Casey smiled sweetly at me.

She was pretty enough, and, under normal circumstances, I might have let myself get distracted. But not now. I had a job to do, and things to prove.

Her team stood around her, on the other side of the open field. Their postures were relaxed. Confident. Cocky, even. Bran grinned and waved at our classmates, standing outside the arena.

To my left, Velvet stirred. She'd been uneasy the whole morning despite my attempts to boost her confidence. Fox placed a hand on her shoulder. He must have sent her something reassuring, because she smiled and nodded. He gave her shoulder a final squeeze and took his place to my right. Behind me, Yatsu towered over my head, quietly observing the proceedings. His great sword, Fulcrum, was resting over his shoulder: unsheathed and ready.

"Okay", Glynda said. "As we said, four versus four. Anything goes. Combatants can be eliminated by ring out, aura depletion, or resignation. Fighting-fit threshold is ten percent of your aura." Then, without further ado: "Begin."

I transformed my weapon. Fox and Velvet backed off a few steps.

Gianduja roared across the field. CBLT advanced through the bullets, evading some, while the rest bounced off their aura. I was not using dust enhancement: Glynda had forbidden it, considering it too dangerous against human opponents. It had been the same in combat school, so I'd expected it. But Glynda had said she'd consider removing the prohibition at a later year, as the general skill level of the class might then permit it.

Lydia and Casey made it through first. Lydia, a sword and shield user, pounced on Yatsu, while Casey engaged me. From the corner of my eye, I caught Tybald Stein catching up, and Fox raising Sharp Retribution - his tonfas - to meet him. Bran lagged a bit behind his team mates. He was holding an axe, but wasn't using it yet. He also wore a pair of roller blades, but didn't seem to be doing anything productive with his increased motility: he just stood behind his team, moving just enough to keep his balance. Weird strategy, I thought. But I couldn't afford to observe him for long because I was preoccupied with Casey's attempts to pierce me with a spear.

"Fight whoever engaged you for now", I sent. "Velvet, help Fox or Yatsu as needed."

One of our problems in this match was that CBLT knew more about us than we knew about them. With the exception of Velvet, we'd been extensively showcased in the initiation clips, more so than most teams. My semblance was common knowledge from interviews I'd given back in combat school. So, before the match, I'd told my teammates that they should report problems as they occurred and we'd just have to adapt our strategy on the fly.

I'd also told them it would be fun.

I was reconsidering that part as I ran to avoid the projectile shot out of Casey's spear. It landed on the spot I'd been a moment ago, and exploded on the ground in a black and orange burst, sending me flying back.

I stood back on my feet as Casey lunged at me. "That's a nice trick", I told her, parrying her spear with my handbag. "Combustion dust?"

"A small amount." She winked at me. "Wouldn't want to actually hurt a beautiful girl like you."

"That's sweet." I slammed my bag against her stomach, then kicked her behind the legs. "But also inconvenient in battle. Especially if your opponents don't share your chivalry." She stumbled and fell on her back, and I charged in on her, making sure to look her in the eye as I did so.

Then I felt my limbs get heavier, my movements slowing down.

Casey sprang back to her feet. I shook my head, trying to figure what had just happened. I'd never been that affected by a pretty girl before; it was usually the other way around.

Casey was back at it, dancing around me, her spear coming at me from all directions. She seemed less tired than she should, I thought. My blows sent her back, causing her obvious pain; but she recovered uncannily quickly. Maybe she, too, had large aura reserves.

"You're not bad", she said. "Hey, Bran! Give me a hand over there."

"Wha-" I turned around, just in time to see an axe flying towards my head. I jumped aside, and the blade hit my shoulder instead, before returning to its owner like a boomerang. I briefly ran a hand over my shoulder. My aura had protected me from damage, but it hurt like hell. I looked over to Bran, who was grinning widely, clearly very satisfied with himself.

That little shit.

"Velvet!" I sent. "Keep an eye on Bran. Cover our backs."

"Sneaky", I told Casey.

"It's called teamwork", she replied sweetly. "You're the leader, perhaps you should try giving some commands to your teammates."

