Big Issues
AN: Got another long one for you all. These 9k chapters will probably be the norm for a while. I hope you enjoy!
Vytal Tournament – Learning from Defeat
The next day came and Weiss was delighted that her sister hadn't left Beacon during the night and had some time that they could use to catch up before she left. Which Weiss was overly excited to ensure that they spent as much time together as possible, and invited the Specialist to her team's dorm first thing in the morning to meet Team RWBY, maybe Team JNPR if they were up when she visited.
Maybe first thing in the morning was a bit too early for some…
"Weiss… "Ruby was too tired to even bother hiding her wide yawn. "Go back to bed." The team leader had been dragged off her bed by the heiress. The rotund girl nearly fell on the bottom heavy one thanks to that but even then, Ruby only wanted to go back to sleep. "If the sun isn't awake, I'm not awake."
A small snort drew Weiss' attention to Yang in her bed, still bundled up in her blankets. Weiss had found that the girl was rather susceptible to the cold when her aura wasn't active, like when sleeping. The insulation she now had naturally and was warm to the touch often, didn't lend much to keeping her warm as she radiated heat better than retaining it. Thus, she enjoyed her bed being closer to the ceiling where the warm air gathered in the room and the warm air vent was near the base of the bed. And the extra fleece blanket she had sent to her from home certainly helped. The blonde's cocoon also made her hard to wake at times, or at least to get her out of her bed until necessity demanded, usually her bladder.
The cat below her wasn't much better once she was comfortable, awake or asleep, she wouldn't move if she didn't think she should. If awake, she would move if she had to get a new book after finishing what she had. Asleep, she'd find a warm spot and stay there. The vent under the bed made her bed warm on the cool days made sure that she wouldn't move, leading to comments from her team about becoming a lazy fat cat. At least she didn't eat in bed or try to sneak snacks into the room.
That thought made the white-haired girl turn back to her original target. Ruby thankfully hadn't climbed back in her bed. Instead, the girl had rolled into Weiss' bed and the heiress had a very good view of the stretched-out roses printed on the white fabric on the girls' backside. It was a mystery to Weiss how the Rose managed to squeeze into the pants night after night, but given that they couldn't cover her properly and they were stretched to being nearly see through… there wasn't much life left for those pants to live.
Weiss made a mental note to get her an updated size, with plenty of elastic in the waistband and a drawstring for when she started to lose weight. Should get her a new top as well while she's at it; Ruby had gotten a larger shirt to sleep in but it was still sleeveless and short enough to expose her midriff. And she had plenty of midriff to show.
Still, Winter was due to arrive soon and her teammates refused to get up. Why would she care if the sun hadn't risen yet? Weiss ran over to the door and peeked into the hallway. The fact that it was deserted shouldn't have been a surprise but it filled the girl with both relief and dread. Relief that she still had time to get her team ready for her sister but dreading that she wouldn't be ready in time.
"Ruby Rose! Get out of bed!" Weiss declares loudly but kept her voice low enough she wouldn't be heard outside.
Ruby's response was to snuggle her face into the pillow and pull the blanket tighter around herself. Weiss may be warm blooded but she had the effect of always being cool to the touch. If Yang radiated all of her heat to leave little on the inside for herself, Weiss kept her warmth inside so tightly she cooled the air around her. Something that even Blake had joked about to balance the team in an odd way, not just because the blonde was several times stronger in raw muscle power than the shorter girl.
Weiss growled and glanced at the other two, they hadn't moved from last time, though Yang was just a lump of blankets with some of her hair poking out. Blake was far more normal but refusing to move from her warm spot. The sole conscious person in the room was still in her own pajamas but growing up in Atlas, especially being in the Schnee Manor, had given her a remarkable resistance to the cold. Enough that the cool room didn't cause her to shiver at all, it merely helped her wake up before she'd get some coffee at breakfast, hopefully with her sister and team together.
Not wanting to delay any further, the heiress grabs the blankets covering Ruby and yanks as hard as she could. Unfortunately, raw strength was far from her style and Ruby had tucked the blanket under herself when she rolled in the bed, leading to only rolling the round girl over to face her. Which prompted Ruby to grab the blanket and roll back over, dragging Weiss with her onto the bed and she landed sprawled across her leader.
Winter walked down the corridors of the Beacon First Year student dorms, easily navigating the buildings thanks to the simple layout and a glance at a map to ensure she had the correct building. She knew that the school constantly shifted buildings of which year was where, the dorm that had the graduating class became the next school years First Year building and with four years in the school's curriculum and four dorm buildings for the Beacon students, it was only a matter of remembering which teams occupied their rooms for the years they were at the school.
She knew Shade simply gave a team the first unoccupied room that was available, Haven always had their students move from one dorm to another every year, and Atlas kept the students separated by year as well, making them move to a new room for a new school year.
Winter glanced at the doors as she walked, taking note of the numbers and of how some teams added some decorations to their doors to distinguish themselves. Apparently, that was tolerated here compared to Atlas where most dorms were nearly identical from one room to the next with only a few personal items from the occupants to set them apart.
