Chapter 14: Masquerade
Hey everyone! I did just like I said, I uploaded a chapter the next day, for those of you in Europe and such that isn't part of the West, this most likely is being uploaded on the same day for you guys, but, that's besides the point. I woke up possibly 30 minutes ago at 11:28 AM (I'm Central Time in the USA). So I got straight to work. Either way, you should know that reviews are what supports us Authors to continue our work (That is said for all authors making stories), and that you should follow and fave if you find it necessary. Later!
Wasure and Victor's Room
"You ready for the masquerade?" Victor asked Wasure as he looked at the wall as she slipped into her dress from behind him.
"Somewhat…" Wasure said as she zipped up the back of the dress before looking at it from a large mirror. She wore a slim, shoulderless sapphire blue dress that had sleeves attached to the back of the dress. Her hair was rightly tied up in a bun in the back while she let some of her bangs hang on the sides of her face.
"Again, sorry about accidentally locking the bathroom door and accidentally locking it before closing it from the outside… I don't know how it happened…" Victor said as he scratched the back of his head and chuckled a little.
"It's fine, I'm not that upset… I have Yang to deal with…" Wasure said in response.
"Can I turn around now?" Victor asked.
"Yes, you can look now…" Wasure said before watching Victor turn around and smile at seeing Wasure.
"You look amazing in that dress…" Victor warmly said.
"Thanks… but I feel like its a bit… revealing…" Wasure said as she put an arm over her chest to cover up the cleavage the dress provided.
"It's only revealing to the people who think that way. But a bit of a sex appeal on dresses is common thing, I bet lots of women would be revealing more than you do, such as thighs and more chest. When it comes to dresses they have a lot of variety, and thats where fashion comes in, now as for us men… we just have suits to wear… the only things we can to make them look good is by changing the ties and the colors of our suits." Victor said as he walked up to Wasure. "Here…" Victor said before handing Wasure her mask.
Wasure looked at it, remembering how she picked the mask that was a japanese kitsune mask with blue paint markings on the mask.
She looked at Victor who held a lion mask in his hand, strangely it matched his spiked hair.
"Why a lion?" Wasure asked.
"Because no one will be wearing a lion mask with my spiked hair, plus… I'm actually a faunus…" Victor said as he pointed to his head and two spots in his hair twitched. Upon closer inspection you could see two large cat ears blending into the spiked hair.
"A lion faunus?" Wasure asked before Victor nodded his head.
"My ears are just hard to see because my hair is naturally spiked like this, and I can't cut my hair any shorter than my ears without the person cutting them almost take my ears off." Victor said as he put on his lion mask, making him look like an actual lion if you noticed the ears out of his hair.
"I see, make sure you keep an eye on Blake though, it is important that you do so…" Wasure said before putting on her own mask, looking into the mirror to see that it somewhat complimented her dress, which she thought would have gone better with a kimono. But she knew that she wasn't really worried about her appearance at the moment.
Ruby's Room
Ruby stumbled in her high heels, having trouble standing on them just like the dance at Beacon. She took them off for a moment before rubbing her ankles as she sat on her couch, she simply decided to wear the same dress she wore from the dance at Beacon, bad mistake with the shoes though.
"I seriously don't see how Weiss can fight in these ankle killers!" Ruby said in a strained voice as she rubbed her ankles.
She looked over to her mask sitting next to her on the couch, it was a red robin that was the same shade of red as her cloak was. She smiled as she was reminded of her cloak and who it was that gave it to her.
Blake's Room
Blake stared at the white dress she wore, not a particular fan of white, but considering this was a masquerade, she would have to dress differently than usual so no one could guess who she was.
She looked at her mask and found it ironic that she, as a cat faunus, would be wearing a dog mask.
Weiss's Room
"Hmm… will anyone notice though?" Weiss asked herself as she looked at her self in the mirror, changing poses as she looked at the black dress she wore, having the same idea as Blake, somewhat that is… "Maybe a bit more…" Weiss said before she reached into her dress and pulled out two apples that were held by the bra she was wearing underneath her dress.