"Thanks for the suggestion." I brought the bag to her head. She blocked and grinned at me, meeting my eyes. Once again, I felt my body slow down, heavy, weak. She slammed her foot against my chest, pushing me down. Regaining some control over my body, I crouched in a fetal position, hands crossed over my head to protect it. It was undignified, but that was the least of my concerns at the moment.

"Fox!" I sent.

"Present."

"Take on Casey!" My freedom of movement returning, I jumped on my feet, blocking the spear hits with my arms and purse. I kept my eyes on the spear, on Casey's body – anywhere except her own eyes. "I'll handle your guy."

To my relief, he didn't waste time questioning it, and his response was not too sarcastic. "Okay", he said. "I will roast you about this after the fight has ended."

Of course he would.

Tybald, the guy Fox was previously fighting, was using a simple staff. But his cloak, covering almost his whole body, was infused with dust: yellow, red and white-blue rivers, shining dangerously within the light, durable material. Everytime I landed a hit, I had to account for and evade the counter attack that would be triggered from the impact: a fire blast, a lightning strike, a knife of ice.

Still, clothing could not typically hold large amounts of dust. He'd eventually run out, and I trusted my own aura to absorb the attacks I could not evade. I kept him busy while Fox pounced on Casey. She tried to sidestep him and restore our previous pairings, but he wouldn't let her. I made myself focus on my own battle, trusting Fox to keep her off my back. But I did notice, with some satisfaction, the yelps and shouts indicating that she was having a bad time.

"Status", I demanded of the team.

"I'm managing", Yatsu sent. "Lydia is hard to hit. I go in for a strike, and it lands on nothing. It's like she's always slightly off from where I saw her standing a moment ago."

I considered this. It sounded like it could be a semblance: some sort of manipulation of spatial perception. I knew such semblances existed: semblances that could alter your perception, cause illusions. But they were rare. And I also knew Yatsu had some trouble with agile opponents, so it could just be that.

"Keep her engaged for now", I responded. "Velvet, give him a hand. Fox?"

"Things are peachy over here." His words were underlined by grunts and yells from him and Casey, and the clang of metal clashing against metal. "I can handle Casey, but there's a problem. Her aura is too high. Everyone's aura is too high, actually."

I frowned. I had noticed myself that Casey never seemed to get tired. Still, I had to clarify. "Do you mean they all have a naturally high amount?"

"Not exactly. It's not the amount that's too much, it's how fast it gets replenished." He ducked to avoid one of Casey's combusting projectiles, then continued. "They all have a pretty average amount, and hits do as much damage to it as you'd expect. But the pace it's regenerated at seems higher than normal, for everyone. Well, everyone except Bran."

"What about Bran?"

"His aura has been dropping steadily. Slowly, but steadily. And it doesn't recover as fast as the rest."

We hadn't bothered attacking Bran, and his teammates had been protecting him. But his aura was still being depleted, which meant-

"Vel, cover me", I sent. She left Yatsu's side, transformed Gestalt into twin pistols, and shot at Tybald, distracting him. He raised his staff to block the bullets; but when he tried to use it to knock her aside, she met it with her own.

I pointed my minigun at Bran and fired. Tybald, still fighting Velvet, positioned himself between the bullets and his teammate; Casey threw another projectile at me, trying to catch my eyes at the same time. Fox took the opportunity to attack her in her unguarded state, unleashing an array of slashes and hits. But despite the amount of damage he inflicted, she just wouldn't go down.

I tried firing at Bran a couple more times; but each time, his teammates rearranged their positions to block the damage, or distracted me with an attack. Bran himself kept moving on his roller blades, making things harder. My teammates would counterattack the rest of CBLT, but it didn't seem to do any lasting damage. It felt like they had infinite aura.

"Velvet!" I sent. "Break through the rest of CBLT and take down Bran. He has to be some sort of healer: if we take him out, we can then fight the others on an equal footing. Use your semblance to switch between fighting styles and disorient them."

"On it", she sent back.

