20

 Chapter 20: V2C7: A Minor Slipup

A/N: Volume 2 OP: "PEACE SIGN" by Jonathan Young

Shirou took a deep breath to try and steady himself as he quickly backpedaled away from his opponent, his sword gripped tightly in his hands. It was time once again for some spotlight spars in Professor Goodwitch's class and, this time around, it seemed that she wanted to pit the two best students of the year against each other. That's how Shirou found himself standing in front of the whole class and fighting none other than the Pride of Argus herself, Pyrrha Nikos. And he wasn't terribly happy about it.

Of course, Shirou knew that he was one of the very few who felt that way. When the announcement was made, a hush fell over the entire room as the assembled students processed this information before quickly bursting out in murmurs so numerous that Professor Goodwitch had to shout in order to regain order. As the two examplaries of their year, a fight between Shirou and Pyrrha had often been the subject of debate among the students and no doubt a fair number of bets as well. Pyrrha was the rising superstar, the paragon of a true Hunter, the invincible idol who hadn't once been hit during spars, and the mascot of a beloved cereal brand. Shirou was an unknown figure who was the subject of countless rumors, an underdog, had also never once been hit, and had been in a number of high profile scuffles with a criminal organization. This fight was the stuff of legends as far as the students were concerned.

It was a shame for them that Pyrrha was also one of the people displeased with the publicity of their bout. Team JNPR knew of Shirou's "Semblance" in much the same way Shirou and Team RWBY knew of Pyrrha's. Both parties didn't like showing their full capabilities in public situations if they could help it and thus both parties were holding back considerably. An effort was being made, of that there could be no doubt, but Team RWBY and the others of Team JNPR could tell that the two of them were basically playing around. Ruby and Blake in particular, who had seen what it was like when Shirou went all out, could see the relative lack of effort on display.

The fight had been going on for about a minute now with neither party landing a successful blow and Shirou hummed as he realized that he was going to lose. At the level of skill he was comfortable showing using just his sword, his chances of defeating Pyrrha were slim at best. Her advantages were simply too numerous and her skill was equal to, if not greater than, his so there were no real openings for him to take advantage of. He briefly contemplated using Archer's false opening style but quickly put that thought aside. It was made for use with two weapons, he wasn't desperate to win this, and he didn't really want to show off even that much.

With that realization in mind, Shirou charged back in. Even if he wasn't likely to win, he still wanted to give a good showing seeing as how this fight was being graded. If he just forfeited, he'd never hear the end of it from a lot of people regardless of his reasoning.

The fight between Shirou and Pyrrha was brief but, to most of the students, intense. They danced around each other, their blades often passing scant centimeters from each other's skin and sparking where they clashed. Shirou was the first one to land a direct hit with a spinning backfist to her left temple (much to the excitement of the class) but Pyrrha quickly repaid him in kind with a heel kick that nearly sent him flying off of the stage. After nearly five minutes of solid fighting, both combatants were breathing a bit heavily and staring each other down as they waited for the other to make a move. Both were in the yellow and all it would take was one solid strike from either party to bring it to an end.

Shirou tightened his grip on his sword before launching himself at Pyrrha, closing the ten meters that separated them in a second. Having spotted his tell, Pyrrha brought her shield up to block Shirou's horizontal slash but was forced into a front flip when he transitioned into a slide to take out her legs. When she landed, she lashed out behind her with her shield, forcing Shirou to sway backward, before following up with a slash of her own while Shirou went for a stab. It quickly became apparent that she was going to lose this exchange— a straight line is much shorter than a curved one— and she was too committed to her attack to dodge so she instead stepped deeper into her attack and did the one thing she was told never to do, even with her Semblance: she let go of her sword.

No longer restrained by the sword's momentum and with Shirou now out of place to get the full power of his thrust, Pyrrha clenched her fist and nailed Shirou in the jaw with a right cross even as she felt his sword scrape against the Aura over her back. Shirou was sent flying from the impact and landed heavily on his back, sword still in hand as he rolled to a stop. Instead of immediately springing up, however, he just laid there as the siren went off and Pyrrha was declared the winner.

