"Huh?", Paimon whispered to Lumine, "Isn't that the fake name of…."
But Lumine wasn't listening, eyes already focused towards the area where contestants enter the Arena. From the entrance came a young, black-haired man who carried two spears.
"That's not Cu…."
"Yeah", Paimon agreed, "Cu's blue and holds one red spear. This guy's got a yellow and red spear. Maybe they're friends?"
"Paimon."
"Yea?"
"This doesn't strike you as shocking?"
"Huh? No. Why? Did you not expect Cu to have friends outside of Emiya? Wow, Lumine. Paimon's kinda shocked that you'd have that kind of-"
"No. Think again Paimon. How did we meet Cu and Emiya in the first place?"
"Umm….we met them in Mondstadt…and talked about random things….oh."
Paimon's eyes widened.
"They were here because of an accident with their…their…Raysaving? Redshifting?"
"Rayshifting."
"Paimon thought that Da Vinci lady said they fixed the problem though."
"They did. That's how those two got home."
"Then how did Lancer…I mean that one…get here?"
"Good question. The better one, though, is why?"
"Well, Paimon thinks that maybe talking with him after his bout might give some clues. So let's first watch him fight and then go find him afterwards."
Lumine nodded as she focused on the match again. Beidou, who had just finished giving her speech, gestured towards Juza.
"When the Juza, my chief mate, blows the horn, you may begin fighting! Ready?"
The two competitors in the ring nodded and Juza, with a large horn in hand, let it sound loudly. Lumine could feel the vibrations all the way from her seat, but the match quickly took her focus.
Uncle Yun, for all his talk, was actually quite capable. He moved pretty quickly and, although his blows weren't heavy or refined, Lumine could tell that he did indeed have some sort of martial arts training. He rushed in low, eyes narrowed and body already ready to throw a punch. 'Lancer', on the other hand, dodged easily, his movements quick and Lumine nearly missed the intricate step work he did that took 'Lancer' to the other edge of the Arena.
Damn. This wasn't even going to be a fight. By that footwork and speed alone, Lumine knew that Uncle Yun had no chance. This Lancer had techniques and skills that were close to the Cu's.
Lancer, who still held his two spears, glanced behind him and called out "Rider!" before throwing his two spears out of the Arena. Lumine watched, eyes narrowed, as a hand caught both spears.
"Heard ya. I'll take care of these till you're done."
The owner of the hand was a moderately-sized woman with bright pink hair. She was dressed a little bit like sea-goer except a little bit more extravagant. From what Lumine could tell, she had an air similar to that of Jean or others from Mondstadt, probably stemming from her baggy clothes that matched some of Mondstadt's style. By her side was a sheathed blade that looked impossibly large and imbalance as well as another sheather item(Lumine didn't recognize it).
"Rider…", Lumine murmured.
"That's another strange fake name that's like Lancer and Archer. Maybe she's from the same place?"
"Given her familiarity with the Lancer on stage, I'd guess so."
"Huh. I wonder what other strange fake names people of that place have."
Lumine turned her attention back to the match, watching as Lancer easily took caught Uncle Yun's punch and sent him tumbling towards the edge of the Arena with a single throw.
He's holding back, she thought, possibly to not hurt the opponent.
"Hey! Don't underestimate me! Youngsters these days, no respect to their elders. This is a fight so give it your all, Lancer!"
Uncle Yun yelled, wiping his mouth as he got up from the ground. He roared before dashing wildly towards Lancer, his fists striking forward at a pretty fast tempo. Lancer easily dodged all of them before hitting Uncle Yun with a light kick as Lancer moved a step back. That single kick threw Uncle Yun off balance and he teetered slightly forward, causing a pause in his onslaught of punches. Lancer, who had moved into a different stance, then swung his fist forward, the blow knocking Uncle Yun away from him.
A straight punch. Cleanly done too.
One of Beidou's crewmates moved towards Uncle Yun and counted to ten before calling "That's the round!"