She tried, again and again. It was no good. Every time, Bran's teammates would stop her in some way. She'd evade Lydia's sword but get blocked by Ty's staff, or one of his dust-powered attacks. She'd get around Tybald but get knocked over by Casey's projectiles. They'd obviously trained a lot with a focus on protecting their teammate, and their synergy – I begrudgingly admitted – was good.

Besides, Velvet was not at her best. Her issues with using her semblance were on display again. Each move was individually perfect, but their combination was lacking: she was hesitating at critical moments and not adapting fast enough to her opponents' counterattacks.

The only good thing that had come out of this plan was that Tybald - between fighting me and keeping Velvet off his teammate – had ran out of dust. That made my life slightly easier, but didn't solve our long-term problems.

"Change of plans", I sent. "Velvet, go back to helping Yatsu. Fox?"

"Still present."

"Try to get Casey out of the arena. Throw her, kick her, I don't care. If we can't deplete their auras there's still elimination by ring out. You think you can do it?"

"Madam, you insult me."

He changed tactics, trying to corner Casey to the side: using his body as a wall, and shifting his position to restrict the area she could move in, constantly pushing her to the direction he wanted. I hesitated. Maybe I should have Velvet help him? But Lydia, from what I'd seen, was CBLT's best individual fighter: she'd been holding her own against the combined forces of Velvet and Yatsu, and, of all of them, she'd been the most frequently showcased in initiation clips. I knew, from the clips, that her sword had a shooting component (and it was always safe to assume that every weapon could function as a gun); but she had not even needed to use it in our match so far. Besides, Velvet and Fox were not partners. They had not trained extensively together yet. She was as likely to get in the way as help.

A whooshing sound took me out of my thoughts. A whip, shot out of Tybald's staff, swished over my head. I planted my feet and raised up my hand, letting the end of the whip wrap itself around my forearm; then, with a blunt motion, I brought my arm down, slamming Tybald to the ground. The whip chafed against my skin, but I ignored the pain. I was hoping he'd let go of the staff, allowing me to disarm him. Instead, he withdrew the whip. The end was still wrapped around my arm, so the motion brought us in close quarters, me falling to the ground next to him. In the scuffle that followed, I managed to release my arm and he got to hold on to his weapon. We both jumped back to our feet, and he retreated a few steps and pointed his staff at me, defensively.

There was a crack followed by a thump. Fox had evaded another one of Casey's dust bombs and was now swiftly working his way around her spear and into her guard. A sweeping kick to the ankles threw her off balance, and he pounced. Next thing I knew, Casey was flying over the side of the arena and into the crowd of spectators. At almost the same second, Bran's axe came flying in, hitting Fox on the head and knocking him over.

He bounced back up before I could get worried, rubbing the back of his head.

"Ow", he sent.

I winced. "You OK?"

"I'll live."

I took a glance at my scroll. Even though the hit had looked painful, and his fight with Casey had taken its toll on him, Fox still had a decent amount of aura.

"Just tell me something", he continued.

"What?"

"Is he smirking?"

"What?"

"Bran. Is he smirking?"

I looked over. "Yup. He sure is."

"Okay." He cracked his knuckles. "I'm sick of this guy. How do we take him down?"

I considered him. "I have an idea, but you might not like it."

"If it involves getting rid of him, I am the personification of open-mindedness."

"It involves Yatsu catapulting you over CBLT'S heads and towards Bran."

"Why am I doing the catapulting?", Yatsu sent.

"You have big hands."

"Is this my reward for eliminating Casey?" Fox wondered.

"Yes", I replied. "The reward for good work is getting assigned more work."

"Oh, fine then."

I was so good at providing reasonable explanations.

"Encircle them", I sent. "Keep them moving backwards towards Bran - we want to restrict the area where he can move around with his roller blades. And…" I thought for a bit. "Velvet", I called. "Switch with me, take on Tybald. I'll keep Lydia off Yatsu." It wasn't that I didn't have faith in Velvet's abilities, but she'd shown she would need some extra help to utilize them to their full potential. At that moment, it made sense that I took on the stronger fighter. Besides, it was only for a short while.

