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To Thrive and be Victorious

CHAPTER 8

As I hoped, I was able to get enough sleep after the previous night's ardous work. Usually, I end up either oversleeping or undersleeping, but for this particular morning, I felt like I was able to rise up at the right time, feeling well-rested without my alarm clock having to wake me, which was a rarity.

It was the day for the doubles round. According to the tournament bracket, Pyrrha and I would be facing Flynt Coal and Neon Katt from an Atlesian team called Team FNKI (Funky) Not exactly a team name you'd expect from Atlas Academy but weird names are inevitably common if you have a tradition that includes naming important things after colors or anything related to it, making some unfortunate ones getting stuck with a joke of a name as if they did something to piss off the system and ended up getting humiliated as a result.

My team and I were walking through the concourse outside the coliseum. Nora dressed like our number one fan when she already does act like it while being officially our teammate. She was wearing a red guzzler that had the letters 'JNPR' written on it while it carried two cans of diet soda as she wore a large foam finger. She was also wearing a navy-blue T-shirt that has a print of a picture of me and Pyrrha between a pink heart with a text that says 'Arkos' written below it and I'm going to leave it at that. I think it was one of the clothes that Nora herself commissioned from someone. Ren was also wearing the shirt but it didn't take a genius to sense that Nora forced him to wear it.

Those shirts kind of made me less worried about my upcoming match with Pyrrha and more concerned with whatever Nora was planning to do with the two of us. The only reason why I was still even tolerating this nonsense was that it hasn't hurt anyone yet.

On our way, I got a text from Blanche. The message contained nothing but a single smiley face and it was enough to tell me that they were ready to perform their songs and that I should brace myself when it starts to play.

A certain redhead who has the same hair color as Nora approached us cheerfully. She was also being followed by a dark-skinned Atlesian girl wearing a blue beret with a gold marking on her forehead.

"Salutations!" Penny greeted, still speaking with typical Atlesian formalities along with her almost-uncanny enthusiasm. "It's so good to see you again, Jaune Arc!"

"Oh hey, there Penny. Ready for the next match, I presume?" I responded.

"I sure am!" she bounced before turning to my partner. "And I am so pleased to have your acquaintance, Pyrrha Nikos, the four-time consecutive winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament!"

Pyrrha gave her a humble smile. "And to you as well. I've heard nothing but good things about you, Penny."

"Oh, and I would like you to meet my teammate," Penny gestured to her companion.

"Ciel Soliel. It's a pleasure to meet you both," she greeted. "May you fight well in your match. Team FNKI is one of our finer, if aberrant teams, so I look forward to seeing how you perform against them."

"Thanks. I hope you do great too," I replied. "By the way, who will you be facing in this round again?"

"Penny and I are matched against Russel Thrush and Sky Lark of Team CRDL," Ciel answered. "Since they're also from Beacon, I assume you're in the same class?"

Oh yeah, those guys. "Yep. In fact, you can say I'm a little too familiar with them," I stated. It'll probably be fun to watch. The best thing I could say about Team CRDL as a team is that they're passable, and seeing that I once saw Penny defeating a whole group of White Fang soldiers and pull a Bullhead down all by herself with my very own blue eyes, it's quite clear to see who the odds were favoring.

"Speaking of which, their team leader is right behind you!" Penny said, making all of us turn around and see Cardin walking toward us.

"Hey there, twerps." Cardin greeted with a grin. Knowing what Cardin is now, he was likely saying that in a playful manner, otherwise, he would have given us a far more punchable face.

"Cardin!" Nora darted in front of him and aggressively pointed her foam finger at his face. "I have this big finger thingy and I'm not afraid to smack it on your head!"

Cardin backed away slightly. "Now, now. We're cool." His gaze turned to mine. "Isn't that right, Jaune?"

I nodded. "He's not lying, Nora. Cardin's fine now. He's hardly the same guy that kept trying to bully me last semester."

And just like that, she put down her foam finger and stepped back. She harrumphed and still kept a distrusting look at him, however. But I got her under control and that's what mattered, something I should commend myself for considering this was Nora we were talking about, even Ren wished he could control Nora the same way I did.

"Nice to see you doing well, Arc," Cardin said to me amicably. "Sorry if I have to kick your own ass again if we both win the round."

