WORTH FIGHTING FOR...
Yang
It's been a couple of weeks since Torchwick's invasion. During that timeframe, me and Ezra have pretty much gone public about our relationship. There were some questions, especially from the faculty, but they've since left us alone thanks to Ozpin's surprising intervention. Also during that time, no White Fang! Yay, which means the last few weeks should have been peaceful, if not for the Vytal Festival preparation we had to do.
Out of the five of us in our team, Ezra's been taking it easy. He was the most hurt out of all of us during that last mission after all. That and he doesn't really have any major role to do during the festival. Well, till we found out yesterday from Ozpin that he would be participating after all. Explains why he placed himself in between my relationship with Ezra and the faculty, cause he needed something from him.
"Ozpin should have told us earlier about this."
I complained out loud, as I sit right next to the rest of the gang in the arena. It was the day of the Vytal Festival and the students and guest were invited to attend the opening ceremony at Amity Colosseum. The fights were supposed to start today, Team RWBY and JNPR were scheduled a little later this afternoon, but we've had to forgo strategizing to attend the opening ceremony and support Ezra.
"I'm sure he'll be fine. If he can keep up with Pyrrha, then there's no one in this festival can stop him, unless it's a coordinated team of course... and Pyrrha... come to think of it, you can probably take him on pretty easy Yang."
Nora casually shrugged off my worries, but I'm not really buying it.
"He's still hurt, I don't want him to over exert himself again. He's fragile you know."
Nora leaned forward from behind my seat. She wore a grin that stretched from ear to ear. Up to par with how she usually is: overly energetic.
"Look at you being the stereotypical concerned girlfriend."
My face began to blush, as all my friends looked my way and giggled.
"Yang's right though. As far as fights are concerned, they scheduled this at THE very last minute. They didn't even ask if Ez is well enough to fight."
Blake was the first one to shake off the romance in the air, and focus on the thing that I've been trying to say this whole time. We all turn our attention to Ezra, who was casually twirling the laniard attach to his bladeless katana in his finger while blowing up his bubblegum.
I mean. I guess he's okay?
Turns out Beacon ain't the only one with special students like Ezra. Ozpin's goodwill program was adopted by the other Huntsman Academies, giving a couple of teams here and there an extra member, like we did. So the Headmasters all decided last minute that instead of leaving them out of the competition, they should just brawl it out in a big battle royal as part of the opening ceremony.
"Calling it a battle royal is a bit excessive when there's exactly only one representative from each school."
Ren logically pointed out.
"What would you call it then?"
Jaune, out of legitimate curiosity asked.
"A free-for-all?"
Pyrrha intervened.
"Isn't that the same as a battle royal?"
Typical of Weiss to burn everyone's aspiration in one fell swoop.
"I am a bit concerned. Not ALL of the participants are extra students."
Pyrrha shrugged Weiss' angst by simply ignoring her. Her face slowly dropped from happy to worried in a snap of a finger. Everyone looked at her with prying eyes seeing as how obvious it was that she knew something that we didn't.
"That guy over there, on Ezra's left. He's from Shade Academy."
She crossed her arms and wore a serious look on her face. We all looked away from Pyrrha for a moment to look at the menacing guy that towered over Ezra. His hair was black and scruff, unkempt almost. He wore a stone wall expression, as he stared blankly at the roaring crowd in front of him. He wore a tight gray tank top that could barely contain his absurdly large muscles. His dark green pants looked worn down and ragged. Even his boots looked like they've seen better days. It doesn't take a genius to tell that he's had a lot of combat experience that far exceeded Ezra... ours for that matter. Looking closely, you can tell that his whole body was covered in scars.
Ezra's not exactly posh himself, but with him standing valiantly with his black and gold jacket and scarlet sash around his waist, he look like a millionaire compared to the ragged looking guy next to him.
"I know him. Bruno Tallgeese. I met him during one of the Pumpkin Pete's promotions I've had to do a couple months back before I attended Beacon Academy.
Wow. It somehow still slips my mind that Pyrrha's actually famous all over Remnant.
"What about him?"
I ask.
"Well, he's not exactly an extra. Vacuo is known for a being a... difficult place to study... well live... in general."
Pyrrha sighed, and shook off her hesitation.
"I really don't like spreading rumors but, I heard during one of his team's mission with a professional huntsman, they were ambushed by grimm, killing everyone except him. He was stranded in the desert for five days, marching himself back to Shade Academy alone, fighting grimm non stop till he reached a safe heaven."
Woah. Hardcore.
