Chapter 10: We Can Do It!

Richard dribbled the basketball in place, just beyond the three-point line of the empty practice court. Aiming carefully, he flung the ball towards the ring. It bounced off the back board and swished through the basket. "Good... it's perfected now." Richard grinned at the progress of his training. "Now, if I could only make the shot not hit the damn backboard..." he grumbled.

"Y'know, considering our team's name, you should probably be saying 'darn backboard'." Richard heard a voice joke. He turned to the doors leading into the court to see his fellow teammates enter, led by Arin.

"Vocabulary isn't what's important right now." Richard let the joke slide as he picked up the ball and aimed it once again.

"We didn't find you in bed, so we figured you might have been here." Nina said. "How long have you been here training?"

Richard looked at his watch, which read 9:03. "Roughly three hours."

"Oh no~!" Nina cried as she tackle-hugged Richard down to the ground. "You should have been getting your rest! The tournament's on today!"

"Gah! I know-get off me!" Richard grunted as he managed to pry Nina away.

"You're not the one who needs the sleep..." Arin sighed as he dragged Drew by the collar in front of him. Said team leader simply slumped down on the floor when Arin let go, his eyes halfway closed and bearing large, black circles just underneath them.

"What is the matter, leader?" Richard inquired.

"I, ugh..." Drew mumbled, still half asleep. "I... ended up marathoning most of season 2 of Kuroko no Basuke last night... I may seem pretty tired, but believe me... the hype is still running through my veins."

"I don't know what that is." Richard declared.

"It's another one of his stupid cartoons, or something." Arin explained.

"It's called anime, you take that back..." Drew let out an annoyed grumbled, hardly having the energy to start an argument.

"No." Arin blankly denied.

It had been two days since they signed up for the tournament and started training with Chi. She was a surprisingly effective coach, showing everyone proper strategies, techniques and determining what position everyone should play. And today was the day to show off what they learned.

"By the way Richard, why are you so focused on shooting the ball?" Arin asked. "It's easier to do a layup. Hell, with your skill, you'd be more likely to dunk the thing."

"I will most certainly NOT be doing those!" Richard angrily disapproved. "Layups and dunks are unsightly and messy! As a model student, I mustn't lower myself to such barbaric techniques!"

"Just watch, we're gonna get to the finals and win with a dunk done by Richard. The laws of irony have decided it." Drew sleepily joked.

"Enough of your nonsense!" Richard yelled in anger as he picked up the ball again.

"So, have you been practicing your shooting since six?"

"Yes! I have been having trouble with since the beginning of our training, but now I have perfected it!"

"Yay~! Richy's no longer useless!" Nina squealed.

"H-Hey!" Richard growled back in anger.

"This is great!" Drew ran over and patted Richard's shoulder in celebration. "With your Angle Eye, you'll totally be able to shoot super accurately! You'll be our mister Green!" Drew pushed a pair of non-existing glasses up the bridge of his nose, and squinted his eyes, attempting to look cool. "Your shots never miss..."

"I'm sorry, 'mister Green'? And 'Angle Eye'?" Arin sighed in confusion.

"In Kuroko, they're colour-coded."

"Never mind, it was stupid for me to ask in the first place..."

They all heard the door of the gym open and they turned to see Chi walking towards them. "Oh good, you're all here!" she chirped.

"Hey Chi!" Nina greeted their coach.

"We have great news! Richard learned to shoot!"

"What? Really?!" Chi's eyes widened in surprise. "That's fantastic! Richard, I knew you could do it!"

"Of course I could! This is but child's play for me, not something to be proud of!" Richard loudly declared, not appearing too happy.

"R-Right..." Chi slumped as all her optimism deflated.

Drew patted her on the back. "Don't worry. I'm sure he'll come to enjoy himself. Eventually..."

"I hope so.." Chi gave a weak smile. "But anyway, I also have news for everyone!"

"Yeah? Go ahead."

"Yay~! More good news!"

"Report!" Everyone echoed their responses.

"As I've mentioned, this tournament is relatively new, and as such we aren't too popular right now. In fact, we only got a few teams participating. Including you guys, there's only four."

"Four? Surely that is an insufficient number for an official event!" Richard ranted.

