It was the most hideous thing Pyrrha had ever seen.

In theory, it was supposed to be cute. Long, elfin ears, rosy cheeks, large eyes, and a big grin were all the exaggerated characteristics of a cartoon character. It was dressed in old-fashioned garb, with a fur-lined cap and long, striped stockings leading to pointy, curled shoes. But it was a character from an older era, a much older era, and so now… it looked like some kind of wretched goblin man, some B-movie marionette brought to life to murder teenagers. It was "The Lutín," and it was the mascot of Beacon Academy.

So Pyrrha had to get her picture taken with it.

Shuddering inwardly, she glanced at the podium, where the prancing elf, wielding the twin hatchets—Lucem and Fortitudinem, "light and heroism," from Beacon's motto—stood, the mascot's polymer foam face frozen in its nightmare grin as it brandished them like a psychotic axe murderer.

"I wonder how you become a mascot?" Nora asked, clearly the first step of a plan someone in the team soon ought to squash. "Like, is it hereditary, a father-to-son inheritance or are you chosen, like, when the old mascot dies-"

"I'm pretty sure it's just a volunteer," Ren said, probably the wrong suggestion, particularly from how pensive Nora got. A quiet Nora was a… a problem, to say the least.

But that would be a problem for all of them to deal with later. Right now, Pyrrha was being ushered forward to a very usual part of the tourney champion experience—submitting to having her photo taken a million times. She knew she was a big deal for Beacon and a big part of the Vytal hype, and her media appearances were, according to her agent at least, a huge help for everyone at Beacon and in the press. And Ms. Riesling knew exactly how to get Pyrrha to sign off on something—tell her it helped other people, and she couldn't say no.

So she put on her well-practiced smile next to the grinning monstrosity and tried not to think about how it's plastic head was five times the size of hers or how unnecessarily sharp those axes were as it waved them around. The buttons clicked, the cameras flashed, and Pyrrha politely smiled and gave insipid soundbites in response to obvious questions. Media work appeased, without giving anything that might get used against her, or, at least, nothing anyone sensible could be used against her. Pyrrha had been trained since she was 13 to disable her curiosity and never seek out what was being written about her on ScrollNet. She had a publicist for that.

Shoot over, she was done… but, of course, she wasn't really done. Because as she moved to leave, the Lutín, in all it's horrible majesty, was now shaking hands and doing its horrible dance for the bizarrely admiring public. Such as her tragically oblivious partner, who just needed to rush forward with the other Valean students so he could get his photo with the Lutín.

Pyrrha watched in utter bafflement as Yang bodily shoved Jaune aside—usually, grounds for Pyrrha to make the cocky blonde eat the floor later that week in Goodwitch's class, but today, she was just too amazed by how weird it all was—to clear a path for her sister to pose besides the nasty little gremlin, Crescent Rose deployed. These… these were normal people! Well, normal by Beacon standards, but Jaune was… okay, all of them were nuts, but not Nora level nuts. It was just… what did they see about the Lutín that Pyrrha didn't?

"It's horrible, isn't it?"

Pyrrha whirled in surprise to see Headmaster Ozpin right behind her. She looked at him in alarm as he shook his head. "You don't have to hide it with me. I hate the mascot as much as you do, Ms. Nikos."

Surprised at the Headmaster's admission, since he was in charge of the school and all, Pyrrha warily ventured, "Yeah, it's… it's very… different from the mascots we had in Mistral."

Pyrrha had more than a few photos with Sanctum's cartoon heron, Herman. And while Takashi the Typhoon wasn't the most well-conceived character, being an anthropomorphic natural disaster, it sure wasn't a freaky axe-murderer.

"Yes," Ozpin sighed, "It comes up every Vytal season. Atlas has its bulldog, Shade, the hawk, Haven, the typhoon, and we have… that thing. Prancing about right out of my nightmares and the gleeful jokes of my fellow Headmasters," an unmistakable note of bitterness had crept into his voice. "Valeans adore him, though..."

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow at the Headmaster. "Aren't… aren't you Valean?"