"Ever since then, Headmaster Theodore has tried and failed to incorporate him into other teams. He simply refuses to. For the same months we've been training in Beacon, Bruno has been conducting missions all over Vacuo solo. As a student."
And Ezra is up against THAT?
[And so, the match begins!]
My mind was so concerned about Ezra's well being that I completely lost track of the actual fight. Seeing as this just an opener, the event organizer chose to omit the special artificial environments that Amity is known for. They instead opted to lift the stage using gravity dust that had parts of it drop at certain intervals, shrinking the stage the longer the fight goes on. It's a smart tactic to force all four contestants to brawl right away. Really gets the adrenaline juices flowing.
"Oh! Ezra's on the move! GO EZ! YOU GOT THIS!"
Ruby yelled from the top of her lungs, as she bounced up and down from her seat. I watch Ezra break off from Bruno, opting to rush the other female student from Haven Academy. She held in her hand a staff as tall as hers with a massive blue gem at the top. She twirled her fingers, caressing the gem and stimulating it to fire high pressure water blast towards Ezra.
A big mistake.
Ezra pulled out his katana and quickly vanished, surrounding himself in mist. He dashed forward with blistering speed past the female student, freezing all the water she tried to shoot out all the way to her staff, leaving it useless.
"What!?"
She screamed in panic. Out of desperation, she swung her arms backwards which Ezra easily rolled out of. He untied his scarlet sash and whipped it around his opponent's waist. Ezra gripped his sash tightly and flung it over his shoulders, catapulting the Haven Academy student towards the edge of the arena. Dazed and confused, the student named Kela carelessly stood up without paying attention to Ezra. He quickly rebuilt his katana's blade then proceeded to stab it on the ground, creating a streak of ice that made its way to his opponent, freezing her on the spot.
"Hey! That's my move."
Weiss complained, but I could tell that she was secretly happy.
Ezra waved his hand at the other student, as the floor beneath her began to momentarily glow purple before swiftly dropping off the stage, eliminating her instantly.
"Ezra! Behind you!"
Jaune yelled out of nowhere. Everyone shifted their sights at Bruno, who already clobbered the Atlesian student just as quickly as Ezra dispatched his opponent. He stood there menacingly behind Ezra, who still haven't the clue of the danger behind him. Though it wouldn't be too long before he'd notice, as he swung his sword violently behind him as soon as he felt his presence.
"W-wha?"
To our surprise, Ezra's katana shattered into pieces as soon as it made contact with Bruno. I squint my eyes and began to examine Ezra's opponent from head to toe and saw that small rocks were beginning to form around him like armor. If I had to guess, this is how he survived Vacuo's desert.
[It would seem that the only participants left on the arena are Mr. Tallgeese from Shade Academy, and Mr. Flyheight from Beacon.]
[Yes! quite the interesting matchup Dr. Oobleck! Two combatants with two completely different fighting styles. It's power versus speed, who do you think will win?]
Port and Oobleck began spouting a bunch of mumbo-jumbo through the intercom, as Ezra began to circle Bruno. I could barely make out the movement of their lips, but I can tell that Bruno and Ezra were talking to each other. The combatants were equipped with mics that had the audio fed through the coms systems on our scrolls so the audience can listen in on the action. It's apparently to help with immersion. A new development courtesy of Atlas.
"Pull out your scrolls! Their talking to each other."
At my insistance, everyone pulled out their scrolls and listened in.
"Fancy semblance you got there, Tallgeese."
Ezra continued to circle Bruno who patiently stood in the center of the arena, as the stage around them continued to shrink.
"Yours is also impressive. I know that student you knocked out. Kela, her semblance would have been problematic to deal with, I thank you for taking her out."
Ezra raised his blade to his cheeks and bent his knees, as he readied himself to make a move.
"Oh, so your saying I'm not a threat?"
Bruno chuckled at the thought.
"I'm just saying, I'm a bad match up for you."
The moment he said that, his rock armor began to thicken, completely covering him from head to toe. He slammed his fist against the ground, creating a shockwave throughout the already shrinking arena. Ezra jumped forward to counter, but Bruno saw it coming, almost like he was baiting him to jump. He cocked his arm back and used gravity dust to quickly create a boulder the size of Ezra, and hurled it towards him with such force that if he got hit, Ezra wouldn't just be unconscious, he'd probably be dead. Which is obviously bad.
Thankfully, my Ezra is crafty.
The boulder smashed against Ezra's body, shattering it to pieces, revealing that he was an ice clone all this time.
"Wait... that's my move."