She walked over to the table in front of the fireplace and put them beside the fruit basket before searching inside it and found two cantaloupes inside. She inspected the fruit before smiling.
"Perfect!" She said before she put them under her bra, in the same spots she had the apples. She walked over to the mirror and saw the bulges on her chest, giving the impression that she was well developed. She even bounced up and down and watched as her "boobs" bounced up and down with her. Lucky for her, her dress had no cleavage.
She walked to the end of her bed and picked up black veil to cover her face. She looked in the mirror and saw that with the veil on, she looked as if she had or was, attending a funeral, no one would suspect this "well developed" girl to be Weiss in all black.
Yang's Room
"I'm all ready!" Yang said to herself as she stared at herself in the mirror.
She wore only her mask, a buffalo mask, she was completely naked otherwise.
"I mean… has anyone seen a buffalo actually wear clothing?" Yang asked herself. "Though… I'm sure a lot of people will be guessing who is under this mask…" Yang said before giggling, knowing that anyone other than her team and Victor wouldn't be able to recognize her, as the long hair is a dead give away, even if she was naked or not.
She suddenly paused and felt something come over, it felt like Weiss doing the impossible.
"Why do I have the feeling that Weiss just did something that is impossible to do?" Yang asked herself before she shrugged. "I really do wish that I could play around like this though, maybe that'll be the special event!" Yang said to herself as she walked over to her bed and removed the mask before slipping into skimpy yellow dress. "Though… I would probably be the main attraction if that was the case, unless Wasure wasn't shy enough to go nude, or Blake for that matter of fact…" Yang said to herself as she grabbed her mask and put it on before heading towards the door.
The Ballroom
Music and voices filled the air as masked people were all around the room, talking and laughing to each other as they drank and danced.
"I wasn't expecting the place to be so lively…" Wasure said to Victor as they entered the ballroom together.
"It happens once a year, its basically when a bunch of rich people forget about their status and party like crazy. Right now its pretty calm, wait until someone spikes the punch bowl…" Victor said.
"Someone puts alcohol in the punch?" Wasure asked.
"Yeah, most people here don't drink until after the revealing happens, they're afraid they might give themselves away, so some people will pour alcohol into the punch before then and everyone will be drunk, revealing secrets because the alcohol did the talking…" Victor said.
"Than I better stay away from the punch… I'm somewhat a violent drunk…" Wasure said before Victor chuckled.
"Well then I'll go and look for Blake, if I'm guessing rightly, she would act like her opposite self… see you later!" Victor said before waving goodbye to Wasure as he walked away.
"Now then… I have some time to spare… what should I do?" Wasure asked herself as she headed off in a direction.
Ruby tried to keep herself steady as she walked on her high heels, constantly almost twisting her ankles. She took a step and accidently didn't watch her back foot before she tripped over her own feet and started to fall.
"Woah there!" A voice said before someone stpped Ruby from falling, by grabbing her waist and upper back making it look like it was a pose for a romantic kiss almost. "Are you alright?" They asked.
Ruby looked up at who stopped her and saw a man wearing a dark blue trench coat with a hood pulled up, wearing a white haired wolf mask, that had red markings on the mask.
"Y-yeah… not used to wearing high heels though…" Ruby said as the man helped Ruby stand straight back up.
"You don't have to wear them, some people here aren't even wearing shoes…" The man said as he pointed to a group of barefoot people.
"Oh… well that's good, I didn't want to wear these shoes anyways…" Ruby said before ripping of her high heels and threw them over her shoulder.
"From what I can tell, this is your first time here is it not?" The man asked before Ruby nodded her head.
"Well, if you see how everyone here is wearing a mask, you can try and guess who is who. Ask people around for rumors about who might be under which mask, people go by the names of their mask…" The man said before pointing to a man with a lion mask and spiky hair. "See him? That could be Victor Dan Tillian as he's a lion faunus…" The man said.
"Victor is a faunus?!" Ruby said in surprise.
