Malachite's Dormitory Shower, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima cracked an eye open as the door to the showers creaked, using one hand to block the water spray—and then went back to what he was doing as Teak padded into the room in search of his cubicle. Four weeks had done a lot for wearing down some of the initial boundaries they'd set up; part of it was the continued proximity and growing more comfortable with one another, but most of it was simply out of convenience. It was hard to maintain their ruling of one person in the shower room at a time, given how much time four consecutive showers stole from their mornings. The two-at-a-time policy that they'd voted on—split along gender lines and alternating first shower every day—was working better, but it was still pretty annoying having to wait on the off days.

"Lima?" Teak said. "It's okay, right?"

"It's fine, man," Lima said, scrubbing at his hair. "Lux is the one we need to worry about—she must have traded her understanding of boundaries in for starting gold."

Teak's cubicle opened up at the words before shutting again behind him, immediately followed by the sound of more water hitting the tiles.

"She had access to character customisation?" Teak murmured. "That must have been nice."

A glance to his left revealed absolutely nothing except the showerhead, the boy's height leaving him well below that of the divider.

"Thinking about adjusting some of your sliders, huh?" Lima said, "Do I want to know which ones?"

"I'm not telling," Teak managed.

"So mysterious," Lima said, "A bit of extra reach would be nice—also, I kind of hate that Lux is taller than me."

"Try having that problem with literally everyone," Teak said, sighing. "This is making me feel bad—can we talk about something else?"

"Are you sure?" Lima said, feigning hurt. "We didn't even get to the part where we compare our special sliders."

"Absolutely not," Teak squeaked, banging a hand against the divider. "Did you—did you find the part you were looking for? The one for your project, I mean."

"I did, actually," Lima said, trying not to smile. "I'm not too sure it's going to fit the casing for the glove, though—the design I picked might need some changes."

"Is that something you can do in class?" Teak said.

"I suppose we'll find out," Lima offered, "What about you—did you decide on something yet?"

"I think so," Teak admitted, "I think I'm going to make a portable hard-light shield projector."

Lima perked up a bit at the words, his mind going towards Velvet Scarlatina's hard light projector—not exactly a shield, but certainly portable.

"What type of shield are we talking about?" Lima asked. "Buckler? Point defence?"

"I was thinking about a dome to lock down an area in case we ever need a place to retreat to," Teak hesitated. "I watched a video about how energy efficient they could be if you spun the shield in place and used the motion to help deflect the incoming force—does it sound stupid?"

"Not even a little bit," Lima said, trying to be encouraging. "Hell if I know how to make something like that, though—you find a guide or something?"

"There's a lot of publically available blueprints; most of them are Atlesian designs," Teak said, "I was going to try and pick out the best parts of each to make something new."

"That's pretty cool," Lima said, "There's a rabbit Faunus called Velvet Scarlatina from second year, who has a portable hard-light projector as her main weapon—it makes temporary hard light copies of weapons she's scanned with her camera."

"Really?" Teak said with interest. "How do you know her?"

"She turns up to Port's hunting sessions pretty much every Saturday morning," Lima said, "She's a bit shy, but she seems super nice—you could probably ask her for some direction on the whole projector thing."

"Thank you for telling me," Teak said, "Lima—do you think you could introduce me?"

"Next time I see her," Lima agreed.

#

Dining Hall, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"When are you going to let me look at it?" Lux demanded, hands planted on the table to loom better. "It's been weeks—stop lording it over me."

"I'm not lording it over anyone," Teak managed. "I just hadn't finished reading it yet."

"Hadn't?" Lux pressed, leaning even further forward. "Past tense?"

"You know he can see right down your shirt, don't you?" Claire said, "You missed a button, too."

"Shut up," Lux said, almost on reflex. "Well?"

"I only finished it last night," Teak said, flustered. "Lux, I'd like to let you borrow it, but you're not very careful with your things—I don't want it to get damaged."

"I'll be careful with it," Lux insisted, maintaining eye contact. "I will."

"Okay," Teak said, "But you have to wait until we get back to the dorm—I didn't bring it with me today."

"Fine," Lux said, annoyed. "As soon as we get back."

"Screw that; I'm invested now," Lima said, "I'm not reading it, so you'll just have to tell me what happened."

"I wouldn't want to spoil it for her—" Teak hedged.

"I don't care about the story," Lux said, crossing her arms. "I just want to see the writing."

"See?" Lima said, "Spoil away."

"Okay, fine—Ozymandias is called a researcher, but it's pretty obvious that he's more like an explorer or a treasure hunter," Teak said, warming up to it. "I'm not sure exactly when he wrote the journal because he keeps referencing parts of other projects and journeys that are supposed to be covered in the later journals."

"So it's a jumbled mess?" Claire wondered.

"It's not a mess; it's just not written as he's going through the events themselves, at least it doesn't seem so," Teak corrected, "This one is about the Two Brothers, or rather, the Fountain of Life, and the Pools of Grimm—which was either the source of the god's powers or simply the place where they each lived."

"He thinks they actually existed?" Lima asked.

"He seems absolutely positive that they do exist, and every time he mentions them, there is never any doubt about it," Teak admitted, "There are also countless mentions about his ancient ancestors and how they directly interacted with both locations on numerous occasions."

"Interacted how?" Claire asked.

"The people of the land would beseech the god for assistance and guidance or simply go to them in gratitude or worship," Teak said, "I'm not sure how he knew about something that happened so long ago, but I'm assuming they had their own verbal traditions, or there were surviving accounts at that point."

"So he absolutely believed they were real," Lux said, visibly impatient. "What did he want with the Fountain or the Pools?"

"His rationale for why he wants to visit them isn't actually explicitly described in the first journal," Teak admitted, "It also only covers the period in which he's preparing to set out on the journey itself and what he was thinking about at that time."

"Implicitly, then?" Lima prompted.

"There were two passages in the journal that reference some kind of vague but possibly cataclysmic event, and he has some complicated feelings about it—I think it ties into that," Teak said, furrowing his brow. "The first one was—A fools hope, perhaps, to believe I might find the answer there, but better a fool than to wait until the world turns no longer."

"Oh," Lux said, practically vibrating in her seat. "Is it all like that?"

Teak seemed visibly unsure of how to deal with the sheer intensity she was directing at him—Lima raised an eyebrow at Claire for a moment as if to elicit an answer to the bizarre nature of Lux's behaviour, but she seemed just as surprised.

"Ozymandias seems to fall into a lot of moments like that throughout, especially when he seems to be recalling his youth," Teak said, "There was a line that said; I often mourn for days long past, for people almost forgotten, where everything was so straightforward, and when magic hadn't yet seeped from the world—"

"This is bullshit," Lux said, breathing a burst of air out of her nose. "Go get the stupid book—"

"You said that first line was referencing a cataclysmic event," Lima said, speaking up. "I think I missed it?"

"Until the world turns no longer," Claire said. "That was it, right? The end of the world."

"That's how I interpreted it, and the context of that page made it seem like he was actually waiting or expecting it to happen at some point," Teak said, smiling now. "Another reading of the line I've seen on the forum is that it's just more of his poetic bend; that he knows it's foolish to search for something that might not exist—the Fountain of Life and the Pools of Grimm—but that it's better to hope than to do nothing at all."

"Literal interpretation, verses a more artistic one?" Lima guessed. "Tukson was right; this guy sounds like a jackass."

"Shut up, dumbass," Lux said, smacking her fist down on the table. "You said there were two passages—what was the other line?"

"I dream myself standing where a fountain should be, and yet only an ocean stretches before me. The land may have changed too greatly, and I fear for where my path may meet its end," Teak said, closing his eyes for a moment. "My hope is not yet lost. So long as the world turns, I will search for an answer."

Lux's eyes were sparkling, her hands linked together in a white-knuckled grip—the only time Lima had seen her as excited by something as she was now was the moment before a fight began.

"That's kind of tragic," Claire said, "Imagine spending all that time searching for something, only for it to not be there when you finally arrive."

Lima clicked his fingers together as if he'd just come to some great epiphany.

"The fountain was the friends he made along the way," Lima said, mangling the phrase, "The dream about the ocean also nails the guy down as a total bedwetter—cause you know that's why he was so traumatised by it."

Lux made a strangled noise in the back of her throat.

#

Amphitheater, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

"To think you could have pushed me this far," Lima said, stretching his hand out, fingers splayed. "I thought I'd left my limits behind—but I guess there's one last limit to break."

Lima tore the messy bandage he'd wrapped around the glove off, shredding it and sending pieces of the too-thin fabric falling through the air. Teak suddenly found the strength to rebuild his guard, the boy's sword flashing up in front of him in clear panic.

"Don't you dare," Teak managed. "It doesn't even work properly—"

Lima took hold of the temporary manual release catch with a single finger—he hadn't managed to finish machining the parts for the internal system, but he was almost certain he'd have it down by the end of the next workshop. Teak looked horrified at the idea of being on the wrong side of the half-finished mess of a weapon.

"This is the final blow," Lima said. "Vanish."

Lima wrenched the release to the side, and there was an audible whirl of internal gears as the glove came to life. Teak dove to the floor of the stage, hands—and sword—crossed over his head to protect himself from what was to come. The metal screeched in protest, releasing a spiral of sparks out of the half-open casing on the back of it—the cable burst forth from the palm of his hand, crossing the room in an instant before the grappling hook buried itself into the wall below the stands the cable spooling outwards in an endless mess of iron loops.

"I can't believe it," Lima breathed, falling to his knees. "You dodged it."

"I didn't dodge anything," Teak cried in outrage, "It didn't even fire in the right direction."

Teak scrambled to his feet, clearly galvanised to action by the fact that Lima was entirely out of position. He rushed across the stage, sword drawn to counterattack—at which point, the glove ran out of cable, and the process suddenly reversed. It began reeling itself back in at a furious pace, eating the entire spool in about three seconds flat and then dragged Lima straight off the stage by his arm. It reconnected with the hook with a metal clunk, leaving him dangling by his glove well outside of the arena—the hook pulled free of the wall with a little spray of concrete dust, and he dropped down onto the floor.

"Elimination by out-of-bounds," The digitised voice spoke, "Winner, Teak Fawn."

The tip of the grappling hook dangled in the air below his hand, two inches of cable still emerging from the centre of his palm—it clearly wasn't sitting properly inside the casing, which was something else he'd have to get around to dealing with. Teak caught up to him just as he reached the bottom of the stairs that would lead back up to the stands; his face scrunched up in dismay.

"I can't believe you fired that deathtrap at me," Teak said, blowing a breath out of his nose. "Plus, I thought you were going to win the match."

