Bonaventure.
There was a certain poetry to the name. It was both a greeting and a farewell. It was the start or the end of an adventure, or perhaps just a stop along the way. Blake wasn't sure which applied to her, but she was almost sad to see the gates of the train station fade behind her.
Life was sometimes more complex when you never stayed in the same place for longer than a year or two at a time. Hopefully that would change with her next destination. Still, this was the first time in a long, long while that she'd moved because she had planned to and not because she was forced to. The old city was calm but flavorful, friendly but secluded. She'd very much enjoyed her job as a librarian and the Kendo club she trained at. Well, five hours to the train change, and then another fifteen to her new home. She tilted her seat back as far as it would go, and closed her eyes.
She found her seat on the next train quickly, and pulled out a book, but was interrupted by a "Hello!"
She looked up. A very tall girl stood by the seats. She had gorgeous red hair, a true crimson color that put to shame the orange of most that called themselves 'red-head'. She wore a bronze tiara and matching earrings, with high boots and a scabbard concealed skillfully beneath her waistband, the very subtle bulges only giving it away by virtue of Blake's experience.
"I'm Pyrrha," she said, sitting down on the seat next to Blake.
"Blake," she replied, with a small smile.
"Where are you headed to?" Pyrrha asked.
"Vale. I'm studying at Beacon."
"What a coincidence! I am as well. You're a scientist?" Pyrrha asked, a slight furrow of her brow as her eyes darted for an instant to where Blake's own weapon, a katana with bladed sheath, was concealed behind her shoulder.
"Yes. You?"
"Fighter. Perhaps we could be partners," she replied with a smile of her own.
"Maybe. They've already assigned them based on applications though."
"You never know," Pyrrha said amiably.
Blake gave a non-committal shrug and opened her book again. Small talk was never her forte.
They walked from the Vale train station to Beacon together, removing the coverings from their weapons as soon as they were clear of the station. It was late at night already and Blake wasn't too keen on any undesired attention, such as two girls with large suitcases were likely to draw. The front desk clerk at the dormitory building informed them that they were not, in fact, partners, and sent them to their assigned rooms.
Blake knocked on the door rather than trying to finagle the key out of her pocket while carrying the entirety of her worldly possessions. It was opened by another Amazonian girl, this one a blonde.
"Hey! You must be Blake, right? I'm Yang, your partner! Come on in and we'll get your stuff sorted."
She had purple eyes. That really shouldn't have been a big deal to Blake, who's own were a rather unique amber, but she was caught off balance by the girl's scent.
It was no secret that all Faunus have enhanced sense of smell, and use that sense much more than humans do. Cat faunus have even better senses than most. Blake was used to immediately being able to pick out faunus, including type, among humans. But Yang smelled ... different. Her scent was ostensibly very attractive. Lavender mixed with pine with the barest hint of ... campfire smoke? But something about it froze Blake like a deer staring down a car. She wasn't sure if she wanted to run at the blond girl or run away, as fast as possible. She shook her head slightly, trying to clear her thoughts and relax her breathing.
"Yeah, that's me." She forced a smile.
Yang casually grabbed her heavy suitcase and walked into the room. Blake followed her.
"Shoes by the door, we keep the floor clean in here. There's two bedrooms, one on each side. My sister Ruby and her partner are going to be in the one on the left, we have the one on the right. Kitchenette there, although most of our food will probably come from the mess hall. It's mostly for the fridge."
Blake followed her. The scent of the blonde had already faintly permeated the entire apartment. She'd probably been here for a few hours already. It all gave off the same feeling that put Blake on edge like nothing so subtle had ever done to her. She hoped she got used to it soon.
Following Yang into the bedroom, she dropped her bags on the floor. The apartment was certainly spacious enough. The central room was as big as some entire places she'd lived at in the past, with two big couches, a TV, a large table, and a small sectioned-off kitchen area. The bedroom had two double beds in it, one against the right wall and one in the middle of the room, as well as two dressers and a rather large closet.
"Ta-da! Home sweet home. Make yourself comfortable. The bed in the middle is mine, and so's that dresser. You can put stuff in the other half of the closet too. Bathroom's through that door there. Come on out when you're ready. I'm just starting an episode of Daredevil." Yang grinned at her and then walked back out into the main room. Blake stared after her for a second, then got to unpacking.
