So, I had a lovely lunch break in the shithole town I work in today where some twat on a bicycle tried to knife me. Fun, fun, fun. Just two of them riding around in a parking lot in a shopping centre knocking people over, riding into the shops and basically cackling like morons as the security guards tried to chase them. One rode by me and tried to slap me in the face so I, quite reasonably, caught his arm and hauled him off his bike.

And he, being a 16 year old idiot hyped up on speed, M-cat or whatever other stupid drugs go around this deadbeat town, came up spitting abuse and trying to swing a knife for my face. Luckily I didn't have to do anything other than step back, let it miss, and then let the security guards pile the asshole to the floor (all while his mate shouted abuse and pedalled away like an idiot), but still, fuck this place! I was only after a mother's day gift.

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: Kegi Springfield

Chapter 57

Ruby and Blake made for a strange sight as they each slumped over the counter of a small noodle bar, empty bowls before them. It wasn't so much the complete exhaustion, although that did generate a few strange looks from the man behind the counter, but rather the fact that the two, who weren't even teammates, were out together at the carnival at all. Of all the people Ruby knew in Beacon, Blake was easily the least easy to talk to when you were socially awkward.

But there were always similarities to be found if you looked hard enough.

"Nora is a nightmare," Blake groaned. "I'm not sure which is worse any more, her thinking I'm after Ren or that I need help socialising."

"Weiss is just as bad," Ruby complained. "Don't eat now; matches start in four hours and we need you ready. Don't touch your weapon. Don't drink juice when there's water available. Eat a healthier breakfast. Have you done your homework?" She sighed into her arms. "I barely escaped with my life. We don't even know if we're fighting today!" The first rounds would be split over two days, after all, due to the number of fights involved. The progressive ones would take less time as teams were knocked out.

"It's a roulette system, I think," Blake said. "None of us will know if we're fighting today until we're actually there."

"I know, but try telling that to Weiss." Ruby placed her hands on her hips and made a passable impression of her team leader. "We need to prepare for every eventuality. That means we need to sit down and consider every single possible combination of battlefields, every combination of teams we might face and our plans for beating them. If we start now it'll only take twenty-five years." She slumped, head on the counter. "It sucks, Blake. It sucks!"

"Planning isn't necessarily a bad thing. What are you going to do if you end up against a team who has an advantage due to terrain?"

"Throw Pyrrha at them," Ruby said, completely serious.

Blake opened her mouth to argue, but was forced to close it a second later. She tried to think up a scenario where throwing the overly-skilled and competent champion wouldn't be a good solution and came up blank. "Well, this whole tournament suddenly feels a lot less winnable…" She slapped a fist into her palm. "Ah! What if you end up against someone who has a Semblance that can knock her out instantly?"

"Use Jaune as a human shield and have him walk forward tanking it with Pyrrha hiding behind."

"…" Blake sighed. "Your team is stupid."

"Sorry."

"What are your teammates up to, anyway?" Blake asked, changing the subject before her already diminished confidence took a further nose dive.

"Jaune's on a date with Yang," Ruby said. "And Pyrrha is Pyrrha. She's perfect, so her homework is already done and she's already the best fighter in Beacon." She stuck her tongue out at that. Pyrrha was awesome, don't get her wrong, but when you were already two years younger than everyone else, being partnered with the best wasn't exactly good for comparison.

"Ugh," Blake complained. "Teammates…"

Ruby agreed. "Teammates…"

The camaraderie was odd, but not unwelcome. The first rounds of fights were planned for later in the day, but there was still plenty of time left for that to happen, with the tournament being sort of the climax of the carnival and thus in the afternoon. Classes were off, obviously, and that left them with a vast amount of free time and not much to do with it. Training was out, since if you got tired or an injury this close to the big fight; you'd be the laughing stock of Remnant. Couldn't go into Vale because the air traffic was stupid and you didn't even want to know what Miss Goodwitch would do if you missed your fight, and you couldn't stay back in Beacon because Nora.

Caught between Nora and a hard place, Blake had fled to the carnival to hide in the stands, and Ruby, doing the exact same but with Weiss, had bumped into her. Cue their hiding together at a noodle stand while their teammates looked for them.

"We should probably hang out," Ruby said, thinking that if Weiss found her she might be able to run faster than Blake could thanks to her semblance.

"I agree," Blake said, looking Ruby up and down and clearly judging that she could trip the girl up and sacrifice her if Nora found them. "I don't suppose there was anything you wanted to do today, was there?"

