"So not to doubt my own Reversed Misfortune, but you're certain that this Nikkos girl's going to win the Regional Circuit. On her first ever tourney? My Semblance only works for my own luck. I can't bet on other people and have them benefit from it. Just doesn't seem to work that way."
"Even when I try to help Qrow make some money he doesn't believe me." Juniper threw up his hand as he rolled his eyes, smiling fondly as he did so. "What does it take?"
"Qrow, would I be putting my own Lien down if I wasn't positive? If you don't trust me, you can trust Big Brother Juniper, right Em?"
"I trust your every word, Master." Emerald nodded matter of factly, dressed in her full three piece butler suit with green trim, tie, and gloves, her chosen Huntress outfit. "I am your blade."
Her dress shirt's collared white wing was pressed perfectly over her tie, a bright contrast to her darker skin.
She also wore a pair of steel-toed leather 'dress shoes' that had blades hidden in both the toes and heels, and were now accented with one mint green line that wrapped around the outsole, adding just a splash of color to her footwear.
"See? Emerald believes me!"
Jaune saw Qrow narrow his eyes at him as he could feel Emerald's preening satisfaction waft of her form in waves behind him.
"Your little blade hangs off your every word. She's not exactly an unbiased source, kid."
"For someone here to chaperone my master, your lack of faith in him is highly dislikeable." Emerald fired back, polite in words, but angry in tone and in eyes. Jaune didn't even need to look back at her to know that after two years. "Why my master trusts you so much is beyond me."
"Aww the kid and I go way back, don't we bud?" Qrow ruffled his head as Jaune rolled his eyes, enjoying his uncle's friendly ribbing. "And I'm always glad to get him out from under Jimmy's watch for a little R&R."
Three years had passed since the Theft of the Osprey, where 'the' late Dr. Arthur Watts had worked alongside Tyrian Callows in an attempt to kidnap him for… well he'd have to assume Salem, though the adults still told him nothing of the Queen of the Grimm.
Three years since Amber and he had parted ways, though she kept in contact with Robin, she hadn't requested or needed anything from him again.
She'd changed her name, not surprisingly, but had done it partly because Amber had always been a false name, partly because she'd apparently begun to be apprenticed under a wandering Huntress with the same name.
Small world, Remnant. Well. Not like Amber was an uncommon name, but that was a different matter.
Still, he was just happy they maintained such a close relationship despite their distance, always sending pictures and messages to each other every night. Juniper pressed for some details, however, and was pretty sure she might have been with the current Fall Maiden based off Robin's descriptions of the girl's teacher, though her hair was apparently longer than he'd expected.
He hadn't bothered to ask for anything else, but it seemed she'd actually be going to Beacon this upcoming Fall alongside Trivia.
That had made Jaune smile. His path was right.
He was right in letting Amber (actually he should probably ask Robin for her new name) go free. She was training now to be a hero like him. To make it so that people didn't have to suffer the way she had.
Ha!
Take that General Ironwood! Not that he disliked the General either, but it was still satisfying to have been more correct than such a big hero. Sort of like a big growth moment.
Still she'd be going to Beacon and having adventures in the same year as Trivia. Gods that was so… AHHH he was jealous! He didn't want to be the one to hold her back, but sometimes he'd wonder what it would be like if she was closer to his age so they could apply to Beacon together.
They already worked together so well!
Still he was busy figuring out more stuff for both Atlas and Menagerie and that took some priority. Even if he'd snuck off using Qrow as a teleport point via Shadow to go watch a tourney in Mistral at Big Brother Juniper's insistence.
Jaune was curious about what made Pyrrha Nikos so special though, and had sent a Shadow to make contact.
"So uh. This is my, what, second time meeting your little sponsor friend? But is it normal for her to be… that?" Qrow whispered low into his ear as he ruffled affectionately.
"I've tried to break her out of calling me master for almost three years. I haven't managed it yet and I've just sort of decided to let her do what makes her happy. Mistral be weird."
Qrow snorted a laugh with one last head-rub.
"Yeah Mistral's kinda fucked." Qrow laughed. "Still, place is pretty as long as you don't look at the ugly bits."
"Mistral is all ugly bits." Emerald disagreed bluntly, "Even the pretty parts are purely to attract in suckers to hit them with the ugly bits."
"I think I hate your word choice, Emmy."
Emerald's mint green cotton gloved fingers twitched for her Garnet Oaths hidden under her morning coat.
"Do not call me that. Only my master and his family are allowed to refer to me with pet names."