She found herself on the correct floor and walked the hall to where Team RWBY's room was waiting for her. However, she noticed that the door was ajar and she could hear the sounds of a struggle going on inside. Given that the city had recently been attacked and knowing from the reports that RWBY had been at the heart of helping to stop the Grimm invasion perpetrated by the White Fang, she had every right to be worried and moved the final obstacle easily to see what exactly was happening.
It was far from what she was expecting and she had to blink a few times to be sure of what she was seeing. There was a bed hanging from the ceiling by ropes and was crooked, she didn't want to think of how it really was suspended over the bed below. On the other side of the room were another pair of beds stacked on top of each other… with a several books separating the two beds on the posts/feet. There were mismatched pictures on the walls, the window curtain had been obviously cut and poorly stitched back together. There were a few clothes on the floor, appearing to be socks, a ribbon, and a scarf of sorts, even a belt. On the bed on top of the books sat a large pile of blankets but given that they moved a little she was sure that one of the girls were inside. Below that bed, a faunus was staring at her in surprise but looked like she had been watching the other side of the room. The hanging bed was unoccupied but looked used by the state of the pillow and blankets hanging over the edge.
But on the bed beneath that, she saw her sister straddling the stomach of her teammate, pinning her arms over her head against the pillow and leaning close to her face. The blankets were in disarray, as though they were recently tossed aside by the struggle. It didn't help that Weiss' nightgown had ridden up and exposing her lacy underwear to the world and the girl under her was wearing ripped pants with roses printed on them.
Both girls stopped their struggles with each other and looked at the newcomer with wide eyes as she looked on with her own eyes open in shock, watching as the pair's faces began to turn red.
"Am I interrupting?" She questions and sees her sister's face flush brighter, with Ruby mimicking her namesake under her. Weiss' right hand snapped out with two fingers extended and a glyph was used to slam the door shut, throwing Winter out in the hall in the process.
Ten minutes later, Winter was relaxing in the student common room where she watched as a Team JNPR walked by, giving her a pleasant greeting as they passed to leave. A minute later, Team RWBY arrived, fully dressed for the day. Weiss was still a bit red in the face, as was Ruby. There was a blonde girl leaning heavily on the faunus who had hidden her ears under a bow, apparently the blonde had yet to truly wake up yet.
"How nice of you to join me, Team RWBY." Winter smiles to the girls. She was off duty so she could relax a bit more than her usual rigidness. She found it amusing to watch her sister and Ruby refuse to meet her eyes, though the dark-haired girl seemed to be judging her with some caution, and the blonde sleepily waved to her as she yawned. Honestly, she couldn't fault the faunus for her caution, her family -father- hadn't been the best to the species as long as she could remember… putting it as nicely as possible. But she had joined the military to separate herself from him, which unfortunately, often didn't treat faunus much better, much like Atlas as a whole.
"I shall accompany you to breakfast so we may get to know each other better in a relaxed environment." The older woman states, though admittedly, it came off as an order.
There were a few looks given to Team RWBY, as nobody expected to see an Atlesian Specialist eating breakfast with them. Fortunately, there were few students who were moving so early. Which left most of the gawking to Team JNPR who were sitting at the table with them, as usual. Ren already had to pull Nora back into her seat twice since they began eating and making small talk.
"Are you sure that your beds are… stable like that?" Winter asks as she ate her bowl of mixed fruit, with a blueberry muffin and milk on the side, a large mug of coffee was more than welcome to assist her in waking up.
"They've held us so far." Yang dismisses her worry as she cut into her waffles topped with fruit and matching syrups. The blonde had a large cup of orange juice and her own mug of coffee along with a chocolate chip muffin in front of her.
Weiss inwardly flinched at how her friend phrased their situation. Her sister raised an eyebrow at the comment as well, but let it go as no one contradicted her. Given that despite their growing bodies straining the integrity of their set up but have yet to fail, Winter was willing to allow luck to take care of things. Especially if they were doing things like what she had walked into.
"Some of those books will need to be rebound though." Blake mutters as she eats her bowl of rice. The fish that she had gotten with it long gone in her belly. She had a small bowl of fruit and a cup of tea that she was slowly enjoying.
"Good thing we don't have to read any of them." Ruby mumbles around a mouth full of strawberries and waffle. The girl certainly had a love for sweets, given her choice of fruit, the strawberry syrup she added to the stack of waffles, the fruit, a chocolate chip muffin like her sister, and a cup of coffee with cream and a LOT of sugar. The cloaked girl received a small glare from the cat and a look of disapproval from Weiss for that.
Winter saw the entire exchange and thought it was a curious dynamic, though Yang wasn't fully awake yet and had yet to be as boisterous as she was told she was. "Have you all been getting along well?" She asks out of curiosity. With a faunus and Schnee together in one room, she wanted to know how things were going. Especially with Blake having donned a bow to leave her room that hid her ears.
