Capítulo 700: 43
Chapter 43:
When Ruby and Pyrrha arrived at the news station, the very last thing they expected was for Lisa Lavender to greet them with an apology.
"I'm so sorry," she said. "Using the information I found like that was my idea."
"You obviously knew it was wrong," Pyrrha noted. "That's practically blackmail."
Lisa's expression remained apologetic. "I figured it might be better than the alternative. One way or another, my bosses wanted more out of this story. The obvious route would be to follow up on the information I had and go after your father, Ms. Rose. But, considering that you ran away from home, I figured that wouldn't go over well with you...or at least, it would go over better to ask you to give your side of the story."
Ruby blinked. She was surprised that such consideration had gone into what had been a rather dastardly move. It didn't really change the fact that Lisa's approach had been low. But she at least had good intentions...and hadn't used them as paving on the road to Hell...Purgatory maybe, but not Hell.
"Well...I'm okay," said Ruby, sighing. "I'd rather not bother with this, but..."
"I know," said Lisa sadly. "I'd rather move onto real news, but this is what we have now. I don't get as much freedom to choose the stories I want to cover as I'd like, so..." She shrugged in defeat.
"Well, no point in crying over spilled milk now," said Pyrrha.
"That being said, let's get you situated," said Lisa, leading them into the studio where their interview would be shot. It was a surprisingly plain room, with little to distract from the discussion that would be taking place. A trio of chairs were arranged on a carpeted stage, set up against a blank backdrop. The stage gave way to a black floor, where cameras were arranged at a variety of angles, all of them capable of adjusting their position and orientation.
The interview was set at an hour, which made Ruby more than a little nervous. She had no idea how much time they could eat up with the basic questions. Even with both her and Pyrrha present, there was probably going to be plenty of time for Lisa to ask about her training. Ruby merely found herself hoping that she could avoid the topic as much as possible.
With the countdown to air-time commencing, the three of them sat down and readied themselves. Ruby fidgeted nervously, until Pyrrha reached over to take one of her hands, and give a reassuring squeeze. Pyrrha, an old hand at this sort of thing, was perfectly calm and composed, a polite, easygoing smile on her face as she mentally counted down the seconds herself, until they went live.
When the cameras began to roll, Lisa immediately turned to address the audience. "Thank you for tuning in for our special interview with Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos. These two young students of Beacon Academy have become known internationally, after recordings of their sparring match went viral across all four Kingdoms. With Ms. Nikos' previous undefeated streak, the occurrence of a draw in their match caused quite the stir, which is what has led to this moment." She turned to Pyrrha and Ruby, flashing them an encouraging smile. "Thank you for joining us."
"Thank you for having us," said Pyrrha, as polite as ever.
"To begin with, you turned down several previous requests for interviews," said Lisa, to the surprise of Ruby, and even Pyrrha. "I apologize for us twisting your arms, in a sense, but I am curious, was there a reason that you were opposed to giving interviews before?"
"Well, to be honest, we never thought it was such an important issue," said Pyrrha, leaning back, affecting a relaxed, casual look. "It was just a sparring match, after all. At the time, we had no idea it was going to be shared so widely. Truth be told, it didn't seem like something worth getting worked up about."
"I see," said Lisa, turning her eyes to Ruby. "Ms. Rose...?"
"Um...well..." Ruby shifted awkwardly, not having had any of the practice Pyrrha had had at these sorts of things. "Pyrrha's right that we didn't think about it at the time. Even afterwards, it just seemed so...silly. Besides, we're busy."
"Busy with what?" wondered Lisa.
"Training," said Ruby, frankly enough. "We're at Beacon to train to be Huntresses, so...this sort of thing..." Ruby waved a vague hand at the studio set up around them. "It's not something that we wanted to have to deal with, especially over just a sparring match."
"You were aware of Ms. Nikos previous reputation, of course?" noted Lisa.
"Yeah," said Ruby.
"To be honest, I didn't think all that much about my reputation at the time either," said Pyrrha. "I was excited to find an opponent who could actually push me to my limits. That was the best fight I've had since my very first matches in my first run in the Mistral Regional Tournament."
"So, your previous opponents have not been able to satisfy you?" pressed Lisa.
Pyrrha sighed. "I don't wish to imply that I'm talking down about my previous opponents," she said. "However, because of my record, the moment I step into the ring, many of them have already given up. They assume that their defeat is inevitable, and then don't bother to give it their all. That was a perpetual problem, back at Sanctum."
"And your Semblance doesn't have anything to do with it?" pressed Lisa.
"It's an advantage," said Pyrrha. "Maybe it's a bigger advantage than most would have, but that doesn't make me invincible, despite what people call me. Every fighter brings their advantages and disadvantages into the ring, and it's up to them to make the best use of those that they can. My Semblance is far from infallible. As my partner once pointed out, if it were, we wouldn't even be having this interview. I would have simply defeated Ruby the way I do all my opponents, and no one would have been any the wiser."
