Chapter 9
Blake managed to make it back to Beacon at around 8:15pm. "Good, I won't be too late." She thought as she walked through the doors of the cafeteria. Team RWBY, and occasionally JNPR, had established their own spot to sit in the cafeteria: in the middle and towards the right-most side of the room. Immediately, her partner could be seen flagging her down from their table.
"Hey Blakey, I already got you a tray. Grilled fish, mixed veggies, water, and a slice of pie." Yang said as Blake made her way to sit down.
"Thank you, Yang. How was everyone's day?" Blake asked.
"There aren't many students that we should be particularly concerned about, but I have found a few who've received special training that we should pay attention to." Weiss said as she continued to eat.
"Yeah, most of the people around here do take this shit seriously. All I saw at the gyms I went to was poor form and weak attacks…with a few exceptions." Yang stated matter-of-factly.
"All of the weapons are really cool and unique, though…but if what they said is true, our classmates probably can't use them very well." Ruby said in between bites of food.
"Well, Ozpin gave me precisely zero intel." Blake said.
"Told ya he was a lost cause. I bet he caught you sneaking around, too." Yang said,
"Yes, he did. We sat and spoke for a while, and eventually he told me that he needed a favor from me." Blake explained.
"What did he need?" Weiss asked.
"Do you mind if we wait until we get back to our dorm before I explain?" Blake asked, only stirring her teammates curiosity even more. She knew that Sir Donovan was right about trusting her teammates, but this was still something she wanted to keep between her and those that she trusted.
"Kay. Then, for now, I just wanna make sure you guys are still cool with setting the arena to a sixteen?" Yang asked.
"Didn't we already decide to do so?" Weiss wondered.
"Yeah, but I just remembered what Headmaster Ozpin said a few days ago…about how hard a sixteen is and the fact that we'll be expelled if we lose." Yang explained. The girls looked around towards each other in thought. "See? Not such an easy decision with all that on the line." she stated.
Blake thought for a moment and asked, "If we don't choose sixteen, what level–"
"We can do it." Ruby interrupted.
"You sound confident…" Yang said with a mocking grin.
"C'mon guys. We beat a Nevermore and got one of the highest scores during the initiation! We can kick its butt." Ruby asserted.
Weiss looked at her partner and responded, "I suppose. Our team is quite unique…I mean look what we have! Ruby, a Grim Reaper, who can ironically also heal us with her semblance. Yang, who is basically the Hulk."
"Hey!?" Yang half yelled.
Weiss continued, "Blake, our mysterious spy that fights like she has a license to kill. And–"
"An Ice Queen that can kill any mood and drown all fun." Yang said, earning a chuckle from her sister and partner, and a glare from Weiss. "…but who is also extremely well-trained and collected." Yang finished.
"That's right! Yang is like the tank, Weiss is the mage, Blake is DPS, and I'm the healer!" Ruby said.
"Careful sis, you're geeking out again." Yang mocked.
"I happen to like MMORPG's…there's nothing to be ashamed of, Ruby." Blake said.
"I was only messing with her." Yang explained.
"Yang was always more of the action kind of person…she never had the patience for an MMO." Ruby stated.
"As interesting as this is…are we in agreement about the level we are choosing for the hunt?" Weiss asked in an uncaring tone.
"I think so. We'll need to make sure we get a good night's sleep." Blake said.
"If you guys are done eating, then we can head back." Yang said.
All four of the girls stood up and took their trays to the trashcan, emptied them, and placed them on the counter for them to be cleaned. As they made their way back, there was just a bit of small talk, but mostly a lot of planning on how their tactics will play out. Soon enough, they happened upon their room and made their way inside. By the time Blake had managed to get her shoes and socks off, she realized all of her teammates were staring at her.
"You guys are really that desperate to know what happened?" Blake asked with a grin.
"Duh. Ozpin asked you for a favor…I want to know what you did for him." Yang asked from her bed, behind Blake, who was still looking at Ruby and Weiss, who had elected to both sit on Weiss' bed. "…or what you did for him…" Yang said again, this time in a very seductive tone.
