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"You know you don't have to be here for this," I mumbled. "It really doesn't matter that much."
"We want to support you," Ruby countered. "Why wouldn't we want to be here?"
"Oh stop it, Cloud. We're spending the day as a family," Weiss disagreed. She was pushing a triple stroller. Ruby had one too.
I sighed and shook my head. "It's just a tournament. I'm not even sure it will scratch that itch for me. I like killing people. This ain't it chief. It might be a dud."
"So what?" Ruby wondered. "We shouldn't be here as a family to cheer you on? What's the worst thing that could happen if we are here against if we're not?"
I said nothing. I was unsure. They didn't really get what I found satisfying about killing people. Crushing them with my sword until they spilled and split. It was immensely satisfying but it came from a dark part of me. I didn't want Weiss and Ruby or gods forbid my kids to see me like that. And yeah it was just a tournament so odds are nothing too violent would even happen. Which in turn meant it was likely that it wouldn't even touch that part of my psyche and satisfy me. But my therapist had recommended it. My wives had recommended it. At that point there wasn't much I could do but give it an honest try. Even though I was pretty sure it would fall short of actually bedding that beast inside me down.
I sighed. I stepped up to the counter at the colosseum. "Entry for one? Cloud Strife," I told the man behind the counter.
"Just one moment… hey I know you. You're Beacon's combat professor," the man said. He was shorter than me with brown hair.
"I am. I want to throw my hat into the ring. See how I stack up."
"I found you. Here's your badge. Any plus ones?"
"Uh yeah. Eight? Is that a problem?" I asked.
I thought about lying to my family for a moment and saying the man shot down all of them coming in. But I shook it off after barely a moment of hesitation.
He peered past me at the double strollers with my wives standing and children inside.
"Which one is yours?" He wondered.
"Both," I shrugged.
"Lucky guy," he shrugged back.
"Not really," I fired.
"Really?" He wondered.
"Not so much. That's about all I have going for me. Everything else sucks. Can they come in?"
"Sure. It's no problem. I'll get… eight tickets. There's an entry fee for each person. Six for kids and ten for adults."
"No problem," I agreed. I paid the man and got my family the tickets. I walked back over to them and handed them over to Weiss immediately.
"Of course you come to me," she rolled her eyes.
"Of course I come to you," I agreed. "Come on. It's a two day tournament. You need the tickets for both days."
"When's your first match?" Ruby asked.
"Not sure. I just got here. There will be pools and then bracket and then top sixty four and so on."
"So you start in pools and just fight whoever and then face real competition in the bracket?" Weiss wondered.
"Pretty much. I mean- nobody bad will actually enter. But it's unlikely any of them can stand up to me," I hummed. "It's unrealistic that anyone will be able to really contest me before top sixty four."
"How many entrants are there?" Weiss pressed.
"Not sure," I returned. "Maybe five hundred?"
"Five hundred to beat and you're that sure that no one will really be able to help you with your little problem?"
"My little problem?" I rolled my eyes at Ruby. "My murder boner. I thought you would call a spade a spade?"
"You don't have a murder boner," Weiss rolled her eyes at em at the time.
"Don't… don't call it that," Ruby protested.
"My murder boner won't be satified unless blood is spilled," I declared. "That's how it works."
"Well today it will be satisfied without actually killing anyone. Or else. Please don't kill anyone."
"Can we please not call it that," Ruby whimpered.
"Fine Ruby," Weiss agreed.
"What should we call it?" I wondered.
"Your little problem," Ruby decided.
"It's not so little. Don't call it little," I defended. I put some fake defensiveness in my tone. Weiss hit me and Ruby folded her arms.
"Don't do that while calling it a murder boner!" Ruby protested again.
"Don't call it little. It's my big problem," I continued relentlessly.
"Stop it!" Ruby demanded.
"Okay okay. Let's hope this solves my little problem."
"What's your little problem, Daddy?" Garnet asked from her position all leveraged in the stroller.
'I like killing people sweetums!'
No. Couldn't say that.
"I like the competition. That's why I'm competing in the tournament. I like putting myself into difficult situations," I answered better. "It's all about pushing myself."
"What's wrong with that?" Nebel wondered.
"Your dad is the best. Its difficult to find good competition for him that isn't a real problem for everybody," I marched forward.
