The group of students sat in their seats, nervous, hoping their friends would come out victorious. But, all they could do was wait and watch, hope for the best and that they kick Mercury and Emerald's butts.
There wasn't much to say but to wish the best for Coco and Yatsuhashi, hopefully they come out on top in the fight.
(Volume 3 Intro)
In the Amity Colosseum, the screens around the arena began their process of choosing the two terrains for the match, Professor Port announced the combatants of the battle; Mercury and Emerald who fight for Haven and Coco and Yatsuhashi who are fighting for Beacon. From the stands, Velvet wishes the two the best of luck.
Four different biomes appear, a savannah, an abandoned city, a forest, and stone with small streams and geysers. "Hey," Coco stops to lower her glasses as she gives Emerald a once over, "Love the outfit kid." Emerald tells her she'll try not to get blood on it.
"I can't promise you'll leave without a scratch." Yatsuhashi gets up from his previous position, unsheathing Fulcrum from his back.
"Oh, I won't be the one bleeding," Emerald replies, and Coco's immediate response was her commenting on how she likes Emerald.
"It won't be long before you change your mind once we expose them! Emerald, Mercury, Cinder! Once we're out of here we'll tell the people everything!" Sun shouts from his seat, in the process of standing up.
But, Blake's next words makes him sit right back down. "How are we supposed to tell everyone what we discovered without them asking questions? How do we know this? Where did we get this from? Do we have any proof that what we're saying to them is true?"
"We have proof, it would just take them forever to see it all," Yang adds with her arms crossed.
"Well, they wouldn't be shown everything, just the parts they actually need to see. All the scenes with Mercury, Emerald, Cinder, and Roman. Besides, would Raider even let us show them in the first place? She might seem lazy, but I doubt even she has that sort of time and patience."
Weiss made some excellent points, the last one getting an indignant yell from the floating entity. Blake, Yang, and Weiss were right in many aspects.
The group figured they would cross that bridge once it got closer to that point.
Professor Port gave the countdown, and once the fight started, Mercury and Emerald's first action were to slowly walk back into the tall savannah grass. Yatsuhasi gave Coco a knowing look, and it said it all as she held Gianduja and began to rapid fire at the grass.
A group of students in the stand wore the same attire as Coco, cheering her on.
The bullets seemed to take down most of the grass, and it was a good thing the stand had protective barriers or else a couple of students would be going down as well. The two stood there confused as all the grass was destroyed but there was no sign of Mercury or Emerald.
Blake shouted for Coco to look out as Mercury was coming down with a high jump kick. Yatsuhashi pushed Coco out of the way and stopped the boy in his tracks, pushing him back due to the impact from both Mercury himself and Fulcrum.
The screen seemed to show emphasis on Mercury's feet as sparks released while he slid.
This just brought back the same argument from before in volume 2. For them to be showing it again in volume 3, it made things a little more suspicious.
Group just narrowed it down to the shoes, the bottoms were made of metal and that must have been what was causing it.
Now they just weren't that sure anymore.
Coco didn't hesitate to fire, but unfortunately, Mercury dodged every one, running in a circular motion towards the two. "Man, he's good," Sun comments with amazement. Scarlet then brings up another question, where was Emerald?
While Yatsuhashi and Mercury fought, Coco aimed at him once more, but, just like last time, he evaded her attacks.
Mercury fights off both of them with little to no difficulty, making Coco point Gianduja into Yatsuhashi's stomach. Yatsuhashi looks down as Coco holds her fire, looking behind her to glare at her opponent.
The more the fight continued with just Mercury, the more it made them wonder where the heck Emerald even was.
Reverting Gianduja back, Coco goes to knock Mercury in the face with it, but the boy jumps back in time to avoid it, landing on his hands, and shooting two bullets from his boots.
Coco dodges the one meant for her while Yatsuhashi slices the one that was aiming towards him. When the two looked forward, Mercury had already made a twister of bullets.
The rapid fire engulfed their surroundings with smoke, and Mercury used it as he swiftly appeared behind them. Grabbing both of their arms, Mercury kicked them around until both Yatsuhashi and Coco were on the ground.