"We've… had our differences that have caused some… strains within our team." Weiss admits with a wince at the memories. Her early attacks on Ruby for being chosen as the team leader. The hours long argument about the faunus with Blake that led to the girl running away for the weekend. How Yang had to convince her to give Blake a chance. More than a handful of other petty arguments that should never had gotten to that point…
"It seems that everything has worked out for you all." Winter notes their comradery.
"Mostly." Yang was honest as she bit into her muffin.
The five women ate in silence with Team JNPR sat nearby watching. Though once DAIT arrived things relaxed with Ruby talking to Itazura and Talon with Weiss adding a few things now and then. Anya sat on the end of the table with her sister as a buffer, nothing new there. Yang was finally awake and chatting with Denko. Reactions were… mixed, when Sun and Neptune arrived. While everyone had no problems with the faunus, Blake perking up a bit when he sat next to her with an extra cup of tea, Neptune received an icy glare from Weiss while Yang and Blake gave him slightly irritated looks.
Between the expressions of the three and the cold, calculating gaze of the older woman sitting with them, the blue-haired boy wisely sat at the end with JNPR, keeping Jaune between him and the girls. Winter kept her thoughts to herself for the moment. She saw the interaction clearly and given her sisters reaction, her interest was piqued but she'd wait until they were alone.
The matches in the Amity Colosseum continued as scheduled that day, though Weiss and Winter decided to have a Sisters Day together while they could. Which left Teams RBY, SSSN, JNPR, and DAIT to watch on their own. Most of the morning's fights were entertaining, kind of expected in the third round of the tournament and the weakest teams and fighters eliminated from the running. There had been a few fights done as an expedition rather than for the prize by some of the aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses who had been taken out of the running already. Doing so helped to keep the crowds entertained and gave the fighters a chance to improve their reputations and gain more experience.
But it was the current round that had garnered a lot of attention thanks to the popularity of those fighting.
"Emerald and Mercury of Haven versus Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon!" Port announces proudly. He really was an excellent choice to have behind the microphone. Some of the other teachers could be a bit bland, which was saying something as it was Port's classes that many students struggled to stay awake for as he tended to ramble. Having Oobleck with him created an interesting dynamic with his faster paced speech and lack of boasting.
In the ring, Emerald and Mercury stood ready and waiting while Coco stood next to Yatsuhashi who was sitting down to meditate as they waited for the terrain selection to be made. He was large enough that even with his head bowed he reached the top of his teammate's hips, and Coco was already taller than most women at Beacon without her heels.
"Good luck you two!" Velvet could be heard cheering on her team from nearby with Fox next to her listening as closely to the upcoming fight as best he could. Once the match began, he would be using his Telepathy semblance to get some of the play-by-play commentary from Velvet as his ADA wouldn't help him at this range.
The terrain was selected and the platforms rose into position. Savanna, forest, geyser field, and urban ruins now surrounded the four fighters.
"Hey! Love the outfit, kid." Coco comments to the smaller girl, even lowering her shades a bit for an unfiltered view. She liked that Emerald had the confidence to wear such a revealing top in spite of the weight she had gained and the thick hips the caramel skinned girl bore with her tight pants and chaps.
Coco was could hardly be called small herself, and only when standing next to her much taller teammate. She may have grown a split in her belly so that she kept the lower roll tucked in her upgraded pants while her sweater covered the top half. Her waist cincher assisted in keeping her middle from jiggling too much as well as doing its normal job of making her waist look thinner. But it did little to stop her shirt from riding up to expose her navel and the soft pale skin around it. Her pants were tight enough to ensure her rear was perky and round and accented her long and strong legs. She was still able to make Emerald look small since she was larger in every direction and made it look good while doing so.
"Thanks, I'll try not to get blood on it." The green haired girl grins back.
Next to Coco, Yatsuhashi stood up, standing head and shoulders above her and he drew his equally massive blade from his back. The tall swordsman was already massive before the Issue began, though that was due to his height and large muscles. Now, he was even bulkier than before, though he was merely stockier with the muscles people could see having lost their clear-cut looks but little else. He still outweighed his teammate even with her doubling in size.
"I can't promise that you'll leave without a scratch." The big man says. There wasn't any arrogance in his tone but more of a calm confidence in his strength and abilities along with those of Coco's, born from experience and field trials.
"Oh, I won't be the one bleeding." Emerald fires back with plenty of confidence as she stretches her shoulders a little as a final warm up.
"I like her." Coco points at the smaller girl with a smile, looking up to her teammate to gauge his reaction, though he was busy measuring up the only one who hadn't spoken yet, Mercury.
The boy clad in black and grey simply stood with his arms crossed and a cocky smirk on his face next to his partner. He was easily the lightest in the ring while still having bulked up a bit thanks to the Issue, the small but noticeable gut he sported under his jacket showing his gains.
"THREE! TWO! ONE! BEGIN!" Port cuts off the fighters' commentary.
