140

Chapter 140:

Ruby and Natsuki seemed to vanish, their bodies flickering out of sight. Then, almost perfectly halfway between them, the ring seemed to explode with roaring flames and a clap of thunder. Only a scant handful of people in the entire arena had the training to spot the pair of figures colliding immediately before the explosion. Flames, with thorny arcs of lightning lashing through them billowed outwards.

The audience barely had enough time to process what had just happened before a pair of figures shot out from the conflagration. Ruby and Natsuki separated by the smallest of margins, before coming back together, their swords little more than streaks of light between them. Ruby's swords trailed crimson streamers of lightning. Natsuki's swords were wreathed with orange, yellow, and red flames. The air between their colliding weapons crackled and rippled, before exploding outwards yet again.

They separated, Natsuki skidding to a stop, only for Ruby to flash into being behind her, swords crossing through her. Natsuki's torso split apart in two places, before dissolving into flames. Then Natsuki seemed to materialize to Ruby's right, her kodachi slashing through Ruby's cloak. However, Ruby's cloak and hood dissolved into a cloud of petals, revealing nothing but empty air within. A flash of red drew Natsuki's attention to the air above her, and she saw Ruby descending, having rejoined both blades, now swinging Akaibara down with two hands, violet energy coalescing around the blade. Natsuki jumped back away, seeming to vanish, right before the violet-sheathed blade of Ruby's sword would have cleaved through her head.

Ruby's sword struck the ring with a crash of thunder, arcs of violet energy lashing out in every direction. The lashing arcs jumped to the still-drifting petals left behind from her her last evasion, igniting them and sending streamers of energy lashing out in every direction, spreading to cover nearly half of the ring in a virtual net of lightning, leaving no space for escape. Natsuki held up her shorter kodachi in a reverse-grip. The arcing plasma seemed to converge on the steel, the blade lighting up like a torch, though not outright bursting into flame. As soon as it made contact with the lightning, Natsuki let out a shout, slashing across her body with her short-sword, and the powerful attack scattered into impotent sparks.

But Ruby wasn't about to be thwarted so easily, already closing in, leaving brief flurries of petals where her feet had touched the floor, Ibara descending for Natsuki's head. Flipping the grip of her left-handed kodachi, Natsuki reversed the course of her movement, swinging it around to intercept Ruby's sword from he side, riposting with the right-handed sword, slashing up towards Ruby's neck. Her blade merely slit the edge of Ruby's trailing cloak as Ruby executed a cartwheeling flip over Natsuki's head, coming down directly behind her, turning in place to slash Bara at Natsuki's back.

Her blade seemed to cut through Natsuki's body again. However, Natsuki's form abruptly seemed to fade from sight, the girl becoming a blur as she moved around Ruby, her form doubling and tripling, seeming to be in multiple places at once. Ruby flickered as she began to move herself, flashing away from her original location, appearing a short distance away, only for Natsuki's body to suddenly fade into focus behind her, both blades glowing a dangerous orange color, before Natsuki's form blurred again, this time because she seemed to turn in two directions at the same time. Ruby turned to face her, raising her swords just in time to catch the six crisscrossing orange lines that appeared in the air between her and Natsuki. The lines abruptly flared in intensity, then exploded into arcs of flame that sent Ruby flying across the ring, smoke streaming from the edges of her clothes and cloak.

Touching a foot down, Ruby immediately used a brief pulse of Aura to push off, executing a backflip that carried her out of the way of Natsuki's next slash, when the other girl appeared right in front of her, leading with a strike across her body from her right-handed sword. Flames climbed the blade of the sword as Natsuki reversed the course of her slash, gathering at the tip, even while petals streamed out of Ruby's cloak, rapidly congealing into an orb of violet, which swooped around along the edge of her cloak, which had seemed to merge with Ibara's blade, which Ruby brought down and around, before swinging up. Plasma met fire, the two blasts of elemental power straining against each other, before exploding spectacularly, cutting off the two combatants from view once again.

"Holy crap!"exclaimed Yang, having shot to her feet as the very first explosion rocked the ring, the vibrations reaching all the way across the arena, allowing the audience to feel it through their seats.

"They went for broke from the start!" shouted Setsuna, shouting to be heard over the sound of explosions and the crash of steel.

They all watched, eyes darting from place to place in time with the two combatants' movements. They'd all grown able to follow Ruby's speed, especially from a distance, over the course of the time they'd spent training with her and watching her fight. However, this was the first time they'd witnessed Ruby fighting against someone trained in the same Shukuchi that she used, someone who could utilize that same blinding speed as her. Adam and Tyrian had both come close, their impressive leg-strength able to bring them near Ruby's speed, but not quite there.

For Setsuna, Miyu, and even Sasame, the intense beginning of the battle had come as a surprise. They'd expected Ruby and Natsuki to feel one another out through pure swordsmanship first, then gradually up the ante with Manifestation techniques. But this wasn't the kind of exchange they'd expected until near the end of the battle.

The members of SSSN and CPPR still in the stands were shocked. By this point, they'd already seen a great deal of what Ruby and Natsuki could do in their respective matches before. But watching the pair of them clash against one another was a level of display entirely removed from that.

