The Jaune Archive: To Survive and Prosper (OUTDATED)

by The Rade Blunner

The original version of the first installment of the Jaune Archive prior to being reworked. Please read Jaune: Hero of Beacon for the newer and updated version. The original summary can be found in Chapter 1 in this version.

11. Who Dares Wins

Here we are, the first chapter of the final arc, The Vytal Festival. Not only we have reached this point, but this fic is also now one year old! To celebrate, I made a Spotify playlist of the songs Jaune listened to throughout the story from his scroll's music player. It's just a fun little thing I thought I'd do. Here's the link:

(Replace the commas with dots)

open,spotify,com/playlist/3dV6TxBvxG6SsZ3r97HXVO?si=abkz8i3xROK1LYhvg01pew

If you haven't noticed yet, the previous chapters have been slightly revised, they mostly remain the same, only with a few new paragraphs; some of the dialogue being revamped; and many, if not most of the errors being fixed. Please give them another read if you like. That being said, I'm sure there are still some errors I haven't noticed yet; if you managed to spot them, don't be afraid to let me know.

And as a reply for a short review LastPenis saying that this is just canon in the end; Yeah, I know this is just following the show despite the divergences since the point of this fic first and foremost is to retell the canon of the show in the perspective of a less incompetent, secretly-disillusioned version of Jaune while alternating some events because of his actions and expand on the background. But I can assure you, once I'm done with the Vytal Festival. I won't be relying much on the canon story. PS: I really love your username gachiHYPER

Don't forget to check out the extras if you're interested.

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Editorial Note:

The 40th Biennial Vytal Festival went down as a very major episode in modern history, and it made no less impact on Jaune Arc's life, even shaping him to become the person he is today. This is his recollection of the events, starting at his team's first round of the Vytal Tournament, which took place a few weeks after the Merlot Event.

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Chapter 11

Who Dares Wins

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"What do you call intelligent and civilized people in Vacuo? Tourists."

-A classic joke between former members of the Eastern Alliance.

Ah, the Vytal Festival. Nothing says peace between nations than celebrating with fun activities such as parades, dances, contests, games and a tournament that has the world's top academies fighting each other for supremacy that makes their respective fans to yell at each at one another over who is better, occasionally even resulting in brawls if it gets heated enough; thus defeating the festival's purpose of promoting peace and friendships. Basically, it's just sports in general—except the players are schoolchildren whose goal is to basically crush their opponents. Once these few weeks of partying are all over, the kingdoms will inevitably go back to bickering at each other over dumb, petty politics until the next festival arrives.

To the surprise of literally no one, we made it to the tournament since there was absolutely zero reason for them to not to put us in there. Ren and Nora are very competent fighters that complement each other perfectly; Pyrrha is the four-time, back-to-back, consecutive champion of the Mistral Regionals; and everyone is calling me the latest Hero of Beacon for stopping the breach while Vale is hosting for this year. We are pretty much celebrities at this point. Of course, why wouldn't they put us in the tournament?

I'll give The Great & Powerful Ozpin some credit for keeping the Merlot situation confidential. Nobody needs to know that the person behind Mountain Glenn's demise is still alive even if he is incarcerated, and nobody especially needs to know that I was one of the people responsible for his capture. It might cause public hysteria when the festival begins, and Ozpin wouldn't look good if people find out that he sent first-year students to a very dangerous mission no matter how exceptional they consider themselves to be.

Come to think of it; if it went public, it might have been kind of nice if that it would have deemed me and my team overqualified for the tournament, with my partner already being famous for being near-untouchable and thus, saving us some trouble. But I'll have to digress, it'll probably only end up as wishful thinking at best. My status as a breakout celebrity is already overbearing; I don't need to ruin it for myself, especially if I intend to get far to the tournament and not spoil Pyrrha's winning-streak.

The tournament was held in the floating arena that was hovering above Vytal—the Amity Colosseum, an acrophobes's least favorite place to visit. Everyone who had tickets or an invitation had to ride an aircraft to get there [1]. Thankfully the ride there was very brief since the coliseum remains in Vytal's airspace when Vale is hosting the festival, so it wasn't that far from Beacon and I didn't have to hide much of my motion sickness to avoid showing signs of weakness especially to potential opponents.

It wasn't the first time I visited the Coliseum, I remember my last visit here about six years ago. My father brought most of the family to watch Rouge's participation in the tournament during her first year at Beacon. I also remembered being so terrified of the airship ride, not only because of my motion sickness but also because I've never been that high before. It was one of the last moments in a simpler and happier time of life; I even dreamed of competing in the tournament myself. That was all before it took a more cynical turn. Ever since then, I never even thought of seeing the Coliseum in person again.

Well, here I am once more. If I was my eleven-year-old naive self, I would be dying of joy right now and cherish every second of this, but instead, I feel like I have to play some stupid games because everyone wanted me to.

Airships loaded with fans from all over the world gathered around the arena, and of course, the Gods-forsaken press is also here. All the tickets were sold, explaining the dense population of the Coliseum. Let's just be thankful that this coliseum was able to support this many people. There were plenty of well-known teams and fighters that were anticipated; Pyrrha was one of them, especially for her fellow Mistralis as this was the first time she participated in a tournament outside her home region. And of course one of the other acclaimed prodigies they were waiting for was me.

The gods-awful video of me during the incident of Podunk just hit over a million views on PruneHub. I feel bad for everyone who had to watch that shaky, vertically recorded mess that serves as a shining example of everyone's misunderstood perception of me. I was advertised as one of the most popular upcoming fighters in the tournament and this was only my debut. What made me nervous the most was I have to perform in front of thousands of people. Now, doing stuff to perpetuate my image was one thing, but doing my best to keep my cool in front of a large audience was something else. The best thing to do was focus on the match and ignore the audience as best as you could. The problem is, their constant cheering will keep reminding you of their presence, which makes ignoring them impossible.

The first round consisted of entire teams, followed by doubles and singles. The winners will be able to decide which of their teammates would participate in the following round. For this round, we were matched against Team ABRN (Auburn) from Mistral, consisting of Arslan Altan; Bolin Hori; Reese Chloris; and Nadir Shiko, if I remembered their names correctly.

Like some of the exchange students I observed, I've seen them fight before, and while they do have a few quirks that made them slightly stand out from the others, they don't seem to be much of a problem. I should just keep in mind that they are aware that they're facing one of the most incontestable freshmen teams on Beacon; they are willing to be the one who would defeat the Invincible Girl if they had to and they don't plan on holding back.

After a few matches from the other contestants passed, it was our turn. Checking to see if all my equipment is functional and in place, I held a deep breath and faced my teammates in the locker room. They all bore expressions of eagerness and determination. "Alright team, are we ready?"

"We're all set," Ren nodded.

"Let's put Team JNPR on the history books!" Nora pumped beside him.

Hopefully, it doesn't end up on the dishonorable team's section.

She then checked the tournament's livestream on her scroll. "Online chat is pretty pumped up. Let's give em' a show!" She had to remind me that a third of the world is watching us right now.

"Here we go again…" Pyrrha sighed, listening to the waiting crowd upstairs.

"Hey," I motioned to Pyrrha and comforted her by holding her shoulder. "It's going to be alright. We're all in this together."

Her face brightened up, with a small blush visible from her. I smiled back and let go of her as I led them out of the locker room.

"Remember, guys, this was all we've been training for the past weeks. Let's show them how far we went to get ourselves here." Well, having someone like Pyrrha on the team and possessing an undeserved reputation made us qualified in the tournament by default, but that wouldn't be inspiring, now, would it?

"Don't worry, what's the worst that can happen? Pyrrha's a world-renowned champion, Ren's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, and you're the biggest hero his kingdom has in a while! And after everything we went through, these guys will be like moles ready to be whacked!" Nora boasted.

"Even if the odds are with us, we're still up against serious competitors, Nora. They're well aware of our feats, so we should prepare for anything we might not expect." Ren pointed out.

I nodded at him in agreement. "He's right, Nora. We can't underestimate these guys. Who knows what clever tricks they might have in their sleeve that they could use just so they could beat us?"

"Still, it's great that we're back into participating in friendly matches with actual guidelines rather than confronting more dangerous criminals who would not hesitate to kill us." Pyrrha chimed in. That, I could agree on. It's honestly kind of refreshing to back in 'honorable' duels with fellow students after dealing with plenty of crazy psychopaths I had the misfortune of crossing paths with.

When in doubt, just remember that an undefeated champion on our team could carry us in this tournament, we just have to not slow her down.

Well, here goes nothing, I thought as we stepped into the octagonally-shaped elevator platform where Team ABRN was waiting for us. We stood at one side, facing against the others. After seconds of silently staring at each other, the dark-skinned blonde leader—Arslan—decided to speak.

"It's an honor to fight against you and your team, Pyrrha Nikos," she bowed slightly at her fellow compatriot.

"May the best team win," Pyrrha warmly replied.

"Hey, no hard feelings, right fellas?" Reese—the tomboyish looking one with a hoverboard—asked with a cocky grin. I always wanted to have one of those things as a kid. Hell, I'd still kill to get my hands on one of those even if I was already past my skateboarding phase. Of course, I'm speaking figuratively here, I have no intention of murdering her and stealing her board despite my kleptomaniac tendencies especially since I am forbidden from doing both of those things during the tournament.

"Not at all," I said, assuming my sword & shield fighting stance.

The platform then began ascending as it took us to the center of the arena's stage floor. I was almost blinded by the daylight as it shined to us when the floor opened. A colorful abundance of an audience in the seats began to cheer once we emerged, with some cameras visibly flashing. My fans, in particular, were waving signs of me, my name and my team, eager to see their dear heroic knight in action. The same thing goes for Pyrrha's fans, although she doesn't appear perturbed by it thanks to years of being on a pedestal.

There were also a few medics hanging around at the side, waiting in case of unexpected injuries, one of them even winking at me. How assuring, as if I wasn't stressed enough already.

I gave a faint smile as I waved at the crowd, doing my best to suppress my apprehensions before deciding to shift my focus on my opponents as we got into the stage with all our weapons ready, doing my best to keep my composure intact and not let the pressure get the best of me.

Pyrrha noticed my visible anxiety so she turned to me and shot me a comforting smile. "You'll get used to it."

I beamed at her, feeling a little better as I saved my worries into winning this thing. The crowd should be the least of our problems, after all since we're supposed to be humble heroes and not glory hounds so I didn't have to try too hard to impress them.

Professor Port began announcing to the audience, "Here it is! What many of you have been waiting for! One of this year's most remarkable breakout teams in Beacon Academy—Team JNPR! A contender for Team of the Year. Featuring the world-renowned Invincible Girl of Mistral herself—Pyrrha Nikos! And of course, their leader, the Hero of Beacon—Jaune Arc!"

I internally sighed as I put on my heroic smile and waved at my admirers while they chanted my name and Pyrrha, who was doing the same. Nora also joined the audience in chanting both of our names while Ren just gave us a faint smile of approval.

The Professor continued. "Are they enough to outmatch one of Haven's finest? Or will Team ABRN prevail and beat all odds against them? Let's find out!"

Doctor Oobleck then took over. "Of course, before we begin we would like the arena to select the stage's environment where our brave competitors would engage in."

I almost forgot the random selection of biomes for us to be put in. I hoped it would be something rudimentary like a forest or a rocky mountain. Heck, even a desert and a ruined city would be desirable. Just give me something that doesn't look and feel like a preview of the pits of hell or a frozen wasteland.

Holographic screens appeared on one half of the arena as they began shuffling icons for one of the stage's environments. The screens stopped showing an icon of a volcano with a red light glowing behind it.

Oh no…

Half of the stage opened as a volcanic body emerged. I faintly groaned in frustration. It was just something I didn't want. Hopefully, the biome on the other side wouldn't be as bad; I'll just stay away from this one, I thought to myself.

Screens on the other half shuffled until stopping to an icon of an iceberg in front of a light blue glow. An arctic body of an icecap filled with a few glaciers then surfaced to that half of the stage. I could even feel the temperature dramatically drop down as the cold air brought by the biome breezes through us.

Gods fucking dammit.

"Imma 'bout to put the 'burn' in ABRN!" Nora said.

"Bring it on!" taunted Nadir—the pink-haired dude while he cocked his assault rifle.

This is how it's going to go, huh? Alrighty then.