"Avoid the games stalls."

"Really? I thought you'd like those."

"I do, but Yang and Jaune are there," she explained.

"Ah, you don't want to intrude. That's kind of you."

"More like I don't want to be a third wheel," Ruby mumbled, "but sure, let's go with kindness. What about you, did you have anything you wanted to do?"

"Apart from avoid Nora and Ren, no." Blake ran a hand through her hair, ignoring the way the bell on her collar tinkled. When she saw Ruby's confused look, she explained a little more. "Ren is fine, but he's more than aware Nora gets distracted and focuses on me. Don't be fooled by the calm demeanour. He's more than willing to use me as a shield to save himself the crazy."

"Wow," Ruby said, not really having expected that of someone like Ren. "Dad always did say it was the quiet ones you had to watch out for. And the confident ones," she added, "and boys in general."

"Protective much?"

Ruby laughed. "Nah, he just liked to scare off any boys who came near me or Yang."

Blake blinked, clearly trying to figure out if Ruby was being sarcastic or not, and whether she should point out the fallacy in that statement. She thought better of it, however, shrugging her shoulders. Ruby was odd, but she wasn't Nora. That meant she was perfect, whatever her faults. "Well, I wouldn't mind picking up some things from the shops," she said. "Want to come with?"

"Will Weiss be there?" Ruby asked.

"And buy something from a non-branded shop? I think not."

Ruby grinned. "Then let's go."

The carnival, or festival, whatever people wanted to call it, took up a pretty large part of both Beacon and Amity. There were also loads of celebrations in Vale, too, but the majority of the stuff was out of the city. It was broken into sections, organised roughly around themes like entertainment, shopping, and cultural stuff like history re-enactments and shows of Vacuo fire dancing and Atlas dust crafting. There were food courts spread throughout the whole place.

The shopping section was basically a big square of tents and marquees, some larger than others, and all selling a wide array of goods. Some were cultural again, like shirts and clothing of fashion from the other kingdoms, while others were just general tat like kid's toys or balloons. More was tournament-focused, and Ruby actually considered buying one of the flags with Pyrrha's face on it. It would have been funny to see her partner's reaction.

In the end they visited a few smaller stores selling equipment, and Ruby was able to get some special lubricant oil from Vacuo – which earned very worried looks from Blake for some reason.

"It's for Crescent Rose," she explained.

"Ruby, that's… you know what, never mind. Please just don't let Yang know you bought it with me. Do you mind if we stop at the book store? I want to see if the latest in one of my series is out."

"Sure thing." Books weren't really her thing, other than comics. Luckily the pavilion Blake took her to knew its target audience, and coming to Beacon for a festival had a huge stand dedicated to huntsman and huntress-based comic books. Blake laughed when she saw the look on Ruby's face.

"I guess I'll leave you here. I'll be over in the adult section if you need me."

"The boring section," Ruby recounted, eyes glazed over. "Got it."

Ruby didn't react as Blake rolled her eyes and wandered off. She scanned the comics, all the while running through funds in her head and trying to figure out how many she could afford. Some of these were titles she'd never heard of, most being from Mistral. They looked awesome.

Where's Jaune when I need him? He could buy me loads… no, no, no. No taking advantage of him. Maybe Weiss… no. Bad Ruby!

She'd just have to be picky. Since other people in the store were flicking through books and reading a few pages and the shopkeeper, an elderly woman, didn't seem to mind, she did the same, choosing a comic off the rack with a young woman fighting off a Beowolf. Yang had once laughed and asked why that appealed since it was what they did themselves, but she didn't understand.

It wasn't about fantasy worlds or different universes, but about an awesome heroine – or hero – rising past adversity to kick butt and save the world. Ruby flicked through the first few pages, eyes widening as she read the intro.

Wow, Mistral comics were a lot more brutal than Vale ones. In a good way. There was actual violence or at least more than what you'd see in a normal comic. It was against Grimm, of course, but the heroine was already bloody and exhausted, with a determined look on her face. Most of the Vale heroes she read about basically beat everyone and never got dirty doing it. This one felt more realistic.

"Mistral is so cool…"

It took five minutes to read through the first quarter of it, and she only stopped when she realised she was actually reading it all and not skimming. The story looked pretty good – it was about a girl whose parents were killed by Grimm, and she then went on a campaign of revenge, tempered by a friend who didn't want to see her walk a dark path. It held promise, and seemed way better than the `hero kill Grimm` comics she was used to. She tossed it in a small plastic basket and looked through a few more on the shelf.

