In the Amity stands, the excitement radiating from the spectators had reached feverish levels. Outside the arena, and even farther still, their cheers would likely still be able to be heard. It got to the point where many faunus amongst the crowd, ones with sharpened hearing especially, began to twitch uncomfortably.
Thus, where RWBY and JNPR were in the stands, Blake began to do exactly that, squirming in her seat. But even that was just instinctual actions her body took. Because in reality, all of her focus was still only down on the arena. And that had been the case for the entirety of the fifteen minutes she had just witnessed.
With the way Rio carried himself, Blake never really had the impression he was weak. There was when she spotted him practicing, and then even the brief spar with Yang to consider. But those didn't even come close to hinting at what he was really capable of.
Quite simply, she had underestimated him. Not by intention, but by practicality.
Blake had doubted he would exceed a certain skill-threshold in her head. As good or better than actual Huntsmen? Such a thought didn't even cross her mind. Then he had fought three—technically four—of them at once, practically forcing her to switch gears.
Anyway, the fight had concluded not even a few minutes ago.
Currently, the white-haired boy was talking animatedly with his competitors.
Well, that's how the Huntsmen were appearing.
Rio was, as usual, a bit more measured, but still amicable.
Only then the boy's already present smile twitched, growing wider. No, with the way his form started trembling, how the various arena screens caught his eyes softening too, he... he even looked to be laughing as well.
Blake's eyes couldn't help but widen a fraction.
It was...
Well, it was an attractive expression, Blake couldn't help but think.
But with it, arose another feeling as well, the true reason for her surprise. And it certainly wasn't because Rio never smiled, because he did, and often. No, the problem wasn't a matter of quantity.
Rather...
"Rio never really smiles like that, does he?" Ruby said, taking the words right out of Blake's mouth. And aptly, their leader had a sad little frown on her face.
Yes.
Rio wore an expression he usually didn't show.
While it was true the boy had been slightly more proactive in treating them as friends, there was still a wall not one of them had managed to break down. Rio was kind to them, yes. But that was it.
Rio was only kind.
Asking for anything more than that was selfish—they knew that. But still, if Rio was capable of smiling like that, laughing like that, but didn't, did that mean they were the ones doing something wrong? Didn't that mean that none of them were able to make him feel that way? Or that he didn't feel comfortable enough in their presence to feel that way?
Or...
An uncomfortable feeling kneaded Blake's stomach.
—"Yes, I plan to murder someone."
Was it that Rio wasn't giving himself the right to feel that way?
If that was the case...
Then perhaps it was wrong of Blake to want to see that smile regardless, or even be amongst those who cause it, even as friends. And perhaps, it was hypocritical for her to think, with how many unresolved issues she still had, that she had any right to try to help another person.
But against all odds, little by little, her time in Beacon had helped her. It shouldn't have happened, not to someone like her, yet it had. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, JNPR too, they had seen to that. They had been patient with her, even as often as she caused problems for them.
She wanted to extend that same courtesy to Rio. It was unlike her in every way, but she still wanted to.
After all, sometimes, when she looked at the way Rio walked, the way he talked, that ever-present quiet maturity of his, even if it hurt her in doing so, it reminded her so much of—
"Ah, she tackled him."
Blake's mind went blank.
No, really.
Jaune's sudden comment caused her brain to well and truly short-circuit.
And it was only after un-short-circuiting, and several seconds of refocusing did Blake find that—yes—a 'she' had indeed just tackled a 'him', with both the owners of those subjects being in ample view of not only herself, but also the several hundred thousand other people surely watching right alongside her.
And they definitely all saw it.
It would have been stranger if they didn't, not the impeccably strange sight of an all too startled white-haired boy falling backwards, on account of the blue haired woman that had suddenly lunged at him. Or as a certain someone would have worded it...
"Holy shit—she 'jumped' him..." Yang breathed out, with near perfect timing.
Unfortunately, the blonde was right.
Though, it wasn't some kind of post-battle malicious attack. Was it strange that Blake would have preferred that? The person doing the 'attacking' wouldn't have agreed with her, certainly not with the striking joy on her face—Aqua, she believed her name was.
And it was most definitely a sharp contrast to the one right beside it, the troubled if not very uncomfortable smile of the teenager suddenly getting quite affectionately hugged by a woman older than him.
"She looks really happy, don't you think?"
Nora asked that with a sideways bob of her head.