The shower felt great. Being on a train or in stations for nearly twenty-four hours kind of does that to you. She spent entirely too long relaxing in the hot water, which gave some time to reflect on the girl who was to be her partner for the next four years.
Blake was fairly tall for a girl. But Yang was at least three inches taller than her, definitely over six feet. She had been wearing a tight tank top that put her musculature on full display. Her back in particular looked like it had been the subject of a lot of work, and maybe steroids too? Blake hadn't seen her weapon anywhere though. Still, on first inspection it seemed her fears about getting an incompetent partner were unfounded.
Her hair was darker than most blondes, but had almost a copper tint to it rather than the 'dirty blond' effect. She wondered if Yang wore contacts to change her eye color to that violet, or if it was natural like hers. The cynical side of her pointed out that that was exactly the thing she was so sick of everyone asking her.
Once she'd dried off and gotten dressed, she stepped back out into the main room and instantly felt the relaxation given to her by the heat of the shower slip from her muscles and adrenaline seep into her as Yang's scent filled her nose again. Yeah, that was something she'd have to find a way to talk to the blonde about as well.
"Hey," Yang gave her a saucy grin and patted the seat on the sofa beside her. "Come on, sit down. I have popcorn and a variety of soft drinks. Want something?"
"Maybe some Sprite?" Blake managed weakly. She'd had dinner a couple of hours ago on the train, but was pretty thirsty.
Yang jumped up and grabbed a can from the fridge, flipping it at Blake. She caught it as gently as she could and popped the tab. Yang looked incredulous when not a single drop of the liquid fizzed over the side. Emboldened slightly, Blake stuck her tongue out at her and drank.
The show was some kind of action flick. Blake didn't know too much about it. Truth be told, she hadn't had cable TV where she'd lived for many years and didn't particularly bother keeping up with it online, as she preferred books anyway. She might have gotten a bit more into the show if it weren't for the incredibly distracting presence next to her.
At some point Yang had declared that Blake was too tense (no shit?) and had started rubbing her shoulders and neck with one hand. Blake surprised herself when instead of shying away from the physical contact with what was still pretty much a stranger, she'd just relaxed into it. The skittishness she felt around Yang just slowly slipped away as they sat there with the girl's arm around her shoulders. The show seemed to end in no time at all.
"Awesome!" Yang enthused, bouncing over to the fridge to grab more drinks. "How did you like it, Blakey?"
Blake raised her eyebrow slightly at the nickname. "It was ... cool. I don't really watch much TV though."
Yang casually threw her arm around Blake again as she leaned back.
"So tell me about yourself. Where do you come from? Why'd you want to come here?" she asked.
Blake considered for a second. "I'm from Mistral. I read a lot and am competent with some sword-based martial arts. I wanted to come here because, well, I wanted to do something that would make the world a better place. And Beacon makes the best field-research teams there are."
"Cool! I just like adventures. And what better way to do that than going with a scientist into vast hordes of monsters? I'm from Patch, it's a small island a little ways off the coast from here, so I guess I'm a bit of a local. My, well, half, sister Ruby is going to be rooming with us too. She's a faunus. She'll tell you she's a wolf but she's pretty much a puppy, you'll be fine. Her partner is human so I hope it's okay between the two of them, I haven't met the other girl yet though. Apparently she's the reason we got such a big room for so cheap, comes from some rich family. Oh, Ruby's a fighter, like me. But honestly that's just her choice. She'd make it in here if she applied as a scientist too."
Blake tried to restrain the whirlwind of energy. "Whoa slow down, what do you mean I'll be fine?"
Yang paused for a second. "Well, I know cats don't get along too well with wolves in general. But honestly she's the sweetest thing."
Blake's knees felt weak. "How did you know?"
Yang raised one eyebrow. "I've lived with a faunus for pretty much my entire life."
"You're the first human to notice," Blake muttered. Well, at least Yang treated her like a person. Maybe it would be okay after all.
Yang gave that a half-smirk before there was a banging on the door.
"Yaaaaang?" The high pitched voice was muffled through the door. Yang jumped to it, opening it to reveal a veritable pile of suitcases, a brunette with red-tipped hair and silver eyes, and a girl with hair as white as snow and eyes as blue as ice. Blake's toes curled involuntarily. Schnee.