Despite the words, Teak seemed far happier with the outcome of this match than he had the last time—getting stabbed half a dozen times by Weiss Schnee had left him moping almost the entire day. He'd also managed to actually showcase some of the hard-earned skills he'd managed to pick up across the last couple of weeks—without getting instantly dumpstered by the usual, far more experienced opponents.

"I had a little bit of a mechanical misfunction at the end there," Lima admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I forgot that the design I used has the automated reel-in once it hits the max length—I'll have to disable that."

"Mister Morta, Mister Fawn," Glynda said as they crested the top of the stairs. "I cannot help but think that the two of you are not taking this seriously."

Teak wilted at the words, his previous good cheer vanishing in an instant.

"I'm sorry, Professor," Teak managed, "I—I really was trying my best."

"The reason we ask both participants to put in full effort right from the start of the bout is to simulate the level of intensity of live combat," Glynda said, furrowing her brow. "While you may have eventually worked up to that in the end, it was clear that your partner wasn't pressing you throughout the majority of the duel; in fact, Mister Morta, you had dozens of opportunities, and yet you acted on none of them."

Lima hadn't really expected to get raked over the coals for what had actually been a pretty stellar fight—Teak had managed to attack, deflect and defend more in this one duel than in the dozens of ones he'd had since the very first class.

"We spar like every single day, so we both already know how an all-out fight is going to go," Lima hedged, glancing away. "Besides, I don't want to beat up my friend in front of everyone in our class—"

"That's not a consideration you have the standing to decide here, and by refusing to fight at the appropriate level, you are, in fact, doing your teammate a great disservice," Glynda said, interjecting. "Every single person here will experience the same situation—I expect you to bring the necessary intensity with you to these exercises, Mister Morta, regardless of your opponent."

Lima felt a spark of frustration at the words—the fight that had just occurred had given Teak a chance to fight at his maximum ability for at least a couple of minutes against an opponent that had fought around the same level. Lima knew that if he'd gone all out right from the start, Teak likely wouldn't have had a chance to make a second attack—what did either of them get out of that?

"What does he even get—" Lima tried.

"Lima—that's enough," Teak said, swallowing. "Professor Goodwitch is correct; we should do it properly next time."

Lima opened his mouth to argue and then caught sight of the worried look on Teak's face—he turned away in complete frustration at the reprimand and at not being able to actually argue his case.

"Sorry, Professor," Teak said again, "We'll just—sorry."

Lima ignored the looks he was getting from the peanut gallery—because he was sure whatever he saw would annoy him, and then he'd mouth off, which would get them into trouble again.

"Mister Winchester and Mister Arc," Glynda said after a long moment. "Please make your way down to the stage."

"That didn't look like it went well," Claire said, voice careful. "I thought the fight—"

"Are you stupid?" Lux cut in, more than a little heated. "Why the hell did you throw away your win streak for a joke?"

Lima slumped down into his chair, annoyed and unwilling to engage with the question—the faces of Cardin and Jaune stared down from the twin monitors, smiling out at them all. He felt another pang of annoyance—they hadn't made Pyrrha beat the crap out of Jaune in front of everybody. Whatever happened to the randomiser avoiding matching teammates to each other? That had seemed like a pretty hard rule up until now, and there'd been nothing to suggest it was changing—he'd had all of the fifteen-second walk down to the arena to come up with a plan.

"He didn't do it on purpose," Teak said. "The grappling hook malfunctioned."

"Like hell it did," Lux insisted, "Are you ignoring me, idiot—"

Lima watched as Cardin took his spot in the middle of the stage and as Jaune kind of slumped his way up the stairs to join him.

"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" Lux demanded, "I wanted to be the one you lost it to."

"We're witnessing a confession," Claire said, laughing. "Cute."

"I didn't mean it like that," Lux raged. "I didn't—"

"—to your question, Miss Rose, the Vytal Festival Tournament works on a system very similar to the standard duel ruleset," Glynda said, speaking up as the match began. "Though there are multiple rounds, with a varying number of participants on both teams, the officials that are monitoring the match will call it based on out-of-bounds, or aura threshold."

Jaune slid backwards across the stage; his shield held high and off balance from the massive impact of Cardin's mace. Three more followed, and Jaune couldn't seem to break out of being on the defensive as he was sent stumbling around in an attempt to keep his balance. It was a bit hard to tell, but he was definitely better than he had been in the first week. It was something that made Lima wonder if Jaune had actually managed to build up the courage to ask Pyrrha for help—Cardin's siege started to overwhelm Jaune's ability to defend, and the blonde boy's guard was wrenched open with a horizontal swing. Jaune couldn't quite bring his shield back in time to block the next hit, and then after that, his frantic defence fell apart entirely. A three-part combination brought him well below the limit by the second strike, and when the third came right behind it—

"Elimination by aura threshold," The digitised voice spoke, "Winner, Cardin Winchester."

Cardin's weapon came to a halt directly above the defenceless Jaune's head, a clear sign that there would have been nothing the blonde boy could have done to prevent it.

"The amount of Aura Mister Arc currently has left has opened him up to having an official call the match." Glynda said, "Which is why it is wise to keep a close eye on your aura levels during combat while also adjusting your strategy based on the changing situation—if you are low, and your defensive strategy is not bearing fruit, you may have to take action."

Lima watched as Jaune picked himself up off the stage, not looking particularly overjoyed at being used as a measuring device for the rest of the class or at the superior smirk Cardin was aiming down at him.

"Now, to speak more broadly, the Vytal Festival is only a few months away, taking place after the break concludes, and I'm certain it will be upon us before we know it." Glynda said, "As such, the other academies will be organising their transportation to Vale and will be arriving at Beacon Academy—they will, of course, be joining you all in classes."

Cardin crested the stairs; his weapon braced across his shoulder as he returned to his seat, and the cheers of congratulation from his teammates—Jaunes return was far more sluggish, and though his team attempted to console him, it was clear he wasn't feeling it.

"If you intend on competing in the Vytal Festival Tournament, then I should advise you all to keep an eye on one another—and on your international counterparts," Glynda said, sweeping her gaze across them. "Who can identify the reason? Miss Nikos."

"If we're going to be sharing classes with the other competitors, they will be present for each of our Combat Studies exercises," Pyrrha said, "That means they will have a chance to learn about our strengths, weaknesses and fighting styles—although, I suppose we will also have the same opportunity."

"Precisely, Miss Nikos, so please ensure you account for that—there will be some structural changes to the scenarios—" Glynda said as the bell rang. "Ah, we actually have some scheduled maintenance to be performed in the Amphitheatre tonight, so Self-Directed Sparring is cancelled for today, although you are welcome to engage with it elsewhere if you so desire."

Most of the students were already on their feet, and once she'd finished addressing them, the flood moved towards the doors.

"She cancelled sparring," Lux said with an explosive sigh. "Are you kidding me?"

Lima, still feeling a bit maligned after being called out, had some trouble actually finding the energy to get up and follow his team as they approached the end of the row. Teak attempted to step out into the aisle and found himself being shoulder checked by the passing Cardin. Claire caught him with one hand on his shoulder before he could really lose his balance.

"What's the big idea, Teak?" Claire said, having missed the exchange. "You beat up Lima, and now you're coming after me as well?"

"No," Teak managed. "I—was rebuffed. Sorry."

Lima let his head dangle backwards on the headrest, tracking the smirking boy as he pushed his way through to the hallway outside. Jaune's attempt to clear the doorway was assisted as Cardin gave him a thoughtless shove on his way past—Teak's request that he not start something was starting to stretch really, really thin.

"Lima?" Claire said, "You coming?"

Lima sat forward and then pushed himself to his feet with what felt like a monumental force of will before trailing on after them towards the doors. Glynda, still standing pretty close by the aisle, seemed to be watching him, but Lima couldn't quite bring himself to look at her. Like a trail of crumbs, they followed the remnants of the class towards the Dining Hall—it was a bit early for dinner, but everybody seemed to have the same destination in mind. Many of the second and third years were already there or in the process of filing into the room. Lima slumped down beside Claire's chosen seat, laying his head down onto his crossed arms.

"So we're going to have a whole bunch of new faces hanging around after the break?" Claire said, tapping her fingernails against the table. "Bestwitch was telling us to avoid showing what we can do—but how are we going to actually manage that?"

"Don't use our Semblances in class? Change up our fighting styles whenever we do an exercise?" Lux grunted, "That's pretty much impossible to maintain over a long period."

"She did say there would be some changes to the scenarios," Claire hummed, "Maybe they'll be something that helps—like, no more duelling ever."

"Don't say that," Lux insisted. "It better not be something like that—don't laugh at me."

"Sorry," Teak managed, covering his mouth. "Maybe they'll lean into the obstacle course stuff or more adapting to random objectives? There wasn't much direct combat in those, and you couldn't really see the ones who were fighting."

Lima watched the students continue to funnel into the room, spreading out to fill up all of the tables and did his best to ignore any attempts to drag him back into the conversation. Eventually, when his neck began to tell him that he couldn't continue angling his head in such a way, he settled his chin down on his forearms—and found himself looking across the table beside their own, at where Velvet Scarlatina was sitting on a bench seat, with her head bowed. Cardin was sprawled directly beside her, dominating the bench with his body and impinging on her personal space with his proximity. Russel stood on the other side, one foot planted on the seat and blocking the girl in between the two of them. Sky and Dove were seated across from them, facing the girl's back and laughing quietly to themselves.

"—but how does she do it?" Lux said, audibly frustrated. "She just turns up in class with no explanation."

"We have to assume she has a Semblance, so maybe it's something like my invisibility?" Claire wondered, "You seem pretty invested in figuring it out, though—is it because Lima made fun of you for jumping?"

"I didn't jump," Lux insisted, the earlier argument suddenly refuelled once more. "There was no jumping—"

Lima watched as Cardin reached up and snatched hold of Velvet's ear, tugging on it until the girl half sat up on the seat in an attempt to find some kind of alleviation—for a second, he actually couldn't believe that Velvet wasn't already kicking his ass all over the cafeteria. Velvet was a second year, and he'd seen what she was capable of in Port's Hunting Sessions—

"—that hurts," Velvet protested, her voice carrying across the room. "Please, stop—"

"Uh oh," Claire said.

"Lima—" Teak tried.

Lima jumped the gap, the force of his leap sending the table skidding backwards, and a dozen cries of protest rang out as the people sitting there were forced to deal with the contents of the table being upended all over them. He used the next table over as a stepping stone before planting his foot squarely in the middle of Cardin's face—Lima kicked downwards, smashing Cardin back-first through the table and sending the two pieces of table sliding away from them. Cardin hit the floor, his already glowing aura brightening at the continued assault, and then Lima crashed down on top of him, knees on either side of his chest.

"Morta—" Cardin got out.