Blake jumped as soon as Yang had said that since Yang had crawled on her bed and said that into her right ear, causing a tingle to go up her spine. Ruby's face was as red as her cape, but Weiss simply played along, "When I said you were a spy, I didn't think you'd go that far the get intel for us."
"I hate all of you." Blake said with her typical monotone voice.
"Awwwww. No you don't, sweetheart." Yang said in a mocking tone as she hugged Blake's waist from behind. Blake didn't budge. "Damnit. Still nothing." Yang thought.
"Seriously guys, I will explain what happened…but I also have something very important to tell you. Can we not screw around right now?" Blake asked, causing all of her teammates to immediately come to their senses.
"Alright, shoot." Yang said.
"Okay, you already know I was stalking Ozpin. I thought I had been out of sight until he got a phone call and mentioned me in it." Blake said.
"Do you know what the phone call was about." Weiss asked.
"It was about a cargo ship, en route to beacon, that was attacked by the White Fang. Fortunately, the Knight-General was aboard and easily defended the ship. Apparently, that was the mission we saw him leave for, a few days ago." Blake continued.
"That seems like a really low-priority mission for the leader of the Knights." Weiss said.
"Ozpin knew that the ship was going to get attacked, because of all of the radio-chatter his informants picked up, so he publically hired the most powerful person he could think of. Probably so he could see just how important the cargo was to them…obviously very important, since they went on and attacked anyway, in spite of the Knight-General being aboard." Blake stated.
"What did they want? And I still don't see why Ozpin mentioned you in that call…" Yang said.
"They wanted the new preservatives that the Union of Hunters recently developed. And…" Blake started. Her teammates could see that she was obviously having a hard time preparing herself for what she had to say.
"I've been lying to you all." Blake said.
"I'm sure you had good reason." Yang said.
"No actually…" Blake said with a half laugh, half sigh.
"You can tell us Blake, we're your friends." Ruby said with a genuinely kind tone.
"I'm a faunus who…" Blake started, but needed a moment to continue.
"That's all?" Weiss said, almost sounding like her time was wasted.
"No, no…no. I'm a faunus who used to…" Blake began as she put her hand on top of her head and removed her ribbon. "I used to be a part of the White Fang." She said, not daring to look up. Her teammates only stared at her left cat ear, where the White Fang's tattoo remained. Most active members would mark one of the faunus traits with three claw marks, which often helped them identify each other.
"Well, you left sooo…it's okay." Yang said.
"No, it's not! Don't you dare say that! I stole! I lied and cheated! I killed so many people…" Blake eyes began tearing up as she named corporations that she had stolen from and killed important members of. "There's so much blood on my hands…" she said as tears began to roll down her face.
Yang almost instinctively stretched her arm around her, and pulled her in for a tight side hug. "So what?" she said as she held her partner.
Blake was dumbfounded, "What do you mean? I killed–"
"People that used slave labor. Who wronged your entire species and gladly profits from it?" Weiss stated.
Blake began to scold herself, "I shouldn't have killed them, maybe–"
"This ain't some fairytale where some protests would have solved that. They had it coming." Yang said as she comforted her friend by rubbing her shoulder.
"Yeah, all throughout history, slavery is almost never ended without a war." Ruby said.
"That's why I left, though. Because I was tired of all the murder. Surely…is it possible to have peace without a war?" Blake asked.
"Now? Yes. Because our generation is so much more connected than we ever had been before. Ever noticed that the majority of humans protesting illegal faunus labor are in their twenties and younger?" Weiss explained. "However, the White Fang doesn't seem to notice that. They've begun killing indiscriminately and must be stopped." She finished.
"Yeah. The old White fang were the good guys, but now they're not…and you were smart enough to see that." Yang said.
"So now, we'll defeat the White Fang and ensure faunus equality." Ruby said with her usual smile.
"How so?" Blake asked with bloodshot eyes.
"Because of me, of course." Weiss said. "When I inherit the Schnee fortune, I have always had every intention of righting all of the wrongs that my father did to the faunus. I will funnel money into welfare programs and education to ensure that it never happens again. That, however, won't happen if the White Fang continues to be responsible for us losing large portions of our company's wealth." She finished.