"Hi! I'm Yang, as I'm sure my sister has informed you ad nauseum. That's Blake, my partner. We got the room on the right ..."
Blake barely noticed what Yang was saying, as she was investigating the new arrivals. The brunette was definitely a wolf, albeit the least threatening one she'd ever encountered. She didn't see any obvious Faunus characteristics so it was probably a pair of wolf ears taped back against her head. And fortunately, despite their half blood relation, she did not seem to smell anything like Yang. The other arrival, though, was the problem.
Weiss Schnee was ... well known to her. The heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, a mining company that used what basically amounted to Faunus slave labor. They used their wealth and influence liberally to protect their ability to systematically oppress her people in a society that already didn't give a damn about them. There was a certain irony that she was now going to live with two Faunus, including sharing a room with one. Not that she knew that yet.
The only thing was, Blake had no idea why she was here. It's not like Beacon had anything to do with business. There was no reason for a wealthy heiress to be at an school dedicated to researching the Grimm. For that reason alone, Blake decided she would try to at least get to know the girl. She definitely would not reveal her Faunus heritage though. Then Yang sat down beside her again and shattered her thought process.
"Hey, kitty-cat. The best ice cream shop in the world is a few minutes walk from here, we were planning on going as a team building exercise when Weiss finishes unpacking. You down?"
"Don't call me that. But, sure," Blake said. She rotated herself to a semi lying down position on the armrest of the sofa and pulled out the book she hadn't quite managed to finish on the train. The Schnee girl had like six suitcases, this was going to take a while.
It was nearly midnight by the time they set out for this legendary ice cream place. Ruby had backed up Yang's claim, albeit with a lot more hand waving and gushing. Apparently she was two years younger than the others, although Blake could barely believe she was sixteen. Blake had had some experiences with wolves and would rather have not repeated them, but Yang was correct in her "puppy" assessment.
The ice cream shop had quite a lot of people in it for being so late at night. Two of them were faunus, one a short girl with large rabbit ears and one a blond boy with a long monkey tail. Both stiffened almost imperceptibly as the group walked in, although none of the humans did. Speaking of humans, Blake recognized one of them, sitting at a large table with a tall boy bearing messy blond hair, and lead her team over to meet.
"Hello again!" Pyrrha smiled. "Is this your new team?"
Whatever Blake was about to say was run over by Ruby. "Yeah! Team RWBY! Get it? Because Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang! Also it sounds like Ruby."
"Yeah, well then we're, uh, Juniper!" the scraggly blond declared. "Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren."
"Oh really? Which might you be?" Yang asked.
"The name's Jaune Arc, short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it!" he enthused.
"Really?" Yang smiled coquettishly. "I've heard a lot from the ladies about Jaune Arc's tongue."
Ruby smacked her in the back of the head. "Bad Yang. No ice cream for you tonight."
Jaune's face turned a shade of red to match Weiss'. And then a girl with pink hair and an almighty hammer strapped to her back walked up, practically dragging the incarnate of tall, dark, and handsome behind her.
"Guess what I got you guys!" she declared. "Well, not you guys. Just my team."
"Uh, ice cream?" Blake said, thankful for the opportunity to get a word in.
The pink girl pouted. "Not fair. You're not allowed to use your mind-reading semblance."
"We're literally in an ice cream shop," the boy behind her said.
"Listen Ren, if I wanted your sass..." the girl said. "Oh by the way, I'm Nora, the most fabulous hammerstorm you'll ever meet."
"I'm Ruby and I'm getting ice cream for my team, so be right back," Ruby said, and then dashed off. She cleared the width of the shop in under a second, followed by a trail of rose petals that evaporated when they hit the ground. Well, that's one semblance figured out.
The rest of the night was a blur, a whirlwind of energy from Yang, Ruby, Nora, and Jaune that the other four seemed to get caught up in. The ice cream was indeed as good as Yang and Ruby had made it out to be, followed by a visit to a bar (the bouncer let them in after Yang had "a word" with him), a walk down to the pier in which several rather drunk teenagers ended up in the water (good thing it was late summer), and a stop at a Chinese food restaurant ("It's been like eight hours since dinner!"). Blake ended up being unceremoniously tossed onto her bed after 4:00 AM.
