Digital RWBY Saga.
Chapter 10: To Relax is Joy.
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A dream invaded in her previously dreamless sleep.
She saw a blinding hot desert, with the golden sand that seemed to radiate its own heat. The sky was cloudy, the area was surrounded in mist, she couldn't see anything beyond it.
A stone platform, that was slowly disappearing as particles faded into nothing.
Then, a presence.
In front of her, a few feet away.
A lamp.
A golden one.
The energy it emitted made her tingle, it felt strong but blocked.
She purred.
She wanted it. She could quite easily unlock it.
It couldn't understand what was unnatural, she could unlock all of it.
She needed the power. She wanted the power to be stronger than anyone else.
It was warm, fuzzy.
Even though the sand was burning her bare feet, she kept walking.
Even as the air thinned, she kept walking.
She halted.
Ahh, right there. It's mine.
Her's.
Theirs.
A long red blade.
A long mane of black.
Raven.
Something dark and twisted escaped her mouth, a snake tongue, followed by faints wisps of a slithering darkness.
Everything was blurry.
And she grabbed the lamp.
Casca woke up with a loud gasp, her heart beating far too erratically. She clutched her chest in pain and began to count to three multiple times as her heart slowly began to beat normally, her breathing evened and her vision becoming blurry from the tears in her eyes.
Her mouth tasted foul.
She touched her tongue.
It was normal, no split ends.
She didn't go back to sleep, her body wouldn't let her.
"Let's see... It's supposed to be raining later. I should probably finish up and get going soon then."
It had been a few days since Casca returned and everyone was thankful to see her back. She was bombarded with questions by everyone, including Ozpin.
She told everyone that she couldn't remember what happened. Ozpin tried to pry out the information himself but when Casca asked about the Lord of Salem that took her in the first place he would go awfully silent.
It made her scoff. The only person that is telling her the most is Salem, and she's the bad guy!
Casca Prowle looked outside of her window at the cloud covered sky. She tapped her note pad with her pen in thought, being mindful of her bandages (even though she technically didn't need them anymore, people would be suspicious). Today she felt like making something a bit special for her friends and acquaintances, a little appreciation for what they had done and the like.
She thought up something alright, something appropriate for the rainy day. And with some persuasion everyone was infact going to eat it, even Weiss.
Weiss was going to eat her master levelled cooking whether she likes it or not.
And includes the legendary 'Rainy Day Beefbowl from Persona 4'.
That's right, not the smaller, easier consumable version. The actual one that's far too large for a single person to eat.
Casca laughed clearly anticipating tonight's events., wincing when she accidentally startled her slowly fading wounds, which for whatever reason hasn't healed up yet.
...She might have to get some helpers to help her gather up the rice, beef and everything else. While she could of all just dumped them in her inventory to avoid unneeded stress and strain, she wanted to do it with friends for multiple reasons.
1) To see if she can increase a stat.
2) Just to have a chat, cause she was in the mood.
3) To have a more clear mind of the events involving the plot with Cinder.
4) It was a favour for Cardin to do.
Making up her mind, she took out her scroll and began searching for certain names on her contact list.
As she was doing this, her mind couldn't help but wonder back to an event yesterday.
"Ow, ow, ow."
"Easy, hand me your arm for a sec would you?"
Yang couldn't help but chuckle in amusement at the sight of Casca whimpering and barely being hold back tears as bandages were carefully being wrapped around ugly looking bruises by a worried Alice.
"You should go easy on her." Said an annoyed Alice, quickly apologising to Casca who yelped as she plucked out a a wooden splinter from her shoulder. "She doesn't have an aura-"
"She does." Yang cut in, looking through her scroll. "It is there, though as Casca said before its defective. I looked into it a few days before Casca came back and apparently..." She held up her scroll for Alice to look at, which showed a diagram of a human with a blue outline being compared to a human with a barely visible outline inside the body. "She has something called Pygmy Aura or something like it. It means 'people with this defect do still have aura though it is minuscule and is barely active. Bringing it out can exhaust one and is nearly impossible to use for a semblance unless the semblance itself is passive and/or requires very little aura use.'" Yang finished.
Casca hummed and shrugged her shoulders. "Never heard of that before..."
Learn something new everyday she supposed. Even though she was still aura less.
"So was it that little aura you did have save you from that explosion?" Alice asked.
"I'm guessing so."
"Cardin's still an ass, he shouldn't used that dust when he knew full well that it was dangerous."
"Hey, I'm fine now. Plus he owes me a few favours now."
"Nice. What are you going to ask for?"
"Make him do some form of apology to you all first. I'll think of something else later- That doesn't involve breaking limbs." Casca warned when she noticed a evil looking expression on Alice's face, which quickly turned into disappointment.
"Listen. As much as he deserved it, he promised that he would turn a new leaf. But if he doesn't- he's all yours."
A maniacal laugh escaped from the faunus's lips, cracking her knuckles and her neck. "Gooood..."
With a hiss, Casca picked out the last splinter from her arm and let out a massive sigh. "I might have to ask him a favour later actually, some... 'Help' I suppose."
Aliced 'ooo'd', clasping her hands, a massive smile plastered on her face that reminded her of the Cheshire cat. "Is it illegal? Are you robbing a bank? Beating up a mafia? Can I join in?"
"No on all except on the last one." She examined the goat Faunus carefully. "You... You remind me of someone. Slightly."
