Magnus: Guess what? No delay this week! Still gotta play a hell lot more pokemon, in the mean time, enjoy! and remember: Read and review!
Disclaimer: I managed to catch Solgaleo in a premier ball! Oh wait, that does not belong here, right?
Chapter 25
Dance Dance Deception
Nobunaga Oda was a man that took pride on his victories, on his craftiness and on his unmatched skill at having his way; he was able to walk with pride, lording his way over pretty much everyone with the sole knowledge that the most brilliant and powerful warlords of his land had bowed before him, kissing his feet as he simply trampled his way over them; he was also a man who could sleep soundly at night anywhere he laid his head, knowing that he had gained the loyalty of most of his men, and the soul eating fear of his enemies… and yet he was nothing but a nervous wreck when faced with planning a party…
"Calm down, I'm sure everything is going to be ok." Blake said to her boyfriend while hugging him tenderly, almost laughing at the sight of the mighty warlord being reduced to a shivering puppy.
"What was I thinking?! I couldn't even throw a party for my adorable sister!" Nobunaga cried on Blake's shoulder, wondering what could have possessed him to volunteer for this endeavor.
"Let's move step by step, let's start with the curtains for the windows." Blake patiently said, and watched in amusement how the visionary took a calming breathe to begin with her suggestion.
"Yes, you are right; it shouldn't be too hard to choose the right silk for the dance." Nobunaga said, trying to sound confident, clearly remembering how his beloved Oichi positively commented on his selection of curtains for her wedding… the only positive comment…
"So, you want silk? Ok; now we have to select the type, color and pattern to have an idea on what else to add as decorations." Blake happily answered, almost laughing at the face of despair of her boyfriend, apparently on his land; silk was a single type of fabric.
At team RWBY's room…
Ruby had asked for a time of solitude to deal with her very own crisis, her new need to approach her boyfriend with the tale of what Emerald had shown her; of course she wasn't left alone, instead she was left in the company of her sister and Ranmaru, who were planning a small event that would have everyone paying attention to them and nothing else, not that they were paying attention to her, so she had a lot of time to think on how to approach her boyfriend.
"… kick-step, kick-step, and then we body-roll into each other's arms…" Yang and Ranmaru continued with what Ruby could understand as a very elaborated and confusing dance… no doubt making everyone believe it was a love story.
"I think I need to get distracted…" Ruby muttered to herself after imagining herself doing that dance, but with Kanetsugu, and without…
"I really need a distraction." Ruby repeated, and then went to the small bookshelf, looking for one of Blake's books, something like the 'Man with two souls'; suddenly something caught Ruby's attention, there was a book under Blake's pillow, one she didn't remember to have seen in the shelf before; Taking the book, and watching the cover, she could only assume a couple of things…
"Ninjas, eh? Should be interesting." Ruby said to herself, and then began to read the book; in the background, Yang and Ranmaru were too busy to notice what Ruby was reading.
At the shrine of love…
Cleaning the floor and walls had taken an entire day, and today, Kanetsugu and the members of the cult were focused on replacing the canvas and inscriptions; they didn't feel at ease with team PSTL there.
"You know. With how Penny spoke about this place, I had thought that most of this stuff was like invaluable treasures brought from ancient temples, and not things hand made here." Ciel said as she watched the cultists and the priest working on the writings, placing them on the walls with religious care.
"They are invaluable treasures, made with our hands and hearts, with the intention of serving to guide others in times of need." Penny said as she placed her own inscription in the wall, feeling so proud of her work that she seemed to be glowing.
[Feeling love is being alive.]
"I wasn't trying to make it sound less important." Ciel defended herself before she was attacked; after all, she felt the glares of the cultists at her choice of words.
"Be careful, Ciel; some faunus are able to tell when you are lying." Leo reprimanded her as he placed a box with gourds filled with different colors of magic ink; the smell of alcohol was not lost to him.
"No need to remind me." Ciel said through clenched teeth, feeling completely unease at being surrounded by faunus, and faunus lovers.
