A/N: Over 50,000 views?! *turns to the fanfic gods of epicness* I'M NOT WORTHYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Seriously though, thank you all for the amazing support. I think my motivation for this story would've died out a long time ago if it weren't for you. Now, enough of this mushy crap! Let's fight!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or My Hero Academia. They belong to Monty Oum, Kohei Horikoshi, and their respective publishing companies. Please support the official releases.

I do not own the cover image.

Chapter 26: Let the Games Begin!

Izuku narrowly avoided being stabbed by one of Tokoyami's flintlock daggers held in a backhand grip, only for his feet to be taken out from under him by Shadow, an almost Lancelot parallel semblance that was directly connected to Tokoyami. It had the same body build as its master, though it was far more mobile and definitively stronger. Actually, were it not for the fact that the raven faunus was currently engaging him in melee combat, Izuku predicted that Tokoyami could likely hold a good number of opponents at mid-distance for a good amount of time.

Still, the surprise trip from Shadow proved to be no obstacle for him, especially not with Full Cowl activated, as the green haired inheritor recovered from the attempted trip with an almost breakdance looking move, twisting his body in such a way that, as he landed on his left hand, he pushed off in an almost twist flip fashion as he tried a shot with Cirrus (left foot) which unfortunately missed before he followed it up with a devastating downward one handed slash from Tempest in its sword form, leaving a slightly cracked split mark where Tokoyami once stood before dodging out of the way and their exchange of swordplay began once more.

In another part of the arena, filled with storm clouds and rocky terrain, Shoto was currently fending off an attacker in the form of Mina, who, unlike the other times they'd seen her, now donned her hunter's outfit: a blue, black and gray colored camo jacket with short sleeves and pockets littered about symmetrically on the front and sleeves, the only thing disturbing the coloration being the two curved horns and devilish smile plastered onto the back in hot pink. Under the jacket was a black crop top that exposed most of her lower torso, though nothing beyond that. She also wore a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and white tennis shoes with pink soles and laces, though said soles did have certain designs to them to allow her to use her acid to skate around on. In her hands were curve bladed, machine gun tonfa/wakizashis painted with pink and blue designs, which she was currently using to keep Shoto at bay as she slid around that section of the arena, firing long bursts at him and getting in more than a few hits by the time she was done.

This was exactly the type of opponent that Shoto had the most trouble dealing with. It wasn't that he couldn't get any hits on her, he'd gotten in plenty of those, but what really troubled him was the fact that he couldn't trap her with his ice. The half and half leader had tried that once before, and his efforts had been futile. Then, the pink haired girl zipped by and met Jotunheim with her own weapons, an audible clash of blade meeting blade erupting between them before the clash broke and the bout continued.

Tenya, despite his predisposition as a sniper, was still very much trained in close ranged combat, which proved to be immensely helpful against his current opponent, Tsuyu, now also donning her hunter's outfit: a green jumpsuit with symmetrical, waving designs weaving all about her body in an artistic fashion with a bright yellow symbol of a three-point crown, which, held the head of a frog in the same green as the jumpsuit on the center of it, the whole of which was emblazoned onto the center of her chest. Over that was an unbuttoned, gray vest that minorly hid the various gray pockets around her body: two on the outsides of her thighs, four on the gray belt of the jumpsuit, and one on each of her biceps, all of which contained Dust for the weapons currently donning her wrists: a pair of wrist sword/bladed whips that utilized the aforementioned Dust to empower the blades with different elemental affinities for different situations. She was currently using ice in her left and lightning in her right, using both in simulations attacks to keep the spectacled huntsman on his toes, and though he tried his damnedest to get in a hit on her, the aforementioned frog faunus proved to be just as elusive as her bubbly teammate. Still, that didn't make this fight any less challenging. Or fun.

And finally, on the other side of the arena, this one filled with trees and other kinds of foliage, another bout was being fought between the powerhouses of teams STIK and TAKT in the forms of Bakugo and Kirishima, both with equally wide smiles on their faces as they met each other blow for blow; doing which with anyone else likely would've broken their fists; and visible shockwaves came from where their blows met in the middle. If you focused closely enough, you might've been able to see that while Kirishima's smile was a joyful one, his rounded wolverine ears only slightly twitching, Bakugo's by comparison was far more feral and bestial in nature, with his ears flattened for emphasis. Still it was a smile nonetheless, and despite its surface nature, he was having the time of his life.

Meanwhile, up in the spectator's box, Port and Oobleck bantered and jabbed as they simultaneously spectated the match in front of them. It was an odd, friendly thing they always did somehow, no matter where they were.

"Well, it would seem that there's yet another destructively astonishing fight ahead of us, isn't that right, Professor?" Port asked his colleague, knowing that the name calling would at the very least annoy the man.

"Doctor. And yes Peter, I think it's safe to say that this single match may be the closest we've seen since the previous one between Teams RWBY and ABRN!" Oobleck responded with a slightly annoyed tone in his voice.

"For those of you just joining us: WELCOME TO THE VYTAL FESTIVAL TOURNAMENT!" Port announced as the crowd cheered in response, the battle beneath them continuing all the while as more than a few explosions echoed from where Bakugo and Kirishima were having their standoff.