"Em, he's kind of like my uncle." Jaune turned to her with an amused grin. "You know Auntie Raven? They're twins."
Emerald gave him a look as if she'd consumed a sour lemon before closing her eyes and recentering herself.
"Apologies, Lord Qrow. I was not aware of your familial titles with how crassly you hold yourself." She smiled brightly as she gave him a sort of back-handed politeness as her eyes closed, likely entirely dead under her eyelids and filled with dislike for his uncle, though her voice was cheery and friendly. "I will accept your affectionate terms with joy."
"...Mistral be weird." Qrow sighed into his hands as he shrugged, clearly able to tell she was putting up a front. "It's crazy that this isn't the weirdest thing I've seen in this damn Kingdom."
"Oh, I was not aware you have been educated of our mirrors, Lord Qrow!" Emerald smiled with a fake laugh that truly sounded genuine to all but Jaune, her gloved hand covering her small mouth. "Not with the bird nest you call your hair!"
"Kid, I think I hate her." Qrow sighed into his hand as he shoved his and 'Jaune's' betting tickets into his hands so he could store it into his Inventory. "Let's just go and watch the tourney, eh? I'll be bored outta my mind, but maybe you two might still learn something."
"Didn't you promise Yang and Ruby some souvenirs?" He reminded.
Qrow just waved a hand.
"I'll worry about that later. Worst case I'll ask you to make some snacks for the little hellions."
Jaune rolled his eyes as he could sense Emerald's appetite immediately flare beside him at the mention of his food, passing her some takoyaki he'd been experimenting with.
She took it almost reverently before moaning with satisfaction over the bite sized treats.
He rolled his eyes as he passed some to Qrow as well as the older man gave the snacks a side-eye.
It seemed that Qrow did enjoy the japanese street food.
"It's okayyyyy. It's okay. C'mon Pyrrha. Get it togetherrrr." She walked in circles in the locker room.
Desperately trying to shake off the nervousness, she took a few light hops, breaking her stride.
She'd forgone her usual Huntress outfit entirely intentionally, but she'd ended up feeling all too undefended and honestly? Almost naked.
That armor was becoming a part of her, something that she just didn't feel right without. Her uncle Claudius, her mom's brother, had done good work in piecing it together for her in his spare time in return for her helping around his workshop on the weekends.
She did keep her circlet, the only part of her armor that she'd crafted herself (machined out by a device and she'd shaped, smoothed, and polished by herself, uncle Claudius did help), even if it made more sense for her to wear a sweatband.
She just didn't like sweatbands on her forehead very much. They always seemed to suffocate her pores and make her get a little pimply. She hated pimples. She'd only started getting them about a year ago and they sucked. At least she got them when she didn't let her forehead breathe properly.
Currently she was dressed in a crimson pair of almost skin tight girl's jogging pants, a red sports bra top that exposed her navel a little uncomfortably and had gold compression arm sleeves over her forearms. Her black sneakers were Nikkos brand as well, although she'd secretly gotten these made with a personal touch, a bit of flexible metal plating in the toe, heel, and soles.
Just so that she'd have a bit of an advantage. She'd be facing mostly older kids, after all.
Everything had the sort of small check mark looking logo and words Nikkos of her dad's sportswear brand. Her joggers and arm sleeves also added her dad's company motto 'Get To It!' in a small script by the logo.
Having her mostly hand-crafted circlet gave her a little comfort despite how wildly out of her element she felt. But she could do this.
She was good at fighting, really good, even if partly (ok, mostly) self-taught. She had some people that were able to teach her conditioning exercises and such, but most of her combat training came from watching a lot of simple videos for the basics online that helped a lot.
That and sparring with older kids whose parents worked for her dad, but they were pretty prideful and didn't always take it very well when she'd ended up beating them in their spars. Only a few of them took fighting her as a real challenge and could look past her age.
It sort of confused her sometimes because really she'd taught herself based off of videos of Huntsmen and Huntresses from Vytal Festivals and tournaments from all over.
Theoretically anyone could do what she did from her perspective.
From a certain point of view, she'd had the best teachers in Remnant, but so did anyone with a CCT connection. The fact that so many people struggled to learn the same way as her was somewhat befuddling, even if her Semblance gave her an advantage versus other people.
Sure every Hunstman and Huntress fought differently, but if you just took the parts of fighting techniques that used similar weapons and adjusted them according to your build and own weapon, that was a new technique you could learn right there! It wasn't Atlasean robotics, it was just moving your body!