Took her a moment to realize that Ezra copied Blake's favorite escape move. The real Ezra was already galloping towards Bruno from behind. Bruno clenched his whole body tight, creating an incredible amount of rock spears to appear all over his body. Before Ezra could make contact with him, he covered himself in mist once more and dashed passed Bruno.
Convinced that he already diverted Ezra's attacked, Bruno retracted all his rock spears except for one, which he casually snapped out of his shoulder like a twig, then immediately threw it at Ezra. Ezra used his blade to parry the spear, while an ice clone suddenly appeared from the leftover mist behind Bruno and slashed his back to no avail.
"AHH! His armor's too thick!"
Nora obnoxiously yelled, pulling her hair in frustration. That one failed attack however, wasn't enough to deter Ezra. He continued to dash back and forth and side to side, constantly using his Flawless Duet technique to barrage Bruno with slashes, but none of them did any real significant damage other than creating minor kinks in his rock armor.
"This is almost unfair. Look, he's just regenerating all that damage Ezra did to him."
I looked closely at the marks Ezra did that slowly began to fade as more and more rocks began to crawl over the dents.
"Give it up, Ezra. You're no match for me. You may be able to hit me, but you can't realistically damage me."
Bruno calmly cautioned Ezra, who's slowly beginning to tire out.
"Moving at that speed isn't sustainable in the long run, your body will tire out and slow down just enough for me to catch you."
Ezra simply grinned in response, and used Silent Waltz to dash directly at Bruno's chest. Before he could make impact, Ezra dispelled the mist, revealing himself with his feet pointed directly at his opponent. Ezra jammed his feet in his chest then kicked as hard as he could, before backflipping away. He used the momentum of his dash to increase the force of his drop kick, but even that wasn't enough to even nudge Bruno from his spot.
Bruno raised his fist and used gravity dust to launch the rocks underneath Ezra upwards, hitting him before he could even land.
"Ezra!"
Before Ezra could flop down on the ground, Bruno caught him by the neck and slammed him on the ground.
[Aura level: 35%]
"This is bad, anymore damage and he'd be knocked out."
Ruby annoyingly tapped her feet as she worriedly watched with us. Panic began to set in all of us till Ezra's laughter began to echoe from our scrolls.
"What's so funny?"
Bruno asks, as he pinned Ezra down.
"Oh, nothing. It just that. AH! you're so proud of that 'impenetrable' armor of yours huh?"
We watch Ezra squirm at first, then slowly but surely, he began slip out of Bruno's grip.
"W-what's going on? How's he getting away? And why is Bruno not moving?"
Jaune asked, but I simply smiled at him, knowing full well what Ezra did. Oh Ezra, that was slick. My friends watch in awe, as ice began to manifest in every corner of Bruno's armor, freezing him on the spot.
"You see Bruno, it doesn't matter how thick the armor is."
Ezra slowly stood up and began dusting off his jacket, while he looked at Bruno who was still kneeling down.
"Armor has to have joints in them, otherwise, how are you going to move? I wasn't just flinging random strikes at you, I was flooding your armor joints with my semblance."
The floor beneath them began to glow purple, and Ezra grinned at Bruno who desperately struggling to undo the jail he ironically put himself into. He waved at him then cockily walked backwards.
"See ya."
As soon as he said those words, Bruno fell down along with the floor, eliminating him from the competition.
[Ladies and Gentlemen! We have a winner! Ezra Flyheight, from Beacon Academy!]
Everyone in the arena roared and clapped their hands, Ruby especially.
"Sis! What are you doing? You gotta yell louder for your man!"
I blush at what Ruby just said. Almost immediately after, the rest of our friends began teasing me and urged me to cheer louder. I reluctantly obliged. It's a little bit embarrassing when you're being teased, but nonetheless I am proud of Ezra.
It wouldn't be long after Ezra's match that it would be our turn to face Team ABRN. It was a long and hard fought match, but we ended up getting the win. Made me a little hungry too, but in all honesty, I was more excited to see Ezra than the food everyone wanted to gobble down. We went ahead and roamed the festival grounds, looking at all the food stalls for a place to eat, but everyone wanted something a little different and couldn't decide which one we should be eating at.
"Over here!"
Thankfully, Ezra took the liberty of choosing for us.
"Hey!"
I give Ezra a kiss on the cheek, as I sat right next to him. We began to place our orders at the ramen stall as soon as we sat down and began lollygagging while we waited for our food.
"You did great out there, Ez. Not bad for a last minute match."
