The second match might have actually been easier in a way.
After all, there was much less pressure compared to fighting Hu ChoRok (who won his Loser's Bracket match yesterday and was still in the running), though Pyrrha still had to remind herself to not overextend with her spear thrusts when she was getting confident.
Though older by three years, her opponent had a more traditional weapon, lacking even a built-in firearm, though like Pyrrha her second-gen Huntress weapon could collapse the pole into the hilt of a sword.
Not only that but her opponent, Hyana Athenol, had also had roots in a similar style to her own.
They were both inspired by legends of hoplites of old, from the ruins excavated in Argus before it became its own well defended settlement due to Atlas's own archeological excavation and investigative efforts before she was even born.
The girl was older and taller, stronger and had slightly better reach, but Pyrrha used her Polarity to go toe to toe with her.
Despite being weaker, when shields bashed into each other, Hyana barely got knocked back a bit more. Pyrrha's weapons accelerated ever so slightly faster than they should. Her opponents slowed ever so slightly from the weight of her Semblance holding her abilities back so that Pyrrha might better match her strength and speed in an attempt to make the battle a test of pure skill versus skill.
And Pyrrha was winning.
She wanted to win.
Especially when this was against an opponent that fought in a similar way to her. It was teaching her so much!
She could have taken it a step further and guaranteed a win quickly, but Pyrrha was having too much fun!
Her match extended into five minutes because she refused to do more than even the playing field aside from subtly evading blows better and deflecting easier. She could have tripped her up by manipulating the metal of her greaves. Could have sent her weapon flying from her grip. Any number of ways of getting an easy knockout was available.
But Pyrrha was having so much fun. Learning so much! Her heart pumped, her blood ran hot! She-
"MATCH OVER! VICTORY BY RED AURA! WHAT A MATCH! WHAT A SHOW! HYANA ATHENOL, A FELLOW HUNTRESS-IN-TRAINING FROM ARGUS HAS BEEN TAKEN OUT BY THE CIRCUIT'S NEW DARK HORSE! WHAT A CLASH OF TITANS! WHAT A DANCE OF STEEL! UNTOUCHED BY HER OPPONENT! HER AURA STILL ABOVE 90%! LORDS AND LADIES, I GIVE YOU YOUR VICTOR! MISS PYRRHAAA NIIIIIIKOOOOOOOOOOOS!"
Her breath was coming in hot gasps. Her pulse was liquid fire under her skin, a smile on her lips.
Milo was extended, though having compressed into its xiphos sword, pressing under Hyana's chin as Akouo had, moments ago, warded off a thrust from her opponent's sword which had extended into a spear, deflecting it to the side as her left arm tucked close to her torso.
Her eyes met with her opponent, who sighed in defeat before letting out a laugh and lowering her weapon.
"Good match." Hyana tucked her weapon under her left arm, extending her right for a handshake. "Good gods, I got schooled. I can't believe you're homeschooled. Who's your tutor?"
"Uh." Pyrrha froze as her hand extended into her opponent's grip. "I have a couple of people helping train me?"
It wasn't wrong, of course. She learned from a multitude of different 'teachers' by watching how people fought and just taking in their styles and adapting it into her own.
"Lucky you then." She sighed jealously, clearly taking that the wrong way. "Wish I could get more one on one time at Sanctum. You have a hell of a sword arm and I was barely keeping up."
"You go to Sanctum! I-I want to go there too!"
The older girl gave Pyrrha an odd look, shaking her head and laughing.
"Would be cool to see you there, I suppose. You'll probably even be offered a scholarship for making it to the semi-finals now."
"Oh." There was a thrill of excitement that ran through Pyrrha's body. "Do you really think so?"
"I mean, even if you didn't, if you've got multiple tutors, you could totally afford it. Your sponsor company too. I guess they wanted to keep you under wraps so they could make a huge splash like this, though eh?"
"Ha ha…" Pyrrha laughed weakly. "Y-yeah. T-totally. Ha ha…"
As if she was even allowed to dream of that when her father's company was always struggling.
It was a nice dream, though.
"That was amazing!" Weiss's eyes glimmered like a jewel, "She was so fast and elegant! She fought a girl three years her senior and fought her on even terms and won without a scratch!"
Her small white hands clutched her empty baggie of popcorn, crinkling it in her grip as Jaune quietly and stealthily sent a Katsudon to Pyrrha, his new pen-pal. Alongside was a note that she shouldn't trust food and drink from any friends aside from himself, which he realized sounded really hypocritical, but now she'd made it to the semi-finals.
