Alright first fight scene of the story. This is another long chapter so strap in.

It was roughly midday on a Saturday and team FHSI's dorm was very quiet. Iskandar had left about an hour ago to spar with Yang in the arena and Syrian left earlier in the morning to meditate. That left Falcon and Hayate alone together. While Falcon quietly sketched a new weapon, Hayate sat slumped over at his desk. He was meant to be doing schoolwork as Falcon had instructed but he was struggling. Falcon was sure that if Hayate tried, he'd get through his work easily. The only problem is that he didn't try enough. Hayate would much rather be out fighting someone or something, a mindset that Falcon wasn't too fond of and he made that clear to Hayate. It was their most common argument, one that they would likely have many more times. But Falcon had noticed Hayate's bored state and, after a lot of contemplation as to what this might to do the teams overall grade, decided to let Hayate finish up and go spar in the arena. Falcon closed his sketchbook.

"Hayate." Hayate stirred before turning to his leader. "You've been at it for a while, why don't we head to the sparring arena?"

"About time! I thought you'd never give me a break!" Hayate had already packed up his books and had grabbed Jetstream from where it had been sitting next to his desk. He never let the thing get more than a couple metres away from him, Falcon had seen it resting by his bedside while he slept. Falcon grabbed his staff, Avery, and headed for the door, with Hayate following behind, looking roughly 20 times more excited than he had a few moments ago.

X-X-X-X-X

When the duo got to the arena Jaune and Pyrrha were already there, Blake was there too, obviously waiting for Yang. Pyrrha seemed to just be training Jaune, and not actually trying to fight him, just set up situations for him. Pyrrha noticed the two walk in and finished with Jaune.

"Hello Hayate, hello Falcon." she said cheerfully.

"Hey Pyrrha. You up for that sparring match now?" asked Hayate, his hand on Jetstreams sheath which Falcon now knew was called Blitz. Even though they were teammates, it was a bit awkward to stand opposite Hayate in a conversation nowadays after the revelation that he could shoot his sword, and he nearly always had his hand near the trigger.

"Certainly." she replied. Falcon watched Jaune wander out of the arena towards where Blake was sitting and decided to join them.

"Hey Jaune, hey Blake." he said, taking a seat next to them.

"Oh hey Falcon" they replied in unison.

"So where's Ren and Nora?" Falcon asked Jaune as he watched Hayate square up with Pyrhha.

"I think they went out this morning to meditate with Syrian. Nora didn't seem too happy about the early start." Falcon didn't reply. He was eager to see Hayate fight. He had obviously seen Hayate fight before, they had been on missions together. But this was different, this is Pyrrha Nikos, a champion fighter, and Falcon was eager to analyze both Hayate's and Pyrrha's moves. This will be my chance to see him get properly serious, and to see the champion of Mistral show her skills, he thought with mild excitement.

They both stood in a fighting stance, Hayate's hand on Jetstream's sheath, Pyrrha with Milo in hand, shield on her back. In a flash Hayate fired Blitz, sending Jetstream soaring towards Pyrrha and then leapt at it to slash at Pyrrha in mid air. But Pyrrha was fast and dodged out of the way before landing some shots on Hayate, causing him to grimace. He turned and started blocking her attacks, however, he was swiftly overwhelmed as she was also using her shield to attack, so Hayate was trying to defend from two angles. Hayate leapt back with a slash from Jetstream, knocking Pyrrha's shield aside, before jumping back towards her and hitting her a few times before Pyrrha started overwhelming him again. It was clear that Hayate was more of an offensive fighter, defence wasn't his specialty, especially against a dual wielder like Pyrrha. This time when Hayate leapt back, he stayed back, using his sheath to shoot at Pyrrha a couple times. As they'd found out, Hayate's sheath also doubled as an actual gun, albeit a relatively close range one. Pyrrha transformed her spear into a rifle and took some pot shots at Hayate too, one of which shot Jetstream out of Hayate's hand. He glanced at his now weaponless hand and Falcon saw him clench his fist in annoyance. Pyrrha took this as an opportunity to attack, leaping towards Hayate, spear in hand. Hayate dodged and shot at Pyrrha, shooting her shield out of her hand, Pyrrha used her semblance to summon her shield back and then had an idea. She put her shield on her back and reached a hand towards Jetstream. Nothing. Hayate chuckled.

"Nice try." He then held his hand out and Jetstream flew back into it at speed.t. Pyrrha looked puzzled, but decided to question it later as she lunged towards Hayate. Hayate met her attack fiercely then began to attack harder than before, holding his ground significantly better now that he was on the attack. Pyrrha's shield let her put up an admirable defence however and the two continued to fight more or less evenly. Hayate would force Pyrrha to leap back, then shoot Jetstream at her before recalling the sword to his hand via his semblance. At one point, Hayate handed a solid kick to Pyrrha's midsection. Even though he was clearly in favour of his weapon, Hayate was no slouch in hand to hand. His punches were good, but his kicks were deadly and he threw both in with his swordplay when he had the chance. Following up from his kick, Hayate lightly tossed Jetstream up into the air, then leaned forward and placed a hand on the ground. This action was met with raised eyebrows. The young Blacksteel then threw his legs around in a sweep attack, using his hand to brace. As his kick began, Jetstream flew down and seemingly connected itself to his boot, turning his sweep kick into a wide sword slash. Pyrrha had been prepared to simply block his kick with her own leg, so the move caught her off guard and she took a hit to her calf.