Lima struck him across the face and then twice more in quick succession—the boy's aura shattered the series of impacts more than enough to deplete it. Cardin finally seemed to regain some idea of what was happening, and he tried to force his way up—Lima locked his knees to the floor and then hit him in the face hard enough to flatten his nose with a crunch. He caught Russel's retaliatory front kick on his arm and rode the momentum back to his feet. Russel followed through, stepping over his friend in an attempt to reach him, but Lima was already moving back towards him. Russel blocked the leading punch—and accidentally stood on Cardin's shin as he was forced back a step. The exact moment he looked down, in an attempt to figure out where he could safely stand, Lima's foot crashed into the side of his head. Russel hit the half of the table that Sky was still attempting to fight his way free of, sending both of them down into the mess.

Dove yanked Cardin away by his arm, sending him sliding back across the floor and then seemed to hesitate on whether or not to actually join the fight. Lima made the decision for him, kicking a piece of broken table up off the floor—Dove swatted it out of mid-air and then stumbled backwards as Lima came up from underneath it, his foot passing by the other boy's chin, close enough that his aura lit up from the contact. Lima twisted, using his contact with the floor to send a burst of his Semblance across the surface and into the other boy's shoe. Dove's leg suddenly shifted out to the side, entirely outside of his control, ruining his attempt to recover, and Lima's foot smashed into—a large piece of the table that had suddenly lifted up off the ground and inserted itself between the two.

His Semblance spread outwards on contact, as it always did, and he could feel a counter-force attempting to resist him. It wasn't the first time he'd come into contact with something like it, but it wasn't the same kind of authority as his own, and it wasn't nearly enough. Dove's attempt to protect himself failed as the net of energy covering the makeshift shield was forced in a dozen different directions at once, tearing it apart in an instant, and the slab of wood was wrenched to the side. It buried itself in the wall to their right, and he lunged forward in pursuit of Dove—

"Enough," Glynda snapped, voice ringing out from somewhere behind him. "The next person to do anything at all—"

Dove stepped backwards again, apparently disregarding the order entirely as he worked to maintain some sort of distance. Lima shifted to get eyes on her and found the Professor standing between the broken table and the next one over, fire in her eyes, with her riding crop pointed in his direction—oh, that made way more sense than Dove suddenly developing a previously unknown Semblance.

"Ow," Cardin grunted as he finally managed to sit up. "I think you just broke my nose."

#

Headmaster's Lobby, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Glynda hadn't spoken to him a single time except to order them all out of the Dining Hall, and Lima had made no attempt to plead his case, even after Russel had divulged the entirety of what had happened about three times over—and with himself squarely in the role of the hero. There was no point to it, he knew; it didn't matter who the instigator was or what justification you could muster up—the fact of the matter was, he'd attacked them relatively unprovoked. Lima was fine with taking on the role of the villain, at least for something like this—he'd certainly done it enough times before. He did feel a bit bad about Velvet getting dragged along with them, but there wasn't much he could do about that.

Cardin—with some preliminary first aid applied—Sky, Dove, and Russel were inside the headmaster's office already and in the company of Glynda. Lima, on the other hand, had been left to sit by the elevator and pretend that Velvet hadn't been silently staring at him for the better part of fifteen minutes. He'd been getting a torrent of messages to his scroll throughout that time, but he'd made no attempt to read them. Lima was sure that there would be something from Teak telling him that he'd done the exact opposite of what he'd promised. Lux's message was probably safe to read, either an endorsement of his sudden interest in battling other humans or some sort of reprimand because he hadn't invited her along. He wasn't really sure about what Claire's response would be, but maybe she would have understood why he'd done it.

"I just—" Velvet said, speaking suddenly. "Why did you do that?"

"No one else was doing anything," Lima said, letting his head fall back against the wall. "I'm kind of surprised you didn't beat the crap out of them before I even got there."

"People like that will get bored and leave you alone eventually," Velvet said, looking down for a moment. "Fighting them—it just ends up like this."

"This isn't too bad, is it?" Lima said, closing his eyes. "I mean, it's got to be way better than some dumb boy pulling on your ears."

"For me, maybe, but I'm not the one in trouble," Velvet said, "I bet it's way scarier where you're sitting."

Lima cracked an eye open at the words, half-certain that she was joking—there were plenty of truly scary things out in the world, but having an adult tell him off for getting into a fight could never have made the list.

"Not really," Lima said, "Who cares about some nebulous future punishment when you've got someone actively hurting you—you should really stand up for yourself."

"Even if it means getting in trouble?" Velvet said.

"Absolutely," Lima said without pause. "But I don't mind falling on a few more swords if you still need some time to work up the courage."

Velvet gave a disbelieving little shake of her head at the words.

"That's very kind of you," Velvet said, "But I don't think I should be encouraging something like that."

"That's alright," Lima said, "I never needed much encouragement anyway."

Velvet blew a troubled breath out of her nose at the words, at which point, the elevator dinged before the doors slid open—Glynda stood at the very back, with her arms crossed over her chest and a visible frown on her face. Team Cardinal stood in front of her, the general despondent vibe that was emanating off of them at complete odds with their early vindictiveness.

"Fellas," Lima said in greeting. "Fancy meeting you here."

Dove stepped out of the elevator without waiting for any kind of direction, and Cardin moved to follow, which in turn spurred the rest of the team into action. Dove came to a stop beside Velvet, hands linked together behind him, his back straight.

"I apologise for laughing at you and for my part in condoning what happened today," Dove said without any kind of prompt. "I'll make sure something like that doesn't happen again."

"Okay," Velvet said, "Thank you."

Dove nodded and then continued on without another word, leaving his teammates behind to sort themselves out.

"Sorry, Velvet," Sky said, ducking his head. "None of it was funny."

"Yeah," Russel sighed. "We're stupid—sorry."

"It's okay," Velvet said, looking a bit pressed by all the apologies. "Really."

"Thanks," Russel said. "That's super nice of you—"

Cardin placed a hand on his teammate's back and then pushed him just hard enough to get him moving before he turned to face her.

"Velvet, everything I said was just me trying to upset you, and none of it was true," Cardin said, reaching up to touch his face for a second, "I shouldn't have grabbed you like that, it was crossing a line, and it won't happen again."

"Thank you," Velvet managed. "It's fine now—it didn't even hurt that much."

"That was definitely a lie," Cardin sighed. "Sorry."

Glynda waited just long enough for the four of them to disappear down the hallway before she cleared her throat.

"My turn, huh?" Lima said, rocking forward and then up to his feet. "Velvet was just telling me how you and the headmaster were going to take turns breaking my nose—"

"I didn't say that," Velvet protested. "I didn't."

"A tempting suggestion," Glynda said, fixing her glasses "Miss Scarlatina, thank you for waiting—unless you've recalled anything else from the incident you would like to add, you are now free to go enjoy the remainder of your night."

"You don't need me to wait around?" Velvet said, looking a bit hesitant. "Just—in case?"

Lima spoke up in response before the question could be really addressed.

"I'll just give you my apology now, so you can go to bed," Lima said, pausing at the elevator. "Velvet, sorry I got you involved in something annoying—night."

Lima stepped backwards and to the side, breaking line of sight with her—Glynda let her riding crop drop from where she had been blocking the sensor with it, and the doors shut, sealing them both inside. The movement of the elevator was more than detectable, his Semblance feeding him a steady stream of information as they ascended. The office that greeted them on arrival was a strange one but beautiful in its own way. Large and circular, with a series of gigantic, multisized, and moving cogs intersecting with one another as they rotated in an endless, intricate dance.

A massive half-clock served as a window to the outside world, the glass transparent and showcasing the Academy below. The large numerals that served as a measurement of time were inverted, and oddly enough, he found himself bothered by it—the world outside the room could tell the time, but for those who sat within, its passage was far murkier. Lima trailed along behind Glynda as she crossed the room, his eyes searching and finding what must have been a hundred different clocks, subtly placed within the interior decorations. The man's desk was uniquely curved, framed in sleek metal, and filled with some kind of patterned glass that looked like it was designed to project a hard light monitor.

"For all the movement going on in here," Lima said, turning to look up at the ceiling. "It's strangely quiet."

"I could hardly get anything done if it wasn't," Ozpin said from where he was watching the academy through the clock. "Mister Morta—it's been something of an evening, hasn't it?"

"Sure," Lima agreed.

Ozpin tapped his cane against the ground before turning around for the first time. Lima found himself studying the man's legs, but there really was no hint of a limp—which meant that the man had chosen the weapon for some other reason.

"I see you are in no hurry to excuse your actions," Ozpin said, a bit puzzled. "I wonder why that is—most people are rather quick to protest their innocence when faced with the opportunity."

"I'm not innocent," Lima said, "Cardin did a series of things I didn't like, so I kicked his ass."

Glynda breathed out a long, steadying breath from her nose, the sound of someone overcoming a great and visceral frustration.

"A series of things," Ozpin said with some interest. "Not just the singular incident involving Miss Scarlatina?"

Lima hadn't actually expected them to comment on it, his loose choice of words brought on by how little care most of the faculty at Sanctum had with regard to these kinds of incidents. Cardin had already been punished—by him and by the academy, if that apology had been anything to go by—shovelling more fuel onto the fire when the boy was already ablaze seemed a bit much.

"Just for clarification," Lima said rather than answer the question. "Even if that was the only thing he did, I would have still done it—why don't we just proceed with that in mind?"

"Mister Morta," Glynda pressed. "What other things has he done?"

Lima sighed.

"Cardin's been picking on Teak for a while now, but his most recent target seems to be Jaune—Velvet too, I suppose," Lima said, rubbing at the back of his neck. "Look, usually I just kick someone's ass, and then I get yelled at for it—you're kind of making me feel like a tattletale now."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the accusation before the two adults shared a momentary glance—something which seemed to leave Glynda looking a bit uncomfortable.

"I suppose the randomiser has matched both Mister Fawn and Mister Arc against Mister Winchester several times a piece, and he certainly does seem to take pleasure in winning against them, but I've seen nothing carry on outside of the exercises themselves," Glynda said a length. "What kind of negative interactions has he had with them?"

"You'd have to ask Jaune about his experience," Lima hedged, "Cardin said something pretty messed up the first time he and Teak actually fought, though—something about letting animals into Beacon Academy."

"In my class?" Glynda said. "Perhaps we should call for both Mister Fawn and—"

"Can we not? Teak didn't want me to get involved in the first place," Lima tried. "He's already going to be angry at what I did today; dragging him into this, even more, is just going to make him—"

"Mister Morta, I'm afraid we are long past the point of keeping things under wraps," Glynda said, "Half of the student body has seen the altercation that preceded this meeting, and I suspect Mister Fawn has already come to the conclusion that he will be unable to avoid being included."

"The actions we take are not without reaction," Ozpin said, smiling a bit. "This has a rather direct link back to how you chose to publically solve the situation—a lesson learned, perhaps?"