That's where the real money was for gamblers, which meant that she'd actually have to be careful now.
His note had even stated that if she didn't want his food anymore he'd understand.
"She's good, right?" Jaune laughed.
"She's amazing! She's our age, isn't she? Oh, her personal tutors must be amazing!" Weiss's excitement was infectious, making him laugh and smile as well. "I'd love to meet her and ask for some tips on my own fencing!"
"We might be able to later-"
"REALLY?!" Weiss dropped her baggie as she grabbed his hands as she leaned in excitedly, eyes shining like stars. Her Aura flooded his senses with the sensation of winter's first gentle snowfall, the scent of mountain lilies, the sound of a songbird in the back of his mind. "Do you really mean that?!"
"Y-yeah. Uh-" He was trying to not be washed away under her Aura. "We-we're sort of penpals and-"
"Jaune." Weiss leaned in so close he could see the faint glimmer of her pink lip, shining ever faintly from the butter of her popcorn, the scent of her expensive perfume-
His mind blanked out and he didn't really hear what she said next, just finding himself nodding as Qrow then picked him up by the scruff of his blue haori coat, pulling him away from Weiss's intoxicating presence.
"Give the kid some space, girlie. You're overloading him. You should take a deep breath there too."
"I-oh. Ahem." Weiss stepped back, noticing a crumb of popcorn on her dress and quickly brushing it off as she righted herself. "My apologies. That was unbecoming of me. I was taken away by my own emotions and it was not appropriate for a lady of good standing. That was rude of me."
"Uh." Jaune recovered as he dangled in the air as he could hear Qrow snickering behind him. "Don't worry. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, Weiss. Let's also maybe get back soon, just in case."
"Oh, but there are still three more matches!" Weiss didn't whine but her desire to watch the remaining tournament was clear. "Do we not still have time for more?"
"We'll have to put it to the side. You can watch the edited matches later with more close ups and camera angles online anyways."
"I- that's not the same as experiencing a momentous event such as this in person!"
Jaune giggled.
Weiss's pout was cute.
"Maybe next year we can arrange something so we can sneak out together to watch the whole thing or something. Trick your dad into thinking we're spending our time in private and just go have fun."
"I… hmm. That would be acceptable. Thank you, Jaune."
"Fucking collector." Qrow grumbled behind him, still holding him up in the air. "Tai 2.0 lookin'..."
Pyrrha read Jaune's warning, but promptly ate her Katsudon anyways.
If Jaune herself (she decided Jaune was a girl from her amazing cooking, neat handwriting, and motherly nature) was warning Pyrrha the same way as her mother, she could be trusted.
Plus they were friends now. Her first friend.
If it was a mistake to trust her friend… she'd simply accept it. It would hurt and Pyrrha would be sad, but she didn't want to grow up to be the sort of person that doubted her friends.
She wanted to be a Huntress, a protector of the people. But you couldn't protect if you could not learn to trust. At least, that was how Pyrrha felt, anyway.
"Thanks for the warning, but I will choose to trust you. I won't eat anything gifted to me if it's not from my friend Jaune." Pyrrha giggled as she scratched her reply out loud. "As before, the Katsudon was very delicious!"
She frowned.
Her handwriting wasn't poor, but it was a bit messier than Jaune's and she suddenly felt very aware of that fact.
Still erasing the whole reply and rewriting it more neatly was… well wouldn't that look a bit desperate?
Pyrrha bit her lip.
She'd… well she'd just write a bit more neater next time.
She sat on her bench, relaxing and soaking in the warmth of the satisfaction of both victory and a good meal in her stomach.
For some reason Jaune's reply didn't come in quickly like normal. That sort of made her feel a little nervous as she petted the cool, smooth mouse in her lap.
Even when she left for her second ever interview for her post-match questioning a reply didn't come in.
Pyrrha hoped she hadn't written something wrong.
Still that concern was left to the side as she focused on her task at hand.
She smiled, her Aura protecting her eyes a bit from all the flashing cameras. It was still a bit blinding, but Pyrrha did her best to appear as if it did not affect her.
She picked out a raised hand from a throng of "Miss Nikkos!" calling out for her attention.
"Miss Nikkos! Sam Auburndale from Valean Times!" Why was a Valean newspaper here? There were only Mistralian ones yesterday. "Was today's match to disprove the naysayers that were accusing you of taking advantage of ring-out rules to win?"
What? The ring-out system was a perfectly valid elimination tactic. Who would say something like that? Had people really been saying such a thing? Why?
"N-no." Pyrrha replied, still trying to remain smiling, "I merely wished to test myself against a fighter with a similar style of combat. It was a great learning experience."