Pyrrha had always liked seeing the sight of Huntsmen and Huntresses fighting, beautiful and powerful.
She had watched the Regional Circuit since she was a toddler, knew the rules and advantages of the system inside and out, and used that knowledge to stomp her way through the qualifiers despite the fact that the average age of contestants of the Preparatory Tier that even made it into the Circuit were fourteen-fifteen.
But right now she was just filled with nervous energy.
"Ooooooh this is such a bad idea!" She moaned nervously. "Dad's going to kill me when he finds out I'm here!"
She was lucky that she had Uncle Tullius from mom's side of the family (a cousin of her mom rather than a brother) who was willing to keep her for the duration of the tournament, cheering her on and hoping that her hairbrained scheme to save her dad's business would somehow work.
Even so he was a working man with his own family (a single father with two kids younger than herself) and couldn't be here to support her.
"Squeak!"
"Eep!" Pyrrha leapt as she saw a mouse on the bench next to her, Milo and Akuou leaping to her hands via her Polarity. "Oh gods there are mice here?! Ewewew"
The little black mouse reared up on its hind legs, saluting at attention.
She blinked.
Was this mouse… trained in some way? She'd heard of Aura awoken animals, but… a mouse?
Suddenly its body morphed into a blob of shadow, revealing a faintly different looking mouse with a small brown-black earthenware teacup filled with what looked like tea. And a note, a post-it note to be precise, sticking on the side of the cup.
The mouse saluted again before quickly scampering off, disappearing into shadows..
"...What?" She questioned herself, thinking maybe she'd gone crazy from the nerves. "...Whaaaa?"
She carefully approached the cup, shield raised. Just in case the cup… exploded? Attacked?
…Actually now Pyrrha felt sort of dumb with her shield up against a teacup.
The note stated: "A little Lemon Green Tea for a bit of energy."
She eyed the cup of faintly steaming tea suspiciously, the soothing scent of tea just stared back innocuously with a thin round cut of lemon floating on its surface.
After all, you don't just take random food and drink for strangers. And nothing was stranger than a… saluting mouse? Still, it was kind of funny. Like as if the little mice were cheering her on. Or something.
"I mean a little sip couldn't hurt, right?" Pyrrha shrugged, feeling like she was some sort of character in a fairy tale all of a sudden.
The absurdity took the nerves away a little and she could do with a little loosening up.
Honestly the muscles of her lower back were wound so tight from sheer stress that she felt awful.
Wherever the tea leaves were from and whomever had made it, it was somehow both soothing and invigorating. Pyrrha found herself calming down just a little bit, enough that she felt nice and loose but she could feel her Aura humm excitedly under her skin, ready to let loose.
Now she wasn't worried, fearful, and excited, just mostly excited. She was still worried, but not a stressful worried, so that was good.
A little worry would keep her from being overconfident. She had a bit of a bad habit of overextending with her spear-thrusts when she became overconfident. She could feel that in her gut and did her best to keep herself from it, but it was definitely a bad habit.
Nothing felt odd but that was a really good cup of tea.
Pyrrha shrugged, the taste of lemon lingering faintly in her mouth.
"It's good tea." She muttered to herself. "It would… it would be a shame to waste it, right?"
She drank the rest, smacking her lips afterwards. That was tasty. She didn't even normally like green tea. Usually it was too bitter. Only the expensive stuff or the super sugar infused sweet style tended to be tasty.
This wasn't really sugary, though. So maybe it was expensive? Who would send her that though?
"Uh… thank you, magic… tea… mice?" She spoke out loud into her changing room, but no such thing appeared again, almost making Pyrrha doubt that this had even happened.
She left the earthenware cup on the bench where the mouse had placed it in the first place before stopping to think.
She dug into her duffel bag filled with spare sportswear in different colors to show off her dad's catalog.
She had a slightly ratty notebook where she'd written down notes on the other competitors. Specifically for the older kids that she knew had competed before and had videos on the net for her to dig up and observe.
She still had a few things written for the two newer competitors on this year's circuit though. Even if one of them was herself and all she'd written down was: "You can do it! Do it for dad!"
Thus she had a pencil in a little wooden case.
She quickly scratched in very small lettering on the leftover bit of space on the post-it.
"Thanks for the tea. Good tea." She wrote aloud as she smiled.
She put her writing utensil away as she left the cup and post-it back on the bench.
It was really good tea… She already wanted more.