"So in the end, I was right. The White Fang will be its own undoing." Blake said.
"Probably, but we'll make sure we undo it faster." Yang said with a smirk as she pulled Blake in for a tight hug.
"Anyway, we obviously don't care about your past, so please continue." Weiss said.
"Right." Blake said as she rubbed her eyes one last time. "After Ozpin got off the phone, he called me down from my hiding spot and began to talk to me. He already knew I was a faunus and about my…past. He started asking me questions and, eventually, he started insulting me, but for good reason." She continued.
"A good reason to insult someone?" Ruby asked.
"He said that he needed to make sure what I was saying was genuine, but the only way to do that was to anger me to the point where I was yelling my beliefs at him." Blake said with a chuckle.
"After he determined I was being truthful, he showed me that he had refilled a custom transcript for me, since the one I had submitted was almost entirely a lie. Because of that, I can stay." Blake said.
"Ozpin's so fucking cool, like that." Yang said, still comforting Blake.
Blake continued with her story, "Anyway…the favor that he wanted, was for me to obtain information from a few of the White Fang members that had been captured from during their raid. The Knight-General was the one who explained most of it to me. Next we–"
"YOU MET THE KNIGHT-GENERAL!?" Ruby almost yelled. "Was he cool? What did he say? How did he act? Did he have his weapon? Was he wearing his armor? Did you guys get to talk? What did he look like?" Ruby's barrage of questions caught almost everyone off guard.
Blake couldn't help but laugh at Ruby's excitement. Blake thought for a second and began answering Ruby's questions one by one, "Umm…Yes. Mostly stuff about the White Fang. Normal. Yes. Yes. Yes. And…" Blake stopped at her last question and thought for a second. She did see his face, Blake remembered him smiling and talking, but his actual face she couldn't remember. "I…don't remember what he looked like…" Blake answered.
"No one ever does." Weiss said. "My father has spoken with the Knight-General more than once, and, on every occasion, no one remembers his face. It even gets wiped from our security cameras." Weiss explained.
"I wonder what kind of semblance he is using." Yang wondered.
"Doesn't matter! That's so cool!" Ruby said.
"Kay, chill Rubes. Let Blake finish." Yang said.
"Um, we headed to the police station precinct in the north, and talked about what I was going to do. Basically, I just dressed up as a White Fang member, and got on their good side." Blake said.
"What intel did you get?" Weiss asked.
"Not much, they weren't very high ranking. I found out they were after the preservatives, that there's a new employer for the White Fang, what base the raid came from…that's about it." Blake said.
"I wonder what use they could have for preservatives? What tissue samples could they possibly want to keep?" Weiss wondered.
"Ugh. They must've discovered my weakness: biology class." Yang said.
Ruby jokingly continued, "…and English class, math class, history class…"
"Yeah, thanks. We get it Ruby." Yang said with a sigh.
"Basically anything besides P.E." Weiss finished.
"You're so funny. Did anything else happen Blake?" Yang asked.
"No. After I informed Sir Donovan, Ozpin, Glynda, and the Vale Police Chief, they let me go." Blake said.
"Sounds like you've had a day." Ruby said.
"Indeed. But all I want right now is to get some sleep and beat the Hunt tomorrow…So I suppose it's a good thing I got this off my chest." Blake said standing up, much to Yang's dismay.
"Yep. Team RWBY needs to be well-rested and ready for tomorrow!" Ruby said as she changed into her pajamas behind a flurry of rose petals.
Weiss said nothing, but simply grabbed her nightgown and started for the bathroom. Yang just stripped off all of her clothes besides her boy shorts and a tank top before jumping up to her bed. Blake gathered he pajamas and sat them on her bed and opened her book while waiting for Weiss to exit the bathroom. "I'm sure tomorrow will be…interesting." They all thought.
"All dressed? Yep. Ember Celica? Hell yeah. Ammo? Check. Sexy badass? Fuckin' A." Yang thought as she went through her mental checklist.