"So this is the Mibu..." Ciel whispered in amazement, her jaw hanging loose.

Of all of them, Pyrrha was the most engrossed, having stood up, leaning forward to the point that she was at risk of pitching forward and planting her face against the barrier. Her eyes traced the arc of every stroke, the flash of every spark of fire and lightning, the step of every foot. Of all of them, she was the one who had crossed blades with Ruby the most times. She'd seen the full extent of Ruby's speed and power, and was able to take in every detail of the resulting fight. Above all else, she saw the absolutely ecstatic grins on Ruby and Natsuki's faces as the pair danced with one another. Her blood sang within her veins, practically crying out with eagerness to take to the ring herself.

One other person had made out Ruby's expression clearly. Jaune smiled warmly, doing his best to keep up. He wasn't there yet, but he could still tell that Ruby was having the time of her life, down in the ring. Everything going on, the festival, the tournament, the issue with the Mibu, all of it had completely disappeared into the background for those two, and now the entirety of their focus was on each other.

Qrow tossed back his head, barking out a soft laugh, following it up with a belt from his flask. "Those kids are putting on a show," he said.

"They're incredible!" breathed Amber, staring down into the ring with wide eyes. She'd used the controls on the windows to zoom in her view of the fight. But, even with that, it was almost impossible to keep up with Ruby and Natsuki, who seemed to flicker in and out of fight like phantoms, clashing furiously, then disappearing again, right as Amber's eyes were about to catch up to them.

I need to really train myself back up, thought Amber somewhat forlornly. She'd recovered her strength, and most of her stamina, but was still a ways from the point of being able to fight at the level she'd been used to. Even then, she could tell that she'd be little match for either of the two girls in the ring. At this level, even her magic wouldn't be able to completely bridge the gap. And that was without factoring in Natsuki's own magic.

"Well, this demonstration should do a fine job of convincing the Council," said Ironwood, smirking. "By the time the dust has settled, I don't think you'll have any trouble getting them to approve the exchange, Oz.."

"That is my belief as well," said Ozpin, leaning back.

"And yet...this is just the beginning," said Kyo, leaning back with an easygoing smile, his eyes darting and jerking about in small increments, easily tracking the movements of his little sister and her friend. "I can tell Natsu-chan hasn't shirked her training in the slightest. Both she and Ruby-chan are fairly evenly matched at this point. As a result, they are going to begin pushing one another to greater heights. While it's only the semifinals, this match may well be the climax of the tournament right here."

"Don't count my daughter out yet," declared Pietro proudly.

"We'll just have to see if Penny-chan can stand up against whoever comes out the winner in this match," said Kyo.

Saphron leaned back in her seat, bouncing an excited Adrian on her lap. The little boy was cheering in his childish way, throwing up his hands and occasionally threatening to bop his mother in the chin. But Saphron couldn't complain. If anything, she empathized with Adrian's excitement. The fight taking place in the ring was just that thrilling to watch.

"Sucks that Jaune's not sitting with us," commented Terra, adjusting her glasses, which had been jolted askew by her jump at the match's explosive beginning. "He could probably tell us what the heck's going on down there."

"All I know is that it looks awesome!" declared Xanthe, grinning from ear to ear.

"And they aren't using an ounce of Dust," added Oriana.

"It looks like the stuff the Mibu can do is pretty dang amazing," added Aurea. "Just how did Jaune land himself a girlfriend this awesome?"

"Probably by being himself," said Saphron with a giggle.

She turned and glanced over at their youngest siblings. All three of them were totally enthralled with the match, completely unable to participate in the conversation, because they couldn't tear their eyes away from what was happening in the ring below. Saphron understood. This was a spectacular display, one that would be hard to top.

Taiyang Xiao Long was on the edge of his seat...literally. When the time for the Vytal Festival Tournament had come around, he hadn't expected to be granted special dispensation to watch it. He hadn't even bothered to request it. Even after he had been told that he could watch the matches, he'd considered ignoring the privilege. It was obvious what they were up to. They wanted him to watch Ruby in action, to see for himself just how strong she was.

The problem was that, no matter how strong Ruby got, it wouldn't change the fact that she'd never be strong enough. Nobody was. Sooner or later, everyone who followed that path came up against the obstacle they couldn't overcome, the threat they couldn't beat, and instead found themselves overcome. There was only one way to ensure Ruby didn't reach that point, and it was to keep her away from that path in its entirety. So it didn't matter how well she did. It didn't even matter to Taiyang if Ruby won the tournament by herself, with one arm tied behind her back. All that would do was encourage her. She'd take more risks, bigger risks, and only find herself reaching the same place as Summer all the sooner.

That was the logic he'd used anyway. However, despite his determination not to, Taiyang found himself watching Ruby's matches anyway. It wasn't much of a surprise to see her triumph in the first two rounds, or even over her opponent in the quarterfinals. It was another thing to see Ruby in action against that unaffiliated girl though. Just from the way they interacted, Taiyang could see that they had a long personal history with one another, probably childhood friends. If he had to guess, this was someone who had been Ruby's friend, perhaps her best friend, during those years she had been hidden away from him. That realization should have been enough to make him despise the girl on sight.

