Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any other franchises mentioned here.
The screams of the audience were thunderous.
The cheers, the boos, and everything in between was feeding on each other, becoming louder and louder.
It was deafening for the contestants in the nearby seats, preparing for their fight.
For the fighters in the arena, it was background noise. Nothing more than to get into a trance.
For the audience themselves? It was fuel. For the excitement of the fight long since improved their stamina and vocal cords for more cheers.
Why?
It was because this was Pyrrha Nikos' fourth championship defending match.
And she was losing.
The Goddess of Victory is being pushed back.
Pyrrha had expectations.
She had expected that this tournament would be the same. A bit challenging, maybe her enemy would pull a fast one on her, but will ultimately result in her victory.
Hell, she had even expected that someone might finally be good enough to force her to reveal her semblance in public.
She was correct in her expectations.
Unfortunately, that one involved finally showing what her semblance was and winning.
This one? Not so much.
As she ducked low from a swing and prepared for a lunge, she widened her eyes and use her semblance on the gun aimed at her to point up, and used it on her shield and armor to pull herself away just in time to avoid the worst of the explosion of the grenade thrown at her.
Before she was able to sigh in relief, instincts screamed at her to raise her shield.
Just in time for a shadow to fall over her and a sword was blocked.
The clang of the metal was usually something that she enjoyed. It was something that symbolized battle. Throughout her career as a huntress, the noise went from something annoying to something akin to an old friend.
Now though, it was just grating to hear.
He won't even give me a second to breathe.
She somersaulted whilst reloading her rifle, and she aimed and fired.
The black and yellow blur she was shooting for sped through the floor while swiping the air with his sword, generating clank sounds implying that he was dodging and slicing the bullets.
It's a bit experimental, but I have to do this. She thought as she took out a vial of dust from one of her pockets…
…and doused her xiphos blade with fire dust.
As she raised her sword to be brought down, she supercharged it using her aura.
And the arena burned.
An inferno rose from the surroundings and enclouded the area.
As Pyrrha sighed in exhaustion and was about to regain her bearings, a figure jumped out of the inferno and attacked her.
Holy–
"-shit!"
Ruby heard her dad scold Yang for her language, and went to fetch the swear jar.
Not that she paid much attention, she was too busy watching the Mistral tournament. Being such an event that it could reach a shoddy little place like Patch, Pyrrha Nikos has many things in spades, and reputation being one of them.
Not that she cared about that, because she was too busy drooling over the weapons.
"A triple-changer between a spear, a sword, and a rifle? So cool…" she whispered in awe, with a sparkle in her eyes.
In a world where the Grimm outnumbers humanity one-to-whatever it is nowadays, a weapon will always be your best friend when things go down.
Civilians know this, huntsmen know this, even the old and young know this, even though for most young that's not training to be a huntsman, they'd just see a stick and treat it as a cool thing to wield.
This has been a universal truth for Ruby now. Weapons are an extension of themselves; that's why she spent a lot of time looking and searching for the coolest weapon that could fit her.
It's part of the reason why she chose the sniper rifle as the gun form. When it comes to killing, nothing screams death more than the sniper. When people are on a battlefield, they look out for the snipers. They are the "point-click-die" guns at any kind of distance.
And it just so happens that since the gun mode was cool, then obviously the weapon mode has to be the same.
And what screams death when talking about weapons? Obviously, the scythe. Since the Grim Reaper uses a scythe, then obviously Ruby should too, because she is gonna reap the lives of the Grimm once she becomes a super-awesome huntress!
The fact that it was a scythe just so she could relate to her Uncle Qrow has nothing to do with it whatsoever.
Still, I wonder– Ruby was cut out of her thoughts at the same time Yang came back to watch the television.
"Damn, that guy's relentless"
"Now, Yang, I know that you tend to get overboard in fighting matches but promise me that you're not gonna end up prolonging the fight just to have fun, alright?"
"Whaddya mean?" Yang questioned, curious. Ruby did as well. What did he mean by prolonging the fight for fun?
"Look at the fight closely" Taiyang pointed at the television.
They did.
"If you pay close attention, mister dark and red over there could have ended the fight anytime. His blows always shift from the last second to avoid knocking her out."
"Huh, now that I see it…" Yang muttered and leaned in closer.
Ruby did as well and saw that every time the boy had a chance to win, he diverted it in order to prolong the fight. A kick that can stagger? Turn it into a kick to punt Pyrrha far away.
Every single time that he had a chance to end this fight, he didn't.
The question was why? Why is he prolonging the fight for fun? Doesn't everybody want to beat the Champion and replace them?
It was at this moment that the television showed something remarkable and will be talked about by every huntsman-in-training for a long time.
…
On the snowy cold fields of Mantle, up above lie Atlas.
On Atlas, lay the decorated manor of the Schnee family.
Inside the mansion, a teenage girl was in her room looking at her scroll.