Blake didn't say anything. Weiss hummed vaguely, ice-blue eyes watching the scene like a hawk. Was that dismissive-ness or disapproval? Anyway, Yang snickered. Ruby stared, if only because she was too surprised to do anything else.
Nora then stretched her arms for emphasis. "Like reaaaaaaally happ—"
"I think they get it, Nora," Ren quickly cut her off.
"W-Well." Jaune suddenly coughed. "That fight was amazing, wasn't it? People stopped cheering so many times because of how shocked they were. Reminds me of when I used to watch the Vytal tournament as a kid. I mean, really, from start to finish, it was like..."
Trailing off, the blond didn't even have the words to describe it.
"Even while on the defensive, Rio was the one leading them around," Ren offered, staring forward with little to no change in expression.
"Yeah..." Jaune nodded.
But the white-haired boy hadn't only focused on defense. A fact that Ruby was all too quick to remind them of.
"But Rio charging at them was so hecking cool too...! And when he cut those bullets with his knives, I thought my heart stopped then and there! He was all like, swing, swing, slash, slash! And the bullets were all like, um, dying in the throes of agony or something! Gahh! Gweehhh! Like that! And Speardude looked at him like, whoa, how did he do that?"
Pantomiming every which way, the silver eyed girl looked no different than a small child gushing about their favorite comic book superhero. At least, that's what a majority of them thought as they stared at her.
Except the small child in this case was also a fifteen-year-old Huntress who used a scythe larger than her to fight monsters.
"Well, that was pretty badass," Yang acknowledged. "But come on little sis? Surely him folding that red-haired dude at the start of the match was the coolest. Rio sent his ass flying! Or when he forced that big dude to his knees with that axe kick? Hm. Yes. As I thought, that lithe body of his sure has some power. Mama likes~"
"Yang. Ew."
"You don't like Rio's body, Rubes?"
"T-That's not true! Wait, I mean—! Ugh, s-stop putting words in my mouth!"
Meanwhile, opposite them, Nora had a dead serious expression on her face.
"Renny."
"Yes, Nora?"
"If I asked, do you think Rio would punt me across Beacon?"
"I think asking is probably the only thing you'll succeed in," Ren replied, not even fazed.
Pyrrha laughed quietly into one hand at the byplay. "Nora, even if given permission, I don't think Rio would feel comfortable doing that." He was a gentleman, so he won't—was what Pyrrha seemed to be saying.
And a normal girl would have been satisfied with such an answer, pleased even.
Nora was not a normal girl.
The hammer-wielder looked scandalized. "B-But dropkicking things into the distance is the best part of being a Huntress...!"
"You're are talking about the Grimm, right?" Jaune asked.
"Sure."
Below them, the Aqua woman had finally been convinced of—and/or acknowledged herself—the need in getting off the boy she had all but trapped underneath her, a fact that was readily apparent by the crisp blush encompassing her face. And if the dollup of red wasn't obvious now, it certainly was when a familiar voice filled the stadium, from up in the announcer's booth.
"And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our opening ceremony! Rio has just earned his spot in the singles bracket; with a display of skill no one can doubt! To Beacon Academy Student Rio Amakawa and Vale's very own Team ARGT, for giving it their all today, everyone please give them a round of applause... just as soon as two of them stop getting frisky...! Haha!"
Yeah.
They almost felt bad for the woman.
Almost.
Now, Weiss hadn't once torn her gaze away from Aqua, for all intents and purposes glaring, but she did finally add in her own two lien to the conversation that had been unfolding.
"I too found his skill in unarmed combat something to praise. Personally though, the strategic cunning shown in exploiting his opponents' weaknesses was the far more impressive aspect of that fight."
"Feeling up a girl's sides is strategically cunning?"
Blake's dry question had the Schnee sputtering.
"N-Not just that! ...Although admittedly, I can't claim to know the purpose of that particular tactic," Weiss acknowledged during her attempt to school her features. "B-But whatever it was, it seemed to work out for him, so I believe he had a plan... I think."
She didn't sound very convincing.
Jaune laughed somewhat awkwardly, turning to the person beside him. "What about you Pyr? What did you think of the fight?"
"I'm... a bit envious, actually."
"Eh?"
The clipped statement had everyone freezing.
Just who or what was Pyrrha looking at with such an expression on her face, a smile that could barely be called a smile? One that wasn't dissatisfaction, but not quite contentment either. Perhaps it was a feeling that was perfectly placed in between the two.