Lisa nodded, her eyes widening at the implication. "That's an interesting point to make. Let's go over the match itself. What brought it about? Why did you challenge Ms. Rose?"
"I'd been wanting to fight Ruby after the first time I saw her fight," said Pyrrha. "Her skills are spectacular, and I saw someone who would be an actual challenge to me."
"And why did you accept her challenge, Ms. Rose?" asked Lisa, turning her eyes on Ruby.
"Well, 'cause Pyrrha's my friend," said Ruby. "She wanted to fight, and I wanted to fight her. I was excited to go up against a strong opponent."
Lisa raised an eyebrow. "So you thought you could be the one to defeat the Invincible Girl?"
"Um...What?" Ruby blinked. "I wasn't even thinking about that. I've been...out of touch...for a while, so I didn't even know who Pyrrha was, until I came to Beacon."
"Where were you?" wondered Lisa.
"All over the place," Ruby replied. "I did most of my training out in the wilderness, between the settlements."
That was a little bit of a lie. She had been on two training excursions, one across Leng, the other across Anima. But the bulk of her training had been in Onmyo, not that she could afford to say anything about that here.
"I see," said Lisa. "Your training is one of the major blanks concerning your personal information, Ms. Rose. Who taught you how to fight?"
"I can't answer that," said Ruby, figuring that trying to dance around the subject would only just make Lisa latch onto that all the more. "My teachers...prefer to remain anonymous."
"Is that so?" mused Lisa, her eyes narrowing slightly. Ruby could tell that her response had made Lisa even more curious. Hopefully she wouldn't press it anyway.
Fortunately, Lisa backed down. Instead, she changed topics. "Now then, I found out a fair bit about you, Ms. Rose, though I suppose it's more than you would have liked."
Ruby nodded.
Lisa made a show of looking through a sheaf of papers that presumably contained her notes for the interview. "So then, if you don't mind, I have a few questions concerning your background."
"I'll answer what I can," said Ruby warily.
"You were reported to the police as missing, some six years ago," said Lisa. "The official report was that you ran away from home."
"I did," said Ruby.
"May I ask why?"
Ruby frowned. "It's a bit of a long story. There are parts I feel okay with talking about, and parts I don't."
"Then, by all means, please tell us what you feel comfortable with," said Lisa.
"Okay..." began Ruby.
Abruptly, Lisa reacted to something outside Ruby's field of vision. "Actually, I'm afraid that we'll have to come back to that, after a short sponsor break."
"And cut!" shouted someone from over in the studio section.
"Sorry," said Lisa, immediately relaxing a little more. "I should have warned you that we'll be cutting to commercials occasionally during this."
"Well, it's what I expected," said Pyrrha.
"Uh...I guess I should've," said Ruby.
"There should be three more such breaks over the course of this session," said Lisa. "They last about five minutes each. Feel free to get a drink of water or use the restroom, if you need to."
"Thanks," said Ruby, feeling a bit relieved that this hour-long interview wouldn't actually be conducted for a whole hour.
Neither she and Pyrrha felt any need to move at the moment, so they waited until the crew began the countdown to the resumption of the program. Lisa straightened in her seat, and flashed the pair a grin. A few seconds later, the count reached zero, and she resumed.
"And we're back with Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos, regarding the sparring match that went viral across the four Kingdoms. When we last left off, Ms. Rose was about to inform us about her background, and her decision to run away from home. Ms. Rose..."
It took Ruby a second to recognize her cue. She flinched, blinking, then began to speak. "Oh! Right...Um...A-anyway...Yeah, I did run away from home, when I was nine."
"Why?" asked Lisa.
"I couldn't stay with my father anymore," said Ruby. "It's a bit of a long story, going back to when my mother died."
"Your mother was a Huntress, correct?" pressed Lisa.
Ruby nodded. "She died on a mission. After that, Dad...well...he shut down. He stopped doing...just about anything, really, except for drinking. He stopped caring about anything else. My older sister basically had to start looking after the both of us, in his place."
"That's awful!" gasped Lisa, one hand going to her mouth.
Ruby nodded. "But then there was an incident..." She decided not to relate the whole details, not wanting to cast Yang in a negative light for her ill-considered decision. "We were attacked by Grimm. Luckily, our uncle was able to save us. After that, Dad kinda snapped out of whatever funk he was in. But..." Ruby sighed. "Well...he started treating me differently."
"How so?" asked Lisa warily.
