"Whoooey." Qrow looked down from the private viewing booth to see the packed seating below, "Full house today, ain't it?"
"Of course, Lord Qrow." Emerald gave a very genuine sounding giggle of bemused affection, "It is almost as if today will be the Winner's Finals followed by the Loser's Finals! Though I suppose such an educated man as Lord Qrow would know plenty of the latter."
"Oi, Jaune. How do we turn off the sass option on your friend?" Qrow sighed.
He was the adult here. He needed to be the adult here. The little mint haired brat wasn't getting under his skin, per say, but the way she sounded like she actually liked him while giving such backhanded compliments was weird.
"I'm pretty sure that's just built in. Welcome to the Emerald Express, I guess. Sorry about her."
"I-" Now that got a hack of air from the girl. Oh, so she didn't like it when Jaune had to apologize in her stead, eh? Heh. A weakness. "...I shall endeavor to be more civil, master. Please do not apologize in my stead."
And now the kid was tripping over himself to assure the girl. Fucking mini player looking brat.
"Huh? Ah, wait, you don't have to change yourself for me, Em. I like that you get mouthy, it's fun! Just that Qrow really is like an Uncle to me. He's even saved my life once, you know."
Her garnet eyes snapped to him, glimmering with an oddly desperate look, and Qrow just shrugged.
Maybe he should have just fucking led with that as the girl immediately bowed at an almost full ninety degree angle, making him feel kinda itchy.
"My apologies, Lord Qrow! I thank you for having saved my master in my stead." She actually sounded sincere, but honestly at this point she was really good at sounding sincere that Qrow didn't think he'd ever be sure she wasn't just lying to him without additional body language. "I have shamed myself and I beg for your forgiveness."
"Em, you don't have to do that. Uncle Qrow could you-"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm an adult, it's water under the bridge." Qrow waved his hand lazily, "Not like I ever took your barbs seriously, kid, yeesh. No need to be so tense."
"This is serious to me!" Emerald gazed up with burning eyes. "My master is my savior. My owner. I-I thank you, truly."
Fucking hell, Jaune, how the fuck?
"Ok, look, I didn't do it for your sake either or nothin. I like Jaune, he's a good kid and I owe him plenty too." He ruffled the brat's head over his black beanie as the boy smiled up at him. Fucking weird but good kid. "You don't owe me jack, kay? I don't need you tripping over yourself over it. Yeah me and the rest of Team STRQ saved Jaune, but he saved Summer and you might be too young to understand but she's the glue that holds us together."
Emerald nodded in understanding.
"I see, so Lady Summer is like my master."
"Well no that's Ta- huh."
Hold up. Hold the fucking Scroll.
Qrow didn't want to fuck things up so he'd stayed out of the picture romantically, but he'd loved Summer since the second year of Beacon. She'd even once offered a date back then, but he'd… well he chickened the fuck out, turning her down because of his Semblance and his own hang ups over it.
And now she was married to both Raven and Taiyang at the same time. At some point she'd have had every member of her team in love with her. At the same time.
"Oh my gods you're right. We've joked about Tai all this time because he was the one that used to sneak girls in the dorms all the time back in the day, but it's Summer that's the one that had all of us by the baaaaaa- holy shit. Wait a sec." Qrow sat down in his seat shakily. "...I think I might actually need a drink."
"I can tell you're having a sudden realization of something, but I can't tell what it is. All I know is that I'm not going to let you relapse from Uncle to Drunkle."
"Oh shut it, mini-Sums." Qrow groaned, "Gods I should just- gimme a second."
He got up and whipped out his Scroll, opening up the texting application.
He couldn't stay hung up over Summer, and she was so amazing that he could have ended up pining forever. Possibly might have, too, though he had never meant to. Still Qrow was a grown ass man and he had to be honest with himself and realize that's what had been going on for a bit too long now. He'd always have a soft spot for his Partner and there was nothing wrong with that, but it wasn't as if he and Raven could ever share and make it work.
He had to grow the fuck up too.
"Fuck it. Reversed Misfortune, don't fail me now."
Qrow messaged Glynda, asking if it wasn't too late to take up her offer for tea next week.
Pyrrha held Milo in her left hand, her vambrace with Akouo locked into it making the whole of her left side feel heavy.