"What?! What kind of semblance is that?!"
Weiss Schnee screeched at the top of her lungs. How does that work?! As she blinked and rubbed her eyes to make sure her eyesight wasn't failing her, she looked at the screen once again.
Nope.
Her eyesight was fine.
There, on the right side of the screen, was Pyrrha.
And on the other side was the boy, with dozens of rifles behind him.
As the rifles took aim and fired at Pyrrha and she dodged, Weiss only had one thing to say.
"That semblance is unfair!"
Never mind the fact that her semblance was the very definition of unfair.
Who is this guy?
As she looked at the name of the competitor that Pyrrha is facing against, she saw it.
"Jaune Arc?..." she muttered.
Then her eyes widened…
"Who the heck is that?"
Who are you? Pyrrha thought as she kept zig-zagging and dodging the bullets aimed at her.
She already has less than half of her aura, and if it weren't for her semblance subtly guiding the rifles aimed at her and making them miss, she would've lost ages ago.
She swayed left and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid a slash from the sword Jaune was wielding.
It was strange to see that weapon.
As far as she knew, it was a completely ordinary Mistrali sword, if a bit fancy.
There weren't any components that were visible that could explain the power it has.
The flame it was exuding was hotter than any Fire Dust she saw, and since she was a three-time Champion and her budget wasn't anything to scoff at, even she never saw fire as volatile as this one.
She would've thought that it was a semblance, except, well… she jumped out of the way of a volley of bullets.
Yeah…
As she faced the grinning face of her opponent, she could swear that his eyes kept changing from blue to red, his cloak billowing from the movement he did as fire surrounded the arena.
Just from his presence, she was feeling hot. And no, it was not arousal.
…was it?
How strange, why am I grinning as well?
Indeed, if one were to look closely, they were both wearing the same expression.
That of battle-crazed maniacs.
It was what Pyrrha was missing all this time.
That rush of challenge, that feeling of someone being able to beat her if she weren't careful…
That feeling that made her want to stop holding back altogether because she knew that he was holding back as well.
Well then…
Both their eyes looked like they were glowing as they focused on one another.
If you want my title as Champion…
They made their stances…
Come and get it!
And moved.
TIMESKIP - a few months later
As Blake walked into the cafeteria with her team, she couldn't help but dart her eyes toward the crowd.
More specifically, that one blonde on the table next to team RWBY's.
Jaune Arc, Mistral Champion.
The one who usurped the title from Pyrrha Nikos.
And she wasn't the only one, most of the student population were looking at him. Analyzing him…
Some looking at him with curiosity…
Some looked at him with contempt and disdain for daring to beat their favorite Pyrrha.
And others, with lust… Yeah, she's not getting into that can of worms anytime soon.
"Whatcha staring at, Blakey?" her partner elbowed her and looked in the direction she was looking.
"Ohhh… looks like crush~!" Yang teased and Blake rolled her eyes, not deigning to give a response.
She most certainly did not have a crush.
That she happened to stare at him when he stretched and flexed so she could see his muscles ripple during combat class was just a coincidence.
And the fact that he also mostly wore black that tingled her body in all the right ways was also a coincidence.
"Jaune!" Ruby yelled and waved as she sat down.
"Morning, Ruby" Jaune waved back as he ate his breakfast.
"Is he still eating that… filth?" Weiss' lips curled in disgust as she looked at his dish.
Spicy Mapo Tofu.
"Pssh, don't diss just 'cause you can't handle the heat, Weissy~" Nora called out from her stack of pancakes.
"What do you mean? You also can't handle it!" Weiss retorted.
Ruby tuned off their bantering as she focused on Jaune.
Whereas everyone else was in uniform, Jaune, and by proxy, his team didn't wear their Beacon school uniform.
In fact, Jaune also wore a cape! That makes him okay in her book! Cloak, cape, whatever, anyone that wears something like that is cool! Even Uncle Qrow's cloak/scarf thingie!
As she looked around at her friends, she smiled.
I have friends!
As I stared at the bathroom mirror late into the night, I only had a single thought.
Fuuuck, where's Ren?
That's right. I have not found a single trace of Lie Ren's existence here. Team JNPR was team JNPE, with Erza replacing Ren.
Maybe he died in Kuroyuri? Or was he somewhere else?
I can't exactly start prodding for personal information from Nora when we're not that close.
Yet.
Regardless, the fact of the matter is Ren is not here. I knew my existence was already a butterfly effect, but there were at least constants, right?
Just because someone was reborn back to their life but turned into a girl, doesn't mean that stormy weather suddenly won't exist.
I could've handled being in different teams, hell, I'd be fine with Ren as a girl.
But there's no evidence that Lie Ren existed. I even searched for a Li Ren and An Ren, but they don't exist either.
Ah, fuck it. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
I washed my face and went to bed.
Tomorrow is a new day after all.