The screens began showing the three-second countdown before the match began as everyone made themselves ready, narrowing their eyes at their opponents. "Three… two… one… Begin!"

Since I didn't have much time to plan ahead, I ran straight toward Arslan. Normally, bladed weapons like swords are effective against primarily unarmed combatants like her so it was the safest bet, I just need to watch out when she starts to pull out her dagger.

I charged at her with my shield raised. She kicked it with both of her feet and then flipped back before charging toward me. She slid to sweep my feet but I was able to sidestep out of the way. I made my way to the arctic biome as I thought that fighting on an overgrown ice cube was somewhat better than standing on a volcanic rock, at least I knew that my shoes weren't guaranteed to burn. When she stormed at me, I parried her strikes while blocking the others. I raised my sword in an attempt to slash her, however, she was agile enough to avoid every single one of them. She retaliated with a powered punch which I was able to block with my shield but it was still strong enough to knock me back, not helped by the slippery surface of the biome I was standing at.

Knowing that a sword & shield combo won't do much good against Arslan and her fighting style. I drew my pistol from my holster and began firing lasers at her. She cartwheeled away to her right, dodging my gunfire before whipping out her knife and throwing its blade toward me as it was followed by a white string. The rope then wrapped through my left arm and I was dragged to the icy ground. I slid as she pulled me towards her. She then tried to stomp me so I blocked her foot with my sword and used it to push her back as her weapon's rope unwrapped away from my left hand.

I fired more lasers at her while at close range. She was still able to block them with both of her aura infused palms, which slightly cost some of it but it minimized the damage nonetheless. She held her dagger in a reverse grip. We both found ourselves avoiding each other's slashes as I was firing my pistol at her. One of the lasers that flew around went toward Team ABRN's staff wielder, Bolin, who was engaged against Nora. He noticed the laser proceeding near him so he deflected it with his staff, which unfortunately for him, distracted him long enough that he didn't avoid getting frozen by Nora's incoming frost grenade.

Speaking of the other competitors while I was busy with Arslan, Ren was trading clashes with Nadir and his katana at the volcanic biome; while Pyrrha was firing at Reese as she glides around the arena before approaching her, hitting her shield with her board bladed and then getting off it, splitting it in half as it turned into twin revolvers with bayonets. Reese struck Pyrrha while the latter deflected them with her shield and spear.

Both of the opposing team members on the volcanic biome noticed one of their teammates frozen in ice so Nadir took a shard on one of the nearby fire crystals and threw it at Reese. Reese continued to swing her bayoneted pistols at Pyrrha before merging them back and caught the fire crystal. She then placed it on her board, changing its lights' colors from green to red. She flew her way to Bolin while Nadir's blade shortened and was placed somewhere on its handle as his weapon changed into an assault rifle. He provided covering fire for Reese, forcing Ren into cover and Pyrrha to block the gunfire with her shield. Reese hovered to Nadir and freed him by melting the ice.

Nora noticed two of our opponents at one place and launched a grenade towards them. Bolin jumped out as Reese flew away. Arslan began swinging her rope dart around me as I quickly dodged them while continuing to fire at her. I leaped at it when she tried sweeping me on my feet.

Time to show them what we have on our sleeves, then. I imitated a frog's croaking as loud as I could, bewildering our opponents for a split second, which was enough time we needed. Pyrrha got my signal and used her polarity to tug Arslan toward her. Arslan pulled her blade back to its handle to put it away from Pyrrha's range. Pyrrha threw her javelin as she rushed toward her.

Arslan jumped and dodged the incoming javelin. Pyrrha pulled the javelin back to her and changed it to her xiphos. Arslan used her dagger to deflect Pyrrha's incoming slashes before doing a hook kick that Pyrrha managed to duck under in time.

Ren was still getting suppressed down by Nadir, only barely being able to return fire. I aimed my pistol at and shot him on his bicep. He grunted in pain before turning his attention to me. I charged toward him while I continued shooting, slightly disgruntled that I'm letting myself fight on an igneous surface. Nadir was avoiding the lasers as he adjusted the blade of his weapon's sight, changing his weapon back into a katana. I swung my sword toward him, interlocking our weapons together, sparks coming out of our blades.

This allowed Ren to finally leave his cover and face his next problem. Reese drifted to the magma biome and jumped away from her board, changing it to dual revolvers before firing at Ren. Ren began rushing toward her, zigzagging through her line of fire while shooting back. When they got near each other they kept trading shots with their two guns as they circled around, more often than not missing. Bullet cases rained on the ground until both their guns ran out of ammo almost simultaneously, forcing them to continue the battle with the blades attached to their firearms.

Meanwhile, Bolin was engaging with Nora again. This time, his staff's blades on the edge of each side were unfolded and he used it to push back Nora as hard as he could. Nora tried falling back and launched a volley of grenades at him. Unfortunately, he managed to deflect each one of them by swinging and twirling his staff before they detonated around him. Nora changed her weapon back to a hammer and used the handle to interlock with Bolin's staff.

I was still having a sword fight with Nadir, our steel blades clashed every time they collided with one another. I would step back and fire lasers at him, causing him to desperately block them away with his katana. Once I stopped firing, he changed to his assault rifle. The moment I saw this, I hastily holstered my pistol and expanded my shield the second he started shooting at me. Bullets bounced off from my shield before I dashed to him. I shoved his gun away and slashed away most of his aura.

He was only a few hits away from being knocked out of the match so he started backing down the first chance he got. "I could use some help over here!"

Reese was twirling her revolvers to counter Ren's attacks when she heard her teammate's fall for help. Ren quickly reloaded his pistols when Reese reassembled her board and used it to block Ren's gunshots at close-proximity. She then hopped on her board and propelled herself out of there, slightly pushing Ren back with the force of its thrusters.

I saw her speeding towards me. I took out my pistol and tried to shoot her down. Despite the laser's speed, she was moving so quickly that she missed every shot. She bounced off as she flipped the board before grabbing it and trying to swing it vertically to my face. I blocked with my sword and pushed it back with all the force I could muster, grunting as I held my ground.

"Y'know. You're pretty cute, so don't let me ruin your face." She grinned as she increased the force of her push, putting me back for a few inches.

I admit, she's quite pretty for a sporty chick with black facial markings, I'd even say she'd make an eligible date if I was the kind of guy that enjoyed getting stepped on by a tomboyish skater as if I was her board. But since I'm not a submissive masochist with weird perversions, I doubt you'll ever see me in that position especially since I prefer to handle things unscathed while coming out on top. [2] "Wouldn't want to do the same, sweetheart, but a man's gotta do what he's gotta do."

It was then a good opportunity to use the wolf's call. "Awoo!" I howled. Pyrrha heard my call so she tackled Arslan back with her shield then used her polarity on Reese's board and levitated her to midair before throwing her toward Nadir.

Both of them fell to the ground as Reese collided into her teammate. Nadir winced in pain after his bottom touched the volcanic surface. "Oh! Hot! Hot!"

It was time for the next phase of our offensive. Pyrrha turned back to Arslan just in time to block a roundhouse kick coming behind her. I lunged in and pushed Arslan back with my shield. I back looked at Pyrrha and she nodded as she left.

"Now, Nora!" I yelled. Nora began to strike back at Bolin, pushing him back before swinging him at Reese and Nadir who both got up, only to get knocked back down when Bolin crashed on them. With three of them in one place, Nora smashed the volcanic surface and sprung a large piece of ground. Pyrrha then leaped in and drop-kicked the large rock toward our three opponents. It was strong enough to push them away from the ring before falling to the ground, effectively defeating three out of four of our opponents at once. "Striiike!"

"Why would you look at that! Not one, not two but three contestants from ABRN have been eliminated by ring-out. And of course, because Nadir Shiko's aura is now below the amount needed to continue forward," Professor Port remarked.

Doctor Oobleck followed, "Now the question that remains is what is their leader going to do now that the rest of her team is out of the match? It's going to take a miracle for her to achieve victory at this point."

I gave Nora a thumbs up and she responded by bowing in pleasure before going back to business.

Arslan froze when she noticed all of her teammates getting knocked out of the match at the same time. The state of her being baffled gave me an opening to push to a glacier with my shield. Pyrrha ran toward me before nodding at each other. We fired at the glacier above Arslan until the glacier broke and a piece of it started dropping to her, prompting Arslan to dive out of there.

Arslan fell in front of us. Ren and Nora caught up and joined us into finally defeating our remaining opponent. The first thing Arslan saw after looking up was all the four of us pointing our guns at her. Knowing that her chance of winning this thing was thrown out the window, she was wise enough to put her hands up and surrender.

The audience roared with applause. Professor Port went on to announce our victory. "And there you have it, folks! Arslan Altan has conceded defeat! Team JNPR wins the match!"

I gave a relieved sigh as I wiped the sweat away from my forehead. Well, we're off to a good start, I told myself. At least I now know what type of opponents I should expect now that I've gotten past this round. Part of me is tempted to shout at the audience and say 'Are you not entertained?!' but I didn't want to encourage them any further and besides, I think it would contradict my image as a modest hero.

"Well fought." Arslan pushed herself up as Pyrrha helped her stand.

"You did great too," Pyrrha assured.

Arslan's brightened at us. "I wish you luck in the next round."

"Thank you," I said. I looked out of the ring and saw the others.

Outside the arena, Reese and Bolin were waving their hands while Nadir looked like he was giving a thumbs up. "Hey, no hard feelings, remember?!" I shouted at them, echoing one of their remarks before the match began. Reese, the girls who said that, responded by giving me a two-finger salute.

Ren was panting and breathing heavily when Nora bounced and abruptly raised his arm along with hers as the audience cheered. Ren kept sporting his usual lukewarm expression, but deep down, he was noticeably happy that we were able to get through this. "We're the best around! Nothing's going to ever keep us down!" Nora bubbled.

The audience began chanting our team name as we waved back at them. We left shortly after we were allowed to leave since I was getting a little disturbed at everyone cheering for me, and I didn't want to make my discomfort to be more apparent to them.

That's it for round one. Things are going great so far. Better not get ahead of myself, though. I should remember that my next opponents did something to get them to win in their respective rounds so I should be prepared for just about anything.

=o=

1. The Amity Coliseum was stationed on the Lancaster Air Force Base on Vytal when inactive. It was originally a ground structure located in the middle of Amity's city—hence the name—prior to being modified to become an aircraft after several riots and attempted terrorist attacks since the twenty-seventh biennial tournament.

2. And yet he also said that there was only one room for a woman in his life that has the privilege to dominate him. Not that I'm complaining.

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Heading to the fairgrounds back at Beacon was also a bit of a challenge itself. I have to deal with the press, answer their questions and doing my best to not get blinded by their flashing cameras, sign autographs for some fans, take pictures with some of them (though I won't lie, the fan art of us they asked to sign was really cool and mostly well-drawn even though nobody could get my stature right), and take another Gods-forsaken flight for a few minutes just so I could get to back on Beacon grounds.

The lines at the fairgrounds were also another thing. Thankfully, being well-known heroes and victors of the recent match has given us some special treatment, so everyone insisted on letting us skip the lines out of respect. As a result, we ended up getting a large box of pizza in a matter of a few minutes when the booth had the longest line due to being the most popular food booth in the fairgrounds, and who can blame them? It's pizza. It's nice to feel the upsides of my reputation every now and then after enduring the burdens that came with it for months now.

"All of this fightin' and poundin' is making me hungry!" Nora blurted. Unsurprisingly, she was looking just as lively as she always has been as if she never fought. "Itadakimasu!" [1]

Aside from the fact that all of my teammates came from different parts of Anima, that's pretty appropriate to say after beating up a team from Mistralis and rewarding ourselves with some good ole' food. I humbly receive indeed.

We were all sitting at a round table where we placed our food and drinks. I pleased myself with the fragrance of the pepperoni pizza before taking a bite. Pyrrha was enjoying the pizza too and Nora was munching on her first few pieces while Ren finished his fourth bottle of water, still refreshing himself after the fight.

"Be careful Nora. We need to keep you fit in case you are chosen for the next fight," he panted out before taking a piece of pizza on his own.

"You worry too much, Ren. You know I always keep myself in shape. It's not like I plan to be the first fat girl in Beacon or something," she reassured after finishing the crust of her last piece.

"Now that this round is settled. Which of us are going to represent our team for the doubles?" Pyrrha asked after swallowing her food.