"You didn't know? Well… only well acquainted people know about that, or those that he really likes only know that, other times people just don't realize it." The man said.
"Then… what about you? I've never seen a wolf mask that had markings on it…" Ruby asked.
"I'm masked as the Japanese sun Goddess, Amaterasu. I came up with the idea of masking as the goddess, in her animal form, that fell in love with protector of the Multiverse." The man said.
"Multiverse… protector?" Ruby said tilting her head.
"You don't know the legend?!" The man asked surprised before Ruby shook her head. "Well then, you're in luck because this is one of my favorite stories!" The man said before saying the same story that Victor said to Wasure while on the top of the train on the way to the Schnee Mansion.
"I'm getting so many stares from everyone! I bet it's my chest..." Weiss said as she walked around, noticing the number of men that looked at her, she was smiling underneath her veil, even though no one could see through the black cloth.
"Yo! This is something isn't it!" Yang said to Weiss, who made Weiss's heart skip a beat.
"Shit! If she finds out it's me… then it'll be humiliating for a LONG time…" Weiss mentally said before something hit her. "Why did I even do this stupid idea if people will find out its me?!" Weiss shouted in her head.
"Y-yeah… this sure is something…" Weiss said, trying to say something while making her voice sound differently.
"Hm? Is something the matter?" Yang asked, looking at Weiss's veil, still being unable to see her through it, but Weiss could see Yang's eyes.
"Y-yeah.. just got something in my throat… not really feeling well…" Weiss said, putting in a fake cough.
Yang didn't say anything before her eyes looked down at Weiss's "boobs" which created an intense silence between the two.
"Whatever! I think I'll get you drink if you aren't feeling well, that ok?" Yang said before Weiss nodded her head before Yang walked off to the table with the punch bowl. After Yang was somewhat out of ears reach, Weiss sighed outwardly as she just dodged a bullet.
Though just not that far away, she saw her sister, Winter, who easily stuck out because of her voice and she was still wearing the same dress as this morning. Though what was odd was that Snowball was no where her.
Outside in the back Garden, far away from the mansion
"Everything is going according to plan?" A man wearing a White Fang mask asked into his cellphone.
"Yes boss, I'm finding a suitable person… well… you know what I mean." A voice said on the otherside.
"I heard the traitor Blake Belladonna is there, she will be wearing a black bow, if she isn't then look for any girl with black cat ears and matching hair…" The man said.
"Roger that boss…" The person on the phone said before they hung up.
"Boss, what happens if Regen fails to kill a faunus?" A person wearing a simple White Fang mask asked.
"Isn't it simple? With all these rich people here they basically are pigs to the slaughter… no offense William." The boss said looking behind himself and at the small group of armed men.
"None taken sir!" One of the men said, presumably William.
"Oh? You plan on killing everyone attending the masquerade?" A male voice called out, somewhere within the garden.
"Who's there?!" The boss shouted as he pulled out a handgun and looked around.
"We can't let you do that I'm afraid… I couldn't bare to see poor Winter's lifeless body on the ground…" Another male voice said, the voice coming from all directions.
"And I promised my master to fulfill his command, this murder spree will not be an exception…" The first voice said before there was the sound of pawprints.
The group of men all turned to see Chūsei and Snowball standing there, staring at the men.
"What the hell? Is it just these dogs?" The boss said before lowering his handgun down and chuckled.
"Laugh while you can… shorty…" Chūsei said before running up to the man and bit into his neck hard.
"My… always the one that can't wait to taste blood…" Snowball said before he howled at some of the men before they were consumed in blocks of ice before they and the people inside, shattered into several pieces.
Back at the Ballroom, a few hours later.
"So my cousin is the renowned author while his married sister is the illustrator for his books." A man in a mask said to Blake who was interested in what he was actually saying.
"Woah, I didn't know that. I just finished their most recent book, "Rolan, Knight of the Gods Reborn". It was a great book, I actually cried at the end." Blake said.