"If this is your first time watching, allow us to explain the rules," Port said as Oobleck continued, "The tournament is divided into three rounds: Teams, Doubles, and Singles. Age and school year are entirely irrelevant. Here, the only attribute being tested-" he briefly fixed the position of his glasses, "- is skill."

"Correct," Port continued, "The winners of this fight will select two of their members to advance on to the doubles round, followed by the winners of that round choosing a single member to advance to the one on one finals!"

It was then that Oobleck took the opportunity to explain a unique situation for that particular year, "However, this year, due to the sudden withdrawal of Team MTN, who sent an apology letter that just arrived this morning, it has been decided almost unanimously that one of the winning doubles teams, selected via a randomization system, shall advance into the one on one finals together! However, in order to ensure that the match ups remain fair, they shall be the first to fight in the finals, and they shall be fighting against each other, so that only one may truly advance to the next bracket of the tournament.

"The winner of that fight, as well as the remaining winners from the doubles round, will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom!" Port finished the explanation of the rules.

"Now then, I do believe that it is quite high time that we return to the epically pulse pounding match between Team STIK of Beacon and Team TAKT of Haven!" Oobleck concluded with such an enthusiasm that as he finished his sentence, the crowd almost seemed to roar in excited response.

("Guns and Roses" OST from Baccano; fair warning: you might have to replay it once or twice)

As if on cue, as soon as the crowd erupted in approval, the fight reoccupied the audience's attention once more, and needless to say that it was a fairly entertaining moment to come back to.

Izuku and Tokoyami were evenly matching one another blow for blow, the former keeping Tempest in sword mode since going into scythe mode would more than likely give the raven faunus the upper hand, and he wasn't even accounting for Shadow, who proved to be quite the annoyance whenever he tried to pull off that new move he'd been saving for the tournament. Seriously, how the heck could he pull off so many flanks and distractions? Still, most of these were proven fruitless, since after the first one Izuku was sure to watch out for any more, and with his increased reflexes from the combined training under All Might and Torino it proved to be a moot point.

He gave a glance over to where his leader was fighting with Mina and struggling. As Tokoyami charged at him once more with a front spinning flip attack, Izuku brought Tempest up to meet his Celestial Legacy head on, the aforementioned raven faunus saying as they held the clash, "You're definitely stronger than when you faced down those goons in Black Bear Den."

"Thanks, but I'm just getting warmed up. Also, sorry for what's about to happen."

"What-" Tokoyami began before being cut off when Izuku angled Tempest in such a way that the edges screeched against each other before he let go of Tempest, causing his feather haired opponent to stumble, giving the green haired inheritor the perfect opportunity to bring his hands together and deliver a brutally devastating two-handed, sideways hammer strike to his opponents face, sending him sprawling across the arena at a high speed before crashing into a tree where Bakugo and Kirishima were duking it out, both turning to Izuku before they simultaneously yelled, "Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry!" was all he had time to respond with before he dashed off to help his leader, leaving the two to begin duking it out once again. That and he summoned Tempest back to his hand beforehand. Thank you training experiments!

… dammit Torino, why do you always make me go through hell?!

"Shoto!" Izuku got his leader's attention and continued with one of their attack code-words as he shifted Tempest into scythe mode, "Frozen Maelstrom!"

Shoto nodded in acknowledgement, a slight smile appearing on his face at the prospect of his attack code-names being used, as Izuku stood next to him as he held Tempest above his head and began to spin it in a perfect circle, using his Aura to power the blade and begin making a miniature tornado, within which Shoto began to launch multiple shards of ice via a combination of Jotunheim and his ice powers, creating what this combination attack had been named after: a Frozen Maelstrom.

Izuku then redirected the airflow, stopping his spinning Buzzsaw arc and making a single, wide sweep, almost guiding the storm he'd helped to create towards the recently recovered and now scrambling to escape Mina, who, with the help of some clever acid applications, managed to dodge most of the shards, though the wind, combined with some of the larger shards, was enough to send her sprawling into a wall of Ice that Shoto had cleverly placed behind her as she dodged the immediate threats while ignoring the subtle one.

The two partners then fist bumped, their faces beaming at the fact that their attack worked on the first live fire trial. However, while Mina's Aura was definitely damaged, she wasn't quite down for the count, and, as was clearly evidenced by Tokoyami's sudden appearance by his teammate's side, neither was he. Both their Auras were edging on the fifty marks while Shoto's and Izuku's both sat comfortably in the green range. Seeing this, Izuku once more shifted Tempest to its bastard sword length before they reengaged into combat.

Meanwhile Tenya was having problems keeping up with Tsuyu, despite his speed. In fact that wasn't really the problem. Similar to Shoto, Tenya's opponent was very good at hit and run tactics and very good at avoiding his primary fighting style. Even when they managed to engage in close quarters combat, which was seldom rare, Tsuyu usually had the upper hand due to the unpredictable nature of her weapon. Like she did right now.

And then, almost completely out of nowhere, rapid machine gun fire sounded from somewhere within Tenya's blind spot, causing the frog faunus to dodge mid-stride to avoid getting shot. His savior stood beside him in the form of Bakugo with the guns of Smoke and Shrapnel beaded onto Tsuyu's form. Tenya soonafter returned the favor by shooting Kirishima when he tried to reengage their earlier brawl.