"Night, kitty-cat," Yang said, her violet eyes seeming to shine in the darkness.
Blake didn't have the energy to fight it. "Night, Yang." And promptly passed out.
The clock read 1:16. Blake groaned to herself. She'd never slept that late before. Then again, she'd never gone out that late with people before. Always the introvert, her new friends seemed to be able to bring something out in her.
A familiar mane of golden hair attached to a pair of purple eyes and a blinding smile poked into the room.
"Good afternoon, kit."
Blake threw her pillow at her.
"Come on, get up. It's a new day, and we've got so much stuff to do!"
Blake groaned, sitting up. Apparently she'd fallen asleep in her clothes. She quickly changed and stepped out of the room and into an argument.
"She's sixteen!" A certain white-haired and very indignant girl was pointing in a very indignant way towards Ruby, who looked at Blake with a face that said "save me".
"You're underage too," Yang said drily.
"Exactly!" Weiss was now pointing in her indignant way at Yang. "If we'd been caught, we could have been in huge trouble. They expel people for that!"
"Why did you come in then?"
"Because, oh I don't know, I was dragged?"
"She was," Blake said. "It was funny."
"And," Yang continued, "I suppose someone poured an entire pitcher of sangria down your throat?"
Weiss' face was bright red, chewing at words she didn't know how to say.
"This part of Vale is a university town, princess," Yang said. "Everyone drinks, nobody cares. Even if it's only to rebel against your parents."
Weiss' eyes seemed to almost pop out of her skull. "Why you ..."
"Weiss..." Ruby put a hand on her shoulder. Weiss looked at her, fury muted temporarily. "Nobody got hurt, and you had just as much fun as anyone else. We won't make a habit out of it, okay? I don't like it when you two fight."
Weiss stared at her for a second before grumbling out a small "Fine."
Blake spoke up. "Anyone else starving?"
They met the JNPR group, who had apparently also just gotten up, in the mess hall. Pyrrha was chipper as ever, Ren was feeding water to a flattened Nora, and Jaune was using the table as a pillow. They had some kind of brunch buffet out. Yang and Ruby piled their plates with sausages and waffles with maple syrup, Blake had an omelette, and Weiss had some kind of salad Blake didn't even recall seeing anywhere. She wanted to tour Vale during the day, which Ruby and Yang were super excited about, but JNPR collectively decided they were going to stay inside.
Vale was quite the spectacle during the day. Beacon was on the outskirts, but still close to the downtown area. It had an extensive monorail system that Blake and Weiss got season passes for, and they spent much of the early afternoon touring the vast selection of shops, markets, and even a large group of street performers playing the "cantina band" from Star Wars, complete with solos for every instrument. Yang and Weiss were both impressed enough to throw some money into their instrument cases. When they were heading back to Beacon for dinner though, they saw the dust shop.
Windows smashed, police lines outside, and the shop completely bereft of dust. Two detectives were discussing animatedly outside. The four girls approached for a closer look.
"It doesn't make any sense! They left all the money, and just took the dust. The stock was low too. You could buy more dust than that with what was in the till!" one of the detectives claimed in exasperation.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" the other one asked. "Thinking the White Fang was here?"
"Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough!" the first one said.
"The White Fang," Weiss glowered. "What a bunch of low-lives. Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."
Blake bristled slightly, but didn't say anything. The group made the trip back to their dorm room in silence. Ruby broke it when they sat down.
"Not all faunus are like that though, Weiss," Ruby said.
"They pretty much are," Weiss said bluntly. "You haven't dealt with them like I have."
"Pray tell," Yang drawled, "how have you dealt with faunus?" She put her arm around Blake as if in reassurance. Blake bit back what she was about to say.
"The White Fang and my family have been at war for a while now. War. As in actual bloodshed. My father came home furious every night and that made for a rather difficult childhood!"
"But Weiss, not all faunus are part of the White Fang," Ruby said, a desperate look in her eyes. "Remember the bunny girl and the monkey boy from the ice cream shop last night?"
"Yeah, I did," Weiss said. "And did you see that very same monkey boy steal two apples when we went to the market? One crime here, one crime there, and eventually they'll all run off to join that group of crooks."
"But there's good faunus too," Ruby pleaded. "I've met them. I've had friends who were faunus."
