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Weiss watched Arc stumbled back, raising hsi shield to catch Executioner on its front but failing to deflect the attack at all. Instead, he was knocked back several feet, stumbled more and fell on his rear. Winchester was slow, though. And a braggart wielding a purposefully unbalanced weapon. So he took long enough to recover and lumber toward the downed blonde that he was back on his feet before the man actually reached him. That didn't help Arc out, though. Winchester knocked him over again and, laughing, brought his mace up and down on his shield.

Until, mercifully, Goodwitch barked, "Enough!"

Winchester either didn't hear her over the clanging of metal on metal, or didn't care, bringing Executioner up and down twice more-

Before a diminutive former appeared behind him, slammed a heel into the back of his knee, and used a hand at the nape of his armor to hurl him into the ground. He snarled, but Neo just turned and pressed her narrow little sword down at him, snarling mutely while Goodwitch stormed into the arena, looming over the smaller woman. Whatever the Headmistress said to her was far too quiet for Weiss to hear, but the smaller woman snarled and spun on her heel, stalking over to help her partner up. He smiled his gratitude which seemed to soften the little mute somewhat and, that mess sorted, Goodwitch cleared her throat and turned to address the class more normally.

"Mister Arc, your defensive reaction time is… Passing, but you desperately need to mind your footing and balance." She explained coolly, gesturing at the scowling but, somehow, still smug looking larger man and going on, "Mister Winchester's weapon is designed to stagger and throw off his opponents. Seeing that, you should have aimed to deflect and redirect. Not try and simply absorb a larger man's blows entirely, as if the kinetic force might just… Vanish."

"Yes, Ma'am." He nodded sheepishly, "I-I'll work on it."

"Good." She turned to Winchester, now, and scowled, "And you, Mister Winchester, need to learn to pay attention to your surroundings. You could not hear me, and in battle, I may very well be shouting out a warning to you. An attacker in the rear, a bomb, any number of other things that could very well be your end in the field. Pay. Better. Attention."

"Right." He shrugged, "Got it."

"Good." She nodded, "Both of you are dismissed."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And you, Miss Politan." Goodwitch sighed, turning to the small woman who only crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows. "Detention with me this evening for intervening in another's match."

Weiss could see the argument on her face, but Arc wrapped an arm around her waist before she could say anything. Whatever he said, the woman rolled her eyes, smiled ever so slightly, and nodded. Turning with him, she let the blonde lead her away. It was almost cute, in a way. If not for the looks the woman kept shooting Winchester, spinning her sword around her wrist like someone who had spent far too much time practicing the trick.

After they had left, the room fell into a familiar dull roar as students chatted about the match - or gossip, she was sure, given the lack of substance to the fight.

Her team fell, predictably enough, into the latter group.

"So…" Xiao Long started, drumming her fingers on her thighs and turning to face Weiss. "Girlfriends."

"Yes." Weiss sighed, rolling her eyes, "Two of them. They live in Vale."

"But…" Yang drawled, "Two? Seriously?"

"Why is that so hard to believe, exactly…?"

"Well…"

"Schnees are usually said to be fairly conservative, and that is by Atlas' standards." Belladonna said quietly, eyes focused on the e-book on her Scroll. "So it's rather difficult to believe one of their daughters would have a girlfriend at all. Much less two of them."

"Plus," Yang smiled, looping an arm around her partner's shoulder and smiling, "Ruby only heard one voice."

"Same."

"Wait, am I the only one that didn't hear anything…?" The other two nodded and the blonde scowled darkly, crossing her arms and pouting. "That's not fair at all… Anyway!" She clapped, smiling brightly, "You gotta give us more than just that!"

"Like…?"

"Detes!" Ruby squawked, throwing her hands up and then flushing brightly and pulling her hood up when the three of them all turned to look at her. Quietly, she pouted, "What? You both wanna know, too…"

"Fair." Yang shrugged, turning back to Weiss and grunting, "Detes, girl!"