"He wouldn't let me train, said I wasn't allowed to become a Huntress," said Ruby, frowning as she recalled those days. "He started to get...pushy, I guess. He got anxious if I was away from home for too long, even if I was at school or with friends. Basically, his behavior started pushing my friends away, because they and their families didn't want to deal with him. Then, one night, I heard him telling my sister that he was gonna pull me out of school, and keep me at home all the time."
"That certainly is...disturbing," said Lisa, unnerved by the notion.
Ruby nodded. "I got together what I could and left that night, while everyone else was asleep. I snuck on the ferry to Vale, and tried to get training there. I didn't have much luck, and I ran out of what money I brought with me before too long. If I hadn't run into my first teacher, I would've started stealing to get by."
"So your teacher saved you from that?" asked Lisa.
Ruby nodded. "After she learned what I'd been through, she offered to help me. I was a bit suspicious at first, but she was honest with me. She took me out of the Kingdom to meet her friend, my other teacher, and they began my training."
"You do realize that what they did could technically be construed as kidnapping?" inquired Lisa.
"I know," said Ruby. "But they never betrayed my trust. They never did anything...bad...or hurt me. They trained me, and that's what allowed me to get into Beacon when I did."
"And so you spent six years with these teachers of yours?"
Ruby nodded again. "They became my family. They're my brother and sister now, two of the people I love most in the world." Granted, there were quite a few other people that Ruby considered her teachers. In some ways, Shinrei had been more of a teacher, in a formal sense at least, than Kyo and Sasame had been, since he was her main instructor in swordsmanship, back in Onmyo. Of course, Ruby couldn't say anything about that.
Lisa smiled fondly, an expression mirrored by Pyrrha, which Ruby thought looked much better than her normal, polite, smile. "Is there anything you can tell us about your training?" Lisa asked next.
Ruby shrugged. "Well, there was all the usual stuff: strength training, endurance training, agility training, technique training. It was a little tricky for me to settle on a particular style. They also taught me wilderness survival and navigation, so that I can move between settlements. We went on a training excursion across Anima, when I turned thirteen. Just this year, we started another training excursion, where I was going to head down the length of Sanus, on my own, and meet up with them later on. I decided to drop by Vale, while I was at it, and that's when I wound up being invited into Beacon."
"Ah yes, the circumstances surrounding that are rather foggy," noted Lisa. "How did you wind up being invited into Beacon?"
"Um...well..." Ruby began to tap her index fingers together nervously. She wondered if she was even allowed to talk about her altercation with Roman. Ozpin had only advised her to avoid talking about her connections with the Mibu Clan. Ruby supposed that meant that talking about Roman Torchwick was okay...at least, not something that would lead to any threats against her...maybe.
In the end, she decided to go with a general overview. Perhaps Lisa wouldn't pry into it too much. "Well, I was visiting a Dust-shop, when these men came in and tried to rob the place. Since I was there, I took them down. Their leader almost got away, but I managed to pin him down until Professor Goodwitch was able to take him into custody. She took me to meet Professor Ozpin, and he invited me into Beacon."
Ruby could practically see the wheels turning in Lisa's head. "A Dust-shop robbery...Was the leader of the thieves Roman Torchwick? Was that you?"
Ruby blushed furiously and ducked her head. "Yeah," she said quietly.
"Amazing!" gasped Lisa. Then she paused. "But the police report on the situation never mentioned it."
"I'm not sure, but I think they wanted to keep my name out of it at the time," said Ruby, thinking that Ozpin might have had something to do with that. After all, if her name and face had been broadcasted across the Kingdom, then she probably would have been hearing from her father a lot sooner than she actually had.
"And can this be confirmed?" asked Lisa.
"I think so," said Ruby. "I don't know what any of the reports say about it."
"Hmmm..." Lisa tilted her head, apparently trying to figure out what to do with this new bit of information. "Well, that's for another time. So that was how you entered Beacon two years early, then?"
Ruby nodded nervously.
"I see," said Lisa. Once again, she paused, noticing another signal. "When we come back from our next break, we will go over the match that started all this."
Once again, someone out in the studio called "Cut!" Lisa, Ruby, and Pyrrha relaxed once more.
"I'm sorry for leaving you out of the conversation there, Ms. Nikos," said Lisa, regarding Pyrrha.
"It's fine," Pyrrha demurred, secretly pleased to actually be on the fringes of the conversation for a change. She'd done multi-person interviews before, but whoever was doing the interview almost always had more interest in her than any of the other participants. Though she didn't wish Ruby any discomfort, it was nice to not be the one put on the spot for a change.
"Need any water, bathroom break?" pressed Lisa.
"I could use a drink," said Ruby. She'd done a lot more talking than she was used to.
Someone immediately brought over a glass of water for her to sip from. By the time the countdown for the next segment began, she'd finished it, and handed it off. When the program resumed, Lisa opened with another intro, for the benefit of anyone who had tuned in in the meantime.