Normally, I would have loved to sit all the following rounds out and have Pyrrha participate in each of them. She's obviously going to be present in every round since she's our key to winning the tournament. If it really was up to me, I would have picked Nora to accompany her in the doubles. The combined power of those two—along with some electric dust—could curb-stomp the following match with almost no effort. If only it wasn't for the fact that Noire and Blanche want me to participate in the next round because that is when they are scheduled to perform the tribute song for me and it will sound awkward if I don't compete in the match after that. Not to mention, I have a reputation to uphold; people will be suspicious that the so-called Hero of Beacon has only competed in one round and chickened out with the rest. I can handle one more fight, it'll be the last one at least.

So, it looks like it's going to be me Pyrrha then. If there is some consolation, I can always count on her at my side. I'll just have to endure for one last round and then let Pyrrha handle the rest. She hasn't lost a single fight yet and she's a stubborn enough fighter to keep herself from making her first defeat, so there was no reason for me to doubt her.

"Pyrrha and I will take care of it. Pyrrha's the key to this, and she's going to need someone she trusts and works well with for the next round. Besides, we're crowd favorites; who doesn't want to see more of The Hero of Beacon and the Pride of Mistral in action together?"

"The power couple of the year to represent Team JNPR?" Nora then stood up and raising a fist. "No objections on that one!"

"I thought you and Ren were the power couple of the year," I teased, remembering their reputation as a pair.

"Well, we're the runner-ups." Nora embarrassedly glanced at her side. "I mean, I know while we are inseparable—not that it means we're more just besties than anything. You two make a much more awesome duo. Not to mention, cuter."

Pyrrha and I awkwardly looked at each other and saw both of our faces reddened on that remark. As much as I am doing my best to get close to my partner, I still have yet to decide if I want to go to that level.

Ren came to rescue us by bringing up something I haven't thought about in a while, "By the way, have you found your semblance yet?"

Honestly, I almost forgot about that. Don't get me wrong, I'm interested to see what kind of underwhelming superpower I have, but I may have got to the point where I'm starting to believe that I am perfectly fine without one, and having one might cause more trouble than it's worth. "Not yet. I'm still figuring out what it could be."

"Maybe it's already awakened and we just don't know it yet?" Nora pondered.

"That's possible. Some people theorize that everyone already has their semblance unlocked, they just need to discover what it is and how to use it at will." Pyrrha chimed in.

Nora giggled. "Heh. Potato."

"You really need to spend less time on Skimdat, Nora," Ren said.

"Don't worry, I will. Those guys aren't even funny anyway," she reassured. "But I'll keep moderating the board."

I raised my brow. "The board?"

"Someone made a board in Skimdat about you! It's like the closest thing you have to a fansite right now. Pyrrha has one too!" Nora answered as Pyrrha chuckled and blushed when she mentioned her fans' message board.

"She got moderator privileges after she verified that she was one of your teammates," Ren added.

"And I even banned all the role-players and everyone who dared to criticize you!"

That's definitely Skimdat board alright. Also giving Nora a banhammer and letting her do virtual janitorial work for free. Clever idea, what could possibly go wrong?

"You should do a Q&A there sometime. They'll love it," Nora then proposed.

"Okay…" I murmured. I don't think I'll visit my own fans' boards very often. I find the chances of me making a Q&A there to be very slim that I would rather eat one of Nora's grenades than even bother with them. I just find it to be a scary place because I'm not particularly comfortable being in an echo-chamber that worships me and I'll probably get myself ironically banned if I post honest opinions about myself anonymously. Eh, it could have been worse, at least they're not obsessing over supposed sexualities of cartoon characters or something as equally dumb as that.

I took a sip from my soda and put us back on topic, "Anyway, I wouldn't say I have a semblance until I know for sure."

"We should bring back the exercises where we try to awaken your semblance. I'm still excited to see what it would be!" Nora leaned from her chair.

I'll be frank with you, I really don't miss those exercises. My experiences with them were nothing short of unpleasant. Although putting me in tests courses and throwing everything not nailed on the floor at me was kind of fun for the first few times, I quickly called them off when I started to realize it was becoming less about getting my stupid semblance and more of me being a glorified lab-rat inside danger rooms. Last time I had those exercises was with my family in between the first and second semesters since they had the same idea. To make a long story short, I almost got a trip to the hospital.

"Maybe after the tournament, Nora." Or preferably never again. "I can't be too distracted trying to unlock my semblance right now."

"Understandable, dear leader," Nora said before slurping her straw on a can of diet-soda, we were careful to make sure we didn't mix it with regular soda again, otherwise, the fairgrounds would have been closed early, to put it simply.

My scroll suddenly began ringing on one of my pockets. I took it out and found out that it was a call from Mom. I accepted the call then a video feed of her popped up. "Hi, sweetie! I saw you won your first round. You're doing great, we're really proud of you."

I smiled back at her, feeling a little more comfortable after seeing her face as if thoughts about my trepidations just disappeared. "Good to see you too, Mom. I guess Noire and Blanche don't have to worry about me not showing up tomorrow."

"They never doubted you, Jaune. They were positive that you'll win," she assured. Of course, they'd bet on me.

"That's quite a gamble, but I appreciate it," I said before I raised my scroll and held it horizontally so I could show her my team. "Anyway, here's my team. We wouldn't have got this far without each other."

"Hello, Mrs. Arc!" Pyrrha waved her hand at the scroll's video feed.

"Hello, you must be Pyrrha! My son told me a lot of good things about you." Mom chirped, "Still doing your best to win another tournament, I assume?"

"I've been there too many times, ma'am, but I'll be happy to do it for my team," she nodded.

"That's great to hear. It's nice to know that my son is leading such a lovely team."

"Indeed, I sincerely couldn't think of a better partner," Pyrrha said, which flattered me for a bit.

"How sweet." Mom remarked before asking a question Pyrrha and I didn't need. "By the way, are you single?"

I turned my scroll away from my teammates. "Mom… please." I sighed to her as I hid my blush while she smirked at me. You know that the shipping between you and your own partner is getting out of hand when even your own mother is doing it.

"She is, but not for long!" Nora answered with a wide grin on her face.

"Nora!" Pyrrha stressed with her face almost as red as mine.

Mom laughed, something which I missed since I left home. "You know I'm just kidding, sweetie. But you have to admit, she'd make a good daughter-in-law."

My flustered state was getting worse and I had to quickly change the subject before it escalated. "Alright, alright, we get it. So, how are the others?"

"It's still just me, your father and Verte here. Rose and Rouge should arrive there soon," She answered. Looks like Viola is still busy at Acadia even during the festival, probably designing some outfits for some performers or something; and Bleu still has some business to take care of in Mantle. This could only mean Noire and Blanche are my only sisters that are in Vale so far, and news told me that they were preparing for their performance tomorrow.

Sometimes I feel a little homesick so it was beneficial for me to keep in touch with them every now and then. "May I see them?"

"Of course!" She then turned to her side to call the others, "Guys, Jaune's calling from Beacon!"

Footsteps were heard on the other side of the feet as Dad and Verte approached Mom's scroll. Mom adjusted the camera of her feed so they could be visible. "Good to hear from you again, Jaune!" Verte waved.

Dad was wearing a simple black polo-shirt and shorts, his signature hat was most noticeably absent. Seeing him reminded me that I still have to ask about the Salem person that Merlot mentioned, but it wasn't the right time to ask that question.

"Well, if it isn't the Hero of Beacon. You really have been making moves there, haven't you?" He said.

Sadly, I was. In another life, I would have been proud of it, but right now I don't think I'll ever know peace again because of it. "I'm just doing what a Huntsman is supposed to do."

"Sounds like something I would say. Looks like you're growing to become like your old man." He warmly replied.

That's what I'm worried about. I still feel bad for getting this far. The Arc family legacy didn't deserve to be carried by a disappointment who will never live up to it. Going along with my reputation and not staining the Arc family name the best I could be the least I could do.

"Thanks, Dad. I couldn't have done it with my team though. Speaking of which, here they are." I said, adjusting the camera to my team.

"Oh, it's Caiaphas Arc! The guy single-handedly defeated Harvesters and Tyrants." Nora squealed. I should have seen this coming, everyone was familiar with my dad, and if there was anyone Nora would fangirl over aside from me, it was him. It was part of the reason why she was worshipping the ground I walked on.

"Yep, that's me." Dad nodded. "You guys put on a good show, keep it up. You're the future Remnant need."

"It is an honor, Mr. Arc," Pyrrha said. "Your son is hard at work to lead us to our best."

"So I've heard. I worked hard to get where he is now, and I'm glad it's paying off greatly."

Which is why I am playing along with all of this, otherwise, I would be slacking off around my room in Arcshire by now and be apathetic about the tournament.

Nora turned to Ren. "You heard that, Ren?! Caiaphas Arc told us we did great!"

"I heard, Nora," he replied and faced the screen. "Thank you, sir. It's not every day you get complimented by a living legend."

"Don't sweat it." Dad smiled. "One day, you'll become living legends yourselves."

Nora made an excited shriek while she looked like she was suppressing an explosive burst of exhilaration after being complimented by her idol's father who was also her idol. Ren noticed this and used his semblance to calm her down before her excitement could destroy the pizza parlor.

After she settled down, she faced back at my scroll and saw my sister, "Hey, you must be Verte. Is it true that you really have that many pets?"

"You're Nora, right? Man, you really are a bundle of energy." Verte went closer to the camera. "Yeah, but I wouldn't call them pets. They're more to me than that, even if they hate Jaune. One thing for sure, at least Jaune won't have to worry about them while he's still there."

I still have to worry about a certain dog unfortunately, I've been extra cautious on the corridors ever since he arrived on Beacon. I'm thankful that he stays in Team RWBY's dorm but I can't be too sure nowadays as pets tend to wander off.

"Speaking of which, I still have to feed Bibi. It's really nice knowing you! Take care!" Verte waved at us before leaving.

"I should go too. Good luck tomorrow, squirt. Tell your sisters I said 'hi' and remind Rouge to behave." Dad nodded at me.

Eh, Rouge being Rouge, that's asking a little too much for her, but I've been living with her for my whole life so I can take care of it, I think. "Of course, Dad."

"Keep up the good work, we're rooting for you here." He continued before walking away as well, leaving Mom the only person left in the field.

"I won't let you guys down," I assured her.

"I know you won't. Good luck out there, honey," she said before ending the feed.

"I still couldn't believe that he is your dad." Nora bubbled, "I'm under the leadership of the Hero of Beacon who is the son of Caiaphas Arc himself! I'm aware of this for months and I still couldn't stop gushing about it!"

You can thank my family's low-key nepotism for that, Nora.

We finished our meals and took a stroll around the fairgrounds. There was a colorful assortment of people around the vicinity—mostly students in their combat gear, either eating, chatting, playing games at one of the booths to win some prizes, or simply just hanging around doing their own thing.

I managed to recognize a few girls there from the day I was helping Sun and Neptune get a partner for the dance—including those two cute Atlesian girls that Sun rejected. I gave them a wave and they excitedly returned the gesture before giggling and covering their own blushes. That gave me a pleasant feeling, though I don't think I could say the same thing for Pyrrha.

Occasionally, some fans would approach us asking for photos and autographs. While they can be annoying sometimes, I am grateful for their support. I kind of enjoy being on a pedestal even if I don't feel like I deserve it. Some fans would even offer me food, though I either decline or throw them away the moment no one is looking. As much as I adore them, I don't trust them on feeding me; there are chances that the food they offer could contain poison or something harmful. I advised my teammates to not accept food from fans. Since we already ate recently, we had an excuse not to eat.

We suddenly came to a halt after being called by Emerald, known for being a member of the unfortunately-named Team CMEN. "Hey, you dropped this." We turned back and saw her holding Ren's wallet.

Ren checked all of its pockets to find out it wasn't there "It must've fallen when I was sitting and I did not notice it," he stepped on to Emerald and took his wallet. "Thank you, I'll be sure to be careful next time."

"I told you they would slip out from pants like those!" Nora remarked, "Imagine what would happen if she didn't say it, we'll get broke and we won't be able to pay for our tickets ourselves!"

This is pretty much why I keep my wallet in my front pocket and attach it with a hook string that is affixed on my belt hoops. That way, not even the cleverest thief would be able to successfully pick my wallet. Though it was rather fishy that Emerald was able to pick-up Ren's wallet at the right place at the right time, I slightly narrowed my eyes on her.