"So, how do you want to do this, four eyes?" Bakugo asked with a low growl in his voice.

"Mach 5 Warhead." Tenya responded sharply.

"… are we really-"

"Yes, we're using the name, just get ready to launch," Tenya interrupted his partner mid-sentence, dropping into a pro runner's starting stance while Bakugo, still grumbling at the prospect that they were actually doing this, dropped into a similar stance with his hands angled behind his feet, and, as if on cue, Kirishima and Tsuyu rushed at them with their weapons drawn bare, Kirishima with his claw gauntlets and Tsuyu with her arm sword/whips.

Just as they'd planned.

As the two aforementioned teammates launched towards Tenya and Bakugo, they began their counter attack, as Bakugo made dual explosions to launch himself and Tenya forwards, though Tenya was quite faster due to his semblance. Doing this allowed them to create an opening where their opponents backs were turned and, using simultaneous cut-turns, launched back towards the two an began to lay into them, Bakguo with machine gun-esque jabs, hooks, and punches, while Tenya's, though far faster, was much more gacesful and precise, making several stabs towards Kirishima's exposed back, though most of the damage was make moot by the fact that he'd hardened that section of his body to solid rock.

"And Tsuyu Asui is eliminated by Aura depletion!" The voice of Port boomed before the two had even hit the floor.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt," Oobleck commented as Kirishima rose slowly from the ground, saying in a deep, almost angry voice, "That... was incredibly unmanly!" Before launching himself straight for Bakugo, who was now put into one of the rare cases of defense or death. Tenya tried to interfere, but simply got backhanded away for his efforts, leaving Bakugo to face off against a now enraged Kirishima all by his lonesome.

The sniper landed near where Izuku was striking Tokoyami out of the arena with a wide sweep from Tempest, a ring out being declared with the aforementioned raven faunus' Aura just barely hanging away from the red as he landed near Tsuyu, who lifted her partner over her shoulder soon after. Tenya then gestured towards where Bakugo was trying, and barely not failing, to not die. Izuku was the first to recognize this and sped off to help his rival.

Shoto, seeing that his partner was currently needed elsewhere, said to his spectacled teammate, "Okay, let's do Liquid Nitrogen. That should at least get her out of the ring, if nothing else."

"Understood," Tenya replied without hesitation, an almost uncharacteristic smile coming onto his face as he loaded Pride with ice Dust, Shoto suddenly sheathing Jotunheim in a rather nonchalant fashion, confusing Mina perfectly. It was then that Tenya began to rapidly fire the ice Dust at Mina, making her slowly strafe closer and closer towards them, simultaneously cutting off her escape route before-

SHING!

-Shoto made a wide, almost samurai-esque quick draw slash towards the branch horned girl, sending her spiraling out of the arena while nearly breaking her Aura entirely, the strike itself carrying so much force that the icicles that formed around her had been cleaved in two. However, she was not even mad about this, saying, "Good one!" As she flew across the arena before hitting the ground and tumbling towards her friends, who managed to stop her before she reached the wall of the arena.

Now, the only one of the opposing team left was Kirishima, who was putting up quite the fight against the reluctant duo of Izuku and Bakugo. No matter how they tried to attack the red-haired brawler he seemed to tough through it all, which was helped by the fact that most of his skin had now been hardened and his Aura was only going down by slivers.

"C'mon! You're not hitting me manly enough!"

Izuku looked over at Bakugo as Kirishima yelled this and uttered the codeword for the attack they'd only practiced once. "Firestorm!"

Still grumbling, Bakugo yelled in response, "Fine, but don't blame me when this thing goes to shit!"

Despite his reluctance to do so, the ashen blonde direwolf faunus got into position to begin the attack, allowing Izuku to slowly but surely push Kirishima towards where Bakugo currently stood, and once he was close enough, Bakugo grabbed Kirishima by his arm and began to spin around faster and faster, building up momentum until finally, with an almost deafening explosion, he threw the wolverine faunus high above the arena as he howled his signature phrase: "DIE!"

This, however, was not where the attack was to stop. Bakugo then put his hands together as Izuku ran towards him, creating a step for the freckled boy to use as a launching platform and, using an explosion of similar force, launched Izuku upwards, shooting straight for Kirishima. It then looked as though Bakugo may have been a bit too forceful with that last blast, because Izuku was now at least twenty feet higher than his opponent. Oh well, it didn't matter anyway. In fact, it might've actually helped him out, and he could use that one move he'd been practicing for a while.

With almost blinding speed, and all the previous energy that Tempest had already built up, he swept his arms through the air twice, once vertically and once horizontally, sending two, nearly touching bright green streaks straight into Kirishima and launching him out of the arena, but not before he yelled, "Now that's the kind of manly that I'm talking about!"

"Eijiro Kirishima is eliminated by ring out! Team STIK advances to the next round!" Oobleck announced to the cheering crowd as Izuku's gravity came back into play and he started to fall back to the ground.