He shook his head. "Not by birth, no… I've always considered Remnant itself to be my homeland, and some Valean customs are… difficult to adopt for an outsider. Particularly when it comes to the Lutín. When I suggested changing the mascot to the faculty, I nearly had a riot on my hands. Glynda pinned me against the wall and said… anyways," he shook his head, clearly unnerved by the memory, "I've realized the only way forward with this… thing is to have the students update it. And, being undeniably one of our finest, I think you would make an excellent student to chair such a committee. Perhaps with students like Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna, who might not be so… clouded on their judgment of… Valean traditions."

They both glanced over to where Jaune was eagerly getting his picture taken, mock-dueling the Lutín, the radiant, giddy smile on his face setting off a burning jealousy towards the bug-eyed monster alongside her already well-founded disdain. "Alright," she said, "I can make some inquiries."

Getting cornered by Yang was always a bad situation, doubly so when you had specific reason to not want to see Yang. And yet, if Yang wanted to speak with you, as Pyrrha had learned very well, it was something that was happening.

"Hey Pyrrha," she said, aggressively invading Pyrrha's personal space as she practically pushed her against the wall. Pyrrha had four inches on Yang, and had experience fighting her, and yet she found herself, as always, easily cowed by the boisterous blonde. "Heard you were putting together a little committee..."

Pyrrha's eyes went wide. "How do you…" she began, before trying to correct herself, "I don't know what you're-"

Yang raised a finger. "One, don't tell Weiss something she can brag about and assume she'll resist the temptation, two," she raised another finger, "don't give Blake a job and assume she won't try to find a way to get out of doing it."

Ah, yes, of course. Pyrrha's tendency to see the best in everyone did sometimes give her a blindspot when it came to her friends. Though she was quite insistent, that wasn't what was happening with Jaune. But she should have realized she wasn't going to be able to keep this a secret. She had enough experience with gossip hounds to know that three could keep a secret once two of them were dead, and that was doubly true at Beacon.

"Alright, well," she said, trying to bring her height to bear against her accuser, "Yes, I was asked by the Headmaster to look over some marketing materials for Beacon in the Vytal Festival. I thought-"

"Marketing materials?" Yale asked with a raised eyebrow, "Why, surely then you can list three such things Beacon is using to market itself."

Fortunately, Pyrrha was quick on her feat. "A logo integrating the 40th Vytal Festival imagery with Beacon's imagery, banner designs for welcoming international students to Beacon, and… um… well..."

Unfortunately, Pyrrha's quickness on her feet was a literal, physical trait. Not a quick wit.

Yang gave a smug grin. "And perhaps a certain… mascot? One that I know for a fact, non-Valeans like yourself happen to hate."

Pyrrha felt her cheeks turn red, furious at how easily she gave up the game. "It's- it's more than just the mascot, Yang!"

"Of course, of course," she waved her hand, but knew she'd won the point, "And you mean to tell me there's no space for additional members to-"

"The members have already been settled upon and approved by Headmaster Ozpin," Pyrrha said, trying to deflect Yang's attention towards a higher authority figure, "And yes, Blake and Weiss were selected to serve on it—Blake provides an essential Faunus point of view and Weiss knows branding and marketing from her experiences with her family's company."

Yang gave her the side eye. "Yeah… that's the reason you picked them. Who else is on that committee?"

"Ren and Yatsuhashi round out the group—I don't think anyone can deny they have proven themselves sensible-"

Yang cut her off. "I notice there's no team leaders on your committee..."

Pyrrha blushed. Yes, there was an… interesting situation where most Beacon teams were headed by Valeans. She'd heard enough people, particularly online, assume that Jaune was the head of Team JNPR for either that reason... or for the sake of the acronym.

The latter, from what she knew of the Headmaster… might have been true.

"I would think, y'know, Coco would be the ideal choice for a group like you're putting together, between her fashion sensibilities, and, oh yeah, her family's got Beacon alumni stretching back decades you know."

Narrowing her eyes, Pyrrha snapped, "What do you want, Yang?"

"What do I want?" Yang asked, "You really think you pulled one over me? Me? People think that just because I'm beautiful, talented, fun loving, the best fighter at Beacon-"

"Are you now?" Pyrrha interrupted with a raised eyebrow.