Emerald looked at me back and showed some noticeable apprehension. Her face went back to donning a more positive expression after she was greeted by Pyrrha. "Hello again, Emerald! How are you doing today?"

"I'm having a great time, the festival has always been my favorite. By the way, you guys did great back there."

I stopped glaring at her and gave her a reassuring face, "Thanks, it was quite fun." Well, at least as defined by your average thrill-seeking Huntsman. "How about your match? Sorry, we weren't able to see it. How did it go?"

"It went really well, thank you for asking," she answered brightly.

"That's great, it appears you will be proceeding to the double rounds with us," Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, I look forward to it. Merc and I would be representing our team, we've been practicing hard for this."

"Cool, Jaune and Pyrrha would also be the pair that would for us in the next round." Nora chimed in.

"Really? Shucks. Oh well, I guess second place won't be bad then." Emerald jested.

We all shared a laugh. Given Pyrrha's stature along with mine, almost everyone expected us to win that it won't be a surprise if our opponents forfeited knowing that all their efforts would be in vain. But the thought of everyone literally betting their money on us has made me more anxious. So not only I have to preserve my family's honor and image, but I also have to save the finances of some gamblers depending on us. Hopefully, Pyhrra's winning streak would carry us out of any problems.

"So, how are your teammates?" I asked.

"Cinder and Nico are busy planning for something really big. As for Merc, well..." she glanced at her back where Mercury was standing in front of a stall selling boots as he sniffs with one of them. "He's being just... Merc." [2]

Mercury put the boot down and motioned next to his partner, "Yo, I saw that you guys won. Not really that surprising, is it?"

Gotta live up to a name. "It took a bit of sweat, but we showed them what we're made of." I replied before taking note of his subtle voice change, "And is it just me or you sound a little different since we last spoke?"

"Yeah, you kinda sound like Ren if he was a dark and brooding ninja."

"Wait, what?" Ren blinked at her.

Mercury coughed, "Now that you've mentioned it, I knew something weird happened to my voice."

"It's probably because you finally passed your late puberty." Emerald gibed.

"Ha-ha, good one, Em," he snidely replied. Emerald smirked at him before he turned back on me to ask more questions. "So, when are you going to do more hero stuff?"

I shuddered a bit with the question, but I remained calm and composed and answered confidently as he expected from someone of my stature. "When there's trouble nearby. I'm just around the neighborhood in case somebody needs help."

"I see," He cupped his chin. "You're like a real-life superhero. No wonder why everyone's gushing over you. Man, people would kill to be you now."

Yeah and I'm certainly not one of them. Dreams have a weird way of becoming true to an extent, and this one chose to become a reality far after I gave up on it. Since I couldn't do anything about it, I might as well capitalize on it. No dumb capes and speedos though; give me a peaked cap and a long coat any day. As much as I love X-Ray & Vav as the next nerd, I wouldn't want to dress up in public like them.

"Well, I feel a lot safer with people like you around," Emerald remarked. "Anyway, we're going to go catch some more fights, be seeing you!"

"Bye now, and thank you for giving my teammate back his wallet!" Pyrrha said.

"Don't mention it," Emerald sshe turned and walked away with her partner.

My conscience remained unsure about the two. I feel like there's something odd about them like my cheeks feel itchy when I'm around them. I continued to stare at them as they walked away. Emerald glanced back and noticed me looking at them. They kept moving until they suddenly disappeared when someone passed them by. Then I thought that I was thinking too hard about this and that I'm worried about nothing.

"Jaune, are you okay?" Ren asked, prompting me out of my paranoid musings.

"I'm fine. I was just spacing out." I answered as I let go of those two from my thoughts. "Let's just keep moving."

We resumed walking around and explored the fairgrounds until we spotted Team RWBY at a noodle stand called 'Simple Wok Noodles'. They were part of the next match, so we approached them to wish them well.

There were large bowls of noodles on their table; and in Blake's case, she got a huge bowl full of fish. The shopkeeper of that stand looked oddly similar to the one I sold my loot to, and I also remember seeing him near the crashed car during the day we investigated the White Fang. Either many of Vale's businessmen are skinny old men in aprons or I'm looking at the same person who has a lot of different jobs. [3]

The shopkeep suddenly threw back their credit card and pointed at his cash register that it was declined, much to the girls' disappointment.

"What? How can my card be declined?! I was barely into my monthly allowance." Weiss said as the shopkeep took away Blake's bowl of fish away from her. Blake laid her head on the table and lamented over it.

Looks like our friends need our help again. Pyrrha and I looked at each other and I gave her a nod. We all stepped in as she pulled out her own card. "Maybe I could help?" Pyrrha asked, making them turn heads turn to us.

"Hey, guys! Why I'm glad to see you!" Ruby chirped, slightly bouncing off from her chair.

"Oh, you don't have to. You probably have done enough for yourselves back there." Yang said.

"But she could!" Blake said frantically at her partner before turning to us. "Please, I'm begging you. From one Huntress to another, I really need that bowl!"

Cats really do love their fish. It's not every day you see Blake like this, considering that everyone is too used to seeing her frown and be disinterested in everything that doesn't involve literature with fancy titles on the cover.

Pyrrha gave a short chuckle as she went to pay for their meals. "Alright, but we're doing it because we wanted to. That's what all friends are for, right?"

"So, are you gonna eat with us too?" Ruby asked.

"Nah, we just ate a bunch of pizzas but we'll hang around for a bit," I replied just as Nora stepped forward.

"Well, I'm still not full from the pizzas I just ate. One large bowl for me please!"

Of course, she's still hungry even after eating almost half the pizza box; her stomach is deeper than a bottomless pit. "Okay then. You're the queen of your own castle Nora." I said as she happily sat down and grabbed her bowl once the shop-keep slid it to her.

After minutes of Team RW_Y plus Nora eating noodles from their ridiculously sized bowls while Blake ravages a bunch of fishes on hers, they finally finished and were left with satisfied expressions from their meals. However, Weiss meanwhile kind of looked like her small stomach is trying to grasp everything she just ate, let's just hope it doesn't affect her performance for this match.

The four of us were sitting at the side of the stand, with Nora rubbing her stomach and then suddenly making a burp from all the noodles she ate as I grimaced from repulsion.

"Are you sure it's wise to have eaten before a fight?" Ren decided to ask.

"Maybe, but you can't fight on an empty stomach either," answered Yang.

"Right, but this much?" Ren gestured to the bowls which were being gathered by the shop-keep as he took them away from the tables.

"Don't worry, we ate a lot but not enough to give us stomach aches during the fight." She reassured him.

"So, are you girls ready?" I asked them.

"Of course we are! After everything we faced before, this will be a piece of cake." Ruby enthusiastically asserted.

"You're not wrong." Blake before she bag counted with her fingers. "High-level Grimm, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath, a mad scientist, his robot army and experiments..."

"And that's all while we're still in training! Oh, imagine what it would be like to graduate!" Ruby excitedly gushed.

That is something I have been trying not to think about since the first week. With all the increasingly ridiculous threats I'm forced to deal with, I won't be surprised if I end up facing something worse but I'll be VERY annoyed. I really just hope the payoff is worth enough to fund my own worry-free vacation from all of this nonsense. I only have a few more months until the school year ends, so I just have to hold on for a bit, at least I no longer have to worry about passing written exams.

"Maybe then I'll be able to pay for a meal." Weiss mumbled, "I'm just glad we're back to participating in friendly matches like normal students. It's refreshing to take on people who aren't criminals for once."

She couldn't have been more right with that. Pit me with dumb kids over any type of ruthless killers any day. This might be why I wasn't that bothered for putting myself to the double rounds. "You have no idea…" I sighed.

All of our attention was then grabbed when we all heard Professor Port's voice on the academy's P.A. "Would Team RWBY please report to the battlegrounds immediately!"

"Here it goes," Ruby stood from her chair as her teammates followed.

"Good luck and fight well," Pyrrha said, giving them all an encouraging smile.

"You betcha, P-Money." Yang nodded as she slightly adjusted her gauntlets. "This is what we've all been waiting for."

"Show 'em no mercy, you guys!" Nora shouted at the four as they left for the arena, Nora then felt her stomach hurt after everything she ate. "I think I need to use the bathroom," she then quickly bolted away.

Nora was able to get back after a few minutes and we all lined up for an airship to the coliseum. The line was packed full of students, with some of them eyeing us, particularly me and Pyrrha. A few of them even greeted me, congratulating my team on our recent win and I recall one of them uncontrollably squealing my name. I politely greeted them and smiled at them, they all seemed to be very delighted to have been waved back by their idol that I swear that one of them almost fainted.

Such life as the Hero of Beacon. Gotta enjoy it until it eventually dies down. If only these people found someone else more deserving of this to fawn on.

=o=

1. A phrase used before eating in the Mistrali language and customs. As mentioned Jaune mentioned shortly after, it is commonly translated as 'I humbly receive.'

2. Actually, sniffing footwear is a perfectly legitimate way of determining their quality and value. I admit that I'm also guilty of doing this since I care about the value of the clothes that I wear, including the shoes.

3. The latter is correct. Said shopkeeper only has one or two-part time jobs at a time but has to constantly move businesses due to continually being victimized by incidents that cause his businesses to close down or simply cause him to leave them. It is said that Simple Wok Noodles was the last business he's seen working on.

---

After minutes of flying that almost made me lose my lunch, we finally arrived at the coliseum. We entered the arena and proceeded to the seats so we could watch our friends fight.

I noticed Mercury and Emerald walking to the other side of the arena. I still have the weird feeling about the two, but it's probably just my paranoia acting up again so I carried on and sat down beside my team.

The stage was still empty and some seats were still vacant, so there were still a few minutes to spare before the match began.

"You know, I've been thinking." Nora suddenly began, grabbing all of our attention. "Maybe we should sell the movie rights about us after we graduate."

Ren raised his brow at her. "Movie rights?"

"You heard that right! Since we are getting more and more famous, we should get someone to make a movie about us! It would be about our exploits in Beacon. There would be drama, action, comedy, and romance!"

I don't know about that. I feared that someone would actually do that if I go too far since I plan on fading to obscurity once I graduated. By then, I already had my fun and I don't think anyone would want to watch a movie about me when we reach that point. Plus, I think our fans would focus too much on the romance aspect a little too much…

"Sounds like an okay idea. Who would play us then?" I asked, hiding all my doubts about it.

"Uh, us maybe? Why don't we just play as ourselves?" she shrugged

"It might be a little fun, but acting is actually more taxing than everyone thinks." Pyrrha pointed out. "It takes more than just talent to act, you also need patience and willpower as you will have to endure hours of doing the same take repeatedly. Trust me, I have been in enough commercials and made a few movie cameos to know that. [1] A thirty-second clip can even take forever to shoot, I lost count with how many takes my last commercial took."

So I've heard, Noire and Blanche would tell me some horror stories that happened at sets. Let's just say that after they told me those, I crossed out acting as one of the professions that I planned to pursue. Also, I was rather surprised by Pyrrha actually making appearances in movies. I know it should be expected because she's a celebrity and all, but it was still surprising to hear. "You've cameoed in some movies?"

"Yeah, it still feels weird seeing myself in one, even if it's just for five seconds or so."

Nora rubbed her chin and contemplated. "Hmm. You might be right about that. But still, someone's gotta make a movie about us. It would make a ton of money putting the Hero of Beacon on the big screen. Wait, scratch that, forget Hero of Beacon, Jaune would become the Hero of Remnant by then!"

Geez, I hope not because being the Hero of an academy is already more trouble than it is.

"Someday, Nora. Maybe someday." I mumbled while I hope it never happens.

Minutes have passed and there still wasn't a match. To pass time, Pyrrha filed her nails, Ren took a nap and Nora was playing games on her scroll and I just sat waiting for the match to start. I eavesdropped on some of the audience out of boredom but I couldn't make out what they're saying because they were muffled by the chattering around the arena. What I did hear was a nearby hotdog vendor who was trying to sell some hotdog sandwiches.

"Hotdog! Hotdog! Get your tasty, juicy, thick, foot-long hotdog here! It also comes with a special sauce! My wife loves eating em' every morning and every night, and I know you will too!" He was a slightly-overweight balding man in his thirties to forties wearing a red-collared yellow polo-shirt, beige shorts and an apron while a tray full of hot-dogs was strapped to him. He then spotted us as he walked down the stairs. "Hey, aren't you the guys who won the last match? I heard victory can make you hungry. How about some hotdog?"