"Match two of eight will be ready in five minutes! Contestants for match two, please prepare yourselves to enter the Pagoda."
Pyrra looked at the double elimination tournament brackets on the wall.
"...You got this. Even if you lose, you can still show off in the losers brackets, win that and fight the finalist from the winner's brackets and win it all. You can do this."
It wasn't about winning but her mom always said that a Nikkos didn't leave things half-way.
She wanted to win. Pyrrha wanted to win so much it almost hurt.
"Lords and Ladies, viewers from all walks of life of our great and powerful nation!" The announcer could be heard blasting through a loudly cheering arena. "Welcome back from your refreshments and libations, for it's time for the SECOND match today of the Mistral Regional Circuit's Preparatorium Cup! Where the future of our Kingdom fights to prove themselves and their honor! We've got a rather special match right now, so please get ready to cheer on our contestants!"
Did the announcer have to be so boisterous? It was bringing some of her nerves back to the surface.
"In the Blue corner, on his last year of being on the Preparatorium Cup! Last year's semi-finalist; Sponsored by the Lesser House Daoming and Pumpkin Pete's Breakfast Cereal; Pumpkin Marshmallow Crunch, it's magically delicious! IT'S. HU! CHO! ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!"
Pyrrha swallowed back a little spit as the crowd roared.
He was top four last year, but that meant a lot more when the others in that top four, including the winner of the loser's elimination bracket that competed for the Victor's Laurels against the winner of the Winners Finals, had all been sixteen last year. They were now seventeen and bumped up into the Four Seasons Circuit for those of age to be in a full-on Huntsman College like Beacon and Haven.
He was both as old as this circuit allowed and had the experience to back it up. And was the favorite to win the tournament. Somehow of course the biggest hurdle would be her first.
An older boy with light green eyes and a clean black crew cut stepped out from the shade of his entrance, waving a hand while he made his way into the large stone arena floor. His Huntsman outfit was simple and utilitarian, green camo as if darker splotches of green, black, and brown had been painted on by a thick large brush.
As standard, the stage was twelve by twelve meters, big enough for maneuvering and even a bit of kiting, but small enough that a ring-out was still a very real threat. One that Pyrrha would have to take advantage of whenever she could.
A pair of camo green bladed shotgun-tonfa were held in his off hand. ChoRok was waving with his left hand, as he was a southpaw.
Pyrrha remembered her notes on Hu ChoRok. Like many dual wielders he wasn't actually nearly as proficient with the concept as he pretended he was, often using his non-dominant right side as more of a bladed shield. That meant the real danger would always be from his left side.
She'd have an advantage if she hugged his right side in the fight. If it came to that. She had a plan going into this, but having a back up plan was always helpful.
Truthfully, the only proper dual-wielder Pyrrha had seen thus far in the Regional Circuits was in the Imperium Circuit, the ring for full Huntsmen graduates, an ambidextrous Dust-Dagger user called MeiLing.
She tried to ignore the little cute rabbit mascot that smiled at her from a bandana around his bicep. It made her want to laugh at the absurdity of the adorable icon against rugged green camo. She had to take this seriously.
"And from the red corner! The YOUNGEST contestant to ever make it past the qualifying stages! Standing at just a mere a hundred and forty two centimeters and weighing in at just over thirty eight kilograms!"
WHY WERE THEY GIVING OUT HER PERSONAL HEIGHT AND WEIGHT?! She felt her face flush in indignation. Just because this was her first tournament and didn't have any real metrics yet, they GAVE OUT HER WEIGHT?!
"Representing Argus's Nikkos Sportswear Company; Get To It! Homeschooled twelve year old Huntress-in-Training Pyrrha Nikos!"
Pyrrha swallowed down her nervousness as she threw on a winning smile, stepping forwards as her back straightened, showing off her dad's designs as best she could.
There was a bunch of polite applause, but the only one that she'd noticed giving any genuine encouragement was in one of the private upper boxes as some boy in a black beanie was applauding for her like he'd been paid to. That was weird, but kind of nice. Next to him was a green haired girl in a- was that a butler's uniform?
She barely noticed the adult in their box groaning as he held a hand over his eyes, as if he was sure she'd lose.
She felt a spark of anger. She'd show him.
"Nikkos. Like the former Lesser House Nikkos?" She heard her opponent muse as he walked to the center of the arena to shake her hand. "Long way from home there, fallen blue blood."
Pyrrha frowned.
Her dad had stepped down from being something called a clan heir to marry mom. He was happy with his choice, too.