There was a reason people didn't fight with shields, let alone a targe, locked onto their sword arms. It was too weighty. Well unless they were two handing a larger weapon. The legend of a Huntsman known as the Demo-Knight (though whether it was short for Demon or Demolition was always a point of contention) was a good example.
"In the history of the Prepatorium Cup of the Mistral Regional Circuit we have NEVER had such an unpredictable tournament! Today might be a historic moment! A carp to leap over the waterfall? Or a star to be plucked from the heavens? Who shall be a North Star onto heaven? Two fighters enter! But only one shall be the victor! Only one shall move on for a chance at the Victor's Laurels!"
Another thing that seemed so exciting when she watched it on TV, only to be wildly uncomfortable when it was adding more pressure to her.
Milo flipped in her hands, the spear blade spreading and retracting into the butt of its rifle state, clicking and clacking into shape.
"You got this Pyrrha. You got this. You know your opponent. You have a battleplan. You can do this."
"In the Blue corner, representing the Copper-Webb Real Estate Company, Turning your Copper into Gold! With a mastery of the blade and a heart of frost! LORDS AND LADIES! We present to you The Winter Heron: Hyouka Kamasaka!"
Hyouka was a Katana user, her weapon's channel in the Hi (groove) carved out specifically for a thin tube of refined Ice Dust powder. But her manipulation of Ice Dust was honestly a bit basic, usually relying on getting ice into the gaps of her opponents armor to limit their movements.
It was a tactic of forcing them to either spend extra Aura by extending beyond their skin into their armor proper, costing them additional Aura expenditure, or dealing with slowly hampering movements. Not to mention if her opponent didn't properly coat their weapons in Aura, it would result in frost interfering with the mecha-shift.
Luckily Pyrrha wasn't wearing any armor for her opponent to manipulate, but it meant that she was tanking all of her hits entirely with Aura and blocking with Akouo would result in the frost building up and slowing her down further.
The biggest issue was the Dust.
Pyrrha visioned the battle in her head once more. There was a path to victory. She had to get it just right.
"In the Red corner! Good gods, what a rising star! Like a crimson comet streaking through the night sky!-"
Oh gods, please don't wax poetic.
"-The miracle girl! The youngest Huntress-in-Training to EVER make it into the Prepatorium Circuit! Rumors have it that her bout yesterday has put her on the back foot, but can her story still continue?! LORDS AND LADIES! The Miracle Girl: PYRRHA NIKKOS!"
Pyrrha stepped forwards, her left hand clenched, her right limp yet against her side.
"Oh hoho." Qrow grinned as he leaned over the railing as the crowd screamed in excitement. "Sneaky sneaky…"
"I only suggested taking advantage of the rumors people seemed to be forming when she took that hit yesterday, but she's the one that's choosing to take it this far."
"Yeah no way that one of those freaky Potions of yours wouldn't get her back on her feet, let alone three."
Qrow fingered a smaller metal flask with the words 'Drink Me' stamped into the body, clipped just left of his belt buckle, pressing a bit against the top of his thigh. It was filled with an awful tasting mixture that could save his life if all went wrong.
Even with his Reversed Misfortune, he wasn't infallible. He'd even gotten cocky for a bit, taking harder and harder missions for Ozpin, but turned out that even his newfound luck could only carry his dumbass so far.
He'd come out of a scrap barely alive, finding Jaune over his body, shoving bottle after bottle of the ghastly stuff in his mouth screaming at him to wake the fuck up.
It put shit into perspective for him. Realizing that as he was going he'd die without leaving anything behind. Not like the rest of his team.
When Ozpin offered him some time off then, he'd thought to himself a bit. About how the world would leave him slowly behind. And he asked for a job. Not for a mission but a job at Beacon.
"I see. She seems to have taken master's grace and is using it as a weapon. Commendable." Emerald agreed politely, no longer giving him any more sass.
Was it weird that as annoying as she'd been, it had been more fun when she'd been giving him lip?
Qrow chuckled as the little red-haired 'Miracle Girl' walked over to her opponent, tucking her rifle under her left arm as she shook hands with it.
The grayish blue hair of her opponent fluttered as the sixteen year old girl nodded at her younger opponent, though even from this distance Qrow could see the confident grin on her lip.