"And now, we return to the subject of the match itself," said Lisa. "I imagine the outcome was a surprise."
"It was," agreed Ruby. "Draws hardly ever happen."
"Professor Goodwitch has said that the monitoring systems are calibrated to within a tenth of a second," added Pyrrha. "Ruby knocked me out of the ring, and my last-ditch attack took off the last of her Aura within that period of time. Had either of us been a fraction faster or slower, the narrative here would be quite different."
"You don't seem too bothered by this, Ms. Nikos," said Lisa, focusing on Pyrrha.
"I'm not...not really," said Pyrrha. "This was the closest I've come to defeat since I first really started learning how to apply my Semblance. It was a grand experience to be pushed to my absolute limits."
"So you don't mind your record being broken?" asked Lisa.
"No," said Pyrrha, before sighing. "To be honest, I've always been bothered by it. I've wanted to push my capabilities, and discover my limitations. Always winning makes it hard to do that, especially when many of my opponents don't have much interest in giving it their all. Fighting against Ruby had forced me to reconsider how I fight, and think about how I can adapt and improve. I can't thank her enough for that."
"So there is no resentment towards her for exposing your Semblance?" prodded Lisa.
"None," said Pyrrha, without hesitation. "It's been my secret for years, I'll admit. But it's no different from any other fighter's secret. Some people have a special move. Others have a hidden function in their weapon. I just did a very good job at keeping my Semblance hidden from others."
"And how does your Semblance work, exactly?" asked Lisa.
"Well, as the media has explained numerous times, my Semblance is Polarity, magnetism. I can use it to affect almost anything made of metal. In my matches, I tend to use it in very small increments, in order to hide its presence. I can make minute adjustments to my opponents' movements on attack and defense in order to give myself an edge. Because they don't know what I'm doing, my opponents can't work out how to counter it."
"So you would say that the effectiveness of your Semblance is based upon your skill with using it," noted Lisa.
Pyrrha nodded, but it was Ruby who answered. "She really is skilled!" Ruby said eagerly. "When I was fighting her, I felt something was...off...about my sword, whenever I was coming close to hitting her with it. But I couldn't figure out what was going on, not until I started using both my swords, and almost overwhelmed her."
"Ruby is the first opponent I've faced to force me to use my Semblance overtly," Pyrrha added. "Of course, now that it's in the open, I need to work out better ways to make use of it, seeing as there's no point to keeping it hidden anymore."
"Not that using it the way she always did before is a bad idea," Ruby pointed out. "Even when I knew what she was doing, figuring out what to do about it is tricky. It's not like you can switch to a non-magnetic weapon in the middle of combat. And she's so good at making those little adjustments that it's hard to do something about them, even when you know they're coming."
"Nonetheless, I'm quite excited about taking the opportunity to extend my repertoire," added Pyrrha. "I intend to use this opportunity to build on my strengths to create an even better style for myself."
"So there's no ill-will over the outcome of this match at all?" wondered Lisa.
"Nope," said Ruby.
"None," added Pyrrha.
"It would seem the two of you are very good friends," noted Lisa.
"Of course we are," said Ruby eagerly.
"Ruby is one of the best friends I've ever had," added Pyrrha.
"And do the two of you intend to fight again?" asked Lisa.
"Definitely," said Ruby. Then she paused, her eyes dancing back and forth to take in the scenery around them. "But...I think we'll try and keep it from being recorded, next time."
"That would probably be for the best," said Pyrrha, giggling
"And if you should lose, Ms. Nikos?"
Pyrrha shrugged. "Then I'll train harder, until I can beat her."
"So you aren't overly concerned about losing your reputation as the Invincible Girl?"
Pyrrha sighed, scratching her cheek. "That's a more...complicated...issue."
"Indeed it is," said Lisa. "Just a draw, and the revelation of your Semblance, has had quite the impact, one that's been felt the world over."
"You could say that," said Pyrrha, her good mood waning somewhat.
"From what we've heard, there has been quite the backlash in Mistral," added Lisa.
"There has," agreed Pyrrha. "I know that some have tried to call my previous tournament record into question, but the committee has stood by their decision."
"And what about your sponsors?" asked Lisa.
"I...haven't been keeping much track of that," said Pyrrha. "I put any work in that area on indefinite hold, while I was attending Beacon and, to be honest, I haven't had much interest in picking it back up after I graduate."
"You haven't?" asked Lisa.
Pyrrha sighed. "Well...I have to admit that many of the perks that come with a celebrity status are nice. But I feel that all the stress it puts me under isn't worth it. Honestly, facing down a horde of Grimm is less bothersome than some of the affairs I've been asked to do."