"Those were just practice spars, Cereal Girl, you just wait for the Vytal," Beacon's second-best fighter shot back, "But my point is, people think I'm not smart, and yet, I can see right through what you're doing. You're trying to stab Valean culture right in the heart and-"

"I am not trying to-"

"You're trying to kill the Lutín. Don't deny it!" she cut Pyrrha off, "But I can see right through your little scheme. And I am not going to sit by and watch as you undermine one of Vale's oldest, most cherished, indeed, most awesome traditions just because, as a Mistralian, you can't stand a mascot that isn't, like, a meditating lotus or grasshopper or something."

The two women glared at each other, both looking for a weakness in the other's facade. But Pyrrha knew it was only a front—Yang had her dead to rights, and in a contest like this, the victor would be decided by her ability to endure Yang's supreme, unparalleled ability to be annoying. So it was really no contest.

"Alright," Pyrrha groaned, "You want Blake's spot, fine, you've got it. I'll ask Velvet if she'd be willing to give a Faunus perspective. Now, can I-"

"Oh no," Yang shook her head, a wicked grin crossing her face, "I'm not asking to get a spot myself. No. I want Ruby to get a spot."

Pyrrha paled. Ruby was the last person she wanted on the Committee. It would take a heart of stone to resist those puppydog eyes, big, silver, and shining with excitement to discuss her beloved national mascot. Pyrrha knew that Ren was weak; he'd fold in an instant. Weiss might be able to stand up to her partner, but those two had a bond, a real one, beneath her sniping. She was basically the worst-

"Or," Yang said, making no effort to hide her grin, "I'll offer you a compromise. We need a Valean on the committee, someone with a long history in the Kingdom, someone with an excellent connection to Beacon, and a team leader to boot, so who better… than Jaune."

That. That was worse. She couldn't…

"I'll let Ruby know," Pyrrha replied, the Invincible Girl defeated.

With Yang's… additions, the once-carefully selected Committee was now more than a little lopsided. Instead of a healthy mix of students, it was now mostly a set of partners, outside herself and the Headmaster, as Student and Faculty Chair, respectively. Velvet and Yatsuhashi were there, as were Ruby and Weiss and Ren and Nora- wait, hold on.

Pyrrha looked at her teammate and said, "Nora… this meeting is for members of the Committee only."

Ren gave Pyrrha a pained look. "She's still on that-" he tried to explain.

"Important question," Nora cut in, "If I break the Lutín's legs-"

"You can't do that!" Ruby gasped in shock.

But Nora just barreled on through it. "-do I get to take over as the Lutín? Second question, where can I find the Lutín?"

"That's… not how it works," Ren valiantly attempted to explain to his partner.

But the Headmaster shrugged. "It isn't not how it works," he said, as everyone but Nora gave him an expression of pure, abject why would you say that? He went on to explain, "I actually don't even know who's in the costume. Their contract says it's supposed to be secret from everyone, and, well, it's just worked out so far, so why bother changing things?"

"Is this… really how you run the school?" Yatsuhashi asked, as though having been here for two years hadn't taught him that the answer was yes.

"Moving to actual business," Pyrrha said, trying to right this train before it plowed right into a bus, "We're here to discuss—and I want to stress, we have a lot of leeway for radical, even drastic change if necessary—updating and modernizing our mascot, the Lutín."

She gestured towards her first slide: an illustration of the grinning freak, seeing the original members of the Committee recoil instinctively at the sight of a thing that should not-

"Oh!" Velvet clapped her hands together, "I love the Lutín! He's just the cutest thing!"

Ruby alone agreed, the rest struggling to put "Lutín" and "cutest" in any conjunction, but Pyrrha was thrown by her response. She knew that Ruby was a passionate fan, but Velvet was- wasn't she Mistralian? Or Vacuan? Her accent was impossible to place, but she wasn't Valean, was she?

Weiss seemed surprised as well to hear it. "Oh, I thought you were Atlesian," she said, politely, "I didn't realize you-'

"Oh no," Velvet shook her head, "I was born in Vale, I just grew up… a little of everywhere. But the Lutín was always something my dad loved, and when we watched the tournaments, he'd always point the happy little guy out! My… mother didn't have the same… opinion and it… caused some strain in their relationship," she said, her tone darkening.

