Sudden Reunion (1)

One man stood his ground upon the combat class' training grounds, carrying his new whip, a bullwhip-blackjack hybrid with a wind dust infusion, courtesy of Ruby's design. He also wields a parrying dagger in his offhand, while another weapon, a boomerang, is attached to the back of his belt pack. The nasty-eyed now 20-year-old man known as Natsuki Subaru is dressed in his newly donned combat outfit. Still a tracksuit, but it is a tracksuit specifically suited for combat. Its color can be said to be similar to that of a wasp, fitting for his fighting style, yellow and black instead of his usual orange. Its material is made to withstand stronger impacts and sudden slashes, while still being relatively light and easy to breathe in.

He gets onto his stance, dominant foot in the front and the other in the back, aiming his dagger towards the target in front of him, a young woman. Once an enemy now turned ally and teammate, her clothing still reminded him of the first time they met where he died thrice to her.

Scarlet Blackhall, formerly Hyena, is walking towards the arena. Her face presents a much friendlier type of intimidation, more playful and soft rather than her usual bloodlust. Carrying a single sword in her dominant hand, with her scabbard on the other, she quickly gets to her usual stance.

"Does this remind you of our first time, Barubaru?" She said in a teasing tone, giggling a little upon calling his nickname she gave him.

"Obviously! Also, that tone makes it sound inappropriate, we have children watching!" He said half-screaming.

Within the sidelines, Beatrice huffed, upset at her contractor for calling her a child, "Betty's Subaru is an idiot at calling Betty a child again, I suppose!"

"It's kinda true from the way you act though, Beako" Subaru responded, looking towards her, making her pout even more.

Both Scarlet and Indigo can only laugh as both the contractor and spirit exchange banter. The latter raises her right arm, waiting for the right moment to start the match. This was a practice match, formed by Subaru as per request from Shiro Indigo, his current combat mentor, to keep the entire team sharp in terms of skill and combat capability just before their round in the Vytal Tournament starts.

It began all the way back to the first week after they got formed into a team, and it was one of Subaru's brightest ideas. A team event that was commenced every two weeks during their free time, it was a really genius idea even after so long since the first match had started. He is proud of the progress they're making in terms of getting the entire team closer. Though he had to admit, aside from Indigo herself, only he knows how important a strict training regime is, even Scarlet doesn't know due to her laziness getting back to her after she had recovered from her curse.

As for the Vytal Tournament. It is an event formed to remember the peace treaty that was made at the end of The Great War, this world's equivalent of the world wars where each kingdom fought each other. It caused millions of deaths and a lot of massacring from Grimm due to the sheer negativity of it all. The war was then subsequently ended by the mythical figure known as the King of Vale, who ended it by intervening during the final battle with the usage of a secret weapon that is rumored to be stored within the secret vaults of Beacon Academy. The treaty took place in the island of the same name, Vytal, just north of the continent of Sanus, the Kingdom of Vale's mainland.

The Vytal Tournament itself, however, is an international Grand Olympics-type of sports event that is held every two years, which is a tournament, held by all of the four kingdoms upon a floating and mobile island known as Amity Colosseum.

Symbolically, the tournament battles that unfold in the event itself will represent a reminder to always strive for excellence and never mediocrity. Which Subaru is trying desperately to reach. Even with 3 years of training, a year in Remnant, and two years back in Lugunica, with countless loops as battle experience, it's not enough to meet the standards of both worlds.

Indigo then proceeded to look at her watch before looking down towards the two combatants below her. "Same rules as always: no usage of authorities, magic, and exploitation of clear weaknesses. The winning condition is to put the opponent at 15% of their aura or less or outlast them within the time limit while having a higher aura count than theirs. You two have exactly one minute to finish the match." Said Indigo with a stern voice.

Both combatants nodded, tightening their guard and closing their distance. Beatrice is intently watching as they approach each other closer, before looking towards Indigo who begins to lower her arm as she utters, "You may begin!"

Immediately, Subaru cracked his whip towards Scarlet. The wind dust infusion strengthened the sonic boom of the whip, knocking her backward.

She quickly regained her balance, a less-bloodlusted smile appearing on her face, "Nice one! It gets my blood pumping!" Scarlet said, before deflecting a second strike and dodged another.

Subaru ignored her words, instead of focusing on pressuring her, making sure to not let her get an opportunity to attack. Each strike from his whip she parries. Even with wind dust strengthening his attacks she can easily dodge and deflect them all. Truly a testament to her skill as a veteran assassin.

