(Amity Colosseum)
Walking through a hallway, leading to the tournament arena, Team RWBY are chattering to one another.
Ruby: "Oh! I'm so excited about the Vytal Festival."
Blake: "You think so? I'm more concerned than thrilled."
Yang: "Hehe, I know how you feel."
Weiss: "It doesn't help that we've been randomly chosen as participants in the opening fight of the tournament."
Yang: "Who are we fighting against?"
Blake: "I believe it's Team BRNZ. But the match will start after the entrance ceremony."
Ruby: "That explains why we're armed with our weapons and the rest aren't."
Weiss: "I do wonder if we'll manage to win. I mean, Team BRNZ is a year ahead of us in Shade Academy."
Blake: "Y-Yeah, that might be troublesome."
The four girls are clouded in doubt and worry but, Ruby and Yang does their best to perk up with their teammates.
Ruby: "Come on, guys! I'm sure we can pull through."
Yang: "Yeah! We dealt with worse things before."
Weiss and Blake's mood lighten up a bit, still nervous about the opening match but, feel somewhat excited about it.
Blake: "It's a shame that Y/N won't partake in the tournament."
Weiss: "Well, no matter what we would have said, the decision was already made by Ozpin."
Yang: "I suppose so."
Ruby: "Hehe, yeah. Then again, it would have been pretty unfair if it was 4v5."
Yang: "Well, we can always have Y/N cheer for us on the sidelines. So, that's a plus."
Ruby: "Mm-hm! Yeah! Let's do this team!"
Soon enough, once the team exit out of the hallway, they gaze upon on the entirety of the Vytal Colosseum, astonish over how many people have gathered in this one location. In front of them are all of the contestants, 32 teams which totals 128 contestants individually. All of which are lined up inside of the ring and looking up at the commentary box above them. Next to the commentary box is Y/N, who waves at his team, which they do the same happily.
Y/N: ("Good luck, girls.")
Next to him is Cinder who is sitting next to him, who glances back at him.
Cinder: "You really care about your team, huh?"
Y/N: "Hehe, yeah, I do."
Team RWBY get into position just like the other contestants while they see other teams, they're familiar with. Team JNPR, Team CVFY, Team SSSN, and Team CRDL. During the wait, Y/N looks back at the commentary box, seeing Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood, Port, and Oobleck.
Y/N: ("So, Ironwood became the head of security for the festival. Well, that doesn't mean Ozpin stop being the host of it.")
After some waiting, Ozpin walks up to the arena's podium, leaning forward at the mic, clearing his throat to gain the attention of both contestants and spectators.
Ozpin: "This tournament is intended to generate healthy rivalry and cooperation between the four kingdoms of Remnant. Serving as a political pressure valve and end tension before it even starts."
During his opening speech, Y/N chat with Cinder over the tournament and what's the prizes would be.
Y/N: "If I remember correctly, the prize are a badge of honor and distinction for the winning huntsman of a give team as they move forward in their career."
Cinder: "Plus, some monetary rewards like a big box of liens for the victor themselves along the kingdom they represent is rewarded with hosting rights for the next Vytal Festival tournament which serves as a substantial economic boom."
Y/N: "Wow. I'm guessing Beacon and to extension, Vale won the last one tournament."
Cinder: "That's right. That's the whole spiel of this tournament to begin with."
After a couple of minutes, Ozpin eventually end his speech.
Ozpin: "In the end, there can only be one winner. But we have all came here today under the name of unity. To show that in the face of adversity, we will keep moving forward together..."
As he said this last sentence, he slowly glances back at Y/N, which he doesn't notice since he was a bit far away.
Ozpin: "Thank you. Now, time to start the Vytal Festival Tournament."
In response, the whole crowd clap and some even cheer at the speech as Ozpin exits the podium. After that, Port and Oobleck takes over as the announcers at the commentary box.
Port: "Hello, everyone! It seems that we'll be having an astonishing bout ahead of us. Wouldn't you agree, Professor?"
Oobleck is a bit annoyed by his co-worker's remark.
Oobleck: "It's Doctor."
Before quickly brighten up again.