This was a problem. Pyrrha might have been able to push the Committee to override Ruby's adorableness, but Velvet had considerable leverage on Yatsuhashi, and if Velvet loved the Lutín… there was a non-zero chance she'd tell Coco if she thought they were trying to assassinate the beast. Not even Yang was as loud as Coco, and if Coco knew, Beacon knew. Hell, most of Vale would know, and that would be it for the Committee. Might even have major repercussions for her reputation, especially heading right into the Vytal.

She'd have to play this very carefully.

Acting as though Velvet's surprise comment wasn't derailing her plans, she began, "Beacon finds itself poised to not only host the world at the 40th Vytal Tournament, but to launch itself onto the global stage with a new look. A modern look. One that suggests our identity as the world's paramount Huntsman Academy. And we can achieve that by taking our key iconography and revamping it, blending tradition with the cutting edge-"

"We can give the Lutín sunglasses!" Ruby excitedly suggested.

Pyrrha paused, remembering to keep her emotions about the goblin, in sunglasses or not, in check. "We… certainly could, but I want to think big. Think what we could do, starting from a blank slate and seeing what comes to us—really, nothing is off limits."

Weiss nodded, a crisp, formal gesture that reminded Pyrrha that, while she might be her primary romantic rival, in this battle, she had no greater ally than Weiss Schnee. The heiress gave the rest of the Committee a careful look, then began, "I think our first priority should be, if I might suggest it, leaning hard on Pyrrha's suggestion of a blank slate and move away from that… thing we have now."

Mistake. Pyrrha winced to hear it—Weiss was far too blunt to handle this with the care needed. And while Ren and Yatsuhashi were obviously in agreement with Weiss, one look at Velvet or Ruby's faces was enough to put both men on the back foot. Weiss recognized the tension, but that only made things worse—because Weiss met opposition with force, even when subtlety was called for.

"You can't tell me," she said, too much ice in her voice, either for the Valean girls or the suddenly-spineless Mistralian boys, "that that walking nightmare gives you even a hint of pride in your school? Look at Atlas's mascot, the Bulldog represents our strength and determination! Your little… elf-thing, evil clown or whatever, what does it stand for?"

"So many things!" Velvet snapped back, actually standing up as she slapped both palms down on the table. "The Lutín is a beloved Valean folk-cryptid whose appearance foretells great doom!"

"I like all those words!" Nora cheered.

"I- I'm sorry," Yatsuhashi turned to his partner, who, even standing up, was barely taller than him, "It's an omen of imminent doom? Is that what we want-"

"It's doom for other people," Ruby corrected, "Like, when the wicked King Ostlack of Vacuo invaded Vale in the Second Desert War, he saw the Lutín just the day before he was defeated at the Battle of Pharos!"

Suddenly, the Headmaster cut in, "It wasn't like..." then trailed off with a "Nevermind," as everyone started to look at him. "It was… more complicated than history puts it out, is all I'll say."

"Anyways," Weiss said, clearing her throat, "So it's a threat against foreign invaders. As an Atlesian at this table, I have to ask, do you think this creature makes me feel welcome at this school?"

Ruby shook her head. "Yeah, but Weiss, you might have grown up in Atlas, but you're as Valean as anyone here! You're a Beacon student, and the Headmaster always says that Beacon's more of an idea than a place—and you're a Beacon girl as much as anyone! The Lutín's a part of your culture, Weiss!"

"As if," she snorted, "That ugly little puppet has nothing for me, and I will never accept it as my mascot!"

"But Weiss, you said the same thing about fried pickles!" Ruby shot back, as Pyrrha felt a pit in her stomach form as she realized what was happening. "There's all sorts of Valean traditions you thought were 'crude' and 'unserious' and 'I swear I would sooner die than eat that, Ruby.' But then you tried them, and you found out you loved them!"

Weiss blinked, Ruby's words settling in with tragic force. Pyrrha could read on her face, almost in slow motion, her plans falling apart. She glanced to Yatsuhashi, already cowed by Velvet, then Ren, busy trying to get Nora to stop doodling "Lutín traps" on a notepad. Useless, all about her was uselessness as-

"And the Lutín's a part of that Vale!" Ruby cheered, pumping her fist, before blushing and adding in a softer voice. "Just like… me."