"You're saying I should have beat Cardin up when no one was looking?" Lima asked, "That does make more sense, now that I think about it."

Ozpin seemed to blink at the words.

"You shouldn't have attempted to deal with the situation yourself," Glynda said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You should have come to me."

"That—has literally never worked for me in the past," Lima admitted, furrowing his brow. "But, even if you would have listened to me, I wasn't going to sit there like everyone else and watch."

"Might I suggest a nonviolent attempt as a first resort?" Ozpin wondered. "Negotiations are often enough to solve most interpersonal—"

"Cardin, please stop pulling on Velvet's ears—I really don't think she likes it," Lima said, clapping his hands together. "Can't we all be friends?"

"Mister Morta," Glynda said.

"Cardin would have laughed in my face, and then, sensing weakness, he would have started something with me," Lima said, voice flat. "I would have kicked the shit out of him, and we'd be back exactly where we are now."

Ozpin didn't seem nearly as upset at his cheek; instead, he seemed to tilt his head to the side.

"You would have entered this discussion armed with the additional defence of having first asked him to stop," Ozpin said with some interest. "You don't think that's worthy of consideration?"

"No, because I'm not here trying to defend myself," Lima said, shaking his head. "Velvet asked Cardin to stop, and he didn't—negotiations had clearly failed."

"Are you certain that Velvet wished for your assistance?" Ozpin wondered.

"Velvet could have got away from them without my help, but instead of doing that, she sat there and let them hurt her because she didn't want to cause a scene," Lima said, "I think I can confidently state that she wouldn't have wanted my assistance—and I already apologised to her for getting involved."

Ozpin leaned forward on his desk, linking his hands together in front of his mouth.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Do you think she appreciated it in the aftermath?" Ozpin said.

"I turned an already uncomfortable situation into something even worse," Lima said, shaking his head. "I doubt she wanted that."

"Not quite what I was asking, but I suppose it answers enough," Ozpin said after a moment of thought. "What kind of punishment do you think would fit the crime, in this instance?"

Lima glanced over at Glynda for a moment, considering repeating what he'd joked about earlier—she narrowed her eyes at him in a way that told him that her Semblance must have also contained some method to read his mind.

"Unauthorised fighting in an area where it is forbidden. Destruction of school property. Inflicting lasting injury after aura break," Lima said, thinking about it. "Sanctum would have had me in detention for a month—at least."

"A month of detentions," Ozpin wondered. "Glynda?"

"Why does it feel as if I am the one being punished?" Glynda said, before pausing. "You know, we could always just take turns breaking his nose."

Ozpin gave something of a startled laugh at the comment, clearly missing the context needed to truly process where it had come from, something which seemed to brighten her disposition in return. Lima couldn't believe she'd just stolen his joke, and without any sort of accreditation—the absolute audacity.

#

Headmaster's Lobby, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima found himself sitting outside the elevator again, only this time, it was with the image of Teak's worried face burned into his mind—Jaune, somehow, had seemed even more on edge, his face pale, as if he'd been the one getting punished. Technically, he was free to go—encouraged to go would probably be a better description, considering the look Glynda had given him before the doors of the elevator had locked the three away—but the idea of going back to the dorm without getting the chance to actually speak with Teak twisted something in his chest.

He hadn't seemed angry—like Lima had first suspected—but that didn't mean there wasn't any anger there. Teak had asked him—several times over the course of the last few weeks—not to do anything in response to the situation or to take action against Cardin. There was a part of him that wanted to settle into the mountain of internal justifications he'd built up and argue that the situation couldn't have been allowed to continue—but the reality was, he hadn't acted because of those carefully chosen justifications. He'd done it because he was angry. The smirk on Cardin's face, the sound of Velvet's voice pleading for him to stop, and the laughter of his teammates—it had simply gotten to him. It wasn't fair to try to mask his actions under the banner of 'stopping an injustice' or 'saving a girl in distress'—like always, all he'd done was act to relieve his anger, his annoyance, and his stress.

"God damn it," Lima muttered, banging his head back against the wall. "I haven't changed a bit."

The elevator dinged a few moments later, and this time, it was just the two boys—and no Glynda to be seen. Jaune's paleness seemed to have vanished entirely, replaced by a sort of visible relief that Lima couldn't quite square away. Teak—absolutely dwarfed by his much taller, temporary companion—looked about as worried as he had when he first arrived.

"Looking good, boys," Lima said as they stepped out of the elevator entirely. "You know, it took me fifteen minutes just to work up the courage to sit down—how many smacks did she give you two?"

"What?" Jaune said in alarm. "We didn't get any—I mean, why would we?"

"Way to not sound disappointed, big guy," Lima said, "Totally nailed it."

Teak seemed to hover a bit away from them, apparently unsure of how to proceed—and Lima felt another twist.

"Sorry I got you both dragged up here," Lima said, rubbing at his neck. "Bestwitch started grilling me on what Cardin has been up to, and your names eventually came up—she forced it out of me, really."

"That's alright—I guess I'm just hoping he'll back off a bit," Jaune said, looking a bit anxious at the topic. "You kind of scared the crap out of everyone today."

"I bet," Lima admitted. "Any word about what they're going to do to Cardin now—they dragging him back up here again?"

"Probably," Teak murmured. "They were talking about it."

Jaune winced at the words.

"Yeah, I'm definitely going back," Jaune said, raising a hand in parting. "I really don't want to be here when Cardin comes back—night."

"Night," Lima said.

"Goodnight, Jaune," Teak said, watching the other boy vanish around the corner. "Lima? Can we go?"

Lima pushed himself up to his feet, moving to walk beside the shorter boy. Jaune was already turning the corner when they stepped into the hallway, his long strides eating up the distance as he fled from the potential encounter. The two of them walked in silence, making it out of the bottom of the building without exchanging a word between them. The cool night air began searching for gaps in his uniform as they stepped outside, and Lima turned his eyes up to the sky above.

"Teak," Lima said, seizing a momentary flare of courage. "I know you didn't want me to start anything with him, but—"

All of the excuses he'd been thinking about since they'd stuck him in the chair whirled about in his mind, a hundred different things within reach, each of them primed and ready for him to use to carve out a good position to argue from—and all of it kind of fell away, when Teak actually turned to look at him.

"—I guess I couldn't help myself." Lima said, "Sorry."

Teak seemed to take a moment to process the words, eyes returning to the path beneath their feet. Lima turned his eyes back to the stars, more than a bit uneasy about the other boy's silence. Eventually, Teak shook his head a bit and then breathed out a sigh of air.

"Cardin wasn't pulling on my ears, so it's not like I can even yell at you," Teak murmured before trailing off a bit. "I just—didn't want you to get in any trouble."

Lima couldn't remember ever feeling quite so relieved as he did right then—their friendship, as new as it was, hadn't been altered by the event, and their dynamic seemed to endure.

"It's not so bad," Lima said, nudging the shorter boy's shoulder with his own. "What's a month of detention, anyway?"

"A whole month?" Teak said, sucking in a breath. "Lima—"

"An hour a day, every day, from five until six in the afternoon," Lima admitted, "You guys are going to be doing sparring on your own for a while."

"Lux is going to lose her mind when she finds out," Teak said with a sigh. "No, we can just move the sparring back to the mornings or after dinner, maybe."

"So decisive," Lima said, "Look at you, being all leaderly."

"That's not a word—and I'm still a bit mad at you," Teak said, eyeing him. "No teasing."

Lima fired off a sloppy, one-handed salute at the words, keeping his silence in the interest of safety. They stepped into the bottom floor of the dormitory, following the now-familiar path back to their room, almost entirely on autopilot.

"Lima?" Teak asked after they'd made it to the right floor. "Professor Goodwitch said that Velvet was there for a while—was she okay?"

"She was a little embarrassed that everyone saw her getting bullied, but she was pretty okay other than that," Lima admitted, running a hand through his hair. "Dove, Cardin, Russel and Sky all came down and apologised to her after they got chewed out in Ozpin's office—they seemed pretty sincere about it too."

"Even Cardin?" Teak murmured.

"Even him," Lima said with a nod. "That was before you and Jaune got brought into it, though, so I don't know how he's going to respond to that—you're totally glaring at me right now."

"I told you not to say anything," Teak huffed.

"I tried not to," Lima protested, reaching out towards him. "But Bestwitch and Ozpin were doing the good Huntsman, bad Huntress routine on me, and boy, was she bad—"

"No," Teak tried, smacking at his hands. "No—"

"—I couldn't handle the pressure. I cracked. I broke, okay?" Lima said, grabbing him by the shoulders. "I can't go back, Teak; I just can't—that was a smile—"

"Stop trying to be funny," Teak accused, attempting to fend him off. "Lima—"

"A smile means you've forgiven me completely," Lima insisted, shaking him around a bit. "You've given up your life of being mad—I've won."

Teak's determined attempt to maintain the sombre mood cracked entirely as he let out a little laugh—the sound of his own laughter seemed to propel him into a state that was equal parts mad and amused.

"You're so dumb," Teak managed, pinning him back into the wall in an attempt to hold him at bay. "It's not even funny—"

The door to their dorm opened, revealing Lux standing there in her threadbare sleeping clothes, Ozymandias's Journal dangling from her hand—looking simultaneously interested in the fighting that was taking place and annoyed that she'd been interrupted. Claire joined her a moment later, head appearing over the girl's shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Claire asked. "Better yet, what happened earlier—did you get kicked out?"

Teak managed to shove him back and disengage at the same time, breathing a bit heavily from the wrestling and having some trouble actually getting his giggling under control. Lima straightened up against the wall a bit.

"Well," Lima said, still laughing a bit. "It's like this—"

#

Training Field A4, Beacon Academy, Sanus.

Lima scanned the students trickling down towards the edge of the forest and confirmed that, yes, Cardin was, in fact, missing from every single class of the day. Dove, Russel and Sky had made no attempt to dispel the rumours or really engage with anyone about the topic either. Lima doubted that the prevailing theory of him being expelled was really the case because, as much of a prick as the boy had been since the start of the year, something like that wasn't really enough to get anyone kicked out. In a civilian school, it might have been, and Lima knew his own actions would have netted him a suspension, at least in that kind of environment. But in an academy filled with trained fighters, whose explicit job was to put their lives on the line for the rest of humanity—well, there was a little more wiggle room when it came to things getting wild or unruly. They probably had him holed up in his dorm, writing out a million-word essay on why being a prick got you popped in the snout and why he wouldn't do it again—a few days and Cardin would be back down here with the rest of them.

"—no weapons are permitted, and I should hope that each of you has your Scroll on your person at all times," Glynda said, "This isn't quite like your other scenarios, but some of the elements will be familiar to you. I suppose you could liken it to a more structured version of adaptive objectives."