"I've never met a good one," Weiss said. "Eventually, they'll all turn."
Trembling, Ruby reached her hands towards her head and pulled. Two strips of tape came off, and two triangular wolf ears, gray tipped with red, stood up on her head. Weiss' face turned crimson. Ruby burst into tears and ran into her room. Weiss slowly turned her head towards where Blake and Yang sat on the sofa.
"Good job," Yang said levelly.
"You just let that happen?" Weiss asked, a mask of shock.
"Don't blame what you said on me. Go fix it."
"How?" Weiss asked, her face flushed.
"I'm not fixing your problems for you. You two are partners for the next four years, so you had better start acting like it. Starting with actually listening to her. Go."
Weiss stood up as if in a daze and slowly walked over to the room.
Yang yawned, unconcerned. "Join me for a nap before dinner?" She stood up.
Blake nodded, following her into the room. "I think I could use one. Especially after that."
"She honestly is a good kid," Yang said. "I don't blame her."
"What? Why? She literally just ripped on your sister's race in front of you. She's a Schnee, Yang. You know what they've done to the faunus. Her family is the reason I have to wear a bow over my ears!"
Yang looked at her, violet eyes seeming to pierce right through her. "You know that's not true. Schnee is not the only cause of human versus faunus tension. And even if they were, no matter how awful the crimes her family has committed, you cannot attribute the sins of her parents to her."
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Yang!"
Yang sat down on her bed. Blake mirrored. "Think about what you just said. You know only Jacques Schnee, the CEO of the SDC. That is what you know about the Schnee, so all Schnees become him. She knows only the White Fang, a terrorist organization dedicated to wiping out her family. She's probably never met a faunus before. It's not like you guys are common. That is all she knows about faunus, so all faunus become the White Fang. We're all the same on the inside, Blake. And you have just as much to work through as Weiss does."
"You're awful defensive about a family that uses my species for slave labor!" Blake stood up.
Yang's amethyst gaze pierced her through the head. The now familiar imperative to run started surfacing its head, but it was as if she couldn't move.
"You didn't listen to what I said, Blake. You heard what you feel on the inside. I don't defend their family. What the Schnee Dust Company has done to your species is a crime against humanity and I know it's a big reason of why you're here. All I am saying is that Weiss personally has not committed these crimes. Sins aren't inherited. If nothing else, we have the heiress to the SDC in our group. We can change her. We've already started doing so. Come on, Blake. Have a nap with me. We can work through this after, okay?"
Blake shakily released a breath she didn't know she was holding. The adrenaline died down inside of her. "Okay," she said quietly and sat down on her bed.
Dinner was ... awkward. JNPR joined them for a bit but their attempts to cheer up the morose air RWBY had failed utterly. At least Ruby and Weiss sat next to each other, although they didn't say much. They had strawberries in ice cream for dessert; Weiss gave hers to Ruby, soliciting a smile, genuine despite its small size. Blake didn't have much to say about anything, leaving Yang to awkwardly joke with Jaune and Nora for a bit before the latter went to the common room to play games.
Yang declared that as a team they had a lot to work out, and thus they were going to have a workout. This also gave a great opportunity to try out Beacon's sparring arenas. After having grabbed their weapons (Weiss had a rapier, Ruby had some kind of giant metal thing all folded up into itself, and Yang had nothing for some reason) they made their way to the almost completely empty arenas for some 1v1s.
Blake stood across from Yang and deftly drew Gambol Shroud. A small katana connected to a long ribbon that wrapped around her arm fit inside a sheath with a bladed edge for dual wielding. Yang merely smiled and assumed an unarmed fighting stance. A small ripple of light caught Blake's eye and she saw the backs of Yang's hands and wrists shining with a dull gold color. The blonde grinned lasciviously and beckoned with the index and middle fingers of her right hand. Blake felt her face burning and jumped at her, slashing down with her katana.