At first, the stare down between the four continued for a few seconds before Emerald and Mercury slowly walked backwards into the tall savanna grass, soon disappearing within the foliage.
Yet, the members of Team CFVY weren't worried, instead, they smiled at the tactic. With a small shake of her wrist, Coco deployed Gianduja and soon sent dozens of rounds into the grass with wide sweeps at waist height before adding a little Amp to her bullets as she slowly turned with her rotary cannon roaring. The grass was cut down as the empowered bullets penetrated the grass and trees with ease, clear cutting everything so nothing stood higher than three feet.
Yet neither combatant from Haven could be found among the destruction, just the splintered remains of the two trees the biome had originally. Coco and Yatsuhashi shared a look of confusion as neither saw either of the pair escape the grass into the more open urban ruins or the forest on either side.
"Look out!" Blake yells from the stands, her friends too occupied to call out.
Mercury came down from what should have been an impossibly high jump, explaining how he managed to avoid Coco's gunfire. Yatsu pushed the girl out of the way, knowing that she was a bit slower to move thanks to her current weight and having her bulky weapon out as it was. The swordsman raised his blade and braced it with his free hand as Mercury impacted the sharp edge with his boots, the boys' strong legs absorbing much of the impact from hitting the immovable human mountain. Yatsu pushed back after tanking the blow, easily throwing Mercury away a fair distance where he landed on his feet and his metallic boots raised a few sparks as they slid along the stone.
Gianduja immediately sprayed bullets at Mercury, who managed to outrun her turning arc as he closed in on the pair, just barely avoiding the rounds while his aura handled the shrapnel easily.
"He's good!" Sun comments, as probably one of the few who may be able to keep up with Mercury's acrobatics that were displayed so far. Nearby, Denko watched him closely to glean any combat tricks as he remembered the quick spar against Anya.
"Yeah, but where's the girl?" Scarlet asks, prompting some of the friends to scan the battlefield for Emerald. But the cameras weren't helping them find the girl as they were focused on the fight going on. Plus, it could be considered cheating if they displayed the locations of any fighter trying to lay an ambush to everyone, including the opposing teams.
Back on the stage, Mercury had closed the distance enough that Coco's gun was useless and the kickboxer swept his way in between the teammates and gave a jumping kick to the minigun, pushing the girl back as she fought to bring her large weapon back under control, all the while the jump allowed him to dodge the horizontal slice from Yatsuhashi. As soon as Mercury landed, he spun with his momentum and launched a reverse roundhouse kick that struck the taller man in the face, though he shrugged it off with ease and readied his sword for another attack… just in time for his attacker to hit him with a back flipping kick to the face. The combined headshots made the tall man stumble back a few steps.
By that time, Coco had trained her rotary cannon on Mercury and already had the barrels spinning by the time he looked back at her. Rounds were fired but missed as her target backflipped at her to land on her barrels, kicking her in the face as he did so and jumping off her gun in time to avoid the slash from Yatsuhashi.
Mercury jumped again, ready to attack or run as needed, only for Yatsuhashi to use his long reach to backhand the smaller man in the chest that sent him flying with ease. Unfortunately, Mercury grabbed onto Coco's shoulder as he flew over her to bring himself back around so he could kick the back of Gianduja into Yatsu's gut to halt his charge as he had been moving to pursue the boy. The big man stopped immediately, knowing that he could be in a world of hurt if her fingers twitched the wrong way. Meanwhile, Mercury smirked as he was now riding piggyback on the girl, being held up by his grip on her shoulder and sitting on the shelf created by her rear.
Coco glared from behind her shades at the man on her back, not only annoyed by him dodging nearly every attack made against him while hitting them at will, but also from the unwanted contact and embrace. A flick of a switch and her gun collapsed back into a handbag that she swung at the grey-haired boy even before it finished the transformation, which he dodged by pushing himself off of her, just barely in time to avoid a very heavy blow to the head or chest.
Mercury acrobatically flipped away from the pair to create some distance, finally stopping on his hands and shoulders to fire a pair of Dust rounds from Talaria at the teammates. Coco casually smacking one away with her bag while Yatsuhashi cut the other out of the air. The deflected one exploded with surprising force in the geyser field, apparently the round had a blend of Wind and Explosive Dust that worked to devastating effect.
But the distraction had been worth it as it bought Mercury enough time to perform a series of breakdance-like moves that had him kicking into the air while firing off more rounds from his boots, causing easily a few dozen to circle him like a tornado. The display ended once he fired another round that exploded at the pairs feet and drew the other shots to bombard the duo. While few if any made direct contact, the shockwaves and shrapnel from the floor did make their auras drop a little while the explosions and the misty smoke they left behind disoriented and blinded them.
While the mists cleared, Coco and Yatsuhashi shook their heads to clear them from the ringing. Meanwhile, Mercury took advantage of his color scheme to get behind them. Practically appearing out of nowhere, he reached out and grabbed their wrists by crossing his arms and pulling them past each other to set them off balance before adding to that with a kick to Coco's shin that transitioned into a rear kick to Yatsu's hip before returning to Coco's padded ribs and back to the swordman's face, the pair reeling freely from the pain now that he released their arms.