Lisa began to laugh at the perceived joke...until she realized that Pyrrha was being completely honest. "You mean, like having your life and actions heavily scrutinized over the outcome of a single sparring match?" she posed, starting to get a feel for what Pyrrha was talking about.
Pyrrha nodded, her expression sober. "Truth be told, my parents wanted me to withdraw from Beacon, and transfer to Haven."
"And do you plan to?"
"Absolutely not." Pyrrha's tone was resolute. "I'm happier than I've been in years, and I very much like the current direction of my life. If my sponsors choose to abandon me, then I have no issue with their decision. Once I graduate, I have confidence in my ability to live within my means as a professional Huntress."
"That's quite the bold claim," said Lisa.
"I don't think so, not really," said Pyrrha. "It's true that there's a great deal of risk entailed in such a profession. But, if you can deal with that, you can make quite a fine life for yourself."
"It certainly is good to know you have confidence in that arena," said Lisa.
A second later, they were caught in another break. This time, Ruby had to use the restroom. A helpful member of the staff gave her instructions. Though she tried to be quick, Ruby barely made it back under the five-minute time limit. Part of the problem was that she'd gotten caught up wondering what the rest of their interview would be about.
Once again, Lisa led with a final intro, indicating what was going on. After that, she dropped a surprising revelation. "By the way, we just received some interesting news, while this interview was going on. We were contacted by Professor Glynda Goodwitch, of Beacon Academy."
"Okay..." said Ruby warily, while Pyrrha looked on with a curious expression.
"She corroborated your role in bringing down Roman Torchwick," said Lisa. "She even supplied us with video evidence as proof. As a matter of fact, let's run it now."
The wall behind them abruptly turned into a large screen, broadcasting a recording of Ruby's fight with Roman and his enforcers. The sequence had actually been cut together from multiple different cameras, starting with a security feed inside the Dust shop, before transitioning to, and cutting between, a number of Vale's own security cameras, which provided different views of Ruby's fight with thugs in the street, followed by her duel with Roman. When he tried to flee to the roof, the camera feed followed them all the way up to the rooftop, giving everyone an overhead view of the struggle between Ruby and Roman, while the bullhead piloted by Roman's accomplice circled around. Finally, it showcased Glynda's arrival, and the departure of the bullhead.
Pyrrha blinked, wondering just how they'd gotten that video of the rooftop component of the fight. She didn't know about the architecture in that area, so maybe the camera had been mounted on a taller building...if there was one. It could have been taken by a drone, but she couldn't fathom why a drone would be there.
By the time the video had run its course, Ruby's face had turned bright-red. She'd ducked her head, throwing her hood over it. Lisa's expression had transitioned over the course of the broadcasted fight herself, going from one of polite interest, and washing to one of complete awe.
"Well," she said, once the video had run its course, "I think it's safe to say that we now know why Professor Ozpin issued you an invitation. That was a spectacular demonstration of skill, if I've ever seen one."
"It is," agreed Pyrrha, no small amount of awe in her tone. She'd never gotten the full details of what had happened that night. But now, seeing it for herself, she was all the more glad that Ruby was at Beacon with her.
"I see that the bullhead and its pilot got away though," noted Lisa.
Ruby nodded underneath her hood. "I...I guess who-whoever it was d-decided to cut their losses." She decided not to bring up the part where the pilot had been about to fire on her and Roman both, deciding to eliminate Roman, if his capture couldn't be prevented.
"Is this your first time seeing this, Ms. Nikos?" asked Lisa, looking to Pyrrha.
"It is," said Pyrrha, smiling. "Ruby had mentioned it. But she never went into detail about it."
Lisa chuckled softly. "I'd expect you to be more confident, after bringing down the most notorious criminal in the Kingdom."
"Um...uh...Well...I didn't know anything about that at the time," said Ruby, her voice getting softer. "I was just there...and they tried to hold up the place...and...well...I...I just did what I do."
Pyrrha giggled. "Ruby's very modest, most of the time," she said.
"I don't want people to think I'm bragging," protested Ruby weakly, tapping her index fingers together.
Ruby heard a high-pitched, muffled noise from Lisa, across from her. Then, to her surprise, she thought she heard something similar from Pyrrha. Ruby didn't realize it, but, at that moment, both of them had come within a hair's-breadth of jumping on her and cuddling her like an oversized plushie. She looked back and forth between her teammate and the reporter, baffled.
Finally, Lisa and Pyrrha managed to get their emotions under control. "Well, I can definitely see the appeal of being her teammate," noted Lisa.
"Quite," agreed Pyrrha cheerily, the two of them sharing a knowing smile, while Ruby continued to look back and forth between them in confusion.
Lisa coughed, regathering her composure. "In any case, I understand that your older sister is attending Beacon as well," she observed.
"That's true," said Ruby.