"Fully dressed, I just need…there's my ribbon. Gambol Shroud? Of course. Ammunition? Fully loaded. I'm ready." Blake thought as she began to tie her ribbon over her ears.
"No wrinkles? Indeed. Tiara? Beautiful. Myrtenaster? Perfect. Dust? Yes, I'm ready." Weiss thought as she loaded Myrtenaster.
"Cloak? Yup. Ammo? Duh. My baby? Amaaaazing. I'm so excited!" Ruby thought as she tightened the laces on her boots.
"Okay, are you guys all ready to kick some simulated butt?" Ruby asked.
"Do I even need to answer?" Weiss mocked.
"Sis, who the hell do you think I am?" Yang added.
"A hothead who's almost guaranteed to end up in the hospital by the end of the day. Don't take this too lightly." Blake said.
"She's right. We can talk all we want, but a level sixteen Hunt is obviously going to be one of the largest challenges we have ever faced." Weiss agreed.
"Oh, I know. But there's a reason Rubes was put in charge…she's a great strategist." Yang stated a Blake smiled and Weiss rolled her eyes with a grin.
"Oh, stop it guys." Ruby said blushing as the four opened the door and began down the hall.
"No offense, but you certainly don't give off the vibe as someone who is a tactical genius, and yet…" Weiss trailed off.
"Makes sense though…Blake was professionally trained, and us two have primarily offensive semblances. Ruby didn't have the luxury of a mentor, has more of a support semblance, AND is younger than everyone else here. She needs something to keep her ahead of the game…and that's where her badass battlefield tactics come in to play." Yang said with praise.
"Let's just hope your academic scores are up to that par. Because WHEN we win, we will be an official Beacon team. That means that the grades we each receive will affect our overall standing. I'm not too worried about Blake or myself, but you two…" Weiss stated with her chin up.
"Well, if I start slacking, you can help me." Ruby said.
"Ha. Please…it's a dog eat dog world out there; you're on your own." Weiss said with a glare.
"And the Ice Princess just went subzero on us." Yang said with a laugh.
"C'mon Weiss, you're really smart…and I'm not the best at math, unfortunately." Ruby murmured.
"Ugh. Only with math, though. I'd better not lose any sleep because of you." Weiss stated.
"Oh…she's feisty. You won't get any sleep~" Yang said with a seductive purr.
"Yang, stoooooop!" Ruby said as she clenched her fists. Weiss only stood there with a slight blush.
"Aww…that wasn't the reaction I wanted from you, Ice Princess." Yang said as she crossed her arms behind her head. "What? Did she already tell ya?" She asked.
"Yes, I'm aware of her disposition." Weiss said nonchalantly.
"Her disposition?" Blake wondered aloud.
Ruby began mumbling with her head tilted down, "Well…uh, I Kinda…uh… I–"
"She only fucks girls!" Yang said in a yelling whisper.
"Oh my God, YANG!" Ruby almost screamed.
"Don't worry Ice Princess, you'll hear your name plenty of times~" Yang said seductively.
"I'd hate to break up the love fest, but we're almost there." Blake said, much to Ruby's thankfulness.
"Oh well, I can tease her when we go back to our dorms later." Yang said, re-crossing her arms behind her head.
It was 9:45am and the girls had just made it to the arena. There were many seats occupying the area around the arena. There were roughly 50,000 seats, since this arena was used for events other than just the Hunt. The seats, however, were still packed. The first few front rows were reserved for Beacon staff and the students participating. Team RWBY immediately identified Team JNPR among the chaos, thanks to Nora's obnoxious hand waving.
"Hello!" Pyrrha said gleefully.
"Hey guys! You ready?" Ruby asked.
"Heck yeah! This will be awesome!" Nora yelled.
"We've been training quite a bit for this." Ren said.
"So have we. You guys decided on what level you were gonna fight at."
"We've all decided on lucky number thirteen." Jaune stated.
"What level? Like a game?" Nora asked.
"Did you not receive the E-Mail from Headmaster Ozpin?" Ren asked.