This was torture; they were all so good! She had to pick through them carefully, putting some back that she really wanted to buy. "Maybe Pyrrha will know somewhere in Mistral I can order them from," she said, finally counting up six comics and not a single one more.

I'd better go find Blake before I cave and buy some more, she thought, hurrying away. It was too much of a temptation otherwise, and she still had to save some lien for dust and any repairs Crescent Rose might need if it got damaged in the tournament. Ruby tore her eyes away and marched toward where Blake would be, peeking around aisles to try and find her,

It didn't take long. Blake was stood before a stand of books that all had concealed covers, as in the books had little strips of black over them, preventing people from seeing them. The not-so-secret faunus stood with hunched shoulders, body turned just slightly so that it was hard to see her face as she read through a book. Like Ruby, she had a basket with a few others by her side, and again like her, it wasn't empty.

Call her socially awkward but she wasn't an idiot. Blake looked like she might freak if she just jogged up and said hi. Ruby backed away and drew out her scroll instead, sending a quick message to say she was done and to ask if Blake was. At least that way there wouldn't be any nasty surprises. "Heh, I'm so clever," she self-congratulated, putting the scroll away. This way Blake could come find her and there wouldn't be any awkwardness or embarrassment.

She was about to hurry back to the comics section when something caught her eye. The section she was in, the mature – or boring section – actually had a rack of comics as well. Huh, that's weird. I thought adult book shops were always just boring. I didn't know they had comics, too. Sweet. Blake was probably still distracted, so she slipped over and stood on tip toes to peek at some of them.

They looked similar to the comics she'd looked at before, again with huntresses on the cover, except that they seemed to be really overly-formed, and the outfits they wore didn't seem entirely practical. Ruby looked at one where the heroine was basically just wearing a bra and her underwear. "I guess it wouldn't restrict her movement," she mused. Plus, aura would protect her exposed skin. Maybe the cover had a point.

Another quickly caught her attention, however. It featured a girl – a huntress – standing with a huge sword gripped in two hands. Her skirt was torn, her top near ripped in two, and opposite her stood a huge figure, black in colour with bright red eyes. Behind him, and surrounding the girl, numerous tentacles hovered.

"Is that…?"

It was close, though not quite perfect. Focus a little more on the hair and the face, and limit the tentacles to four instead of around twenty and it would have been Hentacle. Still, it was really similar, and a dormant curiosity came back to niggle at the forefront of her mind. It was just a comic, she told herself. Weiss always did tell her she should read more…

She spared a quick glance left and right. Everyone was distracted and she could still see Blake's bow peeking over the top of a nearby aisle. With that in mind, Ruby snatched the comic and stuffed it into her basket, replacing it with one of the ones she'd chosen earlier. No one would notice and even though she wasn't technically old enough to buy it, she was still a student of Beacon. The woman at the till would just need to see her Beacon ID, and she'd then assume her as being seventeen.

"Ruby?" Blake called. "Ruby, are you there?"

"Over here, Blake!"

"There you are," Blake smiled, following the noise. "I got your message. Sorry about taking so long. There are a lot of really good books here."

"Yeah, I know." She hoisted her basket and laughed nervously. "I got a few as well."

"Comics?"

"Hey, they're still books!"

"I think Weiss would disagree," Blake teased. "But she's not here, so I won't. Come on, let's pay and get out of here. Yang would have my head if she caught me bringing you into this section of the store."

"The adult section?" Ruby asked innocently.

"Shh, shh, not so loud!" Blake's cheeks were red and she ducked her head, trying to hide away.

"It's just books, Blake." She rolled her eyes and tugged her friend along. "Besides, we're practically adults now anyway. You shouldn't feel embarrassed about reading what everyone else does."

"What do you think adult books are, Ruby?" she asked.

"Books for adults," Ruby said, rather plainly. "Duh."

Seriously, Blake could be so weird sometimes, especially when she let out a huge sigh of relief and straightened back up, leading them over to the till. She even kept her books hidden as she bought them, blocking Ruby's view as she hid them over. If she hadn't she might have seen the book Ruby bought, but she didn't.

The shopkeeper did, and looked about ready to ask for her age before she saw the Beacon ID and nodded. "It's a particular favourite of mine as well," the woman said, winking. "You'll have fun with this one, believe me."

"What was that about?" Blake asked curiously when they stepped out.