However, that hatred felt dull and perfunctory. Ruby had had friends, back on Patch. However, Taiyang remembered well enough how he'd dealt with them, how he'd ultimately decided that keeping Ruby away from them was for the better, to keep them from compromising her safety.

But Ruby had found new friends. And now, even though they were fighting in the ring, both giving it everything they had, they were grinning so widely that their cheeks must have been hurting. They were having the time of their lives out there. Taiyang couldn't remember ever seeing Ruby wearing a look of such visceral joy on her face, except during her match with Pyrrha. This was Ruby in her element. She looked so happy and fulfilled...

It was frightening...or it should have been. Instead, Taiyang found himself trembling. She never smiled like that with me, even before I... Then again, Ruby had never gotten the chance back then. Maybe if he'd let Qrow train her...

No! he mentally shouted at himself. This is wrong! She shouldn't be out there! She should be at home, with me.

The words rang hollow within his own mind. If she was home, then she would be the same sullen child she'd been before, glaring at him every time he came into sight, refusing to speak to him at meals, hiding away in her room as much as she could, looking for her chance to escape.

But she's Summer's...she's all I have left of her! When Taiyang reminded himself of that, his gut churned. Hadn't Summer's devotion to her ideals, her powerful convictions, been what had prompted him to fall in love with her? Those had been what had brought Summer in to help, after Raven had abandoned him and Yang. He'd fallen in love with that smile of hers, the same kind of smile Ruby was wearing now, a smile that Summer wore under many of the same circumstances. In fact, the only time Taiyang could remember seeing Summer smile wider than that was when she was with their daughters.

My daughters... Taiyang felt a void inside of him. One of his daughters had abandoned him, refusing to even see him as family anymore. The other he had pushed away himself, all but disowning her. They'd even met their godfather, and were bonding with him instead. And for Taiyang, all that had been left was...nothing...

What have I done? What do I do?

From the explosion that had obscured them, Natsuki burst out, skipping backwards, her right kodachi extended in front of her. Flames ignited all the way from the hilt to the tip, before running down to concentrate at the point off the sword, the light and heat intensifying to the point the at the air was already rippling. "Maoen!"

With a roar like the engine of a giant bullhead, fire exploded out in an enormous jet, rushing straight for the dissipating remnants of the previous explosion. The flames melted and tore their way through the ring, burning a wide channel along its length. From within the smoke, which was rapidly rushing away from the pressure wave that surged ahead of Natsuki's attack, Natsuki caught a glimpse of a red figure jumping up to turn her body sideways, going into a spin that sent her cloak flaring out around her. Ruby brought Akaibara around and down in her left hand, the blade seeming to merge with the edge of her cloak, ringing loudly, red winds converging around the blade.

"Kazebara!" Ruby's attack cut right through Natsuki's flames, splitting them around her. Even divided, the separate jets still had enough power to burn their way through the ring on either side of Ruby. As she touched down, she felt the floor shift, wobble, and begin to drop away, as a roughly triangular section of the ring began to separate, starting to lose altitude as the lifters holding it aloft began to lose power.

Ruby launched herself off, aiming for an intact portion of the ring. She half-expected Natsuki to attack, but then saw both of Natsuki's kodachi go flying into the air. Below them, Natsuki brought her fingers up to her cheeks, then drew them out, then down her neck, smearing lines of blood on her skin. Now Ruby could see that Natsuki's last attack had been to buy her time to do this.

Her painting of the Chikewai on her body finished, Natsuki deftly caught her thrown kodachi, the excitement in her eyes intensifying to an almost bestial level. Immediately, her swords ignited, the fire spreading up her arms to wrap around her entire body.

Ruby was more than familiar with Natsuki's Fire Wall, having used the principles of the technique as the basis for her Tenyo no Hana. It was a technique that transformed one's Tempered Aura into a barrier of pure elemental energy, burning with the heat of the sun, yet more solid than steel. If Ruby wanted to, she could cut through that barrier, whether by using blades of wind, or simply removing the Aura she sheathed Akaibara's edges with, and allowing her sword to do the talking for her. However, both of those approaches risked severely injuring Natsuki, if Ruby's technique was off by even the slimmest of margins. Natsuki's Fire Wall didn't supplement her Temper, so much as replace it. Cutting through it would be the same thing as cutting right through Natsuki's Temper, which meant that Ruby didn't dare rely on an approach that would risk cutting her friend directly. As such, with her regular attacks, Ruby could batter at Natsuki all she wanted, but Natsuki wouldn't be hurt by it, and her Aura-level wouldn't dip any.

The wisest approach would generally be to adopt a more conservative strategy. By engaging the Chikewai, Natsuki was now burning directly through her stamina. She was running on borrowed time. If Ruby held back, fought defensively, and simply focused on fending Natsuki's techniques off, she could wait until Natsuki's technique burned through her stamina, and then allow her to collapse when the fight was over.

Despite that, Ruby charged right in, her eyes alight. Now wasn't the time to play it safe. Now was the time to throw caution to the winds, and go at her friend with everything she had, without a thought of worry to what came after.