He kept hold of Coco to deliver another blow to her gut before a shot to her forehead snapped her head back, only for her head to be bashed forward as the leg came back. Mercury only released his hold on her wrist once his other leg snapped up in a jumping roundhouse that put his weight behind the attack to her head, the force and his hold causing the girl to flip onto her back limply and too stunned to move from the repeated blows to the head.
Coco spent a few seconds on the floor to get her head back in the game while Yatsuhashi came back and kept their attacker busy with a few quick swings of his massive sword. But between the size of the sword paired with its wielders size, it was a fairly easy job to read how the attacks would come and dodge, especially for a nimble and calculating fighter like the assassin disguised as a student participating in the tournament.
The heavy girl rolled to her feet, reset her grip on her weapon, and charged back into the fray. Her target that she wanted to bash his head in looked back at her with a smile. Coco reared her arm back, ready to take his head off if that was needed to wipe off that cocky smirk, when a thin chain came out of nowhere to wrap around her middle and pull tight just as she started to swing. Her attack missed as she was stopped in her tracks by the metal links. Then they squeezed her tighter as she was pulled off into the forest. The last thing she saw was Yatsuhashi reaching out to her and yelling her name.
Mercury took advantage of the larger man's distraction by delivering a jumping and spinning roundhouse to his face. The attack merely made Yatsu roll with the blow before rising to strike back, faking an attack with his sword to grab his tormentor by the collar when he moved in close to make the sword useless. With a quick twist at the hips and a yell, Yatsuhashi threw Mercury halfway across the arena into the geyser fields where he landed hard on his back, sliding to a stop on the rough ground.
The kickboxer barely got his wits about him in time to see his opponent use his impressive strength to jump high in the air to cover the distance he was thrown with ease to add more power with his substantial weight and raw power behind his blade as he brought it down on the prone boy. Mercury raised his legs in time to catch the edge of the blade on his armored boots and his aura dropped to match his attackers as it had to absorb the force of a small meteor. The shockwave from the attack rippled through the biome visibly and shifting many of the rocks as the platform that held the terrain buckled under the boys and all of the geysers were forced to erupt at once from the pressure and some of the already loose rocks were thrown into the air.
Mercury fired a shot into the blade to loosen the pressure of Yatsu pressing down on it and kicked it with his other foot, the unexpected moves pushed the swordsman back. He still had the mind to jump when Mercury tried to sweep his legs out from under him with one of his own, flipping over the smaller man and swing his blade at him quickly as he landed. Mercury flowed out of the way of the steel as he moved to get inside the large man's guard, even having to kick back the sword at one point as it came from below thanks to a reverse grip.
Mercury had to tank another attack when Yatsuhashi spun around with his blade held tight to himself, the assassin spared only by his raised boot taking the edge and pushing it back. Yatsuhashi was constantly being pushed back, trying to keep Mercury from getting too close for his sword to be useful and out of range of those powerful legs.
The green-clad man hopped back to avoid an axe kick that had the byproduct of launching a few larger stones into the air, one of which was kicked into Yatsu's unarmored chest. The man barely flinched as the rock shattered against him, instead retaliating immediately with a horizontal swing that was ducked under. Yet Mercury never wasted a movement, transitioning the dodge into an attack that knocked the blade out of its normal path and forcing its wielder to correct it before using the blade again.
Mercury spun on the ground, firing a pair of rounds at the larger man, one missing while the other was squarely blocked by the broad blade, the explosion pushing Yatsu back a step before he moved back in to engage again. Mercury jumped to meet him halfway, his feet being faster than the sword and making contact with the Mistral native's face enough to knock him onto his back, though not without taking a backhand to the gut that launched him back to near the edge of the geyser field.
Unfortunately for Yatsuhashi, he landed on one of the geysers just before it erupted. It was a credit to his durability that he was still able to fight without disqualification yet with how many hits he'd taken and now being blasted with high pressure hot water at point-blank range. He rose to his feet, soaked in hot water, trying to look through the steam that rose from him and the spay that rained down. He'd managed to keep hold of Fulcrum but that meant little as by the time he could see clearly, Mercury was back in his face, or more accurately, his boot was about to make contact with his face.
It only took a few more kicks to take down the giant teen that pushed him into the central arena, the few counters that he mustered doing nothing but drawing out his defeat a few seconds more.
Back in the forest, Coco found herself dragged through a few bushes and smaller trees before catching a larger growth enough to stop her momentum. She dropped to her knees and unwrapped the chain that was squeezing her far too tightly, throwing it to the side in frustration. She shook her head to clear it of the thoughts, hating that things were going so badly that she was being made to look like an amateur. Her beret was still held onto her hair by the pins… somehow, but her shades were on the ground nearby and broken.