"I-I dunno. Maybe she likes comics. Hey look, it's nearly time for the first rounds. We should go back to Beacon and hide - I mean stash – these books. We'd just have to leave them somewhere if we have to fight, right?"

"I suppose you're right. I need to find a good spot to hide mine."

"You mean stash?"

"No," Blake said. "Uh… I mean, well, it's not like I have to hide my books for any reason, but Nora would get them messy, you know? It's not like there's anything wrong with them."

"Yeah, mine either," Ruby said. "I have to hide mine because Weiss would see them and decide they're not educational. It's not like I actually have anything I shouldn't."

Blake and Ruby stared at one another for a long moment.

"Help me hide mine and I'll help you hide yours?" Blake offered.

"Deal."

/-/

"Where are they!?" Weiss hissed.

"I'm sure they'll be here any moment," Pyrrha said, seeking to calm her down. It wasn't very successful.

"I'd certainly hope so, since you know, the whole tournament is about to begin any moment. If those idiots are late I swear to any gods in this world I will make them suffer!" Despite the angry words, Weiss paced about nervously, often raising her nails to her lips before she thought better of it and played with her skirt. "Damn it. Don't they know my sister is watching this? What kind of message will I be sending if I have to go out there and fight with just the two of us!?"

"Um-"

"We'll still win, of course," Weiss said. "Because, you know, you. But still, it's the thought of the matter!"

"I'm sure the competition won't be that simple," Pyrrha defended, feeling equal parts awkward and maybe even a little sympathetic for the other competitors Weiss had so easily dismissed. "I'm good, but I'm not that good."

"Whatever you say. Ah, finally!"

"Yo!" Yang called, strolling toward them with Jaune beside her. She had two large stuffed animals in hand, one beneath each armpit and pinned to her side. When she got close she tossed one to, or at, Weiss, which the heiress caught.

"What on Remnant is this for?"

"Jaune won it for you," Yang said, grinning. "At least that's the story if your sister asks."

Weiss groaned and eyed the thing warily. "Ugh. I see your point…"

"Is that any way to react to your boyfriend winning you a prize? You should be hugging it against you and blushing."

"You're not blushing," Weiss snapped, eyeing the blonde. "No, don't even start; this is completely inconsequential to the matter at hand. Have either of you seen Ruby anywhere? What are we going to do if she isn't here and we're forced to compete!?"

"Have Pyrrha handle it?" Yang suggested, jerking a thumb in the redhead's direction.

"I really think you're over-exaggerating my skill level here…"

"Sure, and I bet everyone here doesn't have metal weapons," Yang drawled, earning a flush of colour from the other girl. "You realise bookies aren't even taking bets on you. I checked."

"That's-" Pyrrha's eyes widened. "Oh look, a distraction. I mean, look, Ruby."

"We're here!" Ruby shouted, approaching with Blake of all people and smiling widely. "Whoo. Made it with time to spare."

"No, you did not!" Weiss snapped. "You are late."

Ruby checked her scroll. "There's still fifteen minutes until the first match…"

"That is late, you dolt. I explicitly said to be here half an hour before in case something went wrong. We've lost valuable time we could have used to strategize against our opponents. I swear, I try my hardest to be the leader this team needs and nothing I say works its way into your-"

"So, yeah, Jaune took a few tries – like twenty – but he eventually got the ball through the hoop," Yang said, showing Ruby her lion-teddy. "Then it was, like, another thirty tries to win Weiss the penguin."

"Sounds about right," Ruby giggled.

Weiss' eye twitched. Pyrrha nervously stepped away.

Luckily for Ruby, and possibly for everyone with a working pair of ear drums in the vicinity, Ren and Nora arrived at last, bringing the two teams to completion. It was enough even to distract Weiss, mostly because Nora arrived cheering wildly and waving her weapon above her head.

"Heyooo!" she called. "The main characters are here at last!"

"Main characters?" Yang looked vaguely amused. "Whatever. You two cut it close. Where were you?"

"Making up plans to beat Pyrrha," Nora chimed. "I think I've got it."

"I've told you we can't go with that plan, Nora," Ren sighed. "You can't break both of Pyrrha's legs."

"Actually, she can," the girl in question answered, not quite as worried by the threat as she perhaps ought to have been. "There aren't any rules against debilitating attacks in the tournament, so if she can manage it then feel free."

"See? I told you she'd be cool with it." Nora smiled and gripped her hammer, turning to Pyrrha. "Now, stand still. It'll hurt less this way."