"Actually, for a tournament style event, that's just barely enough..." Chi rubbed the back of her head in shame.

"Don't worry about it!" Drew cheered. "It's probably because the writer doesn't want this arc to drag on too long."

"The who?" Chi raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Just ignore him." Arin sighed. "Eventually you get used to it and he fades into the background..."

"Wait. If I fade into the background, goes that mean I can use Misdirection?" Drew beamed in excitement.

"Like I said, ignore it."

"A-Anyway..." Chi aimed to get the conversation back on track. "I managed to find out the names of the other team's names, if that helps."

"Sure, that might help if we knew who we're up against." Arin commented.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Richard yelled back in anger. "An unfair advantage against an opponent is unsportsmanli-"

Arin suddenly slapped his hand over Richard's mouth. "Never mind him, continue." he assured Chi.

"Well, uhh.. the team you'll face in the first round is.. ugh, how do you pronounce this? C-R-D-L? 'Crudle'?"

"Wait, you mean team CRDL?" Drew questioned.

"Yeah! That must be it!" Chi confirmed.

"Ugh..." Nina uncharacteristically cringed at the name. "Those guys are such meanies..."

"They are poor students and hold irrational prejudice against Faunus! UNACCEPTABLE!"

"Yeah, even I admit they're kind of dickish..." Arin agreed.

"You know what? I kinda disagree." Drew shrugged, earning a questioning look from everyone.

"... excuse me?"

"Okay, just hear me out on this one-"

"No, please!" Arin sarcastically joked. "Explain to us how you think team CRDL aren't that bad!"

"Well, yeah. They have done some pretty bad things, but just think! What if they turned over a new leaf?! What if they turned into lovable oafs who want to repent for their sins?!"

"Well, if they did do that, they might be okay. But..." Arin sighed at his leader's thought. "... they aren't like that!"

"Yeah. But they could be. And they should be. So... they're okay in my book!" Drew happily smiled.

Arin rubbed the top of the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Just ignore it. Juuust ignore it..."

"Anyway..." Chi returned from the slight distraction back to her sheet. "The other teams are... team JNPR-"

"Bleeeergh!" Drew groaned, mocking vomiting.

"Oh goody. What now? You think JNPR's bad because they're too popular or something equally stupid?" Arin rolled his eyes at Drew's distaste.

"No! Just that Jaune guy's a jerk..." Drew grumbled in disgust.

"Why?"

"He spends far too much time with Ruby for my liking..."

"Aww, someone's jealous!" Nina giggled.

"Shut up..." Drew blushed as he glared down at the floor.

"Drew Naywing, ladies and gentlemen. Thinks that Jaune Arc's an asshole and Cardin Winchester's just misunderstood." Arin joked.

"You shut up too!" Drew crossed his arms in a huff.

"Y'know, it's funny you say 'Ruby' because I think that's what the last team's called." Chi went on to read.

Drew's heart stopped for a moment as he heard the familiar name being called. "C-Come again?"

"Umm, it's spelt R-W-B-Y. That it?"

"Oh no..." Arin whispered at the inevitable freak out.

"Oh. My. GOOOOOOOOOSSSHHH!" Drew squealed at an octave that no one though was humanly possible. "Arin, do you know what this means?!"

"No. Drew, fuck off." Arin tried desperately to ignore Drew's fan-gasms.

The remarks flew over Drew's head however. "I might be able to get close to Ruby! I could talk to her! I could impress her! I could even get a chance to talk to her!"

"You said that twice!" Richard scolded. "You must vary your goals!"

"No! Richard! Don't encourage him!" Arin frantically panicked.

"You're right! I should ask her to hang out! We could talk about how life was back in Signal, watch a movie, play some games- Wait! What if she doesn't wanna play video games? What of she thinks that stuff's immature and childish? What if she flat out rejects me cause I watch too much anime and play too many games?! Arin, help meeeeee!" Drew began to bawl on Arin's shoulder.

Arin just stared at Chi in disgust. "Look at what you've done..."

Chi shuffled over to Richard, trying to avoid Arin's death glare. "So, uhh, Drew's like this because...?"

"He has in infatuation with our fellow student Ruby Rose!" he explained.

"She's the leader of team RWBY!" Nina chimed in. "He's head over heels, and it's adorable!"