But one day his younger brother died in an accident leaving her family with no legal head and they lost some titles as a result. She didn't know what it meant, just that her dad would have had to divorce her mom to return to being the head of the family and he refused to.
Her dad was amazing. And she was going to make sure everyone knew that.
"Nice to meet you, contestant Hu. I've seen your matches in full." She politely responded as she reached her hand out to meet his.
He shook it lazily, expecting nothing from a twelve year old, likely. While technically you were allowed to apply starting at ten, the youngest that had ever made it onto the official tournament before her was thirteen and they'd lost their first match.
"Heh. You a fan or something?"
"Of the Circuit." She replied diplomatically as she let go of his hand.
His Aura felt like thick forest sap, all herbal and sticky. She didn't like it.
"Well, let's have a nice match." He smiled, waving to the crowd again as he walked to his corner of the arena.
Pyrrha did the same but noted his eyes had been sneering at her the whole time.
Her hands gripped around Milo and Akuou. The former was in its rifle state, the safety flicked on. Now as the countdown began, her thumb flicked against it, flicking it off.
"THREE!"
Her emerald green eyes glimmered as adrenaline began to pump through her veins as the crowd roared.
"TWO!"
Her breath tasted like lemon, her body was loose. That tea had helped. She felt relaxed, but sharp.
"ONE!"
Her finger curled around Milo's trigger.
"BEGIN!"
Emerald knew her master had an eye for talent. Kamina-sensei had muttered it once when he'd trained her back before Sanctum and it had been a point of pride for her. Both in her master as well as herself.
Nora was a powerhouse of a Bloodhound and her ability to power herself up with electricity for heightened states was insanely useful. And her Magnhild had received a 2.0 update, the old revolver maul-head having been replaced by a 20mm grenade launcher for even more brute force.
Ren had, under Specialist Noire's tutelage, become very adept at Aura manipulation, being able to pull off powerful combat techniques and had even managed to improve upon the Shunpo technique that someone had apparently developed by observing the way her owner Jaune's Jumping Arts worked.
Even his friends Yang and Blake (Emerald grudgingly supposed the two were her friends too, despite their tendency to bicker with one another) were strong in both Semblance and combat ability. Though Blake had a bit of a natural advantage thanks to Jaune's restoring of her legs.
Honestly their more directly useful Semblanced made her a bit jealous.
So when he took an interest in a girl that was his age and was performing in the Mistral Regional Circuit Tournament for the first time and insisted that she'd take it all the way to the finals, she didn't doubt him at all. Even if the statement did seem hard to imagine.
When the gong struck for combat to begin there was no excitement at seeing other students fight, just an expectation that this Pyrrha Nikos girl would win.
"I bet my paycheck on a twelve year old." She heard Qrow groan again.
That twelve year old knelt, using her hoplon shield as both cover and a stabilizer for her rifle with one of the two small missing semicircles upon it, firing three shots forwards.
The first was blocked, blowing a bladed tonfa from her opponent back a bit further than expected, as the girl must have been packing some heavier rounds than expected. Maybe .308 instead of a 5.56? It fired almost as fast as the latter could though.
Good craftsmanship.
The second and third shots both made purchase as the other arm jerked up a bit too high, barely failing to block the remaining two rounds as they shattered against the Aura of his sternum.
By the look of it he must have guessed she'd been aiming for his face and neck.
The blow to the sternum did kill his momentum, however, allowing the girl to take a short leap back, still in a kneeling position. She covered more ground than expected. Not like Shunpo in application, though, despite the popularity that particular technique had garnered in recent years.
"Whoa!" Emerald heard Qrow whoop. "She's got a hell of a crack shot. I might still get my money's worth!"
The leap back was less intentional, solid in footwork, but no fancy technique, additionally with no visible Aura ripples, though either way she was a bit too close to the edge of the Arena for Emerald's comfort.
Another three shots rang out.
"The lack of faith you have in my master's discerning eye is truly difficult to grasp."
This time two shots were blocked, breaking the older boy's stance as his arms blew away from the force of impact as the third round struck him right between the eyes, making him stumble back a few steps.
"Oh hush." Qrow waved her off, much to Emerald's irritation. "It's rare to have a bunch of tykes like you and Jaune who can go toe to toe with people above your weight-class, alright? I don't mean nothing by it."
Green flares of 10 Gauge blasted from ChoRok's Shotgun-BladedTonfa as they blasted against the red haired girl's shield, trying to dissuade her from peaking over to take shots at the older boy.
