance of winning as possible."

"You mean I have a chance?" Izuku asked, knowing that his performance in their last game was subpar.

"Yep, team leader! You just might reach second place after I crush the other two," Nora seemed to revel in the competitive atmosphere she was trying to create, "Oooh, oooh, whoever wins here has to win something."

"Like what?" Ren voiced in concern, "Anytime we have a prize, it's always something lethal."

"Hm," Nora looked around her for a second as if she was trying to find a prize, "But I don't have treasure like the funny-shaped grenade on me today. And a prize has only exploded in your face once."

"That's one more time than it should have happened."

"Gah, you're right and I hate it, Ren! Be wrong for once!" Nora gave the boy a sharp, playful glare.

"You're full of great, safe ideas, Nora," Ren deadpanned.

"I said be wrong…" Nora said, about to continue berating Ren for being right when a sudden thought came to her head, "But, since you were right when I asked you to be wrong, you were technically wrong by being right when I wanted you to be wrong. Well played, Ren. I'm proud of you, best buddy!"

Ren rolled his eyes as Nora pulled him into a tight, one-armed hug, "You always are… best buddy."

"Hah, you said it back!" the ginger giggled gleefully, "This is a rare thing indeed, Renny, rare thing indeed!"

"E-Erm, are we going to be playing the game or not?" Pyrrha asked with a low voice, hoping she wasn't intruding on their moment.

"Of course we are Pyrrha!" Nora bounced back to her position before opening the game and looking at the title screen, "Try not to lose to the AI, Izuku! I'm setting them on easy mode just for you!"

"Hey, that was uncalled for!" Izuku responded before accepting that nothing could justify how bad he'd been at Battle Sisters. Oh well, at least he had a chance here. This was a game all about reflexes and making quick split-second decisions so this was perfect for him. He'd surely win this. Izuku went into the game with that exact mindset, ready to win.

He did not win.

As he eyed the final scorecard and saw how he'd lost first place to Nora by only 1 point, watching her shoot the brightest, most exuberant smile at him, he decided that he didn't like video games. He didn't want to touch one ever again. Ever again… Or at least, not until Nora convinced him to play again just because he couldn't really say no to something as harmless as that. That'll probably happen… tomorrow, probably.

Izuku sighed as he eyed his team member before his lips curled into a smile. He may have lost but he couldn't deny he had fun. And, judging from the smiles that the others had, he assumed everyone else did as well. This was a fun night to bond with his teammates. In the corner of his mind, he wondered if Ruby was doing something similar with her own team after whatever emergency they had before shaking the thought. It didn't matter what Team RWBY were doing; he should just enjoy his time with his own team. He did just that.

That's another chapter written. We've finally gotten the tenth chapter down so... nice? Next chapter is going to be the Izuku and Bakugo fight plus some other stuff. See you guys then.