Arin's eye twitched in frustration. "This-This!" he pointed at the bawling child on his shoulder for emphasis. "-is not adorable! This is demonic!"

"Well, why does he like her? I mean, this seems like a bit of an overreaction for just-"

However, Chi was cut off by Drew running right up to her face and glaring furiously at her. "What? Are you kidding me?! Ruby's the greatest! She's like a big 'ol ball of cuteness, and everything she does is adorable, like the way she's kinda awkward, and the way she dresses, but she's also totally bad ass too, since she has this big-ass scythe that's also a sniper rifle, and she can fight with it using a bunch of flips and dashes, and she still manages to look, like, super fricking majestic while doing it, and-"

Arin decided to stop him before he went overboard. "Look, it's curious that you know every little detail about the chick, buts it's also incredibly creepy, so just stop."

"Ruby is my waifu!" Drew cried out dramatically.

"Drew. Stop. Creepy. She's like, a year younger than everyone here."

"So... Are we good?" Chi questioned, still trying to process the sight held before her.

"Yeah..." Arin sighed. "We're done."


After Chi spilled her bit of news, the team got in one last hour of training, warming up for the game, everyone brushing up on techniques and strategies, and Drew trying desperately to think up of a good pick-up line for ruby. Despite Arin's discouraging comments about the fact that they won't even be playing against team RWBY unless both of the got to the finals, Drew remained passionate. If anything, this made Drew more determined to win.

They eventually made their way to he changing rooms for playing teams, and got changed into the complimentary jersey and shorts, despite Richards's cries of rage that males and females shouldn't change in the same room. They just sort of went with it, with each party taking a different corner of the room.

And then, finally, they entered one of the two main stadiums being used for the tournaments today. And sure enough, team CRDL were waiting, practicing their shots on the other end of the court. Though to everyone's surprise, the stadium was packed with people! Granted, it wasn't completely full, but for a small event, there were quite a few people there, roughly a couple of hundred .

"Whoa..." Drew gasped.

"Don't get stage freight." Arin joked.

"Stage freight isn't relevant here! This is a basketball game, not a play! Choose your words properly!" Richard growled.

"Aww, Richy doesn't get it!" Nina giggled.

"I would prefer if you didn't make me the subject of your laughter..." Richard grumbled to his partner.

"But it's so fun.." Nina pouted in response.

"Well, I am your captain for today, remember?"

"Oh yeah... Drew, you were really stupid to make that deal!" she laughed merrily.

"Actually, I'm kinda glad. I don't wanna have all that responsibility in front of all these people.."

"Hey everyone!" Chi called from the side of the court. "Over here!" DARN made their way to their coach. "Okay. Drew, Arin, Nina? Ready?" They all nodded back. "Good!... Richard?"

"What?" he frowned at Chi.

"I-I'm just making sure you're fine, or whatever.."

"Well, I'm fine! What do you want?!"

"R-Right. So, you're up against CRDL first. You may have another game on today if you win, but don't think of this as an excuse to hold back here! Go at this with all you've got! Team CRDL seems tough at first, but they have no particular skill! I'm confident that you'll take them down! So confident in fact, that... I'm not gonna watch yous."

"Wait, what?" Nina asked.

"I know you guys can do it without my help! Meanwhile, the RWBY vs JNPR match is on in the other stadium. I'll study up on them so as I can help you."

"Well, I suppose that is acceptable..." Richard pondered.

"Alright! We'll handle things over here!" Drew confidently pumped the air before holding his hand in the center of the huddle currently formed.

"What is it?" Richard questioned Drew's hand.

"It's the team 'Break!' that happens before a game."

"We're not doing that." Richard sternly disagreed before moving inward to their half of the court.

"Oooh, shot down..." Nina sympathized with Drew, patting his back.

"Drew?" Chi caught the attention of the rejected team leader. "Look, I've been thinking. If Richard doesn't change, if he doesn't start liking basketball again-"

"He will." Drew cut off, giving a determined look to Chi. "Without a doubt."

"... alright." Chi nodded back. She left through the exit and headed to the other court.

"Or at least I hope so. Otherwise, this wouldn't really be a character arc for Richard." Drew sighed.