Pyrrha took a moment to gather herself before sheathing her weapons and walking over to Shirou, a hand outstretched to help him up. He looked at her for a second before smiling and grabbing the offered hand as the crowd started cheering.

"Excellent work, the both of you," Professor Goodwitch said after she regained control. "Miss Nikos, you should have no problem qualifying for the tournament. Now, before class ends for today, I'd like to remind everyone that, while the dance is this weekend, you will all be going on your first mission the following Monday. While the missions you all will be able to choose from will be relatively benign, your life could still be put on the line so don't go overboard at the dance." Almost as soon as the professor stopped, the end-of-period alarm sounded. "That will be all. Class dismissed."

OoOoOoO

Outside of the auditorium that served as the classroom whenever they had spotlight spars, Teams RWBY and JNPR, along with Shirou, were talking among themselves as they made their way to their next class.

"You know, I wonder who'd win if Shirou and Pyrrha really went all out," Nora said as she eyed the two in question. Shirou and Pyrrha shared curious glances, neither of them sure of the answer either.

"Yeah, neither of you used your Semblances, right? That'd make it an entirely different ballgame," Yang added.

"Even without his Semblance, Shirou wasn't going all out with just his regular sword," Ruby observed as she glanced at the redhead out of the corner of her eye. While he wasn't denying her claim, he certainly didn't look comfortable, either.

"Neither was Pyrrha. While I haven't seen her go all out, I know she's capable of more than that," Jaune said as he, in turn, glanced at the equally uncomfortable Pyrrha.

"You two held back because you don't like showing off, right? Why don't we go to someplace secluded after class so that way we can see who would really win?" Yang suggested.

Shirou and Pyrrha stopped looking at the sky and ground, respectively, and turned their attention back toward each other. Even Shirou couldn't help but be curious as to how that fight would turn out.

"I have no objections," Pyrrha said as she started properly sizing Shirou up.

"Me neither," Shirou said as he turned his gaze straight ahead. If he got caught eyeballing Pyrrha, the rumor mill would go crazy.

"Then it. Is. ON! Man, it's too bad you guys are so secretive! We could make bank selling tickets to the fight of the century!" Nora said animatedly.

"I dunno about you guys but I'm making bank regardless," Yang said as she sidled up to Ren.

As everyone but the two fighters started placing their bets, Shirou couldn't help but feel like he had just made a terrible error.

OoOoOoO

"Hey, Blake, are you doing okay?" Yang asked as she sat on her partner's bed. It was currently a free period so Team RWBY had collectively decided to spend it lounging in their room.

Blake crossed her arms and sighed, the hint of dark circles under her eyes making the action almost come across as a yawn. "I'm— I'll be fine."

"Ya sure about that? This investigation's starting to mess with your head. You even fell asleep during Shirou and Pyrrha's sparring match!" The past several nights, Team RWBY, accompanied by Shirou, had been trying to hunt down Roman Torchwick and the White Fang with no success.

Weiss, who had been going over her class notes, spoke up, ticking off points on her fingers as he made them, "You can't sleep, you hardly eat outside of breakfast, and to be honest, your grades have been suffering."

"You think I care about grades?" Blake said as she abruptly stood up, jostling the bed in the process. Yang gave out a startled cry and quickly moved to steady her bed as it started swaying. "People's lives are at stake!" she said as she gestured vaguely to the window.

Having confirmed the safety of her bed, Yang reached out to gently take Blake's outstretched hand, "We know and we're all still trying to figure out what Torchwick is up to."

"Thanks to you, we know they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale," Ruby said from where she sat atop her bed.

"And the Schnee company records singled out Vale as the primary target for Dust robberies over the last few months," Weiss said as she closed her notebook and shifted to be sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Don't forget about their missing military tech, too," Yang added, as she slowly stroked the back of her partner's hand with her thumb. She didn't even know that you could feel tension in someone's hands.

Blake extracted her hand from Yang's and practically marched to the center of the room, "But there's still unanswered questions!"

"Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open!" Ruby said in exasperation as she hopped down from her bed, taking care to not hit Weiss.

"You should go to the dance with us," Yang said as she also stood up. "All we're asking is that you take it easy for one day."

"It will be fun!" Weiss said, standing up so she wouldn't be left out. "Yang and I will make sure of it."