"Well she's got that real estate girl convinced." Qrow reached over to the rose marked flask hanging off his right hip. The taste of sweetened rose water passed his lips. "This could be funny. I don't know how much she'll be able to capitalize on it, though. Red strikes me as a bit of a straight shooter."
"She wants to win more than anything right now. I think she'll surprise you." Jaune laughed, pulling out and passing some small paper baggies of buttery popcorn. "Trust me Uncle Qrow."
"Eh. We'll see." Jaune knew his shit, but he was still a kid. "It's not easy for a showy fighter like Red down there to abandon her pride just for victory."
The two separated into their respective corners as the announcer began to count down.
Honestly, Qrow was somewhat amused whenever the Pyrrha girl fought.
Not because anything she did was honestly amazingly skillful, even if she was pretty good for her age, but just how unnecessarily flashy all of her fuckin' moves were.
It was like if her teacher taught her purely to be a show fighter. Kind of actually hilarious, if he was honest, but the funnier part was the girl had learned how to make that work. She was all flash, but all that flash had substance.
Red took her left hand, her rifle still tucked under her arm, and reached into a sports pouch slung across her waist, pulling out a small but wide rifle clip for her weapon, clenching it between her teeth.
Aiming more for marksmanship, eh?
"BEGIN!"
Red's rifle spun upwards from where it was tucked under her arm, too perfectly coming to rest in her grip, firing with impressive accuracy.
"Single handing a rifle?" He heard Emerald whisper as the announcer roared the same in amazement. "Is that not chambered for .308?"
Blue swung her blade cutting through the initial shot, barely deflecting the second, the third found purchase against her Aura, flashing with a dark blue light as it aimed lower than the first two, as it struck her in the left knee.
"Naw. It's 5.56. Hard to be sure this far out, but Red's rifle ain't shaped right for .308." He assured her. "Fire rate ain't right either."
Nor was the way she somehow managed to one-hand her rifle right either. Something tricky was going on with her Semblance here.
A wide swing of the Ice Dust Katana arced out, causing Red to leap into the air (her right arm fluttered, just believably limp), another one of her fancy vaults that were more showmanship than practical. It was as if nobody had taught the cocksure brat any better. She did lift up higher and faster than he'd expected from her, and the two follow up mid-vault shots that blasted into Blue's forehead and left knee were actually pretty slick.
"See that fire rate? Can't get that on a .308. Plus not nearly enough recoil."
Blue dashed forwards in an attempt to catch Red mid-air, wincing as she led with her right leg, used to using her left to propel herself in her more traditional footwork.
Sneaky little Red.
Red's left arm twisted, letting the Dust-Katana catch her shield, riding the impact up as ice clung to the edge of her shield, flipping as she fired off two more shots, both being deflected as Blue had caught onto Red's attempt at cutting down on her opponent's movement speed for better kiting. Still, Blue's katana shook violently with each deflection.
"But her shots appear to deflect weapons more like a .308." Emerald argued back, as if she thought she knew better.
Red let her momentum continue to maintain distance, using both that and the recoil of her follow up three shots to carry her in a no hand backwards walkover as if she was performing a gymnastic's move and not fighting in a tournament.
Why the fuck did she insist on being so damn flashy?
"Must be something with her Semblance." Qrow shrugged. "She's flashy as hell, but that helps hide her subtle tricks."
Still one of the three shots struck against Blue's knee again, clearly causing the older girl a world of pain and frustration as Red focused on cutting down on her enemy's mobility.
The rifle ejected the short but wide ten round magazine clip it had just emptied out, the falling mag being kicked by Pyrrha with the bridge of her foot like she was actually a football star.
"Good kick." Jaune laughed as Red spat out her fresh magazine from between her teeth, spinning as she slammed it into her gun out of the hair as if she was trying out for an action movie.
It seamlessly clicked into place without fumbling.
Meanwhile the empty clip spun through the air in a slightly curved streak, on a trajectory for Blue's face as it was cut out of the air, the katana blade to swing out to the older girl's right side.
"The fuck?" Qrow called Semblance bullshit. Even with Reversed Misfortune he couldn't have reliably pulled that off.
You just didn't load guns like that and make it work no matter how practiced you were. Red was twelve. How the hell did Jaune just find every little monster on Remnant?