"What're you talking about?" Nina tilted her head, slightly confused.

"U-Uh, nothing..."

As DARN practiced some shots beside their own basket, an announcers voice call out over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Vytal festival's Basketball Tournament! The students of Beacon are fighting hard to become the Huntresses and Huntsmen that will protect us threats like the Grimm. But that doesn't mean that can't enjoy themselves! This tournament is to promote some friendly competition as well as inspire some extra-curricular activities among the students!"

"Thank goodness someone explained that to everyone." Drew sighed in relief. "Otherwise the people who came here to watch a basketball game for students of Beacon would never know that this is a basketball game for the students of Beacon."

Arin raised his head up at Drew's statement and raised an eyebrow. "Did... Did you just use sarcasm?"

"Yeah! I think I'm pretty good at it!"

"No. Stop. Sarcasm's my thing."

The announcer continued over their bickering. "Of course, we can't have them running the court faster than we can see, or blowing up the place with fire, or lightning, or glyphs! So, as a safety precaution, the players' Aura have been blocked, using special trinkets attached to their wrists. The use of physically altering Semblances, like producing flames, or manipulating objects, are also prohibited."

Cardin looked up at the speaker that was calling out to the crowd. "Jesus Christ, just get on with it..." he moaned aloud, only being heard by the rest of his team. "Why are they even explaining it to people? They already know what they're here to see..."

"Aww, someone grumpy?" Russel taunted his leader's impatience.

"Tch! I just want to win this match already!" Cardin grumbled, crossing his arms. "Then we can get our own back at JNPR..." Just then, Cardin felt a cold shiver course through his body, as if someone was watching him. Looking behind him, he noticed the smallest kid from the opposing team staring at him intently. "W-what do you want?" Cardin barked, somewhat put off by the staring.

Drew clapped his hands together, closed his eyes and bent his head down, looking like he was praying to someone. "Please... Please be less of a asshole..."

Cardin raised his eyebrow at the unusual... request? Prayer? What would one call that? "U-Uhh... Sure. Wait a minute, are you calling me an asshole?!"

"Well, yeah. You are at the moment. But just imagine how cool it would be if-" Cardin was filled with rage at this point, and was ready to beat this annoying kid's head in, but was beaten to the punch when a taller guy from the opposing team walked up behind the boy and smacked the back of his head. "Oww..."

"I'm so sorry for my partner." Arin apologised. "We only look after him because Ozpin told us to. He's a... special case."

"H-Hey! That's not true!" Drew yelped.

"Really? Are you 100% sure? How do you know you haven't been lied to all this time?" he grinned mischievously.

Drew's eyes widened, as if his entire world came tumbling down on top of him. "Lord Oum... Maybe you're right..."

"Jeez, I was only joking..."

Cardin looked on the two bickering, confused and just a little bit concerned. "You're... the other team, right?"

"Eeyup!" Drew answered. "Our enemies curse at our na-"

"No! Don't start that roll call shit again!" Arin interjected.

"Mister Naywing!" Everyone heard the passionate yells of Richard as he walked over and joined the conversation. "Please refrain from your childish antics! We must prepare for our match if we are to win!"

Although Cardin was still confused and concerned for the mental well-being of this team (particularly since one of them seems to be yelling for no reason) his competitive instinct kicked in as he heard Richard's orders. "Hey! Who says you're gonna win anyway?" he smirked. "After we wipe the floor with you, we'll being moving on take down JNPR!"

"See? This is why you're an asshole." Drew sighed.

Cardin glared ferociously at Drew. "And you... I'm gonna give you hell in particular." He then turned around walked back to his team slowly.

"J-Jeez.." Drew mumbled under his breath, a bit on-edge after that threat.

'That guy just scared Drew out of his wits...' Arin pondered with a smile on his face. 'I gotta make him tell me how to do that.'

Drew, Arin and Richard returned back to their side of the court for the last few minutes of practice. During this time, Nina had made sure Moonmoon was nice and comfy in her bag as she seated it on the team's bench. The crowd sneaked a look at what she was doing and began to mutter among themselves. "What is she doing?" "Is that a puppy?" "Why does it look like a Beowolf...?" "I-It's probably just some costume they dressed it up in! Like a mascot!" "Yeah, a mascot! That's probably it!" "He actually looks kinda cute..." The rest of the team breathed a sigh of relief at the false assumptions.