She stood back up now that she caught her breath and refocused on the task at hand. She had a chunky sneak to smack around before doing the same to her partner, if she didn't fill him with holes first. "I take it back; I don't like her." At least Coco's snark hadn't been beaten out of her. She looked around the forest she was in and finding it difficult to try to find a girl who blended in to the surroundings well with her brown skin and green hair.
Instincts screamed at her and she turned and bent backwards in time to watch as a bullet passed by her face. More rounds followed the first, forcing Coco to throw her soft body into a number of handsprings to avoid being shot. A small break in the gunfire from Emerald gave Coco the time she needed to land while bringing out Gianduja and opening fire. The spray of bullets reduced the branch the sneak was on to splinters, tore into the trunk and ripped away at the next branch that Emerald jumped off of while it was still intact. The girl returned a few rounds as she flipped through the air before deploying the sickle blades on her pistols to catch and swing under a branch. She repeated the stunt across the gaps between trees a few more times, just barely staying ahead of the bullets that decimated the trees behind her.
Then Emerald disappeared.
Coco scanned the trees, trying to find where the girl had gone and she wasn't going to waste more bullets or time playing lumberjack
"Coco!" Yatsuhashi calls out to her from behind, walking towards her with calm confidence with his hand reaching up to the hilt of his sword that was on his back.
"Watch out. She's in the trees." She warns him, barely glancing back to her teammate before returning her search for the gunslinger.
A buzzer rang out from the speakers and Coco looked up through the remains of the trees she had destroyed. "With that final blow, Yatsuhashi has been eliminated!" Port declares as the projected screen plays the last few hits that her teammate took at the feet of Mercury.
"What?!" She shouts to herself as things didn't make sense. She twisted around to where she had last seen Yatsuhashi but there was no trace that he was even there in the first place. It made her question so many things about the fight and how things had gone so far, rattling her enough to make her hands shake as they held her gun. She began to slowly back away through the trees, sweeping her aim and eyes carefully around.
The occasional blurs of motion in the shadows made her even jumpier but she wasn't about to open fire until she had confirmation of her target, whether that was Emerald or Mercury. Honestly, both were on her shit list now and she had her Amp ready to take them out as fast as possible. She just needed a clear shot…
Behind her, Emerald stepped out from behind a tree, slowly raising her sickle. The crack of a small twig was all the warning Coco had when she was slashed at. Gianduja was too large and cumbersome at such close range and she collapsed the weapon to try to deal with the twin blades cutting into her aura. She managed to block a few strikes and catch Emerald's shoulder with a swing that spun her around but the girl used that spin to shoot the chain again to catch her wrist and pulled to slam the larger woman into a tree. Now that Coco was stunned from the hit, Emerald ran through the trees, dragging her hostage and forcing her into more trees and doubling back to kick her before running again.
Coco's wrist was suddenly released when they neared the central arena and she was barely above disqualifying levels of aura. She tried to catch her breath now that she was free and Emerald seemed to have disappeared once more. Her breath hitched when she saw Yatsuhashi laying on the stone and flat on his back, Mercury wasn't too far away and watching for her or his partner to emerge from the foliage.
Then her wrists were grabbed again as Emerald appeared out of thin air and spun her into the nearest tree back first before pulling her away and spinning her around a few times, gathering enough momentum for the heavier girls' feet to leave the ground before she was released to fly through the sunlight onto the cold stones where she rolled to a stop, beaten, battered, and bruised in body, mind, and pride, barely hearing the ringing of the buzzer marking her elimination.
Emerald came strolling out of the trees, casually twirling her pistols in her hands to stand beside Mercury.
"And with that devastating upset, Emerald and Mercury are victorious!" Oobleck declares them the winners.
In the stands, Velvet and Fox weren't far from where Ruby sat, just across an aisle. The blind boy had his elbows on his knees as he hung his head while the rabbit faunus stared at her teammates laying still in the arena. "Coco?" She mutters from behind her hand, scared that her friend was seriously hurt. Fox silently sits up and lays a comforting hand on her shoulder before they left to meet their teammates who were now being attended to by the tournament medics.
The rest of the teams weren't cheering with the crowd, those were their friends that had been beaten, almost embarrassingly so. But they all learned to not take the two Haven students lightly if a pair of the best-known fighters from Beacon were handled so easily.
"Um… do they look like anyone we know from school?" Sun asks his team, loud enough to be heard over the crowd that was still cheering, only to receive a series of negatives. Seeing as Neptune didn't even know the girls of the team and his 'habits', there was little doubt that they were strangers. There was the possibility that they hadn't met them out of sheer chance but even the team's name and their skills would have been known to the school. It was simply odd that they were unknown until the tournament. This didn't go unnoticed by a set of prosthetic ears.
But at the moment, Pyrrha and Nora left for the locker rooms as they had been chosen to represent JNPR in the doubles round. When they emerged in the arena, they received more than their fair share of cheers; Pyrrha was rather well-known as the four-time champion of tournaments in Mistral. Nora was simply favored for her raw strength and energy, leading to a small fan club in the stands. Their opponents from Atlas were mostly unknowns beyond that they had advanced to the current round.
