Striking Green

The first of the preliminary rounds of the Mistral Regional Cup had just finished, with Pyrrha winning it, and Stan, the master of ceremonies, gave his commentary on the match.

" WASN'T THAT SOMETHING, FOLKS?! PYRRHA NIKOS WON WITHOUT A SCRATCH ON HER; IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE A DARK HORSE ON DISPLAY FOR THIS TOURNAMENT."

The crowd cheered in excitement, and Stan continued on to the next round.

" LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE AN EXCITING START FOR THE REGIONAL CUP HERE! NOW ON TO THE NEXT ROUND! GROUP 2, COME TO THE ARENA IMMEDIATELY!"

As the next batch showed up for the battle royal qualifying round, one of the ones that entered was Neopolitan with her new weapon Hush in tow. Her weapon was similar to the one she had in canon, but Silva added a few extra surprises to it. Neopolitan honestly liked Hush a lot because it felt right in her hand. One of Neopolitan's opponents commented on her weapon and stature.

" Heh, look at this shorty waving around her little umbrella."

" Hey, are you in the right place?"

Another one of the competitors asked the tri-colored girl, but she ignored them and was making a plan of attack to win this round. Stan soon started the match.

" OKAY, WITH EVERYONE IN PLACE, LET ROUND 2 BEGIN!"

Before anyone could attack Neopolitan, she used her Semblance to disappear from sight and let the others fight it out while she watches. Some were confused at her sudden disappearance, but that confusion soon met with opportunistic strikes from others, and the battle royal soon turned chaotic. After several minutes of fighting, only one person stood standing. Still, before he could celebrate, getting into the next part of the tournament, Neopolitan reappeared and booked him on the head, depleting his Aura reserves and making her the winner.

Neopolitan was met with some boos from the crowd for hiding until the last minute, but she took it in stride and gave an exaggerated bow with a smirk that irked more than a few people. She happily skipped out of the arena, and Stan then said.

" WELL, FOLKS, IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE AN INTERESTING COMPETITOR AS MISS NEOPOLITAN HERE IS NOT FROM ANY COMBAT SCHOOL BUT STILL WON IN THE END. LET'S MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ROUND OF THE PRELIMS!"

Ordinarily, Neopolitan could not participate in the Mistral Regional Cup because she is not from Mistral. Still, Silva got in contact with the Spider Organization to set up a fake ID for her for this tournament. Soon the next match was underway.

***

At Patch Island, Rose/Xiao Long residence.

Ruby looked a bit interested in Neopolitan as she analyzed what little she could pick up from its design.

" Hmm, an umbrella? No, parasol considering the lining, might be lined with Dust and alloy wiring. Also, the handle and shaft could either be the barrel of a gun or the sheath for a thin sword. How classical!"

As Ruby was lost in her own world, Yang commented.

" Man, that girl is shorter than Ruby, but she really KNOCKED OUT that guy the off his feet!"

Everyone ignored Yang's pun, and Qrow was staring at the screen intently, which Taiyang noticed and asked his old teammate.

" What is it, Qrow?"

" I know that girl, Tai."

Taiyang purposely misunderstood Qrow's meaning and poked fun at him.

" Qrow, I know you like the ladies, but you're probably old enough to be her father. Do I need to report you?"

Qrow rolled his eyes and explained how he met Neopolitan. Taiyang laughed at his brother-in-law being trolled by a "little" girl, and Qrow then pointed out that she knew Silva. Taiyang came to a conclusion and asked Qrow for confirmation.

" Do you think "he" is going to participate?"

" I'm not sure; Tai had has been a few years since I last saw "him," but if he is anything like his adoptive mother, he might have joined to test himself."

Taiyang snorted at remembering his ex-wife and commented.

" Yeah, that sounds like her, alright, but what now?"

Qrow then said, looking at the TV screen after finishing off his bottle of vodka.

" I guess I need to make some plans to head to Mistral soon if I am going to catch him."

Taiyang then asked Qrow looking a bit concerned.

" What if he does not want to go along with your plan for him?"

" I want to give him at least a choice that I didn't have when I was his age."

Taiyang nodded in understanding and focused on the TV to see his "stepson," whom he hadn't seen or known about in years. He glanced at his eldest child in worry about how she will react to learning about him. Yang was teasing Ruby by holding one of her cookies hostage until the next match started. She handed it back to her little sister as the next battle royal started.

***

My name is Silva Branwen, or rather it's my true name since I used a different name to hide my affiliation to the Branwen tribe in this tournament. I soon heard the call for my group as it was the last one, although I might've tweaked the selection process since I wanted a few things to happen, like Pyrrha vs. Neopolitan and me facing Pyrrha in the finals. It wasn't hard. The selection process is already rigged from the start to favor humans over faunus through the tournament mainframe. I just needed the access codes to set things in motion.

Soul Archive is really useful for information gathering since it evolved to allow me to make a copy of memories and knowledge of people I touch while using it. All of my opponents are faunus in this round, while the others only had maybe one or two faunus at most against humans—racism at its finest. Regardless, it doesn't matter to me since all I want is to fight Pyrrha in the end. The host made his announcement.

" WELL, FINE PEOPLE OF MISTRAL, ITS TIME FOR THE 16TH AND FINAL ROUND OF THE PRELIMS. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

I considered making a temporary weapon for the tournament. Still, I decided against it when Raven pointed out that not only had I trained since I was seven, but I had actual combat experience against people and Grimm, so I decided to be a bit arrogant and give my opponents a few handicaps. One, I will only be using CQC with my claws. Two, I will not use any of my Semblances unless I am fighting an actual challenge because it would end too quickly otherwise. Emission will break through most Auras if I use it at full power.

Door to Darkness could force my opponents out of the ring with ease. Well, whatever, let's see if there is anyone noteworthy here. Something odd is happening; all the other faunus are backing away from me. As I looked at them oddly, I asked.

" Why are you avoiding me?"

They look amongst themselves, and a girl with antlers told me.

" We know..."

" Know what?"

I was honestly confused as I wasn't sure what she meant. The girl then clarified what she meant.

" We know that you are strong, far stronger than us."

" How?"

It was the girl's turn to look confused now, along with the other faunus and a boy with a lizard tail, then asked.

" Didn't your parents explain how to listen to your instincts to determine your hierarchy, among other faunus?"

" I grew up surrounded by humans for all of my life."

I had no idea what they were talking about, as Soul Archive didn't provide any explanation from my memories about RWBY. They all had a look of realization, but before they could speak anymore, I said.

" Look, let's save this talk for later. We have a match to fight."

They looked amongst themselves and walked out of the ring of their own accord. Really?! What in the heck is going on here?! Dang it, I was looking forward to a good fight, but whatever, I need to find out what they were talking about before first.

" LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, DESPITE THE STRANGEST OF THE MATCH, WE HAVE OUR 16TH FINALIST, MAI BALS ITSHES!"

A juvenile joke, sure, but still funny to hear someone say that out loud, especially over a loudspeaker.