Lydia smiled at me. She didn't seem all too bothered by her change in opponents. "Oh, you want to pair up with me instead? That's a shame, I was having so much fun with the big guy. He's not a bad swordsman at all. But maybe you'll provide a challenge as well."

She was overdoing it a bit with the bantering, I thought. I understood the urge, but you don't want to let yourself get too distracted. But Lydia was not distracted at all. She backed up her monologuing with actual skill, her sword slashing its way through my hits. I now understood what Yatsu was talking about: my blows were often missing their mark by a bit, and her own strikes came from a point slightly far off where she'd seemed to be. I considered using Gianduja as a minigun to cover a wider range of her possible locations, but she was moving in such a way that there was a big chance of hitting my own teammates.

"Hang on, Fox", I heard Yatsu's voice in my head. "I'm gonna throw you now, OK?"

"But I'm having such a fun time in your arms", Fox protested in a bashful maiden's voice.

I groaned. "For fuck's sake, just toss him."

"Well, that was ruuuu-!"

From the side of my eye, I caught Fox getting catapulted into the air. I heard Casey shouting commands from the stands, urging her teammates to protect Bran. But we were three on two, now that Yatsu was free again. Bran frantically tried to skate away, but there was nowhere to go. He managed to avoid colliding with any of his teammates, but then he had to turn back around – towards Fox. And Fox didn't need a lot of time. One short-lived, decidedly uneven altercation later, Bran was declared unfit to fight.

Two down. And more importantly, whatever Bran was doing to his teammates' aura was now out of the equation. Things were finally looking up, I thought.

Then I saw stars as Tybald's staff collided with my chest. I felt myself get knocked back, unceremoniously landing on my ass. When I sat up, still a bit dazed, I saw Tybald running towards Fox. The whip was shot again, wrapping itself around Fox's ankle. The next moment, Lydia and Tybald were on him like wolves on prey. I heard the clang of metal on metal, and the sickening sound of wood slamming on bones. Yatsu and Velvet rushed in to help. But Yatsu was too slow, and Velvet was slowed down by Lydia's bullets. I sprang up and ran towards Fox, but I was much too late. His aura had fallen below ten percent, and Glynda pronounced him unfit to fight.

"I am not having a good time", his grumpy voice echoed in my head as he exited the ring.

"Yeah… sorry about that." I meant it, too. I should have been better prepared for the possibility that CBLT would gang up on him after he took out Bran. This was all friendly sparring, of course; no one was going to really get hurt. But still.

"Eh, don't worry about it. It's combat, there's always a chance of these things happening." He smirked a little. "But you're taking me out for pizza this weekend."

"Deal. Think you can you keep the channel up?"

"Yeah, no problem. I've got some aura left, and it recovers at about the same pace this channel burns it. I'll just take a real rest afterwards."

"Isn't that cheating, though?" Yatsu wondered. "Fox is no longer a combatant, but we are using his semblance to gain a tactical advantage."

"I don't think so. Fox is not personally fighting. And Casey is still directing her teammates even though she's been eliminated. This is similar."

"But he's using his semblance", Yatsu repeated. "I'm not sure about this."

"Is it explicitly forbidden?" Fox asked. It was very obviously a rhetorical question. Yatsu answered him seriously regardless.

"Well… no, not as far as I know."

"Then it's fair game."

I considered the field. The remaining members of CBLT were taking up positions, preparing to attack. We really didn't have time to ponder the ethical ramifications of unusual semblances.

I raised Gianduja again. They rushed through the spray of bullets, towards us - towards me. Yatsu and Velvet came to my aid, forcing Lydia to engage them. I sent them a silent command, and they formed a wall between me and Lydia: driving her far from me, giving me space to operate, like we'd practiced in our sparring sessions. Once they were far enough, I pointed Gianduja to Tybald's chest and fired.

Nothing came out.

Great.

"You're out of ammo", he observed, his voice friendly.