"I'm not exactly sure what you expect…"

"Names, how you met, what they look like-"

"Which is better in bed- Ow!" Yang squawked, rubbing the spot on her head where Blake had thumped her. She blinked, as if realising what she'd done, and flushed brightly before she turned to keep reading. And, apparently, pretended nothing had ever happened. Shaking her head, Yang let it go, focusing on apparently more interesting quarry and prodding Weiss' leg with her foot. "Come on! Spill!"

"Their names are Penny and Akitsu, and we met… Well, quite some time ago." Weiss frowned, trying to piece together a store that was true but also kept what needed to be secret under wraps. "It was something of a… Business event, in Atlas. And things sort of evolved naturally from there."

"And what do they look like?"

"Here." Weiss sighed, flicking her Scroll open and cycling over to the first of her two big image folders. The third was a picture of the three of them, swaddled up under a blanket on the couch, and Weiss let them see it. "Penny is the one with the orange hair, and Akitsu is the other."

"The ginger is cute…" Yang hummed, flicking Weiss a look and asking, "But which is-"

"I-I am not telling you which is better in bed, Xiao Long."

"Spoken like someone who knows~!"

"I will end you, Xiao Long." Weiss growled lowly, "And I'll make it look like a bloody accident."

"That isn't helping your cause~"

"Yang Xiao Long!" Goodwitch called out, voice echoing around the room. "You will face… Sky Lark! Both of you, recheck your equipment and come down to the arena!"

"Goodwitch to the rescue, eh?" Xiao Long chuckled, shooting Weiss a wink as she hopped up and turned to leave. "You're only safe for a little while, though~!"

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Jaune's back hit the hard, cold roof with all the force Neo could throw him down with. Which, in spite of her height, was a lot. He groaned and let Crocea Mors clatter on the roof to either side of him, staring up at the cloudy night sky and taking short breaths. Heels clacked up his side and he looked up as Neo swaggered up to stand over him, smiling down at him and cocking her head playfully.

"I know." He sighed, "I suck…"

She shrugged and turned, offering him a hand up that he took. She only pulled him halfway up, though, before she turned and tossed him at the door-way they'd come up through. He hit the wall beside the door and slid down it to rest on the ground and she joined him, curling up in his lap and resting her head on his shoulder, pressing a gentle kiss right at the end of the curve of his jaw in what he guessed was her idea of reassurance. He blushed and tried to ignore how soft she was, curled up against him and wiggling to get more comfortable.

Tried and, judging by her little huffs of silent laughter blowing against his neck, failed very obviously.

"Yeah, yeah." He rolled his eyes, "I get it. Take pity on the little weakling, right?"

She pulled away suddenly and turned, scowling darkly at him, and he blinked in surprise. After a second, she leaned back enough to summon a little sign like she so often did to say, "I'm not taking pity. I just wanted to cuddle."

"Ah…"

"I'm not like that." The sign shimmered to say, before she gnawed on her lip and sighed, turning to rest with her back against him instead of her side. She curled up there, too, though, hugging her legs to her chest and calling up another sign. "I spent a long time waiting, and now I get all the cuddles I want. But I'm not the type of girl to throw herself at someone out of pity, Jaune."

"I-I didn't mean it like that…" He frowned and, hesitantly, wrapped his arms around her. She stiffened, surprised, but let him pull her in against his chest. "I'm just not… Used to girls teasing me, or even liking me, so… I dunno."

For a few seconds, Neo didn't say - or, well, write, sort of, he supposed - anything. But, finally, she held up a sign that said, "I don't get why you aren't. You're great."

"At what, falling down?" He snorted, rubbing his thumb against a patch of bare skin on Neo's hip, where her leotard cut in. It was so soft, he hadn't even noticed when he'd started doing it. But Neo didn't seem to care, so he went on quietly, "Back home I was just… Jaune. The nerd that read more comics than he did anything else. I didn't even know what I wanted to do with my life until I was, like, twelve- And by then, my dad refused to even teach me anything. Why would anyone pay me any attention?"