"Oh, Ruby!" Weiss said, her eyes sparkling, "You're right! The Lutín is a treasure!"

No! No! Augggh! Couldn't they just be lesbians on their own time? There was a monster here, as foul as any Grimm, and it was their sworn duty to kill it! Damn that Yang and all these cowards who lacked the will to do what she had to!

"I'll say it then," Pyrrha growled, "We're tasked with asking how our school should be seen by-"

"Who cares what other Kingdoms think!" Velvet—Velvet, of all people!—interrupted her, "Other Kingdoms will always judge Vale, so let them! We take pride in our traditions and in kicking their asses!"

"Hell yeah!" Nora cheered.

Pyrrha looked to Yatsuhashi, who couldn't meet her gaze. Coward. "Ren!" she cried, looking to the final bastion of sanity, "Surely you have some-"

But Nora interrupted. "I think the Lutín needs a new person in the mascot costume and, like, the axes should shift into rocket launchers."

"I'm okay with the axes shifting," Ruby piped up, "Ooooh, and I could give it a triple shift into a rocket launcher and then a-"

But Ozpin shook his head. "The axes are on the crest—we can't touch those."

"Darn," Nora said with a mournful shake of her head, "I really could cause some chaos with dual rocket launchers."

An undeniable truth. But it did nothing to help Pyrrha from her plans unraveling before her eyes. She could already see it, receiving the Vytal Trophy, while all the while, the Lutín was behind her, grinning like a loon. A thousand cameras going off, recording it for posterity, freezing the moment in eternity, every morning, seeing that horrid creature's face on her mantle, knowing she was forcing a smile on the day of one of her greatest accomplishments because she knew the single creepiest thing in all Remnant was lurking right behind her, axes in hand.

"Maybe… maybe a new hat?" Ren suggested.

The room was silent once more. Then, Ruby nodded. As did Velvet. Yatsuhashi and Weiss followed their partners, and Nora had been nodding for more than half of the meeting already. Pyrrha knew she'd lost, but she… she had to… there had to be some-

"Some fights," the Headmaster whispered to her, "you just can't win."

Pyrrha looked away, feeling the burn of his sympathetic gaze. Sympathy wasn't a feeling Pyrrha was used to receiving, and it wasn't an enjoyable experience. But in looking away her eyes fell upon the face of the Lutín, his goblin grin seared into her mind.

Smug in the knowledge that it had beaten her.

"End of the line you elfin bastard!"

It had been a long, hard search, but now, victory was only a hammer away. Brandishing Magnhild, Nora advanced upon her nemesis, but the unmoving face of the Lutín betrayed no fear. It was a worthy foe, evading Nora's best efforts to track and trap it, confounding her at every turn as her pit traps and rope snares only seemed to catch Professor Port literally every time (after the first time, she figured he'd stop trying to grab the crème brûlée—the Lutín's natural diet, as surmised by Nora—she left lying on the ground, but Port argued that ignoring free dessert was folly at best, cowardice at worst, and Nora couldn't disagree). But Nora had discovered that the one thing that the Lutín could not ignore was press conferences. Whatever mystical enchantments bound the creature to Beacon, or the terms of its contract, compelled it to attend press events and with Velvet easily bullied into providing a camera and the credibility of claiming Pyrrha had a statement to issue, she'd tricked that smiling jerk into showing his face.

"Only two ways this ends," she growled, "Either you give me the costume or I pull it off you once I'm done beating you down. And me, I'd prefer to do things all peaceful like, but Magnhild… she wants to go dancing..."

The Lutín just smiled as always, the arrogant bastard, raising the axes that represented Beacon's highest virtues: ass kicking and the other thing.

Well, Nora was happy to oblige if it wanted a fight.

Lowering Magnhild, feeling its familiar weight in its hand as she sprang forward, her hand fluidly sliding down the shaft as she felt the momentum build to one, titanic swing.

But her foe was faster, if only by a hair. Time slowed down as Magnhild's face nearly met the Lutín's, only an inch away as the surprisingly spry sprite backflipped from her attack. As soon as the mascot's feet hit the ground, though, time shot back to regular speed as her foe pressed the attack—and Nora would give him credit: he was good with those axes.

