Disclaimer: See last chapter.

PY vs. FK

Ruby sat down in her forge, although it wasn't really her forge, so to speak. Black marks were around her eyes from her lack of sleep. They weren't too noticeable, but with her training with her dad and Qrow...some marks were bound to show if anybody was around asked as to why.

Although she never did get around to actually asking them what they actually thought of that kind of thing, of her becoming half of the Fall Maiden. Would they approve of her? Would they not approve, would they shout? Or would Taiyang just get a sudden glower and go march right up to Ozpin?

Actually she'd pay to see that last one, which inevitably meant that it is not what would happen. A fight between Ozpin and Dad? Ooh boy, that would be a fight for the ages, especially as she's never actually seen Ozpin fight before.

Supposedly he was very quick, with precise strikes that hit specific spots in order to disengage just as fast as he was hitting. Kind of like her description of Neo, actually. Hopefully less annoying, hopefully less petty, too.

What would that be like, if he wasn't? Would he be cackling madly as he dodged every strike just to rile the other person up? Would he say snide remarks to cut through their skin? Or...most likely, would he just be so proud of his skills that he didn't need to say anything, and everyone else would just automatically attack him anyways because he was just that annoying.

Ruby could see that one. He'd make up some remarks in that old man speech style of his. "Back in my day, Huntsman like you would have to walk to school. Uphill five miles in the snow, both ways!" She imagined him having one of those raving old man voices for some reason.

She turned her scroll onto the channel that the Vytal Festival was being held on. Yang and Pyrrha were the second match of the day, after a nearly ten minute match in which two members of Team Cardinal were up against two others from Vacuo. It was...kind of astonishing, actually, how long that match took.

The hour long analysis afterwards, though, said they were trying to slow down the show. Ruby turned into only the last few minutes of that part.

"And that is why you should always look both ways before going across the street!" Oobleck's voice was saying. Ruby blinked; what had happened to make that analogy actual analysis!? She might have to actually watch that one. Did that mean someone got hit by something they should have seen coming a mile away?

"Now for the next fight, coming in ten minutes. On Beacon's side, we have Yang Xiao Long, headmistress of 'getting detention 101' and Pyrrha Nikos, the Master of Mistralian tournaments! Seriously, I don't think she's lost one yet Bart," Port was saying. Yang was the headmistress of a single class? Wow, she wouldn't like that much at all.

Now if he had said 'getting detention school', then Ruby could admit she'd probably like that. It would be considered a glorious thing for her, honestly. Might put her in the hall of fame for Beacon, right alongside Uncle Qrow for 'number of times one person can get detention over the course of four years'.

Her Mom and Dad's team, Team STRQ, was much the same. Probably with more bickering though, because both Dad and Uncle Qrow liked to fight a lot. Not fight, fight, but...bicker fight. Argue fight.

Also why was Pyrrha called the 'Master of Mistralian' tournaments. She was a world champion, not just a Mistral champion. Yes, the three tournaments she won back to back were big over in Mistral, but she'd won championships in Vale, Atlas, even one in Vacuo according to the research Ruby had done after Yang had said she was in Pyrrha's team.

Needless to say, Ruby was excited. Pyrrha wouldn't let anything bad happen to Yang, and then as time went on she was proud to say the red-haired girl was one of her friends too. Heck, she'd even blown up the dance with the girl just because she seemed so sad at not having anyone ask her out. Which seemed just kinda odd but Ruby wasn't about to say what is and wasn't odd about people.

She knew she was odd. She liked to think about going out into the forest for a couple of years while Beacon wouldn't let her in and just kill Grimm for a while because it would be fun and Ruby knew fully well that was not a thing that most normal people should think.

Although really, she also thought that what most normal people thought was boring. Honestly, who wanted to 'just stay in Vale where it's safe, meet someone local and enjoy life'? Where's the fun in that!?

Falling one hundred feet while shooting at a small target to use the recoil to jump higher into the air, now that was fun!

Or forging. Forging was fun. Speaking of, she should probably do her actual job, now that she was sitting down for it.

The forge itself was on a low power state, and Ruby turned it up to the temperature she'd need it to. It used a combination of fire dust and wood to obtain the heat needed, and without another thought she opened the windows a bit to make sure that she wouldn't bake herself.