Ezra playfully placed his feet against the food stall's counter top, balancing himself on the stool he was sitting on, as he tipped himself back and forth.
"Thanks, hun. It was no sweat really."
He cockily replied.
"Really? Cause from where we were sitting, you were pretty clumsy, uncoordinated, and improvising rather than strategizing."
Weiss countered, still obviously upset that Ezra stole some of her techniques. A facade that she's failing to keep up, since everybody knew that she's happy her move helped Ezra win.
"Aww, Ezra had it under control the WHOLE time."
Ruby defended him while she kicked her legs back and forth.
"So not true! Isn't that right Blake?"
Weiss tilted her head towards Blake, who wasn't at all paying the argument any attention.
"Leave me out of this."
She jokingly snapped back.
It was then that Team JNPR appeared out of nowhere, with Nora dancing and skipping towards us.
"Mind if we join you? I'll pay."
Pyrrha kindly offered. As much as I didn't want her to pay for everyone, it'd be rude to reject her kindness. That and now that I've talked to Ezra, my stomach was starting to make it's presence known. Though, not as loud as Ezra's belly.
"Ezra! C'mon..."
In front Ezra were two large bowls of ramen, big enough to feed five families.
"What, she said she'll pay."
That doesn't mean pig out on somebody's expense, but Pyrrha simply waved it off and insisted it's alright, so I hesitantly complied.
"Why do you even need to eat that much?"
I ask.
"That's... actually a good question. It's because I NEED it."
Ren raised his head after he elegantly sipped the noodle into his mouth.
"Need it? How so?"
Ezra began twirling his chopsticks in between his fingers, then casually scooped a big pile of noodles for him devour in one go.
"My semblance."
"What about it?"
Blake immediately asked, knowing full well that he was gonna segment his answers.
"Heat manipulation is a fancy semblance..."
He paused, then grabbed another pile of noodles.
"But..."
Ezra swiveled his head around then clumsily slurped the noodles hanging on his chopsticks.
"Oh for Remnant's sake Ezra, would you please finish your food or finish what your saying or I'm gonna lose it."
Weiss growled at him, which made Ezra choke on his food.
"Ah- *cough* Sorry! *cough* sorry! Ahem... as I was saying. Heat manipulation is a fancy semblance. It allows me to manipulate the heat around me to shape it to however form I want it to. That much you know, but! What you don't know is that I require a source of some kind."
Ezra grabbed one of the bowls with his two hands then began to drink the broth out of it. He slammed it on the table once he's done, shoving it to the side, then pulling the other bowl towards him.
"Think about this way: When you want to sprint, do you find yourself sprinting the moment you intended to? No right? You have start at a standstill, then gradually increase your speed. Or how a vehicle would go from 0-60. You don't just skip 1 through 59, you have to go through the motions."
He dips his chopsticks in his new bowl and began swirling the noodles around.
"For my semblance to work, I need to have a source of heat to manipulate. If there's nothing close by like fire for example, I'd have to use my own body heat, which is really really really REALLY taxing. That's why I can't fight for very long using my semblance, and why I fight a lot better with water near by. I just use dust to manipulate water, and sprinkle just a bit of semblance in there to transform it into the mist you see me play with so much."
He then pointed his thumb at Weiss without looking at her.
"Also why I prefer fighting with Weiss. She makes everything ten times easier."
Blake and Jaune stared at Ezra dumbfounded, though I haven't the clue why. Only natural for semblances to have weaknesses, but I didn't really think much of what Ezra said till Jaune brought something up that's extremely worrying.
"So Ezra, you mean to tell me that if you fight long enough using your semblance and you drain all your body heat, you die?"
Ezra began munching on the noodles he jammed in his mouth and began talking with his mouth full.
"Ughh.. mggggg.. hhh. Yeah, exactly. My semblance is literally killing me everytime I use it. That's why I eat! Everytime I finish a full meal like this, I feel my body recovering almost instantly, and I'm not just saying that, I really do feel better right away."
Hearing him say all this things made me look at him at a different light. All this time, he's been risking his life everytime he fights with us. The docks, the paladin, and even in the underground tunnels recently, he could have died yet he still chose to fight.
"Ezra, why? If you run the risk of dying everytime you fight, then why fight at all?"
Ezra stared at his bowl for a few seconds, calmly thinking of a way to answer my question. All of us eagerly awaited his answer in silence. He then lifts his head with a childish smile on his face.