Instead of dodging like she'd expected, Yang blocked the hit squarely with the gold patch on the back of her forearm, releasing a dull ting sound, like metal on carbon. Blake was knocked several feet backwards by the force of the impact. Yang then released a flurry of punches into the air. Each punch released a concussive pock sound and a small burst of flame. Blake dodged them all, using her semblance to generate shadow clones to absorb the hits instead and cause chaos. She flipped behind the blonde, now on the offensive as Yang punched another clone. A strike downwards on her shoulder blade, blocked at the last second. But Blake was already swiping the sheath at Yang's side. Yang blocked every hit but she was stepping backwards towards the wall of the arena. Blake unleashed one final flurry of blows to force Yang the rest of the way back, but instead of following, she threw her katana so the ribbon would wrap around Yang's torso, immobilizing her. Except Yang grinned, and caught the handle of the katana, midair, wrenching it backwards. The ribbon, still wrapped around Blake's arm, yanked her into the air and flying at the blonde, who stepped out of the way and caught Blake just before she crashed into the wall of the arena. Then she proceeded to pin her there. Blake felt the hackles rise on the back of her neck as she caught a breath of Yang's now familiar scent and stared, wild-eyed, into lilac eyes just inches from her own. She needed to run, to get away, or get closer. But she couldn't move, and it wasn't just because Yang was clearly several times stronger than her.
Yang gently pulled her into a hug. "Don't be afraid, kitty-cat." Blake melted into her.
"Come on," Yang said, and picked her up princess-style. "Let's see how the lovebirds are doing."
Weiss and Ruby were also done sparring. They sat side by side, talking. Ruby was giggling at something. Yang put Blake on the floor, walking over to them.
"Hey Rubes," Yang drawled carelessly. "Wanna give the nerds a show?"
"You're on," Ruby said, extending the red lump of metal into a giant scythe taller than she. The lack of shock on Weiss' face at least confirmed they'd done some sparring.
"My money's on Ruby," Weiss said. "I've never seen anyone fight like that."
"She's the younger sister," Blake said. "I've been training to fight all my life and Yang sort of did a number on me."
"I don't want to hear what you two are doing privately," Weiss said, wincing.
Blake blushed. "What exactly do you mean by that?"
"You've been making eyes at her literally the whole time I've been here," Weiss said. "You can hardly look away from her."
"No, that's not ... Augh, Weiss, we have to talk about this later. It's not what you think it is."
"Sure it's not," Weiss said, looking at her with some humor.
Weiss was certainly in a good mood, Blake mused. Things must have gone okay with Ruby.
"So, little sis," Yang said casually. "How do you want to go out this time? Aura level or ring out?"
"How about in your dreams?" Ruby crowed, and then flashed forward in a dash of rose petals. And then went flying twenty feet into the air in an explosion of flame as Yang stood, completely unmoved, with one fist in the air. What followed was the most gratuitous display of fighting absurdity that Blake had ever seen.
Fire exploded everywhere as Yang shot fireballs from her bare fists at Ruby as she flew through the air. Controlling her flight with shots from her scythe, which also appeared to be a gun, as well as bursts of rose petals from her semblance, Ruby played the distance game before once more closing in on Yang. The scythe was bigger than she was and yet she attacked twice a second, with a sustained but visceral ferocity, while dodging Yang's own attacks. And yet Yang blocked every hit dead on without moving an inch. No longer exploding flame with each punch, her fingers trailed flame as she blocked, and carved out paths in the air sending out swathes of flame for Ruby to dodge. The relentless ping ping ping of strike after strike had both Weiss and Blake at the edge of their seats. Still, even though Yang seemed unfazed, her aura dropped with each hit.
"Nice warm-up you have set out here!" Yang crowed, effortlessly blocking several hits that may have proven lethal to anyone who didn't display this casually superhuman strength and speed. "Going to actually hit me sometime soon?"
"You're going down!" Ruby panted.
"In your dreams," Yang smirked and slammed her fists together. A shockwave of flame blew out of her, eyes flaring red. She changed her stance and unleashed a flurry of blows, and now Ruby was on the back foot. She dodged every hit, but Yang performed a combination attack of punches with an overhead kick that hit Ruby full in the gut with a fireball when she dodged the first ones. She slammed into the ground. Yang was already in the air, jumping at her, hands together as if in a prayer position with her thumbs at the front of her mouth. Fire blew into the air, out her fingers and over her head, as she flew through the air, and then when she struck downwards with both hands there was a huge explosion of flame that splashed against the walls of the arena. Ruby's aura level instantly went from 92% to 5%. She made a huge show of gasping for air. With her last choking breath, she managed "Weiss... avenge me!" and then her head fell over to the side, tongue lolling out.