Oobleck: "And yes Peter. We'll be finally starting the tournament's opening match. The match will be Team RWBY vs Team BRNZ."
Port: "For those of you just now joining us, welcome to the Vytal Festival, broadcast live from the Amity Colosseum!"
As he said this, Port waves his arm to gesture at the entire event from his place on the gigantic screen over the massive crowd, who cheer wildly. Upon hearing this, the rest of the contestants step away from the ring and be outside of it.
Y/N: "It's finally starting..."
Cinder: "You worried?"
Y/N quickly look back at the teacher.
Y/N: "Pft, no. I'm not that worried. I'm sure they'll pull through. We've been through worse."
Cinder: "Oh? Like what?"
As she said this, she leans closer to him, which Y/N tries to lean away a bit.
Y/N: "Uhm... the Breach."
Cinder: "I already know that one."
Y/N: "You weren't very specific."
Cinder giggles as she leans back away from him.
Cinder: "Fair point."
The two competing teams line up across from each other in the center of the field.
[Let's be honest here. I'm only putting this image here because this team is very unrecognizable when it comes to canon show itself. And the only ones who would know about them or even as individual characters are hardcore fans of the show.]
The ring around them begins to transform into two equally split into two types of terrain.
Port: "Vacuo's rocky desert for Team BRNZ."
Oobleck: "Vale's thick forests for Team RWBY."
Port: "Now, let the match...
Team RWBY and Team BRNZ ready themselves, waiting for the match to start.
Port: "...begin!!"
Immediately, Ruby uses her semblance to dash over the thick forests, using it as cover as she begins her sniper fight against May Zedong, who ran as best as she can towards the rocky desert, while shooting back at Ruby. May is a capable marksman, managing to shoot down Ruby's sniper locations a few times, but Ruby manages to dodge her suppressing fire and flee to a better spot before continuing her sniper shots.
Weiss and Blake tag team against Roy Stallion and Nolan Porfirio. Roy, using circular saws on the top of his wrists as both melee and range weapons, against Blake and her Gambol Shroud. Nolan, using a stun rod with a one-handed stance, against Weiss and her Myrtenaster. As they exchange blows and strikes, Weiss and Blake couldn't help but stare at their weapons. Weiss looks to Nolan's weapons.
Weiss: "A stun rod? Kind of basic, don't you think?"
Nolan goes to strike his weapon to the heiress only for her to quickly parry it and summon a glyph to charge forward to strike at him. Blake is colliding blade with Roy's circular saw gauntlets before leaving a shadow clone in her place, confusing Roy as Blake kick him several feet away.
Blake: "Your weapon is very... off-putting, I think?"
In response, Roy launch one of his saws at her. Blake deflects it with Gambol as Roy took this chance to land a blow until Blake notice this as she leaves an ice clone of herself, causing Roy to get his weapon stuck on a statue of ice. Only for Blake to kick him right into the ice statue.
During their teammates' fight, Yang is up against the team leader himself, Brawnz Ni. Brawnz's claw gloves against Yang's Ember Celica. Yang has been parrying and dodging Brawnz's punches as she just smirks.
Yang: "What? Is that the best you got?"
The blonde has been taunting him for a short while, making Brawnz annoyed. They trade blows after blows with none of them backing down. The moment Yang block a blow from Brawnz as he quickly tries to use his armored bronze-colored kneecaps to hit her. However, his attack was knocked off-course by a shot from Ruby, who spares a glance in their way during her sniper fight with May. Looking away from her sniper scope, Ruby shouts.
Ruby: "I got your back!"
Yang glances back to her sister.
Yang: "Thanks, Ruby!"
The match continues on as the crowd of spectators watch this unfold. Among them are Y/N and Cinder observe the fight.
Cinder: "Well, they're doing pretty well. Don't you think so, Y/N...? Y/N?"
She looks back at Y/N, who's eyes are focusing on his team's match, pondering to himself at what they're doing at the moment.
Y/N: ("They're keeping Team BRNZ mostly separated while still operating like a well-oiled machine together. Jumping in to help one another at its most convenience. Heh, not a bad plan, girls.")
As he slowly come to awareness, Y/N feel like someone blowing air on his left ear, making him almost leap out of his seat, quickly seeing that it's Cinder.