"Yeah! We're planning the whole event!" Yang exclaimed with a pump of her fists.

Blake whirled around to face her team, surprise etched on her face, "Excuse me?"

"Team CFVY's away mission lasted longer than expected," Weiss supplied.

"So, Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off. And now we can make sure you have the perfect night," Yang said as she draped her arm across the heiress' shoulders.

Weiss reached over and flicked Yang on the forehead, causing the blonde to yelp and remove the offending appended to rub at it. "And, once it's all over, we'll return to our search, rested and ready."

"So, what do ya think?" Ruby asked with a hopeful look.

Blake looked between the hopeful faces of her teammates and grit her teeth, growling as she struggled to fight down the rising aggravation and panic inside her. "I think this is a colossal waste of time," she said finally as she stormed out of the room. "I'll be in the library."

Once the door was shut behind Blake, Yang practically deflated. "Great," she said sarcastically as she collapsed onto her partner's bed.

"She can't keep going on like this," Weiss said as she leaned against the bookshelf underneath the window and crossed her arms.

"Maybe we should get Shirou to talk to her?" Ruby suggested as she sat down on Weiss' bed. "Those two seem awfully close…"

Yang shook her head as she hummed her disapproval. "Blake is our teammate so we should be the ones to handle it." The trio sat in silence for a moment, each of them lost in their own thoughts, before Yang spoke up again, turning her head to look at her team. "So, you two plan on taking anyone to the dance?"

"Not particularly," Weiss answered first. "Most boys I've met are only interested in my name and status. Besides, none of them have caught my eye."

"What about you, Rubes?"

"Oh, well, you know, there really isn't anyone in particular, certainly not anyone I'd think about asking, so I was just thinking I'd, you know, go by myself!" Ruby had been looking everywhere except at Yang during that and ended it with a nervous giggle.

Yang quickly sat up and scooted closer to the edge of the bed, clearly not buying it. Even Weiss turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Really now?" Yang asked archly. "I could have sworn that there was someone you've had your eye on. A certain redhead who just might be the greatest cook on Remnant, perhaps?"

Ruby's face turned red so quickly that Yang was almost afraid that she'd pass out. "W-wh-what? N-noooo, I mean, how could— noooo, that'd be— I mean, c'mon, Yang! What could possibly make you think that I like Shirou?"

"Well, gee, I dunno, sis. You spend an awful lot of time with him, you listen to his advice more than probably anyone else's, your face is so red that your cloak is about to get jealous, and I'm pretty sure I've seen you undressing him with your eyes a couple times," Yang said, ticking her points off on her fingers.

"I HAVE DONE NO SUCH THING!" Ruby shouted, immediately shooting to her feet, her face threatening to go nuclear.

"Now that she mentioned it, you have been paying a lot of attention to him lately," Weiss added, her brow furrowed slightly.

"Well, sure, I mean, who wouldn't when he has so much to say and it's all so interesting and—" Seeing the looks her teammates were giving her, Ruby growled in frustration as she hung her head in defeat. "FINE!" she shouted, throwing her arms up. "I like Emiya Shirou, alright‽" She sat back down on Weiss' bed and crossed her arms, looking away from her team in a combination of a huff and a pout.

"See? Was that so hard to admit?" Yang asked with a smirk. "So, are you going to ask him to the dance?"

"No! He wouldn't go out with me anyway!"

Yang tilted her head, "What makes you say that?"

"Because Blake's obviously interested in him and they're really close so of course he'd want to go out with her!" Ruby explained as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Yang was proud of her socially awkward little sister for not only picking up on those hints but also, to a degree, understanding her feelings for their redheaded friend. Had this happened not even a year ago, not only would Ruby have not thought anything about all the time Blake and Shirou were spending together, she probably wouldn't have thought anything about her budding feelings for the boy. While Yang doubted that what Ruby was feeling was the real deal, as a first crush, she could do a lot worse than Shirou.

Yang leaned forward to rest her arms on her knees as she smiled at her little sister and leader, "I wouldn't worry about that. Even setting aside what just happened, Blake's relationship with Shirou is complicated and she wasn't planning on asking him out."