"No thanks, we just ate. But we'll consider it some other time." I politely told him.

He looked disappointed but he also seemed to understand why I declined. "Well, that's a bummer. But I'll be sure to come by then." He then left and went back to wandering around the arena for potential customers.

Finally, after waiting around for a bit, Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port began appearing on every screen around the arena and started to announce the match to the excitement of the audience.

"Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen; civilians, huntsmen and huntresses alike, to the Vytal Tournament!" Professor Port announced as the crowd cheered. Nora in particular, shouted more loudly than most of the audience that it woke up Ren.

"Previously, fan-favorite Team JNPR defeated Team ABRN with a dashing display of skill and synergy; they will be proceeding to the double rounds starting tomorrow! Now will their fellow schoolmates from Beacon be able to do the same, or would the honor go to the opposing team from Vacuo instead? We shall find out."

Doctor Oobleck then followed, "And before we begin, we would like to thank Chicken Crunch for sponsoring us. You can purchase for a monthly subscription to their channel for only a hundred lien a month[2] and be the first to see their upcoming show, Rator Kings! Do not miss it out when it premieres. Here's an exclusive trailer!"

Thanks for reminding me, it's not like there were already enough posters and banners advertising it on the coliseum's corridors. Still beats sitting through boring generic pop concerts (no offense, Noire and Blanc.)

Naturally, I heard a few annoyed moans from some of the audience near me, including Nora. Couldn't blame them, I almost groaned myself.

"Oh no, not these ads again!" Nora grabbed her hair as if she was ready to rip it off.

The roof of the arena closed, shrouding the arena in darkness as a holographic screen appeared on the center and began playing the trailer. I looked around and saw a mixture of boredom, disinterest and maybe a few who actually looked excited for the show. Not sure if I'm going to see it myself, but if I was to watch this myself, then it would be because ads like these annoyed me into seeing it. Don't get me wrong I love mecha action as much as the next guy, but I'm not in a mood of seeing one especially since I already saw too many robots in real life. That, and I didn't like how shoddy the frame rate was.

The lights went on back as the roof opened, and the screens went back to showing Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck in the press box. "And on to the match!" Professor Port announced.

The audience became excited again as competitors began emerging from under the stage with their weapons ready as the professor announced their presence. The crowd cheered at whichever team they were rooting for, with some boys audibly whistling on Team RWBY and girls squealing at the sight of the guys of Team BRNZ (Bronze).

Team BRNZ consisted of three guys and a girl. The boys—namely Brawnz Ni, Roy Stallion, and Nolan Porfirio, were all using melee weapons. Some claws, saws and a cattle prod respectively to be exact. I remember Roy, the guy with the saws on his gauntlet, he was that guy who lost to Sky Lark because he was having trouble fighting with someone with a polearm.

The girl, May Zedong, meanwhile, was carrying a sniper rifle that looks seemingly straightforward and simplistic in a world where having flamethrowers and chainsaws installed on Helvetican army knives is the norm. What I found strange about her is that she is wearing an attire that isn't appropriate for a place like Vacuo. I'm guessing that she started wearing those once she got to Vale as she isn't used to places that aren't warm as the desert or something.

The screens around the arena began focusing on Team RWBY. "From Beacon Academy, we got the most-acclaimed all-girl freshman team, showing what a sisterhood of Huntresses should be like. Ladies and gentlemen, Team RWBY!"

"Don't let their attractive looks fool you, folks. These girls are known for their exceptional skills combined with their harmonious teamwork. There is a good reason why they are viewed with high-regard in Beacon, including the staff and their upperclassmen. These are the type of Huntresses that show the emotionless Grimm the taste of fear." Doctor Oobleck added.

"Good luck girls!" Pyrrha shouted to them as the four waved at us.

"And from Vacuo. We have one the roughest, toughest quartets of Shade Academy. Known for bold close-quarters combat whose combined strength was enough to break a large-class Grimm. Give it up for Team BRNZ!" Professor Port said as the Team BRNZ' fans started cheering for them. "Two offensive powerhouses against one another. Which of them will prevail?"

Both teams went into their combat stances as the screens began shuffling off the arena's environment. It landed on an icon of a tree with a green glow and what appears to be a mountain on the other.

A mountain with a few trees littered on it began emerging one half of the arena while a short forest surfaced in the other, it had a lighter shade of green compared to the other biome. Seeing how relatively simple the environments were compared to what we got, these girls were pretty lucky in my opinion.

"Three… two… one… Begin!"

The competitors engaged against their opponents. Meanwhile, May Zedong the sniper girl ran to the forest to provide sniper support for her teammates. She sprung to a tree, using her rifle's stock which also functioned as an axe-head to swing her to a branch.

Yang engaged in a fistfight with the opposing team's leader, Brawnz. She blocked his claw strikes with her gauntlets as she stepped back before firing a few shots which he dodged. Weiss was meanwhile fencing with Nolan as they avoided their opponent's swings. Blake and Ruby both took on Roy, who was doing his best to hold off both of them. He leaped away from Ruby's scythe before strafing back and firing one of his saws at her. Ruby spun her weapon, deflecting the saw away as it flew back into Roy's vacant gauntlet. Roy proceeded to focus on Blake, who was blocking his melee attacks with her sheathe and katana. She stepped back and used her weapon's whip to sweep the floor and have him fall to the ground.

Professor Port provided commentary as usual. "Team RWBY is now battling against the close-range combatants of Team BRNZ, but where is May?"

Suddenly a gunshot flew near her and hit a nearby rock, breaking it into pieces of rubble. I forgot to mention that May's weapon is actually an anti-material sniper rifle that uses fifty-caliber bullets, meaning it can ignore things such as armor and aura that a single hit would be an instant knock-out. Never underestimate the power of rudimental weaponry, as if my choice of weapons hasn't made that clear enough.

Blake managed to quickly detect the source before nodding to Ruby who used her semblance to soar to the mountain. Blake flipped back and stood still. May fired at a seemingly idle Blake, only for the bullet to fly through her as the shadow clone faded away. Ruby stood in the middle of the mountain and folded away her scythe before firing at May. The shot unfortunately missed and hit the trunk behind her, and May began to shoot back. The two then engaged in a sniper duel, trading shots with each other as May jumped from one branch to another while Ruby zoomed around the mountain.

"Ho, ho, looks like the snipers of both teams have found themselves in long-range combat against the other." Professor Port remarked.

"But wait, look at this!" Doctor Oobleck suddenly interjected as he spotted something that caught his attention in the arena.

It turned out that the sniper duel was actually a diversion to keep May's attention away from Blake as she sneaks to the forest. Blake used her weapon's ribbon to grapple herself to the tree where May was standing on.

Blake snuck up behind May and the latter did not notice anything until she looked back and saw Blake swinging her weapon toward her. She quickly blocked it with her rifle but she was then pushed out from the tree. May fell on her back and saw an image of Blake leaping toward her. She hastily began firing, only to find out that it was another decoy. She glanced at her side and saw Blake aiming her pistol at her from another branch. Blake fired at May as she began rolling away while changing her weapon's magazine.

Blake jumped down from the tree and stormed toward her while she continued to shoot. May stood up and returned fire, forcing Blake to zig-zag around as she ran. When Blake got to her range, May started treating her weapons as an axe and she deflected Blake's strike before the two began clashing in melee.

"That was an interesting turn of events, folks!" Doctor Oobleck commented. "It appears that Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna stopped May Zedong from providing sniper support. Now she is being occupied in engaging in close-combat with Blake Belladonna."

"Speaking of close-range combat, how are the others doing?" Professor Port asked.

Both of the commentators shifted their attention to the others who were at the mountain biome. "Yang Xiao Long appears to be engaged with both Brawnz Ni and Roy Mustang in a two-on-one battle. Now I'm curious to see if Yang would reign as the superior brawler or if the combined strengths of Brawnz and Roy prevails." Doctor Oobleck said.

Despite being outnumbered by who are supposed to be proficient fighters from a high-temperature hellhole, Yang looked like she had the upper hand. She jabbed Brawnz, staggering him before she spun and delivered a kick to Roy behind her. Roy stumbled back, so he launched his saws toward her. Yang blocked them away with her gauntlets before ducking away from a hook punch from Roy. She turned back and the two went back to trading punches with each other.

Weiss was still dealing with Nolan. She darted back and summoned a glyph as he rushed towards her. Turns out, that glyph ended up launching him to the air before Ruby flew in and slashed him away across the arena. While Blake continued fighting against May, she saw Nolan falling toward them. As May raised her axe and was about to strike, Blake bolted away and left still a clone made of stone[3]. May ended up hitting the stone before she stepped back when she saw Nolan falling toward it. He landed on the stone decoy and broke it into pieces.

Ruby can be heard audibly yelling 'Ladybug!' as she descended toward the two with her scythe ready. Blake came out behind a tree trunk and dashed toward her opponents. May hastily aimed at Blake but before she had any chance to pull the trigger, Blake managed to slash her while running through. When Nolan got up, Ruby did the same to him. Blake and Ruby slashed May and Nolan back and forth until their aura gauges reached below fifteen percent and the two could barely do anything other than getting helplessly sliced down.

"May Zedong and Nolan Porfirio have been defeated by aura!" Professor Port announced.

"And who can blame them? One would have to possess significant reflexes to avoid or counter such team-attack by two agile huntresses with the likes of Ruby Rose and Blake Belladonna."

"What will the remainder of Team BRNZ do now that two of their own have been defeated? This fight already feels decisive for Team RWBY unless they find a way to turn the tide of the battle!"

While Yang was still having a fistfight with Brawnz, Roy shifted his focus to Weiss. He tried throwing both of his saws at her as she summoned a barrier in front of her that reflected them back towards him. Roy simply caught his own saws with his hands and dashed toward her. He flailed his saws around toward Weiss as she swung her weapon to block them. Roy jumped and managed to knock her back after performing a dropkick to her face. Putting his saws back to his gauntlets as he starts revving them up he hopped toward her. However, Weiss was able to summon black glyph and propelled him to Yang and Brawnz while they were still fighting. Yang rotated back punched away him and his remaining aura to the ground, effectively knocking him off the match.

Brawnz was the only one left, and he understandably did not take that well. He suddenly roared to the sky and activated his semblance—Berserk. Yang turned back to him and struggled to block his attacks as they've become faster and stronger. After several blows to her stomach, Brawnz hit Yang's face and knocked her off to the ground with only a few of her aura left before she's out of the match.

He stepped in an attempt to finish her off, but before he was able to do so, Weiss began absorbing lighting dust as a golden clock appeared below her. He then turned and saw Weiss storming toward him with inhuman speed. Weiss blurred as she rapidly thrust her rapier at Brawnz but despite her speed, he still was able to retaliate with a strike that was just as quick as her, promptly disabling her time dilation since a single hit was enough to break the spell. Branwz then lunged at her and tried to clobber her with both of his claws. Weiss strafed back and raised a glacier of ice only to be broken almost effortlessly by him. He punched her in the stomach knocking her back until she hit the mountain's base behind her.

I don't know why, but I feel somewhat enraged after witnessing that and made my support for Team RWBY stronger when I normally don't put much investment into tournament matches that don't involve my team.

Blake and Ruby tried to rush in and help but stopped once they noticed Yang rising from the ground with her hair glowing. She began to march toward Brawnz. He turned to her and saw her crack her neck. Brawnz foolishly charged toward her and tried to throw a punch. Yang ducked down and threw an uppercut to his jaw. And with that one single punch, Brawnz was sent blasting out from the stage until he hit the arena's hardlight ceiling.

"And that's the last of Team BRNZ. Team RWBY is victorious!" Professor Port declared, followed by cheering from the audience.

Brawnz then started to fall to the ground. Since his aura was dangerously low, emergency drones flew in and caught him mid-air with a net. They then flew down and dropped him next to his teammates that were staying in the corner after being defeated.

Better stay prepared for Yang then, especially with my plan to counter her dangerously overpowered semblance. There's a small chance that we might end up being matched against each other. I should remember that even Pyrrha struggled against her, even though it was in a food fight with no real weapons.

Team RWBY gathered together in the middle of the arena, celebrating their victory as they waved at the cheering audience. Yang's semblance deactivated and gave her sister a high-five before the latter bounced to the air. So they're going to the doubles round with us. Good for them. While I wish my sister team nothing but the best, I also wish for them to never compete against us and this exactly shows why.