"Perhaps I can introduce you to Thomas and Sarah, they have been having trouble with their most recent book. I'm sure a fan such as yourself that loves their work would be great help to them, they can be picky when it comes to who reads their work, but I'm sure you will be perfect to help them. Here's their number, give them a call sometime and they might let you in on the story." The man said before pulling out a pen and some paper before writing a phone number on it and handed it to Blake.
"You'd do this for me?" Blake asked as she took the paper and memorized it.
"You seem perfect for them, you said you did more reading than talking, so I'm sure you wouldn't reveal any of their ideas for their story. Plus, I'm sure your judgement is just as good as the sound of your voice… I bet your face is tied with both of those two in terms of beauty." The man said, making Blake blush under her dog mask.
"T-th-thank you…" Blake said.
"Not a problem, though if my cousin's think you're just a crazed fan, tell them that I, sir Regen, gave you their number and if they don't believe me, tell them that Regen said "People like grapes" It's a joke we made as kids." The man named Regen said.
"Once again, thank you. How can I repay you?" Blake asked.
"There is no need to pay me back, once I see who it is behind that mask then I will have been paid over the necessary amount." Regen said.
"Everyone!" A man shouted as he stood on a large podium in front of the main doors, to let everyone see him. "It is now midnight and we shall begin revealing our masks, so may everyone do so now?" The man asked before people did as asked.
"You ready?" Regen asked Blake who nodded before they both took off their masks simultaneously.
"You are more beautiful than I could have ever imagined…" Regen said to Blake with the most amazed look on his face.
"You're not half bad either…" Blake said, trying to hide her blushing
"Ah!" Regen said as he clutched his heart. "You're words wound me!" He said as if the words had done physical damage to him.
Before Weiss lifted her veil up, she hid under the refreshment table while everyone was busy looking at the man and pulled out the two cantaloupe that were on her chest, acting as her boobs. She set them down on the ground before leaving under the table and stood back up just in time for people to start removing their masks, she lifted up her veil and got a few surprised looks from some of the people in the ballroom that had removed their masks.
Ruby removed her mask and looked at the man that she had spent all night with so far, only to see that he hadn't removed his white wolf mask with the markings.
"Aren't you going to take off your mask?" Ruby asked.
"I'm going to take a gamble with the special event, so I need to keep the mask on just a little longer so I can attract some attention." The man in the wolf mask said making Ruby raise and eyebrow.
"Looks like things are going differently than you said…" Victor said as he removed his mask and put on his glasses again.
"Something isn't right…" Wasure said to Victor as she removed her mask, suddenly feeling that A LOT of men were looking at her.
"Perhaps you were just worried for nothing…" Victor said.
"I guess…" Wasure said.
Yang threw her mask off and took a deep breath in as she felt cold air hit her face, it was hot and sweaty the whole time she wore her mask.
Though she was smiling and laughing at the number of people that were stumbling around because Yang had spiked the punch bowl.
"So with everyone unmasked, I shall reveal myself now…" The man on the podium said, revealing to be James Schnee, Weiss's father. "We may now begin the special event we have planned for tonight!" James said before he told people to move to the sides of the ballroom. "Tonight, we will be having a tournament to see who can fight me! I hope you've brought your weapons folk, but to be safe, can call children under the age of 10 please the ballroom?" James asked before several of the younger kids left the ballroom.
After they left, several servants walked out with weapons and went to certain people before handing them over to that person.
"I knew I shouldn't have left Crescent Rose back at Beacon…" Ruby said to herself, regretting her decision to come here unarmed.
"Now that everyone has their weapon…. huh?" James stopped when he saw the man wearing the white wolf mask step away from the wall and into the middle of the ballroom.
"I directly challenge you to a fight…" The man said as he pointed at James who raised an eyebrow.
"You'll have to fight me after you have made your way up the tournament." James said.
"James, "Hail", Schnee… you are said to be one of the strongest men on the planet… considering I am the only person here masked, wouldn't it be somewhat fun to try and guess who I am while we fight?" The masked man asked.
