Professor Arc

Chapter 50

"And that's the end of the round," Peter sighed, voice devoid of the enthusiasm it showed for the last few bouts. "Emerald and Mercury of Team EMBR, Haven Academy, reign in victorious over Coco and Yatsuhashi of Beacon. They... they..." Peter's head fell, leaving Jaune to leap in.

"They fought well," he said, "and a round of applause for them for that. One as well for our victors, who push on into the singles round, but for now ladies and gentlemen, that marks the end of the first day doubles rounds of the tournament. I hope you all enjoyed, and be sure to remember, just because the rounds are over, the entertainment is not. We have live music, carnival games and great food for the rest of the afternoon. For now, though, this is Jaune Arc and Peter Port, signing out!"

The crowd cheered, almost certainly not at them, but it was nice to imagine it was. Jaune, on the other hand, could only sigh, relaxing back into his chair as the windows shuttered down and cut off the thousands of people outside. He looked to his left, then sighed again.

"Peter... what's wrong? Are you..." Jaune paused and then leaned a little closer. "Are you crying!?"

"N-No," Peter sniffed and wiped his eyes. "It's not like I had fifteen thousand on them or anything, my boy. It's just a manly speck of dust in my eye."

"The dust is manly?"

"It has to be to bother someone like me!" Peter said. "No mere dust could make my eyes water so; no pain could force the nectar that is my tears from my fortified pores. Nothing could-"

Ugh, good job I didn't bother putting any money on the teams. Then again, have I even really spent any money since working here? I'm not even sure I've looked at my bank account. Well, there was the alcohol in his cupboard, which had been cruelly destroyed. He'd still yet to stock up on that. Then there was Neo, who'd almost certainly stolen his card at some point and bought ice-cream off it. He wasn't stupid enough to imagine she'd paid for any of that.

"What did you think of that last fight?" he interrupted, curious for the older man's experience. "Didn't you think it odd how Coco just looked at that girl, then ignored her?"

"Are you honestly asking me that?" Peter's face was incredibly deadpan, a single eyebrow raised and his moustache twitching in clear agitation. "Are you honestly asking me that, my boy?"

Jaune coughed and glanced away. "Okay, yeah, good point – that was kinda obvious. What do you think happened?"

"Battle nerves, a mistake, over-confidence," Peter shrugged and collapsed back into his seat. "It happens to the best of us. Well, not me, of co-"

"But for their team?" Jaune interrupted, before the man could go off on one. "Coco doesn't seem like the type to suddenly develop performance anxiety. They've been on missions with you before, haven't they? I mean, they're strong enough to get this far as a three-man unit."

To do all of that, then fall to something as simple as nerves? It didn't make sense.

"You must remember, my boy, they are performing in front of tens of thousands of people here, then hundreds of thousands more across all of Remnant. I think a little bit of stage fright is warranted here."

And, of course, that helped to remind Jaune of just how many people were listening to him, too, which was enough to make his throat seize up again. Luckily, the day was over, so it wouldn't cause any issues. Still, could Coco really have been affected by just nerves? From anyone else, he might have accepted it. No, it wasn't even Coco at all... if they'd faced any other team, he'd have accepted so simple an answer. But not this...

He refused to believe Cinder's team had won because of something so simple...

In fact, he wasn't going to accept it. "Well, I'm going to call it for the day," he said, standing up and putting his coat back on. He picked up Cinder's scroll too, if only to avoid her wrath if someone removed it. "Will you be okay?"