"Well I don't see anything wrong with it," Nebel continued.
"Neither do I," Garnet agreed with her older brother. Carnel rocked in her stroller seat and drooled a little. Pearle hummed in consideration but didn't say anything. She wasn't much of a talker, Peale wasn't. Pearle could get it done and communicate when she needed to but she wasn't much about chatting.
"So is daddy going to win?" Citrone asked.
"Probably," I agreed. "I'm probably going to win."
"But not competing?" Cherry asked.
"We'll see if it's competition," I sighed. "Few people are able to compete with me," I finished with that.
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I backflipped towards my first opponent. A blonde kid with a ponytail. He looked fit for Beacon age. Though he could be a tad older and he fought with his fists. I spaced at him with my sword and buffeted him as I fell. He blocked with both hands and tried to push my sword aside and jump in on me. I hoped with him away and swung the sword from low to high behind me with my neck turned towards him. I caught him in the chest and flung him to the ground.
I hovered over the ground until I was on top of where he landed. He kicked to his feet and tried to land a get up attack. He woke up then punched the ground and released a gout of flame. I flipped away through the air and drifted back towards him after dodging the wake up super attack. I fell with both hands on my sword bringing it down in a massive two handed helmsplitter. I rocked him. I sweet spotted the hammering blow and popped him into the air. I swung upwards by lifting the sword beside my body from low to high. I caught him and flung him further upwards into the air.
Helpless, I met him above our little ring. I spiked him hard into the arena and knocked him into the earth of the terrain. I landed gently with first one foot then the other upon the ground in front of him and waited for him to rise.
When he did I dash attacked him by sticking my blade into the ground and sprinting towards him. He crossed his arms to block but it still knocked him back slightly. He countered with a sidekick and a jab at my jaw once I was close but I simply hovered out of his range and backed off to a distance where he couldn't touch me. I held my sword with one hand up at him. I felt the massive weight of it as I leveled it in the blonde kid's direction.
He jumped at me but I caught him with a wide swung of my sword which held him in place. Then I swung in a low 'x' that cut across his chest. Then I swept through a shallow 'L' that finished the cross slash and knocked him all the way back. You couldn't just jump in on me. I had plenty of anti aerial attacks.
I glid forward at him but stopped just outside of my own range and created a wall of pain with sweeping aerial attacks just in front of him. He was close to the edge of the ring and all it would take would be a rising or falling aerial to knock him out of bounds. I landed. Hesitated. Then when he tried to jump over me seeing me falter in my wall of pain I lept backwards and caught him in a rising attack. I swept after him as he fell and tried to drift away from me back to center stage but I wasn't about to give up my positional advantage. I juggled him away from center stage and when he got to his feet once again I was there and threatening his space by hovering just above him. I drew my sword back. I sank it forward and caught him in the chest. I pulled him upwards and lifted him off his feet only to reverse about twenty feet up into the air and slam him back into the ground. He flew out of the ring and out of bounds. I took a single step which carried my the twenty feet he flew and picked him up off the ground. I patted his shoulder as he sighed.
"Don't take it to heart. I've been doing this quite a while and you had a bad match up in me. Get yourself a gun." I suggested to him.
He shook his head and brushed me off. He walked away from me with his head held low. I rolled my eyes at the pride of youth. There was nothing to be done and it wasn't like I wasn't young. I was just old for my age. I had kids and shit. That made you an old person.
I took slow steps over to my family and put my weapon on my back.
"Wow you pretty much went untouched," Ruby commented. "You did well."
"Yeah I just feel bad for the kid. I didn't mean to break him down so easily. It can be disheartening running into something like me. But better here than out where it really matters like in the field," I returned.
"Well you didn't let him touch you at all. That's a good thing," Weiss pressed. "For your tournament chances I mean," she finished.
"I came to get a bloody nose. Not to waltz through the competition. Where's the sauce?" I demanded. "Make me struggle and bleed."
"Are you struggling and bleeding on your council missions?" Weiss quirked an eyebrow.
"Well, to tell the truth not really," I shrugged. "That's part of why I need this. I'm so pent up. I want someone to make me taste my own blood. It's been so long since anyone pushed me to my Limit. Years, even. And usually it's more of a struggle to find my target for the council rather than to actually take them down. I'm starting to think the only person with enough umph to them to really make me bleed my own blood is my Mom. One more reason to face her, I guess. There aren't exactly world ending threats laying around for me to challenge and that's what I really truly need to be facing."