(A/N: End Song)

Luckily, the green haired inheritor managed to avoid becoming a splat on the pavement when Shoto formed a downward spiraling ramp beneath him. When Izuku reached the bottom, he heard the cheers of the crowd, the excitement in the air, the tension that the next round would bring.

"WOO HOO! YOU WERE AWESOME, GREENIE! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT!"

And of course, he could hear one of his best friends/secret crush showing her unfiltered support alongside the rest of her team; even Blake and Weiss were cheering for them.

"THEY MADE IIIIIIII-"

(ten minutes later, the Fairgrounds, general POV)

"-IIIIIIIIis anyone else starving?" Ruby said as hunched over in hunger; it was an exaggeration, of course but she was hungry nonetheless.

"I am," Izuku said plainly, though he too was hunched over from hunger.

"I might've worked up an appetite," Blake said as humbly as she could before a loud, almost unnatural growl emerged from her direction, specifically from her stomach, causing her to cover the lower part of her torso while smiling sheepishly.

"Understatement of the fucking century," Bakugo muttered under his breath before getting smacked upside the head by Yang and Tenya, the former for using profanity around her sister while the latter for using profanity in general.

"Gee, if only there was somewhere on campus where we could get some food," she said expectantly as she spread her arms wide, as if indicating the stalls around them before saying, "Oh, wait!"

"It's alright, Weiss. I forget about the Fairgrounds too," Ruby said, not seeming to notice the sarcasm in her friend's voice.

"I was being facetious!" The white-haired heiress answered in kind.

"Don't you mean sarcastic? Ribbit," Tsuyu asked as the rest of her team nodded in approval.

"I... I guess," she reluctantly admitted.

"Pfft! Well if you were hungry, why didn't you say so?!" Ruby raised her arms above her head to overemphasize.

"C'mon sis, it's not a big deal. Besides, I know a place," Yang said with a teasing smile on her face, causing Blake's eyes to widen as she asked, "Is it the one with the fish bowls the size of boulders or the one with free seconds?"

"...yes," the blonde brawler said in a coyly vague voice with her previous smile only widening as they followed her, Weiss only briefly stopping to check her phone and ignore a call. Who it was from, Izuku did not know.

"Hey!" They turned to the source of the voice, finding Emerald standing behind them with a wallet between her first two fingers as she continued, "Might be hard to eat without this!"

"What?!" Ruby patted herself over, searching for the wallet that the mint haired girl was now holding as she mumbled,"-no, no no no no-"

This caused Emerald to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, then saying, "Good to see you guys again. It's been pretty boring without you around."

"Well, your time training couldn't have been entirely monotonous, correct?" Tenya asked as Ruby recievd her wallet from Emerald, angrily mumbling something about 'girl pockets' as she restashed her money.

"You'd be surprised. Most of my teammates like to do their own thing, and the only one I really get along with is Cinder, so..." she shrugged, "It was pretty quiet for the most part."

"So, what's up, Em?" Yang asked.

"Oh, I left after watching STIK's amazing fight!" She turned to the aforementioned team and continued, "Seriously, you guys kicked some major butt!"

"Well, we do excel at it," Shoto said with a bit of pride in his voice.

"Indeed! If there's one thing about a hunter's tasks that never changes, it's that there's never a halt to combat!" Tenya piped in.

Bakugo didn't respond, instead stomping his foot into the ground repeatedly to show his impatience, emphasized by the fact that his ears were once again flat and there was a slight growl emerging from his throat.

"W-well, I don't think I'm t-that good, but thank you!" Izuku said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head, his awkwardness as clear as ever.

"So, you're Emerald?" Mina asked with a grin on her face, the mint haired girl simply nodding as the seahorse faunus stuck out her hand and introduced herself, "Name's Mina Ashido! Pleasure to meet ya!"

"It's nice to meet you too," Emerald responded as she then looked over the rest of Team TAKT, recognizing them from the earlier battle as she said, "No offense, but didn't these guys basically kick your teeth in like, ten minutes ago?" as she gestured towards STIK, of which only the third member looked at all guilty.

"Well, we're actually good friends, so it wasn't really that big of a deal," Kirishima tried to deflect.

"But weren't you disappointed that we wouldn't be advancing to the final round, though?" Tokoyami pointed out with only the slightest of cheeky smiles on his face. Well, beak.

"That doesn't mean it wasn't a good fight!" Kirishima responded in kind.

"HEY!" Everyone whipped around to find the source of the yell, finding someone who looked very much like Kirishima, if a bit more bestial. He had slightly parted, naturally spiky gray hair with no eyebrows, and incredibly thick white eyelashes that completely circled his eyes, the pupils of which were small, almost nonexistent black dots, and his mouth was lined top to bottom with sharp teeth. He wore his hunters outfit: a black undershirt with a gray, X shaped harness with a small, shiny red button on the center of his torso, though it looked like it was there more for style then to actually hold anything. He wore baggy black pants that were tucked into his gunmetal grey boots, which were almost entirely plated. On his arms were a pair of similarly colored gauntlets that completely covered his hands, and actually shared many similarities with Kirishima's weapon. Plus, similarly shaped, gray ears made him look like Kirishima's long lost brother, though Izuku was fairly sure that whoever this was was likely of a different subspecies. Maybe a bear.