Yang threw Ruby over her shoulder, her scythe over the other, and carried them out of the arena. Ruby opened one eye, then closed it again and redoubled her tongue lolling. Weiss snickered behind her hand. Yang grinned at Blake as the four of them left the arena.
Later, Weiss and Blake were alone in the room. Yang and Ruby had decided they were still hungry after their match and went to the mess hall to see if it was still open, sending the other two to the room to pick out a movie to watch. Blake wanted to watch an intrigue spy movie, but Weiss wanted a romantic comedy citing that she never got to watch movies at home. Blake reluctantly ceded, and suggested The Princess Bride. After all, everyone should watch it once. She pulled out her book again.
"One more thing," Weiss said.
"Hm?"
"I still feel really bad about what happened. Ruby's mostly forgiven me, but I really want to make it up to her. Could you come to the city with me tomorrow to pick up a present for her?"
Blake looked up, surprised. "Why me? Yang knows the city much better."
"She's Ruby's sister," Weiss said. "I'm pretty sure she kind of hates me for what I did. You can help me more than her."
Blake thought back to Yang's words. We can change her. She made her decision. "Yes. I'd love to help you."
Besides, Weiss did have a pretty smile when it was genuine.
Weiss was gushing and raving by the end of the movie. As Ruby indulged Weiss' explanations of everything she noticed, Yang suggested to Blake that they go to bed and leave the other two alone. They retired to their room. Blake used the little reading light in the vain hope that maybe she could finally finish it. It gave off enough light for her faunus night vision to be able to see, but was dim enough that Yang's human vision would barely notice. But try as she might, she couldn't focus on the book. She would read a page and then realize none of it sunk in, and have to go back to read it again. Sighing, she dropped her book into her lap.
"Weiss asked me to go with her tomorrow to get a make-up present for Ruby," she said.
"Mm?" Yang perked up slightly, rolling over.
"You never explained why you trusted her with just letting her deal with Ruby."
Yang opened her palm, face up. A tongue of flame ignited over it like a big candle, softly illuminating the room in flickering light.
"I don't believe Weiss has it in her to voluntarily hurt Ruby. I've made sure she knows that I definitely have it in me to hurt her if she does. But I don't think I even needed to say it. Weiss thinks that Ruby is childish sometimes but she recognizes that they're partners. And they have one thing Weiss has never had before, a true unconditional friendship. Weiss inadvertently did just about everything possible to break it apart and it didn't work, and she knows that. That's why she feels so awful about it and wants to make it right."
Blake summoned courage for a second, then said, "It's funny in a way. Our team."
"Hm?"
"We have two faunus, a Schnee, and someone who terrorizes every faunus they come across."
"Me?"
"Yeah you. Everywhere we go. I don't know why, but as soon as any faunus notices your presence, they get skittish like crazy. There was a panther today at the market. A panther, Yang. And he just about ran from the building when you walked up to the stall next to him. Predator faunus spook others, but you spook the predators. Let alone that poor rabbit at the ice cream shop. Why?"
Yang laughed gently. "Are you trying to tell me you're scared of me?"
"Yes! No. Maybe. That's not the point. I wanted to run away the moment you opened that door. I still do. I almost passed out when you pushed me into the wall at the arena."
"Are you coming on to me?" Yang grinned saucily at her.
"Ugh! You're infuriating," Blake said, rolling over to stare at the wall.
"Come on, Blakey, don't be like that."
Blake didn't say anything for a minute, collecting her thoughts, before speaking again.
"Ruby."
"What?"
"Ruby," Blake said again. "She's the most incredible fighter I've ever seen in my life. I've been training literally my whole life to defend myself but I would never, ever be able to even touch that girl. But you just ... took her apart. How is that even possible?"
Yang was quiet for another second, and had a much more serious tone when she spoke again.
"Beacon. As you probably know already, this is not a normal school. They're not just training scientists and fighters here. They're creating an army."
It was Blake's turn to be nonplussed. "What?"
"It's not about borders, or allegiances, or anything else like that. It's quite literally the light versus the dark. Even now, every modern city protects itself against the Grimm. We've been fighting these things for thousands upon thousands of years and we still know virtually nothing about them. We don't know where they come from, where they go, or why they attack like they do. They don't obey traditional laws of the universe, that apply to literally everything except for them. They've disappeared, to an extent, over the last hundred years. But that doesn't mean they're gone forever, it just means we gotta find out what happened to them.