But imagine if they could turn to rocket launchers...

Hatchet met hammer as Nora furiously dueled Beacon's mascot. Nora wasn't good with this kind of close-quarters combat, typically relying on Ren to harry and screen her foes with Stormflower or putting Jaune-Jaune between her and what she was hammering. Or sitting back and letting Pyrrha do the fancy stuff and just smashing whatever needed smashing when the time came to smash.

"Do you still need me to take pictures?" a terrified Velvet squeaked, snapping a few more action shots as Nora ducked a whirlwind of axes.

"Nah, you're free to go!" Nora replied, bringing Magnhild down with a mighty, though tragically too-slow, crash against the ground. "Thanks for being so cool about this!"

"You didn't make it sound optional!" Velvet's voice echoed behind her as she fled the scene. If she had more to say, it was lost in the BOOMS of dust grenades.

This was truly a worthy foe. Songs would be sung of their battle, by Nora, frequently, but she wasn't sure how the song would end. And she wasn't sure if rhyming "Lutín" with "shootin" was good songwriting. But she could tell that she wasn't going to win by attrition—one good hit with Magnhild would end the fight, but the Lutín wasn't letting her get that hit, and it was getting in more hits, drawing down Nora's aura and making it harder and harder to get that hit.

Time to pull out the big guns.

Taking a vial of lightning dust that had been legitimately borrowed from Weiss with her implied permission, she crushed it in her hands with a bellowing cry as the familiar crackle of lightning sang through her body, supercharging her Semblance, and giving Nora the oomf to charge forward, lickety-split!

For once, she was catching the Lutín off guard, though his foam face revealed no shock. But he was now too slow, Nora's charge accelerated like she had those rocket boots she kept asking Ruby to build for her, catching her nemesis flat footed as she swung with all her might. With a mighty blow from Magnhild right to the lesser Lutín's jaw, Nora magnificently beheaded her foe…

Or at least, her foe's costume. Because now Nora could see the mysterious figure beneath the mask, the real face of her nemesis.

It was… an extremely tiny girl, with pink and brown hair and likewise mix-matched eyes, a pouty expression on her face in response to being exposed. Adorable, but Nora knew not to let her guard down for a second against her craftiest foe yet.

"Surrender the Lutín!" she bellowed, aiming Magnhild right at her costumed competitor. "I have bested you in combat, and I claim the mascot role for myself!"

The girl's eyes narrowed as she… oh no.

She raised her hands and started rapidly signing at Nora! Oh no, and Jaune-Jaune had just mentioned that learning sign language might be useful for her! And she hadn't heeded this warning, just like Velvet said the Lutín did! Or something like that!

"I- I'm sorry," she was forced to admit to her nemesis, "I… don't know how to sign. I… Do you have a pen and paper? Or a Scroll? Please tell me if I'm being problematic, it's the only way I'll learn!"

As the Student Chair of Beacon's Strategic Marketing Committee, Pyrrha was one of the first to officially know about the incident that happened on the grounds of Beacon. Stepping past the caution tape, she looked in shocked dismay at the shreds of foam and fabric scattered about, and the undeniable severed head of the Lutín, still grinning, even in death.

Or death-ish, being a mascot and all. But still, looking at it, Pyrrha felt that they had invoked a most terrible curse by trying to kill it and, somehow, succeeding. Was it… could she hate things to death now? It was a worrying trend if that was the case. But for the Lutín… just one look at the horrible thing, Pyrrha felt no remorse, no urge to apologize. She sometimes felt bad for the Grimm she killed, but she had no such mercy for the Lutín.

"Ah, Ms. Nikos," the Headmaster said as he got up from inspecting some of the signs of struggle. "I… do have to assume you have no knowledge of this?"

"No," she answered, reflexively. But then… well, she would be a suspect, right? She hated the Lutín more than anyone, but enough to brutally… hold on…

Glancing down at the severed head of her freakish foe, she noticed something. "It was ripped off… none of this damage was caused by a lacerating edge. It was blunt force..."

