"Weiss, what the heck are you wearing?" Weiss settled a plain grey baseball cap over her hair and played around with the zipper on the hoodie she wore. Ruby was leaning over the side of the bed watching her get ready. In her unasked-for opinion Weiss looked less like an heiress and more like an extra in a documentary about a white rapper.
"Think of it as a uniform, Ruby," she said. "I'm headed to the Losers' Bracket." Ruby hopped down from her bed, trying not to disturb the fragile balance of the bunks.
"Losers' Bracket? I didn't know there was one of those," Ruby said. "Are they like, fights?" Weiss began the process of pulling her ponytail through the gap in the back of the cap, so it took her a while to answer.
"Uh...yeah, something like that. It's not actually an official Vytal Festival event. More like... It'd be easier to explain if you just came with." Ruby looked Weiss up and down, then looked at her cape and combat skirt with a lopsided frown.
"I'd love to, but...do I need to change clothes?"
The Losers' Bracket turned out to be underground, in a tunnel that had once been a sewer before the route had been diverted to another place, leaving this part of the system empty and mercifully dry. A surprisingly large crowd of students milled around in front of a small stage covered in AV equipment, talking excitedly. Quite a few of them were dressed like Weiss.
"Maybe I should've changed," Ruby muttered, but Weiss shook her head absently, eyes on the stage.
"It's less important for you than me. I'm honestly kind of embarrassed to be the only member of Team RWBY who got invited..." Weiss closed her eyes. "Well, I'll get back my good name today." Ruby poked out her lips.
"Okay, I give! What is all this, come on!" Before Weiss could answer, Coco took the stage and picked up a microphone. She tapped the head a few times, and at the noise the assembled students mostly quieted down.
"Alright, y'all! Welcome to the Losers' Bracket! If you don't know how this works, put your hand in the air!" Ruby put her hand up obediently. "Alright! Our competitors today are all people who fought in the Vytal Festival but had their Aura depleted below safe levels. In short, the losers! Today, our losers are going to get on this stage and rhyme with everything they've got, battling for your entertainment. Not to mention the bragging rights of having the sickest flow underground!" Ruby blinked. What the hell? "We determine winners by audience participation, so if you hear some verses you like, make some noise! Boo, too, if that's your thing, but don't be a dick. Alright, let's get started! Our first match is Weiss Schnee vs. Russel Thrush!"
Ruby looked around, but Weiss wasn't near her anymore. She looked up and saw Weiss on stage, clutching a microphone and blushing deeply. Ruby understood in a single moment of clarity that she was about to watch the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company participate in a freestyle rap battle, and wondered how her life had lead her here.
"Russel, you have forty-five seconds from when the beat starts! Go!" Yatsuhashi pressed a few buttons, and a fairly simple beat flowed out. Everyone watched, hushed, as Russel's mouth moved silently. Then, turning to Weiss, he said:
Yo, don't challenge Russel to a tussle
been keeping to my hustle flexin' on em like a muscle.
Call me King! 'Cause I'm the cardinal direction,
fuckin' up your life like i'm an unruly erection.
Question: who told this spoiled brat that to rap
all you need is a hoodie and a baseball cap?
I can see in your face that you're whack
why don't you come back
when you aren't the white rapper starter pack?
I didn't wanna kill you but you gave me no choice
I'm poised at the edge of excellence and bringing the noise
I had to do it on you just to rep my town and my boys
so go home, little heiress, and go play with your toys.
A few times during the more cutting lines people made some noise, but overall the crowd wasn't super responsive to Russel. He made a lot of aggressive hand movements, but his insults just bounced off of Weiss, who looked sort of imperious even in her casual clothes. Coco popped up to the stage.
"Weiss, same amount of time! Keep the beat going, Yatsu." Weiss nodded her head, closed her eyes, and said:
Let me be clear, 'cause some of that nonsense you said annoyed me
I would pay you my entire fortune to avoid me
Restraining order on your ass. You thought smoking gas
could somehow equate you to a lady of class?
