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(Rosé PoV)
Gods, Professor Port's class was so boring. At least after so called Grimm Studies we had combat class. I looked forward to it and not just because it was taught by my favorite Professor. I sighed despondently. I shot a glance over at my partner. She looked just as bored as I was and she was idly setting a pencil on her desk and letting the slight slope it had roll it back to her. It became clear within, oh - I don't know, minutes that Port's class wasn't one where note taking was advised. Neither was paying attention, really.
If it had been Cloud up there lecturing at least I would have something to look at. Believe it or not but Port lacked that same aesthetic appeal as Strife had. Ponder away on that one. But I suppose that wasn't fair on Port, or Cloud, for that matter. Sometimes I accidentally self imposed careless wants on him - emotional involvement that was totally unrequited. I couldn't help it. That wasn't a very good excuse. He was my Professor now - not just my mentor anymore. It would be most inappropriate. But still, I liked what I liked.
There was no way that Cloud had once endured this. I refused to believe it. This boredom was not his way.
Not much longer now… I watched the clock tick by slowly. It was so unmercifully methodical that maybe it was broken.
The bell rang and I was quick to my feet. Peach looked as amped as I felt about the end of Grimm Studies for the day. She actually pumped a fist into the air in silent celebration. Port was still telling his story as people were filing out of the door.
First thing in the morning was math with Doctor Cauchy then we had history with Oobleck. Next was Grimm Studies and last, just before lunch, was Combat. After lunch came literacy, politics, physical science, then at the very end of the day was economics with Professor Arbor. Beacon was a full on school. The last school most of us would ever attend. It wasn't all fighting and monster slaying. There was a full retinue of classes besides those ones. And they were typically hard ones too. Port's was an exception rather than the rule. I could already tell. Some teachers you could just know that about based on how they conducted themselves. Cloud's class was not the easy sort by its very nature. I couldn't necessarily credit him and his teaching style with that. I was up against my peers and they weren't going to make things easy for me.
The other first years and I made our way to Cloud's classroom with the arena in it that linked up with the locker rooms and we found our seats. Professor Strife was down in the arena looking at a tablet display and getting things set up for today's matches. He glanced up and the conversation died down.
"Rosé and Crystal get your gear. You're up first," he broadcasted his voice without actually shouting up at us.
He was probably the youngest Professor in Beacon's history. He really was basically our age for all intents and purposes. It was important to remember that. For me it was crucial. In four more years it would be relatively non-existent. He would always be older than me but the gap would close slightly with time. And it was important to me because - well, it just was. He wasn't that much older than me but I did like that he was slightly older. It was a perfect goldilocks.
I shot a look over to Crystal. She didn't return it. She was already up and moving down the rows of seats to the floor. I followed close behind her all the way to the locker room where I changed out of the uniform and got ready to fight the other girl. I took off the plaid skirt and put on my own silver and crimson one.
Crystal won her fight yesterday. I won mine as well. Was Cloud putting us through a bracket to determine class standings? It seemed likely.
I put my belt with Falchion sheathed in it around my waist and walked out of the locker room. Crystal was waiting for me in the ring with her kukris. She was going through a kata in slow motion to warm up.
I stepped opposite her and Cloud started the match once we both affirmed that we were ready.
Crystal sprinted at me which was a touch surprising. Against Mars she spent her time running to the corners and backing up while shooting. I expected a similar strategy this time. She didn't give it up, however. She approached me while shooting. I fired back a little. I started in assault rifle mode because I had been expecting a cat and mouse game. That wasn't what I got and I had to switch my weapon's form and eat some bullets. It put me on the back foot when she came slicing at me with her long knives. It was clear that she didn't think she needed to run away to beat me - quite the opposite, in fact.
She came slashing at me with a spiraling jump that brought both her blades around. I met both slashes with Falchion's edge. I fancied that I was stronger than her based off of our one interaction. Just main strength, though, which could mean a lot if I took proper advantage of it.