He attempted to close the gap again, this time firing his weapons in reverse to launch himself forwards with the added recoil. He did so twice, forming a zig-zag as he approached his foe, taking her completely seriously now.
He was going for an easy ring out.
It seemed to do the trick in suppressing the girl as she had braced against the impacts upon her hoplon shield, her hand reaching out behind as her rifle shifted into a spear, the butt of her rifle compacting as it released a cutting edge and collapsed into a triangular blade. The blade straightened against the barrel of the gun, becoming a full spear, vaguely reminding Emerald of her master's Durindana.
As ChoRok reared for a wide swing, the Rifle-Spear rang out, the recoil of the shot extending the bladehead forwards as it barely edged past the boy's slightly too slow guard and struck him in the throat.
Still he took the opportunity to blast her arm with a shotgun blast with his other arm as he choked, green Aura flashing in his throat, sending her weapon flying up into the air, somehow behind him, out of sheer dumb luck.
"Well. Shit. She had a good run." Qrow shrugged, disappointed.
Emerald didn't think the girl could win either at this point. But her master had seen something she hadn't. She had to look beneath the surface. Beneath even that if she had to.
Because that's what Jaune did to see promise in Emerald herself.
The red haired girl, Pyrrha leapt powerfully over ChoRok, shield deflecting a scissoring upswing, bouncing up further as she rode the impact with her lighter form. She flipped in the air as she sent the hoplon shield flying at him like a frisbee, catching her weapon as her shield now bounced perfectly vertically into the air, flipping like a coin, as her opponent deflected the blow.
The girl twisted as she landed, grazed by the Dust pellets of one shot. Rolled to the side as another grazed against her Aura, the large screens projected via holograms showing her nervously smiling mugshot's Aura bar depleting in small chips.
Then her hand ran up to the base of her blade, right where the barrel connected with the spearhead that had no sharp edges, and her Rifle-Spear fired, letting the girl launch herself forwards with a powerful leap, her weapon giving her a second burst of momentum via recoil as she let out a battle cry, her legs extending forward for a fully committed double drop kick.
And her shield descended to ChoRok's eye-level, having arrived just in time to cut off the boy's vision as Pyrrha's feet impacted against the inside of her shield, becoming a living battering ram against the boy's guard, his forearms smacking into his own chin as he tipped backwards.
Emerald would have leapt to her feet had she not already been standing. Her eyes were still widened like saucers.
How had she timed that so perfectly?!
Pyrrha's opponent stumbled back, his feet meeting the edge of the arena, almost slipping backwards and off as the crowd roared in both astonishment and excitement as her shield flipped and almost perfectly locked back into a vambrace covering a gold compression sleeve on her left arm.
She was BAITING him for a ring out the whole time!
ChoRok flipped his tonfa about to launch himself back up right with the recoil of his weapon's shots, only to find a spear flying at him, the trajectory enhanced by the recoil of a rifle-shot.
He deflected, losing balance again, once more using his weapons to try to keep him on the edge of the battle arena.
A shield thrown like a powerful discus hit him right in the waist, folding him over and sending him falling back and off the stage.
"Fuck. She's not bad at all." She heard Qrow laugh. "What a surprisingly cute turn around. Guess I'm pretty lucky after all."
No. That hadn't been luck. That girl had adjusted under her conditions, but she'd leapt back towards the edge and baited her opponent to come in charging in by making him angry with her hyper accurate shooting, to use his momentum against him.
She had planned for this outcome from the beginning. Her master knew she would WIN.
"VICTORY BY RING OUT! HU CHOROK, OUR CIRCUIT FAVORITE HAS BEEN KNOCKED INTO THE LOSERS BRACKETS IN UNDER TWO MINUTES! LORDS AND LADIES, I GIVE YOU YOUR VICTOR! MISS PYRRHAAAAA NIIIIIIIIKOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!"
Truly, her owner may not have been omniscient, but if there was any man on Remnant close enough to that level of genius, it was indeed her master, Jaune Arc.
AN: Canon Timeline had Pyrrha win her first Circuit at age Twelve. Took a year off when her father died in a car crash as noted in Midnight Hour Banner: Bell III after which the company went under in the end, then won the following three Circuits. She chose to not participate in one last Circuit before she left for Beacon, stating publicly that she was focusing on her studies that summer.
Despite being a small company she'd been the daughter of one, which was one of the small reasons that she'd endured Weiss's presence in the locker room in Season/Volume 1