As Coco got up, chains came from the forest biome, they wrapped around her stomach and pulled her in.
Oh, so that's where Emerald was, hiding and waiting for the perfect time to attack.
Yatsuhashi yelled for his teammate as she was dragged through the trees. In his time of vulnerability, Mercury kicked his face. The large man retaliated by grabbing Mercury by the neck and tossing him into the water in the stone biome.
From the air, the man came crashing down with a cry, Fulcrum in hand. But he was stopped as Mercury held up his feet, the impact between Fulcrum and his boots made all the water around them blow away, as well as cracking the stone and causing the geysers to erupt.
Mercury pushed himself back up and the two engaged themselves in a one on one. Mercury kicks Yatsuhashi to the ground, and it's too late when he realizes his head is right on top of a small geyser.
The whole gasps as that has got to hurt, and his cry didn't make any better. They hoped when they got back they could warn him before the fight. Again, it would be really suspicious that they know, but if it was to help spare some of the pain it would be worth it.
Yatsuhashi wobbles as he gets back up, and as he opens his eyes, Mercury is already coming at him. Mercury's kick transitions to Coco being dragged into the forest biome. She crashes into a tree trunk and while getting her bearings, Coco brings a hand to her face but finds her sunglasses aren't where they're supposed to be. She looks to her left to find them broken and crushed.
"I take it back, I don't like her," Coco says to herself as she gets up. Coco barely avoids the incoming green bullet, but after the first she is able to backflip her way out of the others as Emerald shoots from a tree. Coco fires at will, though none of them hit as Emerald moves from branch to branch, using the blades on Thief's Respite to help her.
Emerald disappears from sight. Coco searches for her but to no avail, cursing under breath. Yatsuhashi calls for his partner as he walks up behind her, and Coco warns him that Emerald is in the trees.
As everyone saw Yatsuhashi, they got an off feeling. It only took a few seconds for them to put two and two together. That wasn't really Yatsuhashi.
Keeping this information, Ren wrote that Emerald's semblance was creating mirage like
illusions.
Coco looks up at the screen from the knockout sound. "Oh, and with that final blow, Yatsuhashi is eliminated!" Professor Port announces to Coco's shock and disbelief. She turns around to find no one there.
"I knew it!" Sun yells, pointing a finger at the large screen. They all knew it, for that small moment their gut feelings were telling them something was off when "Yatsuhashi" came on screen.
Coco's hands tremble, and the girl slowly backs up, checking her surroundings, her guard high. Emerald rushes pass the trees. Once again, Coco swears as Emerald, unsuspectedly, appears behind her.
The sharp sound of Thief's Repiste was heard all too late. Coco only saw Emerald for only a second before she's launched into the air, landing next to Yatsuhashi.
Emerald comes to stand by Mercury's side, swinging the chains of her weapon.
All in the room looked at the screen with frowns, those of sadness and vexation.
"And with an amazing upset, Emerald and Mercury are victorious!" Dr. Oobleck yells from above. Throughout the crowd, there was a mixture of cheers and boos, some loving that the two were advancing and others hating it.
Fox placed a hand of comfort on Velvet's shoulder and she mumbles her partner's name in sadness. Behind them, Cinder gets up from her seat with a smirk.
Ugh, everyone in the room hated that look on her face, seriously wanting to slap it right off.
"You're… leaving?" Weiss sounds disappointed as Winter tells her this information. The two sit privately at their own table in a beautiful stone structure.
"What? How long has it been? Has it only been a day, and she's leaving?" Weiss was just as disheartened at the news of her sister leaving, she hoped she could have the possibility of being able to spend some more quality time with her.
Well, then that just means she's going to cherish the time she does have.
"Yes, I was merely needed to oversee the transport of additional units to Vale. Our last shipment was lost to an ambush, I believe you had a run in with its cargo, actually. It's fortunate those paladins were still in the prototype stage, otherwise your team may not have fared so well."