The rifle, held sideways, fired a single shot, echoing in the air, as it ripped into Blue's katana's shinagi (the ridge on the back of the blade), causing the weapon to jerk back and twist Blue off balance.
Three more shots rang out, one missing by a hair's breadth as it tore a hole through Blue's skirt between her thighs having aimed a bit high and the other two ripped into the outside of the left knee that had twisted to the side, matching the direction of Blue's weapon.
Blue let out an angry roar as she spun and fired another crescent blade of ice through the air, causing Red this time to drop to her knees, throwing her torso back low to the ground as she let the blade pass overhead.
Her rifle still barked twice, this time missing wildly as Red had no proper way of bracing her feet to deal with the recoil, spinning her out to the side.
"Uh oh." Jaune actually sounded worried. "She messed that one up."
Red scrambled to her feet, blocking a slash with her shield, angling her rifle and using her Aura to fire the rifle for full recoil, shattering the Dust round within. It flung at an angle, almost catching Blue across the jaw as she failed to parry the wild swing, instead forced to block with the flat of her weapon, the gold of Red's barrel sparking up and against the handguard as they were both flung apart.
Red had three shots left.
Eight was cut through, as was nine.
Red rolled to the side, her right arm still limp. When did she plan on revealing that it was still functional? She had one shot left.
Red screamed as she threw her rifle into the air (it began to shift into a spear), spinning as she launched her shield out in a desperate underhand discus throw, the damn thing firing at an off angle, smacking into the ground mid-spin, ice shattering as it bounced.
Or maybe it was lucky. Or somehow intentional.
Red's shield bounced up, slashed at by Blue's katana, but the thing just spun like a coin in front of Blue's face as it almost hovered, a quarter of the disc shrouded in frost. It had to be luck. Or Semblance nonsense. It wasn't as if the thing was stuck in the air, but for it to linger like that was too coincidental.
It hid Red's leap forwards, her left arm snatching the spear out of the air as she lashed out with a double legged drop kick into her shield, smashing the curved outer disc into Blue's face and launching her back as Red gained more air, rising upwards as her shield fell to the ground.
Two wild swings of ice crashed forwards against Red, finally hitting her as her left hand reared back, almost perfectly above her head as she readied a throw.
Blue's Aura was low, but Red was down to her last round. This recoil boosted javelin throw was life and death.
"Sneaky!" Qrow and Jaune laughed at the same time, and Qrow actually found himself leaning in with an amused grin.
Red's left arm FLUNG forwards, causing Blue to swing up for a parry, but Red's right arm rose curling as it snatched the spear that hadn't been thrown at Blue at all.
The sound of a rifle shot echoed through the Pagoda, cutting through the roar of the crowd as Red's spear rocked forwards, smacking straight into Blue's forhead, and sending her spinning to the ground.
Red's left foot landed on the rim of her shield, flipping it up like a skateboard as it snapped into her vambrace, ready to throw herself forwards using it as a hammer as Blue's Aura shattered upon hitting the stone floor of the Pagoda's arena.
"MATCH OVER! MATCH OVER! WHAT ON REMNANT DID I JUST WITNESS?! KNOCK OUT BY RED AURA! GET MISS KAMASAKA A PARAMEDIC, HER AURA WAS SHATTERED! THIS GIRL ISN'T A MIRACLE, SHE'S GODDAMNED INVINCIBLE! HIDING HER RIGHT ARM'S RECOVERY TO USE AS A TRICK RIGHT AT THE END OF HER ROPE! THAT'S THE MATCH, LOOORDS AND LAAAADIIIIIEEESSSSS! WHAT A MATCH! WHAT A MATCH! THE VICTOR OF THE WINNER'S BLOCK! I GIVE YOU ALL THE INVINCIBLE GIRL: PYRRHA NIKKOS!"
"Hah. More like the sneaky little rat." Qrow laughed, taking a swig from his rosewater flask. "Red fucking took Blue for a full ass ride."
"Trickery is a powerful weapon and Contestant Nikkos utilized it well." Emerald was shoulder to shoulder to 'her master' Jaune, half leaning over the railing of their booth. "I don't understand everything, but I have learned something today."
He rolled his eyes as he saw Jaune giggle and raise a hand to pet the girl's head, the little minty brat leaning into his hand like some sort of domesticated stray cat.