I jabbed forward and upward with my blade in a fast cut. She swayed in place out of the way of my attack preternaturally. I followed it up with another upwards cut but she dodged that one in place as well. I wasn't sure how she knew I was setting myself up for two jabs. But she seemed to see it coming from a mile away. Then she went in on me with a horizontal slash at neck height with one blade, then a diagonal slash with her other, and then an upwards cut with the first and she finished the entire thing off with a kick that was just hard enough. It knocked me off balance and put me into a tumble situation. I had to catch myself and roll to the side but she was unrelenting and I struggled to escape from her onslaught. I did a retreating jumping forward swing of my blade that she blocked by crossing her weapons. I waited for her to go in once more, thinking that perhaps she thought I had over extended. I ended up landing with the two of us just staring at one another. She didn't see it as an opening, she knew that it wasn't. She instead raised her guns and shot me.
I had to go in if I wanted to keep her in my range.
I darted forward and thrust upwards with my sword. She sidestepped easily and stabbed me in the stomach with a quick thrust and then she stepped with her other blade and cut me across the chest.
She kept that up. She kept creating openings with her guns and then baiting me out and punishing me. I was going to lose if I couldn't find an answer.
I jumped again and brought my weapon around my body twice and she stepped back out of the way of the first and she parried the second. It was safe pressure from me and she wasn't able to riposte with her shorter daggers.
I landed and swung diagonally downward quickly and I caught her across the body. I chased her with three more slashes all of which connected.
She rolled away from me but when she got to her feet she sprinted towards me again. She clearly didn't want to have me at the longest ranges. Did that mean that I wanted her at those distances? Did she know something that I didn't?
I wasn't sure.
I didn't have time to swap Falchion's form because she was in my face and shooting me again. I jumped like I was going to hit her with a falling aerial but it was empty movement and I was looking for a different opening and trying to bait her out. She saw right through it and jump-kicked me in the chest with both feet in a hard punish.
She was seeing through all my traps. All my attempts to bait her were failing and I could scarcely touch her. She saw through my empty hop like she'd seen it a thousand times and she got the best possible castigation she could on it.
I tried to feint high and sweep my blade low but she used one blade to block and she cut me with the other. I stepped back, ready for her to rush me down but she didn't. She just shot me again.
I didn't have any answers to her shutting down all my options while constantly whittling away at me. I didn't know what to do or what to try.
I was wracking my brain for something to give me an edge but she was bleeding me dry. I looked the bluenette in the eye and I knew that she knew that I knew that I didn't have any good answers.
I jumped and brought my blade down on her but she stepped in and grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me towards her. She quickly stabbed me five times in the chest. Then while I was off balance she shoved me over her foot and knocked me to the ground. She wasn't above kicking me while I was down, or shooting me, as it were, and it didn't take many shots to knock me into the red and have Cloud call the match.
"Well done Crystal. And Rosé let this be a lesson in maintaining composure under pressure."
I changed and made my way back to my seat. I felt utterly defeated. Pine was up against Mars and had already been called to get ready but the rest of my team was waiting for me.
"That looked rough," Peach commented, looking beleaguered like she had been the one fighting.
"I didn't have any answer. I didn't know what to do. She kept shutting me down at every turn. I think I only got in on her once and I didn't make much out of it. She kept calling out my feints and traps like she'd seen them all before. I've only ever felt so shut down against Professor Strife or his friends."
"Neapolitan?" Yuma asked me.
"Yeah. I fought her a few times. How did you know?"
"She was with him when he came to Wutai. I always thought they were, you know..."
"Fucking?" Peach asked.
"Well they're not," I shot back hotly. Yuma flushed at her partner's words. But she did nod that that was what she was thinking.
"Easy girlfriend. I didn't mean anything by it."
I sighed. "Sorry. Crystal has got me frustrated. She was pretty deep in my head."
I sighed and sat down to watch Pine's match. Composure. I needed composure. Crystal had been a good sport and everything. I was just mad at myself for cracking so visibly. And in front of him, no less. That sucked. I was going to be replaying this in my head for at least a week.