"U-Um?" Ruby's face was a mix between confusion and surprise. "P... Pyrrha? You, uh, you alright?"
The red-head didn't hear her.
Pyrrha was envious.
It was an ugly feeling, but she couldn't very well pretend it wasn't there, not with the sparks it kept leaving behind during the fight. It was why she could safely say that this was indeed something like jealousy. She was jealous of the woman, Aqua. She was jealous of her, the man named Teale, and the one called Grey as well.
They had been forced on the backfoot by an opponent they had thought weaker than them, had to throw all the cards on the table when they realized they could no longer hold back, and what was more, they all had the most exhilarating of expressions on their face as they did so.
They were fighting with every ounce of sanctioned and real-world training they had.
But.
They were enjoying it.
They didn't look bothered about having lost in the slightest. It had been a humiliating defeat, yet absolutely none of that was present. They had been overjoyed by the battle itself. The crowd didn't matter. The consequences attached to winning and losing didn't matter. Not when they had been able to clash both their swords and minds with such a strong opponent.
So Pyrrha was envious—of course she was.
She was envious of the kind of fight where even after going all out against one another, bright unparalleled expressions could be exchanged immediately after. Where, in a fit of excitement, a rush of affection and camaraderie could be given to your opponent, much like what that blue haired woman had done.
Pyrrha wouldn't be intimately hugging her opponents any time soon, but it was the sentiment she couldn't help but long for. And the white-haired boy, too, near the end there, looked like he realized the same...
I think... I'll ask Rio to spar with me.
Nora's voice suddenly flitted into her ears.
"Soooooooo, Pyrrha wants a piece of Rio too?"
"I do, but the problem is whether he can make time for me," Pyrrha responded with a light laugh.
It had been a fairly innocuous worry.
It was why she was rather confused when all she got was silence.
Silence and flabbergasted expressions.
"Wait, what's wrong?"
Even ignoring her own team's startlingly colorful visages, she found the sight of their sister team far more distracting. Ruby was twiddling her thumbs without looking at her, Weiss was looking at nothing in particular in an especially dazed manner, which then contrasted with Yang and Blake, the first looking impressed, and the second looking uncharacteristically taken aback.
"Was..."
Pyrrha adopted a nervous sweat.
"Was it something I said?"
It took thirty minutes for her to clear up the misunderstanding.
...
...
...
The airstrip in front of Amity was considerably busy, even more so now that the opening ceremony had reached its end.
Everyone would be flying back to Vale, at least until the next day, when the actual competition would start in earnest. Nonetheless, because the surrounding area was so packed, that made it so there was no shortage of eyes on a certain quintet of people.
But among them...
Aqua's face was surely glowing red like a beacon.
Now, she had thought she had grown up to be a rather sensible woman.
Ha.
That was a funny joke.
Because really, she was just an idiot.
A one-of-a-kind idiot.
Only an idiot treated someone ten years younger as if they were the same age, got easily flustered over their actions, and all consequences be damned, intimately embraced that someone, not only in front of all his peers, but the entirety of Remnant too, her parents included: parents she hadn't wanted to give the wrong idea to, but as of right now, most assuredly did.
Yep.
It's official, Aqua thought soundly.
Her life was over.
Okay, admittedly, that might be an exaggeration.
This wouldn't affect her career as a huntress. She also hadn't done anything overly serious. She just... affectionately embraced someone in a fit of excitement, which she could now say was likely due to the copious amount of adrenaline that had been surging through her body at the time.
The media wouldn't be as understanding.
They likely wouldn't let this go.
There might even be tabloids written about a thought-to-be-well-adjusted huntress snapping, giving into her baser urges, and going after the virile young males of Beacon.
Oh god.
That could actually happen, couldn't it?
Aqua could go down in history as an unhinged predator. Her name would be floated around with warnings. She could be put on watch-lists. At that point, it actually would affect her career prospects.
Was it okay to show her face in public after this?
Would she be jeered?
Thrown rocks at?
Or, would she be subjected to the overtly heart-crushing experience of having mothers shuffle their children away from her as she passed by...?
She was catastrophisizing.
Aqua knew that, but didn't stop.
At the ripe age of twenty-five, she was going to become what she feared, and what she even frequently had nightmares about. Her life as an unattractive cat-lady began now. I'm going to be a spinster until I'm no longer marriable, she thought with finality. She felt like crying, even more so since she had actually given thought to the cats she wanted.