Arin also pulled out a small, silver flask from his bag, and begun drinking the liquid inside it. Drew stared in disbelief. "... really?" he sighed.

"Hey, you don't really expect me to play two whole games of this with you guys sober, do you?" Arin sneered back.

"You're mean..."

"And besides, I need to drink to use my Semblance."

"W-Wait, I though we couldn't use Semblances in this game." Drew pondered, now confused.

"We aren't allowed to use physically altering Semblances. My Semblance is all in my mind." Arin explained as put his flask back in his bag. "Actually, I guess we have an advantage in that respect, because all of our team uses Semblances that aren't physical. Oh, except for you, of course."

Drew's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Arin, we've been over this. I do have a Semblance."

"What is it, then?" Arin sighed, as their familiar conversation began again.

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"It's far to early in the series!"

"What is that?! What the fuck do you even mean?!"

"In tokusatsu, they only reveal the hero's final form in, like, the last quarter! I must abide my time until then!"

"Oh, I see! How very inconvenient!" Arin replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "It's a pity that you can't show it to us!"

"Shut up..."

"TEAMMATES!" Richard yelled. "It's time for match!"

The two teams lined up the the half-way line, with the referee standing at the two lines of players. "Shake." he ordered, and each member of DARN and CRDL shook the hand of the player opposite. Due to them both being the captain of their respective teams, Cardin and Richard were shaking each other's hand, but that didn't stop Cardin from glaring at Drew. Richard made a mental note of where his gaze was directed at.

With Cardin's intimidating presence, Drew felt a little bit nervous, lowering his head and avoiding the bully's gaze. Nina placed a hand on his shoulder, making him look up to her reassuring face. "Don't worry about that meanie!" she smiled, managing to brighten Drew's mood a little bit.

"Okay, everyone! Positions!" Richard ordered. Each team took their appropriate positions. For CRDL, Cardin was the center in the half-way mark, ready for the throw up, Sky Lark was the point guard, guarding the ring, and Russel and Dove played a forward position, to the right and left behind Cardin. For DARN, Drew was the point guard, Nina was the center at the half-way mark, and Arin and Richard behind her. 'Okay, so everyone's in position...' Richard thought, running their game plan over in his mind. 'Crusher has the greatest power of us all, so we expect her to win the throw-up. After that, we'll be on the offensive. Crusher isn't that fast, though. So she needs to pass to Heartly.'

The referee blew the whistle and threw the ball up in the air. The match had begun. "Let's go~!" Nina cried as she kicked the ground and jumped up high, reaching for the ball. But a shadow was cast over her. '...what?' It was Cardin.

'How could he?' Richard blinked in disbelief. 'Crusher's a power house! Her leg power should be unparalleled! But despite that... Winchester's jumping higher!' Indeed, Cardin was jumping much higher than Nina. He caught the ball and landed while Nina was still in the air.

Keeping up the pace, he passed to Russel on the left, who was blocking off Richard. Cardin then dashed to the right of Nina and ran towards the ring. Russel caught the ball and immediate passed it back to Cardin, who was now behind Nina and heading toward the ring.

Drew trembled in fear as the giant ran towards him with a frightening glare. Drew stepped back on instinct. Back and back...

Cardin waited until he was right in front of Drew, and then he leapt high in the air.

Upon the jump, Drew lost his footing, and began to fall down.

Cardin was soaring higher and dunked the ball through the ring with a mighty swing.

"That... That's..." Drew shook in disbelief.

Cardin landed on the floor with a thud. The ball bounced lower and lower as Cardin's eyes narrowed their gaze upon the defeated Drew. "See?" he grinned. "I'm gonna put you through hell..." The loud clank echoed throughout the room as the scoreboard updated.

DARN 0-2 CRDL

The crowd roared into cheers. A slam dunk right off the bat! This was amazing! But as the crowd cheered, most of DARN felt despair wash over them. Nina was overpowered, and CRDL got a dunk right off the bat. 'How..' Arin blinked. 'How did Nina lose that? Perhaps it... Perhaps it has to do with our Aura being blocked. From here where do we-'

"So we just do Drew's counter attack suggestion?" Nina happily chirped to Richard.