He then walked over to Kirishima and stared the wolverine faunus down, though Kirishima glared back just as harshly. Then, as soon as the tension had been created they grasped each other's hands in the form of a 'bro' handshake and smiled as they synched, "Dude, how've ya been?"

.

..

…

"… I honestly thought they were going to fight from the way they were glaring at each other," Weiss commented as Tenya nodded in agreement.

"Oh, that's just how he and Tetsutetsu talk. They actually used to fight constantly when they first met each other. Now they're almost like actual brothers. Ribbit," Tsuyu gave a brief explanation for their friendliness.

"They can certainly bicker like siblings as well," was all Tokoyami had to say on the matter.

"Speaking of which, we should probably follow them. Ya know, make sure they don't destroy anything," Mina said as she pointed after the two aforementioned brawlers, who were now jollily strolling through the stalls of the Fairgrounds with their arms over each other's shoulders, with an intense excitement bringing them to one of the many strength-based games littered throughout.

"Yes, we should," Tokoyami said as he and Mina dashed after their teammate, Tsuyu briefly saying, "See you guys around!" before going after them.

"Well... that was certainly... odd," Blake said in a confused tone.

"Oh! I heard that your team advanced to the next round! Congrats!" Izuku changed the subject.

"I can't help but feel like we never see your teammates. Well, other than Mercury, but he... doesn't really make much sense," Weiss commented.

"How did you do?" Shoto asked, causing Emerald to look slightly upwards with an analytical look on her face as she reminisced to just an hour ago.

(an hour ago, the Vytal Stadium, Emerald's POV)

Emerald leaped into the air, preforming a cartwheel flip as she unleashed a volley of bullets at her mark, who subsequently fell out of the arena bounds, now leaping back again so that Mercury could kick her new assailant in the chin.

She took a brief glance towards Cinder as she fought bare handed, kneeing her opponent in the face before double palm slamming her hands into their stomach, sending them sprawling across the battlefield in a heap only to be stopped by Dabi's foot. The turquoise eyed boy, relentless as ever, pressed his boot hard into his opponent's shoulder and said not a word as he fired a shot from Purgatory into the center of their forehead, which, had they not any Aura, would've resulted in a brutal demise.

(present time, the Fairgrounds, general POV)

"Really well," Emerald simply said with an unreadable smile on her lips.

"That's awesome! I bet it was a great fight!" Yang said with an emphasized fist pump.

"Do you wish to have a victory meal with us?" Tenya politely offered.

"That's really nice of you, but my teammates are kinda... introverted," she glanced over to where Mercury was currently sniffing a boot, testing the quality of the leather it had been made from, and Dabi was busy brooding in silence as usual.

"… well, most of them are, I'm pretty sure Dabi's just plain crazy. But Cinder and Mercury... really socially awkward," Emerald lied without a single tell.

"I get it. I-I'm not the best with talking either," Izuku commented.

"Well, me and Mercury are going to the doubles round. How about you guys?"

"Well, as leader, I thought long and hard about this decision," Ruby puffed her chest out in pride.

Weiss then went 2D for a moment as she leaned in and commented, "We put it to a vote," before leaning back. How was this possible? No one knew... (A/N: Ha! And you thought it was dead! Nope! I will run this joke into the f*%^ing ground!)

"A-a-ah! But I decided that we should out it to a vote!" Ruby said, trying to save some semblance of the pride she'd felt.

"We voted for Weiss and Yang," Blake stated.

"I will happily represent Team RWBY," the platinum haired heiress politely curtsied.

"Yeah, we're gonna kick some butt!" The blonde brawler slammed her fists together in excitement with a wry smile on face.

"Awesome! What about you guys?" Emerald switched her focus to Team STIK.

"It was hardly a contest as to who should participate. Bakugo and I are good partners, but we do not yet have the coordination skills of our teammates," Tenya stated as Bakugo seethed in the background, muttering, "should've been me," multiple times underneath his breath.

"It certainly won't be easy, but I cannot wait for us to proceed to the doubles round," Shoto said with a small smile still adorning his face, his green haired partner saying, "We'll at least give them one heck of a fight!"

Emerald chuckled at this, and continued, "Well, if me and Merc see you down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya."

"Wouldn't have it any other way!" Yang boldly challenged.

"See you later!" Ruby said as Teams RWBY and STIK walked towards the noodle stand Yang boasted of earlier, Emerald giving a sincere sounding, "Bye!" back to them. As soon as her other teammates came into view, she stuck her tongue out in disgust.

"So, how're the new 'friends?" Mercury said with quotation marks to emphasize his sarcasm.

"… I hate them," Emerald said as flatly as humanly possible.

"We know. You wouldn't stop bitching about them for at least an hour last time," Dabi commented to stoke his mint haired teammate's ire even more, though she tried not to show it.

"Hey, orders are orders," Mercury said as he shrugged indifferently, secretly glad that he wasn't the one that had to engage the enemy in such a casual manner.

"It's just-" Emerald had exaggerated, seemingly over frustrated hand gestures as she did so, "-how can they be so happy all the time?!"

"I'm fairly sure Bakugo's never happy," Dabi muttered under his breath.

"Did you at least get what we wanted?"