I was still not used to seeing him act like this but it was a welcome change in tone. First an egocentric snow princess and now one of my former arch-nemesis (or the closest thing I had to one then) was also being chummy with me. I can almost forgive him for causing me to accidentally have my first encounter with the White Fang.

"You're not doing bad yourself either, Winchester," I smiled at him. "You've come a long way since then, but two of your friends still have a lot to learn."

"Yeah, sorry about them. But trust me, they'll get better. Just give those morons a chance." He said. That was going to take a while, it took a match and several detentions to get Cardin to reform and two of his teammates still have a grudge against me. In Russel's case, I was certain that the only way to get him to humble was if someone shaves his dumb mohawk if you could even call it that.

Cardin turned to Penny. "And so, you're that Penny girl I've been hearing about. You're a lot more… cuter than I pictured but whatever."

"It's good to meet you too. I hope there will be no hard feelings when we defeat your team," Penny said with an innocent smile.

"It'll be fine. Never really cared much for a trophy. It's just a stupid decoration to me. So long as I can keep clobbering Grimm, I don't care. Anyway, good luck with your match against my teammates," Cardin said. "Go easy on Sky though, he's a good chump. But do whatever you want to Russel, just please don't tell him I told you that."

"Acknowledged!" Penny chirped. "And may the best competitor win!"

"Penny, we have to go now. The second round is about to begin," Ciel told her after checking her watch.

Penny nodded before turning back to us, "I wish everybody good luck!" Penny cheerfully said before departing away from us with her teammate.

Cardin shifted toward me and Pyrrha once again. "Good luck, you two. I'll be cheering for you. Make Beacon proud."

"Thanks, Cardin. That means a lot coming from you," I remarked.

"Don't get too carried away with it, Jauney-boy. You're still a chump but at least you've proven yourself to be a cool chump." He said, bringing back the familiarity of the classic Losechester that infuriated me, but in a friendly and playful manner. "Anyway, you're welcome. I hope I can make it up to you."

"I'd say you're doing great, Winchester," I replied smugly. "Keep it up."

"I will." He nodded. "See ya later, you blond doofus!" He said as he walked away from us.

"Would you look at that," Ren remarked. "It seems Cardin did really learn humility."

"I'm just glad he's no longer looking down on others. It shows that even people like him have hope." Pyrrha said. I don't know if it's my growing reputation or if he learned his lesson after multiple detentions, but I was glad Cardin managed to better himself and be friendly in his own way, even if I couldn't say the same for his teammates who weren't named Sky.

We proceeded to the arena. The seats were already filled with spectators eager to see some 2v2. Like yesterday we sat near the front, besides Team RWBY.

Dr. Oobleck began his announcement in his usual rapid pace of speech. "Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen to the 40th Biennial Vytal Tournament. Now it is the time for the doubles round. Two competitors of each team will be facing another! Contesting on who will reign supreme and proceed to the singles round where they would eventually become champion!"

"Now we know you are all eager to find out, which is why we will now begin immediately!" Professor Port followed as the matches began afterward.

One of the first matches in the round was Mercury and Emerald vs. Coco and Yatsuhashi. A battle between coffee and cinnamon. You can tell that it was going to be a sweet fight.

Being one of the most popular and toughest students in Beacon even in their second year, everyone expected Coco and Yatsu to win while the other team was almost unheard of until their performance yesterday which some described as 'brutally entertaining', whatever that means. Hell, I probably wouldn't even be that much familiar with Team CMEN had I not bumped into them the other day and had Mercury pick me for a match that only got himself forfeited because I was 'too good.'

"In this corner, stands a combination of strength, deadliness, and style! You already know who I am talking about. Ladies and gentlemen. From Beacon Academy, Coco Adel and Yatsuhashi Daichi of Team CFVY!" Professor Port proudly presented. The crowd cheered. Some of her fans even wore berets and glasses similar to the ones she wore.

"And from Haven Academy. Representing one of last round's unexpected underdog of a team that shows a surprising amount of cunning. Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai of Team CMEN!" Professor Oobleck announced, his rapid speaking made his pronunciation of their team name sound like what its spelling is suggesting. Speaking of the team name, it was displayed in large text on every scoreboard in the arena, much to the team's embarrassment.

