Challenging Green

I, Silva Branwen, am currently at the condo with Neopolitan and Emerald near me. I spent a day shopping with Emerald to ensure she had all the necessities, and she is now wearing a green tank top that exposed her midriff with skinny white pants and brown chaps over them. She stood a bit taller now, thanks to the heels she picked out to break into and get used to. Neopolitan also had a new outfit; her's was a white tailcoat over a pink top and tight, form-fitting pants plus two colored white and black high heel boots.

I looked over them and asked.

" Are you two ready?"

Neopolitan nodded with a smirk, and Emerald replied.

" Let's go already, Silva."

I am not sure what the conflict between her and Melanie is, but I can't expect everyone to get along, I guess. I opened a portal to Raven and went through it first and saw a sight I hadn't seen before. Raven was reading a book or, more specifically, one of my books, Heaven Defying Demon Empress. She glanced up from her book and greeted me.

" Welcome back, Silva. Anything interesting happened in Vale?"

I answered her question bluntly.

" A few things, but more importantly, we have guests."

Emerald and Neopolitan came through the portal next, and I introduced them to Raven.

" The minty one is Emerald, who I picked up from Upper Cairn to check something, and ice cream here is Neopolitan, who wants to join in on the fun at the Mistral Regional Cup."

Emerald looked at the former bandit with a guarded expression and asked me.

" Who's she?"

" This is my adoptive mother, Raven Branwen, and just as a warning, I'm looking at you, Neopolitan. Don't start a fight with her; you will lose."

Neopolitan appraised Raven and then slowly nodded in agreement. Emerald looked at our surroundings and asked.

" Where are we?"

" On my airship near Mistral, let's set some ground rules first."

Emerald focused on me, and Neopolitan just rolled her eyes at me as I told them.

" First off, be careful of the lower sections of Mistral. The Spider Organization runs them with an iron fist; you can't steal or cause trouble without going through them first."

" Okay, anything else?"

Emerald agreed, and Neopolitan nodded as I continued.

" Secondly, if you want to explore Mistral, let me know so I can either show you around or arrange a pickup time for you to come back."

" I'll take you up on that, Silva; I have only heard of Mistral in rumors and hearsay, so I don't know where to start."

The tri-colored girl waved at me to get my attention and made some fighting motions, and I guessed what she wanted.

" You want to know when the tournament starts?"

Neopolitan nodded in reply, and I offered her.

" How about we get you a decent weapon first? You can't be expected to fight with an umbrella. Let's rent out a forge, and I will make what you want."

This is a peace offering to Neopolitan to make her less upset with me about tanning her hide plus, I figure thanks to me getting Roman killed, she didn't get her iconic weapon Hush. Neopolitan looked excited at my offer, and I made the same offer to Emerald.

" What about you, Emerald? Do you want a custom weapon as well?"

" I... guess so?"

Before I made any further plans, Raven told me.

" Since you are heading out, get some maintenance done on Omen for me. Oh, and when are you going to finish your next book?"

" Sure, and which book do you mean?"

Raven held up the book she was reading, book 2 of my cultivation novel. Emerald seeing this, asked me in surprise.

" You write?!"

" Is it really that surprising?"

I couldn't help but ask as I kept on getting this reaction for some reason. Emerald took a look at the book Raven was holding and read the title out loud.

" Heaven Defying Demon Empress, volume two by Snow Morningstar."

Emerald then asked Raven looking a bit confused.

" Um, why did you ask him when he was going to finish his next book? I mean, he's not the author on the cover."

Raven looked at Emerald and enlightened her.

" First off, Silva here has the manuscripts of this series and Harry Potter here in his airship. Secondly, Silva uses a pen name to avoid attracting attention, right?"

Raven directed her question at me, and I nodded in reply. Emerald then looked at me skeptically and asked.

" Your, Snow Morningstar?"

" In the flesh, but do keep quiet about it. I rather not deal with rabid fans since I am getting dumped with fan mail when I swing by my publisher."

Neopolitan conjured a sign with her Semblance that said while grinning at me.

" Prove it!"

I took out my latest manuscript for Harry Potter that I had on hand and handed it to Emerald. She read the first few pages and asked me incredulously.

" Harry has a godfather?!"

It looks like I am meeting my first fan; go figure. I do recall that Emerald was a bit of a reader in RWBY, so I wondered to myself if Blake has read any of my books at all as well.

***

Within Mistral, the Kaze Arena was abuzz with activity for the Mistral Regional Cup.

" LADY AND GENTLEMEN, I WELCOME YOU TO ANOTHER MISTRAL REGIONAL CUP! WE HAVE CONTESTANTS FROM ALL ACROSS ANIMA HERE TODAY, SOME FROM COMBAT SCHOOLS AND OTHERS COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK TO JOIN US HERE TODAY! MY NAME IS STAN, AND I WILL BE YOUR HOST FOR THIS TOURNAMENT, LET THE PRELIMS BEGIN!"

The crowd at the stands cheered loudly as the preliminary rounds were a free for all for a dozen or so at a time. As the first preliminary round got ready, one girl stood out from the rest. She was only thirteen, and this was her first tournament. Her fiery red drew the eye; she was a beautiful girl with bright green eyes and a snowy complexion, and a toned body. She was already developing some womanly curves at her age, but that aside, her weapons of choice were a circular shield and a javelin. She had yet to design her custom weapons as a huntress-in-training.

The red-haired girl encouraged herself as the preliminary round was about to start.

" Alright, Pyrrha, your here, now do your best. Win or lose."

This is Pyrrha Nikos, the soon-to-be-known Invincible Girl making her debut. She gripped her weapons and got her Semblance ready to start her first of many victories. The games began.

***

Over at Patch Island, Ruby Rose called out to her family excitedly.

" Dad, Uncle Qrow, Yang, it's starting!"

Ruby was sitting in front of the TV in the living room, getting ready to watch the Mistral Regional Cup. Ruby really does not care about the fighting so much but rather the weapons that are used in the matches. Yang came into the living room first and asked her weapon fanatic of a sister with a wry grin.

" See anything you like Rubes?"

" Most of the weapons I have already seen before are in this match, plus there are some simple basic weapons here and there. I can't wait to make my own weapon!"

Yang chuckled at her sister's enthusiasm and took a seat. Taiyang came in carrying snacks and said.

" I got popcorn!"

In a burst of rose petals, the cookies Taiyang had were taken by his youngest child. He sighed but wryly smiled at her antics since it was expected anyway, so he didn't mind since the cookies were for Ruby. He handed his eldest a bag of popcorn and her favorite drink.

" Popcorn, no butter with a strawberry sunrise, no ice."

" Thanks, dad."

Yang took her drink and snack as she thanked her father. Taiyang then took a seat on the couch, and Qrow showed up with a couple of bottles of different kinds of alcohol. Qrow had already started drinking and asked his old teammate.

" Who do you think has the best shot at winning this thing, Tai?"

" Hard to say, but unless the fresh blood is exceptionally talented, it's probably going to be someone who is in their final year at combat school."

Qrow grunted in agreement and started to relax with the family. Speaking of family, despite Silva being in Vale for a few days, Qrow completely missed him, much to his disappointment, but he figured that if he kept his ears open, he would hear about him again soon since Silva had a few things under his name in Vale. Only time will tell.