Who could be next then? I asked as I checked the bracket on my scroll to see the contestants of the next match. The answer was… pretty amusing to say the least.

'Team SSSN of Haven vs. Team NDGO of Shade'

Oh brother, aren't I in for a treat.

=o=

1. A few notable movie appearances of Pyrrha include: The Clash of Class, The Grimm Brothers, Praying With Fire, Mistrali Valentines, and Pumpkin Pete's Adventure Burrow.

2. That was before their infamous decision to increase the prices, and I shall leave it at that.

3. Blake's weapon—The Gambol Shroud—contains a module that allows her semblance to create elemental clones through the use of dust. It produces its substance after determining Blake's posture through her aura.

---

During the intermission before the next battle, Team RWBY sat beside us. Yang, in particular, was drinking a bottle of water to cool her head down from the temper she had from her semblance, as well as having an unopened soda can on her seat's cup holder.

"You guys really showed them back there, huh?" Nora asked the four.

"Yeah, to be honest, I was worried about what I did to that Brawnz guy; I must have hit him a little too hard. Thank The Brothers for those drone thingies, his aura wasn't enough to save him from that fall." Yang said with a chuckle before opening a soda can and taking a drink. "But hey, at least they'll get a medal with their team's name on it."

"You know that victory feels so good when Yang makes a joke that isn't atrocious for once," Weiss remarked, and I couldn't agree more.

The screens emerged once again as it shows Doctor Oobleck and a montage of knockouts from the previous match before it transitioned to a still picture of the victors. "Ah, well, Vacuo fans are sure to be hurting after that one, but this one will have them on the edge of their seats!"

The feed cut to Professor Port as he began announcing the new challengers. With a picture of Team NDGO. I have to admit, I never got tired of seeing their pretty faces, even if them being huge fans of me make it a little awkward.

"Team NDGO of Shade is certainly a crowd favorite, but these lovely ladies are going against some of the toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we've seen so far! I'm of course talking about... Team SSSN!"

Yeah, as a friend of two of them who had once tried to flirt with all of the girls on the opposing team, I'm not sure who to root for here. Even though Sun and Neptune tend to act like buffoons, they're actually pretty okay guys, and there weren't a lot of reasons for me to hate them. But I wouldn't say I want them to win this match nor did I wish for them to lose.

The center platform of the arena was raised to the stage and crowds began cheering as both of the teams appeared facing against the other.

"Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!" Professor Port remarked as high pitch screaming of girls (as well as a few boys) roared around the arena, some of them even holding signs and posters. I almost forgot that Sun, Neptune and their teammates were actually popular enough to have adoring fans. It begs to wonder where their admirers were when they needed them back at the dance.

"Good luck, Neptune. I guess…" Weiss cheered unenthusiastically as Neptune waved at the crowd, even sending some flying kiss that made some of his more adoring fans faint. He then turned to his opponents and noticeably started to flirt with them, despite making it clear that they weren't interested

Weiss' expression went from lukewarm to spiteful in a matter of seconds. "BREAK HIS STUPID FACE, NDGO!" She stood up and pointed her finger at him, with some of the viewers beside us staring at her in bewilderment. So, I have to give the guy some advice to ask out a girl he likes and finally start dating her only for it to come to this in the end. What a shame.

I noticeably saw Team NDGO roll their eyes at him. They looked back at the audience and began happily waving when they spotted me. I smiled and waved back. I could even see their faces slightly turn red for a moment. We both kept waving until Pyrrha cleared her throat and I went back to sitting upward.

The selection of environments shuffled until it stopped with an orange icon of the sun above a desert. Dunes that stood on a sandy surface began emerging behind Team NDGO's half of the stage as the artificial sun began shining above the arena's transparent hardlight ceiling. Some viewers pulled out and wore their shades while others who did not expect it were blinded by the light. I guess Sun and the girls are going to feel at home with this one.

"Would you look at that? Hot gals going at it against hot guys under hot weather. I guess you can say this is going to be… hot!" Yang jested, who was wearing her aviators. I'm pretty sure that quip also made some people's head hot because of how terrible it sounded.

The ice queen beside her was still lamenting about her 'boyfriend' if she could still call him that. "Ugh, I still wonder why I even dated someone who is afraid of water."

"Neptune's afraid of water?" I raised my brow.

The environmental roulette on the other half of the stage then selected an environment represented by an icon of a palm tree and a wave behind it. Neptune turned his head toward the images and appeared to be frozen in horror.

A small beach with a pirate ship wreckage appeared on that side of the arena, and Neptune was on the brink of almost fainting, which he didn't luckily for his team as it would have knocked him out from the match even before it started, but looking at Neptune, he looked like he wished he was knocked out.

I stared at him beyond belief with a hint of faint amusement. "I see now…"

Neptune Vasilias. Hunter of Grimm. Self-proclaimed genius. Inventor of weapons. Robber of some hearts. Victor of board games. A musician with a synthetic singing voice…is frightened by bodies of liquid. It was when I thought that the match was going to be more entertaining than I expected. It's not that I hate Neptune, I think he's a decent guy beneath that obnoxious BMOC-wannabe persona, I just find this to be funny.

In fairness, the sea isn't exactly our friend. Don't get me wrong, I like swimming on the beach as much as the next guy, and I don't need to wear any dumb floaters to do so; I just to remember to NOT venture far out into the ocean, that's when you start encountering sharks and aquatic Grimm. The kingdoms made some parts of the ocean restricted from civilians for a good reason.

That still does not make whimpering over bodies of water that have more than a gallon less ridiculous.

"Three, two, one, begin!" Doctor Oobleck announced with all the contestants in their fighting stances, except for you-know-who who has his body pressed together as he stood. Glancing at his fans, they seemed very confused at his sudden anxiety.

As the match began. Neptune began dashing towards the highest rock on the biome behind Team NDGO and climbed at its peak in a pace that could possibly even rival Ruby's semblance. He was quick enough that it took a moment for Team NDGO to realize that he already ran past them and stared at him in confusion.

"Neptune, what are you doing?!" Sage yelled at him loud enough for the audience to hear.

"Uh, you know, just gaining the higher ground!" he answered, barely hiding his frightened tone.

"On the enemies' side?!" Sun replied.

"They would never expect it!"

To be fair, no one did.

Team NDGO shrugged it off and the battle carried on with Neptune staying on the rock. The battle initially started seemingly on Team NDGO's favor—with Sage getting knocked away from the ring less than thirty seconds after the match started. It was one of the quickest KO's on the tournament, the reason why it wasn't exactly the quickest of all time because it was nothing compared to the current record holder where the match ended as soon as it even started. [1] Scarlet would later get knocked out as well—after a coconut hit his own coconuts as it drained his remaining aura. Ouch, calm down ladies.

Team SSSN was able to make a comeback, however. Sun was able to put Octavia on a beat down and convince Neptune to stop whimpering above the rock and make himself useful. Neptune was even able to eliminate the rest of Team NDGO by electrocuting all of them as neat as you please while they were still in the water, which might or might not have given them a good reason to fear pools of water as well.

"Ma' man!" Nora cheered as she witnessed Nebula, Dew, and Gwen getting electrocuted.

"That's gotta hurt," Ren said, nonchalantly as always.

"Luring your opponents to a body of water and then electrifying them once. Not bad," Pyrrha remarked.

"And with that, Team SSSN moves on to the doubles round!" Professor Port declared. "You know what I call that victory?"

"Shocking?" Doctor Oobleck answered. Of course, someone would say that, what a shock.

"No, well earned. What you said is stupid."

No wonder why Yang gets along with Professor Oobleck.

Well, after all the shenanigans with these two, I guess they really earned it. If you think about it, Neptune would really have been the smooth MVP of this match had it not been for his fear of water. He would have looked far cooler when he defeats his opponents the same way without whimpering.

Sun and Neptune waved at the audience before celebrating their team's victory by dancing to the upbeat music in the background, with Sage and Scarlet giving thumbs up at the side of the arena, the latter was still holding on to his injured crotch. Looks like he won't be making babies for a while. [2] Meanwhile, emergency drones lifted Team NDG_ out of the water before drying away electrified water on their bodies and escorting them out.

And that was the match. This day might not be a good day for Vacuans since Shade won't be winning any championships this year, but at least they'll have Sun to represent them.

"That was close," Ruby as she sighed for air.

"Looks like the dorks made it to the next round!" Yang remarked.

The two victors were still dancing at the stage, being watched by an amused audience. Looking at Neptune doing an awkwardly eccentric dance made me understand why he was too embarrassed to dance that night, but it looks like that he doesn't care anymore. Good for him.

"That concludes the matches for today. Please leave the coliseum…" Doctor Oobleck ordered before suddenly raising his voice, scaring the blazes out of unsuspecting goers. "In a calm and orderly fashion!"

"Come on, let's go congratulate them," Yang stood up and led everyone out of their seats.

After a minute or two, we arrived at the backstage where we saw Team SSSN getting congratulated by fellow students and even a few staff members.

"Thank you, thank you, you're all very kind," Sun said to them.

"Team SSSN is on a roll, folks! Everyone should give it up for us cause we're untouchable!" Neptune bragged.

"Yeah, that's what the ladies also call you," Sun replied.

"Isn't that ri—" Neptune's smile disappeared after he realized what his partner meant. "Hey!"

"Hey, guys, great work out there!" Ruby praised as we approached them.

"Yeah, I love how you zapped them all at once in the water!" Nora chirped.

Neptune scratched the back of his head. "Yeah… I did."

"Aww, gee, thanks. I really hope everything we did back there was worth it for you guys."

"Oh, trust us, it was." I nodded.

"Congratulations, Neptune." Weiss stepped with a smile on her face.

"Oh, that was nothing, Snow Ang—" His ear was suddenly grabbed by Weiss as she pulled his head next to her eye-level.

"Be honest with me, am I not enough for you?!" Weiss furiously asked, fuming with anger.

Well, this is going to be fun to watch.

Neptune just stared in confusion, "Wha—what?"

"You know what I'm talking about," she glared at him.

"Okay, okay!" Neptune said as Weiss let him go so he'll be able to explain himself. He then cleared his throat. "Look, I really like you, okay. But as a ladies man, you know I have to give the other girls some appreciation."

Good grief, he's only digging his own grave. As amusing this was, I felt terribly sorry for him especially that he had to deal with an aggravated Ice Queen. Her teammates and I can definitely tell you how it is.

Weiss right eye twitched. "What do you mean by that?"

Neptune stuttered over his terrible reply. "I—I mean, to be honest. It's just… We're not exactly… uh."

"Not exactly what?" She put her fists on her waists as she leaned toward him.

"It's… uh…, it's really hard to put it nicely…" Neptune nervously said, "Especially with all the people watching."

"I think I already know you're trying to say," Weiss sighed disappointedly, "I always wondered why you left me on our date to flirt with another girl, now I know why." [3]

"Did you really have to say that in front of everyone? Look, Snow Angel, I'm really so—"

"Don't 'Snow Angel' me! If we're really going to be transparent with each other, then I'll let you know that it actually infuriates me when you call me that!"

"Look, can we discuss this later? I want to be honest with you, I really do, but this isn't exactly the best place to talk about us."

"Fine, but not because you said so, but because I'm about to meet with someone who is more important than you, you unfaithful hydrophobic worm!" she yelled before marching out of the exit.

Ruby followed her partner. "Hey, wait for me!"

Neptune just stared frozen at Weiss dumbstruck along with everyone in the room. It wasn't until Sun decided to comment on the matter that the silence was broken. "Ouch."

"Okay… that was certainly something." Pyrrha said.

Nebula stepped in to make a half-mocking remark before leaving as well. "I hope you enjoy being part of the Champion's Club, water boy."

"Ugh, I knew this would happen." Neptune murmured before he started hitting his own forehead. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

Hey, at least you have some fans that would be happy to learn that you might be single again.

I tried to cheer him up while patting his back. "We all make mistakes."

"It's just… I should have told her sooner. It would have hurt her a lot less, and not to mention, this would have been a lot less embarrassing."

"You should have told her what?" I asked, even though it was already obvious what's going to happen with their relationship. I thought I'd just ask.

"It's nothing. Just something between the two of us."

If that's the case then alright. I wasn't that interested in other people's relationship drama anyway. "Oh, okay."