The team's name and especially its spelling provoked laughter around the arena while being passed off as an applause, which was quite generous for a fairly obscure team like theirs against one of the most popular teams in Beacon.

"I love you too, Amity!" Mercury waved at the crowd. I can notice Emerald rolling her red eyes away from him.

Then the round began. To put it nice and brief, Mercury and Emerald were surprisingly able to have Coco and Yatsuhashi's asses handed to them in the end despite the odds, much to the upset of Team CFVY's fans with some of them even booing. The livestream viewers were also spamming 'RIGGED' on the chat accompanied by some angry emotes. Others were complaining that they lost their bet while that one person who bet on Mercury and Emerald took everyone's money and ran.

You gotta give them some credit. Coco and Yatsu were one of the toughest students in the academy that even got Pyrrha's respect for their prowess. These two being able to beat them was an achievement that I thought was unattainable. They even broke Coco's sunglasses and managed to get away with it when Coco was known for taking her clothes so seriously. Not bad for a team called cinnamon with an even worse four-letter team name.

The following matches, in summary, involved Weiss and Yang putting two Haven guys in ice cubes before getting knocked out by a flaming fist, proving that these work well together despite their contrasts. I still felt bad for Weiss getting knocked out again though. [1]

Meanwhile, Sun and Sage put some of my classmates in a beatdown and won. Contrary to his previous match, Sage ended up being the last man standing this time.

Penny and Ciel made Russel and Sky cower into submission as expected. That match ended with those two getting crushed by rocks, with Penny awing the audience with fighting prowess that only a few can match. She'd even steal the spotlight away from me and my undeserved reputation, which I would actually be grateful for. My modest image would also help should that be the case. Hopefully, Cardin would be able to put his team in their place this time.

After a few more matches, ours were next. I took a deep breath, reassuring myself that I won't have much of anything major to be concerned about once this was done and that Pyrrha would make sure there won't be a problem. We were sent to the lockers backstage to prepare ourselves for the next fight.

We looked at one of the screens where it shifted to the announcer's booth with Professor Port and Dr. Oobleck. "Before we start this next match. We would like to give you a special presentation featuring none other than the idols Blanche and Noire Arc themselves!" Professor Port announced, followed by cheers from the audience.

"Which is appropriate as their brother is going to be involved in the next match," the doctor added.

Yeah, and I pretty much have them to blame for that. I hoped all the money they paid for this was worth it because I was also going to pay with my own sweat. It's a good thing I was backstage when all of this occurred. No one but Pyrrha was able to see my face during their show, and even then I was composed enough not to show much emotion while looking visibly impressed enough at the performance my sisters did because of me.

About half a minute before their act started, Blanche sent me a message saying 'This one's for you, little brother.' I put on a smile as I put down my scroll. When the two appeared on the stage of the arena, they were greeted with applause from the audience around the arena before singing.

The lyrics were thankfully more subtle than I feared, to the point that you won't recognize that the song was about me even if you pay attention to it. I doubt that most people—if anyone at all—noticed the subtext of those lyrics as it'll probably be interpreted as yet another endearing pop song about someone. Even I had to wonder if the song was indeed a tribute to me that I wouldn't have found out if it weren't for a few clues.

Ramblings aside, it was still a song from my favorite twins so it was nice to listen to. I could feel the lyrics and the melody lift my spirits. Then again, it was probably the mere effects of their semblance. Regardless, I appreciated them doing this for me. I felt uplifted listening to the song and it was enough to clear my mind of insecurities that it helped me focus on my following match. And there's also something funny about having your twin sisters sing about you the day after fighting another pair of twins that also tried flirting with you.

The song ended with roaring applause as Blanche and Noire bowed to the audience before disappearing into a cloud of artificial smoke.

"That was beautiful." The screens showed Professor Port wiping a tear from his with a napkin. He cleared his throat, "And on with the show!"

"It's time," Pyrrha's emerald eyes locked into mine. "You ready?"

"Knowing me, knowing you, there is nothing we can't do," I said cheekily, quoting lyrics to a different song just because I felt like it.

Pyrrha giggled at my remark, "Well, let's get going then."

We passed the tunnel and stepped onto the stage. Our opponents were already there. They were… not what I was expecting, not as Atlas Academy students.