She took inventory of all the materials she'd need. Steel was a big one, as was tin and copper, iron...dust, too. Dust coated wires for mechashift weapons that got fully broken.

There was a lot of that hanging around. Most of the dust was in the small purity crystals, no good for ammunition but brilliant for forging. Also had the side effects of them not likely to explode should she accidentally let some sparks hit them.

A grinding stone on one side, and a large array of other blacksmithing tools. Almost anything she'd need, in a room no bigger than her studio apartment down in Vale. She could feel herself start to sweat a bit, and she reached down for one of the gallons of water she'd brought with her.

"The wait...is over! Every give a loud cheer for Pyrrha Nikos and her teammate Yang Xiao Long!" Professor Port announced. Ruby gave an excited cheer, knowing that no one could hear her right now. It was the thought that counted more than anything.

The images changed to show Pyrrha and Yang slowly walk onto the arena floor. Yang's gauntlets were spray painted yellow, because Ruby hadn't had time after fixing them to make them be any other color.

"And now for their opponents, Neon Katt and Flynt Coal, both of Atlas Academy!" He kept going, as the image zoomed out to show the two walking up the steps. One was a cat faunus with neon-dyed hair, her weapon some kind of skate things that were attached onto her feet. Or maybe that was just how she liked to move around. The other guy was a man in a nice suit with one of those quartet hats that she occasionally saw in a movie or video. He didn't have an obvious weapon, but he had a trumpet on his hip. Ruby suspected it was that, then.

Atlas. Atlas had both simultaneously the most common weapon types and the most bizarre. Ruby strongly suspected that it was because the Color Revolution had started and ended in Atlas, and they were trying to take back their individuality while at the same time keeping a status quo.

If anything that said as lot about Atlas as a whole, really.

Yang's fists each other, each one making her hair glow a bit. She was smirking, obviously preparing herself for the oncoming slaughter.

"This is gonna be easy," Flynt seemed to be saying to Neon. "You go after Blondie, I'll take the fake champion."

Someone calling Pyrrha a fake champion? Oh, that wasn't going to go down well at all. And Yang being Blondie? Actually, no, that made perfect sense. At least they didn't try to call her a blonde bimbo, that would just make her pissed off.

Ruby had been next to a guy who did that once. If he hadn't had his aura activated, he'd probably still be in the hospital. As it was, he was just beaten into the ground. That was pretty common at Signal, actually.

Maybe there was something about child soldiers, there...

"And...begin!" Professor Oobleck called. All four contestants stood there for a moment. "Begin? Is my microphone not on?" He asked quickly. Yang stood there for a moment, her smirk slowly fading as she looked exasperated.

"Oobleck, you're muted!" Yang shouted up at him. "I know you're trying to say something-" she started to get out before Neon tried jumping her, rushing her at the very start.

Flynt brought up his trumpet, just as Ruby suspected was his weapon, only to find that Neon was now in his way, courtesy of Pyrrha. How she'd dodged to the left, hit Neon with Mio, and then kick her straight back into Flynt was almost dreamlike in its intensity and quickness.

"Oh, we're starting," Yang muttered as if this was an ordinary, everyday occurrence. Oobleck's microphone was finally unmuted on the stadium floor it seemed, as she fired Ember Celica backwards, rushing towards the two.

Pyrrha was right there with her, running alongside her. Mio was a sword now, held out not far from Pyrrha's body.

Neon was just getting up, having knocked over Flynt when she was sent flying, only to find an angry Pyrrha right in front of her. Flynt was trying to save her, based on him having to take a deep breath, only to have the breath knocked out of him as Yang caught him easily.

It was almost embarrassing. As Pyrrha knocked Neon into the sky, she suddenly ducked down for no reason, heading towards Flynt. Yang vaulted over her teammate, heading for where Neon was going to land, and suddenly Flynt had to deal with Pyrrha instead of Yang.

Yang used the extra time in the air to send Neon flying, straight into where Flynt was going. This wasn't a battle or a match this was a flat out massacre and Ruby's voice was going hoarse from cheering for it.

Neon tried. Ruby gave her credit for it. Neon pulled out a couple of nunchucks and started to try flinging them at Yang at close range.