Team Rwby could only imagine what the final product of the paladins were, hopefully they wouldn't have to.
Weiss let out a sigh, seeing this, Winter placed a hand over her sister's. "Weiss, you've done…well…out here on your own. You should be proud. I'll be honest, it was quite amusing seeing father's face the day you left for Beacon."
"I can't wait to show him what I've learned." Weiss crosses her arms over her chest proudly.
"Oh, and do you think you learned?" Winter asks, folding her fingers and placing the entwined fingers under chin.
"What do you mean? I'm getting better and better with my glyphs, I even started time dilation."
"And what of your summoning?"
Oh, so that's where that conversation was heading. Her summoning would be…questionable to say the very least.
Weiss looks down dejected, telling her sister she can't do them. Of course, Winter thinks otherwise. "Don't be ridiculous, every Schnee has the ability to summon, we have for generations."
"How far back does your family go?" Ruby asks, curious.
Weiss honestly didn't want to go through her whole family's history. One could make their own crash course on the Schnee name if they wanted to.
"Centuries." Repeating her sister, not at all wishing to go into depth. Ruby pouted at the curt answer but saw that Weiss wanted the conversation to end before it even started.
"I've tried! It's just- it's the one thing I'm having trouble with!"
"Weiss Schnee struggling? Never thought I'd live to see the day," Yang's tone was obviously teasing, and had the desired effect as pieces of popcorn were thrown her way.
"We Schnees are unique. Unlike many, our semblance's hereditary, but that doesn't mean it will come easily. Your semblance is like a muscle, the more you practice with it the stronger it will become. But if you only focus on one aspect of it, if you fail to test the limits of what you think is possible-"
In the palm of Winter's hand is a glyph, it spins until it enlarges, creating an icy beowulf that's three times Weiss's size.
"Then you'll never truly grow."
"Woaaaah!" Ruby's amazement was evident with her wide eyes and child-like wonderment. "You're able to do that?! That's so cool!!"
Weiss's cheeks tinted red at the praise from her partner, but a frown was set as she rubbed her arm, "Well…no I-" Weiss couldn't get the rest of her sentence out. Her sister made it look so easy, but Weiss knew it was anything but.
Winter had taken years to master it, while she's still in the same spot as she's always been: stuck.
"Don't worry Weiss, it's like your sister said, it will become more natural with practice, you'll get the hang of it in no time." Weiss slowly looked over to the bombshell, a small smile steadily creeping up as the rest of her friends encouraged her in their own way.
"You'll never beat me old man!" Ruby shouted to her uncle.
"Pfft, you're nothing but talk kid."
"You can do it Ruby!" Yang shouted as she cheered her sister on. It was not a moment later as a screen was shown, a ninja fighting battle taking hold. Soaring Ninja chops the head off his opponent, signifying Qrow's win and Ruby's loss.
Yang winces as Ruby lowers her head in defeat. "By the way, don't ever call me old."
"Never…" Ruby whispers. She will get her vengeance when the time arrives.
Yang easily body slams Ruby out of the way, saying it was her turn. The video game announces that a challenger approaches.
The group winced as they could just hear Ruby's body hitting the floor every time. Of course, Yang and Ruby were unaffected by it as its the usual when playing video games.
"Now, where was I?" Qrow asks the girls. Ruby buds in, reminding him. "Right, right."
Qrow walks through a snowy village, Harbinger draped on his shoulder, "I come across a small village in the swamps west of Mistral. Right off the bat I knew something wasn't right." The man pauses, looking into an alley. Ruby asks what he was doing there, her excitement clear in her voice. "I needed information." Qrow looks behind him, skeptical. "Tired from battling grimm along the way, I decided to start my search at the town's inn. The place was crawling with lowlifes and thugs, even a few huntsmen that I could have only assumed had been hired by less than reputable people for less than respectable jobs."
Qrow kicks down the inn door, stopping dead in his tracks at what he saw next. "And that's when it happened." Yang asked what, wanting to know the ending. Qrow's eyes widened at what was before him.