Why do people feel the need to point out obvious things? "Your friend is about to be out of teammates", I retorted, blocking the staff with the minigun's barrel and then slamming the weapon against his chest. At least now his aura seemed to be depleted at a normal pace.

Then an idea occurred to me. Team-speak was nice, but perhaps we hadn't been using it to its full potential. Admittedly, we shouldn't need to, as we already had a slight advantage of numbers. Still, if you can make things easier for yourself…

"Good job, guys", I said loudly to Velvet and Yatsu. "Keep doing what you're doing."

Then I spoke to them telepathically. "Yatsu, pretend like you accidentally hit Velvet – make one of those wide sweeping motions with your sword or something. Velvet, fall on the ground and act like you were really hurt. Then, when they stop paying attention to you, sneak up behind Tybald and set him off balance."

Velvet took a moment to respond. When she did, her tone was one I'd never heard from her before. She was usually timid and anxious, or overly civil, as if anticipating mistreatment at every turn and trying to protect herself with extreme politeness. But this time, her voice was ripe with quiet amusement. "I think I like that idea."

I smiled. "Get to it, then."

Next moment, Velvet was flying towards me with a theatric "aaah!" I wasn't sure how exactly how they'd done it, but it had worked. She crashed on the ground and remained there, as if too dazed to move. I stayed alert to the possibility that they'd try to go after her, but, as I had expected, they didn't. They simply didn't see her as a real threat, and they were too preoccupied with Yatsu and me.

"Your teammates don't have the best coordination", Tybald said.

Then Velvet's staff hit him in the head from behind. He staggered back; a second hit to his ankles send him crashing head first at my feet. Velvet and I jumped on him. It was over for him, I thought. But at the very last moment, his rope dart shot out of his staff, and wrapped itself around Velvet's waist. It extended immediately afterwards, releasing her; and she was thrown out of the ring just as Tybald collapsed to his knees, his aura critically low.

Three down.

"You OK, Velvet?" Yatsu sent.

"Yes, I'm not hurt. Don't worry. I'm sorry for letting-"

"Nope", I interrupted, firmly. "You did well. You got the job done."

Lydia closed in on us. The fall of her teammates had shaken, but not broken her. She was smiling at us as she took us on. It was either a really good façade of bravado, or an impressive amount of confidence in her own skill.

In fairness, the latter would have been entirely justified. She danced around us expertly, evading our strikes and dishing out her own, seemingly out of nowhere. I was becoming increasingly sure she was using a semblance: this couldn't be simple skill.

I gave Yatsu a silent command. He smiled, almost imperceptibly. He stooped slightly, and I jumped on his back. Then he stood up to his full height, raising his sword and bringing it down again with colossal force. I held on to him as the earth around us shattered. The seismic wave caused Lydia to stumble, and Yatsu took the change to bring his sword to her legs. This time, the hit landed. As she struggled to keep her balance, I jumped at her – Yatsu giving me a boost – and grappled her to the ground, where I put her in a headlock. As Yatsu was coming to my aid, Lydia tapped the ground with her palm.

I released my hold on her and offered her a hand up.

"Match to… team CFVY", Glynda announced. We gathered around her and she made a few comments on the match: pointing out a few things we had done well, and many more we could improve on. The main one - for both teams, but CFVY especially- was working more on coordinated attacks, rather than restricting ourselves to one-on-one matchups. It was a common flaw among first-year teams, and we'd displayed some synergy, so it didn't count much against us.

CBLT approached us after class. "You guys aren't half-bad", Casey remarked in a friendly way. "I thought we had you for the first part of our match."

I'd thought so too, but I wouldn't admit it openly to her. "You had a pretty decent strategy", I said instead. "It took me a while to realize what was going on." I turned to Bran. "Nice healing."

"Thanks!" he said brightly. His team's loss had not affected his spirits at all. "It's my semblance! I can speed up the rate aura regenerates. But only for other people. Casey said it was super useful. She's an awesome leader, all her plans are so cool. She said that we should keep my semblance a secret for as long as possible. I thought that was a genius idea, because then we could have the element of surprise against other teams."

