"And the thing you'll notice about this season, a lot of people have been wondering where Lazula Skye has been," the broadcaster relayed into Lazula's ear. Her fingers wrapped the bar that bent with three forty pound weights at each end. She warned Snow away with her eyes when she tried to help lift it from the rack, and managed the weight herself. She lowered it to her chest, taking in all the air her lungs could fit. "June through early Autumn is the height of the season, but she's been silent since the Vytal Tournament."
Another chimed in as she hoisted three hundred pounds to the height of the rack, cords of muscle rippling beneath her skin. "You see this a lot in 'rising star' athletes, actually," he explained. "They start with a spark in the lower leagues, generate a lot of buzz, but they're not used to the level of competition higher up so they end up getting overwhelmed and falling off pretty quickly. And– you see, Lazula was fourteen when she entered her first tournament. She swept that one. Her competition was two, three years older than her, and she swept them. But now, she's eighteen. Now that's not old, and she did have a decent showing until the championship round, but her star's kind of faded by now. I wouldn't be surprised if most of her career wins are behind–"
"Snow, change to music."
Snow poked the Holoband laying on the weight shelf, and Lazula pushed the weight again.
Caspian and Moka shared their last class of the day in a classroom on the Crossroads: Advanced Combat Strategies. So, as per the plan, he packed workout clothes in his bag and set out for the SFC just as the bell rang. Since ACS was a huntsman elective rather than a General Education requirement, all of their teammates, Cattleya included, were among the swarm of shifting bodies and zipping backpacks. He felt her eyes burning into the side of his skull as he left with Moka. They had flashed over toward the pair ever since she sat down with him. It didn't even help that Lilly and Rowan, also Moka's friends, were to his side. To her, it was just Caspian. She probably thought she had been right all along.
He kept quiet, kept his head down, and left as quickly as possible.
Moka's relentless verbal stream fell to the background on their trip out of the Crossroads, down the paved trail behind Scoria Huntsman Resource Library. He caught something about her wanting to try roller skating, though she was afraid she'd fall and break her tail. And she couldn't wait until the weather warmed up and she could go hiking again. He couldn't keep up with anything else.
Even on those bright, sunny days that would inevitably come toward the end of the school year the trail they walked was always a little dim, shaded on one side by the four-story grey brick and glass building, and on the other by pines encircling a tiny enclave. He fell into the memory of himself blindly stumbling the opposite direction on the night of the dance.
Just seeing Cattleya put him in a mood like that– remembering all their worst points; hoping to any higher power that would listen she wouldn't choose that day to confront him again. She hadn't yet, and he hoped it stayed that way. He managed to snap out of it as they crossed the street past the Student Resource Center, and began descending a tucked-away set of stairs toward the trail.
"...So anyway, after all that I was like, half an hour late to work," Moka said, wrapping up her tale. "My boss wasn't very happy about that. But I should be okay, I'm really good with the customers."
Caspian chuckled. "Seems like you would be."
As the SFC came into view between a gap in the trees, Caspian felt another rock fall into the pit of his stomach. He was going to join the Sparring Team. The team filled with Lazula, Midas, Moka, and the rest of Sentinel's most dedicated huntsmen-in-training. He'd say he felt like a fish out of water, but that was cliche. And only close to what he felt. He felt more like a fish plucked from the water by its tail, fileted and grilled alive. Someone as physically gifted as Moka must be embarrassed to show up dragging in someone like him.
Moka sent off a message and faced him with a smile, taking her next few steps backward. "Oh, I can't wait for you to meet everyone!"
Caspian looked at her, but his eyes narrowed aside. "She's such a good liar."
Natural light from the windowed wall to the right bathed the twenty or so athletes already gathered in the SFC's Room 202. The windows, and three walls of mirrors opposing them, belied the fact that the sparring court was only about half the size of the basketball court next door despite being in the workout center of a huntsman academy.
He recognized Lazula, Holoband resting on her knees as she sat against the mirror lined with armor and sheathed weapons. He recognized her as the destination of Moka's eager strides.
"La-zuuuu-laaaa!" the faunus sang. Caspian wondered if he could make a break for the doors in time.
Lazula hesitated to remove her earbuds as her eyes turned to the pair, but when they landed on Caspian astonishment struck. Her look settled on a smile wider than any he'd seen before, and she stood to greet them. "This was your surprise?"
"Uh-huh!" Moka proudly confirmed. "After his mission he decided to work out with me. And join the team!"
"Huh," Lazula responded, looking between the two with an approving nod. Her look settled back into a sly smirk. "About time."
Caspian offered a nervous chuckle. When he realized Moka was leaving the reply up to him, he nodded. "Uh, yeah."
Moka's arrival drew more members of the team their way, and with an earbud Lazula retired from the conversation. The first was Moka's date to the dance, now wearing a black tank top fit to his slim form and matching sweats.
"Hello, hello!" The former date greeted. Caspian couldn't tell if his mischievous smile was by default, or he was trying not to let Caspian know something was terribly funny. He pointed two fingers his way. "Cas... per. Right?"
"Caspian. But, uh, close enough."