"Yeah. RWBY's got the heiress and the bimbo, and STIK's got icy hot and jade for brains," she reported.

"Hmm. Well, at least we know what we're working with now," Mercury said as they walked back towards the stadium, though not before Dabi said, "Blondie's not a bimbo, by the way. She's actually fairly clever."

"It was a figure of speech! I don't care about her lack of a sex life, it's just what she looks like to me," Emerald quipped back with far more hostility.

"Appearances are often deceiving," Dabi shrugged

"… fuck you."

"I'd rather not."

"… you better start running..." Emerald reached towards the back of her belt, where she kept a small backup knife in the case that she ever lost her weapon. Or if she felt like chasing Mercury around for complaining too much.

"It was a joke. Besides, you're not really my type."

"And what type would yours be?" Mercury asked as Penny briefly came into view, with a rather large looked sunhat resting on her head, only to then be escorted away by a dark-skinned girl with a military beret before Dabi answered, "None of your Oumdammed business."

(three minutes later, the food stand, Izuku's POV)

The two teams sat on different corners of the noodle stand's bar, Izuku and Yang sitting the closet to each other (they both briefly blushed from the close proximity) while Ruby sat right of her sister, Weiss sat right of her partner and Blake sat at the other end of the bar. Shoto, similarly, sat left of his brother in arms while Tenya sat left of him and Bakugo sat on the far end of their side of the bar.

The old man from the dust shop (who seemed to be running damn near everything at that point) then zipped out of the kitchen to take their orders. Yang started them off with, "I'll have a bowl of the regular, please," and not two seconds later the old man had already raced inside his kitchen, prepared the requested meal, and served it. Did me secretly have his Aura unlocked or something?

"Ooooh. I'll take the same," Ruby received her bowl shortly afterwards.

"I'll have the udon special," Shoto said, receiving a bowl of larger noodles with mixed veggies and meats.

"Ultra-hot red meat curry," Bakugo growled, a loud bang signifying the completion of his order

"Do you have anything with a low salt-" Weiss was interrupted when a bowl of low salt noodles was practically flung at her from the kitchen.

"Pork bento for me, please," Tenya politely requested, and said box was placed in front of him soon after.

Blake didn't say a word, only giving a small smile as she nodded to the shop runner, who acknowledged the nod with one of his own before once more rushing into the kitchen with loud clanging noises emerging from within, then coming out again to present a magnificent bowl filled to the brim with cartoon esque fish. The raven haired faunus' eyes were then replaced by yellow stars, visibly drooling at the sight of her favorite food, and Izuu could've sworn he somehow heard a heartbeat somewhere in the background. How was any of this possible? Say it with me now: No one knew.

When it was finally Izuku's turn to order, he looked through the list of options and finally settled on the item at the end of the menu. With determination in his eyes, the freckled inheritor ordered, "The Vytal Tournament Beef Bowl Challenge."

Everyone there, including the shop owner, snapped their heads towards him, all with similar looks of disbelief on their faces. When he made no move to correct his order, the shop runner, with incredibly obvious hesitation, walked into the kitchen one final time to give Izuku what he ordered. The bowl itself was massive, at least twice as large as the other bowls, if not even bigger, and the thick, delicious aroma that wafted off of the food contained within was almost enough to make Izuku dive in and eat right away. However, by some modicum of self-control, the blazer wearing boy managed to hold himself back.

It was at this moment that Bakugo said, "Actually, make this an extra-large," and the shop runner complied leaving an even larger bowl of the same meal he'd ordered earlier in front of the parka baring boy, his rivalry with Izuku in damn near everything now even more obvious than ever before. The new bowl was actually almost as large as Izuku's, and was similarly incredibly overstuffed.

Then, Weiss, ever the saving grace, handed the shop runner her credit card to pay for the entire meal. She'd become gradually nicer as they got know her better, but this level of kindness was practically unheard of for her. Oh well. Everything's relative... moving on!

"Aw, Weiss! What's the occasion?" Yang asked.

"Indeed. You've never offered to pay for anything before; at least, to my considerable knowledge," Tenya piped in with his two cents on the matter.

"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round," was the explanation the white-haired heiress gave her friends. Then, out of nowhere, the shop runner threw Weiss' card back at her like a shuriken, slicing into the polished smooth oak wood that made up the bar. The members of Teams RWBY and STIK held similar surprised looks on their faces, except for Bakugo, who simply looked confused, as they looked back towards the shop runner, now donning a not so happy expression before he pointed towards the register without speaking a word, letting the word on said machine speak for itself.

"Well, so much for that plan," Shoto said, noticing that no one had yet touched their meals. A good thing too. Since Weiss couldn't pay it might've been best for them to not even touch their food for the time being.

"What?! How can my card be declined? I was barely into my monthly allowance..." Weiss said with obvious confusion spreading throughout her face. Blake, however, was trying the best she could to keep her bowl of fish as close as possible, until the shop runner saw that shit and mercilessly took away said bowl, since it was, surprisingly, the most expensive thing there, seeing as Vale didn't have as much access to fish as Atlas and especially Mistral.

"Nooooo..." Blake cried silently as she slumped over the bar, clearly upset at the prospect of losing a meal of that magnitude. So much delicious fish, gone...