They'd agreed to make it flashy after all.

Ruby's cloak shined an even more brilliant shade of crimson than usual, lighting up, the light intensifying with each step she closed with Natsuki, the build-up so swift that it looked more like a the strobing flash of a camera to the onlookers, barely discernible from the blur that was Ruby herself as she used Shukuchi to close in on Natsuki.

"Tenyo no Hana!"

Abruptly, Ruby's cloak appeared to detonate with a thunderclap, flashing blinding light throughout the arena, before coalescing into its transformed state, petals that looked like feathers, flickering with lights in myriad colors, crackling and humming, settling into a mantle of solidified plasma that was every bit as solid as the fires that shielded Natsuki's own body. On the screen above the arena, Ruby's Aura-gauge began to shrink steadily.

None of that mattered to either of them, the two colliding head-on, attack meeting attack, fire striving against plasma. Crackling waves of energy and flames erupted upwards like a fountain from where their blades met, the thunder of Ruby's attack mingling with the roar of Natsuki's. The air bent and rippled around them. The ring, already destabilized from the damage done earlier, rocked dramatically.

Unfortunately for her, Natsuki found the ring dipping in her direction. The consequence was that Ruby now had the advantage of elevation, however slight, over her, and immediately bulled forward, following up with an onslaught of slashes that were threatening to drive Natsuki back and over the edge. Natsuki worked her own swords furiously to fend Ruby off. The kodachi was a weapon that was optimized for defense, having earned the nick name "shield sword" for its light weight and its length, midway between the wakazashi and the katana, striking the ideal balance between speed and coverage. Natsuki now wielded both her swords defensively, the blades becoming an almost impenetrable barrier to Ruby's attacks.

The shorter of the two, Yuya; forged by none other than mastersmith of the Mibu Clan, the vaunted Muramasa himself, ranked alongside the likes of Kyo's Tenro in terms of quality; was especially well-suited for defense. Its Aura came alive in Natsuki's hand and, rather than deflecting or ablating the power of Ruby's blows, contact with that Aura seemed to make the power of Ruby's attacks simply...vanish. To Ruby, it was like facing a handheld version of her brother's Genbu technique. It was on a smaller scale, but, so long as Natsuki could intercept her attacks with Yuya, none of the force behind them could be transmitted through.

As such, it was only a matter of seconds before Natsuki turned the tables on her. Making the power behind her attacks disappear made it difficult for Ruby to keep up her momentum. Natsuki quickly found her chance, slashing Yuya across both of Ruby's descending swords in a single, backhanded swipe, making the swords seem to stop in thin air. Natsuki followed through by spinning her body in the same direction, her right-handed kodachi held in a reverse-grip. Ruby gasped, barely having the time to interpose her swords between herself and the incoming attack. Suddenly, three parallel lines of orange light were etched in the air between them, appearing with a trio of rapid clangs against Ruby's swords. The lines of light intensified, going from orange to yellow to white, before exploding, sending Ruby flying back away, all while the ring tilted in the opposite direction.

Natsuki's attack wasn't finished though. Coming out of her spin, she flourished her kodachi outwards, flames lining both blades. "Kaitenju!" The flames exploded outwards, erupting in dozens of fireballs, which arced out through the air, before converging on Ruby, who was struggling to regain her footing. Faced with the incoming barrage, Ruby went into a spin of her own, petals scattering away from her cloak, before flying through the air to intercept Natsuki's bolts, filling the air between them with yet more explosions.

Now the ring tilted in a completely different direction. Designed as it was to host intense Aura and Dust-fueled battles between Huntsmen and Huntress students, it was built with multiple redundancies, ensuring that it could remain aloft and level, even against attacks that would crater and scar its surface. However, the exchange of blows between Ruby and Natsuki, in addition to breaking away a substantial portion of it, were beginning to overwhelm those failsafes. As a result, the entire thing was beginning to tilt and wobble, like the deck of a ship on a stormy sea. Its altitude was also beginning to lower as well.

Riding the arena's tilt, Ruby launched herself up, bringing her swords down from overhead. Raising her own blades, Natsuki seemed to seek to block Ruby's attack. However, Natsuki instead shifted the point of impact to ether side of her. Ruby's swords struck to either side of Natsuki. Thunder cracked, and bolts of plasma blasted straight down through the floor of the ring. Had Natsuki tried to block Ruby's attack outright, she would have been smashed straight down through the bottom, and suffered a loss by ring-out.

As it was, Natsuki had to backpedal, as the floor she was standing on began to give way, due to the damage to either side of it. Still, she countered by sweeping her right-handed sword in front of her, sending a blast of flame at Ruby. Ruby shifted to the side, using a sweep of her crackling cloak to deflect the blast, which rushed out, seeming to consume another portion of the ring somewhere behind Ruby.

By this point, almost a quarter of the ring had been destroyed. What remained only grew more and more unstable as the two combatants traded blows that continued to rock it wildly. Flames and lightning twined around one another, interacting in ways that should have been impossible, were they more mundane phenomena. It was a sight to leave eyes wide and mouths agape.