"Hey Jaune, you're not busy tomorrow are you?" Sun suddenly asked.

I raised my brow over the question before answering. "Aside from the usual practice and the doubles round, I don't have anything else planned. Why?"

"Oh, good. We're going to need you with something. It's very important."

More favors; couldn't hurt I guess. At worst I'll probably just end up babysitting these two again. "What is it then?"

"We really can't tell you right now, so we'll tell you about it tomorrow."

Oh great, just what I wanted, more suspense and secrecy. Whatever this is, it better be worth my time because I'm getting really tired of playing hero just so everyone could keep kissing up to me, and I guess that refusing won't put me in a good spot now. "Alright…"

"Great!" Sun smiled before turning to everyone, "Well folks, I think we've put enough show on for today. So we'll be going now."

Sun and Neptune then left the room. Since there was nothing else for us to do in the Coliseum we left as well.

I'm still wondering what do Sun and Neptune need me for, get another date for Neptune I guess? Whatever it is, it shouldn't be that bad since these two are too harmless (or too dumb) enough to put me in trouble. The day during the investigation didn't count because it was mostly the girls' fault that I got dragged in there.

=o=

1. The record holder during that time was the singles match between Zahra Azar and Cole Whittaker during the 34th Biennial Tournament. It was infamous for lasting for only 0.81 seconds with Azar coming out as the victor. This was due to Whittaker being vulnerable to fire, the element of Azar's weapon.

2. Given the type of man Scarlet is, he never has and never will, and not because he doesn't want children, mind you.

3. We went on a date to Vale's pier area. He once left me on a bench, claiming that he'll return because he needed to distance himself from the sight of the sea for 'a few minutes.' When I waited for too long, I went to check on him only to find him trying to flirt with a random girl on a sushi stall. I went back to Beacon immediately after witnessing that.

---

Ren and I went straight to the dorms after arriving back in Beacon to take a break from all the excitement of the first of the festival. Pyrrha and Nora, meanwhile, still both wanted to roam around the fairgrounds for a bit (and also because Pyrrha needed Nora to protect her from swarms of fans.)

Ren went to his bed and reviewed some notes before taking a nap while I relaxed at my desk. Updating combat notes and my journal as I listen to rock music that is decades older than me.

I eventually fell asleep on my desk when my fatigue finally caught up. My nap only lasted for about half an hour as the sky was still bright as I woke up. It was then I decided to take a short stroll outside.

Opening the dorm's door, I saw Zwei standing in front of it as if he was waiting for me for whatever reason.

Since it was Zwei, I braced myself as I expected him to pounce the moment he saw me, but strangely and also suspiciously, he just stared at me. As relieved I was, there was just something off about Zwei not trying to attack me on sight.

Adding to my confusion, he suddenly trotted past me and inside the dorm. "Hey, what are you doing?"

He sat in the middle of the room before turning around to stare at me.

"What do you want boy?" To be more appropriate, I should have asked what he was up to instead.

He tilted his head as he continued to stare at me. Rolling my eyes, I opened the dorm's room and showed him out.

"Look, there's nothing for you here and I think Ruby wouldn't want you wandering around so…" I then turned back and saw that he suddenly was on my desk, standing on the chair. "Hey! What the—!"

He grabbed my journal with his mouth and then left the room. My exclaiming woke up an alerted Ren as he leaped up from his bed. After I shook my head out of being baffled while wishing that Zwei painfully bit me instead of doing this.

I really want to like dogs, I really do, but this wasn't making it any easier for me.

I grabbed Ren's hand and bolted out of the room. "Ren, we got a canine committing a four-eight-seven and I'm going to need some backup."

Ren looked befuddled; understandable given the oddity of the situation. "Four-eight-seven?" [1]

"Just help me get Zwei!"

Ren didn't even answer despite his confusion, probably because he was used to nonsense like this courtesy of the redhead he's glued with, so he just simply complied and helped me chase down a maliciously mischievous mutt.

I wasn't going to let my undeserved reputation go to the drain all because of a stupid mutt. Attacking me randomly is one thing, but trying to expose my secrets was another, and I wasn't having any of it.

We pursued Zwei through the residence hall as a few students watched in confusion, mostly because there was a dog in the vicinity when pets weren't allowed. Getting chased by the boys of the famed Team JNPR while holding someone's personal journal just added to the oddity.

Zwei went through a door at one of the rooms, unfortunately, said door was the entrance to the girl's locker room. Ren and I hesitated. We both stared at the room and each other. With no other options, we sighed simultaneously before barging in. I thought I was going to lose some girls' respect for this but it was better than getting shunned by everyone after they found out that I wasn't being truthful and sincere about my stature at all.

The locker room was thankfully fairly empty, aside from Sandy Graves who was shocked to see us suddenly enter. Fortunately, she was fully clothed as it seems that she was only there to pick something up and she was too confounded by the appearance of a dog roaming with a journal to be infuriated by two boys getting in a girl's locker room.

After I found Zwei. I sprung toward him only for me to hit the floor as he darted away and leaped through a hopper window, which was just terrific because now I have to chase a dog on the campus where everyone is outside for the festival.

I got myself up. Ren and I then quickly made our way to the locker room. "You didn't see any of this," Ren told Sandy, who still looked like she was processing all of this. Good riddance, I don't need to hear anyone calling me a pervert when I didn't see anything revealing especially during a desperate situation like this.

We went through the back door, which was the nearest exit where we were at. I bashed the door open before Ren and I made our way to the campus. It wasn't difficult to spot a black and white corgi running on the open like a sore thumb while students step aside to make way for it, especially cat faunus, one of them even hissing at him.

He managed to enter the school building as someone left the door open. We pursued him around the corridors of the school, avoiding the passersby who just happened to be in the place.

Zwei was evidently heading down south to the front entrance, so we already know where he was planning to go. Since we walked around the school enough times to know the different paths that can be taken, I ordered Ren to take a shortcut that was right around the corner as I continued to follow the dog, he nodded silently before splitting up.

"C'mon, boy, just give it back. What did I ever do to you?!" I yelled at Zwei as I kept on following him in hot pursuit.

As he continued to make his way at the hall. He tackled one of the students and made her drop a vial of ice dust, causing a frozen puddle on the floor. When I saw the puddle I quickly leaped toward the wall and jumped above the puddle before landing on the dry, concrete floor and moved forward.

He then went past my two least favorite classmates, Russel and Dove. The two were weirded out at the dog, but when they turned to me, they began to smirk and started blocking my path.

Pricks. I thought. I continued to streak straight as I charged towards Russel since he has less body weight compared to his shut-eye midget of a friend. Predictably, he collapsed to the ground. Dove turned back and tried firing a spitball at me.

Come on. Give it up. You guys are obviously out of ideas.

Sensing it and also because of how predictable they are, I tilted my head away from the spitball and it ended up hitting an Atlesian student wearing an eyepatch with scars in his face instead.

Said Atlesian was unamused and started cracking his knuckles as he started to approach the two idiots, who began whimpering in fear. I would have loved to watch it if my rep wasn't currently at stake then.

Shortly afterward, Zwei was getting close upon reaching the front door. Ren appeared and then slid into his front. He attempted to grab the dog when it ran past him through his legs, resulting in him tumbling to the floor.

I helped Ren get back at his feet before going back to chasing the dog again. Ren groaned, being a little displeased that the chase was still on. I couldn't blame him, I wanted this to be over with too.

We left the building as the dog kept on heading south, where the fairground was located. I had to stop him before he ended up causing more chaos than he should.

We continued to push forward. I sprinted as hard as I could that a normally agile Ren was struggling to catch up along with his fleeting stamina. Ren eventually ran out of steam and stopped as he held the nearest wall.

I noticed that he was no longer accompanying me. "Ren!" I stopped and exclaimed at him, I kept my legs jogging in place so I won't lose momentum. "C'mon buddy, we ran further than this!"

"Look, just go. I'll try to get the others to help if they can."

There wasn't any time to argue, so I just let him be and carried on. I ran as quickly as I possibly could to make up for the short distance I lost for stopping for a few seconds.

I later found myself at the front garden of the school with a large pond on the center; the place was rather notable by me where Ruby introduced her weapon, but now I'm going to remember it as the place where I chased her pet in circles, and he might as well be a weapon used to annoy enemies while snatches their stuff, if only he didn't recognize me as the enemy, that would have been nice.

After revolving around the pond a few times, I turned back and continued to see if I could catch him on his front while he was still circling, however, he was able to notice this and turned around as well.

One path leads to where the fairgrounds are located, so I focused on that particular pathway since I knew that the dog was likely going to head there and try to expose my secrets to my friends. Surprisingly, he didn't take that route when I expected him though, instead, he continued to head south toward the academy's courtyard.

The courtyard was packed full of people as there was some sort of commotion going on, but I was too occupied with saving my secrets to care about what was happening in there.

A few more people went in to see what's happening. I kept my sights at Zwei who passed through the crowd, starling those who suddenly felt something furry at their legs.

Rushing in, I did not notice Mercury leaving the scene in an apparent rush. We ended up colliding and knocking each other to the ground. Since I was still in an urgent situation, I quickly got back to my legs and helped him up. "Oh, Mercury. I'm sorry. I didn't see you there."

"Hey, no biggie. I'll be sure to watch out for you next time," He replied.

"Thanks. I really appreciate that."

He smiled before leaving. "See ya'!"

Getting back to business, I went through the crowd before seeing what all the fuss' about while looking for the dog. There were two adults in the center of the courtyard; a woman who appears to be an older version of Weiss down to the same color scheme, wielding two swords; and a middle-aged looking man with a large sword who seems to have a similar aesthetic with Ruby. While it was quite apparent, I didn't find out they were actually related to them until shortly after. That's not even mentioning a destroyed Atlesian Knight laying on the ground with its head ripped off. Why were these two fighting in the middle of a campus full of people during the festival was beyond me.

I found the dog running into the stage while the two combatants raised their weapons as they were about to strike against each other, however, they both stopped as if they were frozen in time after seeing Zwei stand between them. Zwei barked, letting go of my journal before jumping into the man's free arm.

"Zwei?" The man gave a puzzled look at him as he unsheathed his weapon and held Zwei with both of his hands. Zwei then started affectionately licking his face.

"Zwei, what are you doing out here?!" Ruby shouted from the front of the crowd; Weiss was with her too.

"Ruby?" The man turned before Ruby zoomed in and hugged him while he was still holding Zwei.

"It's good to see you too, Uncle Qrow![2]" Ruby said.

So he was her uncle? I genuinely would have mistaken him for her father had I started making assumptions earlier, he looked like he fit the bill. [3]

"Did you miss me, did you miss me?!"

The white-haired woman who Ruby's uncle battled a few seconds ago—just stood there, contemplating and not knowing what else to do. That is until she saw my journal laying on the ground and nosily picked it up.

Panicking for a bit after seeing this, I rushed in and swiped my journal from her hand the second she opened it to a random page, not really caring that she was some sort of elite soldier girl for Atlas so long as my secrets were safe. I would have asked her to just hand it to me politely but I went all this way to retrieve it from a dog that was bullying me and I was not able to calm down until it's in my hands again. "I'm sorry, but this is mine and it's private."

She frowned at me but she didn't do anything to retaliate. Weiss meanwhile, wasn't pleased in seeing this as if she was entitled to snoop around a random student's personal belongings without a warrant just because she's a high-ranking official from an influential family. At least she referred to me with my first name; she wouldn't have if we didn't make any progress to our friendship. "Jaune! You have such a nerve to disrespect my sister like tha—!"

"Stand down, Weiss." She raised her hand at Weiss, silencing her and making her step back. "I would have done the same if I was at his position. The secrecy of one's memoirs should be respected."

Though I would have preferred if she didn't bother with them, I appreciated her for understanding. "Uh, thank you."

"I apologize for that. My curiosities could get the better of me at times. Rest assured that I was barely even able to read a word from your private accounts."

"Well, that's a relief," I said, taking a reassured sigh as I put my journal in my pocket.

Now that pretty much settled how I am still able to write the very thing that is currently being read and why I haven't been burned at the stake yet since no one was still able to find out that my acts of heroism were either false or embellished. I sincerely hope that it stays that way because my life already has more problems than it should.

She stood elegantly. "In any case, you must be Arc. The Jaune Arc, I presume."

It's really that difficult to meet someone who doesn't recognize me at this point. "Yes, that's me." I nodded.