"Yes! That is the most appropriate counter at this time!" Richard confirmed as he rushed towards their end of the court. "NAYWING!" he roared, getting the attention of Drew and Cardin. "TIME FOR THE COUNTER THAT YOU SUGGESTED!"

Cardin grunted in confusion. 'I know that guy's a loudmouth, but what's he yelling about?' But just then, a figure dashed forwards from behind Cardin. Drew was running down the court. 'What the-? When did he...?' On instinct, Cardin ran after him.

"If it were just me, this probably would be tricky..." Drew said as he stopped at the half-way mark, beside Arin and Russel. "But with everyone else here, you're... uh..." Drew squinted to the side, trying to come up with an appropriate one-liner. "... y-you're gonna get slammed!" he then declared with a triumphant grin.

"... good one." Arin let out a sarcastic grunt. Cardin couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"Sh-Shut it..." Drew mumbled back, his face turning beet red from embarrassment. "Besides, I'm not actually meant to give some speech." He then gave a mischievous smirk. "This is a distraction!"

And then the cogs in Cardin's head began to turn. '...the loudmouth!' He turned back to the ring, to see Richard grasping the ball. He let go of the ball and retracted his arm back.

"And now for me to get into position.." Drew carefully checked the position he was standing in, and readied his arms at his side.

"What are you-?" Cardin questioned.

"This is our combo!" Drew declared. "The Misdirection Ignite-Pass!"

Richard rammed the ball with the palm of his hand, sending it soaring toward Drew. Realising the intent, Cardin attempted to block the ball by outstretching his hand. But the force driving the ball was so strong that his hand flew backward, with the ball only slowing down a little bit as it continued toward Drew. Drew then smacked the ball from an acute angle from it's origin. It changed the direction of the ball enough to aim it toward the other end of the court.

At the other end, Nina was waiting with both hands up, just in front of the basket. She caught the ball in both hands with little trouble, turned around jumped into the air. She reached the basket and slammed the ball through the ring.

DARN 2-2 CRDL

The audience and team CRDL were silent for a moment as they tried to process what just happened. The crowd exploded in cheers again as DARN's scoreboard increased by two.

"What the...?" Cardin mumbled. He was at a loss for words. 'They countered, and immediately got a dunk too? And... why couldn't I stop that ball? Immediately countering and getting a dunk right off the bat. And doing it with such precise timing. Their team work is incredible..'

"MISTER NAYWING!" Richard roared in fiery rage. He ran over to a now terrified Drew. "KEEP YOUR CHILDISH NAMES TO YOURSELF!" He screamed as he grabbed Drew's neck and shook him furiously.

Drew's head flung left and right like a rag doll. "I-I-I-I sor-or-or-ry!" he managed to grunt, slowly becoming less and less conscious.

"We must put all our efforts into our strategies, and not into ridiculous names!"

"But it fits..." Drew let out a defeated moan. "Your super hard pass, and my own makes it look like that whole misdirection strategy they use in Kuroko..."

"THAT IS OF NO RELEVANCE! Mister Naywing, you must differentiate between reality and fiction!"

'...okay, never mind.' Cardin jogged to his side of the court. "Everyone! Get ready! That was just a fluke!" Upon hearing their leader's orders, the rest of CRDL all hurried to a position within their side of the court.

Nina had returned to Richard and Drew, and Arin accompanied them. The four could see Sky just within the three-point line, dribbling the ball, Russel and Dove ahead slightly on his left, and Cardin the same on this right.

"Hey, Richard..." Arin grumbled, slightly slouched over and his eyes somewhat distant. "I think I'm tipshy enough, so... I'll pass to you and you give ush a three?"

"Quite! That is a most acceptable strategy!" Richard yelled the go-ahead.

Sky was about to advance forwards, when the tallest member of DARN began to walk towards him. Not run or jog, just casually walking towards him until he was two and a half feet in front of Sky. Sky could see his eyes, hazy and dark, staring off into space. He wasn't taking a stance, and didn't seem to be focusing on him, so Sky decided to just ignore him and dribble past him. But out of the corner of his eye, he could've sworn the Arin seemed to be bending down. Sky didn't pay any notice for it until he felt the absence of the ball. He bounced it down and it didn't come back up.