Just like Yang and Ruby on screen, some were sitting on the edge of their seats, anticipation killing them.
"I was defeated…" Qrow kneeled on the floor, Harbinger next to him. But his frown immediately formed into a smirk. "By the inn keeper's skirt length!"
"Oh! Why would we expect anything different!" Ruby shouted as she threw her hands into the air dramatically.
A puppy pillow was thrown at his face by a less than pleased Yang. "You. Are. The. Worst!" Yang yells as she not only loses the match, she was disappointed by Qrow's ending. This got a laugh out of both Ruby and him.
"Best two out of three?"
"So, Uncle Qrow, did you get in trouble with Ozpin?" Ruby asks sweetly, taking a seat on Weiss's bed.
"Oh, me and Oz go way back, we're cool." Yang wittily whips that he's cool for an old guy. "Not funny."
"Hey, so, what are you doing here anyway? I thought dad said you'd be away on a mission for like…ever." Ruby changes the topic to something else as to Qrow's purpose of coming here.
He's here because of four major threats in Vale; Adam, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury.
"Well, a professional huntsman, like myself, is expected to get results as soon as possible."
"Yeaaah, I get that, we're pretty much pros too," Ruby says from the bed. Qrow doesn't seem that convinced.
"Pssh, yeah, read the news sometime, we totally saved Vale while you were gone," Yang adds, confident in her and Ruby's abilities.
It wasn't exactly "saving" Vale, but they did put a hold on a massive grimm invasion from doing any serious harm to the people.
"Funny, because I heard Vale suffered a grimm attack after you almost managed to stop a train." The game announces another total annihilation, this resulting in Yang's upset huff. "But, they don't give out medals for 'almost'."
"They do and they're called silver! " Both Ruby's shout at the old man.
"Well we helped take down Roman Torchwick, he's locked up in Ironwood's ship and crimes have been down ever since, that's basically a bounty mission." Yang continues to persuade her uncle that they helped to save Vale.
"Sure you may be acting like huntresses, but you're not thinking like one. You really think four girls and their friends could end all crime in the kingdom?"
Well they're sure damn trying too…
"I mean I did until you said that." Ruby twiddles with her fingers sheepishly.
"Violence hasn't dropped since Roman got napped, it stopped, completely. No White Fang activity anywhere around the city, you cut off the head of a king taijitu, but now the second head is calling the shots. That's what Ironwood can't get through that thick metal head of his." Hearing from Qrow, both Ruby and Yang give each other a look, asking that Qrow knew the general.
Oh, he knows him alright. The fact Qrow is part of the secret meetings behind closed doors with Professor Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin. And that Qrow is familiar enough to refuse to address by his title and use a nickname.
"Hey, I know everybody to some extent, remember, you're talking to a member of the coolest team to ever graduate Beacon." Qrow pulls out a photo from his pocket, showing Summer, Qrow, Tai, and Raven. Yang's eyes widen as she sees the woman; Qrow drifted his finger to cover her part of the photo.
I believe this is when it clicked to my future self that it was our mom who saved her on that train. It doesn't escape Yang's notice on how focused her other self is while looking at the picture. The same goes for a few others as they cast a glance at Yang.
"Team STRQ, that's when I met your parents, we were pretty well known back in the day."
"Known for crummy fashion sense!" Ruby butts in from the bed.
"Hey, we looked good, and I have a number of inappropriate stories that'll back that up." Qrow finally takes notice of Yang's intense gaze, quickly blocking her view of its contents, the motion snapping her out of her daze. "But, I'll save those for when you're older." Ruby doesn't hide her disgust as she shudders. "Anyway, I'm too old to be hanging out with a bunch of kids, you're gonna cramp my style."
Before leaving, Qrow stops dead at the door. "Look, just remember you still got a long way to go, and don't think for a second that graduating means you're done. Everyday out there is worth a week in this place, you two, you're gonna go far, but only if you keep learning, if you never stop moving forward." Once finished, Qrow made his way out the door.
"For a drunk that was pretty wise of him," Weiss had to admit.