"Is that to say, Miss Nikkos," cameras kept flashing as the Valean reporter spoke, "that Contestant Hyana Athenol was merely a stepping stone to test your limits?"
Pyrrha blinked in shocked confusion, staring silently.
What? That wasn't anything close to what she'd said! That was so mean!
"That's not-"
"Miss Nikkos!" Another voice interrupted her reply, unknowingly to Pyrrha cutting her off with the intention of denying a proper reply for the sake of media manipulation, "How do you feel about defeating your opponent today without taking a single blow?"
"I-I merely performed at my best." Pyrrha forced her smile to stay on her face, "Nikkos sportswear helps keep me at my best!"
God these little ad jingles made her feel dumb, fake, and plastic.
Her smile was also fake, but practiced and pretty, even if she was sure it would never hold to extended scrutiny.
More cameras flashed.
These interviews felt awful and suffocating.
Why couldn't she just do one interview at the end? This constant poking and prodding was stressful and uncomfortable.
When she'd seen these interviews on TV it had always been a delightful insight into the thoughts of the contestants, but now that she was in the hot seat she realized just how unnecessarily stressful it could be to people who were already stressed trying to compete at their best.
She endured the flood of questions and eventually was allowed back into the safety of her changing room.
A warm cup of tea and Jaune's post-it note was waiting for her with a saluting mouse.
Her little changing room smelled of lavender, soothing her soul.
"Interviews are stressful." Pyrrha read out loud. "Lavender tea to calm you down."
She felt warm.
The tea was delightful.
"Sorry for the late reply. Had to help a friend get back home. She's a fan of yours now."
Pyrrha giggled. So that was why.
She did feel a little jealous though.
"No problem." Pyrrha wrote a little extra neatly this time.
She tapped the little pink eraser end against her cheek.
Her finger hesitated.
"I'd love to meet you both." Pyrrha muttered softly as she added her thoughts on the post-it.
Her heart hammered in her chest.
W-was this a bit overreaching? She'd only sort of known Jaune for two days. Was this too fast?
Pyrrha didn't know. This was all new territory. Was she too lonely and desperate because her parents weren't around? Was this improper? She didn't want to impose or apply expectations on her new friend, but she did wish to meet her.
She felt like she was holding her breath the whole time after she'd handed the note back to Jaune's magic mice alongside the empty cup of tea.
"I'm down." Jaune's note replied. "Not sure if Weiss would be able to anytime soon, but I can meet you whenever. Just need to schedule it."
Oh god.
Pyrrha felt like she'd made a mistake, her stomach did flips. She was excited but scared at the same time. Thrilling but also scary in a weirdly happy way.
Suddenly she felt that she couldn't do this, embarrassed and shy. Why wasn't making friends as easy as fighting?! Fighting was infinitely easier than this!
"We can do it after the Circuit is over." Pyrrha quickly wrote, too nervous to even try to make her handwriting as pretty as her penpal's this time. "Make it a celebration once I win it all."
Now that felt cockier than she felt, even maybe arrogant. No it definitely looked arrogant and completely unlike her. She didn't want that to be the sort of message she wanted to portray to her friend. It wasn't the kind of person Pyrrha was.
Still leaving eraser smudges felt more embarrassing, since Jaune hasn't messed up and done it yet. Pyrrha just didn't want to mess this up. She'd just never really had a friend before!
So she just took a deep breath and sent the note.
"Sounds good! You're definitely going to take the Victor's Laurels anyways. I'll make a victory feast for two. Want me to arrange something private, or do you have a place you want to meet at?"
Pyrrha felt her heart race with joy.
She wasn't sure why her penpal believed in her so much, but she didn't much care.
Her friend believed in her. That alone was exhilarating.
"Well I am glad to hear you and my daughter got along swimmingly."
Jaune smiled politely as Jacques Schnee gave him an even faker smile, though it looked very genuine on the surface. Jaune's ability to read intent to the point sometimes people accused him of mind reading could see through it though.
His eyes reflected his greed to control Jaune by using his daughter's hand.
It was oily and sickly. What was worse was the warped sense of pride he felt for his daughter, as it was entirely self-serving.
Because he genuinely thought he was taking care of his daughter and ensuring her future in his own warped loving way. How could he love her (or think that was love) and still treat her like a tool for his own gain? How could that be ok to him? Couldn't he see how obviously wrong that was?
"Weiss is a great friend, Mister Schnee. I'd be happy to play with her again in the future."
He didn't like Jacques Schnee.