"Thanks, Bran", his leader said dryly.

"You're welcome!" he replied happily. And then: "Oh." He rubbed his neck, a little sheepishly. "Right. Sorry."

"Eh, it's okay. They'd already figured it was something like that."

"That's right", I said. "I also noticed that my movements got slower every time we made eye contact."

Casey smiled at me, the picture of innocence. "Wow. Are you coming on to me? I didn't expect that eye contact with me would affect you so much."

Okay, I hadn't expected her to spill immediately like Bran. It didn't matter anyway: I'd already figured what her semblance did, confirmation would just have been a nice bonus. Some part of my brain took side notice of the fact that she was, in fact, attractive. But I wasn't in the mood at the moment.

"You have some nice moves", I told Lydia.

"Easy there, lady killer" Fox sent. "You don't have to hit them up two at a time."

"I didn't even mean it like - oh, shut up." I did my best to ignore his smirk and spoke to Lydia again. "And you were really hard to hit. Pretty good evasion."

She beamed at me. "Thanks. I've trained hard on it. It's nice to get some appreciation."

Okay, so I wasn't going to get any more information. I hadn't held much hope, anyway. Unknown abilities can be a tactical advantage, one that Casey obviously wanted to keep for as long as possible. I got that.

"You guys have really nice synergy", Tybald said. "I don't think Coco called that many commands. It was like everyone just knew what to do."

"Thanks", I said.

He was exaggerating a little. There was a lot we could do to improve our synergy. I didn't dwell on it too much at that moment, though. I was going to have to do that very soon.

XXX

Glynda's office was the picture of minimalism. No clutter. No distractions. Nothing superfluous, nothing unnecessary. Yet it was not unwelcoming: sunlight from a large window fell amply on the white walls, the desk made of soft beige wood, the large library behind the desk, the large plant next to it.

The woman herself sat behind the desk. Green eyes, behind glasses, were fixed on me. Their expression, as usual, was neutral. Calculating. It was the experienced look of a person who could coolly assess your character and abilities, but was waiting for you to demonstrate them to her. A person who commanded respect and used it wisely; who had high standards and expected professional behavior and your best effort, without being devoid of empathy.

She was everything I wanted to become.

Team leaders were expected to have regular meetings with professors for the first few weeks. We had to report how things were going, if the team was bonding, if any problems had come up. Other students had the option to seek such meetings as well, talk about any concerns they might have. But for team leaders, they were compulsory. And as luck would have it, this week's meeting was with Glynda, and had been scheduled in the time slot after our match with CBLT.

"Your team did well today", she said after a few short pleasantries.

I smiled. "Thank you." Glynda's praise was carefully thought out, given in small doses and in a measured manner. I always valued it when I managed to get it. Although it was usually followed with some qualifier, to ensure it wouldn't get to my head.

"Of course, there is always room for improvement." Yep, there it was. "Miss Adel, you may rightly feel proud in your team's victory. However, it is important to be critical of ourselves even in success. I've already given you and your team a few points to think about for how to improve. Would you like to tell me what you, specifically, as a leader, could have done better in your match?"

That was an easy question. There were plenty of things I could have done better in the match.

"Well, let's see. To start from the beginning, I shouldn't have dismissed Bran as a threat. His teammates were guarding him and he wasn't taking a very active part in the fight. That should have aroused my suspicions immediately. Then, when Fox took him out, I was poorly prepared for CBLT's response. I should have anticipated it and reacted faster. I need to be more careful with selecting times to use my bullets: running out should never had happened. And I have to work on team placement and coordination tactics that will allow me to use it at the right moment without accidentally hitting my teammates. We've done some work on that, but not nearly enough. Also, I underused Fox's telepathy. We used it to talk to each other throughout the match, but only towards the end did it occur to me to use it for active misdirection. Velvet is still not confident in her abilities: as her leader, I should have tried harder to find ways to support her. I could have focused more on her during training. In fact, there were lots of other ways I could have improved our training sessions, which would have naturally also made us better prepared for the match. For example-"

"Miss Adel", she interrupted. She was smiling a little. "Thank you, that is quite sufficient. I appreciate your willingness to reflect on your own performance. It is a quality that will serve you and your team well. But there needs to be moderation in self-criticism, too."