"Aww shucks! We're aspiring huntsmen here. All of us run the risk of dying. Besides, I don't think about it as the possibility of dying, it's more so of me thinking 'what if I die today? Would I be satisfied with my life knowing that I could have possibly done more.' And the answer to that question is almost always no. But I see why you're worried, really it all boils down to if the situation is worth fighting for."
It's very noble and touching to hear him say these words, but I still don't feel comfortable.
"And this last minute match? This ain't worth fighting for."
"Of course it is."
He answered back without hesitation. I look back at him with my eyes wide open, curious as to where he draws this kind of confidence from, but before I could ask, Ezra answered the question painted all over my face.
"It's because you believed in me. That's reason enough."
What he said right after stunned me. I can feel the blood rushing to my face, as Nora began to playfully nudge me with her elbows.
"Can it Ezra, don't matter how much you sweet talk me, I'm not gonna kiss you with ramen broth slobbered all over your face."
Our group of friends burst out laughing, as Ezra frantically wiped his face. He smile at everyone as he tipped himself over, then quickly rolled backwards as soon as his back hit the ground. He bounced right back up like a spring with his hands already in his pocket, and a big smile painted on his face.
"Anyways, Yang, can I talk to you in private?"
I rest my chin on my fist, and contemplated ditching the team for a second, but Ezra insisted.
"C'mon, it won't be long, I promise. We'll be back."
With that, I waved our friends goodbye and followed Ezra out of the festival grounds into a clearing in the forest close by.
"So? What do you wanna talk about?"
He scratched the back of his head then turned around with a dumbfounded look on his face.
"Well, when were you gonna tell me about that necklace?"
Oh. This is what it's about! I've been wearing it for a while but I haven't really said nothing about it, hoping that he'll notice. It's the necklace his grandmother gave me way back when. I run my fingers across the silver chain and followed it all the way down the small locket with three feather engraved on it.
"I've seen you wear it after that night with Junior and his club, but I never really connected the dots where you got it from... till recently. Why didn't you tell me grandma gave you that?"
I sigh in response.
"That's cause I was hoping you'd notice it."
Ezra gave me a faint smile, then moved closer. He gently placed his hands around my neck and started to caress my necklace's chains.
"Do you know what this means?"
I look up confused, obviously oblivious that the necklace had another meaning.
"Not many people do anymore. This necklace didn't belong to my family here in Vale, it belongs to the tribe I was with in Mistral."
Oh.
"From what I remember, the three feathers symbolized love, kindness, and faith- the foundations needed for a family to strive."
I wrap my fingers around the locket, contemplating on what it really meant.
"Why would your grandmother give it to me then?"
Ezra rested his forehead against mine with his eyes closed before continuing.
"It's lost its meaning after my tribe fell, and was replaced with another. To grandma, it's a family heirloom from my past. Her giving it to you means she's associated you with me. If any of the 'guys' and 'gals' I know saw you with that, they would leave you alone. She gave it you as protection, because you're with me. My girl."
She predicted that we'd be together then.
"Your grandmother is something else."
Ezra
A couple days have gone by since the festival started, and everything so far has been peaceful. I should be grateful true, but I just can't shake this sinking feeling in my stomach that something's about to go horribly wrong.
[From Cinder]
Speak of the devil.
"Something wrong Ezra?"
Ruby asks, as we made our way towards the landing strip at the far edges of the school.
"Make sure you two are in your best behavior okay?"
Weiss cheerfully marched along with us while barking her orders.
"Yeah, yeah. Got it."
In all my time I've spent with Weiss, I've never seen her this cheerful.
[From Cinder: Your last mission was a success. I've found an access code that can access the scroll of a high ranking Atlesian Operative stationed in Vale.]
[To Cinder: I'm assuming you want me to use the code to hack into an officer's scroll then?]
[From Cinder: Precisely]
What a pain in the behind.
[To Cinder: Who's the target then?]
I got so caught up with my conversation with Cinder that I didn't even notice that we'd reach the end of the landing zone. Weiss stood there in silence, nervous for some reason, so much so that her nervousness is starting to affect Ruby. Frankly, and it's starting to affect me too.
In front of us was an Atlesian Manta Airship, surrounded by Ironwood's droids. The access door began to slowly swing down, revealing a very stern looking woman with white hair that creepily resembled Weiss.
Weiss trotted forward and ran right next to the woman. She flashed a big bright smile that I never thought she could make then faced me and Ruby.
"Guys, I'd like to introduce you. This is my sister: Winter Schnee."
Just then, a beep from my scroll stole my attention. Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at the message Cinder sent me.
[From Cinder: Target's name: Winter Schnee]
You have got to be joking.