"Then you can tell us more about that after our final break," said Lisa, signaling another round of commercials.
Ruby leaned back in her seat with a tired sigh. It was almost over. Truth be told, it hadn't been that stressful. Lisa had been warned away from any lines of questioning about Ruby's teachers and training easily enough. Maybe it was a sort of apology for the underhanded way she'd brought this interview about that Lisa didn't pry too deeply into any topic Ruby expressed reluctance to talk about. Either way, it was nearly done.
Their five minutes came and went, with Lisa performing her last intro to the interview, and immediately resuming her line of questioning before.
"When last we left off, we were talking about the fact that you are attending Beacon with your older sister," said Lisa.
"That's right," said Ruby, feeling a bit uncomfortable about where this was about to go.
"And how has that been for you?" she asked.
"Um...Touch and go," said Ruby, "especially at first."
"It certainly came with its ups and downs," supplemented Pyrrha. "Frankly, we're lucky her sister ended up on a different team, or our dorm room probably wouldn't still be standing."
"Pyrrha!" Ruby squeaked, turning bright red and throwing an indignant glance her friend's way.
"So...I take it your relationship was rocky," observed Lisa.
Ruby let out a defeated sigh, sagging down. "Yeah," she admitted. "It was mostly my fault. I...well...for a long time...I blamed Yang for a lot of what I went through with Dad."
"Why is that?" asked Lisa.
"Well, every time Dad cut me off, decided I couldn't do something, or threw some kind of new restriction into my life, Yang was right there with him, going along with it without question, all while she got to get training, go to Signal, and become a Huntress." Ruby's tone darkened as her recall brought old emotions to the surface. "To be honest...I hated her for it."
"And that resentment was still there when you met her six years later?" asked Lisa.
Ruby nodded, looking abashed. "Well...neither of us got off on the right foot. Yang started talking down to me, like she and Dad used to. I...well...I got aggressive back."
"Really?" Lisa tilted her head, having a hard time seeing this modest, rather timid child acting aggressively with anyone, least of all her own sister.
"For several weeks, she refused to act as though Yang existed at all, if she could avoid it," added Pyrrha helpfully. "It was quite the source of tension, particularly since our teams were so close, otherwise."
Ruby looked as though she wanted to duck her head under her hood, and pretend the world outside it did not exist, as mortified as she looked.
"Did you manage to overcome this issue between the two of you?" asked Lisa.
"We did...eventually," said Ruby. "I...I blamed Yang unfairly for a lot of my problems. She's only two years older than me, so she wasn't in much of a position to go against Dad either. After a few things happened, we managed to talk things out. We're doing a lot better now."
"Her father, however, is still quite the piece of work," said Pyrrha, a surprisingly bitter tone to her voice, one that was extremely at odds with her normal public demeanor.
"What happened?" asked Lisa.
"Well, it wasn't long before our match," said Pyrrha. "Ruby and Yang's father found that Ruby was at Beacon. He didn't react well."
"He tried to drag me back to his home from the moment he saw me," added Ruby sourly. "Professor Ozpin gave him the chance to watch me in my classes, to try and get him to change his mind. But he just ignored everything he saw and still decided that I shouldn't be a Huntress. He saw my match with Pyrrha, even tried to make me wager whether or not I could stay at Beacon over it. I didn't take him up on it, but he still acted like I did. So he treated our draw like he won."
"That's terrible!" gasped Lisa.
"The faculty had to basically throw him out," said Pyrrha. "As far as we know, he's on Patch still, but he's completely lost all visitation rights to Beacon."
Secretly, Lisa was glad for her decision to arrange this interview, even if Ruby and Pyrrha had needed to be coerced into participating. It would have been far better than giving Ruby's father a chance to write the narrative of this story. As it was, there was still every chance that her producer would still want her to reach out to Taiyang. But, at least this way, it would probably do a lot less harm to Ruby's private life.
"Well, it would seem that, despite all the obstacles in your path, and in spite of your father's best efforts, you are well on the way to becoming a fine Huntress," observed Lisa, smiling at the blush that decorated Ruby's cheeks.
"Thanks," Ruby squeaked.
"Ms. Nikos, it also sounds like you are on the road to becoming an excellent warrior as well," added Lisa, focusing her attention on Pyrrha.
"Thank you," said Pyrrha demurely.
"That's all the time we have for today," said Lisa. "I want to thank the two of you for joining us today, and I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors."
"Thank you," said Ruby and Pyrrha in unison.
With that, the cameras cut out for a final time, leaving Ruby and Pyrrha to slump with relief.
"I mean it when I say, thank you for coming down today," said Lisa, her tone earnest. "I know this must have been hard for the two of you."
"Well...I'm glad it's over," said Ruby.