Y/N: "Cinder? Why did you do that?"
Cinder: "Because you didn't listen to what I was saying. It's very rude to ignore someone when they're talking to you."
Y/N: "Oh, sorry. I was just so focus on the match."
Cinder: "You know what your team's strategy is?"
Y/N: "No, I don't."
Cinder giggles at this before looking back at the match with Y/N.
Cinder: ("Liar.")
Brawnz tries to wildly punch and kick Yang as she either parries or dodge, giving her a chance to strike back with a punch to face. Yang is dodging Brawnz's multiple strikes, smirking and thinking that she got this. But the moment she dodges one of his attacks, she saw a piece of her hair being cut off. Her eyes widen before blinking, turning her eyes to red.
Y/N: "Uh-oh."
Cinder: "What?"
Yang: ("What?!")
Immediately, Yang's overconfidence turns to full-blown rage, literally, shouting at what just happen. Brawnz try to punch her only for the angry Yang quickly block and proceeds to punch the guy's body so hard that he's send flying into the rocky desert area and knocking May out of her sniping spot.
Cinder leans to the side towards Y/N.
Cinder: "Overprotective on the hair, huh?"
Y/N: "Yep."
A stun silence occurred among the other 5 combatants, mostly from Team BRNZ, considering they just saw their team leader being launched and land on top of their sniper. During this, Ruby snap back to awareness as she quickly come up with a plan.
Ruby: ("Hah, I got it!")
Aiming her sniper as she looks through her scope, Ruby fires a shot at Roy and another shot at Nolan, knocking them back to the same spot both May and Brawnz landed. Quickly, she calls out to Weiss and Blake for their team attack.
Ruby: "Weiss! Blake! Bee's Schnee!"
Eyes widen a bit, Weiss and Blake quickly look at each other, nodding as they set up their team attack. Weiss creates a large frozen slide-like shape around her as Blake rush towards the angered Yang.
Blake: "Yang! Bee's Schnee!"
Yang looks at her teammate for a bit before nodding back to her as she and Blake rush towards Weiss's ice slide along with Ruby, who came out of the forests.
Weiss: "Yang! Do it!"
Knowing what to do, Yang blasts herself forward and skims over the icy slide, catching Blake's pistol as her teammate uses Ruby as a launch pad to jump off of towards the huddled Team BRNZ. The recovering team only have a second to look horrified as Blake whips a screaming and angry Yang around to land a devastating punch that sends them flying out of the ring in one strike and into their elimination.
The buzzer rang loudly as one of the announcers speak up.
Port: "And the winner of this opening match is Team RWBY!!"
The crowd begin to cheer and clap their hands loudly. Ruby can't help but smile and leap into the air, shouting happily.
Ruby: "Yaaay!"
Weiss look around, sounding quite surprise at their victory.
Weiss: "We... did it?"
Blake places a hand on her shoulder, giving a small smile.
Blake: "We sure did."
Yang: "Yes! We're on fire!"
Weiss and Blake look back at Yang, raising her fist in the air.
Weiss: "Yang... you're literally on fire."
Yang's hair and body are lightly on fire, her eyes returning to normal lilac color.
Yang: "Eh? I am?"
Back to the benches where hundreds of spectators are still cheering and clapping their hands, Y/N is doing the same as he couldn't help but smile upon his team's victory. Cinder took notice of this.
Cinder: "Well, what are you waiting for?"
Y/N: "Huh?"
Cinder: "Go congratulate them."
Y/N: "Oh, sure. Catch you later, Cinder."
As he said this, Y/N quickly wave to her before leaving the benches and head to the locker room. Cinder slowly waves back to him as she stares after him. Once he's out of sight, Cinder let out a sigh before she ponders to herself.
Cinder: ("The more time I spend time with him, the more I keep getting very little information about him. He's definitely hiding something... but what?")
After some thinking, she slowly gets out of her seat and walks off.
Cinder: ("But I'm still making some progress. Both with the plan and with Y/N. I just need to dig a little deeper...")
Giggling to herself, Cinder walks away to do her role as one of Haven's professors.