Lima slipped his own scroll out of his pocket and accepted the prompt that had been sent out to all of them through the normal application.

"To wit, each of you will begin the exercise in a team of one and with a single point at your disposal—the strategy you use will inform how you spend it," Glynda said, "Anyone you come into contact with during the forest must be dealt with in one of two ways; you will deplete their aura below the threshold to earn a point, or you will recruit them by spending a point."

"Recruiting costs points?" Weiss asked.

"It certainly does, and while the initial cost of recruitment is a single point, it will increase by one with every additional ally," Glynda said, "The first ally is one point, the second is two points, and so on."

"Is there a limit on team size?" Ruby wondered.

"There is no limit to how many allies you recruit—outside of your ability to earn points being capped at the maximum number of participants," Glynda said, "The increase will make the cost of recruitment quite steep, so you will have to fight, eventually."

"What happens to the points when you join a team?" Jaune asked, holding up two fingers. "Two people at the start have one point each, but it only costs one to form a team—do you get to keep the spare?"

"Whoever sends the recruitment request will become the leader of the team, and they will be in charge of the points from then on," Glynda said, "In the case you just described, the leader would have one point leftover to spend—but it would cost two points to recruit a third member."

Lima thought he had a pretty good handle on the rules, and the optimal strategy was pretty obvious as well, namely, eliminating the weaker members he encountered while saving his points for the stronger ones—which meant that everyone would be doing the same thing.

"The quadrant in which each of you will enter the forest has been sent to your Scroll, so you should begin making your way there now," Glynda said, searching the crowd of students. "As always, I will be watching—so do not attempt to break any of the rules."

Despite his careful positioning, Glynda still managed to meet his gaze through the mess of students. His attempt to fade away and perhaps have her forget he existed had clearly failed—which meant he probably wasn't going to be getting out of the upcoming detention. Teak and Claire had kind of been shuffled out to one side of the crowd, too far away for him to speak to either, so he turned to Lux instead.

"Good luck, brighteyes," Lima sighed, moving towards his assigned quadrant. "No hard feelings if we meet, and I don't have enough points to recruit you—"

"Even if I have points, we're fighting," Lux warned. "What's your quadrant, anyway? I'll come right over."

"Hell if I'm going to tell you now," Lima said, rolling his eyes. "Go destroy yourself on the invincible walls of Fort Nikos."

He left Lux with an entirely conflicted look on her face as he began moving along the edge of the forest. Lima kept an eye over his shoulder to get some idea of where everyone was heading, information that would be good to know once things actually started off. He paid particular attention to the locations of each of the existing leaders—Ruby, Jaune, Teak, Flora and Crane. Cardin wasn't here, so one of his teammates might step up in his place. Ruby, Jaune and Teak were friendly enough to everyone in their class that there was a possibility of some kind of super team forming. Flora and Crane, he wasn't so sure about.

Even without the threat of a superteam, there were certain individuals that were going to be an issue—something that had been exasperated by the power shuffle that had been brought on by the lack of weapons. Pyrrha teaming up with anyone was going to be an absolute pain in the ass to deal with. Ren was highly skilled in close-quarters combat. Yang was probably the least hindered by the lack of weapons and a dominant in-fighter who could probably take down just about anyone in the class. Ren and Yang were still back at the area where everyone had pretty much started, while Pyrrha had gone in the complete opposite direction to the one he had. Lima was sure they would encounter a dozen other people before he ever had the chance to run into them—at that point, they might have multiple teammates—the worst-case scenario being a team with all three of them.

If he eliminated everyone he came across before the teams had a chance to grow larger, he could start saving up points to try and recruit them. By the time they actually met up, he'd be attempting to recruit two or three people at once—something that would cost a lot of points—and there was always the chance that they simply refused to join forces with him. At which point, he'd be on his own and forced to fight multiple potentially dangerous opponents at once. He came to a stop at his assigned entry point and checked his immediate neighbours—Weiss Schnee on the right and Nox Cymbal on his left. He hadn't seen Nox fight without a weapon yet, but he had seen Weiss do it several times—she was decent, but she was far better with a weapon in hand, and for Lima, it was an easy enough point to earn.

"Risk it all on trying to join whatever superteam gets built on the other side and hope they don't say no," Lima muttered. "Or start building a team of my own and then try to squeak out the win by dogpiling the threats?"

A symphony of distant beeps rang out to match the one from his own Scroll, and then he was moving—still undecided about his long-term plan but with his short-term one locked in. Lima cut right, angling to intercept Weiss—a flash of white revealed his target moving forward at a full sprint, clearly trying to get as deep into the forest as she could manage. The colour of her clothing made it all but impossible to hide amidst the trees, but his muted green cloak was far more at home. Still, she caught him on approach, either by sound or by the fact that she seemed to be checking back in his direction every couple of meters.

Weiss hit the brakes, attempted to turn to face him, and lashed out with a kick just as he came within striking distance—he went straight underneath it, taking her leg out from under her and planting her back first into the dirt. Weiss let out a panicked yelp at the impact, more out of surprise than any kind of pain, her aura glowing bright on collision with the ground—she pulled her leg up towards her chest, clearly trying to get her foot on his shoulder to push him away. He pressed forwards, using his knee to pin the flailing leg at the thigh, and then slipped up on top of her, a knee on both sides of her hip, and his fist raised back for the first strike—

"Don't break my nose." Weiss cried out. "I'll pay you."

Lima paused for a moment, wondering if she was trying to buy time to come up with something—but she remained where she was, hands raised in a guard to protect her face.

"You'll pay me?" Lima said.

"I've seen you trying to make more ammunition in class," Weiss said, speaking quickly. "You need gravity dust—that's expensive, but I can get it for you."

Creepy that she had been watching him closely enough to notice, but mitigated slightly by the fact that she wasn't stalking him quite enough to know that he'd already solved that problem. Still, there was nothing stopping him from making a few more spare spikes—and he could probably use some in the glove, too, so he could pull them directly back to his hand.

"You sound like a drug dealer right now," Lima said, weighing the decision. "Free of charge, right?"

Weiss flushed, apparently not too fond of the comparison.

"Yes," Weiss managed. "It's free."

"You've got yourself a deal, dust-girl," Lima said, impressed. "You hook me up with two crystals, and I'll carry you through this test."

Without moving from his place, where he was still pinning her to the ground, he pulled out his Scroll and opened up the menu.

"Can you get off of me first?" Weiss complained.

"Not a chance," Lima said. "Stay."

"I'm not a dog, you—" Weiss protested, glancing down towards her hip at the chime. "I can't reach it."

Lima pushed himself up, reasonably sure she wasn't going to try for any last-second betrayals.

"The Lima-Weiss Crime Family," Weiss said, startled. "Did you name this?"

Weiss accepted the request without waiting for an answer, and he nodded as they officially became a team.

"Of course I did—I was this close to calling it 'Back-alley deals,'" Lima said, offering a hand. "Coming up?"

Weiss snatched hold of his hand with a narrow-eyed glare, and he pulled her back to her feet—he spent a moment watching her attempts to brush the back of her skirt clean, but it really wasn't taking.

"I knew you were going to come after me," Weiss sighed, "If I had Myrtenaster, that would have gone very differently."

"Didn't you get disarmed by a pig?" Lima said, giving her a look of complete scepticism. "You'd probably have dropped your weapon by accident or something—"

"It wasn't a pig," Weiss cried. "You infuriating—"

A voice rang out from the trees, distant but rapidly approaching, and the two of them turned to look in the direction it was coming from—a blur of red burst through the shrubbery and landed directly between them, hands spread out in some kind of pose.

"Weiss, I found you," Ruby beamed. "Blake sent me ahead to scout, so we only have to find Yang now—she's back that way, I think."

If Ruby had already teamed up with Blake, then they only had one point, and since he'd just teamed up with Weiss, they only had one point—which meant that they only had a grand total of two points between both teams. The cost to recruit two people at once was three points, which meant they only had one option.

"Weiss," Lima said, "You hold her arms, and I'll punch her until her lunch money pops out."

"What?" Ruby said, horrified. "We're supposed to team up—Weiss, no—I am your captain—"

It took them all of ten seconds to beat the stuffing out of her—or at least deplete her aura below the threshold—which was kind of baffling, considering how adept her older sister was in unarmed combat.

"You're an absolute menace with a weapon, but you can't throw hands at all," Lima said, crouching beside the defeated girl. "It's a total mystery."

"You both suck," Ruby said, kicking her legs around in some kind of teenage tantrum. "Just you wait until Blake hears about this—this—this betrayal."

Ruby slowly dragged herself back to her feet and set off in the direction of the training field, posture slouched and entirely crestfallen. Weiss crossed her arms at the sight of it, but she clearly looked torn at how it had played out—he was pretty sure that if he hadn't made the decision to intercept her, they would have teamed up after all.

"Could we—we should team up with Blake," Weiss asked, one arm cradling the other in discomfort. "Now that she's on her own again."

"We have the points, so we might as well try it," Lima admitted. "One point left over afterwards as well—thanks to Ruby."

"Alternatively, I could defeat you both," Blake said from up on one of the branches. "For the whole betrayal thing, or whatever."

"Blake," Weiss said, spinning around. "Where are—oh."

Lima turned until he could see her, barely peeking out from behind the trunk of the tree and eyeing them both with consideration. He remembered well enough how well she fought in the forest during their last fight; as far as potential recruits, she was a good choice. Outside of class, there had been little to no contact between them since the whole White Fang revelation, but he had caught her watching him about a hundred times since then. Lima had started to develop something of a sense for when it was happening—or, more pragmatically, that he simply had to walk into a room where she was present to know she was staring at him again. It had created a sort of odd tension, one that he was certain she was feeling far more keenly than he was. Lima had tried his best to assure Blake that she had nothing to worry about from him and that he'd keep her secret—but it wasn't like they really had any kind of history that she could use to properly vet him.

"The Lima-Weiss Crime Family is a force to be reckoned with, see?" Lima said, thumbing his nose at her. "Unless you want us to work you over like we did with your pal, you better start thinking about switching sides—ain't that right, baby-doll?"

Blake raised an eyebrow at the words while Weiss turned on him with her fist raised up in warning.

"Call me that again, and I'll work you over, capisce?" Weiss threatened before turning back to Blake. "He is right, though; we had to take Ruby out, but we have plenty of points now."

"There's even a bit of compensation to be had," Lima said, "Moneybags here is more than willing to grease the wheels—that's how she got me on retainer."

"Moneybags—" Weiss protested.

"Compensation," Blake said, leaning out from behind the trunk. "What's my cut of the pie?"

"Top-shelf, high-end restaurant of your choosing, with all expenses paid for—she's got you covered," Lima said, giving Weiss the finger guns. "Ain't that right, darling?"