"Glad you got something out of it, Em."
He really was just male Summer on steroids, wasn't he, the fucking brat?
Pyrrha didn't let the fact that Hyouka didn't shake her hand after the match had ended bother her.
Although it would have been cool to make friendships or even rivalries with her fellow Competitors, she'd come with the purpose of winning to drum up as much public awareness of her dad's company as possible.
It still stung a little.
But that was all washed away as the taste of a large bowl of delicious Katsudon filled her mouth and stomach. Even if her insides were doing some flips on her.
Stabilizing Milo with her Polarity had been hard. Her left hand hurt from it taking all the recoil without bracing any of it into her shoulder. She'd started slipping near the end and even began missing shots entirely or making it too easy for her shots to be deflected.
Honestly she'd been straining her control of Polarity pretty hard from the moment she'd locked in her reload. It had been like pressure was building up in the back of her brain, like a migraine. It was why she didn't vault up again, unsure if she could use her Semblance to lift her up above the cresent moon of ice. She'd let it pass overhead instead and gods above why did she even try to take a shot at that point?
Knees on the ground, her legs tucked outwards as she lay on her back. What about that screamed stable footwork meant for riflemanship?
Another bite of fluffy hot rice topped with veggies, egg, and crispy sauced pork shoveled into her mouth, distracting her from-
There was a knock on her changing room door.
"Miss Nikkos? As there are less follow up matches we would like to have the post fight interview soon. Please come out as soon as you are able." One of the employees of the Circuit called out to her as she continued to chew on her mouthful.
Quickly she gave up on chewing the rest of it properly, swallowing it, almost choking and slamming her little fist to her chest, reaching out for her bottle of water and guzzling that for a second, before replying back.
"Uhhhh, I'll just be a minute! I-I can't neglect my post fight… analysis! G-gotta while it's fresh!"
There was a chuckle from the other side of her door as her traitorous hand began to scrape another spoonful of food from her bowl.
"Your dedication to your craft is commendable, Miss Nikkos. Please take your time then, just not too long. I'll send word to the Production Manager. Great match!"
Pyrrha shoveled another mouthful of Katsudon after replying with a quick "Thank you" almost following up with a you too, only being saved by taking a mouthful of food.
Stupid interviews messing with her victory meals. Pyrrha always came into these matches so hungry, why were they getting in her way?
GG: I thought you had stated that you would be busy. Again.
Qrow paused, tapping the side of his Scroll. He didn't want to start writing and deleting his reply and show the ellipses of his multiple attempts at going through the thoughts in his head. He needed to really think things through.
"Sorry, I had something that I had to handle, but it cleared itself up. I know I've left you hanging a couple of times, and I'd like to make it up to you. My treat?" Qrow muttered. "Shit that sounds like I had an STD at the start. Fucking hell, why's this shit so hard?"
QB: The issue resolved itself without me, apparently I wasn't actually needed at all. Honestly, I might have been overthinking it. But I should have been a better coworker and friend regardless, and I'll make it up to you. You can pick wherever, my treat.
That was suave enough, right? Shit Qrow hadn't even tried to put himself in the dating game in a long time. Rather with Reversed Misfortune he'd had pretty good luck at finding himself with a warm body at the end of a night of a little casual social drinking if he felt like it, so he'd never really had to put in the effort.
But he wasn't going to play 'Hit it and Quit it' with Glynda. She was a good friend and definitely deserved more than that. Especially when she'd tentatively begun reaching out to him in earnest the past few weeks, seeing just how much he'd really changed after he stopped relying on the bottle.
She… weirdly she sort of respected him now. Qrow liked that feeling.
Which was funny because when she was his underclassman she'd hated his guts.
He supposed they both just grew up.
GG: …
And apparently unlike him Glynda didn't care much that he could see her typing and erasing. Twice. Thrice.
GG: I shall have you make up for turning down the last two invitations by making a reservation for two at Cafe Alice. Corner of Wessip Blvd and N 3rd St. 1PM. We shall share tea and have a light meal, your Huntsman attire will be sufficient as long as it is clean. Do leave your weapon at home, as it is large and not well suited for the environment provided.
Qrow grinned, snapping a lazy selfie of him giving a small smirk and a thumbs up and attaching it to his message.
QB: Sounds good. It's a date.