Alice stuck out her tongue with cheek. "Oh? Do I now? Am I as stunning and beautiful as them? Am I, dare I say, amazing?"
"...Do you play music?"
"Huh?" She seemed generally surprised from the question. "Yeah, I do actually. I play the electric and regular guitar and do the vocals. Why do you ask?"
"...Were you originally in an all girls band?"
"...Yeah, but I left to become the world's number one musical huntress." She raised a brow, amused and disturbed. "I never realised I had a stalker." She burst out laughing. "That's new, didn't think I was that popular!"
"Huh," Casca hummed, quite clearly in thought. "Based on Ibuki maybe?"
"Ibu-who?"
"Ibuki Mioda, she's- Ah never mind. Was curious, is all. Anyway." She looked at Yang. "Can we pause training for today? I need to do stuff over the next few days, plus I don't want to experience THAT ever again."
"You make it sound like that's your PTSD trigger, it wasn't that bad." Yang smiled, quite clearly acting like she wasn't guilty. "I didn't mean to toss you that hard..."
"You threw me threw a tree!" She hissed. "But thanks to the tree, I was only stuck halfway through and was stuck for a good ten minutes!"
That was not fun. Especially due to some certain comments.
"Yang's right." Alice nodded, clearly thinking of something else. "The worst thing was you being stuck, there's technically three things we got out of this." She held up three fingers and began to lower them one by one as she listed them off. "You got through today's training with less damage than before. Glynda's going to be pissed at the hole in the tree, adding the fact she can never find the perp. Annnnd!"
She pointed towards Casca's lower half, stars in her eyes and her tongue sticking out, showing off a piercing. "I never realised that you have a really nice rear end, like daaaaamn, how many guys and chicks how you gone out with with a weapon as mighty as that?!"
The unneeded comment turned Casca's whole face dark red, she opened her mouth to speak, but struggled as only stuttered gibberish came out. Yang looked somewhat flustered at the comment and from Alice's bluntness (even though it wasn't directed at her) and Alice did not look an inch guilty at what she said.
"Bu-bu-bu-bu-BWUHH?!" Poor Casca was gaping like a fish. "W-w-w-w-"
"That was blunt." Yang laughed, her cheeks still slightly pink. "Blunter than what I usually say anyway."
"H-HOLD ON!" Casca's yell of embarrassment made Alice snicker. "I-I... One, my... Ass, is not a mighty weapon. It doesn't have a gun attached for one and- and I'm not-" She paused in thought. "Shit, I never even thought about that."
"Never thought about-" Alice repeated, confused. When Casca stayed quiet, she realised she wasn't gonna talk. "O, Okay then. I didn't say anything offensive to you right?"
"It's fine, no harm done it's just- Oh shit is that Glynda over there?"
"Oh God it is, run!"
"She's flying right at us!"
"She's got her crop!"
BANG!
"Sweet Jesus, did she just fire lightning dust at us?!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! SHE KNOWS ABOUT THE TREE!"
Casca smiled at the memory, that was an... Interesting evening to say the least. But thanks to some training from Yang, some explorations into Emerald Forest and other activities, she gotten some stat increases, gotten new skills and level ups, and found something... Really interesting.
Deep within Emerald Forest, where the chess pieces in the shrine were, and underneath all that was...
A dungeon.
"[Megido Shot]!"
T'was just a simple day in the depths of Emerald Forest, the sun was shining, the wind was whispering and the leaves were rattling. However for Casca Prowle, it wasn't a day of relaxation for her, it was another day of training and experimentation, even as the hot sun started to beat down on her form. She had been killing Grimm left and right, along with her partner Lupa, who was attacking and finishing off any weaker Grimm that were surviving her attacks.
While she was levelling up herself and her skills (and she had gotten a couple levels), she was also experimenting with dust.
Not too long ago, she accidentally discovered a unique reaction when mana is directly infused with dust. It happened when she accidentally shot at an ice dust crystal peaking from the side of one of the rocky hills when attacking an Ursa. And then, with a loud ring and a bright flash, it exploded, releasing a liquid nitrogen like smog within a ten metre area. And when it cleared, everything in that area was covered in a thick chunk of ice, the Grimm inside completely frozen.
It was a big reaction, far too big to be caused by her bullet alone, especially from a small crystal.
So, she got curious.
She got some ice dust from one of the dust shops in Vale, From Dust till Dawn, and ever so carefully began to inject a small amount of mana into the crystal. The effect on the crystal was gradual, light blue veins began to form within the crystal that began to glow, and the dust seemed to grow stronger and intense in her palm.
"[Analyse]"
Mana Infused Ice Dust Crystal.
Crafting Item/ Ammo.
An ice dust crystal that's become much more powerful and extremely volatile due to the mana that's infused within. While this is a more powerful crystal and a better power source, it's also become volatile and will go off at the slightest force or aura usage.
She, very wisely, put the crystal in her inventory.
But she was amazed, this was a great discovery! She had to experiment more with this.
So she did, and after a few hours of experimenting, she made two major notes.
1) While she had to be careful while handling the crystals, she has to to extremely cautious while handling the mana infused powdered dust, as at the slightest touch caused it to explode. She wasn't an expert on dust, but it seemed like the powder dust was weaker than the crystals, meaning the reactions and explosions were more likely to happen compared to the crystals. It's a shame she wasn't aware of this when one blew up in her face, nearly killing her.
She had to ask Ozpin about this, and about her discovery.
2) Mana infused dust had slightly different effects, but basically had the same reactions, and the radius seemed dependent on the size of the crystals. She tested a few dust types to start with. Ice dust caused an explosion, releasing something similar to liquid nitrogen into the area and freezing everything in it's path within a second. Lightning dust caused a surge of electricity that shocks and fries everything within a radius for around two seconds (she had to experiment with it more to be sure). Wind dust caused extremely strong gusts of wind capable of moving large boulders, larger crystals (or multiple large ones) can form a tornado that lasts around 30-ish seconds, but other than that that seemed to be it. Fire dust creates large fiery explosions and was the most volatile, as Casca realised as she nearly burned the forest to the ground one time. And the last one she tested, gravity, was interesting.
It was the only one so far that had two different effects depending if it was a crystal or powder. Gravity powder caused gravity around it to disappear, making everything float until the effects disappeared after a minute, but by then the affected objects were at least 30 feet in the air by the time the dust lost it's power, so its a large drop to death.
Gravity crystals on the other hand... Well, for those that play Tales of Xillia, are you aware of the arte Gravity Well? It was basically that, causing gravity to intensify and crush everything around it.
And she was testing out the gravity crystals right now.
She found a lone Creep, stalking around the centre of the shrine where the chess pieces once resided. It seemed to be sniffing at the ground, occasionally scratching at the concrete underneath it.
She pondered for a moment, wondering if Ozpin would be mad if she destroys the shrine.
'Nah.'
How would he know anyway?
Taking out a large mana infused gravity crystal, she took aim, carefully trying to not catch it's attention, and tossed it. The crystal hit it's side, making the Creep jump and search around before it's eyes caught her, it snarled and prepared to charge.
'Was hoping that would set it off. Oh well.'
"[Megido Shot]!"
As soon as the bullet came in contact, a loud ring sounded out, then a flash, then... A black see through sphere with an inverted inside appeared above the Creep in an instant, pushing it against the concrete and quickly crushing it. The ground underneath it cracking and the pressure getting stronger and stronger and stronger, until the crystal wore off and the well disappeared, leaving the mushy remains of the Creep and a heavily damaged shrine.
Then, it happened.
Suddenly the shrine started to shake, the pedestals turning and retracting into the ground. The ground at the centre of the shrine cracked along the lines of the main pattern, the outer area following suit.
And then, it started to glow a bright green.
The centre slowly parted, revealing a spinning, rising jagged pillar made from emerald, with a small indentation of Vale's emblem near the tip. And as soon as the pillar fully rose from the ground, the ground surrounding it collapsed, forming into a downward spiral stair case to God knows where.
"What on-
Welcome to the Emerald Vault! This is an adventuring area for players that are inhabited by powerful monsters, traps and bosses. You can obtain high level gear, find rare items and level up here. However a small exploration party is recommended when exploring, as masses of powerful enemies can overwhelm one player.
The Emerald Vault has ten floors.
You can now teleport to this location.
Please note that rare items drops will be reduced as long as only one player enters the dungeon. If there is more than one player, item drops will return to normal percentage.
"Earth?"
And, against her better judgement, she had touched it, causing the notification to appear and gaining the ability to teleport to the dungeon entrance whenever she wanted.
And against her even better judgement, she went down the stairs and into the first floor. The first floor looked like a cave made completely from emerald, along with normal looking Grimm enemies. They all, for whatever reason, dropped macca, which she wasn't going to complain about seeing as this is her only source of getting money for upgrades. It was all easy and thanks to the combinations of Yang's training, activities and her own training sessions, she rose up to level 31 and upgraded her base stats and went through four floors.
Now it was looking like this.
Ozpin's Little Helper.
[Human]
Casca Prowle.
LVL: 31.
Exp Remaining: 9,957
HP: 244/244
MP: 524/524
Heat Bar: 0/3
STR: 42
INT: 100
VIT: 30
END: 23
WIS: 15
DEX: 28
AGI: 34
LCK: 5
Skill Points: 0
Macca: 6172
Mantra: Bolt Lord.
Atma Points: 10/200.
Atma Avatar: Lilith.
Class: Asura.
Resistant: ELECTRIC. DEATH.
Weak: GUN. EXPEL. FIRE.
Void: POISON.
Move set:
Zio: 3 MP
Void Fire: 3 MP
Dia: 3 MP
Agi: 10 MP
Hell Thrust: 27 HP
Devour: 27 HP
The training caused all of her physical stats to go up a few levels, and with her skill points she put all of her points into INT, and didn't gain any sort of skill, oddly enough. She was able to master a new mantra, Fire Spirit, and went onto Bolt Lord, which was the next electric tier.
Now she had a way to nullify fire attacks in demon form. So that weakness was easily covered now.
And when she combined mana and lightning dust with her new leg weapons she found, along with some Muay Thai techniques, she was able to create new skills such as-
[Thunder Kick]
Thunder Serpent of Remnant Skill.
Level: 5
MP: 20
A powerful kick fuelled by the power of thunder. Can be chained with either [Thunder Kick], [Thunder Strike] or [Thunder Thrust] for a small combo. Has a chance to stun or paralyse the enemy.
Which became this after some altering.
[Swallow Thunder Kick]
Thunder Serpent of Remnant Skill.
Level: 10
MP: 30
A flurry of powerful flying roundhouse kicks powered by thunder. Can be used in a combo with other skills within the [Thunder Serpent of Remnant] fighting style. Has a chance to stun or paralyse the enemy.
[Thunder Strike]
Thunder Serpent of Remnant Skill.
Level: 5
MP: 20
A powerful, lightning filled fist that can break rock. Can be chained with either [Thunder Kick], [Thunder Strike] or [Thunder Thrust] for a small combo. Has a chance to stun or paralyse the enemy.
[Thunder Thrust]
Thunder Serpent of Remnant Skill.
Level: 3
MP: 10
A powerful, lightning filled attack that uses the users foot to thrust an opponent away. Can be chained with either [Thunder Kick], [Thunder Strike] or [Thunder Thrust] for a small combo. Has a chance to stun or paralyse the enemy.
[Thundering Palm]
Heat Move.
Heat Bar: 1
A strong series of palm based attacks filled with electricity. Finish's by knocking over the target and kicking their head in.
All of these were part of an incomplete skill set, called the [Thunder Serpent of Remnant].
[Thunder Serpent of Remnant]
Fighting Style.
Skills learned: 4
A fighting style developed by Casca Prowle by combining mana and electric dust with Thai Boxing and aggressive brawling. An aggressive and fluid fighting style that uses the aggressiveness of brawling and the combination of 'the art of six limbs' to take down enemies in multiple ways. When active it generates an electrical aura around the body. It increases all physical attributes by 20%, but only in combat. This skill also gives the user the ability to use a heat gauge and be able to use 'heat moves'.
This fighting style is not compatible with the [Atma Virus], meaning all skills within the fighting style are unusable, even with skill transfer unlocked.
She snorted. These were amazing skills that she had, by some miracle, been able to develop in the dungeon. However when she looked into the description of the fighting style she knew what the problem (if you could even call it that) was.
She turning into a Yakuza character. It even has the heat gauge and moves.
And as it turns out, it was Record's doing. There was a notification that appeared when she obtained the fighting style that had a small apology and the abilities attached to it, it also said that Record wasn't going to be here for a while now, most likely coming back around the end game of volume 3, as she needs to do recording business and clean up evidence that she was giving her more abilities than she was allowed.
Well, it was perfectly fine. As long as she wasn't chased by Goro Majima, she would be fine.
She able to get a few items, mostly bits of Grimm and that. She had planned on going into floor five, but apparently there was a mini boss that required more than one person. So she couldn't go any further because of that. So if she wanted to get further and gain rare items, she'll have to drag someone with her.
But the question was, who?
Since the enemies on the fourth floor were heading into level 30 territory, she needed someone around that level or higher to accompany her. She needed to plan this out more.
Bip!
Casca: Hey, Alice, you there?
The response came not even ten seconds later.
Alice: OWO Hewwo?
...This was a bad idea.
It was funny, sometimes Alice was a reserved girl, sometimes she was outgoing and boisterous, keeping everyone entertained with her music skills, stories and generally being a good sport, especially around people she trusted.
And for some reason (well, Casca had a good guess), she liked being with Casca.
And then her other side comes out. Which was when Casca found out that Alice was a fucking nutcase and was flat out bizarre.
She remembered when Alice had decorated her teams room with KCF (this world's KFC) chicken legs because she wanted inspiration. She remembered her ordering and devouring fifteen large tubs of chicken and beef chow mien, along with two bananas and five litres of coke within two hours and came out completely fine. She remembered when she snuck into the kitchen and drew cheap looking dicks everywhere (the ones immature male high schoolers liked drawing everywhere for some bizarre reason.) and replaced the beef with realistic plastic beef.
Turned out she really like beef.
And figured out how to get under her skin. Messing her bed covers up ever so slightly on the corners to the point her inner OCD state had a meltdown and basically Alice proofed her room.
The strangest things set her off, it was really weird.
Casca: I have a favour for Cardin, how do you feel about a shopping trip for dinner tonight?
Alice: ooo, can i cook too? :3
Casca: Yep!
Alice: :3
Casca: Please stop.
Alice: :3c
Casca: Can you get Cardin as well? He isn't picking up on his scroll.
Alice: funny you say that, im talking too him right now about...
Alice: expenses :3c
Casca shuddered, why did Alice have to be Alice?
Casca: Sure, just bring him over and we'll head towards the shopping district in Vale. I'm making a rainy day special.
Alice: watdat?
Casca: The 'Rainy Day Beefbowl Challenge.' Can you eat a massive bowl consisting of delicious beef and a small portion of rice?
Alice: heck ya, i wuv beef! i'll bring card-ass over now, see you in a second, buh bye!
With a sigh, Casca put away her scroll and began to scavenge her room for the Lien Ozpin has been giving her. She needed a lot with the amount of fry-able beef she needed to buy.
And a few packs a rice. That helps too.
And soy sauce, and honey, and oyster sauce, and beef stock (or whatever the equivalent of Chinese cooking wine was here, and if they could persuade a clerk to buy some), and black pepper and the vegetable oil. And maybe some fresh eggs. Hopefully the eggs here weren't like American ones where they can't stay out of the fridge for more than 5 minutes because of lax food safety laws and shit. And if they were, she may have to get them last.
All for around four, eight, twelve... Maybe sixteen people? A little more? And considering these were the large ones and not the normal serving ones-
"...I wonder if Ozpin would notice if his entire bank account goes empty tonight?"
"Alright. Alice, can you carry the liquids and pepper?"
"Sure thing!"
"Cardin, when we head to the butchers, can you carry all of the beef?"
"...No problem."
"Alright, I'll carry the eggs then."
It was a few hours later since then and they had already gotten most of the ingredients. Honestly they spent most of their time trying to look for a place that sold them for a low price but had a good quality (because she didn't want to spend too much). And when they did, they had to get an extra carrier bag for some of the extra sauces and another bag for the amount of beef she was about too buy.
Both Alice and Cardin were starting to understand why she couldn't use the ingredients from the kitchen, they were pretty sure they didn't have this much beef!
(and technically she didn't want to hurt the academies food budget, Ozpin had just let her get away with using his large amount of money, there was no way he was going to let them steal all of the kitchen food.)
Thankfully it was also pretty sunny right now, but the dark and stormy off in the distance from the docks confirmed the weather they were getting later on.
And apparently the storm was going to bring a small delay for setting up for the Vytal Festival. So they would be setting up tomorrow where the weather should hopefully be calmer and more sunny. Hopefully.
"Does anyone know a good butchers around here?" Casca asked, looking through the map on her scroll.
"There's a place called Erwin Butcher's," Alice responded, looking over her shoulder and pointing at her map. She had a black guitar case strapped to her back decorated with winking faces and cat stickers. "It's a good butcher place."
She had a separate back of ingredients, though she didn't know what exactly she was making, she knew she was making some form of cake.
"You been there before?"
"No, I know its good from what I've heard. He's also my bad ass uncle, so it has to be great."
"Wait, you haven't visited despite the fact he's your uncle?"
"Nah, never had the time, been trying to get my recommendation to join Beacon. Plus I've also been practising my guitar skills and vocal practise, so yeah, not much time."
Cardin, who was awfully silent for most of the trip, spoke up. "Erwin is that... Bull Faunus, right?"
"Yep, that is indeed my amazing uncle. You harassed him before Card-ass?"
"No, for one he's an experienced huntsmen, he's massive, plus he always has that axe on him." Cardin paused, looking at Casca. "...I remember going there to get meat when we were younger, sis always loved that place. Erwin was always so nice to her, even if she kept trying to climb him to touch his horns."
Casca smiled, "He sounds great." She suddenly snorted. "Velvet's also an experienced huntress compared to us, yet bullying her seemed like a good idea why?"
"Thought she was a first year." He grumbled. "I'm thankful you kicked my ass before she kicked mine."
"No problem, would totally do it again by the way."
Both Alice and Casca laughed, Cardin just grumbled.
"So, where's the butcher's located?"
Alice looked at her scroll, examining it. "Let's see... Oh, if we follow this road and take a right turn from the cafe, we should be entering the second segment of the market district. The butcher should be right there!" She pointed.
"Well then, let's get going before it rains then!"
"Come on! Last one there is a rotten egg!"
"Ah, welcome to Erwin's Butchers, best butcher shop in all of Vale, how may I help you?"
When they first entered, Casca nearly jumped in her place when the strong smell of various types of delicious and fresh meat hit her nostrils. She could smell beef, pork, chicken, boar, turkey, lamb, deer, and many others she couldn't recognise because of how they were all starting to mix together. She had to wipe her mouth to hide the drool that was threatening to escape. It was all so amazing to her nose and rumbling stomach.
She had to keep this place in mind in the future. She was defiantly getting her own meats for her own personal pleasure.
A large, burly man stepped out from behind the counter, which contained meats and free samples with a reception bell perched on top, with a large two bladed battle axe strapped to his back. He had short brown hair with a pair of bull horns popping out from his forhead and a large scruffy brown beard with some copper strands inside reflecting off the sunlight. He wore a white shirt with a light blue apron on top and a pair of cream cargo pants with a ring of four keys strapped onto his black belt.
Alice waved, hopping over towards him with spunk in each step. "Uncle~ Guess who's here!"
The large man blinked in surprise, before crossing his arms in thought. "Are you a demonic gremlin, here to take my produce?"
Alice let out a maniacal laugh. "It is I, here to eat your meat!"
'Phrase that better next time?'
Erwin laughed, before his expression turned dead serious. Out of nowhere he drew out his axe, the blades splitting into segments and formed into a mace that had a faint line of smoke emitting from them as the blades started to turn red. Alice, in response, dropped the guitar case to the ground as she took out her blue and white electric guitar, which had gas spilling out of where the turnings pegs were. After turning a volume pot, the guitar's neck split to reveal a fucking flamethrower that spat out some blue flames.
"What on Earth?"
Cardin nodded, dumbly and just as baffled as Casca was.
She flickered her strings, causing the flames to intensify. "You wanna fight?!"
"HAHAHA." His laughter was comparable to a roaring beast, his mace now in flames. "There's my wild firecracker, hit me with your best shot!"
"Heck yeah!"
Without thinking, Casca immediately ran to the counter and taped the bell, causing a pleasant ding to ring out. Both Faunus paused and looked at her, in confusion form Erwin and realisation from Alice. Casca coughed nervously as they stared. "Excuse me? Can we ask for a recommendation for frying beef?"
Both Faunus looked at each other before chuckling nervously, putting their weapons away, "Ah, sorry Cas, I got excited." Alice picked up her case and strapped it on her back. She had to admit, Alice's weapon looked pretty damn cool, it was a flame spewing guitar for goodness sake,
Erwin bowed, his scruffy beard staying in place. "Ah, I apologise miss. I haven't seen my piece in a while, I couldn't help but reenact one of our past activities we did when she was just a small child. Especially with the wiggly bum dance-"
"Ayyy," Alice slapped his back, her cheeks slightly pink. "Don't tell them that, it's embarrassing!"
"Sweetie, everything you do in public is embarrassing." He let out a sigh, absentmindedly acknowledging the amused look on Casca's face. Cardin was awkwardly silent, fidgeting when Erwin's gaze fell on him for a few seconds.
It seemed that he recognised him.
"Ahh... Is that you Cardin?"
The teen nodded, seemingly uncertain. Erwin had a massive grin on his face. "Oh ho! I'd recognise the child of my favourite guests, especially your sister," He didn't notice how he flinched at the word 'sister', "She reminds me of Alice when she was younger. Tell me, how is the little tyke?"
Casca looked away uncomfortably, focusing on the meat on display. Now that she thought about it, not many people really knew about that, Cardin kept to himself mostly and never really explained his past, the only people who knew were her and Jaune during the Laumana incident not too long ago. She was pretty sure his own team didn't know.
"I was angry. A week later my dad committed suicide, and my mom turned to drinking. I was angry at what happened back then, what happened to us as a family. I took my anger out on the Faunus, I blamed them for everything. After a while, I think I just... Forgot why I hated them, and continued on with my life."
Her eyes softened at the memory. A rage so strong he forgot why he hated in the first place. It was... Understandable, there was someone she hated, back then, and she forgot all about why she hated that person. Knowing her, it was probably a selfish reason.
'One's past does not excuse their future actions.' She remembers. 'It doesn't matter if you were abused, have mental illnesses, or whatever. You are still responsible for you're own actions.'
The past and what he went through didn't excuse Cardin of his actions at all. But if he was willing to change for the better, she was willing to help him atone for his actions. She was gonna give him that chance.
But she had to admit, that event did a complete 180 on Cardin. He wasn't really that cocky or rude anymore (though she did notice he had some sass), he was a lot more... Meek? She guessed? She wasn't entirely sure.
But it was a tad surreal seeing the stereotypical one dimensional bully character become something a little more developed. It was kinda sudden to be honest.
Cardin was silent, his hands tightening into fists. "She's... Been dead for awhile now."
Silence filled the air. Even Alice was quiet and shocked.
"Oh." It was suddenly awkward for Erwin, who's expression became pained and sad. "May I ask what happened-"
"Can we just get the meat please?!" Cardin snapped with a raised voice, clearly not wanting to talk about the subject anymore.
Erwin looked at him sadly, before nodding in acceptance, understanding. "All right..." He turned to Casca. "Now did you say you wanted some beef?"
"Yep, I need some stir-fryable beef, you have some?"
She was glad that the conversations changed.
"Ha! Erwin's Butcher's has every type of meat under the sun! Now would you like sirloin, fillet or rump-
After paying for the beef, which had its own separate bag (and Erwin was kind enough to give them more beef for free), the trio had left with still a large amount of lien left and a sense of accomplishment. Today was nice, it was relaxing, calming and nothing nearby required stress and fighting. The last few days of training had exhausted her mentally. And she had been planning on going further within the dungeon to get stronger during Vytal Festival preps, but...
Eh, she still had time.
Now they were walking back towards the ships to Beacon, checking out shops, looking at the greying sky, having small talk, anything.
And Alice had been talking to Cardin about something in whispers. Whenever Casca tried to get a peek in, Alice would hush herself and Cardin until she focused her attention on something else, where they would continue their conversation.
'What are they on about?'
"Oh!"
Suddenly Alice smacked her fist into her open palm, just remembering something. "That was it! Alright Cas, I'll be right back, come with me Cardin!"
"Wait-"
Before anyone could say anything, Alice grabbed Cardin's arm with bags still in hand and began to drag him off. They went off towards a small store nearby that was called-
"Oh, Tukson's Book Trade."
She winced. Poor man wasn't gonna be alive for much longer.
But that was awfully rude of Alice to leave her like that with Cardin and not say a thing.
"Casca Prowle?"
She froze, that sudden voice behind her sounded familiar...
She turned around, and right in front of her was none other than Emerald Sustrai, who was wearing a light brown leather jacket over her typical revealing clothes. It seemed that she didn't have any weapons on her either.
Casca grunted quietly. "Sorry, may I help you? I don't recognise you."
The thief smiled, one that wasn't filled with warmth but with smugness, reaching into a pocket and taking out a note. "Cinder wanted me to hand this to you. Are you an agent of hers?"
"Yeah, I guess..."
She really wasn't in the mood for this.
"You guess?"
"Yes, I am an agent, sorry, I'm just exhausted."
Emerald stared at her, red eyes filled with suspicion, her face still smug. "I see. Well, she said for you to read the contents of the letter by tonight and to follow what they say."
"Anything else?"
"That was it."
Casca hummed, eyeing the letter up like it just offended her. "Alright thank you."
And just like that, Emerald disappeared like she never even existed. She rolled her eyes and began to read the contents to herself quietly.
'Fucking hallucination semblance.'
Meet with us at the warehouses on the docks at 10PM sharp. Find the warehouse with the old White Fang symbol faded on a door.
You will be approached by a White Fang grunt, who will ask, 'Which Maiden do you follow?'
Respond with 'Fall', and you will be taken to our base.
Don't be late.
"Alright, you're gonna make something else while I make the food?"
Alice clapped her hands together and lower her head apologetically. "I'm sorry! I really want to make sure Cardin properly starts his apology, so I decided to make him start with Velvet and make her cake."
"What kind?"
"Red velvet cake!
"Huh, I was expecting the carrot cake to be honest."
"I was too, but turns out she's allergic to carrots."
"Huh."
With permission from Ozpin and the main chef, they were able to clear out the kitchen for themselves. They had been spending the last few minutes prepping everything else before hand and were just casually chatting away as they were mixing the sauces together.
However it turned out she was going to help Cardin bake a red velvet cake, which funnily enough was one of Casca's favourite cakes.
So she was going to be alone in her section of the kitchen, cooking so much beef and rice she was gonna gobble it all up if the delicious smell of beef bowl was gonna get to her senses..
That was fine, she could properly focus when cooking now. She didn't have to worry about accidentally stabbing someone, again.
She clapped her hands in glee. Time to start cooking!
"So~ Casca's making food?"
Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Team CRDL and Team CFVY were sitting on chairs near the tables in the dining hall. Everyone was causally chatting to each other, with the exception of the three members of CRDL, who were sitting there awkwardly. It was quite obvious that none of them were particularly liked by the others, so they kept their mouths shut until dinner arrived.
Ruby, Weiss, Yang and Pyrrha were chatting with Coco and Fox, with the latter being silent as usual. Blake was reading a book with Velvet, who was looking awfully tense, occasionally peeking over her shoulder with Yatsuhashi staying at her side. Nora was teasing Jaune about something, making the blonde turn red and Ren face palm with a large slap, any harder and his head would be flying off.
It was a nice atmosphere, nothing out to kill them, nothing killing their loved ones.
Shame it wouldn't last for too long.
Yang nodded at Ruby's question, an eager smile on her face. "Yep, apparently she's issuing a challenge as well."
"Wait, really."
The brawler held up a flyer, which had neat writing that stood out from the hastily drawn pictures which Ruby could just barely make out was Casca and a head of a strange black and white bear with a red eye on the dark side. Odd. Weiss read it out. "'The Rainy Day Beef Bowl Challenge. Can you devour the massive beef bowl that came straight from the meat dimension alive? Winners get a special reward and an opportunity to attend a special event. If you have any allergies but want to give this a try, please notify the head chef so she doesn't accidentally kill you.'" Weiss finished, then pouted. "And here I was avoiding greasy meals...'
"You don't have to eat it you know."
"Hah! And sully the Schnee name?"
"...Weiss are you feeling alright? It wasn't too long ago that you didn't know how to eat a burger and refused to do so." Blake jumped in, not adverting her eyes from her book. "What makes you suddenly want to try these?"
"Hmmph. I'm merely trying new foods, nothing suspicious about that. I rarely indulge in meals like this, so I might as well experiment and try it all out."
"...That take-away pamphlet under your pillow says other wise."
"What?"
"Nothing."
Coco, pushed her aviator's up her nose, looking towards Velvet in worry. "Velvet?"
"Y-Yes Coco?"
"You feeling alright?" She asked, putting her hand on her shoulder. "You look a little tense."
"Do I?" Velvet looked surprised. "Well, it's just that there's a surprise waiting for me, and it's from Alice and... Cardin."
The mention of the bullies name made Coco scowl. "That jack-ass? Why is he with Alice?"
"I don't know... But, whatever this surprise is, it can't be too bad if Alice is in there, right?" Velvet shrugged. "I wonder what it is..."
"Well, Vel-Cake! You'll find out soon!"
Alice burst into the room, covered from head to toe in burnt flour, bits of black egg shells and red food dye, a dab of burnt cream on the tip of her nose. She also had a pair of oven mittens covering her horns that looked like they've seen better days. And her hair was slightly on fire, which she quickly patted out.
Everyone looked at her in disbelief, what on Earth was she doing in there?
"While we had some difficulties with the surprise, and half of the kitchen now incinerated into nothing, the meals are perfectly fine! It'll all come out in a minute, so rest easy knowing that the food is perfectly safe." She bowed. "So please, get your selves ready while the food is being served."
"Thanks Alice." Ruby thanked, everyone else doing the same. She tilted their head. "I thought your team would be here by now, where are they?"
"Eh, they're out right now. I did ask Casca to save them some for when they come back." Alice shrugged, heading back into the kitchen before Ruby could say another word.
"That was... Odd."
"It sounded like a touchy subject. Does she not like her teammates?"
"OH SWEET JESUS, I'M SO LATE!"
Without warning, Casca Prowle kicked open the kitchen doors and ran up to the tables, throwing multiple beef bowls and egg bowls at the table without knocking them over, she rushed back into the kitchen, doing the same thing multiple times until everyone had a bowl in front of them. They all took a look at the food in front of them. All they saw was a massive pile of piping hot beef that glistened underneath the light from the sauce inside a large bowl, the smell spreading throughout the room. They couldn't see the rice at all, just greasy beef. There were two smaller bowls of uncracked eggs at the centre of the table, spread decently apart of each other.
After disappearing for a minute, she ran out of the kitchen at full speed, and before anyone could ask what the problem was.
Crash!
She jumped straight out of the window, which was still closed, causing the glass to shatter. She didn't seem to mind, or even notice, cause she just ran off into the distance.
Alice and Cardin walked out of the doors, beef bowls in hand and multiple water bottles. "Huh," Alice muttered. "Guess it was important."
"What was that about?"
"I guess she was late for something, she was really panicked when I mentioned it was 9:37." Alice laughed, taking a seat next to Velvet. "Your 'surprise' should be done in a bit, its just gonna take a few extra minutes, that's all. Anyway, let's eat!"
However they all stared at their meals, unsure of how to handle this. Nora on the other hand had already dug in, using a pair of chopsticks and pick up the beef, with each piece seemingly vaporising as soon as it hit her lips.
Was there even any rice at the bottom of this?
Would they even be able to survive this?
Alice reached out for an egg, giving it a quick whiff before cracking it open onto her beef. "Haaa... I miss having meals like this." Popping the yolk and stirring it, she took her first bit.
Realising they all had nothing to lose, everyone dug in.
It was 9:53, and Casca was running towards to docks as fast as she could, pushing by and apologising to people she knocked over. She didn't realise the prepping time would take so long, including the time spent putting out the fires that Alice made.
That was fun.
But at least she took some spare bowls and eggs with her for later, and since there is no such thing as time in her inventory, it would still all be fresh and hot.
She really didn't want to see Cinder, or help Salem in anyway. But she didn't want to incur their wrath at all. Plus Salem still had her stuff, including her Lightning Bonds and other gear, and she really wanted them back.
Plus, even though she wasn't allowed to interfere with the plot, she could get intel for when she can eventually interfere with the plot. If that ever happened.
It wasn't long before she found her self at the docks. It was night time, the sky was clear and the moon shone much brighter than it seemed to have on any other day, even when the shattered side was facing the miserable planet she resided on. And the smell...
She nearly gagged. She liked fish, don't get her wrong, but the problem was when your at a fishing port and your smell is much stronger than a normal human's, it tends to make one extremely nauseous.
Thankfully, she was able to find the warehouse fairly quickly on the letter. The large shutter door had a faded symbol on it which depicted the old White Fang's symbol, a docile yet cautious animal painted in blue, compared to current's fierce red one.
Or something like that.
Walking up to the normal door, which had its own symbol on it, she leaned against it, looking around for a grunt.
"Hey!"
'Bingo.'
A WF grunt walked up to her, a rifle in hand. She couldn't tell what Faunus he was, as she couldn't spot any visible animal features on him at all. The grunt aimed his rifle at her, cautiously, and asked the question, "Which Maiden do you follow?"
"Fall."
He nodded. "You the girl Cinder requested?"
"Yep, that's me. Is Cinder here?"
He shook his head. "No ma'am. She left earlier as something important came up that required her attention-"
'God damn it lady.'
"-But she told you to meet with Roman Torchwick to discuss the robbery for tomorrow."
Meeting Roman already? That's pretty cool.
"Ah, okay. Thank you, er..."
"Dan."
"Thank you Dan. Shall I just go in or?"
"Yes ma'am, follow me please."
Dan opened the door for her, and with a quick thank you, she headed inside and followed Dan, looking around and taking in what she was seeing.
There were massive metal crates containing dust being moved around by WF grunts, either by hand or by using machinery. Most of the crates were normal, however some of them had the Schnee emblem on them. Other grunts were standing guard or sitting around, either chatting or playing various card games.
Some noticed her, but didn't show any emotion or acknowledgement of her existence. But she did notice that some of the ones that did notice her looked weary and tense as she walked by, some keeping completely still.
They looked... Almost afraid?
Odd.
Dan suddenly halted, stiffly saluting. And that was when Casca saw him.
Roman Torchwick, a great villain that looked like he came straight out of A Clockwerk Orange, was walking towards them. He had a smile on him as he strided towards them, swinging his cane merrily like he wasn't trying to steal large supplies of dust and was instead going out to a club.
"Danny!" Roman took out his cane and poked Dan in the stomach. "Thank you for doing a job well done. Here, go play with the rest of your friends for a bit while I get our snakey friend here acquainted with our little operation."
"Yes sir."
As Dan walked off, Roman began to walk towards Cacsa before draping his arm over her shoulders. "Now tell me..."
"Why is that boss of your's so violent and acts like she constantly has a stick shoved up where the sun never shines?"
And despite the man's villainy, he always made her laugh.
SHEEESH. I'm sorry guys for the delay. I've been sick, my computer broke, college is kicking my ass, and all the lovely things that could happen to me hasn't been happening to me.
Also this chapter has been a bitch to write. I lost all of my back ups of my Digital RWBY drafts and more (so thats 100K+ words gone forever), so I basically had to work on memory before I write out a new one. So this chapter is a little iffy because of that and the fact that it's also been awhile, I can't remember how to write these characters nor how everything is gonna play out.
I had also been working on a new fanfic, 53 Lies and Counting, it's a Danganronpa fanfic and I would love it if you guys checked it out. It currently has two chaps but a new one should be coming out soon.
Thank you for bearing with me. I'll probably edit the chapter a little later and fix up the pacing. I'm currently exhausted.
So please review! I want your opinions on my work so far, along with some theories on what you guys think is gonna happen in the future. I'm excited of the things to come.
I hope you guys have a wonderful day.
EDIT: Alright guys, this series is official going on temporary hiatus now. I need to deal with life stuff plus I also want to work on other projects.
Ciao~