It was his lobbying and lack of corporate oversight that led to Adam losing his eye.
He didn't hate Faunus like Menagerie seemed to believe. It was just business with him. His kind was just convenient to the man. Jacques was the kind of man that would have done the same to humans as well if it'd have suited him better.
Perhaps that was the only reason he could stomach the man at all.
He didn't operate on hate, just purely on statistics. He was a machine of a human with the only thing that made him really feel human was his overblown and warped sense of pride.
"Well I would be happy to help arrange such a thing personally." Jacques assured behind his fake grin, practiced so much it looked real. "It would be a pleasure for my precious daughter to become the friend of the illustrious Little Professor."
Weiss was just holding the little gift box of chocolates he'd given her in her hands.
She was a little distracted by it, but was still focusing on the conversation. But she was weirdly quiet. Silent and obedient, seeming like she didn't dare speak unless asked to speak up.
It was odd. Not at all like her normally strong and not bright per say, but fiery(?) personality. Jaune didn't like seeing her this silent and muted.
He liked the demure and elegant on the surface but actually headstrong and passionate Weiss. Somehow she made that strange balance work. It made his pulse quicken.
He didn't like seeing her like this, just quiet and obedient like a doll.
"Weiss, do you want to meet again next week?" He turned to her, wanting to give her a choice.
To at least let her make a decision of her own.
"You could meet my friends too. We can play together and have fun!"
"She would be delighted to accompany you, Professor Jaune." Jacques answered for her, but he didn't turn in his direction, just meeting Weiss's eyes. He tried to portray the sense that whatever her father said didn't matter.
That the only thing that mattered was her own feelings. Because she was his friend. Not her father.
"...Yes. That would be delightful." Weiss gave him a soft smile that made his tail wag.
He ignored the sense of satisfaction from Jacques Schnee that took that as a sign of infatuation.
Adults were weird.
Just because he thought Winter and Weiss were two of the prettiest girls he had ever met didn't mean he automatically wanted to marry them! Marriage was… y'know, really important! It was more than looks. There was a lot that mattered for that, even if he didn't know everything that it was. They had to make each other happy in a way that made them… complete, like the way his mom and dad did!
Though… maybe without the insane amount of… adult activities that made the Arc kids too scared to go up to the third floor at the manor for.
Also they were eleven and twelve (Weiss had a spring birthday) anyways. Marriage talks were waaaaay too early!
"That's great." Jaune smiled at his friend. "It will be fun, I promise."
Pyrrha lay in bed.
She was sleeping in a fold out bed in the living room of her Uncle Tullius's house.
Tomorrow was the semi-finals.
She'd finally gotten off the phone with her father who had been both furious and proud at the same time.
The tears on her cheek had dried trails upon her face.
"Ah. I'm super grounded." She laughed softly to herself. "So super grounded."
But she'd also received a scholarship for almost every Huntresses Prep Schools and programs across Mistral.
She'd be starting at Sanctum this fall.
That alone was easily worth the fact that she'd be grounded and helping her parents with odd jobs for the rest of the summer.
Pyrrha had dreamed of going to Sanctum for… well as long as she could remember.
She would finally get to mingle with other Huntsmen and Huntresses in training around her age. Pyrrha would have the chance to make more friends!
Which made her think of her new odd penpal Jaune.
She… she'd have to build up the courage to get her Scroll number once Pyrrha finally got to meet her after the Tournament Final Match this Sunday.
Apparently Jaune's mice could also move people and would bring her to a quiet place where they could meet without her being almost attacked by the paparazzi that were now camping outside her uncle's house. So Jaune had let her take one of her shadow mice home to let her invite her friend over and had gotten Uncle Tullius's permission to bring a friend over after the Circuit was over.
Honestly, it had caused an issue in the neighborhood that required the police to come in and clear them out.
It would be nice if it turned out that Jaune was from Argus like Pyrrha herself, but the odds of that were honestly pretty low.
Considering that there were reporters from even the other Kingdoms, it was even possible that Jaune was from any of the four Kingdoms.
That was a bit of a sad thought.
Pyrrha would like it if her first friend was at least in the same Kingdom so she could visit sometimes.
Although Pyrrha wasn't sure how easy that might become considering that she'd become an oddly public figure overnight.
Her fingers tapped at her Scroll.
Jaune. She searched the name on the net, wondering perhaps if something would pop up that might give her a clue to her penpal.
The net opened images of a blonde Faunus boy that couldn't be her Jaune. This boy was apparently some sort of genius who was a public figure in Atlas and moonlighted as a musician for fun.