The Headmaster nodded, pensively, but Pyrrha assumed he was just making the appearance of thinking more than following her reasoning. But Pyrrha knew someone else who had a cause for conflict with Beacon's mascot. And she wielded a hammer...

"Headmaster."

The crisp, measured voice of Ms. Goodwitch brought fear to many students at Beacon, but before now, Pyrrha had never felt the icy claw of terror around her heart like Jaune did at the sound of her withering judgment. But even her anxiety was miniscule compared to the look on Ozpin's face as he turned to see Ms. Goodwitch, an aura of wrath encircling her like a fiery halo.

"What have you done?"

"Glynda!" he said in poorly-faked joviality, "I didn't- well, you see, I'm, well… I'm getting to the bottom of this, I- P-Pyrrha has a theory! You can ask-"

He was mercifully interrupted as Mr. Branwen burst in from… the bushes, apparently, smelling of drink and ranting, "Ozzy you bastard, whaddid'ya do to the- Oh, hey Glyn," he said as he noticed the others present, "I gotta go kick Ozzy's ass for killin' m'niece's favorite- for Summer's fav'rite-"

"Oh, yeah, so sorry, Glynda," Ozpin said, visually relieved, "Qrow here has to excoriate me for this, I'm afraid I have to leave-"

Ms. Goodwitch silenced him with a look that made the hairs on the back of Pyrrha's neck stand up and even Mr. Branwen sank back. "No. Qrow can wait," she said, "You are explaining everything you know to me. Now."

The Headmaster looked at Pyrrha in abject terror, the blood draining from his face as he silently pleaded that she do something, anything, to keep Ms. Goodwitch from taking him away. But Pyrrha had nothing to offer him but a shrug as, with a swish of her crop-

THUMP!

They all turned to see the source of the noise, the sound of… someone evidently jumping off the roof to make a dramatic entrance as they saw…

Oh, Nora…

She was the one and only person who would do something like this, rising from her three-point landing after jumping off a roof, dressed in a homemade version of the Lutín's costume with a shoddily-constructed, evidently papier-mâché, head that had the familiar horrifying grin and bug eyes, two axes in hand as she announced, "TA-DA!"

Everyone was silent. Pyrrha mentally calculated what, if anything, she could do to save her teammate. She wasn't inclined to intervene when Goodwitch targeted the Headmaster, but Nora, for all her… Nora-ness, was her teammate, one of her closest friends.

A closest friend who had no idea the danger she was in as she announced, "I'm the new Lutín!"

More silence. A terrifying silence. A silence that stretched on until…

"I suppose a new hat isn't too much of a change from tradition," Ms. Goodwitch said, "I presume you defeated the previous Lutín in combat?"

Nora nodded, less surprised she wasn't getting punished than excited to confirm she had gotten into a fight with a sports mascot. And won.

"Then, per tradition, I suppose you are our new Lutín. I will update the register."

With that, she turned and left, to Ozpin's obvious and considerable relief. As he departed in turn with Mr. Branwen, Pyrrha was left with her teammate, wearing an even more deranged version of Beacon's mascot suit. And Pyrrha knew to get used to her appearance—from what Ms. Goodwitch had to say, this was simply how things worked at Beacon, because of course it did. But trying to make things better was how she ended up here in the first place.

So with a sigh, she turned to her closest friend and said, "I… I guess I look forward to... seeing you at the Vytal?"

"Of course, Pyrrha!" Nora said, as oblivious to her teammate's repressed emotions as she was to how horrifying her costume's head looked bobbing side to side, "Ooooh, you should be at my press conference tomorrow! Also, I should call a press conference to announce I'm the Lutín. Oh! Or should it be secret? Also, will Lisa Lavender be there? I don't like the way Renny looks at her on the news when she's got a few too many buttons undone and..."

Nora's voice seemed to trail off into one of the many long excursions that made up a talk with Nora. But Pyrrha wasn't listening; all she could hear was the silent laugh of the decapitated Lutín's still smiling face. It had won. It had defeated her.

And there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.

Thanks to Renarde for feedback on this work and suggesting the Lutín as a suitable French folk cryptid for Beacon, and thank you for all my Twitter followers ( SeleneSokal) who voted to see this piece, with Nora's duel with a sports mascot, posted first.