"Don't call me that either," Weiss managed, hands balled up at her hips. "Since we're spending my money—I'll take our whole team to that restaurant that Yang was talking about the other day."

"An offer I can't refuse, huh?" Blake said, sounding more than a bit interested. "I'm in."

Lima shot her a recruitment request, confirmed that she had actually joined, and then slipped his scroll away again.

"You actually named it the Lima-Weiss Crime Family?" Blake said, furrowing her brow. "I thought you were—being weird, I guess."

"He is being weird," Weiss muttered.

"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing," Lima said, "Listen, we have one point to spend, but recruitment cost is now three points—unless the next person we run into has two points, it's going to be a fight."

"Almost everyone is going to be in teams of two now, which means the recruitment cost is seven points for a pair—three for first, four for second," Weiss said, furrowing her brow. "Our best bet is to find a pair with someone we want to recruit and then defeat the weaker one."

"Coldblooded," Blake said, "Who's our target?"

"Pyrrha, Yang, and Ren are the top picks," Lima offered, "But the first two are somewhere between A1 and G1—I didn't see where Ren went."

"He was in that area as well," Blake offered, "We could try for Dove—if you two can stand to be on the same team together."

"Water under the bridge," Lima said, unbothered. "You guys see where he entered?"

A shuffle of glances occurred between the three—none of which seemed to indicate any idea of where the boy might have been.

"Our position means that it's unlikely that we will encounter any of them before they have teams of their own," Weiss said, "For now, we should focus on building up our own forces and then deal with them when we inevitably meet."

"Works for me," Blake agreed.

"I'll take point, so first contact will be me going in alone, and I'll work to keep the recruitment target contained," Lima said, "You two are going to work together since the teamwork is already built up—your job is to burn down the extra as quickly as possible."

Weiss seemed to straighten up a bit, relaxing for perhaps the first time since he'd run into her—a few months of existing together on a team had clearly worked to build up the trust between the two. It made him wonder if Blake had actually revealed anything to the girl about her status as a Faunus or if she was still completely underground.

"What if it's a group of three?" Blake asked.

"I'll try to hold aggro on two of them while you focus down the third and then move onto the second when you're done," Lima said, "The effectiveness of this is going to be dictated by the team composition—don't worry about looking stylish, just go for what works."

"Weiss," Blake said, catching her eye. "First strike from stealth, and then go from there?"

"That's fine by me," Weiss said with a nod. "Which direction are we going?"

"Let's clear J1 through Z1," Lima said, setting off in that direction as he spoke. "Weiss, who was on your right?"

"Jaune was beside me, Lux was beside him," Weiss said, "The big boy from Team Flower was after them both."

They were moving at a full jog now, slipping between the trees and scanning the area for colours that weren't supposed to be there.

"Jupiter Wasp," Blake said, unprompted. "Jaune is probably out already—unless the two of them teamed up."

"Lux won't team up with anyone, so she might have beaten them both already," Lima said, "She said she was coming after me as well, so I'd expect her to be the first one we encounter."

"We can't recruit her?" Weiss asked.

"I doubt it," Lima admitted. "Treat her like an enemy."

A splash of yellow amidst the trees, deeper into the forest, caught his eye, and he adjusted his path towards it—he lifted a hand, indicated for them both to wrap around the long way and then sped up. To high up to be Lux, and the pattern was wrong—the person shifted, and he caught sight of the side of Jaune's face.

"—understand?" Lux insisted. "You're going to be one of those things you throw that attracts all the enemies—shit—"

Lima came out from behind the nearest tree at full speed, using the exposed root of a tree to help adjust the angle of his attack. Jaune stumbled to the side as Lux shoved him out of the way, and Lima shifted his head to the side as her hand struck out into the space the other boy had just been standing in. Lima's elbow crashed into her unprotected chest, both of their auras surging to life under the force of it—she barely moved, her booted feet creating twin trenches in the dirt, suddenly far too heavy to move. Lima caught a flash of black and white in the upper corner of his vision, passing overhead before Jaune cried out in protest. Lux stepped forward, pushing off the ground in an effort to erase the distance between them, and he met her charge head-on.

The leading strike missed completely as he went beneath it, one hand catching her around the waist, the other slipping behind her back, linking up as if to lift her off the ground—Lux sank another inch into the ground as she ratcheted up the effect of her Semblance, bracing for the incoming grapple. Lima used his grip on her to drag himself up and behind her, abandoning the hold in favour of stepping on the back of her knee. Lux let out a startled cry as her knee smashed into the floor with all of the magnified weight of her own Semblance and the force of his kick. Lima brought his elbow down onto the back of her skull, and Lux's aura grew bright under the strain of it. He felt the shift in her body as she cut power to her Semblance in an attempt to escape, and then he bore down on her, knee against her back, hand gripping her hair—

"Lux Fulbright has been eliminated," The digitized voice spoke up from her scroll. "Aura Threshold."

"You suck," Lux said, muffled by having her face half buried in the dirt. "I wasn't ready."

"It's the long-awaited revenge for being a raging pervert," Lima said. "Consider us even, brighteyes."

"Shut the hell up," Lux managed, "Tonight, after your shitty detention, I'm going to—"

Lux's scroll beeped before reporting that Jaune had just met his own defeat at the hands of the others—no recruits, but on the upside, they did have three points to spend now.

"Would you look at that," Lima said, messing her hair up a bit as he got off her. "No losers in the forest—out, get out."

"You—" Lux said, attempting to snatch his leg as he danced past. "This isn't over."

Lima fled the scene of the crime before she could get up completely, catching the sight of a dirt-covered Jaune trying to bring Weiss down via an attack of the puppy dog eyes—something that didn't seem to be working very well.

"—thought I was going to die," Jaune sighed. "You didn't even give me a chance to fight back."

"You'll get them next time, J-dog," Lima said, raising a hand in passing. "Let's keep moving; we've got an army to assemble."

They broke off to follow him, and the trio continued on in the same direction, aiming to clear the rest of the quadrants along the forest's edge. They moved through the forest in silence, eyes searching for more targets, but by the time they crossed into W1, they still hadn't encountered another person.

"Anyone who started this far up would have started moving south already," Blake said, "Either they've eliminated each other, or they went deeper to avoid people like us."

"We haven't even managed to find a fourth member yet," Weiss said, furrowing her brow. "If the next team we encounter has a full team—"

A distant voice rang out through the trees, and the three of them turned to stare in the direction it had come from. Lima set off towards it, upping the pace when the other two caught up; the voice came again, louder because of the proximity.

"—the heck is everybody," Nora wailed. "This is terrible."

They came to a stop outside of the cluster of trees that Nora was pushing through, close enough to talk to one another.

"Well, that's definitely Nora," Weiss said, "She's alone as well, which means we should be able to recruit her."

"That's what it looks like," Blake said, "There might be a teammate hiding in the trees waiting for us to approach."

"Gameplan," Lima said, "Weiss, go out to meet her and play it like you're a solo looking for a team—see what she says."

Weiss furrowed her brow at being given an order; she did move to follow them, though, only with much more care now that she was under the impression that she might be attacked by some hidden third party—almost the moment she was out of earshot, Blake spoke up.

"What was the deal with yesterday?" Blake asked, voice low. "That whole thing kind of came out of nowhere."

Lima glanced over at the question and found that her eyes were firmly glued on her teammate's back.

"It really didn't," Lima said, shaking his head. "Considering she was a Faunus, I'm surprised you didn't get in on the fun."

Weiss skirted around a tree to place her behind Nora before deliberately stepping on something that cracked audibly beneath her feet—Nora spun around at the noise, eyes locking onto the girl in white but making no move to attack.

"I wanted to," Blake muttered, shifting at the words. "But there were a lot of people around, and something like that would have drawn a lot of attention to why I would interfere specifically."

Lima just nodded at the words, unbothered.

"Why did you do it?" Blake asked.

"Because Velvet could have kicked his ass, but she didn't, and nobody was doing anything to stop it," Lima said, breathing out a sigh. "An entire room filled with people like you and me—and he was just going to get away with doing something like that right out in the open? At least the kids at Sanctum waited until nobody was watching."

A silence stretched between them, and he sighed again.

"I should have done something to help," Blake murmured, reaching up to touch her ribbon. "If all I do is just sit back and do nothing when it matters—I wonder if I'm really supposed to be here after all."

Without even really thinking about it, Lima reached out and pushed her, just enough to knock her out of her crouch—Blake caught her balance with an extended hand, flat against the ground, before she shot him a startled look.

"I'll let you take the next one," Lima said in answer to the unasked question. "I've got a month of detentions to burn through before I can play the hero again anyway."

"I'm covering you for a whole month?" Blake said, straightening up a bit. "I hope this is a paid role."

"Moneybags is the one with the money bags," Lima said, nodding his head in the direction Weiss had gone. "I've got nothing for you, Blake."

"Figures," Blake said, but she was smiling just a bit. "Eyes up; our mark is approaching."

Nora fought her way free of the brush, untouched and looking more relieved than Lima had ever seen her. Weiss followed close behind, hands pressed against her back and using the shorter girl as a battering ram to cut a path straight back towards them. Nora gave a cry of surprise as he and Blake stepped out from behind the tree to meet them.

"What's it going to be, wiseguy?" Lima said, shaking his fist at her. "You want a piece of the action—or should we get you a ride to the boneyard."

#

Clearing, Emerald Forest, Sanus.

They had just crossed back into J1 when all four of their scrolls beeped—Lima left it to the others to check and kept his eyes ahead of them. They hadn't come across a single person since Nora, and it had already been something of a graveyard before that.

"It's a notification," Weiss said, "There are only three teams remaining—we're one of them, so that means there are two others left."

"The question is, are they small teams or big ones," Blake said, "It would be ideal if they were both solos, but I don't think we're that lucky."

"Do you think Ren is in one of them?" Nora said, "If he is, we're going to have to run away."

"That would be against the rules," Lima said, "If he's still running around, we're going have to bury him."

"No way," Nora protested.

"Yes way," Weiss said, "Nora, what are you going to do if we do run into him?"

"I'll never let that happen," Nora insisted. "No matter what."

Lima glanced back, a bit curious about how she could possibly manage such a thing—and the slightest bit wary of a sudden betrayal.

"How would that even work?" Weiss said, exasperated. "Ren could walk out from behind that tree right now—how could you stop that from happening?"

"I'll break his legs," Nora said. "No, wait—I'd close my eyes; if we don't make eye contact, we don't have to fight."

Lima wasn't sure if he should be impressed by her dedication to avoiding a fight with her friend or confused at the idea of breaking someone's legs in order to avoid fighting them.

"This isn't Scrollmonsters, Nora," Weiss sighed. "If we encounter him, we're going to have to fight—there's no getting around it."

"I don't care," Nora said without compromise. "I'm not going to do it."