Hayate's style is quite different, Falcon thought to himself. He fights both with trained technique and with such unorthodox moves. A skilled combatant, yet unpredictable. No wonder he's lasted so long against a champion, he returned his attention to the fight. Hayate then leapt back to his feet and gave a cocky smile, at which point Falcon rolled his eyes, but it was quickly replaced with a look of focus as he guarded a strike from Pyrrha and struggled against her strength, trying to push back. Eventually they leapt apart, then back at each other to continue their clashing. Despite Hayate's evident skill, Pyrrha still had the general upper hand, taking less hits than her opponent. Hayate then jumped back away from their latest clash and sheathed his sword. Falcon looked with curiosity as Hayate adopted his stance that he used when already wielding the sword. As Falcon had observed, Hayate had two distinct stances. One had his left foot slightly forward with knees bent, this was the telltale sign that he was going to shoot Jetstream from its sheath. He entered this stance whenever he fired from the hip, yet he wasn't doing it now. His stance had his right foot further forward, knees bent noticeable and it was a wider stance than his alternative one. It was how he stood when fighting, yet no sword was drawn here. What he did next pulled Falcon out of his analytical state. He raised one hand and gestured to Pyrrha in a "come at me" way, a confident smirk on his face. Falcon had seen Hayate's taunting style before. He'd get his opponent riled up so they'd be more careless in battle and drop their guard. As irritating of a strategy as it was, it had worked for Hayate before. However, Falcon never thought he'd have the audacity to use it against Pyrrha Nikos, the same woman who had basically had the upper hand for most of the fight.

"I'm partnered with an idiot" Falcon muttered, not looking forward to seeing Hayate get stomped thanks to his inability to take something seriously. Pyrrha took his challenge and leapt at him with speed. However, what came next happened so quickly that Falcon, even with his eyes, was unsure that he'd witnessed it properly. Hayate fired Jetstream, sending the sword out as he had before. However, this time he grabbed the sword as it fired and swung with it in an upwards diagonal slash from left to right. The attack was blindingly fast and with great force and Pyrrha had too much momentum to avoid the hit. Her weapon went flying out of her hands and she went tumbling backwards. Hayate remained still in his post-slash pose for a moment, then resumed his regular fighting stance, grinning in excitement. Falcon was rather shocked, Hayate had actually managed to knock Pyrrha over. Such a feat was pretty remarkable and Falcon was reminded why he valued Hayate being on his team. In terms of schoolwork, he could've done better, but in a fight he was a damned good warrior. Despite the hit, Pyrrha still had plenty of Aura left and she got to her feet quickly. She called Milo back to her hand with her semblance and engaged Hayate in combat again, but this time seemed to fight more cautiously. Hayate didn't try his quickdraw slash trick again, seemingly not having another opportunity to do so in the same manner. However, despite Hayate's best efforts, Pyrrha emerged the winner of the bout. Hayate had landed several hits, even knocked her over with his quickdraw attack, but her endurance and sheer skill had outlasted him and he'd gone down in the end after she launched him into the air and smashed him into the ground. Despite this loss, when Pyrrha helped him to his feet, Hayate was grinning. Falcon was somewhat surprised at this, he'd expected Hayate to take losing a bit harder than this.

"That was a wonderful match Hayate. You are truly a talented fighter." Pyrrha complimented as she steadied him. Hayate smiled at her praise.

"I should be saying that to you. Best fight I've ever had" he replied. "I knew you'd be good, but damn. You really are amazing Pyrrha" he added, earning a smile in return from the red haired champion. "Can we do this again sometime?" he asked, almost like a kid wanting to go on an amusement park ride again, or at least that was how Falcon interpreted it.

"That sounds lovely" Pyrrha replied cheerfully and as Hayate shakily got used to walking again, the two left the arena in good spirits.

As the two returned from the arena Pyrrha asked Hayate about his sword. "How come you were able to call your sword back when I wasn't able to control it?"

Hayate absentmindedly put his hand on the actual hilt of Jetstream "Well Pyrrha, Jetstream is made out of a rare material found only on an island southeast of Vale. It's called 'blacksteel' and my family has mined it for generations, hence my last name. All our family use weapons made of it, not just swords, but spears, shields, I think one guy made a sledgehammer once. My semblance is a hereditary one, Blacksteel Bond is what we call it. It allows me to control anything with any amount of blacksteel in it. That's how I did those crazy moves back there, and how I recall my sword back to my hand" he explained keenly. Weapons were a subject that he did take great interest in, as Falcon had heard plenty of talks like this in the time he'd known him, largely when he and Ruby would be geeking out together. This was new information to Falcon, he hadn't realized that Hayate's semblance allowed him to control one specific type of metal. Perhaps blacksteel arrows would be a worthy investment.

"So I guess I can't control blacksteel then" commented Pyrrha. Her polarity semblance gave her a large advantage in most spars seeing as she could control the opponents weapons if it were metal.

"Guess not, makes things more interesting" Hayate replied. "So Falcon, hope you enjoyed the show. I guess it's your turn to get out there, right?" Hayate asked as he turned to the man in question Falcon looked confused, he was only there to spectate, and would much rather not fight unless absolutely necessary.

"I think I'll pass." said Falcon wearily. "Plus, I don't have anyone to spar."

"I'll do it." Falcon turned to see Blake next to him. He let out a sigh.

"Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen you fight Falcon." stated Pyrrha, Jaune nodding in agreement.

"You're in for a pretty good time." said Hayate. "I'll tell you one thing, it's a whole lot different from how I fight, that's for sure". Blake nodded.

"Then it's settled, Falcon and I will spar," and like that, she walked off to get ready. Falcon groaned in annoyance but decided to keep his friends happy.