Sasame laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. "Oh...this is just so silly."

"Silly...?" asked Oscar, glancing sidelong at her. "What's silly about this?"

As he did, he noticed that both Setsuna and Miyu sported similar amused looks, albeit a bit more understated.

"I can understand," said Pyrrha, sporting a smile herself. "They're playing around more than they're fighting."

"Exactly," agreed Sasame.

"The two of them are showing off to each other," commented Miyu.

"They aren't really caring about the most effective way to fight," agreed Setsuna. "Stategy, tactics, conservation; they aren't bothering with a lick of that. They're tossing the biggest moves they can think of at each other without a care in the world."

"Well, it's only a tournament after all," commented Weiss. "I suppose this is the best place to show off one could think of."

Sasame sighed wistfully. "Honestly, look at their faces."

"Yeah," said Jaune, grinning fondly.

Oscar looked down into the ring more intently. He'd been having a bit of trouble following Ruby and Natsuki's movements. But, every now and then, there was a time where they would come to a standstill. It was usually for all of a second. However, in that brief time, he found himself noticing their expressions.

They were smiling so brightly that it was infectious. Even though they were trading blows that could reduce one or the other of them into atoms, they were grinning like they were playing a favorite game together. When he saw them like that, there was no way he could believe that they were taking the tournament seriously. But that didn't seem to be a bad thing in the slightest.

After another explosive clash, Ruby and Natsuki skidded back away from each other. Their moves were gradually growing more erratic, sloppier, betraying the fact that they were approaching their limits. Natsuki's Aura had dipped by a generous margin, thanks to the attacks she'd been throwing out repeatedly. Ruby's was closing in on the point where she'd be disqualified. However, beneath the flames that licked at her body, Ruby could see Natsuki's sweat, see the way her body heaved with each breath she took. Her Chikewai was burning continuously at her stamina, and was beginning to reach its limit. If it gave out, then Natsuki would collapse, regardless of the state of her Aura.

One way or another, the match was quickly nearing its end. Between the two of them, they realized that they each possessed the wherewithal for a single powerful blow, before they wouldn't be able to go any further. However seriously or not they had taken it up until now, this would be the point where the winner was decided.

The ring tilted again, making the pair stagger slightly, the two of them recognizing for the first time just how unstable the platform had become, rather than unconsciously perceiving it as a dynamic aspect of the battleground. Natsuki was especially unbalanced, needing an extra second to keep from toppling over. Still, Ruby didn't have the energy to try and take advantage of that lapse either.

Then Natsuki giggled, before swiftly sheathing Yuya behind herself. Taking her right-handed Kodachi, she brought it around to the other side of her body, crossing her right arm over her chest in the process, pressing her left hand against the pommel, while angling the blade ahead of her, at Ruby, the edge oriented upwards.

"Hey, Ruby-chan," said Natsuki excitedly, "watch this!"

The flames that made up Natsuki's Fire Wall flowed across her body like water, running up to her shoulders and down her arms, leaving her bereft of protection as Natsuki channeled all her fire into the length of her sword, milking every last drop of energy she had left from her Chikewai. From there, Natsuki condensed the flames down at the tip of her sword, concentrating them and intensifying them. Their color solidified into yellow, then washed blue, then white. The fire burning at the tip of the sword contracted, looking less like flames and more like a miniature star, resting at the very tip of Natsuki's kodachi.

Then, to Ruby's amazement, the light began to dim, before disappearing entirely, not because Natsuki's fire had gone out, but because it had ascended to a new level. From within the white spark at the tip of her sword, a speck of black appeared, spreading outward, before emerging as tongues of ebony flame, fire black as ink that swallowed the white light of Natsuki's earlier fire entirely, until it burned at the tip of her sword...black flames that emitted no light, only heat. They exuded a hungry heat that made the air around Natsuki ripple violently, the kind of flames that could burn whatever they came into contact with down to nothingness.

Ruby couldn't stop her jaw from dropping. Her amazement was shared by everyone else in the arena. Here, in front of the entire world, Natsuki was doing something that couldn't be explained through the normal laws of physics. It was beyond normal understanding, beyond anything that fire should be capable of.

Ruby, on the other hand, gaped for a different reason entirely. She gaped because she knew exactly what Natsuki had done. "Natsu-chan, you...!"

Natsuki gave Ruby a shaky grin, betraying just how much she'd strained herself to pull this move off. "I can't do anything fancy with it yet, Ruby-chan. This is the best I've got."

The highest level art of the Mumyo Homusubi Ryu, black flames, the Fires of Hell. Hotter than the hottest, whitest flame, they were something that transcended physical phenomena entirely. Ruby could only feel awe swell within her breast at the sight of Natsuki's achievement. I had no idea Natsu-chan had gotten this far!

Ruby's mouth closed. A second later, her lips pulled back in an eager, childlike grin of pure excitement. Bringing her swords together, Ruby took Akaibara in her left hand, then took a stance that mirrored Natsuki's exactly. Her feathered cloak and hood acted like Natsuki's flames, flowing down her arms, channeling into Akaibara's length, before concentrating at the tip, forming into a crackling mass of pure plasma that stabilized, resembling a star even more effectively than Natsuki's flames earlier. On the gauge above, Ruby's Aura stopped its steady march down towards depletion. A low, but powerful hum filled the air. Beyond being audible, it became a vibration that could be felt throughout the entire arena.