"How do you know that?" Ruby asked, actually looking at her sister for the first time in the last minute or so.

"We talked about it the other day. You're in the clear as far as she's concerned, sis."

"Well, maybe, but just because she doesn't plan on asking Shirou out doesn't mean he's not going to ask her out!"

"He might, he might not. Either way, he hasn't yet and you don't know what he'll say to you until you ask him."

"But what if he turns me down? I don't want to ruin our friendship!"

"You won't. Worst that'll happen is that things'll be a little awkward for a bit but then everything'll be fine. Trust me, I know, I've been there. On both sides, even."

Ruby sighed and stared down at her clasped hands for a long moment before shyly looking back up at Yang, "So, I just knock on his door and ask him to the dance?"

"Yup. That's all there is to it."

Ruby was silent for a moment longer. "I'll ask him after his fight with Pyrrha. Wouldn't want to distract him or anything."

"That's fair enough and good on ya, sis. No matter what he says, everything'll be just fine."

"I certainly hope so…"

OoOoOoO

"Trace, on," Shirou muttered as he went over everything one last time, the slowly setting sun bathing the area is shadow. Classes had ended about an hour ago and now, along with Teams RWBY and JNPR, he was about half a kilometer away from the school in the clearing where he had been spending his nights training. About ten meters away from him, Pyrrha was similarly going through the last checks of her gear while the others stood near the clearing edge, waiting in anticipation for what was sure to be the showdown of the century.

"So, are we going to be using the standard dueling rules?" Shirou called out as he finished tightening the straps of his vambrace.

Pyrrha hummed for a bit before answering, "How about we go until Aura break? That way we can go all out with our Soul Surges."

"Risky but I'll agree to it. Ruby, do you mind calling the start?"

"No problem!" the silver-eyed girl said cheerfully as she took a few steps forward. "Fighters all set?"

Shirou traced Kanshou and Bakuya while Pyrrha drew Miló and Akoúo̱, a sword/javelin/rifle combo and a shield, respectively.

"Not using your bow-sword?" Pyrrha asked as she slid into a defensive stance.

"If I don't go all-out from the start, I'll lose without question," Shirou answered as he did the same.

"Ready?" Ruby raised her left hand high in the air as Shirou and Pyrrha both tensed before bringing it down while shouting "GO!"

(A/N: Play "The Stains of Time" from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance)

The instant the starting signal was registered, Shirou and Pyrrha shot toward each other, the speed of their launches kicking up the thin layer of snow that covered the ground. They collided in the center, Shirou's swords stopped by Pyrrha's shield, before launching into a dance of blades and metal with a speed, precision, and power far exceeding their showing earlier in the day. Their weapons were little more than blurs as they shifted between giving ground and taking it so often that the line between their offensive and defensive was blurred to a point of almost nonexistence.

Shirou ducked under one of Pyrrha's swings and spun around her to strike her in the back with Bakuya only for Pyrrha to shift Miló into its javelin form and parry the blow. She disengaged and spun to face him, firing off a few rounds that Shirou parried, before bringing her shield up to block his charge. Shirou brushed aside her shield, surprising Pyrrha as he hadn't fully committed to the charge, and lashed out with Kanshou. Realizing that she didn't have time to fully dodge or block, Pyrrha reached out with her Semblance as she leaned back and watched as Shirou's blade was forced back, its tip ghost across her skin.

Shirou was shocked for just an instant but it was long enough for Pyrrha to counterattack. She slammed the edge of her shield into his collar bone before catching him in the side with her sword and following up with a rising heel kick that caught him under the chin and staggered him back. She shifted Miló to its javelin form and threw it into the center of his chest. As he staggered further back, she called her weapon back to her hand as she launched forward in a spinning strike that Shirou just barely managed to block with a crossguard.

Having regained himself, Shirou carefully fed prana into his weapons, ever so slightly altering their nature, as he pushed Pyrrha's javelin up and over himself with Kanshou while lashing out with Bakuya. Pyrrha caught the attack with her shield only to nearly lose her balance as kicked at the side of the knee she had most of her weight on. Shirou switched Kanshou to a reverse grip and fully pushed away Miló before slashing at Pyrrha's exposed torso. Unable to dodge, Pyrrha reached out with her Semblance once more but blanched when she failed to grab hold of it.