Was she… telling me to chill out? That couldn't be right.

"How is your team bonding?" she asked. "Are you facing any problems? Is everyone starting to find their role?"

"I think so", I said. "Fox is the best partner I could have asked for. My teammates are all skilled in their own way." I thought for a bit. "We're getting along pretty well. There aren't any major issues. Yatsuhashi is a bit reserved. He hasn't shared his semblance. I get the sense it's something he… fears. Or despises. Velvet was really timid at first. But now she's starting to get more comfortable with the team, I think. She has some issues using her semblance, so she's somewhat inconsistent as a fighter."

"I noticed she didn't use her hard-light camera during your match. She also hasn't volunteered for any solo fights in my class."

"She doesn't want our peers to find out what she can do. I think it has to do with some past bad experiences. I haven't probed much into it."

"I see." Her expression was steadily neutral.

I hesitated. "Professor - in your opinion, can there be any legitimate ethical concerns about certain semblances? I mean inherent in the semblances themselves, not in their use. Velvet seems to believe – at least to some extent – that she's doing something wrong when she uses hers. And Yatsu's could turn out to be something legitimately terrifying."

"Overall, no. Legally, Hunters enjoy extensive protections when it comes to semblances and weapons. We are mankind's best defenders, and that comes with certain privileges. Ethically, we have something of an unofficial code of conduct: it's rather generic, mostly about protecting the defenseless and serving the wider interests of Remnant. From both perspectives – the legal and the moral - the only real limitation on our abilities in terms of combat is a prohibition to cause long-term harm to an opponent without a good reason."

"A good reason?"

"A good reason might be that the other combatant is trying to kill you", Glynda said dryly. "Or that you're on opposite sides of a war – things start to get murky when politics are concerned. To give you some examples, there was this Huntsman whose semblance allowed him to control his opponents' bodily functions to some extent. He used it to temporarily stop their breathing, which, as you may imagine, gave him a substantial advantage in fights. He was still allowed to compete in tournaments, albeit with strict limitations on the extent and duration for which he could use his abilities. As long as he didn't cause permanent damage, the ability itself wasn't disallowed. Then, there was this one Huntress who could block semblances indefinitely. She didn't remove them: they were still there, just blocked, as if the user had never activated them. But the effect was reversible. If she permanently removed semblances, that would have been a problem. But as long as she restored them afterwards, that was also considered a non-issue."

"I see. What about weapons?"

"The rule is still pretty much the same: everything is fair game as long as it doesn't affect the original weapon long-term. There have been several designs that specifically affect opponent's weapons. There was this one really clever design made by a former student of mine: it could scan an opponent's weapon, make a template of it and locate all its weaknesses. Then, it could employ a variety of mechanisms to exploit those weaknesses: a small amount of earth dust to interfere the internal components of a weapon, or fire to make ammunition explode from within at inconvenient moments. It was quite fun to watch. In any case." She adjusted her glasses. "The point is, semblances and weapons can do all sorts of things in, or in preparation for, a fight that you would not be allowed to do in any other context. We Hunters operate with that understanding. Now, I cannot speak to Mr Daichi's semblance, since I am not aware of it. But Miss Scarlatina's abilities pose no issue that I can see. If she was really stealing her opponent's skills and weapons – that is, removed them from the original user – it might have been more of a discussion."

"That's what I'd thought", I said. "Then, do you think I should encourage her to use Anesidora in our public fights? Maybe if we talked about it, I could make her see that her fears are unreasonable."

"I didn't say her fears are unreasonable. If people in the past have reacted badly to her abilities, it should be up to her to decide when it's safe to put them on display again."

"But if I told her to just stop caring about other people's reactions…"

She gave me a penetrating stare. "You mentioned in your entrance form that you are claustrophobic. Would your claustrophobia go away if someone told you 'just don't be afraid of confined spaces'"?