"I believe I can help with that," a certain redhead offered as she and the rest of Team JNPR followed after her with similar hungry looks on their faces.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby yelled in fondness.

"Wait don't you guys have a match in a few minutes?" Izuku asked with concern as he continued, "You could get disqualified if you're late."

"Thank you for the concern, Izuku, but we actually have approximately thirty minutes before our match starts. We have some time before then to go over some strategies in the meantime," Ren answered in one of the longest sentences Izuku had ever heard the magenta eyed boy utter. Well, the ones that he heard.

"Aw, c'mon, you don't have to," Yang said playfully, though she did take in opportunity to shift just the slightest bit closer to Izuku, which, of course, he didn't notice, though Ruby did, but didn't think to take note of it.

"But she could! Right?" Blake gave the cutest beggar eyes you'd have ever seen, clearly wishing to have that bowl of fish returned to her as soon as possible.

"Well, I think you all definitely earned it after those hard-fought battles," Pyrrha said, cementing her position on the matter as Jaune continued, "Mind if we join you?"

"Don't sweat it! Pull up a chair!" Ruby ushered them to the other side of the stand while the shop runner brought out a twenty-five-minute timer for the challenge, Bakugo intensely glaring at his rival as their unofficial eat off began.

(twenty-two minutes later, the food stand, Izuku's POV)

Izuku happily ate the last piece of the beef bowl challenge that now sat empty in front of him, slapping the timer stop to signify that he was done. At the exact same time, Bakugo slammed his now empty bowl down on the bar, snapping his head towards the green haired boy only to find that he too had finished his meal. Frustrated, Bakugo slammed his head into the bar, creating a visible dent as he yelled in fury, "Oum dammit! Why can I never beat you at anything?!"

"W-w-well, I-I didn't e-exactly win e-e-either, Bakugo, s-so-"

He then lifted his head from said dent and yelled, "SHUT UP, DEKU! I'LL PROVE I'M BETTER THAN YOU, GOT IT?!"

"Then you can duke it WHEN I AM NOT SITTING DIRECTLY BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU!" Tenya yelled to his partner and, though the ashen blonde was still very much angry, he dropped it, at least for the moment, and went back to silently fuming as he drank his recently ordered water.

"How... just... how did you manage to eat all of that food?" Weiss asked in disbelief.

"Well, you know how most people with Aura have at least a slightly higher metabolism, right?" Izuku began to explain.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, it's pretty simple: the theory goes that if you have a larger Aura, over time you'll receive a higher metabolism to compensate for all the energy it takes to generate it, and therefore become hungrier than normal."

"Okay, first of all: Bakugo's Aura isn't as large as yours, so how did he eat that entire bowl? And second: is that why Shoto snacks all the time and you've recently been ordering such absurd amounts of food?" Weiss asked for further clarification.

"I've been getting really hungry lately, alright?" Izuku defended his eating habits, consoled by a pat on the shoulder, courtesy of Yang.

"I like my snacks," Shoto simply replied.

Though it took Bakugo a bit longer to answer the question posed to him, since he knew that Izuku might answer for him if he didn't, he replied, "I'm a dire wolf. You can figure it out from there."

"That aside, are you entirely sure it was wise to eat before a fight?" Ren asked Pyrrha.

"Of course! It shall give us energy," the redheaded amazon responded with a sweet cheeriness in her voice as the shop runner zoomed around and collected the now empty bowls before going back inside the kitchen, presumably to clean them, which was shortly followed by an echoing burp, curtesy of their copper haired, pink loving teammate.

"Uuugh," Jaune groaned as he laid his head and arms over the bar, "I don't think your metabolism theory applies to me, Izuku. Also, if I barf I'm blaming you, Pyrrha."

"I think that might be because of me," Lancelot said as his helmet materialized next to the blonde knight, and continued, "Also, I do not think it is wise to put the blame on Ms. Nikos, Master. This was technically your own fault."

"Oh! Aim the barf at the enemy!" Nora said with her trademark bubbly enthusiasm with just the barest hint of hostility.

"Nora, that's disgusting!" Ren and Tenya synched, the two briefly glancing at each other and, after several seconds, the former boy continued, "But if you do feel the urge..."

"Got it," Jaune responded before his teammate could finish, which was accompanied by a clearly sarcastic thumbs up.

"Well, we should be off," Pyrrha stood to leave for the coliseum.

"You got your strategies ready?" Izuku asked.

"Well, I think the more accurate question is: are you ready to kick some major butt in the most internationally celebrated broadcast in the history of Remnant?" Ruby asked with far more enthusiasm.

"Of course we are!" Nora answered with a cheeriness that only she and Mei could muster. "We've got a world-renowned fighter on our team, what's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, and a guy with a freaking giant for a Semblance!"

"… thank you?"

"Anything else? It's better to lay out all your strengths now so that you don't forget them mid fight," Shoto recommended.

Nora then continued, "Okay! Let's see, what else..." she took a thinker position for a few short seconds before she snapped her fingers and said, "We've been training with those new team attacks all year; thank you for the cooler name on that one combo, great leader; our weapons are awesome, Glynda barely yells at us anymore, and we have the best strategist this side of Remnant on our side!"