Penny's partner was right when she described the team we were facing was aberrant by Atlesian standards. When you picture a student from Atlas, you think of someone akin to a stoic, professional, and disciplined soldier. Well, these two didn't fit that description. For starters, one of them was in semi-formal attire; wearing an untucked white dress shirt beneath a dark-gray vest, along with a fedora and sunglasses with his cyan necktie wrapped around his collar. He was almost similar to that of a typical Triad Goon I faced the previous day. Now that wouldn't be bad enough as Atlesians are known to flex around with sophisticated appearances if it weren't for the fact that this guy uses a freaking trumpet with some dust vials built into it as his weapon of choice. What's next? An archer who uses a violin as a bow? You know what, I wouldn't be surprised because someone must have already thought of that idea.

His partner is about as un-Atlesian as she gets. First off, she's a faunus. Okay, that itself wasn't too strange even though Atlas wasn't exactly known for being a faunus-friendly face. Believe it or not, it is still possible to have a decent life there as one, provided you're not working or living under a bigoted asshole. The increasing acceptance toward them over the years certainly helped, even though it was often done for blatant tokenism. Being too familiar with Atlesian nationalism myself, they would still see their faunus to be better than most other faunus in the world even if they are still treated as second-class citizens at best.

What caught my eye about her is that she looked like a retro pop star who got lost and somehow ended up at the highly-militaristic Atlas Academy. Her bright outfit, being a cyan-cropped tank top and a pink mini-skirt[2] with her tail exposed is far from the combat fatigues Atlesian soldiers usually wear. She wore rollerblades and uses nunchucku-glowsticks (or whatever you call that) as her weapons for crying out loud.

I almost thought that we walked into a music video shoot, albeit empty.

"Why, hello there!" Neon, the colorful cat faunus greeted. I was still trying to process the oddities of my opponent to make a response.

"Hi," Pyrrha waved.

"You look so much prettier outside the cereal box!" Neon gushed. "Can you sign mine after this match?"

"That's… fine by me," Pyrrha replied. "And thank you for the compliment."

"No problem! But don't forget that I am not losing to you!" she cheerfully grinned while swinging around her nunchaku.

"That, I can't promise," Pyrrha said as she went to her fighting stance.

"Yo, so you really are Caiaphas Arc Junior, aren't you?" Flynt the trumpet guy asked me.

Oh, I dunno, he sure has plenty of daughters but I heard he also had this kid called 'John' or something; not that I'm familiar with him at all, I sarcastically thought. I gave him an answer after I was done spacing out. "More or less".

"You're kinda cool from what I heard. My pops used to tell me stories about your dad. Maybe one day, I'd be telling stories of you to my kids if I ever get one."

I wouldn't count on it if I were you, and by the way, you heard wrong. "Well, I hope you don't mind telling your kids that I beat you in a tournament at one point," I quipped with a cocky smile. Not really something you'd hear from a modest hero but let me have my fun. I am trying to give my public persona a little bit of my actual personality after all.

He chuckled. "Maybe. Either way, I'm going to have a great story to tell. Hell, I'd probably even write a song about it."

"Oh, we'll see, we'll see, the winner gets tea, that's for sure," I assumed my fighting stance as well.

"By the way, Jaune Arc, were those twins really your sisters? Their song was soooo beautiful," Neon said to me.

"Thank you," I nodded before smirking. "And because of that, I'm in a good mood for winning."

"Is that so? How cute. Sorry that we have to get in your way," Neon said as the elevator began to ascend toward the stage.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. Allow us to do that for you," I responded.

"Oh, it's on!" Flynt said as he readied his trumpet.

Neon giggled, "I like you! Maybe we should hang out sometime. You wouldn't mind that, would you, Pyrrha Nikos?"

Great, here comes another member of my fan club.

"Oh, uh…" Pyrrha muttered as the platform finally arrived at the stage with all of us being welcomed by the sound of a cheering crowd. "Oh look, the match is about to begin!"

We faced our opponents, ready to engage once the cue had been given. But I can't help but be distracted looking at Nora at the seats ordering five people wearing individual letters on their T-shirts that all spell 'ARKOS' to stand up for us to see. I gave a questioning look to Pyrrha who gave me a look that was no different from mine. I knew Nora was up to something.