"I'll deal with Ren if we run into a team that he's on," Lima offered, "You three focus on clearing the others—if we can pick up three more points, we might even be able to recruit him."

Nora looked torn on whether the plan was something she was down for or against—the chance of bringing Ren over to their team seemed to be pulling her most of the way there, though. There was a distant sound, a sharp crack that seemed to cut through the silence and draw all of their attention.

"Nora," Blake said, "It's that, or we beat him up—you choose."

"Fine," Nora managed, "But I'm not fighting him."

"Good enough," Lima said, already moving. "Remember; Initiate from stealth, focus on one target, and don't hold back."

They cut around into a wide arc, moving deeper into the forest, and the sounds of fighting continued to grow louder—shouts, callouts, and the sound of dull impacts as strikes were exchanged between multiple parties. Lima caught a flash of bright blonde and vibrant red through the trees and immediately curved wider, using a hand signal to bring everyone away from where Pyrrha and Yang were duking it out. Less than a dozen steps had them coming across an odd combination of Teak and Savanna attempting to pincer Ren while Dove seemed to be fighting someone Lima could hear but couldn't see—Claire. That made Ren and Dove on the same team, with the third member being either Yang or Pyrrha. Lima sped up, using the trees to cover his approach—noted the way that Dove's back was now to him, with his guard up high, which meant that Claire was probably looking directly at him—

"Incoming," Claire called out. "Teak—"

Lima swerved at the last second, turned on his heel, and then smashed his foot into the middle of Savanna's back—the tall girl stumbled forward, fell, and then caught herself before she could hit the ground. Ren shifted, rotating around until Teak was between the two of them, and then started retreating towards Dove. Blake and Weiss passed into his line of sight, still circling around the clearing to get behind Dove. Teak switched targets the second he realised Savanna had gone down, charging forward with a battle cry in an attempt to intercept him. Lima twisted, hand catching the boy's wrist during the movement, and then used the momentum to kick the downed girl in the face. Her hand was already raised in a guard against it, but it wouldn't be enough to stop the impact—the hit slipped across the skin of her forearm entirely without resistance, clipping her shoulder and then continuing past her ear.

"Ren," Nora cried out. "Don't make eye contact."

Lima tightened his grip on Teak's arm, reached for his Semblance, and then reversed the direction of his kick, bringing his heel down between her shoulder blades—this time, the hit actually took, and she crashed the ground with a startled cry of surprise as her aura flared up.

"You're kidding me—" Savanna managed.

Teak twisted around as best he could and tried to sneak a hit over the top of his trapped arm, but Lima turned with him, bringing him down on top of the other girl, and pinned him there with his foot.

"Sorry, man," Lima said, "I'll make it up to you later."

"Lima," Teak warned. "Don't you dare—"

Lima stamped down, squishing the two together, and then gave them both another stomp for good measure—

"Savanna Ray has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

—Teak gave what sounded like a frantic apology to the girl he was belly-to-back against and attempted to push himself free, but all it got him was another stomp—

"Teak Fawn has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

"Three points," Lima called out. "Dove and Ren are together—"

He heard the footsteps, but there was nothing there when he checked, and the instant it took to actually make the connection was the exact moment Claire's fist struck him in the cheek. He zeroed his direction out with a burst of his Semblance, taking a bit of extra damage in order to maintain his balance, and then snatched hold of her arm before she could pull it back—his Semblance reached out on contact, outlining her body—and he shifted his head to the side as her free hand came around for a second attack.

"Shit," Claire said as he snatched hold of her other arm. "How did you even know—wait—"

Lima checked the attempted knee to the crotch, twisted her arms above her head until he'd managed to get behind her, and then pulled her into a bear hug. He locked it in and lifted her off the ground before wrenching her sideways. Claire gave a yelp as she smacked into the ground with a thud and again when he sat down on the small of her back, pinning her arms as she reached behind her. The combination of Ren and Dove seemed to be too much for Blake and Weiss to crack open—mostly because Nora seemed to be avoiding coming anywhere near the fight, leaving her to orbit it like there was some kind of active forcefield surrounding the area.

"I've had to beat up all three of my teammates today," Lima sighed. "Bestwitch must be having the time of her life right about now—sorry, Claire, I'll owe you one."

Claire gave a last attempt to thrash her way free as he continued to strike her in the shoulder just enough to deplete her aura—

"Claire Diamond has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

"You definitely owe me more than one," Claire said. "Damn it."

"Who's team is Pyrrha on?" Lima asked.

"Ours," Claire said.

Lima patted her on the back on his way back to his feet and then started forward across the clearing—Nora shifted at his approach, looking like she was half a second away from switching teams.

"Nora, go help Pyrrha," Lima said, keeping his voice low. "If you can take out Yang, we can recruit Ren—but you need to be quick."

Nora passed by him in what was almost a dead sprint, energised by finally finding a way forward that didn't involve actively fighting Ren. Lima made as if to target Dove—who was already looking harried by being the focus of both Weiss and Blake for the last few minutes—Ren broke off from the group to intercept him, leaving the other boy to his fate in an effort to avoid a complete dogpile. Lima hit the brakes before they collided, checked the kick that Ren aimed at his leg, and then shifted to the side—Ren's knife hand passed by his chest, and Lima hopped back a step as the boy moved forward with it, turning the attack into an elbow strike at the new angle. Lima went low, feigning the tackle, and then caught the rising knee with his the flat of his hand—Ren's foot smashed back down into the ground, the direction suddenly reversed, and Lima surged forward, palming the other boy's face. Ren stumbled back a step, eyes wide, but without any real force to it, his aura remained pretty much untouched.

"We've got four points banked," Lima said, "How many do you three have left—"

Ren checked the surprise kick like he'd seen it coming from a mile away and then shifted back again, playing the defence rather than attempting to break through—given the boy was already breathing heavily when they first arrived; he couldn't blame him for trying to conserve his waning stamina.

"We have two points," Ren said, guard up. "It's not enough to combine forces."

"Not yet," Lima said, "But if you can survive the next few minutes—"

Lima surged forward again, and Ren tightened his guard—at which point, he changed direction, cutting straight towards Dove, who was steadily being overwhelmed under the combined assault. Ren called out in warning; Dove turned in an attempt to raise some kind of defence—and then Weiss landed a sliding tackle, taking out his legs. Blake came down on him a moment later, knee first, and pinned the boy flat against the ground.

"Dove Bronzewing has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

"Not how I was hoping this would go," Dove breathed.

Lima twisted on his heel, and Ren aborted his attempt to intercept him, realising he was now facing the three of them on his own.

"Seven points," Lima said, "Ren—tell me you're the leader?"

"You just beat our leader," Ren said, shaking his head. "I'd need to check my scroll to see who it fell to."

"If we're allowed to use the combined team points to recruit, we could take two at once," Weiss said, "Check if you're the leader."

Ren slipped his scroll out but didn't take his eyes off them other than for a quick glance down—at which point he tilted his head.

"Pyrrha is the leader," Ren said after a moment. "You'll have to send someone to ask her."

Pyrrha was on their team? Lima tossed a glance back at where Claire's invisible body had been lying, but he couldn't tell if she was still there or not.

"Lima, you should go," Weiss said, "You'll need to—"

"Nora Valkryie has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

"The plan just changed," Lima said, "Yang, Pyrrha and Ren are now on the same team—take him down."

"What?" Weiss said, startled. "How do you—"

Blake was already moving, cutting around Weiss to get at the boy—Ren made an attempt to retreat, but Lima caught him from the other side before he could get out of the pincer. Ren deflected Blake's leading strike, checked Lima's leg sweep, and then folded as a second Blake kicked up into a handstand on the first's shoulder and then smashed a heel drop down onto his neck. Weiss finally caught up, her front kick landing on the tall boy's chest.

"Lie Ren has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

"Figures," Ren breathed.

"Out of the clearing—Blake is better with obstructions," Lima said, already moving for the tree line. "I'll send a recruitment request, but if it fails, you two are on Yang containment duty—"

"Come back here," Yang called out. "We only want to—uh—rough you up a bit, I guess."

Lima slipped out his scroll as they went and sent a recruitment prompt to Pyrrha—an attempt to see if they could get out of it without having to actually fight, but there was no response. A flash of red caught his eye—Pyrrha, coming in on their left, closer than Yang but not quite able to catch up due to the spread of trees in her path.

"Negotiations have failed," Lima said, cutting left. "Wish me luck."

Lima tried for a circular approach to keep the more distant Yang in his peripheral vision, but Pyrrha moved with him, heading out wide and causing both of them to be pulled further away from their respective teams. He feigned as if to head back towards them, and Pyrrha was forced to actually engage—the fact that she was avoiding it at all left him wondering just how costly her prolonged battle with Yang had actually been. Pyrrha slowed down as he cut back towards her, already settled into a stance to receive him—like hell he was going to get pulled into that trap.

"Think fast," Lima said.

Two meters out, he sent a burst of his Semblance into the ground when his foot made contact, and a spray of dirt washed up into the air in front of him. Pyrrha adjusted her stance to cover her face with one hand, seeking to weather the attack without taking any evasive action—but Lima hadn't stopped moving, and he burst through the mess knee first and at twice the speed of its movement. It crashed into her raised hand, shoving it into her face—she was already moving before he actually impacted, spinning to the side to let him pass her by.

Lima twisted with her, keeping her in front of him as he hit the ground feet first, sliding back a step as she shot forward to capitalise on it. He drew in a deep breath and then let it out as she reached him. With a range-shifting weapon to lead her offence and a shield to cover half of her body, she was an unbreakable force of nature, but without them, she was forced to contend with the struggles of the body just like the rest of the mortals—and while her title had placed her as the Invincible Girl, he'd been fighting an invincible man for most of his life.

Lima stepped forward into her assault, sliding her leading strike off his forearm, extending his opposite hand to brush his fingers past her eyes—the moment of obstructed vision left her looking at the wrong place when he swayed under her follow-up and struck her in the cheek with his defending hand. The attack—that wouldn't have even registered to Sage—sent her stumbling backwards a step, and he followed after her, keeping the distance short. Pyrrha changed tracks entirely, aiming low, seeking to whittle him down using her greater reach and destabilising his footing. Lima checked each hit in turn, the sequence of attacks leaving no space for him to counter—she repeated the start of the chain for the first time, and he shifted forward, caught the inside of her shin on his forearm, other hand extended, fingertips brushing against her ankle—she threw herself back into a handstand, her rising foot barely missing his face.

"Close one," Lima said, straightening up. "Careful though, I almost saw the invincible underwear."