Pyrrha blinked and, contrary to the suggestion, backed away. "I meant it would be allowed during the bouts…"

"Aww…"

A PA system within the competitor sections of the stand came to life, informing them to head to their seats and prepare for the tournament to begin. The stadium itself was huge, seating tens of thousands, but there was a small section by the front – prime seat space – for students who were competing. Those who attended one of the schools but weren't competing sat further behind.

"Front row seats," Yang cheered, stealing one and lounging out across three more. "Sheesh, and look how empty this section is. It's sweet."

"I'll admit it's pleasant not to be crammed shoulder to shoulder like some are," Weiss commented, placing her stuffed toy down on one seat and sitting next to it. "We do have a good view of the arena as well, though it is rather close to the ground."

"Yeah, we might not have a good view if the arena is tall," Ruby said, "but there's always that," she added, pointing to the huge display screen that took up a good part of all four of the stands. There was one on each, providing a perfect view for anyone on any stand, as well as numerous cameras on automated lines running around the arena itself.

"There's a lot of people here," Jaune said. "More than I expected…"

"Nervous? I didn't think you'd get stage fright."

"It's not that." He bit his lip and scratched his arm with the other. Ruby wasn't sure, but he looked out of it, almost distracted. "It's nothing," he said. "I'll be fine. I have to be."

She was about to ask what he meant but for the tournament's first round being announced, and the huge roulette system beginning to turn. Concern took a back seat at that, the excitement building to a fever pitch as literally every single competing student leaned forward, gripping the railings or seats in front of them.

It seemed to go on forever – and Port and Oobleck's commentary hardly helped. Eventually, the first one stopped. It was Team RYBN, Yang's team.

"First ones out?" Blake sighed. "Talk about pressure…"

Ruby saw Yang grip the railing, fingers turning white.

The second dial stopped.

Team CRDL.

"Yes!" Yang yelled, pumping a fist in the air. "Not Pyrrha!"

"H-Hey now," the redhead chimed.

"Sweet!" Cardin howled, several rows down from them. "We didn't get Nikos!"

Pyrrha threw her arms in the air. "Oh, come on!"

/-/

Jaune's finger tapped rapidly on the railing as he watched the battlefield be selected for the fight, both Team RYBN and CRDL now stood in the centre and watching in awe as the ground around them shifted. It was impressive, he'd happily admit, and the crowd clearly loved the spectacle, but there was too much on his mind to really process it, let alone enjoy the fight.

He was surrounded by people…

People in numbers greater than he could have ever imagined – thousands, maybe even tens of thousands. Their thoughts washed over him like a tidal wave, as did their noise as they cheered and screamed. Jaune swallowed and wiped some sweat from his brow. There was nothing yet that had even started to niggle on him; no anger, sadness, or negativity.

But the potential was there – and that terrified him.

"Just concentrate," Remy said, sensing his distress. "This is… it's dangerous, but you can get through it. Focus on cheering people on. Like Penny. She's competing."

"Or Yang, since she is my girlfriend…"

"Or her…" Remy suddenly sounded much less interested. "Heads up, but I think someone is staring at you."

Remy's warning was all he needed to sense it too, and he turned his head subtly, catching Cinder's gaze on him. She didn't recoil at being caught, and instead nodded her head slowly. So, she was aware of the danger too, and as worried as he.

Hopefully she'd have a plan in case the worst case scenario came to pass. Maybe she could help him escape, or just see if he was being overwhelmed and get him out of the area as quickly as possible.

"Nothing bad should happen. This whole festival is supposed to be about making people happy, so I'll be fine. Even if a few people lose bets and feel upset, their negativity will be swallowed by everyone else's happiness. And if the worst happens, Cinder is here."

"Yeah, but I didn't mean she was watching you. Try your little silver-eyed-monster."

"Ruby?" he asked, out loud and before he could think better of it. The girl in question yelped, embarrassed to have been caught when he wasn't even looking her way. Unlike Cinder, she totally did look away awkwardly when he turned in her direction. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"I-I just thought you looked nervous. You don't have to worry. Yang is strong."

Yang was strong, he knew that. Ruby might have thought he was nervous about the match, and since he was dating Yang she probably had a point that he should have his mind on it. He nodded to Ruby and turned back to the match, content to let it distract him. The best way to not focus on any negativity was to watch Yang kick ass, after all. She'd be in a great mood afterwards.

"Go Yang!" Ruby called.

"You can do it!" he echoed.

