Ch. 44 Doubles round
"And miss McMahon is OUT of bounds!
"Indeed and that means the victory goes to miss Penny Polendina and miss Ciel Soleil from Atlas Academy."
Cheers erupted from the stands as Penny bowed, smiling and thanking her opponents for their time.
As soon as Penny came through the corridor that separated the waiting rooms and the arena, she was greeted by an enthusiastic greeting.
"Penny!"
"Ruby!"
While Penny greeted Ruby in a very Ruby-like manner, by tackling Ruby to the ground, Jaune approached the girls and helped them off the ground.
"Congratulations on your win Penny. And congrats to you too, miss Soleil."
"I accept the congratulations in the spirit it was offered."
"Oh, let me introduce you! This is Ciel Soleil, my teammate for this tournament."
Ruby smiled wryly as she connected the dots.
"Hi I¨m Ru…"
"Ruby Rose. 15. Hails from Patch. Leader of team RNJR. Status: person of interest. And you are Jaune Arc. 17. Hails from Noreia. Master blacksmith. Status: Classified."
Jaune cringed a bit at how stiff Ciel's speech was. Not to mention his own status was apparently classified now. Probably something to do with either Penny or his little stint for Cardin.
"Only for this tournament?"
"I'm a special case within the academy."
"Right… so does she… know?"
Ruby's hushed question was met by a quick change in topic from Penny, leaving little question as to what the answer would be.
"Are you participating in the next round?"
Ruby frowned and looked at Jaune before answering.
"We put Nora and Ren forward. They have better teamwork than us."
"That and I haven't been feeling well… I think it's just anxiety, but I'm afraid something will go wrong."
That was only partially true. Jaune wasn't feeling well since the festival started, that much was true. The more disturbing thing was that he'd been having nightmares recently, and every time he woke up he couldn't shake the feeling of dread off. The last one was particularly vivid, a dream that involved Penny and Virga Fulgur. Needless to say it didn't end well.
"You did also burn through all the fire dust in your shin guards in the first round."
Ruby interrupted Jaune's musing about the dreams with a jab at his ruined armour. It didn't count as a weapon apparently, albeit only barely, so he couldn't restore it with his semblance.
"That too. It's going to be a lot of work to get them remade again. I don't know if I'll bother honestly. Right, speaking of work, Penny, may I have a word with you?"
"Oh, of course. Ciel, would you give us a minute?"
"Ma'am."
Jaune and Penny moved a few steps away before continuing their conversion in a hushed voice.
"This is about the thing for mister Branwen, yes?"
"Yeah, sorry to rush you, but things are moving in the background and…"
"It's fine, here I've already finished."
Penny took out a scroll from her skirt pocket and handed it to Jaune like it was nothing unusual. A stark contrast to how she initially received the scroll.
"Are you alright handling this?"
"It's perfectly fine! I've rewritten a large part of the code by hand, so the original control access point has no effect on this version. Plus I've managed to update and add some subroutines to my own systems."
"Right… I'll be honest, that flew right over my head, but I'll be sure to deliver this to the recipient."
"With this I need to return to my team."
"The General assigned them to watch over you, didn't he…"
"...That is likely the case."
"Well, good luck with that I guess. You're always welcome to come hang out with us."
"Thank you."
=O=O=O=
The doubles round was in full swing and Neo was currently watching Cinder mess around with a scroll. Both Mercury and Emerald were sitting in the waiting area, ready to be called on, so Cinder demanded Neo sit with her in the audience.
She was messing around with a bunch of stuff that Neo was pretty sure weren't accessible to the public. Training data, medical records, even grades. Though Neo wasn't sure how that last one was relevant.
"And the next fight has been decided! On one side, in the antigrav environment, Flint Coal and Neon Katt of team FNKI! A colourful setup indeed! On the other side of the arena, in the lava biome, Yang Xiao-Long and Pyrrha Nikos or team SWNY! What a fiery combination!"
Cinder was humming happily as she went through the medical records of the participants. This alone was enough to put Neo on edge. A happy Cinder was not a particularly good sign.
=O=O=O=
"And then I went like BAM! And they went flying!"
"Yes Nora, we saw. Good job on that one."
"You don't get it Weiss, it wasn't like bam it was like BAM!"
"Nora, please calm down a little."
"What is it, Weiss?"
"Ugh… I got a call from my father. He's displeased that I didn't promote myself in the doubles round. Add to that the fact that our team lost and… He's threatening to pull me out of Beacon."
"He can't do that though!?"
"He can't, but he can make my life a living hell if he so chooses."
"Nope!"
"What do you mean nope?"
"I mean NOPE! He can't do shit, cause you've got your team to have your back! And you've got ME!"
"...thank you Nora."
=O=O=O=
Jaune sat in his team's room. He had some free time as his role in the tournament had effectively ended. Ren and Nora had won the double's round and Nora was the one chosen to participate in the solo rounds, giving her a shot at becoming the overall champion.
There was just something about his nightmares that left him with a strange feeling, not unlike the one he felt from Mercury Black during the dance. The team was already leaning towards letting Ren and Nora take the spotlight, but Jaune's recent vivid dreams proved to be the last push necessary to convince Ruby to make the final decision. It was quite obvious that Ruby hoped to go on stage with Jaune again but couldn't bring herself to go against the rest of the team just because of that.