"That seems like a lot of advantages. You'll likely have the upper hand in most of your battles," Tenya observed.

"Well, they are one of the strongest first year teams in this school. I wouldn't exactly be surprised if they swept this first match without any effort," the blonde brawler gave her two cents on the matter.

"That being said, don't get cocky. Even the most prepared of fighters can be brought down by a well-prepared plan or even a single unknown factor," Weiss warned.

"But we shouldn't be so nervous! The worst that could happen is we lose! Then it's just a few more years of walking around school with everyone knowing that we're failures, our friends will slowly abandon us to preserve their social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, Ren and I are orphans, we have no home left to go to, and we'll be officially renamed Team LOSE-iper!" Nora laughed just a bit melancholically as she began to turn ironically gray before breaking down into tears and placing her head on the bar, which managed to put the color back into her. How was this possible? She's Nora.

"So... yeah. Feeling pret-ty good," Ren diffused the tension as best he could.

"Don't fret so much about it," the gentle amazon placed her hand on her weeping teammate's shoulder, continuing, "If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines and not... well... murderers."

"Yeah, don't worry about it. We've dealt with way worse," Yang pointed out.

"How much have we all had to go through, all together?" Izuku asked for a tally count of everything.

Surprisingly, Blake took the lead, "Let's see... Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath..."

"-those ridiculous tests, Torino's training, airships..." Jaune kept the train a going.

"-an idealistic serial killer, goons from various criminal organizations, and to top it all off, a psychopathic crime boss with a vendetta against All Might," Tenya finished the nigh and considerably long list of things that they'd had to go through.

"Yeah, that about sums it up," Bakugo piped in for a moment before he went back to fuming once more.

"And this was while we're still in training! Ah, imagine what it'll be like after we graduate!" Ruby shouted as enthusiastically as ever.

"Maybe then I'd be able to pay for a meal," Weiss muttered under her breath.

"Hey, why do you have Tempest on you, Greenie?" Yang asked the blazer wearing boy, "You're not fighting for the rest of the day, right?"

"I tried, but it kept insisting on coming with me. Whenever I put it in my locker it just broke out and snapped itself to my back," Izuku admitted with a sheepish smile in his face as he scratched the back of his head.

"It's true. Glynda was freaking pissed from all the damage," Shoto backed up his statement.

"Wait, you weapon talks?!" Ruby zipped over to where Izuku was sitting in a heartbeat with stars in her eyes, an answer to her question clearly desired with great intensity.

"N-n-not in the traditional sense, it kinda just... hums, and I can tell what it wants," Izuku explained as best he could, since he didn't quite know how it worked himself.

"Aw, man," Ruby slumped over in disappointment.

Then, a loud speaker rang out in Port's voice, "Could Team JNPR please make their way to the coliseum immediately!"

"Yes! Like they were scheduled to do several minutes ago!" Oobleck finished.

"We'd better get going now," Pyrrha said as the rest of her team brought themselves up from the bar and began to walk towards the coliseum as Ruby cheered after them, promising to show up to the fighting ring before said fight began.

(ten minutes later, Amity Coliseum, general POV)

It didn't take long to get there, and they found seats for the event rather easily. However, while Izuku could've sworn he saw Emerald, Mercury, and Dabi out of the corner of his eye, he simply shrugged it off and walked over to the place his friends had already picked out.

Meanwhile, Dabi was sitting with his teammates in an area near where the fight was soon to start, Mercury sarcastically wondering out loud, "I wonder who's going to win."

"Tch. Like we don't already know," Emerald quipped back, equally as sarcastic.

"We don't. Though it does seem like this match will go in JNPR's favor," Dabi commented.

"And besides, Mercury," Cinder walked up behind them and plucked a popcorn kernel out of the bucket Mercury held, now wearing her more discrete 'hunter's' outfit: a pair of gray pants and boots, a beige leather, sleeveless jacket with light-beige details, brown gloves, a sarashi tied around her chest and another around her hips, and a pauldron on her left shoulder. She also wore a belt around her waist, which had multiple brown pouches attached to it, presumably holding Dust of some kind. She then continued as she superheated said kernel, "Even though you might know how a story will end doesn't make it any less fun to watch."

The kernel then popped to punctuate her sentence, placing it into her mouth as she took her own seat behind her 'teammates,' waiting patiently for the next round of the tournament to finally begin.

The booming voice of Port sounded throughout the arena, "Three!"

BRNZ shifted into their combat positions.

"Two!"

JNPR did the same, and their leader summoned Lancelot's torso almost effortlessly.

"One!"

A single, solitary beat passed for them, like the calm before a storm. And then, like an echoing gunshot, Port's voice bellowed out one final time; "Begin!"

And the chaos of battle ensued.

A/N: And that's all for this chapter! Hope you enjoyed the extra-long fight scene, I had a fun time writing it. Next time, we'll be delving into JNPR's fight with BRNZ, which should be much more interesting with Lancelot added into the mix.

I don't currently have profiles on Ashido or Tsuyu, I might've had a bit too much fun writing the fight scene, but I'll be sure to get them done by the next chapter! Speaking of-

Next Chapter: Mar. 25th

Seeya in the next one!