The biomes were chosen- desert, lava, ocean, and ice- marking a sharp contrast from one to the next. But as soon as Oobleck declared the match to begin, Nora fired a grenade at the feet of her opponents, stunning and scattering the pair. From there, Pyrrha took on the boy with twin chain swords. The hefty Spartan took her time to study his attack patterns while blocking the strikes. Eventually, she got Milo wrapped up in his sword and stabbed it into the ice to keep the weapon locked down. She followed that up by throwing Akouo into his shoulder to prevent him from attacking while she lacked her weapons as she charged in.
Nora took on the other boy with a massive claymore and the two heavy weapons clashed. While the boy could use Gravity Dust within his already heavy blade to increase the power of his strikes, Nora was still capable of using her grenades in hammer form. That led to a clash that met in the middle, their weapons tricks creating an explosion that threw them from the central arena and into separate biomes. Nora landed in the water of the ocean while her opponent landed in the lava fields.
Pyrrha closed in quickly and delivered a knee to his stomach that sent the boy reeling as the air was driven from his lungs just before a punch to the chest ensured that he was short of breath. From there, Pyrrha took hold of his unoccupied arm and threw him over her shoulder onto the ice before rolling him onto his stomach. She pinned one hand under her armored knee against the small of his back, keeping her full weight on the spot while pulling his shoulders back in a rather painful hold that kept him from being able to do anything but tap out, the tournament officials disqualifying him when her did so.
Nora, the faster of the two fighters while easily being the heavier one, sprinted across the central arena into the lava fields, the water soaking her clothes wafting behind her as steam thanks to the heat. The swordsman was content to wait for her to come close before smashing the ground with his gravity blade, creating a fissure that erupted flames and other hot gasses and rocky debris. Nora was undeterred as she charged, slamming Magnhild into the ground and firing off a grenade that sent her flying over most of the eruption. The man wasn't expecting her to come from above as he was watching either side carefully, and took the hammer squarely to the head, knocking him out cold.
"And there we have it! Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos of Team JNPR are advancing to the singles competition!" Oobleck declares the girls the winners. The crowds were stunned at how fast the girls were able to defeat their opponents, making it one of the fastest matches for the entire tournament. Nora celebrated by bouncing around and waving to the stands, thanking them for their support. Though her fanbase may have grown thanks to her soaked white shirt clinging to her curves. Something she noticed a bit late and rushed back into the locker room with a bright red blush while covering her chest. Pyrrha was quick to follow her friend and assist her in drying off.
Back with their friends in the stands, Jaune looked next to him at Ren, who looked as calm as ever to those who didn't know the quiet young man. He sat there with his eyes closed and some color on his cheeks. 'Are they sure they are not together?' The blonde thinks to himself.
Off in a very quiet corner of the Beacon school grounds, where few people came and only then to have some privacy, there stood an old structure made of white stone. Pillars held up the heavy roof and ceiling with small arches between them, short walls and fountains along the walls and in the center, ivy overgrew many of the pillars to show the age of the place. Short pillars with large bowls serving as flowerpots added some color to the inside of the building as did some of the plants that grew along the ceiling from the roof. Along the inside of the walls, small tables with chairs were scattered about the mostly clean floor, indicating that it was occupied enough to be regularly cleaned and maintained.
It was at one of the tables, sitting in the sunlight to ward off the chill of the fall day, sat the Schnee sisters. On the table sat a pot of coffee and the cups they drank from, along with a plate of varied fruits and pastries to keep any hunger at bay as they spent their limited time together.
"And he flirted with them! Right in front of everyone!" Weiss was venting her frustrations to Winter, who lifted her cup to hide her smile as her sister talked about her 'love life'.
Winter loved her sister and understood her emotions. After a lifetime of dealing with the elites of Atlas and even the occasional child of a rich business owner from Vale and Mistral, trying to set up arranged marriages or gaining favor with presents and play dates when they were younger… it was nice to see that Weiss was doing things on her own. Forging her own path. It was interesting to hear that it was her sister to make the first move, asking Vasilias to the dance, only to be turned down. The talk they had at the dance itself where he apologized and they spent the night talking, even Weiss doing her best to give him a crash course in dancing.
Their friendship was looking up, until Team SSSN took the stage in the tournament and the boy began making moves on their female opponents. From there, Weiss was supporting for Neptune to get a few lumps. Afterword, he was given the cold shoulder, and Winter was almost willing to bet that given one wrong word from the boy, a cold shoulder might be the last of his worries from her. In fact, she would be willing to pay for the video if it would ever happen as she imagined.
"And my card was denied when I wanted to pay for lunch after we won our fight against Team ABRN." Weiss finished her small rant of things going wrong for her.
"Sounds like your life has been rather eventful since you've come here." Winter acknowledges with a soft smile. She was sure that there was plenty being left out but that could come later when her sister was calmer and she had time to tease it out of her only sister. "But I know from first hand experience of not having access to our families' money."