Jaune was still feeling a bit bad about that, but the bad feeling surrounding everything that was happening he wasn't willing to risk it. Not when there was a reason to be cautious. All it took was for him to get spooked by the strange feelings his semblance apparently provided him with and he could actually hurt someone. That was reason enough to keep himself away from the tournament.
Plus he'd already left an impression on everyone by using the airfire dust alloy in the first round. Even doctor Oobleck and professor Port commented on exactly what it was and promoted their technological innovation to the world. Professor Port had already brought up the messages the academy received. Apparently there were companies and individuals interested in taking over the research and development of their alloys.
Unfortunately those parties had profit as their number one priority, meaning that huntsmen that would want to use those technologies would have to pay ridiculous amounts to be able to do so. Something neither Jaune nor Ruby were okay with.
There was also the fact that he'd apparently become a part of another thing. The whole Mint debacle. Having Qrow be the authority behind the thing wasn't quite enough to convince Jaune everything was under control, especially with how Mint seemed to play everyone around her. That wasn't to say he suspected Mint of foul play. Cardin, despite all their misgivings, wasn't a fool. Still it didn't exactly help Jaune's strained mental state that Mint's teammates were up to no good. Qrow apparently knew about it, but wanted to keep them where they were for the time being for some reason, or so Jaune assumed. It wasn't like Qrow was one to share information with him.
For now Jaune would have to be content with keeping an eye on them from a distance, preferably without compromising anything. It wasn't like a bad feeling he got from Black could be entirely explained by them being bad guys, and whatever was going on was likely bigger than Jaune knew. But if Qrow knew, then surely Ozpin knew. And Ozpin, the legendary huntsman he is, surely had things under control. The headmaster held his hand over the academy, and that calmed Jaune some.
Attempting to clear his head, Jaune took out his drawing supplies. He would sketch some ideas that he was playing around with. Ruby was contemplating some upgrades to Crescent Rose using the new alloys they made, but with little success so far. But Jaune was confident that the problems could be figured out. All except for the eventual consumption of the dust. That would require completely stabilising the dust like Ruby did with her gravity dust alloy, something they didn't manage to replicate.
Jaune was determined to figure something out and present it to Ruby. It could be something they could work on together and hopefully make up for not fighting together in the tournament.
=O=O=O=
"You wanted to see us headmaster?"
"Miss Xiao-Long, miss Nikos. Please grab a seat. First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your victory in the tournament. Have you decided which one of you will compete from the semifinals on?"
"No offence, sir, but I thought it was a bit of a foregone conclusion?"
"Not at all. While miss Nikos certainly has the experience, both of you are powerful young women in your own right, it wouldn't surprise anyone if your team chose to let you represent them instead."
"Well, we chose Pyrrha anyway. I'm not one to stay away from a fight normally, but out of the two of us I'm more so the Grimm extermination specialist, while Pyr has the arena experience."
"It is almost surprising how easily you've let the opportunity go, though it isn't necessarily a bad thing. Either way that isn't the reason why I called you here today. There is something I wish to share with you two. An opportunity and a burden. A glimpse at the inner workings of the world so to say."
The girls sat there in silence. In the end it was Pyrrha, who had stayed largely silent so far that broke the silence.
"Sir?"
"Forgive me, I've become lost in my thoughts, reminiscing. Let me start by asking this. What is your favourite fairy tale?"
"I know I'll always remember the Warrior in the woods. Dad made sure I knew that one."
"I'm more partial to the Tale of the two Brothers, or The Girl in the Tower."
"Oh yeah, didn't Jaune read The Girl in the Tower in the library a while ago?"
"Did he now…"
"Yeah, but Ruby is the one who read all of the book. She has always loved fairy tales."
"Hmmm, and what about The Story of the Seasons?"
=O=O=O=
As the elevator started its journey up to the ground floor, both girls were stunned into silence.
"I'd like to once again impress upon you how unprecedented this situation is. While we're doing everything we can for Amber, the fact is that her time is running out. I do not wish to pressure you, but I'd like you to give me an answer after the tournament has concluded. It is fine even if you both refuse, but we would need the time to search for another candidate if you did."
Neither student spoke up, so Ozpin decided to continue.
"While I would like to encourage you to seek advice, the reality of things is such that there are people searching for Amber with the intent of finishing what they began. As such I'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't spread any of this beyond your team, and even then keep details to yourself."
The elevator reached the ground floor with a ding and both girls were ushered out by the headmaster.
After walking in silence and with no destination in mind for nearly half an hour Yang decided to break the silence.
"Are you up for a light spar? I think we both need to get this out of our system."
"You're probably right. Sorry that we can't go all out, I know we'd both like to, but the singles start tomorrow…"
"It's alright Pyr. We can just work up a sweat and talk about… all this later."
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Things are very much rolling now and there is little that can stop the events to come!
If my calendar is correct we'll reach the end of arc one on the 2nd of January. Not to worry though, since the beginning of arc two is already written there will be no break in the posting schedule.
On a personal note I'm doing surprisingly well on my exams despite how unprepared I feel on the day of every exam. Just one more exam before the holidays. I may surprise y'all with a one-shot as a little gift, though it wont be holiday themed.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter: Ch.45 What comes up...