Though due to a miscalculation of timing on his part, a chance for her to retaliate came forth. A pair of wind blades burst forth from the swing of her blade. Then, she brought forth a crimson javelin from her hands, seemingly out of pure aura, before throwing it at him.

He narrowly dodged one before avoiding another with an aura-powered frontflip. He quickly took note that if any of those hits, he would be done for. Shortly after, he instinctively countered the incoming javelin with a wind dust-imbued whip crack, just before it reached him. "Was that a red javelin I just saw!?" He screamed while appalled.

"My semblance is not called Crimson War Goddess for nothing!" She exclaimed, sending another wind blade in response.

Subaru dodged that as well, "You should've told me earlier, you almost won that fight! That thing was big!" He replied, sending a set of attacks towards her.

"That's what she said! Hah!" Scarlet laughed, parrying his attacks in the process.

As he tried not to laugh at the joke she just said to him, he took a mental note on memorizing her capabilities. Even with her increasing laziness, she clearly knows how to fight well. And he knows that it would end with him losing if he does not change the battle in his favor. So he quickly thought up an idea while pressuring her once more. He switched his dagger for a boomerang, quickly throwing it at her during a short interval between his attacks.

Scarlet dodged it quite easily, but the gravity dust that was present within the carvings of the boomerang began to glow as Subaru signaled it to return, hitting the back of her head before going back to his hand. She was then hit once more by his whip to the abdomen, knocking her off guard before being hit once more by a whip crack to the face. Another strike from his whip knocked her again to near the edge of the room.

Her aura glows with each successful hit done by him. She was caught off guard by that series of attacks, and she clearly had enough of the cheap tricks he constantly brought up, even if those hits were weak and negligible in the short term. She turned towards him, her eyes glaring at him angrily.

Beatrice sighed, "He's going to lose, I suppose," She said on the sidelines. Even with another year of training and huge strides in growing stronger, Subaru is still in the category of the underdog in terms of fighting.

Indigo nodded, "He is going to lose. But nice tricks though, that was smart," She commented. She had noted down the list of skills Subaru had obtained before and during her mentoring, and so far he still fits more to be a support fighter rather than anything else, even his outright otherworldly abilities fit that category.

Subaru is a clever fighter from what she can see for the past year. But aside from his wits, dexterity, and vigorous and impressively strict training experience with the whip, he is still helpless when fighting actual veteran fighters. But perhaps with the current circumstances of their team fighting hunters in training for the tournament, he may fare better overall, but she can't guarantee it.

Scarlet quickly gets to her stance and charges towards him, getting a slice to his aura with the help of her semblance boosting her swing. Subaru was hit hard and got knocked into the air, his aura was halved by that attack. He quickly landed on his feet using a backflip before maneuvering his body to land with a reverse pouncing roll. Next, he quickly responded by desperately flicking his whip multiple times towards her to keep her at bay. Scarlet deflected each attack and threw yet another javelin, which he dodged, before catching the fall of his whip using her sword.

A brief tug of war commenced between them as Subaru struggled to get a hold of his whip. Scarlet grunted, using all her might to pull him towards her. It ended with Subaru forcing himself to release his whip and switch to his dagger, charging forward and throwing the boomerang at her.

Scarlet throws the whip onto the ground before dodging the boomerang both times as it returns to his hands. Then quickly Subaru went for a thrust and a swing with his dagger, which she quickly deflected and countered with ease. A small exchange of blades happened between them as the steel of their weapons clashed. Scarlet had to admit that within a year Subaru had grown fast in the art of swordsmanship, despite him telling her that he has no clear skill in doing so. But it was not enough to even compete with the likes of her on equal footing.

The short dance of blades only resulted in Subaru quickly getting overwhelmed as Scarlet goes for the offensive, as predicted by most people in the room. Clashing their blades for the last time, Scarlet then went in for a kick to his chest before she sent a wind blade at him with a quick slash. With no opportunity to dodge it, Subaru got hit and was quickly driven to the wall, creating visible cracks in the wall upon impact. He dropped to his knees, admitting defeat as he coughed out some of the dust from that crash, his aura then shortly after shattered.

"The winner is Scarlet Blackhall, total knockout with 0% of aura and 15 seconds left. Scarlet's remaining aura is..." She checked her scroll for the final aura meter, "70%. Significant progress from the original 85%" Indigo declared, her almost monotone voice indicating that it had become routine to see Subaru losing to her despite his cleverness. She took some notes that Subaru needs to reach the point where he can survive an actual serious opponent above his weight class, or he'll die.