Four holograms depicting a banner for the stage's environments shuffled. The environments that were chosen were a desert, what appeared to be a geyser, an urban area in ruins, and that gods-forsaken volcanic stage from my previous round, but aside from that, it wasn't too bad. It was manageable enough for me.

"Three. Two. One. Begin!"

The match started with Flynt blowing his trumpet, unleashing a powerful soundwave as it pushes both of us back, with its sound being so loud that it was irritating enough to keep us from thinking clearly. Blocking it with my shield didn't do any good to it. By that point, I realized that could use some of Rouge's semblance, it made me take back everything bad I said about her immunity to loud noises since I thought it was comical compared to most other semblances. This was when I started to see why that semblance wasn't entirely useless after all.

Pyrrha was able to hold her ground while I was struggling to stay still. Neon used the soundwaves to push herself toward me, effectively knocking me back after she kicked my shield. My back fell to the ruin's ground. After a quick glimpse, I saw that Neon was skating toward me with a trail of rainbows behind her, so I quickly drew my pistol and fired at her. The straight laser blast the pistol unleashed proved to be swift even to the likes of her. She was lucky enough to have managed to deflect it by spinning her weapon. Knowing that the lasers were fast enough to get past her weapon eventually, she decided to engage with me in melee.

She sprung toward me, attempting to swing her nunchaku toward me. I rolled to my right before I thrust myself toward her, swinging my sword. She was nimble enough to avoid every single one of them, leaning and stepping away from the steel of my weapon. Her rollerblades made her even a harder target. I aimed and fired at her as she proceeded to duck away from the lasers and twirled her weapon again.

I altered between swinging my sword and firing at her while our melee weapons occasionally meet. She then stepped back and cracked the glowsticks on her weapon. Her weapon glowed light blue as she went back flailing it at me. I darted back, avoiding her attacks. My instincts instructed me to throw a pebble from the ground and see what would happen if it made contact with her glowsticks while they were activated. When I did so, the pebble was frozen as it flew away from the nunchaku, thus confirming my assumption that ice dust was active on her weapon. I kept her dodging her swings, making sure not to parry my sword as it will only become frozen if it touches her glowsticks. I attempted to aim my weapon at her, but unfortunately, she was able to hit the barrel of my gun, not only making me miss but also freezing the front of my laspistol with the muzzle being encased by ice.

I holstered it in the meantime and switched to my shield, going on defense as I tried to figure something out. The shield was barely getting frozen upon being hit by Neon's glowsticks, with glazes of ice falling off from the shield. Upon realizing that The Désir Ardent was practically immune to these types of attacks, I shoved my shield at her, pushing her back. I rapidly bashed her with my shield while I continued blocking her attempted swings.

It was enough to force her to change tactics. She fled and skated near the ruined buildings on the stage. "Catch me if you can, cutie!"

I took out my pistol and held the trigger as the laser cut through the ice that it was encased into until a laser blast burst toward the ground I was aiming at as the ice shattered. Seeing how my laspistol has returned to a functional state, I began shooting at Neon as she skated around the wreckage. Although her rainbow trails made it easy for her to track down, I still found myself missing her even with the speed of the laser blasts. She desperately dodged the laser fire, leaping into one of the ruined buildings and then jumping down.

"Never miss a beat, never miss a beat," she audibly uttered to herself whilst repeating them.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha leaped back to the center, away from Flynt's range when he was blowing flames that were leaking from the volcanic ground toward her. She noticed Neon rushing towards her position. Pyrrha spun back and swung her spear at Neon as she attempted to pass through, tumbling her to the floor. After Neon got up, the two girls traded swings as they dragged their fight elsewhere.

I stepped into the center and found myself confronting Flynt. And from what I've seen he was about as tricky as Neon in his own way. Instead of running around with agile attacks, he mostly remains stationary with the use of his trumpet and the dust it utilizes. Although it doesn't seem much and from what I gathered, even Pyrrha had difficulties fighting him.

He once again used his trumpet's sound waves to hurl me away before I had the chance to fire at him. I landed on the sandy surface of the desert stage. As I got up I saw him walking toward me. I got up and pulled my pistol's trigger as I aimed it at him. He zigzagged away from the gunfire, stepping from side to side before blowing on his trumpet again, only this time it was aimed at the sand and the soundwaves unleashed a sandstorm in front of me that not only pushed me back, it also fogged my field of view with clouds of sand. The loud resonance of the trumpet didn't help either.

