Competitive (Conti.)

"Pyrrha Nikos." Kyanos said, nodding his head towards the fighter sparring in the arena. "Three time winner of the Mistral Regional Tournament looking to break the record with a fourth. She's an old friend of mine."

"Old friend?" I asked Melanie without taking my eyes off the fight. She fought several opponents at once, much as I had, but for her it was four against one, rather than three.

"She hates him," She explained, sounding bored.

"Why?"

"I honestly don't remember," Kyanos mused, frowning. "It was something about…something?"

"Informative," Ulaan grunted.

"You hurt one of her friends in her first tournament," Melanie reminded, though Kyanos' face was blank. "Third round? That one guy?"

"Need I remind you who made it to the finals?" He asked, shrugging at my look. "There were a lot of guys who got their asses kicked."

"You…" Melanie waved her hand irritated, going quiet for a moment. At last, she suggested. "Broke his arms? Or maybe his legs?"

"You're gonna need to be more specific," He said, again shrugging under my gaze. "You fight in the big league tournaments, that type of thing happens. You lose when your Aura drops into the red, right? Because that means its low enough that you might get hurt if you continue, you see?"

"Yeah," I said when he seemed to be waiting for a reply.

"But the thing is, all that stuff's relative," He continued. "It's based on percentage—how much of your total Aura you have and all that. And that's all well and good if it's between two equals and such, but if it's between someone on their way to Haven and some newbie…well, it's not that hard to knock someone from half-full to empty in one hit. Nikos down there knocked, like, three—"

"Four," Melanie corrected, pursing her lips.

"Four people out of her first tournament like that," Kyanos corrected before pausing to consider it. "Though they were kind of losers, from what I remember. Still, if you knock someone to empty, the rest of the force hits their bodies, so injuries aren't uncommon, even if they suck. You're expected not to hurt anyone too badly, but nobody makes a fuss over some broken arms."

"They made a fuss over this," She shook her head. "There was a lot of news about the Champion's injured friend for a while, remember?"

"No, I don't remember," Kyanos sounded annoyed. "How is it you remember what happened to…whoever, but don't remember what she did to me? You don't see me holding a grudge."

"Well, your father called in a healer to put you back together. Even with the delays, you were up and walking again in a week," Melanie shrugged. "He wasn't. There were complications because of…something and he took a while to heal. I think he might have missed a year?"

"Yeah?" He frowned to himself, looking down before shaking his head in irritation. "God, I still don't remember."

"That's probably why she hates you," I noted and Melanie nodded in agreement.

"It was one guy," He said. "Just some dude from the third round of one tournament I competed in four years ago! And I had a concussion by the time that thing was over! Hell, do either of you remember his name? Or who you fought in the third round?"

"No," Ulaan said, doing his best to ignore the conversation and watch the fight. Kyanos looked vindicated by his words nonetheless.

"Of course I do," Melanie said—probably just to be contradictory, as she fell silent immediately after. Under Kyanos' expectant gaze, her mouth twitched once, twice, before she blurted. "It started with a 'P.'"

Kyanos snickered at that, before looking back at the area and sighing.

"So something like that happened, huh?" He sighed. "God, I feel old saying it, but four years seems like so long ago now. Four years ago, I hadn't even gotten into Sanctum."

Four years ago, I hadn't even failed to get into Signal. He was right; four years did seem like a long time ago. Hell, four months seemed like a long time ago, now, but back then…most of my sisters had still come by home from time to time—checking in on me, they said, though in hindsight they'd probably just been worried that I would be starting Mom's training soon. Of course, that had never happened, because I wasn't…I hadn't been…

God, the memories were so vivid, the feelings they invoked so real, yet that could have been another life it felt so far away. Not even four months and look how much I'd changed, how far I'd come, what I'd done…

Maybe that was why I nudged Kyanos.

"If it bothers you, why don't you apologize?" I asked, the words at once optimistic and vaguely sad. "Even if it's just words and she doesn't forgive you, you can still try, right?"

He sighed, leaning against the railing.

"I guess," He mused. "I'm not used to apologizing for kicking ass, though."

"Think of it as apologizing for making her kick your ass," Ulaan suggested. "Repeatedly. In front of thousands of people. Being in such close proximity to the embarrassment you made of yourself must have been agonizing for her."