"Hey. Thanks, kid."
"I'm sorry?"
Aqua was taken from her musings right as she was deciding which animal shelters she would need to visit.
Adopting all the cats in Vale would need strategic planning after all.
But it was sudden voices that had done so, Teale's, and then the one he was talking to, the white-haired boy who she, even now, couldn't meet the eyes of.
"For bothering to see us off, I mean. You could be enjoying the festivities with your friends. Or, heh, someone in particular? I imagine someone like you is popular, right?" Teale probed with a good-natured grin, bordering teasing.
"I... wouldn't really know about that, sir." But Rio just deflected it with a small smile, as if he was used to it. "More importantly though, you're all such close friends. A stranger like me, seeing you all off, is perhaps more of an oddity, no? I wonder if I'm intruding."
Listening, Aqua frowned, about to say something—
A scoff.
"Least you can read the room."
Unfortunately, someone beat her to it—their red-haired teammate, who they had joined after the match had concluded. But rather than focusing on building up a rapport, Rouge seemed near determined to state his dislike for the white-haired teen at every opportunity.
Now, inwardly, Rio was taking it rather well.
Besides, it wasn't like the man's ire didn't make sense. But... he's still pretty vexed at me, huh? the boy thought.
'Hm. You kicked him into a wall, Haruto,' a calm voice kindly reminded him.
Rio's already struggling smile took even more of a beating.
Grey eventually broke the silence.
"Hey, ignore this fool. He's just pissy because he let his guard down."
"You say that like I was the only one," Rouge sniped back. "From what it looked like, you all did the same and lost, didn't you?"
"That's right. And it was embarrassing as all hell," Teale admitted, roughly running a hand through his hair. "But I'd rather get my ass beat by someone a decade younger than have him hold back just so I can hold onto some measly pride."
"...Tch."
The serious response had Rouge clicking his tongue and looking away.
"And besides, it's obvious."
Teale looked at Rio, a tired smirk appearing on the man's face.
"If he's this much a monster now, he's only going to get stronger. My own training has been way too light. Kid, no, Rio, you'll fight me again when I'm stronger, yeah?"
Personally, Rio felt the monster comment was a bit much.
But as Teale offered a hand in his direction, with a wish for a future fight down the line—it was so earnest that Rio couldn't exactly keep hesitating. With a slight smile of his own, he grasped the man's hand and shook it. "I'll... look forward to that time, then, Mr. Teale."
The man grinned back.
Grey looked on with a sigh.
"Well, if Teale's being so proactive... I'll cast my lot in too. Of course, I was trying to be respectful of our ages—... though that probably already went up in flames a bit ago..."
The words were incredibly vague.
Still...
"...W-Wait?! Why are you all looking at me!? It was Rouge you were talking about! Right...?! Right...?"
Aqua, voice shrill, almost matching the intensity of the blush set upon her cheeks, looked to the red-haired man.
But.
Rouge backed away, as if disgusted. "Don't drag me into your illicit love affair, woman."
Aqua choked.
And he wasn't done either.
He only continued to throw her under the proverbial bullhead.
"What? Did you think we would all conveniently forget the hip-to-hip sandwiching you were doing with Whitey right here? Speaking of, don't tell me you really got let off the hook for that. No suspension? No revoked license? Sheesh. A sexual predator, right back on the streets. Vale, I swear."
Aqua looked like she had been slapped in the face, repeatedly.
Meanwhile, with a tight smile, Rio's eyes found the sky.
He... He wondered how Ruri and Granny Yuba were doing in Yagumo right about now, Sayo and Shin too. This year's harvest shouldn't be too far off, right? He hoped it was plentiful enough for them to eat comfortably...
Back with Aqua, through coincidence or hope, her eyes tried to pin Teale and then Grey for backup. They were pointedly looking away. Those were not the faces of people who were on her side. Summarily abandoned by her teammates, Aqua had no choice.
She looked to Rio.
Eventually noticing, he scratched his cheek with a bashful smile.
"Um, the conversation was a bit hard to follow, but Miss Aqua's behavior didn't really bother me. No, seeing you so happy and unreserved prevented me from being bothered. If anything, it reminded me of my little sister?"
"Y-Your little—...?!"
Aqua promptly fell to her knees, stricken.
Just like that, Rio unknowingly dealt the final blow.
Rouge's incessant chuckling certainly didn't help things.