Yang heard them and turned in their direction. She held up one fist, and the crowd, no doubt thinking it a sick taunt, went wild. Jaune clapped along with them, enjoying Yang's easy confidence. It was something he'd always liked about her; a sort of constant assurance that things would be fine, even in the worst of spots. This had to count. None of them had ever had to fight in front of so many people before.

"Make sure to watch carefully," Weiss instructed. "We'll need to analyse their fighting styles later."

"Okay."

"Sure."

Both he and Ruby gave it the automatic answers of people who hadn't heard and wouldn't have followed the orders even if they had. Weiss sighed and rolled her eyes, not at all surprised. To be fair, Professor Port was really whipping the crowd into it, and that was pretty infectious. Infectious, but not dangerous. I guess excitement doesn't really count as negativity, even if they're basically shouting for combat and blood.

The battleground was a… unique one. The counter had revealed fire and a city, picking two options at random and tacking them together. That resulted in a strange arena that had one part of flaming dust, rock, and rivers of what looked like – but surely couldn't safely be – magma. On the other end it was a broken down and half-destroyed city-scape. It looked impressive, but there was something of a flaw to the design.

Teams RYBN and CRDL took one look at the fire side, shrugged, and then all wandered over to stand in the city side, ignoring half the arena entirely.

"I feel like someone went to great lengths to plan this, but didn't account for common sense," Pyrrha said.

"Tell me about it," Weiss sighed. "I mean, really, two utterly random environments? What would they have done if a forest and fire combination was chosen? They'd have a forest fire in the middle of the arena."

"Shhhh!" Ruby glared at them both. "We're watching the fight."

"They've not even started yet."

"AND BEGIN!" Port yelled.

The crowd roared. CRDL moved. They wasted no time closing the distance, rushing in to take Team RYBN off guard and end the fight before it could drag itself out. It might have worked against a weaker team but Nora hadn't taken her eyes off her opponents since the fight began and quickly put a stop to the charge with a barrage of grenades. The explosions, in colours ranging from pink to green, created a thick smoke that blanketed the arena. The display screens on the stadium walls quickly switched to a view which highlighted each fighters outline, letting the audience see what was going on.

Ren had charged into the smoke with Blake, the two sneaky fighters taking advantage of what they could. They split apart and circled wide, getting behind the enemy – but not attacking. Both ducked into a building in the city-scape, slipping away while Team CRDL backed into a small huddle and waited for the smoke to clear.

The second it did, Yang and Nora nearly knocked all for our – Nora coming from above with her hammer, while Yang launched a double shotgun blast directly at them. Cardin surged into it, turning at the last so the back of his armour took it, shielding his teammates. It was a clever move, even if his aura did take a hit. It gave Russel and Dove chance to dodge back, while Sky ducked under and caught Nora from behind the moment she landed.

The two tussled, the taller boy using the reach of his polearm to try and keep Nora's hammer away. His height and reach seemed to give him the edge and he hooked the haft of his weapon against hers, using both hands to push her down onto her knees. She didn't see Russel charging in from behind, knives at the ready.

But Blake did.

Russel didn't make it within five feet of Nora before the girl in black appeared, streaking over the top of him and leaping from a second-floor window of a fake apartment complex. She landed on his shoulders, crouched low and slammed the butt of her weapon into the top of his skull. Russel staggered but managed to stay standing, even as Blake hopped off his head and toward Nora, forcing Sky to disengage and back off.

"Thanks Blakey," Nora laughed.

"What are partners for, huh?"

"GO BLAKE!" a half-topless faunus screamed from several seats down.

Blake either didn't hear him or chose not to. She dashed after Sky instead, tapping for Nora to take the already stunned Russel. The fast and agile faunus was able to get under and past the tip of Sky's weapon, forcing him into close quarters – while Russel couldn't do the same against Nora since she could keep him at long range with her grenade launcher. The melee was broke by a loud cry as Dove was launched through the already broken window of a nearby building, rolling across the street. He barely got up in time to parry Ren's follow-up blow, but was unable to stop the foot that planted itself in his chest, kicking him back.

Cardin might have been able to shift the focus and support his team, but Yang knew that. The brawler kept him busy with several short jabs towards his face, testing and probing, taking few risks and preventing him from breaking off to help the others. The one opening he did get, he swung his mace across him, but Yang bent back acrobatically. It looked like she might fall, but she aimed both fists back and fired, propelling herself back into a standing position and also delivering a punishing punch fist directly into Cardin's face.

He sailed back – and for a moment he teetered on the edge of the ring. There were gasps from the crowd.