"Patty…" Melanie murmured. "No, not…Patrick? Pre…per…? Damn it, I know this!"

"Wow," Kyanos shook his head. "Sometimes I forget how horrible all my friends are. You guy's suck. In fact, you know what? Screw both of you. Jaune, you're my new friend, okay?"

"Uh," I said. "Sure?"

"Cool," He said, even as he frowned to himself, looking concerned. "Also, you can just heal me if she breaks my arm again, so it's fine, right?"

"I suppose," I nodded hesitantly as I looked at him. "Although, you…might want to wait until you remember the guy's name."

"Yeah," He nodded slowly. "It's waited four years, it can wait another day or two. Right? Right."

"Prasino!" Melanie blurted. "His name was Prasino, I'm sure of it!"

She furrowed her eyebrows, frowning.

"Probably."

"Probably?" Kyanos asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Melanie's expression shifted to one of annoyance almost instantly.

"It was four goddamn years ago and I never even met the guy," She sniffed. "I'm pretty sure his name was Prasino and you don't remember a damn thing, so you can go fuck yourself. Go get the shit kicked out of you by Nikos again for all I care."

He nodded quietly, considering her.

"Yeah," He said, drawing the word out. "I think I'll wait to look it up. But speaking of getting broken by Nikos!"

He turned to face me with a smile, pointing at me with a lazy gesture.

"You want to try your luck against the reigning champ, Roma?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"What?" I asked, blinking.

He nodded at the arena. In the time it had taken us to finish talking, the red haired girl had finished off her opponents without taking a scratch and looked no different than she had when she first entered the ring.

"I figured, hey, you're a pretty good fighter; want to try your luck against the champ?"

"Here?" I wondered, though Kyanos just waved the concerns away.

"Everyone knows Pyrrha will take on all comers—if you're brave or stupid enough to want to fight her, she'll gladly kick your ass."

"Even when her tournament's so soon?" I asked. "If she's going for four in a row, wouldn't she want to be fresh?"

He snorted.

"Who knows?" He said. "Personally, I doubt she really cares one way or another. What about you?"

I looked down at the ring. Even though I'd been a bit distracted by the conversation, I'd seen enough of the battle—if you could even call such a one-sided fight a battle—to know she was good. In fact, if she'd won three times, it was safe to assume she'd be the strongest fighter in the tournament. So really…there was no point wasting time, when I could just fight the champion. Winning the tournament didn't mean anything to me, apart from the fun it could bring—but if I could just skip to the best part…

"Sure," I said, leaning forward to rest my elbows on the railing. I nodded to myself after a moment, deciding. "Yeah, sounds like fun. It's really okay, right?"

"Um," Said Kyanos, smiling brightly before looking suddenly uncertain even as Ulaan just smirked, unsurprised. "…You sure, dude? Because, like…I want to see this. A lot. But as your newly appointed friend, I feel like I should warn you before letting you run headlong into danger. Because I got my ass kicked by both of you, but she kicked it a lot harder."

"So you were gonna just throw him to the wolves before?" Melanie asked, rolling her eyes.

"Nah, I like him," Kyanos said, punching my shoulder. "I'd have given him fair warning before setting up the camera and placing bets—but you've gotta get pounded into the ground by Nikos at least once. It's tradition."

Ulaan and Melanie both frowned at the apparent reminder.

"Besides, I can't very well throw a wolf to the wolves, can I, Roma?" He asked, looking at my again and glancing me up and down. "Yeah—you're a healer; you'll be fine. And you were holding back some, right?"

I shrugged.

"Maybe a little bit," I said.

"That's the spirit," He nudged me again. "The sons of the Families can't coast through life on our stunning good looks alone, right?"

"That is sadly true," Ulaan admitted, lifting a hand in concession.

I smiled a bit at that, even while Melanie rolled her eyes.

"But you're sure?" Kyanos asked me.

I looked out into the area, contemplatively.

The Invincible Girl

LV47

Pyrrha Nikos

"Yeah," I said. "I'm sure."

He looked me over one more time and nodded sharply.

"Hey, Nikos!" He suddenly shouted before extending his hands as if to present me. "A challenger has appeared!"

XxXXxX