But Yang had obviously trained against nunchucks at some point in time, probably against Sun who seemed a bit better suited for the weapon type than Neon did.

Flynt barely had the time to breathe in for his trumpet before Neon was smacked into him again. This time he seemed more prepared for it, and he let out a shockwave of air just at Pyrrha.

That was when Yang decided to land straight on him, and with that his aura was knocked down to zero instantly. His teammate had done more aura damage to him than Yang did. On the other hand, the trumpet was most likely fine so Ruby didn't have to worry about trying to remake that kind of silly thing.

She could probably do it, but she'd have to study the schematics for it for a while before she attempted it.

Neon was still up and going though. She must have had more aura than Flynt did, even as Professor Port announced that Flynt was out. "How!? We had the perfect plan for dealing with you!" She called out, before she snarled, rushing away on her skates.

"Plans don't always allow things to happen," Pyrrha answered. "You alright, Yang?" She asked, helping Yang up off the ground.

The blonde woman gave a thumbs up, jumping back up onto her feet. She brushed off a few dirt particles from her knees. "Yeah, I'm fine. You go left, I go right?" She asked.

"No, I suggest Greek Fire," Pyrrha said calmly. Yang's grin widened as her hair burst into flames.

What was Greek Fire, and why did Ruby suddenly fear for Neon's safety? The Faunus didn't seem to get the memo as she tried to barrel into Yang on the side.

Instead Yang ducked impossibly fast, led by her fists, and uppercutted Neon just as Pyrrha vaulted over Yang in a reversal of what they did earlier. Mio became a spear, but it was the shield doing the heavy lifting as Pyrrha bashed Neon all over with it, using the spear to send the girl straight down.

Into Yang's waiting arms, who quickly disqualified Neon due to lack of aura.

"That was almost anticlimactic!" Ruby cheered. She liked anticlimactic fights. Although really...could they have not done that as fast as they did? Now she would have to listen to fifty eight minutes of analysis by Port and Oobleck.

SV vs. SM

Ruby was sweating profusely. She had already taken off most of her top, leaving her in just a black tank top, with some shorts on now. After Yang and Pyrrha's anticlimactic fights, the next fight had been a doozy for her.

Not in terms of the people involved, but rather the weapons involved. One was a sword shooter, as in it shot actual swords that were tied to the original one, creating a whip-sword like weapon.

It was really cool but Ruby was still working on the eighth blade because there were so many of the tiny things. That had been three hours ago, but there was still more work to do.

She also had the other weapons in that fight. One was some kind of rod with a wind device attached. Wind dust of some kind that made a large gust of air in whatever way it was pointed in. Definitely not a Vacuan weapon.

There was also a large straight axe in there that was mechashift, and that had been annoying as heck. It had so many different mini lines of dust in there that it was as if the entire thing was designed to take in as much dust as possible and then explode. Trying to fix the thing had almost caused her to explode!

Her hammer shoved the last sword into the mold, and then she needed to let it cool...but first she had to temper it. And that would take a bit, too.

"The last match of the day! Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai of Haven Academy versus Weiss Schnee and Nora Valkyrie of Beacon Academy!" Professor Port's voice called out. Ruby looked up for a moment. It was the last fight of the day?

Already? Shoot, she needed to hurry up. She wasn't watching a recording, right, no she was still in the forge, she needed to temper the sword, she was so tired now.

The image on the scroll zoomed out a bit to show the white haired girl waving and laughing a bit, as if having the time of her life. Myrtenaster was on her hip, ready for the next time she would pull it out. Ruby could tell it had dust of every variety.

Next to her was Nora, holding her great hammer with ease. She was spinning it around, grinning like a maniac, and Ruby knew that even though she'd been banned from using the experimental grenades...which no one would ever figure out were made by Ruby...she was still having a fun time.

This should be a good one, Ruby hoped. The last few matches had all either been far too close and impossible to find out who was winning until they actually one, or been total stomps, with one win dominating so hard that Ruby honestly felt bad for the other team.

Exception being Neon Katt and Flynt Coal, if only because they were on the other side of Pyrrha Nikos and Yang Xiao Long. Honestly, if anyone was on the other side of that fight, they were doomed. And tomorrow was the other pairs, so Blake and Jaune against...other people. Then the next day it's the single rounds, one on one. There might have been a rest day in the middle there. She'd have to look at the schedule again.