Beidou, from her position, laughed heartily before calling out "Our first winner! Lancer! On to the next fight!"
As Lancer hopped out of the ring, someone else from Beidou's crew lifted Uncle Yun out of the ring and brought him over to the similarly-dressed people. Although she couldn't hear very well over the cheering, Lumine heard the person say that Uncle Yun was okay and was just knocked out temporarily.
"Let's go!", Paimon whispered and Lumine nodded as she got up and made her way to where she last saw Lancer, Paimon right behind her. When she got there however, he was already gone along with the pink-haired woman.
"Huh, Lancer and that 'Rider' move pretty fast. I guess we just missed them."
Lumine was about to reply when Zhuhan's voice cut through her thoughts.
"Hello, you seem like you're raring to go. Are you ready to compete?"
Lumine thought for a moment before replying with a "yes". Lancer would definitely show up later so she could wait until then.
Walking onto stage, she heard Beidou announce the next round and she found herself facing Jinyou who turned out to be the guy with the inflated ego.
"Y—You... You're the hero they're talking about? Argh! How am I supposed to win now!?"
Lumine only smiled before getting into a fighting position. Jinyou was going to go barehanded so she should as well.
In less than a minute, she had Jinyou groaning on the ground, unwilling to get up. Lumine bowed towards the crowd before stepping out of the Arena.
"What a strange guy, why was he so confident to being with...? Well, now that we've won, let's go and see Beidou. I didn't see Lancer or Rider around."
After making their way to Beidou and Kazuha, Lumine greeted them with a "hey!".
"Hey there, kid. I knew I wouldn't regret getting you into this tournament. Hey, Kazhua, what do you think? She totally dominated that guy, and did it with style, too."
Kazuha nodded.
"Impressive. But I also observed Lumine exercising some restraint, as if to protect the opponent from serious harm."
Beidou huffed before jabbing him with an elbow.
"Well, I've fought my fair share of battles, both big and small. And I say, after the show she put on just now, Lumine's more than convinced me of his ability. So come on, we all know you've got a wide vocabulary in there. Spare a word or two to congratulate our up-and-coming champion."
"I wouldn't be so certain about the 'up-and-coming' champion, but let me think how to aptly phrase these words of praise…"
All three looked expectantly at Kazuha while he closed his eyes in thought. After a couple long seconds, he fixed his soft eyes on Lumine before saying
"You fought well."
Beidou scoffed again.
"Ugh, alright then. I was thinking your inner poet might want to join in the fun, but... I guess I shouldn't put you on the spot like that. You know, Lumine, a lot of competitors came to me saying how surprised they were that Liyue's hero was entering the tournament....And since you signed up, we've had many others do the same, with more than a few top-tier fighters among them. I'm sure lots of them are here to find out how they stack up against you."
Lumine shrugged, "I don't see what all the fuss is about."
"Haha, well, since everyone sees you as the one to beat, I figured I should start treating you that way too. For one thing, we don't want you wasting all your energy in the early rounds fighting people who are well below your level. Not to mention... you must be itching to fight someone in your league, too, right? So, I'm putting you straight through to the semi-finals!
Paimon gasped before saying, "Huh? But we only just started on the qualifiers... Seems like a crazy system if we just skip straight to the semi-finals."
Kazuha shook his head before explaining.
"This is how Captain Beidou works. You won't persuade her otherwise. Besides, at your level, you would have made it to the semi-finals anyway."
"Huh. To be fair, Paimon was thinking that too...but what about that Lancer guy?"
"Oh him? Call him a black sheep if you want. No one really knows who he is except that he's got the title of "First Spear of Fianna", whatever that means. If anything, both him and that pink-haired companion seem quite capable, but for whatever reason, she didn't sign up."
Beidou shrugged before waving her hand as if brushing away the topic.
"Alright, I'm gonna watch some more of the tournament. If there's any other potential contenders for you out there, I want to know who they are and what they're about."
"Okay."