"Hm… perhaps you are right…" James said before waving his hand for two servants to come forth with two weapons, both similar to Myrtenaster.
"Ah… a dual wielder?" The man said before he reached into his trench coat and pulled out two swords, a katana and a broadsword. "Though… rapiers are no match against a katana…" He said as he spun the katana around in his left hand while the broadsword rested on his shoulders as he leaned back and shifted his weight all on his back foot.
All of a sudden, the man shot forward, cracking the tiles on his back foot as he ran at James with incredible speed, making James widen his eyes.
James lifted his weapons up and crossed them to form an X before the man brought his katana down and it broke through James's defense, but didn't cut him as he was a bit early on his swing. James recollected his thoughts and did a roundhouse kick into the man's side and sent him flying into one of the ballroom's pillars, only for the man to recover in mid air and land on the pillar softly on his feet before gravity started to bring him back to the ground.
"You're pretty good…" James said as he got off the podium.
"Thanks… but you shouldn't compliment the enemy!" The masked man said before he pushed off the pillar and rushed towards James before he crossed his swords in defense before his and the man's swords clashed.
The man made the sound of slight laugh that mixed with his breath as their swords clashed, but then used his own swords and James's swords to push himself up and over Jame and behind him.
The man quickly sent a thrust forward before his katana was stopped as a giant block of ice rose from the ground between the man and James. The man put more strength into his katana before the ice started to crack until it shattered, making James have to step to the side and duck as he saw the broadsword swinging at neck level.
"Woah… he did not give off this aura when we were talking… it's like a different person altogether…" Ruby thought as she saw how the battle was going, surprised that this man who seemed extremely nice could be so skilled with swords. "He's also fast, maybe he has the same semblance as me?" Ruby thought.
"Heh, this man is digging his own grave right now…" Weiss said with a grin as she saw what her father was doing, going on the defensive and create shields of ice before they shattered and fell all over the ballroom floor.
"He's like Adam in turns of speed with his swings…" Blake said noticing that the swings were fast even though the broadsword looked extremely heavy.
"Hmph… I hope this doesn't ruin this tournament… I want to fight Wasure…" Yang said looking at Wasure who watched the fight calmly.
"He is skilled… I have to give him that…" Wasure thought.
"This man is in trouble… he keeps breaking more ice that James is making… if he keeps it up he might die from what will happen next…" Victor thought, knowing all too well of James's special move.
"I must give you credit that you have such endurance…" James said as he jumped back from the man a far distance. "But if you look around you, you have covered the floor with ice shards…" James said, seeing hundreds of ice shards as thick as an average forearm.
"So what does that mean?" The man asked.
"It means I'm going on the offense now…" James said before he raised one of swords up to the ceiling before all the ice shards lifted up into the air and started to form around the man, taking the shape of a dome around him. "Now you'll know why I am nicknamed Hail…" James said before he brought the sword he was holding down to the ground and like it was a command, the ice shards all shot towards the masked man.
The first shard came towards the man at a lightning speed, almost reaching him in the sum of one second, but the man suddenly swung faster than the ice shard could move and split it in half, before it passed by him now in two pieces. The second shard came almost in an instant before the rest followed, only for the man to be faster and cut through each ice shard, remaining unharmed as he sliced through each shard that came at him.
After a minute of a bombardment of ice shards they were all too small to do any damage, but the man was breathing heavily as he had used most of his strength to keep the ice shards off him, though he obtained no damage from any of them.
"Now we finish this!" James said before he threw one of his myrtenaster's at the man who reacted to it too slowly and ducked while bending backwards, only for the blade to graze and crack the man's mask. The weapon passed by and before the man could regain his balance, James was instantly upon the man, sending kick straight downwards and forced the man's head into the ground before his masked cracked more and shattered into pieces.
Before anything else happened, the man got away from James and covered his face with his hand as he held both of his weapons in the other.
James raised an eyebrow before he looked closely through the man's fingers and his eyes widen at what he saw.