Ruby wondered who from Team PABY would go onwards. It wasn't a difficult guess, considering Pyrrha, but...she could see Yang going through too.

"And on the other side, we have Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black! Wait, I already introduced them. Why weren't they on stage sooner?" Professor Port asked.

"They were waiting for the final call, Peter. Locals first, to get most of the cheering started, following up with the non-local crowd so that way everyone feels like they get some cheering."

"But if it's just for the locals, then why would they feel like they get cheered for? None of this is making sense."

"None of the Vytal Festival makes sense! We have a girl who's the heiress to the Schnee Dynasty batting for Beacon of all things, and next to her is the girl who simultaneously caused us dozens of headaches and a desire for more explosions!"

"I really liked those explosions, I just want to say."

Ruby ducked under her seat, despite knowing that they couldn't see her. The smell of smoldering metal came to her, and she muttered a quiet 'shoot' as she went back to her forging. She was almost done too, hopefully the metal wouldn't be too brittle, which it could if it cooled too long without being tempered in oil and water first...

"Those explosions cost Beacon nearly two hundred thousand lien."

"That's not all that much. By the by, is that your scroll going off?" Professor Port asked. Ruby could envision Oobleck suddenly checking his scroll while still in the commenting box.

The image changed to show Emerald and Mercury, the green haired girl with the two kusarigama which Ruby wanted to say was an absolutely fantastic weapon, and the gray haired boy, almost a man who was standing there trying to punch the air. A lot like Yang did, actually. A thought ran through her head; What did happen to Neo? She'd disappeared off of the first round almost before Ruby could really look at what weapon she was using. Ruby was still more than slightly angry that she'd stolen the Sundered Rose copy. And she hadn't reappeared for the entire match!

"Oh, you're right. It's from Ozpin, he says to stop talking about Beacon finances on air," Oobleck said congenially. Ruby stared at them, even though they were just an image on the wall. These two didn't care if they were commenters, did they?

"Perhaps we should. We do after all have a fantastic match ahead of us! Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black! Wait, they're already on the field."

"Yes they are Peter!" Oobleck continued as if Port hadn't just messed something up. "The crafty duos from their last fight! Viewers should remember the way they teamed up with their teammates to perform the excellent team attacks!"

"Team no longer makes sense to me!" Port kept going. "No, seriously, the word has lost all meaning. The way they worked their magic and totally trounced whatever team they were up against. Can they do it again against Weiss Schnee and Nora Valkyrie?"

"Probably!" Oobleck agreed. "But it's going to be a fun match either way. If these two watched Team SILV's match yesterday, they know exactly how Weiss and Nora like to fight, which is by using massive amounts of explosions to create fantastical results! Also costly ones."

"Bah, who needs costs when you have explosions!" Port agreed. "Now, then, everyone at the ready? Go!"

Weiss raised Myrtenaster, her eyes focused solely upon Emerald. Nora didn't bother trying to check herself, instead opening up with a volley of grenades. Normal dust grenades, not experimental 'blow everything up' grenades.

Mercury took off to the side, grabbing a small piece of rock from the dozens of rubble on the side. Ruby had missed the arena chosen for this, but it looked like it was the broken city one. It made sense, considering all four competitors were used to it.

Emerald ducked to the same side as Mercury chucked the rubble, using it as a makeshift shield to block the grenades. Weiss held her weapon downwards, creating a long stream of ice that threatened to envelop the duo.

Nora used it as a skating rink, shooting herself forward at high speed with her hammer raised far above her.

Emerald and Mercury had already ducked around the side, hidden from view from both Weiss and Nora just as Nora slammed her hammer down on where she thought they were. Emerald took the opportunity to slice forward, trying to take Nora down just as easily as she had everything else.

Mercury had gone around back, and he disappeared out of the viewfinder. Weiss shot herself forward on the same ice, forcing Emerald to backflip out of the way. "Thanks!" Nora shouted as she slammed her hammer down onto the ground again, creating a large amount of dust around them. Normal ground dust, not the specialized elemental dust.