Pyrrha might not have even registered the comment, for all that her expression changed—a blank slate, eyes narrowed in concentration and a glint of something else that was either challenge or a desire to crush him under her heel. Lima kept moving forward, unwilling to waste time when he wasn't sure how well his teammates were going to do against their opponent—Blake could probably extend the fight indefinitely on a battlefield like this, but he wasn't sure they could actually beat Yang without their weapons, even in an unfair fight. Pyrrha lowered her centre of gravity a fraction and then came forward to meet him, not at all shy even after he'd broken through her defences twice already.

Lima met each of her strikes with a deflection, deliberately failed one and then fell into a false retreat; Pyrrha fell upon him in an instant, seeking to take advantage of his faltering—his foot smashed into her thigh, her leg almost buckled, and then he was forcing her back again, eyes searching her body for indicators of where the next attack was coming from. Pyrrha attempted to shift to the side, but he moved with her, and when she met his leading strike with a deflection of her own, he twisted his hand around and latched onto her wrist. Pyrrha's eyes flashed over to the connection, visibly widening at the sight, and he let go in the same instant that she braced herself to pull against him, all of his weight transferring to his left leg—somehow, she actually managed to get her guard up in time as his right foot crashed into it, inches from her face. Still, the force was more than she could handle with such an unbraced block, and she was sent stumbling to the side—

"Weiss Schnee has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

The second he got his leg back on the ground, he spun into a second kick, a glancing hit that caught her in the hip just as she righted herself—then she was coming back at him again. Lima shifted to the side as she surged forward, her fingertips brushing across the crotch of his pants. The startling nature of having something moving so close to his junk ended with him barely managing to maintain his defence.

"What the hell was that?" Lima said, turtling up for a moment. "Did you just try to grab my—"

Pyrrha was speeding up now, falling into the familiar pace and taking control of the fight. Lima felt a sudden pull at his buckle, but this time he had both of her hands in clear view—Semblance, some kind of telekinetic control? Lima stopped retreating, riding the sudden—and far more vicious—pull at his belt buckle towards her and then caught her leading strike in the palm of his hand. His Semblance began crawling up her arm, and he used the contact to pull her off to the side, entirely off balance—her immediate retaliation was to push him away by her lock on his belt. He zeroed out the direction the instant it started to move, and then, using his grip on her arm as a lever, he planted a rising knee into her face—once again, she got her guard up in time to partially block it.

"Yang Xiao-Long has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

Lima slid one of his feet in between her own, sent a burst of his Semblance through the forest floor to rip her feet off the ground, and then shouldered her flat against the leaf litter covering it. Pyrrha fought to stop him from taking the mount and then fought even harder to stop him from crushing what was left of her already low aura. Her long limbs, height, and obscene musculature made it far more of a hassle than he would have expected—but for all of her prodigious skill in striking, she wasn't anywhere near as perfect when she was trapped, flat on her back on the ground.

"Pyrrha Nikos has been eliminated," The digitised voice spoke up. "Aura Threshold."

There was a beep from both of their scrolls before the voice spoke up again, announcing the end of the scenario—and requesting that they return to the training field for debriefing.

"The belt buckle—" Lima managed, fighting to catch his breath. "Really?"

Pyrrha let out a pant of a laugh, her back-to-back and prolonged battles leaving her in about as bad of a state—her hair tie seemed to have snapped at some point during the fight, the mess of countless red threads spreading out around her like some kind of horrific omen.

"I shouldn't have used it—but this hasn't happened in a long while," Pyrrha breathed once she found the ability. "At least, not with someone my own age."

Lima pushed his weight onto one knee and then tipped himself to the side, falling onto his back beside her to stare up at the flashes of blue sky through the leaves above.

"I never really fought a lot of people our age, to begin with," Lima said, chest still heaving. "At least I didn't before I came to Beacon—seems to be all we do here."

Pyrrha brought a fistful of dead leaves up and scattered them into the air above—some of them landed on him, but he thought he could give her a pass after everything that had just happened.

"You really don't fight like anyone else I've ever seen," Pyrrha wondered. "I kept thinking I'd found the path forward, and then you'd suddenly turn it around without warning."

"Everyone is good at something, Pawpaw; you're good at controlling the direction of the fight," Lima said, tossing a handful of leaves of his own up into the air. "I'm good at pretending I'm not."

#

Clearing, Emerald Forest, Sanus.

"She actually tripped over this exposed root, and then I totally managed to flatten her while she was looking the other way—I was hella lucky Yang got her as low as she did," Lima said, miming a surprise punch. "Now I get to take all the credit for defeating the boss monster when I barely did anything."

"You are shameless," Weiss accused.

"I won't deny it," Lima agreed. "What about you guys—you actually managed to down Yang?"

"She was already pretty tired, and her aura was low as well," Blake said, "We were wearing her down—at least until Weiss got caught out."

"Yang wasn't the only one that was tired," Weiss huffed. "It feels like we've been out here all day."

"Big true," Lima agreed, "What happened after Weiss went for a dirt nap?"

Weiss crossed her arms at the term.

"I switched to pure hit-and-run tactics," Blake admitted, "I managed to whittle her down eventually, but I don't feel particularly good about it."

"A win's a win, and we were pretty lucky that everyone was already fighting when we arrived," Lima said, scratching his chin. "Going in fresh was a pretty big advantage—where the heck is Nora though?"

"With Ren, of course, because apparently, our bonds of comradery mean nothing to her," Weiss said, "For everything that could be said about you, at least you stuck around."

"The Lima-Weiss Crime Family has dissolved, baby-doll," Lima said with a shrug. "Sorry to say it, but this was only a temporary arrangement, and I'm way too busy to hang out with you outside of work."

"I wasn't asking you to," Weiss protested, glancing at Blake for some kind of support. "I wasn't."

"Ceasefire," Blake requested, holding her hands up. "I didn't even say anything."

Weiss gave them both the evil eye for a moment longer before dismissing them entirely, leading the charge through the tree line and out onto the training field proper—almost immediately, he caught sight of Glynda, standing before the haphazard array of students, some sitting around like they'd been there for some time, while the rest stood, freshly bruised and battered.

"—that would be everyone, which leaves us only two minutes until you are free once more," Glynda said, "I'll spend tomorrow going over the rest of the accumulated footage, and the start of our next lesson will include a thorough, written debrief on your decision-making process for this exercise."

There were a few groans at the words—mainly because it meant that they'd be in an actual classroom and doing bookwork for once, a rather rare occurrence for a mostly practical subject. Lux looked particularly dejected at the knowledge, the shining ray of hope pulling her through to the end of each day suddenly snuffed out.

"Yes, yes, it will be a theory lesson, and we will be staying inside for the entire time; at least try to show some enthusiasm for the process of learning," Glynda said, eyeing them over her glasses. "There isn't much to be done in the last few minutes, so I'll be letting you all go early—enjoy the rest of your night."

Lima hung back a bit as everyone started to collect their things from the field, doing his best to avoid acknowledging the fact that Glynda was staring straight at him—any hope he had of being forgotten fell to tatters and was whisked away by the late afternoon breeze.

"Thanks for the team-up," Lima said in passing. "Nora might have given us a bit of a hassle today, but you two were super reliable—night."

"Oh—you're welcome," Weiss said, sounding a bit off balance. "Goodnight."

"Night," Blake said.

Lima offered them a wave before moving towards where Glynda was still waiting, her scroll was held up in front of her chest, but she was clearly tracking his progress across the training field—maybe he never had a chance of escaping after all.

"Professor Bestwitch," Lima said, firing off a salute. "What tortures do you have for me tonight—it's not another pleasant conversation, is it? I'm not sure I could handle another one of those."

"I'm afraid the bulk of our time together is going to involve the two of us dealing with copious amounts of paperwork," Glynda said, shutting her scroll down. "I suspect neither you nor I are going to be up for much conversation by the time it's finally finished."

Lima winced at the news and moved to follow her when she turned around.

"Did I get you saddled with a month of someone else's job?" Lima asked, "Because that was totally not my goal."

Lima wriggled the fingers of his left hand in the direction of his team as they passed the three of them by—Lux's face and torso was still smudged with dirt, and Claire didn't look much better. Teak had been insulated from the cold, hard dirt by having Savanna underneath him, so the only thing on his face was a promise of some cruel and unusual punishment that only the Galaxy Brain could manifest.

"No, this is something I would have had to deal with regardless," Glynda said, "This might be the first time I've actually had some assistance with it—I'm just not sure whether that will be a benefit or a detriment."

"I'm not here to mess you up or anything; I'll handle whatever you've got for me," Lima offered in his own defence. "What kind of paperwork are we talking about anyway?"

"I have roughly three hundred entry forms for the upcoming Vytal Festival Tournament sitting in my office—a small portion of the total expected amount," Glynda said as they stepped into the building. "Over the next two weeks, that number will most likely double at a minimum."

"Entry forms," Lima wondered, folding his arms behind his head. "Am I sorting them or transferring the data onto a digital copy?"

"Both," Glynda said, glancing over at him. "You've done something like this before?"

"Sanctum had a bunch of festival days where the civilians got to come to check out the school, and the students were encouraged to set up little stalls, performances or games for everyone to mess around with," Lima admitted, "Sage got hit with all the paperwork when I was a second year, and then because he's a total bas—uh, bad person—he dumped the forms for it off on me."

"The Vytal Festival has many of the same student-driven exhibits, and I can only assume the forms are quite similar," Glynda admitted with a hum. "There will also be another stack of applications for food-related venues—the sale of consumables is something that is closely regulated, so you need to make sure each one is perfect."

"No problem," Lima said.

The door to her office loomed before him, and Lima made sure to enjoy his last breath of freedom before he followed her inside. There were a bunch of different-sized stacks on her desk, and a much smaller pile arrayed on the one he was pretty sure belonged to him. There was also one of the bulky—but still portable—computers set up on one side of it, the projected monitor sitting pretty in the air above it. Lima let the door swing shut behind him and slipped down into the chair without waiting for her to give him any further direction. The application was already up, and a few of the forms had clearly been entered already, so he had a pretty good idea of how to go about it—only the second one was missing a last name.

"There are some optional spaces that don't require any input, but the mandatory entries are as follows," Glynda said, taking her own seat. "First Name, Last Name, Birthday, Contact Number, Guardian's Contact Number, Year, Signature—for the last one, you will need to take a photo of the signature for the upload."

"What do you want me to do about the missing information?" Lima said, dragging the first of the forms over. "Sage had me running all over the school hunting people down—you're not going to make me do that, right? Beacon Academy probably has some amazing, sophisticated method to solve it—"

"I'm afraid not," Glynda said, a bit of amusement in her voice. "I suggest you take notes on who you will be searching for, along with the missing entries—the year will get you to the right dorm building, and then you'll have to knock on doors from there—once you have a substantial amount built up, you can use one of your detentions to actually go out to find the students in question."

"Bestwitch," Lima sighed. "Please don't do this to me."