The rippling air around the two combatants formed a visible distortion, like a line in the space between them. They hadn't even begun their attacks yet, and already it appeared that the energies they were wielding were vying against one another for supremacy. Throughout the arena, and across the world, there wasn't a soul watching who could wrench their eyes away from the sight.

There was a subtle change that went unnoticed by everyone in the arena, those watching, Natsuki, and even Ruby herself. Unbeknownst to Ruby, the silver color of her eyes began to brighten subtly. Unlike her normal activation of her power, the light of her eyes did not explode outward. Instead, it seemed simply faintly dye the color of her Aura, obscured by the intense light radiating from her Manifested power. No one noticed and, had she been aware of this, Ruby would have been helpless to explain why or how this phenomenon was happening.

By unspoken agreement, they rushed each other at the same time. Still holding their swords, they thrust outward in unison, launching the gathered energy at one another. There was no artistry, no strategy, nothing more than a pure head-on clash between each other, slamming their attacks together with a roar, the entire arena lighting up from the flash of Ruby's plasma, forming a wave that contrasted with the pitch-black of Natsuki's flames, which erupted up like a geyser, the released energy from the two attacks fountaining upwards, splashing across the force field overhead, adding waves of shimmering green to the affair.

The entire arena rumbled and shook. Audience members reflexively gripped the arms of their seats, as though they expected Amity to start plummeting towards the earth at any second. The lights on the rig exploded in showers of sparks. The inner-ring, already broken and battered, cracked in two, the lifters giving out entirely, the entire mass falling downwards with a cacophony that rivaled the explosive clash that had brought it down in the first place.

Fortunately, though the space beneath the inner-ring looked empty, the broken fragments of the ring were kept from falling all the way through by another hard-light barrier. There had been tournaments before, where an enterprising combatant had thought to break through the ring aat a point beneath their opponent to drop them out. The barrier had been deployed in consideration of just such tactics. But it was doubtful that the designers had ever factored in the idea of someone unleashing forces powerful enough to bring down the ring in its entirety.

The rumbling faded. The audience collectively leaned forward in their seats, eager to see just who the winner of the confrontation had been. There was no question that this was the most spectacular match in the history of the entire Vytal Festival Tournament. Smoke and Dust obscured the view from without. Neither combatant's Aura-level had fallen below the critical line, which meant that they might well still be capable of fighting. However, if one of them had lost their footing and landed on the barrier, that would count as a ring-out. In the absence of the roaring and thundering from earlier, the silence that replaced it was deafening in its own right. There was no sign that the fight was continuing amidst the smoke and dust, which appeared to indicate that it had been decided. How was up in the air though.

Then, finally, the smoke thinned out, giving everyone a view of the results. Neither of them had actually fallen off the ring, both fighters occupying broken and fragmented pieces of the ring, that had landed tilted at angles. But the conclusion was obvious.

Ruby stood on one slanted piece, looking battered and singed, but still standing strong, her sword held out in her left hand, leveled at the prone Natsuki, who lay out on a chunk of the ring that had fallen at a different angle, her limbs splayed out, barely maintaining her grip on her kodachi, which rested at her side, her arm too limp to even try and lift it.

"Looks like you win, Ruby-chan," said Natsuki, giving Ruby a weak grin.

Ruby smiled.

The roar of the audience rivaled the explosion from earlier.

The sounds of the audience were such that no one could hear Port and Oobleck announcing the outcome of the match, however unnecessary their commentary was at that point. They were trying to dissect the match's outcome, but hardly anyone was heeding their words, which had been failing them in any case. The two teachers from Beacon ultimately fell silent, realizing that they were unable to even articulate what had happened in the ring.

Ruby's friends from Beacon and the other Academies all gaped unashamedly at the aftermath of the spectacle, staring as Ruby carefully hauled Natsuki to her feet, nearly pulling herself over to fall on top of her friend in the process. Still, Ruby managed to haul Natsuki's arm over her shoulder, the two of them carefully picking their way across the uneven and broken pieces of the ring to make their way to safer ground, and then to the locker room.

"What just happened?" asked Weiss, regaining her ability to speak for the first time since Natsuki's black flames had appeared.

"Well...that was about the clumsiest ending to a match that I could imagine," said Sasame, looking as though she was holding in the urge to burst out laughing until she cried. "God! If only Keikoku and Shinrei could have seen this. They would scold those two until their ears blistered."

"They just smacked each other as hard as they possibly could," said Setsuna, an uncharacteristic grin on his face. "There was absolutely no grace. They ended it with a pure power-contest."

"Y-yes, but what was that?" demanded Piper. "Fire...flames...they don't...that's impossible!"

Miyu, who'd been covering her mouth, her entire body spasming with mirth, managed to get her feelings under control. "Perhaps we should adjourn somewhere a bit quieter," she suggested. It was a sound idea. The roar of the crowds around them was making it difficult to hear each other speak anyway. "Besides, the two of them will probably be needing our attention."