Sky glanced back down to his hand and saw that it wasn't there. Instead, Arin stood behind him, bouncing the ball nonchalantly. "What?! How did he...?"

"Hey, Richy!" Arin yelled as he threw the ball over head.

"YOUR TECHNIQUE HAS THE IMPROPER FORM!" Richard ranted at Arin, but caught the ball nonetheless.

'Huh? Cardin blinked in confusion. 'Why'd he pass it back? He was right in front of the basket, he could've easily made a shot. So what is the loud mouth doing?' Turning his attention onto Richard, Cardin noticed that he was holding the ball in both hands, raising it up slowly and staring at the basket.

And he was at the half-way point.

"Wh-What is he doing?! He can't make that shot from there!"

And then Richard threw the ball. Every tiny movement of muscle was perfect as the ball left his arm. Everyone gawked as it soared through the air in a high arc, and descended through the ring with a swish.

DARN 5-2- CRDL

"Tch... Perfection." Richard smirked, proud of himself.

"Didn't you have to practice for hours to be able to shoot properly?" Drew sniggered out loud.

Richard gritted his teeth at Drew's jab. "What are you implying, Naywing?!"

"Weeelll, weren't you the one who said they'd teach us, and then could throw a ball properly?"

"That was just once! And that was due to the fact that I use the ball in a different way! When I use my weapon on a Grimm, I use a pass-like technique."

"Yeah, okay, whatever..." Drew rolled his eyes, feigning acceptance of Richard's reasoning.

And Richard took exception to that. He grabbed Drew by the collar of his shirt and began shaking him furiously. "DO YOU NOT CARE FOR THE HOURS OF PRACTICE I PUT IN EVERYDAY?! WHEN ALL YOU DO IS HALF-ASS EVERYTHING?! YOU DON'T EVEN-" As Richard continued his rantings, Drew's eyes were spinning from the motion, and his ears were ringing too hard for him to actually catch what Richard was saying to him.

Arin sluggishly dragged himself over to the argument, a look of distaste covering his face. "Jeez, shut up. Please..." he mumbled.

Nina looked upon Richard's assault with wide-eyed amazement. "Wooow~! You're super agitated today!"

"OF COURSE I AM!" Richard immediately let Drew go (allowing him to drop to the floor, barely conscious) and pointed a stern finger at Nina. "IF YOU RECALL, I NEVER WANTED TO ATTEND THIS IN THE BEGININNG! I this went my way, we-"

"Aaaariiinnn..." Drew, still experiencing the effects of Richard's fury, crawled desperately over to his partner and began clawing at his legs. "Heeelllpp..."

Arin gazed down in disgust. 'I could kick him right now, and no one would be any the wiser...' he plotted to himself.

Meanwhile, Cardin and his team were staring at the spectacle these stooges were putting on. And Cardin began to think to himself 'We're losing... We're losing right now, to... these guys..' He glance over to the scoreboard to make sure he didn't make a mistake. 'This is... gonna be a long match.'


AN: So I FINALLY got this chapter done. I'm so sorry that this took so long, it's just between some personal troubles, volume 2 of RWBY going on, and starting my last year in secondary school (or high school, for everyone else) things have been getting kinda busy. But hopefully, I'll be able to bring you as much childish nonsense in this story as I can! Hopefully!

So yeah, this is what the next two chapters are gonna be like. I know I've been super discreet and subtle about it, but the matches in this arc (and to an extent Richard) are inspired by the anime/manga Kuroko no Basuke. I know, you probably couldn't even guess it if I didn't just say it! I would recommend that you check it out to get the sports anime vibe I'm going for with in this chapter, but I don't want you to start comparing my stuff to Kuroko. I'd lose by a landslide.

And I know that some of you may think that this arc is getting reeeeaally corny... and yeah, it is. I feel like the action is kinda rushed, and that some characters, like Chi and everyone in CRDL went to waste and were there to just fill up space... But next time, I'll work everyone in better!

So yeah, next time, the match concludes and other stuff happens! Or, if you guys want, I could make another Extra. Like DARN fighting someone, DARN spending the day in Vale, DARN somehow ruining the Ball for everyone... the possibilities are endless!