"Then it's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Winter Schnee. I hope my attempted intrusion to your private memoirs did not leave a poor impression of myself. I wasn't aware that it was something personal and sensitive."

Yeah, this is why people put unlabeled memoirs in secluded places where no one else could find them. Someone reading into this very journal because they had no idea what it was is something I feared that might happen

"Don't worry about it. It's nice to meet you too, Winter. Your sister mentioned you a few times." I said, noticing her sister make a flustered blush behind her.

"Ah yes, of course. And Weiss writes highly of you in her letters in addition to what I've heard from the news coverages about your exploits."

"Hey!" Weiss shouted, her face visibly becoming as red as her partner's cloak.

Winter continued with a slight smile while maintaining her professional military attitude. "With that, you have earned my respect. Not many boys her age is treated with such regard from her."

"Winter, please!" Weiss ran in and grabbed her arm. Looks like she is losing her cool in more ways than one.

"I believe I have said enough," Winter smirked while her sister pouted at me.

Speaking of the others, Ruby's uncle approached me, with Ruby herself holding Zwei while I noticed him glaring at me angrily. At least on her hands, he isn't going to try anything funny.

"So, this is really the kid everyone's been telling me about?" He stared at me with his red eyes beyond belief. His voice was somewhat rough and I swear I could smell alcohol from his breath. "The one which everyone keeps saying who'll win the award for Junior Huntsman of the Year?"

"Yeah, pretty much…" I said uneasily. Though, I'm still not planning on winning any awards since I don't want a trophy or medal reminding me of the crap I've gone through and all the people who have been deceived by it.

"You know, I pictured you being beefier; you would have made a nice clone of a certain friend of mine."

I gave him a confused look the second before I responded with a quip. "Your friend must really be a handsome guy."

He chuckled, "You're definitely Caiaphas' kid alright."

"Like father and son, I guess," I murmured.

"That's what they say. And just so you'd know, I wasn't talking about him; no offense but he's not blond enough to look like you." He smirked and patted my shoulder before going back to face Winter, much to my confusion on who he is talking about if he wasn't referring to my father in terms of my looks.

Winter left her sister's grasp and walked toward him until they were a couple of yards away. "Don't think we're done yet, Qrow."

"Oh, I was just getting warmed up, Ice Queen," he replied.

I stood beside Ruby and Weiss as I watched their relatives continue their battle—verbally, this time. I was wondering what was going on especially after chasing the very dog Ruby was carrying, now I am seeing this with little to no context. Zwei was still growling at me but he eventually stopped after Ruby petted him.

"What's with them?" I asked the two.

"Your guess is as good as ours," Weiss answered while Ruby just shrugged.

It's pretty bizarre witnessing your friends' relatives argue like an old married couple, [4] especially if they went as far as to start a brawl with some collateral damage as evidenced by the few cracks on the ground—while everyone watches. Thankfully, no one appeared to be hurt (robots don't count).

The two kept going at it that they were close to grabbing their weapons, but before they could go for round two, an authoritative voice boomed in the courtyard. "That's enough!"

Everyone turned their attention to General Ironwood as he stepped into the scene, accompanied by some Atlesian Knights and most interestingly—Penny. Ruby seemed pretty happy to see her again.

"General Ironwood, sir!" Winter stood upright to her superior.

"What in the world do you think you're doing?" He asked.

"He started the altercation, sir!"

"That's actually not true. She attacked first." Qrow retorted nonchalantly.

"Is that right?" The general stared at her down. Winter wasn't able to make a response apart from looking down shamefully. He looked around the area with everyone watching silently before making a glance toward me. Knowing that he has been taking interest in me for a while now and because of my last name, I was able to keep a stoic expression and conceal my anxiety while his imposing eyes stare at my own.

"And you," he then turned to Qrow, prompting him out from his relaxed stance as he approached him. "What are you doing here?"

"I could be asking you the same thing," Qrow responded.

General Ironwood was about to say something before The Great & Powerful Ozpin interjected with Miss Goodwitch following her. Of course, he still has his coffee[5] with him. "Now, now, everyone. There is a sanctioned fight happening just around the corner at the Colosseum, that I can assure you has better seats... and popcorn."

"Break it up, everyone!" Miss Goodwitch ordered the crowd before glaring at the three. "We will take care of this mess."

After a brief pause with nothing to be heard aside from a few murmurs from the crowd. General Ironwood finally decided to leave. "Let's go."

The general led his subordinates out as he quickly glanced at me with a quick nod. "Mr. Arc."

"General." I nodded back as I made a concealed gulp. He's not a bad guy per se, but given how he was quite a fan of my father and had worked with him several times in the past, there's a high chance that he will try to recruit me or something, so I should keep watching my back for him.

Winter, Penny and the Atlesian Knights followed him out of the courtyard while Penny turned back to wave at us. Ruby happily waved back before Penny caught up with her superiors. The people on the crowd murmured for a bit before dispersing back to their respective businesses as well.

"And Qrow…" Ozpin called, grabbing his attention. "A word please."

"I think I'm in trouble," Qrow whispered above Ruby.

You think? I thought as I watched Miss Goodwitch pick up a large piece of the ground that was lying around and placed it back where it came from. Whatever just happened could have been easily avoided if everyone simply acted like rational human beings. But apparently, The Brother Gods decided that there wasn't enough craziness today even though there were already a few bones broken at the tournament.

"You did kinda tear up our courtyard," she replied.

"Yeah, I did." He winked at her and they gave each other a fist bump before leaving "Catch ya' later, kid."

"And suddenly, your recklessness makes sense," Weiss remarked to Ruby.

Ruby petted Zwei before a thought suddenly came to her mind. "Hey Jaune, why did Zwei come here with your journal?"

I gave a nervous chuckle as I thought for an answer. I looked at Zwei who still had the urge to pounce at me. I gave him a subtle glare before sorta answering Ruby's question. "Err… I think he was just playing around."

"Some games he play," Weiss remarked.

I mostly agree with that sentiment, but aside from that, all I could answer without mentioning animals' hatred for me was a simple shrug.

Pyrrha, Nora, and Yang then suddenly rushed at the moment I was about to forget about everything that led me here.

"Jaune, Ren told us that you needed some help!" Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, what's the situation?" Yang asked before raising a brow at Ruby carrying Zwei. "And what's he doing here?"

Better late than never. Otherwise, things would have been a little more awkward. They were better off missing most of what just happened. "Don't worry, everything is fine now. Sorry if I scared you."

All of them sighed in relief, except for Nora who was still aching for some action. "That sucks, I was hoping to smash something when I heard you were in trouble."

I can sense that she's banned from playing Whack-A-Creep again, isn't she?

"I believe there's been enough of that for today," Weiss stated.

"So what's…" Yang looked around and saw some of the fractures on the ground that came from the recent battle. "…cracking?"

"Just a little family reunion," Weiss replied nonchalantly as if nothing disastrous just occurred.

Ruby, meanwhile, answered candidly. "Uncle Qrow is here, and so is Weiss' sister."

"Uncle's Qrow is here? Really?!" burst Yang. "Where is he now then?"

"He went with Ozpin to talk about something, but don't worry, I'm sure he'll come by when he's done," Ruby answered. "You should have seen him fight Weiss' sister. It was so cool! But then they have to stop when Zwei suddenly came in."

At least, she left out the part that involved my journal. Trying to explain that to them was something I didn't need.

Yang was rather surprised to hear about that. "Hold on. He fought Weiss' sister?!"

"Well, he provoked her," Weiss said. I still thought it was avoidable. No offense to them or anything, but I expected the Schnees to know better than starting fights in a place full of bystanders. "Don't worry, it wasn't too serious, at least for the most part."

"Don't tell me he's still drunk," Yang grumbled.

"He was drunk?!" gasped Weiss. Seeing the way he moves and speaks, I would have been more surprised if he wasn't.

Yang raised her brow. "You haven't noticed that, Ice Queen?"

"No wonder why his breath smelled terrible!"

"It's also funny how Uncle Qrow also calls her Ice Queen," Ruby added.

That seemed to have disappointed Yang. "So she's an older Ice Queen? Can't really imagine that. I thought she'd be cool to hang out with, bond about being big sisters and stuff."

"I mean, she's kinda cool actually," Ruby admitted. "She fights with two swords and even has the same semblance as Weiss!"

"So your glyphs were family inherited? I got to admit, that's actually pretty neat especially since your semblance is pretty handy." Yang said to Weiss.

"I agree. Family-Inherited semblances are quite rare." Pyrrha chimed in. "The fact that your family is possessing a remarkable one is a blessing in itself."

"It's all in the family." Weiss proudly said.

"Or judging by what happened recently, it's brawl in the family." Yang grinned, followed by a few groans.

Weiss raised her brow, understandably unimpressed by that joke. "Can you even call that a joke?"

"Hey, you gotta admit, that was good."

"If you think that was good, then consider raising your standards."

"Tough crowd," Yang muttered. Not really, we're just maintaining our good sense of humor.

"Hey, Jaune." Nora called, "Doesn't it make you think that you might have the same semblance as your parents?"

As much as I would love to have my instincts make me practically invincible or being basically fireproof, there is a very slim chance that it's the case. Besides, the latter was already proven a few years ago, and I really don't want to recount that moment.

"I don't know, Nora. All of my sisters have theirs unlocked and none of them remotely resembles either of my parents."

"Maybe it's a different case for you. We should try it out!" Nora smirked, cracking her knuckles.

I restrained her before she was able to do soemthing. "No-no-no-no-no, Nor. That would be for another day."

"So Weiss. If I remember correctly, your sister's name is Winter, right?"

"Yes," Weiss answered, her eyes still narrowed at her. "What are you trying to say now?"

"It's just that, you can now say that Winter is in Vale."

I heard crickets chirp as everyone stares at her dumbfounded while she waits for someone to laugh at her sorry excuse of a joke. I just had to respond with something that couldn't be as horrendous as whatever that was. "It hasn't gotten any cooler, Yang. And by the sound of it, neither did your jokes." It was a little harsh, but someone had to say it.

The others giggled, I even made Weiss chuckle at that quip. Yang meanwhile, laughs it off like a good sport before grabbing me by my collar as I saw her eyes turn red. "If that wasn't clever, I would have ravaged you for that."

If we're being honest, she's totally jealous that I'm much better at making witty remarks than her. Hell, I think everyone is a comedic genius compared to her by default, of course, that wouldn't be a smart thing to say at the circumstance. "Noted."

Her eyes blinked back to their normal lilac colors as she let me go. Nora, who was ready to lunge at Yang for abruptly seizing her 'fearless' leader, stepped back after that, which was a relief because I've seen enough fights for today.

After it was decided that there was nothing left to do there, we went back to our separate businesses. Zwei looked back and gave me one last growl as Ruby carried him out followed by her teammates. I responded by pointing my own eyes with two fingers before pointing at him, telling him that I will keep watch of him and remember this. After that, Pyrrha and Nora went back to the fairgrounds while I returned to my dorm and filled out what just happened.

For a time that should be fun and peaceful barring a competition that makes schoolchildren spill each other's blood, there are still plenty of things to look out for. It just shows that I will never truly rest until I'm done with this whole mess. The worst part is, judging by my actions, I am not making it any easier. But hey, what else could I do?

=o=

1. The Gallican police code for grand theft. Jaune's other entries indicate that he learned police codes from Rose Arc and his father, both of whom worked part-time with Pucelle's sheriff department.

2. Humorously, earlier spellings of Qrow Branwen's first name in Jaune's raw writings including the ones in this very chapter are all misspelled as 'Crow'. This is coming from someone whose name was commonly misspelled until becoming much more renowned that such errors became increasingly rare.

3. Despite the resemblance and the close relationship between the two that spawned several rumors (or nonsensical hearsay if I were to be blunt), Qrow had stated multiple times that he did not father Ruby and he had no intimate relationship with Summer Rose…

4. …Let alone my sister, Gods forbid.

5. They're still hot chocolate, in case anyone forgot.

---

And that's Day One of the Vytal Tournament, boys and girls. I hoped you enjoyed it.

You might notice Ironwood suddenly taking interest in Jaune, the reason is already explained so it's not necessary for me to repeat that aside from the fact most of their interactions took place in between chapters. I regret not making scenes of them interacting prior since it made perfect sense for both of their characters, so I'll make it up for a later chapter and maybe in a short extra.