"Guards! Arrest this man!" James shouted before the guards came running to the man, who grinned before he stood up straight and lowered his hand to reveal his face, before slowly taking off his hood.
"Yo old man… how's your back?" The man asked, a grin on his face.
The man looked to be in his mid 20's, blue spiked hair, a deep voice, and dark brown eyes that looked almost black.
"N-no way…" Victor said in surprise to see who it was.
"Victor!" James shouted before Victor shook free from his daze before he raised his hand and fire a red Dust crystal at the man.
"Oh? Victor is here also?" The man said, everything around him seemed to slow down as if time was being altered. He turned and saw Victor with his hand up as the crystal slowly moved away from him. "Who's this?" He asked himself as he saw Wasure and grinned. "This will be fun…" He said to himself before time to seemed to speed up.
The crystal came towards the man as fast a bullet, but the man just grabbed the crystal and threw it at Wasure faster than Victor shot it. The crystal neared Wasure's face and before she could react fast enough, it exploded in her face and was pushed up against the wall, knocked out.
"Wasure!" Victor said as he turned and checked up on Wasure.
"Bastard!" James shouted as he shot forward to the man and thrust his sword, only for the man to twirl to the side and then slash the weapon's blade in half with a single strike. James's eyes widen before he saw the man then run past him and towards the exit only for it to be blocked by some of the guards.
"You are not escaping this time!" Victor shouted before he slammed his palms onto the ground and a trail of blue Dust crystals appeared on the floor sped its way to the exit before it became a giant wall of ice blocking the door behind the guards, soon to block off all the doors.
"Tch… well then I guess I'll have to make my own exit…" The man said before he crashed through a window and sprinted off faster than the eye could see and was soon out of sight.
"What the hell just happened?!" Yang shouted in confusion.
"Damn it!" James shouted before ice started to form around the floor near him. He looked up and saw all the shocked and worried looks on their faces before he took a deep breath and regained his composure… "Ladies and Gentlemen, I apologize for the events that has just happened, if you would all kindly go to your rooms for the evening as everything is done now…" James said before everyone talked about what just happened as they left the ballroom.
"Is Wasure ok?!" Ruby asked as she ran as fast she could to Wasure while Victor looked her over some more.
"She's fine, has a concussion though… might not wake up for a day or two, but I'll make sure she gets better quickly…" Victor said as he had a serious look on his face.
"Father, who was that?" Weiss asked her dad.
"His name was Datred, an old… associate of mine and Victors back before we became hunters. He wasn't on either one of our teams, but he was a close to us and then he betrayed us one day. It's a painful story and we will never forgive him for what he did. I should have known no one else would have been more capable of keeping up with my moves… I hate that bloody semblance of his!" James said as his anger was rising, as ice started to cover his fists.
"His semblance allows him the ability to manipulate time around him. That's why he was so fast during the fight…" Victor said, knowing someone from team RWBY would ask.
"I'll send a search for him, he couldn't have gotten to far as hiding in the city down below the mansion would be suicide, and there is just open land from here to Vale…" James said before walking away. "I will kill you for what you have done to my wife…" James muttered to himself as he walked away in anger.
The Wilderness
"Pfft, this was too easy!" Datred said as he walked through the woods.
"I was getting tired of hiding for almost 20 years… that voodoo chicks spell worked like a charm and made me young again… surprised to see Victor had barely aged though…" He said as he walked by the side of a small mountain. "Then again, his semblance allows him to age much slower than others…" He said before he could see a faint glow from a cave.
"Maybe I should go kill that girl I was talking to, I didn't come all this way just to party… but what was her name? Ruby I think. If she came with friends I should kill them, though that Faunus in the dog mask looked good too …" He said as he got closer to the cave
"Ah… home sweet home…" He said as he walked towards the cave, only to stop when he saw a figure in the shadows standing behind the fire Datred had left lit, he could faintly see them as they were just out of the fire's reach of light.
"Who the hell are you?!" Victor asked in demand as he pulled out his weapons.
The figure walked out of the shadows, revealing themselves, and there stood the man in black.