Weiss looked away. "I remember how angry he was when you joined the military." She considered herself lucky that Klein ensured that she didn't cross the mans' path for a week unless absolutely needed to allow him to calm down. Mother had celebrated the freedom of her eldest from his control with a glass from her absolute favorite alcoholic drink and cake and she sang a slurred song. It was… entertaining to see her mother looking so happy and sharing a dessert with her, even if she kept her habit of getting drunk for it. It was simply sad that it was among the best memories she had of the woman in recent years.
"But what are you going to do about your finances?" Winter smirks. She was finding it fun to tease her sister a little to boost that competitive drive that she has along with stoking the defiance of their father. "The Dust you use for Myrtenaster isn't cheap and it would be rare to find such high quality and refinement here in Vale, even since the Dust thefts stopped a few months ago."
"I- I'll figure out something. I have enough to finish the semester, even with the tournament."
"I'm sure you will." The elder sibling had confidence in her sister to achieve that sort of independence from their family. She was the one with a good business sense, better than herself to be sure.
Silence reined for a few moments, enough time for them to drink and eat a few bites. "Do you really have to go?" Weiss asks quietly.
The elder sibling sighs with regret. "I was only tasked with bringing more units to Beacon. The previous shipment was lost to an ambush. I believe you had a run in with some of its cargo some time ago. It's fortunate that those Paladins were still prototypes with defending Vale as a field test. Otherwise, your team may not have fared so well."
Weiss looked down at the table, not liking that her favorite family member by far would be leaving her again so soon, combined with the news that her team was simply lucky in their toughest fights. It was enough that Winter reached across the table to take her hand.
"Weiss, you've done… well out here at Beacon on your own. You should be proud." Her words brought a genuine smile to her siblings' face, doing so brought one to hers in return. "I'll be honest." Winter lets go and sits back up properly. "It was amusing to see fathers face the day you left for Beacon."
That was a day to remember. Mother had been kept from drinking so early in the morning as a request from her daughters, being rewarded with a goodbye hug and kiss on the cheek before Weiss boarded her private transport. Whitely had received a spoken goodbye, one that he was kind enough to return. Winter had been given a tight hug that she was more than willing to return. Father… was barely acknowledged, causing him to turn red with anger. It was bad enough that she had resisted going to Atlas Academy, he had tried to appeal to the young Huntress in training that she'd be closer to her sister but everyone knew that he held a large degree of control over the academy and military. Vale, he had little beyond the Dust shops that were mere subsidiaries of the SDC.
Winter took no small amount of pleasure listening to the man rant and rave almost as soon as he was behind closed doors. Klein had made sure to escort Willow and Whitely away as quickly as possible. When Jacques tried to blame her for Wiess leaving Atlas, she had fired back calmly that she would have loved to have her sister close by and played no part of her decision to study and train in another Kingdom.
They shared a quick laugh about that before Weiss crossed her arms proudly over her now modest chest. "I can't wait to show him what I've learned."
"Oh?" Winter was interested in her sisters' progress as she leaned her elbows on the table and steepled her hands with a smile. "And what do you think you have learned?"
"What do you mean?" Weiss defends herself. "I'm getting better and better with my glyphs. I've even started using time dilation."
"And what of your summoning?" Winter asks calmly, trapping her sister.
"I… you know I can't." Weiss turns away from her sister to look at the floor in shame.
"Don't be ridiculous, every Schnee has the ability to summon." Winter chides her as she sits up straight again. "We have for generations."
"I've tried!" Weiss nearly yells. "It's just… It's the one thing I'm having trouble with." Her frustrations at her own failure were clear by the fists shaking by her wide hips.
By contrast, Winter was perfectly calm. "We Schnee's are unique. Unlike many, our Semblance is hereditary. But that doesn't mean that it will come easily." She raises her right hand and a small glyph appears over her palm and spinning in the air. "Your Semblance is like a muscle, the more you practice with it, the stronger it will become. But if you only focus on one aspect of it, if you fail to test the limits of what you think is possible-" The glyph flashed, temporarily blinding Weiss.
Now behind Winter stood a Beowolf, its normally black fur a light blue a few shades from white, the bony spikes looked like they were made of ice, the white mask that all Grimm had was now decorated with blue lines rather than the usual red. Even the eyes were an icy blue rather than soulless yellow and red. A slight mist floated off the creature, making it look more like an ice sculpture than the monster it represented.
"Then you'll never truly grow." Winter finishes her little speech as she reaches up to scratch the summons chin, the beast leaning into her touch like a loyal pet.
Weiss looked on with wide eyes. Once again, her desire to be like her sister had been kindled and she was going to make the best of the time they had together to close the gap.
AN: Next time we'll see how the sister time is spent with the summoning and maybe we'll find another family bonding as well. Maybe another fight or two that should be entertaining as well. I'm sure that will probably turn into a record length chapter. ^_^!
Still, reviews are welcome. Constructive criticism helps me improve the quality of my writing.
See you all next time!