With that; RASP, RYNB, CPPR, and SSSN all got up, heading back into the arena, making their way through its interior to the locker room. Along with them came Sasame, Maria, and Ashley. Ruby's peers at the Academies were hoping that, once they got there, their questions would be answered.

By the time they arrived, they found themselves waiting once more. Penny had worked to help Natsuki and Ruby into the showers, where the two of them were presently cleaning off, while Penny delivered their outfits to the laundry for washing. Ruby and Natsuki emerged, shocked to see all the people waiting for them. In addition to the four teams, and guests, that had arrived, they'd been joined by CFVY, CRDL; and even ABRN, FNKI, and NDGO. With that many people waiting, the locker room, which had seemed ridiculously oversized for a team of four, was genuinely crowded, there being virtually no room to move about the lounge.

It was hard for Ruby and Natsuki to get through the press of people waiting for them. It didn't help matters that there was an expectant pressure in the air. This wasn't a gathering of friends, here to congratulate them on a wonderful match. This was a group of people who were desperate to get an explanation for the inexplicable things they'd just witnessed. Thanks to Ruby, they were used to unusual displays. Having Kyo at Beacon, and willing to spar with all comers, had also helped. But seeing Natsuki conjure black flames at the tip of her sword had stretched their suspension of disbelief beyond its collective limit.

Still, there were other matters to be seen to first. Ruby and Natsuki had to work their way through the crowd to reach Sasame and Miyu, who were standing at the center of the lounge, in the middle of the couches and seats where participants usually waited and rested, before and after the match. The pair stood tall (or as tall as someone of Sasame's stature typically could, anyway), arms folded across their chests, sporting identical stern expressions as Ruby and Natsuki approached, cringing sheepishly.

Ruby stood in front of Sasame, while Natsuki stood in front of Miyu. The pair of healers shared a glance, before nodding in agreement with one another. Sasame propped herself up on her tail to put herself in reach. Then, in perfect unison, they brought their hands down in a sharp chop to the top of the competitors' heads, executing the move with a businesslike air. Ruby and Natsuki dropped to their knees with a pair of yelps, rubbing their heads.

"Now then, I hope you understand just how absurd that match was," said Sasame sternly. "Honestly, it's a good thing that your teachers weren't here to see that. They would be appalled."

"We're sorry!" wailed Ruby and Natsuki in unison.

"Honestly, so sloppy," tutted Sasame, shaking her head. "The pair of you might as well have just been shooting off fireworks, with how little care you were giving to proper fighting. I'd expect that kind of gaudy, showy display from a pair of novices. But the two of you have enough training to know better than simply play around in the ring like a pair of children waving sparklers on a summer's evening."

"We're sorry!" repeated Ruby and Natsuki.

Sasame and Miyu stared judgmentally at the pair for a few seconds longer. Then Sasame clapped her hands together, her expression switching to a happy beam like a magic trick. "Still, that has to be the most amusing thing I've seen throughout this festival. Whatever else can be said about your match, it can't be denied that the pair of you put on a show."

"It certainly can't, if it's attracted this many eager eyes and ears," said Miyu, glancing around at all the people who'd joined them in the locker room.

Glancing around them, Ruby and Natsuki found themselves blushing profusely at being at the center of attention like this.

Sasame giggled. "Still, let us see to your hurts first. Then we can handle how to address this."

A quick healing later, the pair were resting on the couch, as the assembled students crowded around to hear what they had to say.

As tired as they were, Ruby and Natsuki weren't exactly in a fit state to answer all that many questions. The healing hadn't done them any favors, the pair on the verge of nodding off. As such, it was Sasame who took the helm to explain the nature of Aura-manipulation to their audience. Many of them had already heard the basics, through their interaction with Ruby, or through chatting with the three Mibu on Team MNPS. However, Sasame began to go into the nuances of explaining the more advanced arts that they had seen during that night's match.

"Ah! I remember this!" exclaimed Penny. "Kyo told me about it."

Kyo had explained the concept to her using the notion of the physics of simple machines, the same explanation Sasame used as well.

"Yes," agreed Sasame. "In all honesty, those of you who saw Ruby-chan's matches against Kyo shouldn't be so surprised by what Natsu-chan did. After all, Kyo's strongest techniques are themselves manifestations of an even higher order of that concept than what Natsu-chan utilized in the ring."

"I guess," said Jaune. "I mean, but still, black flames is really out there as a concept."

"Understandable, I suppose," said Sasame. "Those flames, after all, are the basis for the highest order of techniques in the Mumyo Homusubi Ryu. Natsu-chan can only just barely conjure them, at her level, but they are capable of much more than what you saw tonight."

"I gotta say, I'm a bit jealous, Natsu-chan," said Ruby, smiling at her friend. "I mean...I never expected you to get ahead of me like that."

"How can you say that when you're the one who won?" Natsuki grumbled, folding her arms and pouting. "Besides, you can do the Raikoken. That's way more impressive."

"I guess..." Ruby admitted reluctantly.