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"Sorry about our match today," Crystal murmured to me over the dinner table. My team was sitting with team CMAD.
"Sorry that you won? Don't be. You had me outclassed. You deserved to win." I adjusted my skirt on the bench we were sitting on. The wood was biting into my thighs a little.
The dinning hall was enormous with tall glass windows and long benches and tables. It gave everything an exaggerated quality, like it was stretching things a bit far.
Crystal cringed a little. "I thought that you were mad."
"I was mad. You took me apart and saw through all my traps. How did you do that?"
"I used my semblance…"
"What is it? Super reflexes? You were dodging everything I threw at you."
"It's something like that. It helps me get the mental edge for sure. Over almost everybody."
"Who doesn't it work on?" Peach asked.
"Well most of the Professors here for example. Like Professor Strife. I can't see beating him. Him or the headmistress both."
"You wanna try?" Pine asked. "Rosé says he does extra one on one training with anyone who asks. Rosé and I were going to make an appointment. You want to come with us?"
"I do want to try… yeah I think I will," Crystal decided. "It'll be good for me. I can see that."
"He's really good," I warned her. "I can barely touch him when he doesn't let me. And I think he did that more often than he will admit."
"Well, I think I'll be able to touch him. I can see myself doing that, at least."
"Awesome. Let's get it," Pine clapped her hands hard to emphasize her words.
"I suppose that I should as well. I mean, who wouldn't want some one on one time with the Prof. Am I right ladies?" Peach tagged with a laugh.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Fox asked.
Peach leveled her fork at him. "He's hot, talented, and powerful. The trifecta."
"Is he?" Mars asked. He seemed to be genuinely asking.
"Yeah. He is, Yuma knows what I'm talking about," Peach went on.
"Don't drag me into this!" Yuma flushed a little.
"Dibs," I said.
"What?" Peach asked.
"Dibs. I called dibs."
"Whelp the jig is up. She called dibs. Dibs is a dibs is a dibs," Pine poked fun at me.
"You can't call dibs," Peach protested.
"Sure I can," I countered. "I saw him first. I call dibs."
"The rest of us had better pack it up and head home. She's got this," Pine continued laughing.
"To answer your question, yes, he's conventionally attractive," Crystal informed her partner.
"I think I got that. Thanks," Mars took a drink of water at that.
"I'm pretty sure that Yuma saw him first, technically speaking," Peach pointed out.
"Yeah but she didn't call dibs. I did. Dibs. See? I did it again."
"You can't call dibs on a person," Daisy cut in.
"Thank you Daisy. Finally, some reason," Peach leveled against me.
"Yeah, whatever," I fired back. "Crystal heard me. She's on my side."
"Definitely not. I'll fight him, sure. But I'll leave fuckin-"
"Alright, alright!" Yuma protested looking beat red. "Can we not talk about fucking our Professor?!"
People turned from tables over to look at who just shouted that across the hall. Yuma got even more red under all the attention.
"I hate you," Yuma told no one in particular. She was probably talking to all of us.
Crystal, Pine, Peach, and I all shared a laugh.
"But in seriousness I have dibs," I informed Peach.
"Oh you are so on, Princess. I'll have him eating out of the palm of my hand," Peach flicked her hair back at her words.
"Sure you will," I shot back. "By the by, you're probably fighting Crystal tomorrow. The Prof is putting us through a bracket. Best of luck," I sing-songed at her.
"Sorry," Crystal apologized to Peach.
"You haven't beaten me yet! I'm going to win."
"No," Mars and I said at the same time. We shared a look. We were the only two that had gone up against Crystal and knew what she could do. Peach was good but she was going to lose. Crystal was just too much.
"Yeah no you're not," Crystal muttered. It didn't sound cocky but it did seem self assured. Crystal had the strategy that she needed to win. Just like she had had against Mars and I both. She had all the tools she needed to see the way to win. "You'll lose tomorrow."
"The hell I will. I'm not canceling my winning streak at two."
"Okay," Crystal undercut knowingly.
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-WG