"Unfortunately, it may not be over for a little while yet," said Lisa sadly. "While I'm sure it's helped people get a better appreciation for your situation, you're still going to be the focus of a fair bit of attention for sometime to come, at least until some bigger story comes out."
Pyrrha nodded in agreement, having had to put up with this sort of thing before. "It might be a little while before we can go into Vale normally," she added.
Ruby's face fell. She was looking forward to the next time she could see Ashley, but the more this whole affair snowballed out of control, the longer it seemed it would be until she could do that again.
Pyrrha, sensing Ruby's unease, reached over and rested an encouraging hand on Ruby's forearm. "It'll be fine," she said. "It won't be right away, but people will get over this eventually."
Ruby nodded. Secretly, she was just looking forward to the point where she dropped back into obscurity enough that people would stop writing her letters. While it had never quite reached the level of the first batch she found, each day still brought with it a pile of letters deposited into her mailbox. After her initial taste of what those letters had contained, Ruby had been reluctant to read anymore of them.
At first, they had simply rested on her desk, slowly building up into a pile that threatened to bury the entire thing. It was Weiss who had finally put her foot down, demanding that Ruby do something about them, even if it was throwing them away. She managed to get through to Ruby by pointing out that worrying too much about them was a distraction from her training. Ruby had never asked anybody to write her, and that these letters were an unnecessary distraction. Ruby had wound up throwing them away, unopened. But she couldn't quite stifle the sense of guilt that welled up within her every time she did so.
Ruby and Pyrrha said their goodbyes to Lisa, before heading to the top of the station, where a bullhead was waiting to ferry them back to Beacon. It had been a generous act on Glynda's part to offer air transportation directly to and from the station, so that the pair didn't have to try and make their way to Vale's streets, right after their interview had probably put them at the forefront of the thoughts of most of the populace. It might also have been a subtle apology on Glynda's part, for not anticipating something like this arising from what should have been a simple sparring match.
Tired from the stressful experience of her first televised interview, Ruby found herself nodding off to the muted whine of the bullhead's engines, leaning her head against Pyrrha's shoulder, and falling asleep. Glancing Ruby's way, Pyrrha found herself smiling at the serene look on her sleeping friend's face. Pyrrha draped an arm across Ruby's shoulders, letting the girl sleep through the flight. When the bullhead landed, rather than wake Ruby up, Pyrrha opted to carry her back to their room.
"HAA!" Jaune swept his sword through the downward arc Pyrrha had taught him. Stepping forward, he followed through with a second, horizontal, slash. Stepping forward again, he dipped the tip of his weapon down, before unleashing an upwards-sweeping blow. Finishing that, he drew back, maneuvering his shield back into place, practicing returning to his basic stance, and setting himself up for another repetition.
"Not bad," observed a bland voice from the edge of the clearing Jaune was practicing in.
Jaune jumped at the sudden voice intruding into his practice. Whirling about, he kept his shield at the ready, eying his commentator warily. It didn't help his anxiety to notice that the one talking to him was none other than Dove Bronzewing, one of Cardin's teammates.
The boy watched Jaune with a neutral expression, his arms folded across his chest, while he leaned against a tree. Jaune had picked a rather heavily wooded section of the courtyard to practice in, it being in a relatively unoccupied corner of Beacon's campus, affording him a good degree of privacy, allowing him to practice without too many interruptions.
Dove's expression was unreadable, his face set into that serious, stoic look he nearly always seemed to wear, when he wasn't expressing frustration at the antics of his teammates. Jaune had difficulty remembering if he'd ever seen the taciturn boy smile...maybe, after that one sparring match with Ren...
"It's not a bad idea, practicing out here," said Dove, stepping away from the tree. "Cardin's been trying to figure out where you go for a while now. But he's always checking the sparring rings and the training center. A place like this is one of the last he'd look. Of course, if he did find out you were out here...alone...well..."
Jaune gulped, Dove's words helping him to realize that this was a double-edged sword. Out here, he was, of course, where very few people would think to look for him, including someone probably dead-set on interrupting his training. However, that isolation could be turned against him easily enough. If Cardin and his cronies found him out here, then they could torment Jaune with almost complete impunity, well away from any potential witnesses. At least, over in the official sparring rings and training center, it was more likely that the boys would be seen, and caught, at their bullying.
It took another few seconds for the other implication of Dove's words to sink in. "Wait...if?"
Dove shrugged indifferently. "I ain't about to help that muscle-brained moron cause anymore trouble for us, however much Sky and Russel seem to be egging him on. To be honest, I think his fixation on you is stupidity of the highest order. But Cardin's the sort with tunnel vision that would put an angry Boarbatusk to shame. The idiot doesn't care a lick for the consequences...right up until they bite him in the ass, then he has the gall to act as though it's someone else's fault that he's in trouble for the crap he's pulled."