Yang could have finished it there, but she let him recover, making a "come" motion with one hand. Wise it might not have been, but for her flare the crowd went wild, cheering and screaming. No one wanted the first match to be anything other than epic, Yang included.

The fights split into four separate melee engagements, removing any element of teamwork. That might have been bad for some, but with Team RYBN having capable individual fighters it gave them a chance to limit CRDL's options. Whatever drills Cardin had put his team through weren't paying off, and unless they got a chance to regroup it looked like the fight would end from attrition. The average aura score among the team was 46% or so, while Team RYBN were between sixty and seventy each.

CRDL seemed to recognise it. On the next pass Russel pushed in close to Nora, waiting for her to blast him away. Rather than be hit he leapt and planted both feet on the hammer, using it as a vault to create more distance than expected. Ren saw him flying in towards his engagement and backed away, unwilling to accept the two versus one. That gave Dove and Russel a chance to do the same with Sky, forcing Blake off.

"Don't let them regroup!" Ren snapped, ordering Nora and Blake into place. The three rushed between the boys and Yang and Cardin's fight, cutting them off from reaching their leader. Yang noticed, sparing a glance, but led Cardin further away with several taunts and a teasing blow. Cardin, unable to resist the bait, charged after her.

It went downhill for them from there. Blake, Nora and Ren were individually strong, but also exceptional as a team – both because Nora and Ren had fought together since they were children, and also because Blake's independent nature allowed her to slot in without any instruction. Using Nora's grenades to crate cover and disorient the three, Blake's clones pushed them apart, drawing Sky in for a blow that would have taken her out of the fight entirely, if she was real. The head of his polearm cracked into the arena instead, and Nora's hammer struck it further down, driving the spikes in like one would a nail.

Ren sprinted up the haft and kicked Sky away, disarming him entirely – all in the space of a few seconds and while the other two were distracted by the real Blake, weaving in and out of her semblance-crated clones. They only turned in time to see Sky fly out of the ring and crash onto the grass, removed from play, and low on aura.

Two against three they didn't stand a chance, and Team RYBN weren't feeling merciful. That or they didn't want to give too much away. They broke the two down brutally, ganging up two on one until one Russel was removed, and then three-teaming Dove until he ran out of aura and slumped to the ground. The moment he did Port announced the defeat of Cardin too, and the team leader's aura swept down into the red, flashing once as a big red X crossed over his face on the display screen.

The crowd erupted in screams and cheers. "Team RYBN are the winners!" Professor Port shouted over the top of it, unable or unwilling to be drowned out by even ten or more thousand voices.

Jaune cheered and clapped with the rest of the audience, standing up to shout out Yang's name when Ruby did the same. The blonde down below, bruised, battered, but undeniably victorious, caught their eyes and waved happily. She picked Blake up and helped her stand as well, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Nora might have waved as well, but she was too busy spinning Ren around like some kind of child's toy.

"They did it!" Ruby yelled. "They really did it!"

"Of course they did," Weiss said. "They had the edge from the first moment. Did you expect them to lose?"

"No, but still… they did it!" Logic didn't come into it, not really, and for once Jaune could agree. He'd known Team RYBN would probably win but there had still been that tiny element of doubt. Seeing that dashed now, and seeing Yang victorious, he couldn't help but feel elated.

His scroll dinged a moment later, though. He didn't hear it so much as feel the vibration of a message being sent. He pulled it out, checked the screen, and froze when he saw the sender. Uncle Watts. Was this the information his mom had promised? He tensed and licked his lips, considering it for a moment.

No. This could wait. Right now his girlfriend, and some of his friends, had just proven to all of Remnant that they weren't to be trifled with.

That deserved some celebration.

/-/

"I can't believe we didn't get our match today," Weiss complained, not for the first time, and if Ruby's thoughts were accurate, not for the last either. They'd sat on the edge of their seats for the whole day, low on food and frightened to eat lest it impacted their performance, only for the final fight to roll on through without their names making an appearance.

It was an anti-climax, Ruby agreed, but you didn't see her bringing it up every five minutes.

"This is for the best," Pyrrha said. "It gives us more time to think about the competition, and less time for people to analyse our strengths and weaknesses. Fighting first isn't always the best option."

Weiss didn't look entirely convinced but went back to reviewing some of the match footage, now available on the TV and online. The rest of them left her to it, content to focus on their own things. For Pyrrha that meant reading a novel she'd found in the library, while Jaune was playing video games with Ren, Yang and Nora to celebrate their win.