I closed my eyes and covered them with my left arm. I had difficulties moving forward with the sandstorm forcing me back. The next thing he did was to summon three copies of himself. The copies respectively wore yellow, green, and magenta in the place of the original Flynt's cyan color on this trim and tie, giving them distinctions of their own. They surrounded me from my back and both of my sides, blowing their own trumpets and multiplying the effect of the sandstorm.

"What's this?" asked a shocked Professor Port from the announcer's box.

"It appears young Flynt has just activated his Semblance! And quite a remarkable one at that. Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on Flynt Coal's Killer Quartet!" Doctor Oobleck answered.

I was pinned down in the center with soundwaves coming from every relative direction and they were becoming sharp enough to drain my aura. I was able to realize that the original Flynt remained somewhere on my front. I didn't even have to make a quick peek to look for the cyan color that gave away the original body. My arm fought the force of the sandstorm until it was able to aim straight in front of me. I blind fired at my front until eventually hit him. His copies all merged back to the original body upon being shot at and the sandstorm faded away.

No, I don't think so, I thought.

"Looks like our hero just made a heroic recovery!" Professor Port remarked followed by cheers from the crowd along with audible squealing from my fangirls.

Once I was free to move again, I promptly sprung next to him. I swung a flurry of slashes at him with my sword before kicking him back and then using my shield to bash his face hard enough that it knocked him back to the center of the stage. Flynt got up as he flipped back. He adjusted his glasses before attempting to blow me away with his trumpet, only this time—I was quick enough to fire back before he could, even hitting his trumpet that it almost flew out of his hand.

Neon fell to the center while her weapon was tangled up in Pyrrha's javelin. Pyrrha caught up and she retrieved her weapon using her polarity as she reunited by my side.

"Let's go get FNKI," I said to Pyrrha, uttering a one-liner so bad it would make Yang blush. [3]

She made an affirming nod as we turned back to our opponents. Neon swung her nunchakus once again as Flynt flipped his hat. I looked at the scoreboard and saw that our opponents only have half of their auras remaining while I still have most of my aura and Pyrrha only suffered a very minimal amount of damage so far. The tides of battle were shifting in our favor, we just needed to keep it that way and end this once and for all.

"You're on!" Flynt called out, reading his trumpet as his partner continued to skate.

"Pyrrha, toot!" I signaled. Not my best impression of an elephant but she got the message so that didn't matter.

As the soundwaves approached us Pyrrha rolled to her left and out of its range while I got engulfed in the gush of wind. Although the pressure of the soundwaves kept pushing me back, Pyrrha held my armor with her polarity as she used it on aiding me to move inside the soundwaves while she around the corner, avoiding its range as Flynt turned around in an attempt to tug her in it.

Neon went inside the soundwaves and once again engaged with me in melee. I parried away the flails of her weapon and resorted to using my shield when I noticed her use elemental dust before bashing her with it.

"Never miss a beat, never miss a beat, never miss a beat!" she continued her mantra as we battled inside the wave of Flynt's trumpet.

I noticed that the dreaded volcanic biome was behind me. I knew there was an opportunity to knock her out with it so I took it. "Pyrrha, now!" I ordered. Upon hearing that, she let go of my armor, allowing the soundwaves to push me back to the volcanic stage. I landed on its surface with my own two feet as my gaze continues to focus on Neon, who was still focusing on me. "I hope you enjoy ice-skating too, kitty cat." [4]

As she rushed toward me with her rollerblades. I grabbed the vial of ice dust Rouge gave me the previous day from my pocket and threw it on the ground in front of her.

"Never miss a beat, never miss a beat, never miss a—OW—WOAH!" Her mantra was interrupted when she lost her balance in the puddle before slipping. She uncontrollably slid into a pool of lava as it erupted. The blast of lava launched her to the air before falling back to the volcanic surface, now covered in ashes with hardly enough aura to continue.

"Should've missed that beat," I quipped at her as the match declared her as K.O. [5] She groaned and lay her head down on the igneous ground. Thanks, Rouge. I really should use dust more often from now on.

"Neon Katt has been defeated by aura! Be careful when skating, children, or this might happen to you!" Professor Port announced before reminiscing about his youth like he usually does whether stories about them are true or not. "Ah, I do miss skateboarding back in the day… But that's a story for another time!"