There was no way that he'd have the ability to also cook those fantastic Katsudon and brew those soothing, gentle teas.
Still it was interesting that he happened to be roughly her age, anywhere from a few months to a year younger than her.
"Hmmm." Pyrrha clicked the link to his ViewTube channel called .
There were a bit over twenty something odd songs that showed the boy playing a guitar with other kids his age (likely his friends) resting in the background.
The earlier ones made him look like he was six or seven.
He was very cute, sort of a bit girly, but not overly so.
His most recent song had this Jaune perform not alone like the others, but with a boy in green that showed up in multiple thumbnails on the channel as a listener this time playing on the drums. The first video where someone else performed alongside him.
"Touch the Sky." Pyrrha read the title, seeing the two boys in the thumbnail.
They were both kind of cute.
Both had a bit of a gentle look that made them a bit effeminate without being too overblown. What was the word… androgynous. They looked sort of androgynous and that was sort of cute in a way that Pyrrha hadn't really considered before.
An energetic light rock melody began to play from her speakers, making Pyrrha quickly roll over to dig into her little travel case filled with her stuff as she slapped down on the pause button. It was a bit late at night, being almost eleven. She shouldn't even be up this late!
Her wired earbuds pulled out and she spent a minute trying to untangle the mess in the dark.
"Ugh. How do they always get into a knot?" She groaned as she tiredly straightened out the wires.
She finally plugged the wired earbuds into her Scroll, letting the music play finally.
A little soft guitar riff began it as Jaune leaned back and forth.
"Today I change my place in hi~story~ Today, I'm gonna start a brand new li~fe~"
His voice was clear, sweet, and a bit girlish in tone as he sang, as he'd clearly not gone through puberty yet. If he was going through the beginning of puberty, then he had a broader range than she'd expected.
"Done with suffering, had enough of mis~ery~ Finally on a path~ that's headed so~mewhere bri~ight~!"
They were in some sort of music studio, the two of them just having fun blasting out their song as the blonde Faunus boy hopped to the beat as he played his bright orange and white guitar.
He had a bright smile on his face that made her heart flutter in a weird way, drawing her eyes more than the quietly focused boy on the drums despite the fact that he looked a bit like an older teen that she'd seen once on a bus that had once caught her fancy.
Pyrrha remembered embarrassingly when she'd tried to keep an eye out for her first crush constantly for a week once like a lovesick puppy. She'd seen him only once more and had her heart broken a little when she'd seen him with an older girl his age. That had been the end of that.
This Jaune seemed to enjoy singing and playing his guitar as much as Pyrrha enjoyed training and fighting.
He lived in the moment of his music, as if it was something that he could throw everything into and Pyrrha couldn't tear her eyes away from the screen.
"Right now~ I'm just a bi~it surprised~ Cuz' I feel alright~ and I might just touch the sky~ I might just touch the sky~~"
She blinked.
Before she'd realized, the song was already over, ending with a little instrumental that drifted off into a piano finish as she saw the two boys share a hug, muted unlike the audio of the music, laughing like close friends as they silently shared a moment together.
Hm? How. Wait. When?
She could have just sworn she'd just begun to hit the play button!
She replayed the song, this time closing her eyes, properly just focusing her mind on the song and lyrics rather than the bright and lively blond boy with the heart-fluttering smile. There was a guitar solo a bit after the halfway point that she really liked, but Pyrrha really didn't recall hearing it the first time around.
The song sort of summed up how Pyrrha was feeling about her experiences in the Mistral Regional Circuit Tournament to be honest, just without the weirdness of the sudden media attention and the uncomfortable questions from her interviews.
She did genuinely feel like she could touch the sky itself.
Riding on a high.
Pyrrha giggled.
"I have to make sure to keep myself grounded though." She muttered to herself. "Soar too high with wax wings and I'll just come plummeting down."
She really was aiming to win the Circuit.
That would absolutely result in the best ending that she'd wanted.
Not only that, but her new friend that she'd still not yet met. Her first friend Jaune, who shared a name with the lively Faunus boy that she'd spent just a bit too much time staring at on her Scroll, felt that she could take her winning streak all the way to the end as well.
Pyrrha really didn't want to let her down.
She put the channel's playlist labeled 'All Songs' on, hitting shuffle and repeat as she tucked herself into her slightly lumpy fold-out bed, squirming a little until she'd found the most comfortable part of the mattress, closing her eyes as quiet light rock played from her earbuds.
A song called 'Shine' began playing in her ears, lulling Pyrrha to sleep, her heart softly beating into the night.