"He's a great mentor when he isn't downing a bottle," Ruby could say from both ends of experience. Having witnessed the state he could be in while drunk and how amazing of a teacher he was while Ruby was still learning how to wield her precious Crescent Rose.
Past a small green caterpillar, was Weiss with Winter standing behind her. She was currently trying to summon as proof of the white glyph on the ground. "Excellent form, now think to your fallen foes, the ones that force you to push yourself past who you were and become who you are now," Winter instructs from behind her sister. The glyph flickers.
"Think of them and watch as they come to your side," Weiss grits her teeth in frustration, watching as the glyph becomes smaller.
Stomping her foot, Weiss stops, "I can't." Winter's response to this was to slap Weiss on the back of the head, demanding that she quit doubting herself. "I'm trying!"
"If this is what you call trying then you have no hope of winning the tournament, let alone succeeding as a huntress. Why don't you just move back home, I'm sure father would give you a nice job as a receptionist."
Weiss knew what her sister was doing, attempting to rile her up, to push her into trying harder so she wouldn't have to go back to father for help.
"I don't need his charity," Weiss states with defiance. But, her sister reminds her that she does need the man's money. "What?! How did you know about that?!"
"How did your sister know about that?" Jaune asked, genuinely curious.
This just led to a sigh from Weiss, "My sister has her ways." That was the most she could say, but her sister more than likely went through something to figure it out.
"Lucky guess, I may have been in a similar situation when I joined the military."
Oh, well that makes much more sense, Weiss thought with a hum.
Winter paces around her sister, asking her what she has done for her father to do such a thing. "Well, that's the thing, I'm really not sure. I went to pay for lunch the other day but my card didn't work."
"How embarrassing."
"I know!" Winter's reaction to Weiss's outburst was to slowly shake her head. "Well it was, why would he cut me off like that?"
"Perhaps so you'd stop avoiding him and call home." Hearing this Weiss trained her concentration back to summoning, turning around to create the same glyph. "Emotions can grant you strength, but you must never let them overpower." The glyph faded as Weiss focused back on her sister.
Yang could feel a pair of eyes on her, but she didn't know from whom. When she subtly looked behind her, no one was looking at her, making her shrug off the feeling. She questioned why the person was directing that at her, were they trying to say something about her semblance? Do her emotions get the better of her, leading to her blindly making a choice that ends badly?
Why does that suddenly give me a bad feeling of foreshadowing?
"It sounds to me like you have two choices in front of you; you can either call him, beg for his money back and explain once more why you want to study at Beacon over Atlas or…you could continue to explore Remnant, discovering more about the world and honestly, more about yourself." Weiss gave a quick look down to the ground.
I find the choice to be quite obvious. Weiss crosses her arms, hoping her other self knows what the right decision is.
Winter gives her sister a hug, "It's time for me to go." Weiss returns it, telling her sister warmly that it was really good to see her. "Until next time, sister."
Both head out and go their separate ways. The camera follows Weiss's direction. On the ground, in front of the same caterpillar, is a sword that disappears.
Words couldn't describe how happy Weiss was upon seeing the tiny weapon. It might have been small, but it was proof to her, proof she could do it and she knew she would continue to get better from there. This was honestly just more motivation to try even harder.
"See, we knew you could do it Weiss!" Ruby shouts as she looks at her partner. The small smile on her face wasn't doing any justice to how overjoyed she felt.
Weiss waved goodbye to her sister as she watched the airship leave, her scroll then buzzed. Pulling it out, she paused to answer as it was her father calling her; thinking of what her sister said, she ignored it.
Putting her scroll back in her pocket, she left to head back to her dorm for the night. The screen fades black and the end credits appear.
Weiss found that to be one of her favorite episodes so far, getting to see her future self spend time with Winter, her summoning growing, and watching her counterpart listen to what Winter said and dismissing her father.
And, Qrow's talk with Ruby and Yang was more eye opening than some would like to admit. This whole experience is really helping all of them grow in more ways than one.
Once this was all over, they all knew they were going to be thanking Raider for bringing them here.