"Right, right. Honestly it was so loud at the dance I only caught the first half. Improvised everything else," the boy returned, cocking his head and plucking at the black curl bouncing upon his forehead. "I'm Cole."
"Nice to meet you. Some people just call me Cas anyway, so that works."
"Hey!" a girl's voice called from his other side. Its girlish enthusiasm felt familiar. Caspian turned to see the leader of Team ASHN, whom he had briefly met once before. "You're Lazula's brother, right?"
"Y-Yeah, I'm–"
"This is Caspian!" Moka introduced. "He's our newest recruit."
"I wanna challenge him!" Ashe decided. "Gotta see how strong the new guy is, right?"
"We don't usually challenge new recruits on their first day," Moka reminded. "Making them feel welcome, and all that. Maybe next time?"
"Well, part of my weapon is… kinda broken," Caspian replied. "Very broken."
Caspian and Moka were some of the last to arrive, and after a few minutes of smalltalk and taking Moka's lead in stretches, Midas directed the team outside for their warm-up jog. It took them down around Sentinel Stadium, then behind the SFC and around its perimeter. He was a bit too ambitious at first, trying his best to keep up with Moka. By the time they rounded the stadium he began to pant and wheeze his way to the back of the group. It didn't feel like a casual warmup– it felt like another fight for his life. He wasn't sure his pace at the end even qualified as a jog. It was too soon before they made their way back into the SFC, up the steepest stairs he had ever seen to the second floor.
"So, before we get into the rest of practice today, exciting news!" Midas announced. He clasped his hands together and released them toward Caspian, who turned to the group with a reserved wave and passing eye contact. "As of today, we have a new member! This is Caspian Skye, leader of the second-year team CRLN. His team's been in more actual combat than just about anyone at Sentinel, so if you have any questions or want to train with someone with more hands-on experience, he's here!"
"Hands-on experience," Caspian reflected. "But conveniently, he didn't mention most of that ''hands-on experience' is getting the crap beaten out of me." But that was the thing about Midas. The fact that despite being the son of Remnant's richest man, and having everything going for him– academics, being a former Vytal Tournament champion, having the face of a movie star and body of a marble statue– he was also so infuriatingly nice. Most of his previous interactions with the "Golden Boy" happened in the middle of life-or-death combat, so there wasn't much time for cordiality. But with his weapon put away, he acted like a friend to each member of the Sparring Team. And after the incident with Arum Ceddrak, he was first to reach out.
It almost made Caspian even more jealous.
"We also haven't had a challenge day in a few weeks, so…" he cocked his head at the modest audience with an expectant look. "Anyone?"
The sturdy arm next to Caspian shot up.
"Moka! Who do you challenge?"
"Well if I want to start winning some tournaments, I should challenge the absolute strongest, right?" she reasoned out loud. "So I challenge Lazula again!"
Midas's voice joined the excited clamor. "And Lazula: do you accept her challenge?"
"Why not?" Lazula replied. "I'll have to change, though."
Another match played out as the team waited for Lazula's return. Instead of Caspian, Ashe settled for challenging the impossibly tall third year with a peak of green hair over his forehead, Glenn. Her onslaught of explosive fire arrows narrowly managed to edge out the third-year's swirling bo staff, leaving another five or so minutes before Lazula's return.
As the two huntresses took their places in the practice court, Midas ran through the pre-match spiel one more time. This is a friendly challenge match, safety parameters at twenty percent, and so on. A few Holobands opened to record the stage.
The time counted down above Lazula's head, one tone a second. She took a deep breath with five tones left, and she felt the familiar leather grooves of Impetus's hilt beneath her fingers. The words of the "expert analysts" on the huntsman league podcast returned to her mind. She'd fought more difficult enemies than Moka before, and since. But this was her first fight resembling a tournament match since her loss in June.
A longer, higher-pitched tone marked the beginning of their match.
Brown-tinged sparks crackled across Moka's thighs as she jetted forward. She was coming fast, and cocked back a fist when within a few feet. She had to know better than to approach like that. Aegis came up to meet the strike, but Lazula never felt it land. She peeked out between the spires atop her shield to watch Moka fake her out at the last half-second and duck under the flash of golden steel that followed her. Moka's elbow smashed the arm that wielded Impetus straight, and the faunus's other fist slammed into her jaw.
The Sparring Team cheered a little too loud for her. She had only taken off about three percent of her aura. Nothing to celebrate.
Sparks flashed toward Lazula's temple on a roundhouse kick. She shielded herself and ducked below, spotting an opening to shave off a bit of aura with a slash at Moka's grounded leg. The brunette's other leg lowered after the kick, stepping off Lazula's shield to shove her half a pace back and right her own posture.
Moka took a single breath before another hail of punches. Four landed on Aegis's face, and only after the last did Lazula transfer the force into a swing of her own. Moka lurched back as the tip of Impetus nearly tasted her neck, seizing Lazula with a searing jolt of electricity just long enough to draw more cheer with a jab at her gut. Lazula's magnified shield bash and stab took an order of magnitude more aura than Moka's strikes, but the audience didn't seem to mind.