I winced. "Right. Okay. Fair enough."

"Don't get me wrong", she added, more softly. "You should encourage her to develop her skills. Make her feel that it's safe to show them when she's with her team, and that she'll have your support if she decides to start using them more openly. But don't pressure her into it. It can only backfire. Miss Adel, you can guide people into their potential but you cannot force them into it."

I nodded.

Glynda looked thoughtful. "It's also worth considering if she may have additional psychological blocks."

Velvet had mentioned a sort of decision paralysis: every person she'd ever seen fight was permanently in her head, and they'd all react differently in any given situation. But I had a feeling Glynda was thinking of something else.

"Do you have something specific in mind?" I asked.

She hesitated. "Well… it's rather unlikely. It should have been caught in combat school… but then again, you never know." She leaned forward a bit, interlocking her fingers. "Essentially, people who are very non-confrontational sometimes have problems employing offesive, combat-related semblances."

I frowned. "Why?"

"Think about it: your semblance is powered by aura, and aura is the manifestation of your soul. For a person who is very pacifistic, using their semblance offensively pretty much forces their soul to go against its own nature. This can be overcome by training, which basically helps the person mentally reframe the offensive usage of their semblance as something that ultimately promotes peace: a skill necessary for self-protection and protection of others. I'm oversimplifying a bit. But like I said, this sort of thing is usually caught and addressed in combat school."

"I don't think I've heard of this before", I said.

"Yes, well. I don't believe you would need that kind of training", Glynda pointed out with a small smirk.

"Fair enough", I said, reciprocating her smile. "I'll ask Velvet about it. What happens if it turns out she was skipped over, or something? Can she get the necessary training now?"

"I'm afraid it might be difficult. We have no class for it, and the schedules of our instructors are too packed for personal tutelage. However…" She stood up, searching the shelves of the library behind her office. After some rummaging, she selected a book and offered it to me. "This should help. It's a self-instruction guide, pretty comprehensive. Miss Scarlatina may borrow it for as long as she needs it. If she has questions, she can come to me and I will try to help."

XXX

"Thank you", Velvet said quietly, after I'd transferred the relevant parts of my conversation with Glynda to her.

I frowned. "For what?"

"Taking an interest in me. In my problems. Enough to bring them up to a professor, discussing ways to help me. You didn't have to do that."

"Of course I did. You're my teammate. It's my job."

She shrugged. It was painful to see how little she thought of her rights as my teammate, her claims to my attention. It made me angry, and a bit sad.

At least she wasn't flinching anymore everytime I raised a hand in her general vicinity. That had to be progress. Probably.

"So, did you receive that kind of training?" I asked.

She shook her head. "My main combat instructor in Pharos said that I probably didn't need it. She said that faunus tend to be naturally more aggressive than humans. So it would probably do me more harm than good."

My feelings must have been depicted on my face, because Velvet quickly added "It wasn't like that. She was nice about it. She liked me: she helped me a lot with my training and she wrote me a recommendation letter when I prepared my application to Beacon. I think she was just repeating something she'd read, something she genuinely believed to be true. She was trying to help me. And maybe she was even right."

I found my voice again. "Of course she wasn't right. Velvet, that's just a stupid stereotype."

"How can you know that for sure?" she asked quietly.

I wasn't going to convince her with reason. This went deeper than I could touch. I needed a different approach.

"Velvet, do you trust me?"

She nodded. "You are an amazing leader. Strong and kind. You push us, but it's because you want us to be the best we can be. Somehow, you always know the right thing to do." She hugged her knees and looked wisftully in the distance, ears drooping. "I wish I had half your self-assurance, Coco."

She was wrong: I had no idea what to do at that moment. What to say. I extended a hand towards her, hesitantly, then let it drop.

"Then give Glynda's book a chance", I finally told her. She locked eyes with me, her expression doubtful. I smiled, trying to convey the reassurance she thought I could offer, be the leader she thought I was. "I think it's worth a try. Just read it and see if it helps. Will you do that? For me?"

She nodded, picking the book up from my hands.