"It's never too late to change." Neo argued, "You know what you want now, and you've already done a lot to get there."

"Most people here have trained since they were six…" He sighed, watching the clouds drifting by over the forest. "I only decided I wanted to years later- And even then, I didn't know anything about it. What I was getting into."

"Why do you want it, then?"

"I want to help people." He smiled, "Protect them. My dad is a lot of people's hero for that… Grandad, too. That's what I want. To save people."

"And you were willing to break the law to do it." Neo argued, "And risked your life getting this far. More than they were willing to, at least."

"They went into Initiation, too…"

"True." She nodded, spinning the sign theatrically, "But you did it with less gear and no Aura. You took the bigger risk and, whatever they did to get here, that took guts. So don't sell yourself short."

"I guess…" He sighed, "I just hate how much time I wasted. I always wanted to help people, and dad was right there. Why did I just… Let time fly by so quick?"

"Does it matter?" She asked, "It's done, and what matters now is what you do next."

"I guess you're right." He smiled, hugging her just a bit tighter for a moment as a sign of thanks - and definitely not to press her into him. Not at all. "Thanks, Neo. You're… Really good at giving advice, actually."

"It's kind of my job, as your partner."

"Fair."

"And besides," Neo's next sign read, after she huffed a few silent laughs, "now we're finally together, and you can make up for lost time."

"On… Training?" She turned and he saw a playful, mischievous little glint in her eyes before she twisted in his grip and turned to face him, pressing herself into him and leaning in for a kiss. This time, though, she didn't come all the way in. Didn't steal the kiss. She paused, inches away from him and watching him with bright, mismatched eyes, waiting. He blinked, and then realised what she wanted and chuckled weakly, nervously, "O-Oh…"

Anxiety turning in his stomach, he met her this time and he felt her sigh into it, content to simply… Be there, with him, tasting of strawberries and something sweet he couldn't place.

Then, she pushed off him, rolling away onto the breadth of her shoulders and popping up off them almost impossibly. Using her hands, she spun to face away from him and pitched forward, coming up on her feet and stretching her arms above her while Jaune blinked at her backs- Her back. She turned, flashing him a smile and pacing over to kick Crocea Mors up where she caught it by the blade, holding it out for him and tapping a foot on his shield.

"Right." He nodded, standing and grunting, "Show me that thing you did with your legs again?" Neo winked, cocked her head and started to tilt to the side and Jaune flushed brightly. "I-I meant the thing you did to knock me over! How did you even do that?"

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Pyrrha heard the blonde master hit the ground thirty seconds after the fighting started and frowned, turning to head back down stairs she still didn't know why she had climbed. He was an oaf, and useless in a fight, but that wasn't her problem. Not as much as the dastard finding her favorite meditation spot and hogging it to 'spar' with his new toy, at least. So why had she stayed? Why had she listened to him talk about what he wanted?

And why did it matter…?

"Biology." She growled to herself, scowling and shaking her head as she stepped back out into the hallway, "Don't let what you are control you, Nikos…"

"Well, guess that explains why you're spying on my leader…" Pyrrha spun to face the quiet voice and blinked as Valkyrie pushed off the wall just a bit to the side of the door, just barely out of sight. Unlike normal, she was dressed in dark jeans and a dark hoodie, pulled up around her ears, and that put Pyrrha on edge. Smiling, the other woman held her hands out and sighed, "Chill. Not here for a fight."

"Then why sneak up on me…?"

"I was just waiting for you." She shrugged, "Not my fault you were caught up in your own world too much to see me."

"That begs the question of why you did that…" Pyrrha rumbled, backing up a step for space and flexing her fingers meaningfully, stretching them out in case she needed her fists.