Two options. Fight a purely defensive battle, let Moka tire herself out, and capitalize on a single mistake to end the match; or keep trading blows. She'd win either way, but the latter was a bit more of a show. She needed to hold back, of course. Moka was strong, but not "greatest of all time" strong. And fists didn't exactly have the advantage over sword and shield.
Caspian felt a prod behind his right shoulder. He turned to a pair of huge grey eyes, open wide in excitement. "Hey!" said Ashe. "Is it true your sister's an android?"
Over the clash of fists on steel and boots on ground, Caspian couldn't be sure he heard her correctly. "Uh– what?"
"People have been saying that! Is it just a rumor?"
"Yes! That's my sister. Pretty sure she's a person."
Lazula set to work regaining the advantage everyone must have expected. Another strike met Aegis and Lazula let the energy burst forth from the balls of her feet, lunging at Moka with a series of strikes. The first slashed squarely across her chest. She dodged the second, and guarded herself against the next two, letting the blade slide across the ice spreading over her forearms. Her blade tousled Moka's hair as she dodged beneath it, and locked Lazula's next slash on her ankle to kick it into the ground.
Impetus pierced the hard rubber flooring of the practice arena, and Lazula whipped her head aside the following jabs that whistled past each ear. She struck out with Aegis, adding the force of the collision to her own blow and launching Moka backward, lowering her aura to about a third as she scrambled back to her feet.
Lazula had to admit it was impressive. Not many could charge her so soon after taking one of her hits. Especially not with a grin so eager.
She watched for the fakeout, but this time, Moka's hook landed on Aegis's face. She pushed the punch away, striking from the faunus's left side with sharp steel.
Rather than duck aside, a fog burst forth from Moka's fist, and ice again spread to protect her forearm. Impetus cracked the makeshift shield, but it held. Moka shoved Lazula's blade aside as she stepped forward, cocking back a semblance-boosted right hook between Lazula's sword and shield.
A dire lightheadedness washed over Lazula, as if half the blood in her body had vanished in an instant. A ringing in her ears built up over the course of a second as her vision grayed. When it returned in full the pleasant blue floor was snow, melted by crimson splatter that sunk into cracks between cobblestone. Moka became someone entirely different: a brown-haired man nearly a foot taller, clad head to toe in a fortress of red and black armor. Blood washed across the golden gemstone symbol on his chest, settling into each nook and groove. He swept her blade aside with a shield twice the size of her own, and a lance glossy with blood and as thick as her leg threatened to impale her core.
She shrieked. And in that moment, the man in red was no hallucination. She was in a fight for her life, a fight in which pure instinct would overtake any semblance of reason. Aegis smashed into his lance, and Lazula let the full, swirling torrent of force within burst back through her shield.
Her vision returned. The thud Lazula felt behind Aegis must have been Moka's forehead. Her shield rang out after the blow, and a chocolate-colored haze of aura washed away on the wave of energy that flung the faunus away. She heard the booming rush of force shake the room, drawing shrieks and gasps from the audience, shredding tiles from the ceiling and knocking out half the lights. Something hit the far wall with a sickening smack and cacophony of shattering glass.
When Lazula finally looked up, Moka was slumped at the far end of the room in a pile of mirror fragments.
Caspian was one of the first to Moka's side, along with Cole, Ashe, and the wiry blonde with low golden pigtails drooping from under a dark green beanie– the face Caspian finally put to the name Aspen. A couple more members of the team jostled around Caspian from behind to kneel next to her.
"Is she alright?"
"Moka, are you okay?!"
Still on her hands and knees, she claimed a weak nod. It wasn't convincing, especially with the stream of blood spattering from her nose to the shard of mirror between her hands. The whispers of the crowd continued. Caspian wanted to join Cole and Aspen kneeling beside her, but if she was bleeding that much, he didn't think he could bear to see her face. He looked to Lazula instead, who looked just as horrified as anyone else in the room.
"Careful. That's a lot of glass."
"Oh gods, her nose is bleeding."
"Shit, there's glass in her back too."
"I'll get help!" Ashe offered. She darted away and Caspian heard the door open, then shut.
"No..." Lazula whispered, lowering Aegis and Impetus. Before Moka was lost to the crowd that closed in on her, Lazula caught a glimpse of movement. Absent and awkward, as if her brain had forgotten how to move her body. Thoughts of safety parameters and League regulations faded away. She was strong. Monstrously so, and wielding a razor sharp blade and spined shield. If she had the strength to slay waves of Grimm, she had the strength to kill. Organds, humans, and faunus.
To each direction, confused, angry, terrified eyes flashed her direction. The Sparring Team looked at her like some villain, some monster. Like they would look at an Ursa that just burst through the door. Not quite– any of them could kill an Ursa if it turned against them.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Cole questioned, pulling away from the crowd. "Were you trying to kill her?!"
Lazula's mouth opened, and the first half of hundreds of answers and excuses stirred in her mind. None reached her mouth. The damage done was by her, and her alone. She sheathed her blade so she couldn't hurt anyone else, and dodged insults and questions on her way out the door.