The audience cheered in applause for my victory, but it wasn't over yet. Pyrrha still had to put Flynt down before we could call it a win.

Pyrrha was holding her ground inside Flynt's soundwaves with her shield raised. She used her weapon's rifle mode and fire at Flynt, halting him from using his trumpet. She then threw her shield, hitting his head, before pulling it back to her as she stormed at him. Pyrrha changed her weapon into a spear and swiped him upwards into the air. She sprung toward Flynt and rapidly sent slashes at him before throwing him to a geyser spout. Flynt got caught on the top of the geyser before falling to the ground with his aura on the red, a second before Pyrrha landed.

"And the match ends on a high note! Flynt Coal has been defeated! Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos win this match!" Dr. Oobleck declared.

The audience exclaimed screams of joy before chanting both of our names. I walked back into the center with Pyrrha and gave her a high five for a job well done. Flynt slowly got up and Neon trudged toward us, still covered in ashes.

"Oh… my… gosh…" Neon muttered before her expression became jubilant. "That was awesome! We just got our butts kicked by Pyrrha Nikos and her handsome hero of a boyfriend!"

"Whoa-whoa, we're not dating yet!" I exclaimed as both Pyrrha and I blushed. I really need to do something about our relationships so these increasingly common remarks become less awkward to us.

"Aww, you two are so cute together!" Neon remarked, "You guys really are the duo of the year."

"Well, I'll guess I'll be writing a song on how you beat me," Flynt said.

"You weren't bad yourself," I told him, "It's nice knowing Atlas will have talented Huntsmen like you to keep them safe."

"Coming from someone like you, that's a lot. Thanks." he gave me a friendly tip with his fedora. "You won't be disappointed."

"No problem. I should listen to your songs sometime. I could use some jazz every now and then." Besides, I needed something to listen to that wasn't the sound of a trumpet when he attack us. That sound was going to be stuck in my mind until I replace it with something more pleasant.

Neon zoomed between us, putting an arm on our shoulders. "That was the best fight I ever had! I totally should throw a party after this! Wanna come?"

"Sure, why not?" Pyrrha replied.

"Yay!"

Well, that settled it for round two. Knowing that Pyrrha would automatically represent us for the final round, I finally finished my last round.

Was the fight tough? Of course, it was. Was it worth it? Most definitely. I no longer have to worry about fighting anymore after that point, so it meant I was free to slack off the remaining school year and just do my own thing. The Hero of Beacon's work was done for this year. I thought it was time for me to take a much-needed break, a long one preferably.

=o=

1. Although it was true that I was knocked out during that match, I still contributed a major factor that eventually led to our team's victory. My sacrifice did not go in vain and Yang can thank me for that.

2. It's a combat skirt—in the same vein as mine and Ruby's, so it is still technically suitable for combat despite its appearance.

3. My thoughts exactly.

4. Not again.

5. For the sake of my health, I'm going to stop sipping wine every time he makes more of these awful one-liners and I advise everyone who has the same idea to do the same.

Pyrrha and I sat at the edge of the rooftop where we usually practiced, drinking the shakes we bought from the fairgrounds after the round was finished. Neon invited us for a party later that night, but first, we chose to spend some time together and celebrate our recent victory.

"For a second there, I thought we might never even win," I took a sip from the straw on my chocolate shake, "Those two were wilder than I thought, especially for a bunch of Atlesians."

"Yeah, I know that feeling," Pyrrha glanced at her drink. "I don't lose a lot anymore so I have kind of forgotten to know what it feels like, but the fear of losing never seems to leave you no matter how used you are to victory."

"Pretty much. I'd say you should try losing some time. You'll learn to be humble and more accepting of defeat. Of course, I'm not telling you to lose the next match. I'm just saying that while having the title of being undefeated is nice and all, you shouldn't get too used to winning, or else your ego might get the best of you. And besides, you learn better from losing than you do winning." I answered, even though the truth is that I mostly got my knowledge through experience itself and I tend to avoid battles I know I can't win. Even in instances where I'm supposed to lose, I usually wind up getting saved by one of my allies or by some sort of fortuitous intervention from the Brothers above that helped win the fight for me.