Sasame's eyes narrowed slightly, a sly smile on her face. In a match of pure power, like their final exchange, Ruby-chan shouldn't have come out on top. When you remove the elements of nuance and artistry, and simply make it a matter of force against force, a higher-order technique will always crush a lower-order one, no matter how much force the latter possesses. The black flame is a multiplier, pretty much impossible to match against the plain addition of Ruby-chan's attack. Yet, somewhere during their exchange, Ruby-chan found a multiplier of her own. Whether or not she can capitalize on that will determine the future of this world, if what Sora-sama and Kyoichiro-sama said is true.

"Damn! Aura can do all this?" asked Arslan, her eyes wide. "How come no one other than the Mibu has ever done something like this?"

"Who's to say that they haven't?"" asked Sasame rhetorically. "Isn't that right, Weiss-chan?"

"That's right," agreed Weiss. "After talking it over with Ruby, I learned that the Schnee Semblance is actually a form of Manifestation."

"Seriously!?" asked Piper, staring at Weiss with wide eyes. "When were you gonna share this with us?"

"Um...sometime," said Weiss, averting her eyes and blushing nervously. "There's been a lot going on..."

"Guess you could say that," said Piper with a shrug. What, with all that stuff with Whitley going on...

"In any case, Weiss-chan and the Schnee family may not be unique," added Sasame. "There indeed might be others in the world who have happened upon similar developments, who have simply not made an impact. Even in the case of the Schnee Family, they chose to call their abilities a Semblance, because that is the framework for understanding how Aura functions in the outside world.

"Because you were taught that Semblances are purely innate, that was what you believed. That is what your training was based upon. Aura is powerfully affected by belief, it being an extension of your inner self. Therefore, because you believed it limited in its capability, it was.

"At the same time, there are those who knew of this potential, and chose to keep this information suppressed, by doing everything they could to close off contact with those of us who knew that truth. For our part, I cannot say that the Mibu were exactly proponents of outreach to try and enlighten those in the Kingdoms about the full potential of Aura, so it is our fault almost as much as those who tried to close us off from the outside."

"But why?" asked Reese.

"Dust," said Weiss simply.

Everyone looked at her with wide eyes.

"Indeed," agreed Sasame. "There are pragmatic reasons for suppression, some undeniably self-serving, while others are benign, however erroneous they might be.

"Of course, there are those, like Weiss-chan's father, who would choose to work to suppress this information to ensure, and maximize, the continued value of the product upon which their fortunes are built. While I have severe doubts that the profusion of these techniques would ultimately lead to the abandonment of the use of Dust, it's understandable that there would be some loss of value. Likewise, it's understandable, if vexing, that there are those who would do anything in their power to prevent even that overall minor fluctuation, simply for the sake of continuing to line their pockets.

"On the other side of the equation, there are those who dismiss such arts in preference for technological advancement, based on technologies rooted in the use of Dust. Such people generally dismiss our arts as primitive, or even outright superstition, believing that indulging the proliferation of such arts as a distraction that inhibits the effectiveness of those who use them."

Weiss nodded, remembering all too well Winter's attitude, the first time she'd met Ruby.

"Is that the reason things between the Mibu and the Kingdoms are so...frosty?" asked Scarlet warily.

"Partially," conceded Sasame. "However, the root of the bad blood between our peoples, and between us and Vale in particular, is that regrettable incident all those years ago."

"The expedition," said Jaune, his voice low. The memory of his father, and the ancestral Arc Grudge against the Mibu was still fresh in his mind.

"Yes," said Sasame. "Truth be told, that was a bungling of epic proportions, on our part as well as the Kingdoms'." She shook her head in disappointment. "If only Makoto-sama had been the one to respond, instead of Mao-sama, then things might well have been handled more gracefully."

"Really?" asked Ruby, leaning forward, Natsuki along with her. It seemed that this was new information to Miyu and Setsuna as well.

"Hmm..." Sasame grumbled under her breath. "Well...it's such an embarrassment that it's almost preferable to pretend that the Kingdoms were the sole aggressors. Granted, the incident was not covered in all that much detail during your schooling yet. I believe that you are expected to learn more about it this year."

"This whole thing with the expedition..." Pyrrha frowned in confusion. "What happened? It sounds like this is more complicated than what Ruby told us about it?"

Sasame sighed. "Well, to be honest, it's not something that's talked about often. Even in the children's schooling, it's gone over rather briefly. Still, these things are always more complicated than they might seem in retrospect."

"Why wouldn't Sensei teach us about this sooner?" asked Natsuki.

"Such affairs are often more complicated than they seem on the surface. Amongst our people, even those who have been taught otherwise, it is preferable to act as though the Kingdoms bear all the responsibility for what happened back then. That's why it is now being taught when you are older, so that the various nuances regarding what happened can be better processed."

"Could you tell us?" asked Ren, leaning forward. "I want to know more about this conflict."

He wasn't the only one. The others in the room were nodding eagerly, interested in learning this piece of forgotten and hidden history.

"Very well," said Sasame. "There's no reason not to, and we still have time."

"Truth be told, the first meeting between the Mibu and those representing the expedition was amicable enough. However, it didn't take long for relations to turn...turbulent..."