Don't make me laugh, not your mother but believe the Schnee will son you,
roll up on your boys a hundred deep just so they run, too.
I'm done playing, it's no longer a game
Respect. My. Name. Won't pity you for fortune or fame
Thought you were hard, thought you knew the streets would trust you?
Fuck that, watch me go Schnee Company and I will dust you.
Ruby thought the room had exploded. She'd thought that while the insults were pretty cutting, Weiss still sounded like a tiny white girl trying be "hard". But judging from the reactions of everyone else in the room, who were howling, stamping, and in a few cases literally frothing at the mouth, no one else minded.
"Well, sounds to me like we have a winner! Weiss, you advance to the next round. Sorry, Russel—looks like you're a loser twice over." Weiss nodded and ran off stage, where Ruby was waiting for her with an open mouth.
"How did you do that?" she asked. Up close, Weiss looked sweaty, and slightly ill.
"Prayer, mostly," Weiss replied, and got ready to listen to the next battle.
The night wore on, with Weiss (now affectionately called Weisscube by her raving fans in the crowd) winning battle after battle, buoyed up by her underdog factor past the point where Ruby thought her skill would actually take her. She'd gotten lucky, too—all the really good ones weren't put up against her. Against all odds, Weiss made it to the finals, facing a sweaty but brilliant Flynt Coal.
"Alright, Flynt, you're up. Yatsu, do the honors." The beat rolled out, and Flynt didn't even have to take his time before he started rapping.
"Let me tell you about myself," he said.
Flynt Coal!
Had to haul ass out to Beacon 'cause boys in my city weren't testing me
Killer Quartet 'cause I'm deleting niggas who square up or threaten me
police in your town call the army 'cause they know there ain't no arresting me, what?
Boys up in Vale snatching scrolls 'cause they all see their bitches is texting me now
Mama and Papa moved Dust
my flow on lock you can trust
catch a body over anybody that steps to my team like we didn't just
fuck up your city and hit all the pretties that line round the block just to sate all our lusts.
I know it hurts, seeing a nigga this church
your day turned from bad to worse
pull up in a Paladin lookin like Ozpin
and your whole squad finna leave in a hearse.
To finish this verse? My flow is a blessing
and your sound reminding me more of a curse.
Next time you act out I'ma give you the business
and bury your rhymes where they go: in the dirt.
Church!
"Okay okay okay!" Coco yelled. "Tough verse to follow. What you got, Weisscube? Spin it, Yatsu!" The beat dropped, and time began ticking. Weiss looked half-dead. She raised her microphone to her mouth, and nothing came out.
"You good?" Flynt said from the other side of the stage. Weiss looked at him, half in panic. "What's up?" Weiss just kept staring, both at the crowd quickly going silent and Flynt's cool confidence. She could not think of a single thing on which to insult him. After all, he was the one who'd beaten her in the festival. How much trash could she talk?
"Time's running out!" Coco said. "Ten! Nine! Eight!" Weiss's arms dropped to her sides, limp. "Four! Three! Two! One! Oh, the Weisscube has melted. Get off the stage!" She gave Weiss a little shove and she fell into the crowd, who caught her and lowered her to the ground, where she ran for Ruby. "Alright folks, this has been the Losers' Bracket! Flynt Coal is our champ! Now get the hell out of here!"
On the way home, Weiss barely spoke at all. Ruby piped up with encouragement once or twice, but they fell into the air empty and unacknowledged. When they got back to the dorm, Weiss took off her baseball cap, pulled her ponytail out one handful at a time, and changed back into her usual "combat skirt". Then she sat down to study.
"What, you mean you're not quitting your day job to drop a mixtape?" Ruby said, wide-eyed and shocked. Without moving, Weiss just said, "I'll kill you," and went back to her studies.