It was surprising to hear Dove rant about his teammate and leader like that. In a way, Jaune was reminded of Weiss, during the uncomfortable first couple days of Team RASP's formation, always finding fault in their new leader, always talking down about her. Except, in this case, Dove's complaints were perfectly justified. Cardin did seem more interested in pursuing grudges, and acting like a bully, than actually acting as a Huntsman.
"Still, looking at you now, I think I get what the issue is," said Dove, stepping away from the tree. "That practice...basic drills...You're a beginner, aren't you?"
"Um..." Jaune's eyes went wide, and his entire body went tense, though he kept his shield up.
"Well...that explains a lot," grumbled Dove, glancing down at an angle. "It certainly explains why your teammates have been hanging around you so much. So they've been helping you train up, huh?"
"Y-yeah," admitted Jaune, reluctantly. Remembering how this had gone with Ren, he supposed he should have minded his friend's advice to not admit it so easily to someone who had figured him out. But Jaune also figured that he probably had no chance of actually pulling a fast one on Dove.
"Never trained before you got here, huh?" mused Dove. "I'd ask what in the hell you were thinking...but it's probably pointless. It's not my problem anyway."
"You're not angry?" asked Jaune.
"Eh, if you can't hack it, you can't hack it," said Dove with an indifferent shrug. "It's not like you bumped anyone else off the admission list. The Initiation's for weeding out the people with no hope of succeeding here. The fact that you made it through that means something."
"It means I have good friends," said Jaune seriously.
"Then maybe that's what you've got going for you...for now," said Dove. "Other things will come. But if you've got friends willing to help you, then you've got more than a lot of other people here."
"You're...why are you here?" inquired Jaune, canting his head.
"Well, I figured I'd look for you in the last place my leader would think to look," said Dove. "Granted, 'last' means it's still on the list, and he'll get around to looking for you out here, sooner or later. That being the case, I figured it's best if I find you first."
"Why?" asked Jaune.
"So I can get your contact info," said Dove. "If Cardin or any of the others start heading your way, I can send you a warning, so you can clear out before they get here."
"You'd do that?" asked Jaune.
"Look, it's none of my business, if you're at Beacon with no training," said Dove. "If your teammates are willing to put up with that, more power to 'em. I'm not sure I would, were I in their place. But that's just me. What I do know is that we're on Goodwitch's watchlist now. If Cardin pulls anything remotely like that stunt with your locker, then we're probably out of here on our asses...all of us." He looked down, grumbling something unflattering about his teammates under his breath, before resuming. "And if I can't get that through Cardin's thick skull, then the next best thing is to do everything I can to make sure he doesn't get a chance to screw up."
"O-okay," said Jaune.
"That being said, let's swap our info," said Dove, pulling out his scroll.
"Sure," said Jaune, doing the same.
A moment later, they had traded their contact information.
"Well...now that that's done, I'm out," said Dove, turning around with an idle wave of his hand.
"Hey, hold on a second," called Jaune plaintively.
Dove paused. "What?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.
"Would you...would you train with me for a while?" asked Jaune. "Practicing on my own is all well and good for swinging my sword. But I still need to do more work on my defense."
"So you want me to come at you," said Dove, turning around.
"Yeah," said Jaune.
Dove smirked. "Well...I'm not doing this because I'm gonna become your training buddy. But it pisses me off that my teammates are more interested in settling pointless grudges than they are training. Considering your level, it's beyond humiliating Cardin lost to you in that last match. I'd rather not end up like him, so I'll get a little training of my own in."
"Thanks," said Jaune.
Reaching down, Dove pulled his sword out of its sheath, leveling it at Jaune, before charging him. Jaune raised his shield and deflected Dove's swift slash. His arm immediately jolted as Dove whipped his blade back around, much faster than Cardin could manage with his mace, launching another three strikes, only two of which Jaune could manage to deflect properly. Abruptly, Dove kicked off the ground, going into a spinning, flipping leap over Jaune's head, bringing his body around to swing the sword at the back of Jaune's skull. Not even thinking about it, Jaune crouched, while bringing his shield up over his head to deflect the attack, immediately turning around to face Dove again, as the other boy touched down on the other side of him.
With that first exchange, it immediately became apparent that Dove was no Pyrrha, in the sense that Dove had no interest in holding back to help Jaune become acclimated to following his moves. Dove was attacking for real, his attacks aiming to get through Jaune's defense and strike him directly. Despite that, Jaune found himself smiling. It actually felt good. Besides, he needed more practice against people who weren't holding back, simply because of his skill-level.
Meeting Dove's squinted eyes, Jaune noted that the other boy was smiling as well. Dove rushed forward again, and Jaune raised his shield to meet him.
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