"You're right," she looked down and gave a poignant look. "I can't even remember the last time I was defeated. All I know is that it was a long time ago. To be honest, Jaune, I envy you," she admitted, catching the fullest of my attention. "You are able to be this successful and live what many dream of, yet you are still able to remain as one of the humblest people I know. How?"

I looked away from her for a moment. Thinking of an answer befitting what she described me as. "I don't know. Maybe I just feel too modest that I think about those who aren't as lucky as I am and I keep reminding myself that at the end of the day, I'm just like them and that they can be like me too."

But anyone who has been reading these memoirs knows that it's because I wasn't actually proud of my own success to begin with, if you could even call it that. The glory I have could have been given to someone who is much more deserving than I do. But no, it all has to go to some idiot who tried to run away from bank robberies he supposedly foiled at least twice so far. Because of me, no one is giving enough credit or attention to those with actual merits, and I genuinely feel bad about it.

Pyrrha smiled warmly at me. "Well, whatever the case, you do make a great role model for everyone; not just Huntsmen or those who are seeking to be a hero."

If that's what she thought, then I couldn't stop her. I made an internal sign before smiling back at her. "I'm glad I have someone like you to talk to about things like this, Pyrrha."

Her cheeks reddened for a moment, "Me too. It was my pleasure, Jaune."

Even though my public face has mostly been front, my friendship with her was nothing short of genuine. it was enough to tell me that I should stop betraying her trust. I knew that if I truly cared for her, then I should be sincere to her. Weiss was right; I can't keep hiding my secrets from her anymore. She deserved to know the truth, my own selfishness be damned. I have been wearing a deceiving mask for too long now that she deserved to see the real Jaune Arc beneath it.

"Pyrhha…"

"Yes, Jaune?" she turned and her emerald eyes met with my own.

Despite my persistence to tell her the truth about myself, I regrettably hesitated. There was a nagging feeling that prevented me from confessing to her. Maybe it was too soon? Perhaps, but I decided that I wanted to spend more time with her and tell her about it for tomorrow. I just felt like I wasn't ready yet.

"Do you want to hang out tomorrow? You know just the two of us."

Her eyes widened in uncertainty as her blush became stronger. Awkwardness inhabited the atmosphere between us. "As partners of course," I added to dispel any doubts she was having.

After a few seconds, she finally answered. "I would love to."

"Oh, great," I said, beaming. "So, tomorrow then?"

She nodded in agreement. "Tomorrow."

We spent the next minutes in silence. Enjoying the orange sky, watching the birds fly into the sunset, feeling nothing but peace and the comforting presence of a friend I trust. But the tender moment vanished when I felt an anomaly intruding the peace between us. My senses pointed me toward the rooftop's door and I almost immediately identified the cause of the disturbance. "I know you're there, Nora. You can come out now!"

My suspicions were proven correct when I found Nora along with a few other people wearing the same shirt as her rudely eavesdropping on the stairs behind the door. "Oh, crud! Abort the mission!" She exclaimed. One of them slammed the door close. I could hear them stomp the stairs as they rushed down.

Oh geez, no wonder why I hesitated. It made me glad that I didn't fess up then. Would have certainly ruined the moment in more ways than one.

Pyrrha and I both stared in befuddlement over Nora's recent antic before shrugging it off. It was just Nora being herself, something we have grown accustomed to since day one.

Pyrrha's scroll ringtone resonated. She took it out of her pocket and read the message she received before standing up. "I have to go."

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's something important. I can't say anything about it for now. I'll tell you about it soon enough." She headed for the door downstairs.

"Alright then," I nodded, respecting her decision to keep it to herself for the moment. "Take care."

"You too," she said before closing the rooftop's door.

After that, I was alone on the rooftop, finishing my chocolate shake as I watched the view, thinking about the next day.

Without any more matches or assignments to worry about, I can finally go easy now. This was a day I never thought I would see. The problem that remained was that I still needed to confess to Pyrrha about myself and hope that it wouldn't ruin our relationship because I was doing this for our sake.

I've been playing this game for too long now, and after everything I've been through, then maybe this wouldn't be as hard as I initially thought it would be.

Just a heads up. College just resumed a week ago so updates might be a little slower. I will try to continue revising chapters in my free time and the fic should be completed before this semester ends. Now with that out of the way, take care and I hoped you enjoyed my story.