Kanshou tore down Pyrrha's torso, the black blade skimming off of her Aura, before Shirou transitioned into an elbow strike that caught her in the solar plexus. Stunned as she was, she was helpless as Shirou let loose with a vicious combo, not giving her even a moment to regain her senses. Not one to give up so easily, Pyrrha let her body go slack and fell to the ground before transitioning into a backward roll and handspring that bought her the breathing room she needed.

When they clashed again, Pyrrha was much more cautious than she had been before. She didn't know how but Shirou had somehow removed the magnetic properties of his swords. Without that leverage, she found most of her usual strategies impossible but that just made a smile worm its way onto her face. She had been in many battles before against many opponents, several of whom had been out of her league, but this battle? It was different from all of the others. This battle was fun.

Shirou staggered from where Pyrrha had decked him and quickly turned the stagger into a roll to avoid the expected horizontal slash only to be caught by surprise when Pyrrha caught him coming out of the roll with an uppercut, the edge of her shield catching him under the chin and making his teeth chatter as his head snapped back. He tried to backpedal to regain himself but nearly lost his balance when Pyrrha nailed him with a shield bash. The follow-up spinning heel kick was delivered with enough force to utterly shatter his tenuous connection with the ground and sent him hurtling into the woods. He managed to regain himself before he crashed into any trees and caught a large branch with his swords, using the leverage to swing around and send himself into the canopy.

Just as Shirou landed on a branch large enough to support his weight, there was the sound of gunfire a split second before Pyrrha's javelin tore through the branch he was standing on, sending him tumbling down to the ground. He kipped up as soon as he could and twirled around just in time to parry Miló on its return trip to its owner. He spun around again, swords ready to block Pyrrha's charging slash, but he was surprised as she stopped just short of him and instead leaped over him, using a nearby tree as a springboard to launch herself toward him with a devastating overhead slash with her sword. Shirou brought up his own swords in a crossguard just in time to block the attack but he still flinched as the shockwave passed through his body, the snow around them being sent into the air as a veritable blizzard.

The two fighters held the stalemate for a heartbeat, staring into each other's eyes with a mixture of excitement and joy as they tried to get a read on each other. Shirou ended the stalemate when he uncrossed his blades, pushing Pyrrha's up and away, only to backflip as Pyrrha used the moment to lashed out with a spinning kick. Shirou landed first so he pressed his advantage by launching forward with a spinning slash of his own using both of his swords but Pyrrha managed to spring away at the last second, the wind generated by the swing cutting a chunk out of the tree behind her and blowing away the snow that had been sent into the air by her attack.

As Shirou was recovering from his whiffed strike, Pyrrha sent out Miló to take a smaller chunk out of the back of the tree Shirou had damaged before launching into it with a roundhouse kick that sent it falling toward him. For his part, Shirou brought his swords down to the opposite sides, his arms crossed in front of him, and waited for three heartbeats as the tree fell before lashing out with a barrage of lightning fast slashes that reduced the part of the tree that would have hit him to splinters. He then jumped toward the stunned Pyrrha and met her in the air with a cross slash. While Pyrrha managed to block it with her shield, the momentum sent them deeper into the woods. Before they hit the ground, they brought their feet up against the other's before pushing off. Almost in unison, they both flipped through the air and landed on their feet, sliding across the cold ground and kicking up more snow.

As Shirou took a moment to catch his breath and analyze his opponent, he couldn't help but marvel at the feeling welling up in his chest. He had fought many people in his life but those fights had always been one-sided. Kiritsugu, Taiga, and Saber had all been leagues beyond him in terms of ability, even as Kiritsugu's curse left him physically weak, and his handful of fights against other Servants hadn't so much been fights to win but simply a struggle to survive. Even his "defeat" of Saber at the end hadn't been an actual fight but more like an assisted suicide. The handful of martial arts classes he had taken had been on the opposite side of the spectrum with him usually far outstripping his compatriots even without using magecraft.

Ever since coming to Remnant, the story had been much the same. The Forces of Grimm had never really been any challenge individually as it was their numbers that made them dangerous and the handful of humans (or Soulkin, he supposed) that he had faced had either far outstripped him (such as Qrow) or were people he could defeat without too much trouble (as in Ruby and her team). Even with the example of Roman and Neo on the docks, Roman was only a match for him when he was holding back and Roman and Neo together only proved to be troublesome because of Neo's Semblance.

But this fight with Pyrrha? This was different. This was fun. For the first time in his life, Shirou was having fun fighting someone. He was actually enjoying pitting himself against her and trying to overcome her. They were so evenly matched that it was almost scary and there was absolutely nothing at stake. No war of revived legends looming in the background that he had to prepare for. No broken ideal he was trying to achieve or defend. No heartache that made every swing of his sword feel as though he was cutting out his own soul or rage that burned so hot that it threatened to consume him. There was just him and her and this fight and it was so liberating that, if he stopped to think about it, it would scare him. For perhaps the first time in his life, even though the moment was brief, he was free.

Such thoughts were quickly put aside as Pyrrha charged him once more. She drew her sword back to slash at him but let go of it to lash out with a right hook instead. Shirou was about to abandon his attempt to block the slash but was forced to strengthen his guard as the sword continued onward unabated. With his left arm tied up, he dismissed Bakuya to grab Pyrrha's wrist but that action was stopped as Pyrrha slammed the edge of her shield into his forearm.

Unable to stop the attack or dodge, Shirou rolled with the punch and spun around only to go on a wide-eyed defensive as Pyrrha's sword attacked seemingly under its own power, clearly being puppeted by Pyrrha's Semblance. Of course, just because Pyrrha was willing it to attack didn't mean she couldn't attack herself so Shirou was stuck trying to guard against as many as three attacks at once. Against such odds, he had no choice but to use Archer's false opening style to control the flow of Pyrrha's attacks, bringing the battle closer to being back under his control.

Then Pyrrha detached her shield and things got really crazy.

Desperate, Shirou jumped backward and hurled Kanshou at her while she sent her shield toward him. The sword and shield passed each other, barely a hair's breadth separating them, before continuing on toward their targets. Pyrrha grabbed Kanshou by the hilt with a spin while calling Miló back to her as Shirou bent back at the waist. As the shield passed over him, he fed prana into the vambrace on his left arm and gave it magnetic properties before bringing it up and smirking as the shield latched onto it.

While neither of them had fought like this before, Pyrrha's innate talent allowed her to adapt quickly while Shirou switched out Bakuya for a longsword used by a nameless hero to quickly gain the knowledge of how to fight with a shield. As such, when they clashed again, it was almost as though they had practiced with the weapons their entire lives.

Shirou used Akoúo̱ to parry Pyrrha's slash with Kanshou before thrusting with his longsword. Pyrrha stepped into the attack and brushed it aside with Miló before catching Shirou in the bridge of the nose with a headbutt. Shirou staggered back and was forced on the defensive as Pyrrha let loose with a combo that flowed around him like water and practically danced around, coming at him from all angles.

Unable to get a good opening, Shirou dismissed Kanshou at the same time Pyrrha reached out with her Semblance to yank Akoúo̱ off of Shirou's arm and into the snow. With both fighters reduced to just one weapon, the playing field evened slightly but Shirou still at a disadvantage since the person he was drawing from wasn't so skilled at fighting with just a sword and his own skills were insufficient to deal with someone of Pyrrha's skill.

Just as Shirou was starting to look for a way to disengage so he'd have time to project Kanshou and Bakuya again, Pyrrha surprised him by backing away herself. He only had half a heartbeat to be surprised before he suddenly found himself flung into the air by Akoúo̱, which he had unknowingly been standing on as it had been hidden by the snow. Before he could regain his senses, he found his movement arrested and had just enough time to look at the smirking Pyrrha, who had her hand held out toward him, before she pulled her arm back and pushed forward, sending him flying through the woods.

Shirou landed heavily back in the clearing and groaned as he pulled himself up, dismissed the longsword and bringing out Kanshou and Bakuya once more. Pyrrha was coming at him again, a bit more cautiously this time, so he decided to show her a few tricks of his own.

Feeding prana into the metal parts of his armor to alter them, Shirou waited and evened out his breathing while waiting for the right moment. When Pyrrha was the perfect distance away, Shirou hurled Kanshou and Bakuya at her before moving in a clockwise direction. The moment Pyrrha deflected the attack and the weapons were out of her sight, Shirou projected another pair and hurled them at her as well. Pyrrha was forced to stop and focus on defending against the onslaught of hurled weapons as Shirou slowly circled her.

After the sixth set had been thrown and the circle was nearly complete, Shirou charged forward with a seventh set and leapt into the air. While his plunging attack was predictably blocked, he stilled smirked even as Pyrrha's eyes widened when she noticed the six sets of married blades hurtling toward her from every angle. Her eyes widened even further as she tried and failed to control Shirou with her Semblance but she managed to recover in time to physically push him away. While her attempt to defend herself from the onslaught was admirable, Shirou had thrown each of them with just enough power to where they'd hit her all at once. With so many attacks coming from so many directions near-simultaneously, she had no choice but to take most of the attacks head-on, the force of the multiple impacts shattering her defenses and making her drop to her knees while Shirou landed a few meters away from her.

Shirou took a few deep breaths, feeling a little lightheaded after expending so much prana so quickly, and quickly took up his defensive stance as Pyrrha stood back up, this time wreathed in a metallic red aura. Miló and Akoúo̱ began floating as Miló, in its javelin form, slid into a slot in Akoúo̱'s center. "Finishing Move," Pyrrha called as she drew her right arm back and the sword-and-shield combo began to spin rapidly, "Drill Breaker!"

Pyrrha launched herself forward at high speeds, her right arm outstretched as her feet never touched the ground. Acting quickly, Shirou spun and tossed Kanshou behind him while thrusting Bakuya into the ground before projecting a new pair, pouring prana into them until them Broke and elongated until they took on the appearance of angel wings. Shirou crossed the Overedge forms of Kanshou and Bakuya in front of him just in time to block Pyrrha's Soul Surge. Sparks rained off the point were the weapons met and Shirou grunted as he felt himself start to slide back. With a roar of effort and another thrust of her hand, Pyrrha pushed forward with greater force and was rewarded as Kanshou and Bakuya shattered and Shirou and the snow around him were sent into the air from the attack.

Pyrrha slid to a stop and separated her weapons, breathing heavily as she returned them to her hands. She turned around as Shirou collided heavily with the ground and watched in satisfaction as a wave of silver passed over his body. She was about to say something when she took notice of where Bakuya was embedded into the ground. Her confusion quickly gave away to shock, however, as she heard a buzzing sound getting closer. As tired as she was, she didn't even have enough time to turn around before it collided with her back, knocking her down even as a wave of metallic red passed over her.

(A/N: End song.)

"That. Was. So. AWESOME!" Ruby Rose shouted a few minutes later once both fighters had rested a bit. The two teams plus Shirou were currently huddled near the edge of the clearing, the two fighters sitting down resting against a tree. "I didn't know that you guys could even move like that and you were so all over the place so quickly that I almost couldn't keep up!"

"It was impressive," Ren said as he handed Pyrrha a water bottle that she took with as much grace as she could muster (which was to say not much). Blake handed one to Shirou who accepted it with a nod.

"As cool as all that was— and, believe me, it was really cool— there's still a minor problem: We have no idea who won! I couldn't see the end there because of all that snow," Yang said as she walked to the front of the group.

Shirou grimaced around his water bottle before swallowing and speaking up, "My Aura broke first so that makes Pyrrha the winner."

Ruby practically deflated while Blake grimaced. Yang, meanwhile, looked particularly smug and went to gloat but was stopped when Pyrrha spoke up, "That may be true but that attack you launched before my Soul Surge hit broke my Aura right after. Since your attack happened before your Aura broke, I think it still counts. I'd say this was a draw."

Shirou hummed, "Maybe but the agreed-upon terms were to the first Aura break. That means I lose."

"Maybe but I'd feel bad for accepting a victory like that. It was way too close to call a definitive victory and, if we had been using our Aura monitors to officially determine the outcome, the changes would be so close together that they'd happen on the screen at the same time. Thus, the official ruling would be a draw."