Ruby would have normally been up for that as well, but had chosen, to both his and Yang's surprise, to stay behind and read instead. They'd looked justifiably confused, but she'd pointed out how she had to do some research because there was stuff she didn't know, and although they'd not fully grasped it, they'd sensed she was serious and let it be.

That was why she was sat on her bed, legs beneath her covers, with a large book on aura and dust application open on her lap. Weiss looked positively enthused, hence why she hadn't demanded Ruby help look over the footage. Of course, if she knew there was a comic book hidden on the other side she might have had something else to say.

It's still technically research, Ruby told herself, swallowing nervously as she looked at the cover – and the big, bold, M-17 rating on the bottom left corner of it. There was something oddly exciting – and frightening – about having it in front of her.

How bad could it be? She was pretty mature for her age and it wasn't like a little violence or gore was going to be too much for her. She was a huntress-in-training, for crying out loud. Ruby rolled her eyes, giggled silently to herself, and started to read. The story was okay, telling the tale of the huntress on the cover – Miriam Ambrosia – as she sought to defeat the terrible monster that had been stalking her and her family, a Grimm creature capable of taking human shape and wielding an array of tentacles.

Wait a minute, was this thing new? She checked the date and saw it was less than a month old. Had people in Mistral really heard about Hentacle and decided to make a comic about him? That was kind of weird. But also kind of cool. That makes me the heroine, she cheered internally. She was Miriam, or Miriam was her.

She read as `she` confronted Hentacle, faced him in a climactic battle – even getting wrapped up in his tentacles as she had in real life. Ruby nodded at the close recreation of what had happened to her except that she obviously bought her combat skirt from a way better place than this girl did, since it had fallen to tatters at the first hit here. Ruby turned the page, eager to see how Miriam escaped from his tentacle grasp.

She didn't.

She didn't escape at all.

"Oh…" Ruby's eyes widened. Her cheeks flushed with colour. She slapped the comic shut and gazed over the top at her teammates. Neither was paying attention. That… this… was this…? Ruby swallowed. Slowly, tentatively, she opened the page once more and took another look.

Her head tilted to the left.

"Ooh…"

"Something you don't understand?" Weiss called.

"NO!" Ruby slammed the book shut, trapping her fingers. It hurt, but that went almost unnoticed in her panic. "Nothing is wrong!"

Weiss looked confused. "I'm not saying anything, Ruby. I can help you if there's something you don't understand. Or Pyrrha can if you don't want me to."

"I-It's not that. I… ah… well, I need to work this out on my own." Yeah, sure, that sounded like a good excuse. Wonderful. It wasn't like she had utter filth in front of her. No way. Nuh-uh. Oh good lord, was this what Blake read!? She could never look at Blake the same way again!

"If you're sure," Weiss surrendered.

"I am. I'm very sure. Super sure." Ruby laughed, waiting for Weiss to look away, and for Pyrrha to go back to her own book. Phew, coast clear. Now she just had to destroy this thing before someone – Yang – found out.

Ruby stared down at the closed book, dirty comic hidden within.

Well, she'd already bought it, right? It would be a waste of money to destroy it now. A-And besides, she still needed to understand more of this. She needed to see more tentacle hentai. Understand more, she meant. Not see. Maybe. Just a little.

The book cracked open once more, and Ruby's face dove within, hiding her cheeks in the pages so that the others couldn't see. It was just for research. She stared at one scene, remembered the feel of those tentacles wrapped about her legs, and felt a strange electric shock run through her. She swallowed, breathing suddenly heavy. The room was really hot all of a sudden. She wished she could open a window but she couldn't pull herself away.

Reading a little more couldn't hurt, just so she understood the storyline. Just to find out what happened next…

"Oh." Her silver eyes widened. "Wow."

So that was how they were used…

Ruby's knees rubbed together beneath the blankets.

0.o

Well, I'm just bringing back all the ridiculously old plot threads here, aren't I? Again, this was something that should have been covered absolutely ages ago and it's now all being squashed in here at the end of season three. My bad. I'll stop going on about the reasons, I guess.

Do I honestly think Ruby is this innocent in the show? No, not really. As I've had her say time and time again, she's fifteen, not five. So yes, it's exaggerated for comedic effect. Still, I had fun writing the little Blake and Ruby sketch at the start, especially with their similarities despite being such different characters.

I chose to make the RYBN vs CRDL fight rather short, since it wasn't a key moment.

Next Chapter: 15th March

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur