Day 21, Part one: Troy

"So, Ryu what was that you said about not being in love?" Troy had been teasing his partner for the past hour, it was so much fun! Teams RLTN, JNPR, and RWBY were in Vale, Ryu and Yang had started holding hands, which was what caused Troy to start teasing them, or more accurately, tease Ryu, teasing Yang was pointless, she was better at it than he was.

"You were right! I was being an idiot, now could you please stop?"

Troy pretended to consider. "Hmmm, nope I don't think so!"

"C'mon Breezy, you need to develop a thicker skin, especially if you want to date me, just don't take it so seriously and it won't be nearly as annoying." Yang advised.

"Yeah, Partner, listen to your lady."

"My lady?"

"Yeah! Aren't Samurai kinda like Eastern Knights?"

"Not really, and I'm not an actual Samurai anyway, I've never taken any oaths, at most, I'm a Ronin, a Samurai without a lord, and even that's a stretch, my fighting style is somewhat Samurai-like, so people started calling me the wind samurai, that doesn't make me one."

"You know, you really have a talent for sucking the fun out of things."

"Thanks, I try my best." Ryu replied sarcastically.

Troy grinned. "Ha! Yang, if hanging around you has him being sarcastic, stick around, who knows, he might eventually get a real sense of humor!"

"I plan to."

"Hey! I have a sense of humor!"

"Breezy, there's a fairly large list of things I like about you, that list does not include the words: funny, witty, or humorous. But you're learning, I will give you that."

Troy spotted what he was looking for while he'd been teasing his partner.

"Guys, why don't we break off into smaller groups, I want to show Blake something."

Everyone agreed, and they divided up into small groups, Ryu was dragged off by Yang, Ruby and Weiss went off with Laura, Natalie and the members of JNPR went to do some shopping.

"C'mon Sis! I've got something you'll want see."

"Okay."

The two cat faunas walked down the street to the outskirts of the city, until they reached an iron gate beneath a sign that read "here lie the heroes".

"Troy... What?"

"I've arranged for Mom's body to be moved here, I thought it would be fitting, having her final resting place with her comrades, and their predecessors, I've already talked to Dad, he's given his approval, and he'll be here for the burial, he's excited to see you. The graveyard isn't what I wanted to show you though." The siblings entered the graveyard, and walked to the B section, where an open, empty grave, and a headstone waited. The headstone read: Sylvia Belladonna, Born: April 3, 972, Died: September 19, 1002, "Beloved Wife, Mother, and Huntress: She died as she lived."

Blake was stunned. "Y-you did this?"

"Yeah, Dad helped, but he let me make the arrangements."

Troy grunted as Blake hugged him hard enough to knock the breath out of him.

"You are, hands down, the best brother ever, I know Mom would be proud."

"Thanks, Sis, but do you mind lightening up on the rib crushing, I might need those later." Troy asked, uncomfortable with the praise.

Day 21, part: 1.1: Natalie

Natalie was enjoying her day off from school, Troy was teasing Ryu, who was holding hands with Yang, she was happy for them, those two had been dancing around being together ever since she knew them, it was good to know that things had turned out well on that end. Natalie's leader was worryingly unsure of himself at times, but he didn't let that stop him from making whatever decisions he thought were best for his team, the silent sniper respected him for that.

Another leader she had grown to respect was Ruby, the fifteen year old scythe wielder had been dealing with the pressure of being pushed ahead two years and then being made leader of her own team, remarkably well, of course, it helped that her sister was on her team, Natalie could tell that Ruby still relied on her big sister for support, but that was perfectly fine, after all, as Natalie knew, that's what big sisters were there for, but the young leader had clearly gotten wiser, she was still a hyperactive, cookie addicted, weapons enthusiast, but she'd learned what it meant to lead, and she did a good job of it. Ruby was discussing the structural benefits of some metal or other with Laura, Natalie's partner was clearly taking the negative side of the debate, but beyond that the conversation went completely over the orange eyed girl's head.

Natalie turned her attention to Jaune, something was clearly wrong with the boy, he was quiet, withdrawn and he wasn't meeting anyone's eyes, not even his partner's, in fact the entire Team JNPR was unusually subdued, Pyrrha actually seemed angry, while Ren seemed confused, and even Nora wasn't bouncing around as much, Natalie knew that was the biggest sign that something was wrong, not much got Nora to slow down. Natalie's position on things like this was not to interfere unless approached, but that didn't stop her from worrying about her friends, maybe if this took too long to resolve on it's own, she'd ask Laura or Ryu to get involved, but for now she would wait.

Day 21, part 1.2: Laura

Laura had no idea that keeping up with Ruby would be so... Difficult, it wasn't as if she tried to lose her three companions, she didn't, but they were on a street that contained a bakery, a fruit stand and a weapons store, and the ridiculously fast fifteen year old was zipping around, trying to decide whether she wanted to ogle the weapons, buy a box of cookies, or a bag of strawberries, in the end she did all three, dropping the food into her partner's arms while she zoomed into the weapons shop to inspect a new machete/shotgun combo weapon, she even got a box of ammunition for her weapon, when she came back Weiss unceremoniously dumped Ruby's previous purchases into her leader's arms.

"I'm not your personal pack mule Ruby, you're perfectly capable of carrying your own items, honestly, why didn't you just go into the weapon shop first, then buy the food?" Weiss gently admonished her partner, Ruby apologized to her partner, before zooming off to do something else.

Laura had noticed that those two had evidently resolved their problems from the first day of school, and while neither had changed very much, Weiss had learned not to expect her leader to conform to what Weiss believed to be the perfect leader, and she'd learned to appreciate the younger girl's style of leadership instead, even if she didn't always approve of her leader's actions, as for Ruby, she'd become more responsible, she put her teammates before herself, usually, and she'd toned down the messing around, though she'd by no means stopped it entirely.

"I'm going to go make sure that red cloaked idiot doesn't get into too much trouble." Weiss said.

"Okay, I'll catch up later, I need to buy more arrows for White Storm."

I wonder what my teammates are doing?

Day 21 part 2: Ryu: the robbery

Ryu and Yang had just exited their third clothing store, of course, Ryu was carrying everything, he'd tucked Wind's Fang's sheath into his belt to free up his hands, they'd all come armed, Beacon encouraged it's students to be prepared for trouble while not within it's walls.

"Are you planning anything for the next off day on Thursday?" Ryu asked.

"Nope! Do you have any?"

"Well, if you want, our first date."

Yang smiled at him, Ryu nearly tripped over his own feet, but caught himself before he would have fallen over. "Sounds good to me, where and when?"

"Where's a surprise, but let's meet up at the landing platforms at seven, it's formal wear."

"Can't wait to see me in a dress?" Yang asked teasingly.

"Of course."

"It takes the fun out of teasing you when you just admit to it." Yang grumbled

"I know." Ryu replied with a grin, Yang bumped him with her shoulder. They were walking past a Dust store, when ten armed men walked out, followed by a man in a white coat and black bowler hat carrying a cane, Ryu recognised him from news reports, Roman Torchwick, one of Vale's most infamous criminals. Ryu set the bags down and pulled his sheathed sword out of his belt, Yang, who had also recognised Roman, activated Ember Celica.

"Lovely day for a shopping trip, isn't it? Though I don't think you remembered to pay for your purchases." Ryu commented idly, the eleven thugs turned to see the pair of armed teenagers.

"Oh great, first it was Red and her Huntress babysitter, now it's the odd couple." Roman griped.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about that, Ryu, my baby sister stopped one of this joker's robberies, that's why she was given early acceptance to Beacon." Yang said.

"Hey, blondie, go tell your kid sister to butt out of other people's business."

"Now what kind of sister would I be if I told Ruby not to do something I'm about to do right now? Don't you think, eyeliner guy?" Roman growled at the nickname, he did indeed appear to be wearing eyeliner around his one visible eye, he ordered his men to attack.

"I've got the grunts, Yang, get the boss."

"Got it!"

Ryu charged the ten grown men, he didn't even bother drawing his sword, which was locked into it's sheath unless Ryu pressed a button at the mouth of the sheath, he just took Wind's Fang by the hilt and used the blunt sheath to ensure that his strikes were nonlethal, a low sweep knocked the first thug off his feet, then Ryu stepped on the knee of the second thug, lifted himself up, and clubbed the man over the head with a quick horizontal slash, before kicking off the man's chest and flipping in midair to kick a third thug in the face with an aura infused foot, landing lightly Ryu leg swept a thug, and jabbed behind himself with his sheathed sword, he kicked the prone thug in the face, twirled, and kicked the man he'd just jabbed in the face, in the gut, Wind's Fang blocked a slash, then Ryu backed up so that the swordsman who'd tried to cut him was between Ryu and a gunman, Ryu blocked another slash, punched the man in the throat and took the sheath in his left hand, as the man fell and the thug with the gun opened fire, Wind's Fang flashed out of it's sheath to slice the bullet in half, then slid back into it's sheath with a click, in the next second, Ryu had closed the approximately ten foot gap between them, and driven his fist into the man's solar plexus, a roundhouse kick knocked the eighth thug out, leaning back, Ryu dodged a sword strike, before striking the man's wrist, his shoulder, and his opposite knee in rapid succession, before a kick to the face dropped him, the final thug tried to run, Ryu activated his Semblance and slammed the man into the wall of the shop he'd helped rob.

Yang had charged past the grunts and aimed a straight right at Torchwick, but the cane wielding thief swept her arm aside with his weapon, a left uppercut was swiftly dodged, and the dashing thief's weapon, Melodic Cudgel swept forward, connecting solidly with Yang's side, causing her to flinch, all the opening that Torchwick needed, Melodic Cudgel lashed out again, but Yang dropped into a backwards roll, before springing back up, golden flames began flickering through her hair, firing her gauntlets behind her the blonde brawler threw herself at the thief, Torchwick backed up quickly, dodging and deflecting the flurry of blows that Yang was sending his way, Torchwick slid his hand down Melodic Cudgel's shaft until he held the cane by the middle, he blocked two more punches, before hooking Yang's head with his cane and yanked her down into his raised knee, her nose broke from the force of the blow, but her aura stopped it from being any worse, though she was still stunned, he clubbed her hard across the face, and then hit her again with enough force to knock her off feet, Yang recovered quickly however, and the flames in her hair grew brighter, and her eyes shifted to red, charged in with a straight kick, Melodic Cudgel caught the blow, but the force of the kick sent Torchwick flying backward, the clever fighter rolled to his feet and pointed his cane at his opponent, a crosshairs popped up, he pulled the trigger at the charging brawler, who launched herself skyward with a pair of shotgun blasts from Ember Celica, Torchwick rolled out of the way as she slammed into the spot he'd been kneeling on moments before, he gulped as a crater appeared beneath the blonde girl, he leveled his cane at his opponent and fired, hitting the brawler before she could dodge. He had only a second's warning before he had to dodge to the side to avoid a green sword blade whistling past his head, it cut part of the brim of his hat off.

"Hey, kid, that was my favorite hat!"

Ryu was glowing green, his eyes resembled those of a deadman, the only sign of life in them was a burning hatred.

"I will kill you." The boy's voice was flat yet somehow full of malice.

"Aww, did I hurt your girlfriend?"

"Yes." The green haired boy vanished into thin air, acting on instinct Torchwick blocked the slash aimed for his neck, the thief hooked the sword with his cane and punched the boy in the face, but the kid barely felt it, he disengaged his sword and returned it to it's sheath, then he dashed forward and slashed again, Torchwick swept the blade up above his head, the sword zipped back into it's sheath, then flashed out so quickly that only the experienced fighter's instincts allowed him to interpose his cane between the green blade and his chest, he didn't count on a blast of wind, which had lost most of it's cutting edge when it hit the cane, which it couldn't cut, it still left a shallow cut along one of Torchwick's ribs, the thief whacked the samurai in the face, then hit him in the gut and kicked him with an aura infused strike that sent him tumbling away, Torchwick fired several flares at the boy, then he ran for the getaway vehicle, Ryu slashed three flares out of the air, Yang's long range shells deflected the rest of them.

"Yang! You're ok!" The green glow vanished around Ryu's body, as he ran to her.

Yang looked like she'd she'd just lost a fight, which, Ryu supposed, they both had. Once the adrenaline ran out they heard the cop cars, which had probably been the reason Roman had run, he could have taken them both, but two Hunter's in training and a bunch of cops? No.

"I'm glad you're okay, if he'd caused you permanent injury, or worse, killed you, I would have attacked until either he was dead, or I was." Ryu admitted.

"Well then I'm glad that didn't happen." Yang replied, then they sat down on the pavement to wait for the police.

(Author's Note: Yang and Ryu had no chance at beating Roman, he kicked Blake and Sun's asses when they fought in the show, so he's definitely more than a match for any pair of first year students, and yeah, Ryu managed to damage Torchwick's clothes, and give him one shallow cut, but if that fight had continued Torchwick would have won, but still, I liked writing that fight scene, and I hope you like reading it! Enjoy, and Review, please!)