"Uhhhh…Sure I did." Nora said with a chuckle.
"The level we choose will be the difficulty setting of our Hunt. The highest is sixteen and we can't choose anything lower than twelve, so we decided on thirteen." Ren explained with a sigh.
"What?! No, no, no, no. We need to do a sixteen." Nora said.
"Dunno who in their right mind would do that." Jaune said.
"That would be us. Heh." Ruby said.
"Are you seriously going to fight a level sixteen simulation?" Pyrrha asked.
"Fuckin' A." Yang said without missing a beat.
"Godspeed." Pyrrha said with a smile.
"May I have your attention, students?" A voice said as everyone turned their immediate attention to the stage. Glynda was standing in front of the microphone with Ozpin not far behind her sipping from his iconic coffee mug. "Before we begin, Headmaster Ozpin would like to say a few words." She said before moving out of the way and Ozpin stepping up the microphone.
"I will not take up much of your time. I would like to simply congratulate everyone on having made it this far. The Emerald Forest initiation was not designed to be easy, and yet here you stand." Ozpin said as he looked out to the crowd. "However, we only have 480 guaranteed spots open for placement within our school. That, of course, is assuming you receive a professor as an administrator; if someone, outside of this academy, of sufficient credentials, takes you under their wing, you may circumvent this number. Truthfully though, only about a quarter of you will remain by dusk. That does not mean you are not worthy, but rather, not ready. I would hope that you will continue your service to the people of Remnant, as we have for ages, regardless of today's outcome." He said before clearing his throat.
"Never get tired of hearing this guy talk, huh?" Yang whispered sarcastically, causing a few laughs from the two teams.
"Before we begin, a few announcements: First, we have upgraded the CPU of our arena's Enhanced Emulation Drive; any level above and including ten will be significantly different from previous years. So I apologize for anyone who spent these last few days researching previous Hunts, rather than training." Ozpin said with a grin, earning a few laughs. "Second, do not worry about stray projectiles, of any kind, getting out of hand. This arena is equipped with an XRC9000 antimatter regulator and a Schnee Electronics Dust Condenser." Ozpin said, gaining more than a few astonishments from the crowd.
"Geeks." Yang whispered in a monotone voice.
"What? That is top of the line equipment!" Weiss whispered back.
"Heh. Geek." Yang whispered nonchalantly as she rested her head in her left palm before looking back up at Ozpin, who was about to continue.
"In laymen's terms, the battle area of the arena is encased with a shield generator that can withstand up to five megatons of energy…so please do not hold back. And lastly, we have a very special guest viewing the Hunt today. Please give a warm welcome to Knight-General Lionel Donovan." Ozpin said as he looked to his left, with everyone in the arena following his field of vision, to see Sir Donovan sitting within the first row. All that could be heard for a few minutes were cheers and praises as he stood and waved to everyone.
He was wearing a traditional Knights Formal Uniform. The jacket was black and the pants were white with black dress shoes. The pants had only a gold stripe running down the sides, his jacket, however, was adorned with dozens of medals and patches for his service within the Knights…as well as a few honorary awards from each of the four kingdoms. There were gold pads atop each of the shoulders, giving the impression of a broad (or in his case, even more broad) physique. The gold pad on the right shoulder had two golden tassels which hung down, connected from the front to the back; both tassels hung under his arm. On his head he wore a black beret with the Knights insignia upon it. But, of course, he still wore his mask.
"Now, now, settle down. He is here to spectate this wonderful event like the rest of you. Please continue, Headmaster." Glynda said before backing up again.
"Thank you, Glynda. As for the rules, we will follow tournament standards: If a student's aura drops into the red, the match will end. If a student is otherwise unconscious, the match will end. If a student surrenders, the match will end. You will be asked to sign your name stating that you understand these rules upon entering the arena. That is all; there are no other restrictions, so I wish you all the best of luck." Ozpin said as everyone clapped. Ozpin then pulled out his scroll and began to wait. The moment his scroll clicked and said 10:00, he stated, "May the 77th Hunt Begin."