Ruby finished tempering the one sword, and now was working on another. She had another two to get through to get to the weapon's initial count, and she wanted at least that much before she called it quits for the day. She didn't have much left in her tank.

Emerald deftly went back into the large dust cloud, using it as cover to try to attack Weiss. Nora and Weiss seemed to understand it though, as there was the sound of clashing blades and steel from inside the cloud.

The green haired girl was kicked out of the cloud a few moments later, followed by Weiss and Nora just as a large rock, rolled from the top of a ruined building, landed right where they'd been. Mercury looked at the camera circling around. "Aw, darn. I missed," he said, shrugging absently.

"Next time don't aim for me!" Emerald shouted. One of her weapons had to be saved for parrying and dodging Weiss's attacks, which were surprisingly accurate considering she was used to using a lot more dust than that.

Nora's attacks she had to dodge completely, as there was no way that she would be able to parry and avoid being flattened by them. Fortunately, she seemed far less opposed to dodging than Mercury had.

"I didn't aim for you," Mercury called from the top. "I was aiming for all three of you. Big difference," he said without a care in the world. He jumped down, landing easily on Nora's hammer right after she'd swung. He batted Nora's face around a little bit, before he jumped off.

"Forgive me because I don't see it!" Emerald said, using Nora's distraction to push Myrtenaster down onto the ground, using her other sickle to get to Weiss's torso and chest. Each hit flared up the white-haired girl's aura, but Ruby knew she couldn't take too many free hits like that.

Fire spread from Myrtenaster's tip, exploding in the region of where Emerald was attacking Weiss from. Weiss took the moment of confusion to jump backwards, trying to get some time to decide what to do. "Nora, with me!" Weiss called out.

"Heck no, I got this!" Nora declared as she made a set of attacks on Mercury, mixed with grenades and surprising quickness. She even used the shaft of the hammer at one point...Ruby blinked. She recognized that; Ruby herself had done those moves, but using a sniper rifle instead of grenades. It was a copy of what she did during the invasion a few weeks ago!

Mercury was stuck having to avoid and dodge every attack, every bit of his focus on making sure that hammer, any part of it, came close to him. Emerald ducked in, using her sickles to get within Nora's traditional reach.

Using a hammer, or even a scythe, was great if the enemies stayed at the perfect range. But get within that range, as Emerald was doing, and it quickly turned into a bloodfest. Nora's aura sparked as it tried to absorb every blow.

As if she realized that her hammer wasn't going to do well, she shifted it to the grenade launcher, hoping to send herself off flying. She was interrupted by a kick from Mercury, sending her flying not towards Weiss, but towards the out of bounds area.

The pink aura surrounding the girl sparked and fizzed, before breaking down into small segments. "And Nora Valkyrie's aura is broken! That's it for her run in this battle!" Port was saying. "And now it's just Weiss Schnee against Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai, who are nearly at full aura!"

Ruby knew that wasn't the case. Emerald had taken too many hits to be considered to be at 'full aura'. But according to the tracker down at the bottom of the screen, she was at nearly full; seventy percent aura.

"Darn it Nora! You were supposed to listen to me! If you had, we would have won this fight already!" Weiss was shouting. Ruby...strongly doubted that. "That's fine. I can take both of you!" She said, holding Myrtenaster in the perfect fencing position.

She was quickly tripped up as Emerald's sickles came up from behind her legs. She flailed in the air for a moment just as Mercury slammed his knee down where her chest would be. Weiss bounced from the impact, even if she managed to avoid most of the attack.

"Heh, you never really stood a chance," Mercury stated quietly as he gave a solid uppercut to push Weiss more in the air, following it up with a solid back kick.

She bounced once against the ground, before Emerald's sickles grabbed her. Her aura was still whole, but Ruby could see it drain quickly; going from forty percent down to thirty five, down to thirty...

By the time Weiss was thrown out of the arena, her aura had been broken completely. "And the winners by both out of bounds and Aura breakage are Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai! Let's hear it for our victors!" Oobleck's voice was calling out.

Ruby nodded, her attention back onto the sword at her hands. That...had been much closer than the others had been. Which really said a lot about these fights...

A full fighting chapter in which Ruby does literally nothing except watch fights. This is exciting, right?

Until Next Time!