Shirou grimaced. It felt a bit like accepting a handout but he couldn't deny the logic of her statement. "Alright, then. I guess we can call it a draw."

"Well, that's just great," Yang said with a harrumph as she crossed her arms under her breasts, "but what about our bets? If it's a draw then nobody won!"

"I guess we'll just have to call the bets off," Blake said, trying to hide her joy at not being out 50 lien.

"Oh, I don't think so," Nora said as she placed her fist on her hips, looking for all the world like a cat that got the cream. "Weiss, if you check the sheet, I think you'll find that there was someone who bet on this outcome!"

Weiss blinked a few times before pulling out her scroll and opening the document that had everyone's bets. "Are you kidding me‽" she cried out once she read through them. Ruby and Jaune both peered over the heiress' shoulders and have much the same reaction.

"That's right! Pay up! I'm queen of this castle and it's tax day, baby!"

Much grumbling and nearly 300 lien later, Shirou still couldn't help but feel like this had been a mistake.

OoOoOoO

Shirou sighed as he made his way to the roof of his dorm building. It was a few hours after his duel with Pyrrha and the other redhead had messaged him asking to talk with him in private. It was a highly unusual request and he had no idea what she wanted to talk about but it made him more than a little apprehensive.

Reaching the roof, Shirou opened the door and squinted as the wind rushed in. Pushing onward, he saw Pyrrha standing near the edge looking out over the rest of the grounds, her hands clasped in front of her waist and her usual ponytail blowing in the wind. Bathed as she was in the moonlight and with her features being softened by the school uniform she was wearing, Shirou had to admit that she was rather beautiful. It was no wonder that she was sought after by so many guys and, for a brief moment, Shirou felt his throat constrict as another school idol took Pyrrha's place, this one with long, black hair tied up in twintails.

Shirou shook his head and swallowed a few times to clear his throat before speaking, "Pyrrha."

Pyrrha turned around with a small smile but Shirou could tell that she'd been thinking heavily about something. "Hello, Shirou. I'm glad you could come. Sorry for asking you so late but this would keep me up all night and now seemed the best time to talk about it."

"That's fine," Shirou said as he stepped closer, "I'm not usually asleep for another hour or so anyway. What's on your mind?"

"Well, it's about our fight today and what you did."

"What I did?" Shirou asked as he tried to not let the sudden skyrocketing of his pulse show.

"Yes. I know you're pretty secretive which is why I decided to talk to you at night. I noticed that several things happened that seemed odd and didn't line up with what you said your Semblance is. Not only did your swords and armor suddenly lose their magnetic properties, you connected my shield to your vambrace via magnetism— I could feel its force trying to counter my own. Then there was the end of the fight. Despite your Aura being broken, your swords persisted. Since Semblances require our Aura to be used, anything created by your Semblance should have disappeared once your Aura was depleted."

Shirou cursed under his breath while pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes shut. He had been so wrapped up in the fight that he had let too much of his hand show. While the first thing was easy to explain away and he could maybe skirt by on the second, that last item utterly violated the rules of how Semblances work and it's not like he had any Dust on him to try and use as an excuse. Not that said excuse would have worked in the first place.

"Oh, no, it's okay!" Pyrrha said quickly as she held her hands out in a placating gesture. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to! I was just curious, is all."

"No, you figured it out and it's my fault for not being more careful. You deserve to know. Just give me a moment. Trace, on." Not bothering to hide anything, Shirou projected a piece of white chalk before bending down and drawing on the roof, Pyrrha watching the proceedings in interested silence. When Shirou was done drawing a series of interconnected runes and shapes inside of a circle, he muttered an incantation, a weak pulse of magical energy that only he noticed spreading out over the rooftop. "Alright, we can talk freely now."

"What was that?" Pyrrha asked almost immediately, her eyes wide and sparkling with curiosity.

"It's a spell circle. The spell I just cast is a two-layered bounded field. The first layer is a simple alarm spell. If anyone touches that door, I'll be silently alerted. The second is a weak noise suppression spell. So long as we keep our voices at a normal level, no one will be able to hear us."

Pyrrha took a half-step back as her eyes widened even further, "You mean to tell me that—"

"That's right. Pyrrha, I am a Magus."