"I don't doubt that your abilities as a scientist are at least on a level with mine as a fighter. That's my job. Protect you from the Grimm while you do your thing. It's not just about being good though. Beacon is a school, don't forget. A school is not where the best come to show their skill, it's for those who can improve, to do so. They don't just take the best of the best, they take those people who can get the most out of these four years here. People who have something that inspires them, drives them for a goal. They don't want to deal with people who don't have the utmost of motivation to be here and try their best. They want those people who will become the best that they have to offer, not already are. And that includes you, and it includes me.
"Everyone has secrets here. Look around you next time you're at the mess hall and see all the faces. Everyone has a purpose, a reason to be here that goes far beyond just 'I want to kick some monsters in the nads'. Some of them are more secret than others. Look at Jaune. Does that look to you like someone who's original research is going to change the world? But he's here, just the same as you are. That's no accident.
"We all have things that can change. We all have faults that can be stabilized, flaws that can be edged out. We can all improve in ways you might not even be able to imagine when you don't know who someone really is. The first thing they teach you about this school is to cast you into roles. Scientist or fighter. You learn to think or you learn to hit. And the biggest mistake you can make is believing that. We live in a different world here. One of heroes and monsters, data and nightmare. Outside, not everything is as it seems. But in here, virtually nothing is. Everyone has a story, just like you."
Silence fell for a while. Then Blake spoke: "You told me yesterday that you were just here for the adventure. That's obviously not true."
"Of course it isn't. I'll tell you why I'm really here when you tell me the same." Yang smiled at her, but there was no facetious nature to it.
"Who are you, Yang?"
"Who are you?"
Blake didn't have a response to that one.
Yang spoke again. "It's like 2:00 AM, I'm going to sleep." She closed her fist, the flame flicking into nothing.
"Goodnight, Yang," Blake said quietly.
"Goodnight, kitty-cat."
"Hey!"
Blake and Weiss left for Vale after lunch on the pretense of academic pursuits. Ruby went somewhere with JNPR and Yang went to work out in the gym. The pair found themselves in downtown Vale, shopping district.
"What were you thinking of getting her?" Blake asked.
"Well, you know how much she loves weapons?"
"Er, not really..." Blake said. "I haven't spent that much time talking to her actually."
"She's a total fiend about it. Apparently she designed her scythe-gun-thing herself, spent hundreds of hours improving it and modifying it. She named it too, Crescent Rose. Or sometimes just 'sweetheart'." Weiss waggled her fingers for the air quotes.
"Jealous?" Blake said, smirking.
"What? No! You're as bad as Yang!" Weiss said indignantly. "But I was thinking, it's not maybe the most traditional make-up present, but Ruby might like it..."
She pulled Blake into a dust shop.
"I sent them the specs and ordered it yesterday evening," she said with pride. Directing her attention to the shopkeep, she declared: "Weiss Schnee for pickup."
The man pulled a box from under the desk. Blake peered into it. It was filled with flat rectangular objects that had different symbols in black.
"Custom dust rounds for her sniper rifle," Weiss said. "I even got this special blend for the recoil effect."
Blake raised her eyebrows. "I'm impressed. I think she'll love it."
Weiss closed the lid and grabbed the handle on one side. "Give me some help here..."
They got back to the room fairly quickly. Ruby wasn't back yet, so they deposited the box in Weiss' room, and Blake went back to her room to get her book. She opened the door, and froze.
Yang Xiao Long was sleeping face down in her bed with nothing on but short shorts and a sports bra. Blonde hair swept down her muscled back to her narrow waist, broad shoulders casually sprawled across her pillow, thin, gold, scaled gauntlets covered from her fingers to the middle of her forearms, a matching set splashed from toes to mid calves... and two huge, golden, reptilian wings, draped carelessly, nearly spanned the 18-foot width of the bedroom.
The animal instincts reared up in Blake as Yang's utterly alien scent struck her. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe. And then Yang shifted slightly, almost raising her head.
Blake ran. She just ran. She didn't know where, just out of the room, down the stairs, and away from Beacon Academy.