"Not for a fight." Valkyrie grunted, flexing her own fingers and casting electricity between them and along the walls. Pyrrha blinked and Valkyrie smiled gently, "I know what you are, and you can guess what I am. I'm stronger than you, so don't start a fight. I just want to talk. 'Kay?"

"...Fine." She grunted, "Talk."

"Alright, I'll cut to the chase…" Valkyrie sighed, turning and nodding her head up the hall. "Walk and talk? Unless they're doing a bit more than sparring, never know when they'll come down. And I'm sure you don't want 'em to overhear."

For a moment, Pyrrha was torn between trusting the stranger Sekirei… Or, equally daunting, risking the two upstairs coming down. Having them walk into any conversation they could have did not appeal to her. And not even just because of what the oaf was. Whatever one Sekirei wanted to say to another in private that didn't involve a fight almost always meant something private was going to come up. And for her kind, private meant dangerous.

So, after a second, she nodded and let the woman lead her up the hall.

"I've seen how you look at him." Valkyrie said, just a step ahead of her and as far apart as they could be. "So… Did he do something to you, or are you just reacting to him?"

"...The latter." She said after a moment, "I've never seen him before coming here."

"And that has you hating him because…?"

"I do not hate him." She hissed before she could catch herself. Taking a breath, and ignoring the far too smug sounding hum from the other woman, she said, "I… Do not know him well enough to hate him. But that does not mean I enjoy his presence."

"Somehow," Valkyrie drawled, "I doubt that's entirely true."

"I was a prisoner long enough." Pyrrha growled, "I shall not be one again."

"Is that what you think the partnership is like?" Valkyrie asked, coming to a sudden stop and turning to face her, brows furrowed. When Pyrrha only turned away, the woman sighed gently, "Oh, you poor thing… What did they do to you in Atlas?"

"Enough." She grunted, "What do you want?"

"To help."

"And if I don't want your help?"

"Then don't take it." She turned back as Valkyrie shrugged and went on, "The partnership… When it's done right, it's wonderful, cousin. Ren has made me happier than anything else in the whole world."

"Did he?" She asked, "Or is that your biology talking?"

"We are our biology…"

"I'm not." She scoffed, turning to leave, "If that's all-"

"Hang out with us."

"Excuse me…?"

"Ren and I." She explained, gesturing at herself with a hand and smiling softly. "We head out into the forest to train and… Well, Ren meditates. Come with. Let us show you it isn't that bad. Then you can, you know… Decide from there."

"And why shouldn't I expect you just want to add me to his collection…?"

"Because I," Valkyrie grunted harshly, "do not share."

"Uh huh…"

"And besides," she shrugged, smiling knowingly, "it's a little suspicious that you're all alone. No team, no friends. Bound to draw some eyes to you, and not in the way you've been doing. If the wrong people happen to notice how lonely and isolated you are…"

She didn't finish her threat, but then, she didn't need to. Pyrrha had protected herself by hiding in her fame. Who would dare to try and take her when every news station on Remnant would report on it, after all? But a year or two here, and that shield would falter… And she'd need to replace it somehow. Which was a problem she'd known about coming in, even if it wasn't one she'd quite managed to solve.

And besides, if Valkyrie wanted to, she could overpower her. Pyrrha might have been more skilled, but raw power was a skill unto itself - and one she couldn't make up through training alone.

So, doubtful but resigned, she said, "Fine… But expect nothing."

"I never expect anything." Valkyrie shrugged, turning to leave, "Except fights. Glad I was wrong here, on that account…"

Distantly, Pyrrha was, too.

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Hecseferblade :

Pyrrha wasn't forced into a partnership, no - OTHER things were done to the Sekirei in this universe, though. Things outside the original show. And implied, in brief, here and with a certain other character's details that have already been somewhat shown.

Phantom117a :

Yeah, Weiss is a bit different in this thanks to that lol. Not MASSIVELY, but enough.

Essiter :

Ruby isn't a Sekirei, to clarify.

Otherwise - glad you're enjoying the fic lol.