"So it was a dud?" Ruby asked. "Maybe your next opponent will get your heart racing."
"At least make you use your semblance. Maybe at least then we'll have something to say," Weiss agreed.
"Maybe. But it's so easy with my semblance. I don't know. What did you think kidos?"
"Daddy is very strong," Cherry mumbled.
"Are you kidding? He can fly! You didn't tell us you could fly!" Nebel exclaimed.
"Will I be able to fly?" Garnet asked.
"Maybe. Ruby can sort of fly. So there's a chance you will too. And if you take after me enough then yes. You'll be able to fly."
"That's so cool!" Garnet carried on.
"How is it possible you never mentioned to us that you can fly?" Nebel demanded.
"Daddy's so fast," Peale agreed. "He just soars, whew."
"You sort of forget after a while," I rubbed the back of my head. It must have slipped my mind. It didn't really ever come up. "Ruby is still probably faster than me but I can go wherever I want."
"It's been a while since we last fought…" Ruby trailed. "You always get a little faster."
"Yeah but speed is your thing," I countered. "Would like to go a few rounds with me?"
"Maybe later," Ruby purred. "We used to do it all the time. It's harder with the kids."
"I'd find the time for you sweetheart," I shot back. "Between the pregnancies and all we just haven't really had the chance."
"Well- if nothing else I'll leave you sweating," Ruby hummed.
"You always do," I agreed. "I always thought you smelled delicious while you sweat. It really comes out when we fight."
"I did notice," Ruby agreed. "You may have mentioned it once or twice. When we last fought in Atlas. Do you remember?" She asked.
"Gross," Nebel wrinkled his nose.
"I don't," Weiss harrumphed. "I don't remember this at all. Where was I?"
"On some mission," Ruby waved her off. "You weren't there. But Cloud and I sparred in Atlas. It turned mostly into kissing."
"Ew," Garnet agreed with Nebel.
"Mommies and daddies kiss. It isn't gross or yucky," Ruby tapped Garnet's nose.
"It is a little," quiet Pearle agreed.
I leaned over and kissed Ruby who purred up at me. Nebel wrinkled his nose again and Pearle covered her eyes.
I chuckled a little at my children's reaction. "Get used to it. I'm not going to stop kissing your mothers."
"It's weird. Right?" Garnet demanded.
"It's so weird." Nebel mumbled. "So weird."
"It is not. It's something mommies and daddies do. It just is. Would you rather we never kissed?" Weiss wondered.
"Just not around us," Garnet noted.
I chuckled some more. "Sorry. I worked hard to get into a position where I can kiss them when I want and how I want. I'm not going to stop just because it gives you the hibby jibbies."
"When's daddy's next match?" Cherry wondered.
"Should be soon. We're still in pools so matches are relatively fast. Don't worry. I'll get called." I tugged on Weiss and pointedly kissed her. She smirked into my lips as Pearle covered her eyes again. I laughed loudly. Kids man.
I stepped back and watched as Weiss and Ruby exchanged a quick peck. It was still sexy to watch them kiss. But this was just a quick peck. Pearle actually gasped as she gazed through her fingers.
"Well now you're doing it on purpose," Nebel complained.
"Well yeah. We know it bothers you guys," Weiss agreed. "You shouldn't have let us know that us loving on each other bothers you if it really bothered you."
"Why?" Garnet wondered.
"Because now we're going to do it all the time. Just to bother you guys. And oh poor you. Poor children with parents who love one another. It must be so hard for you guys," Weiss pressed.
"When you say it like that…" Garnet hummed.
"When what?" Weiss laughed. "When I describe the situation?"
"That isn't fair…" Nebel whined.
"Not fair. Not fair! What wouldn't be fair is if we didn't love each other and forced ourselves to be around each other. That would be wrong and gross. Wouldn't it?" Weiss tagged.
"I suppose so…" Cherry admitted. "That would be bad."
"So we love each other and don't do that. And now that we know that it bothers you but doesn't really hurt you and lets you know that we love each other we are going to do it all the time. And that's that," Weiss finished.
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-WG