"What surprises me more of this place is how easily everyone works together; I just bruised elbows with some faunus and none felt insulted or aggravated!" Kage said as he joined them after he finished taking out the ruined canvas, earning a not so subtle shudder from their logistic expert.
"That is because we all left prejudice and racism outside the door of the shrine; here, I'm Penny, and not 'that atlesian outsider'; I hope all of you have done the same." Penny explained, looking intently at Ciel at the end; the two guys gave simple nods.
"By the way, I want to ask if you would like to go to the dance with me, Penny." Kage asked all of the sudden, taking by surprise both Leo and Ciel; Penny simply giggled.
"Yes, I would love to." Penny replied with a simplicity of mind and soul that was both beautiful and mind-blowing, leaving Kage with a thousand watt smile, and Leo with a sad face.
"That isn't fair; I was going to ask her first!" Leo suddenly shouted, earning a little too much attention.
"Well, too late buddy." Kage replied with a rather smug smile.
"If you two are going to fight over me, then I won't go with neither." Penny suddenly said, sounding sad at the turn of events; as elating as it was to be the reason of two males fighting, she believed that nothing should ruin their friendship, especially when she felt that she was finally seeing the good in the two males of her team.
"That won't do, I don't want to see your night ruined; please make your choice, I will respect your wishes." Leo immediately said, obviously meaning what he said.
"Yeah, just go with whoever you want, anything to see you smile." Kage added, making Ciel roll her eyes at such corny lines.
"Well, how about this? I'll spend the entire dance with whoever helps the most today, but will give the first dance to the other." Penny asked, smiling as if she had asked something normal, earning more attention from the other cultists; Leo and Kage shared a look, a look that spoke of rivalry.
"Of course." Leo replied, and then went to see where else his height and strength could be needed.
"Deal!" Kage said, and turned to keep helping in whatever there was to help.
"Not bad; you certainly have the beginnings of a manipulator." Ciel couldn't help but to comment, not liking the lack of attention she was getting, nor Penny's sudden jump in popularity, still, she was too prideful to even comment on that directly.
"And you, Ciel; if you could kindly help me to deliver these bottles to everyone, I will consider not reporting your behavior to our headmaster." Penny finished, making Ciel grimace at such wording, finding the quirky girl far too qualified for a leader.
"At once." Ciel replied, wondering when Penny learned such tactics.
Across the school grounds, students were asking their dates out, some with more success than others…
"Hey Pyrrha!" Jaune greeted Pyrrha as they crossed each other path… outside their dorm.
"Hey Jaune! Do you think we should attend the dance, together, as a couple?" Pyrrha asked with eyes that belonged to a swooning schoolgirl, and not to the many times Mistral champion.
"Pyrrha! We've been over this before! I was supposed to ask you, and you only needed to say yes!" Jaune said in distress, fearing that he was losing what little manliness he had left on him with each bout of Pyrrha's dominance in their relationship.
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha said, again, with that beautiful voice, and tender features that made impossible to deny her anything, or hold it against her for more than a second.
"It's just… I… Let just ry it again, ok?" Jaune asked, defeated at her display of emotions.
"Ok." Pyrrha conceded, and then separated a few steps to try the scene again.
"Seriously? Are they still at it?" Nora asked to Ren, inside their room; they had expected their teammates to be done with their act hours ago, not that she minded being alone with Ren.
"I guess they want to make a perfect scene to remember their official date." Ren replied calmly, just finishing the last touches to his suit.
"I think you are right; so, are you going to assist to this dance?" Nora asked, worried about not being invited, and seeing Ren checking his formal suit.
"Only if my date stops losing her time with junk food, and gets her dress ready in time." Ren answered, calmly, and making Nora throw away her bag of potato chips away, dashing to the closet to see if the dress was still intact and fit for use; Ren may not have invited her directly, but she had to remember that they had done everything together since, well, always.
In the gardens, Weiss and Mitsuhide were trying to enjoy a cup of tea; playing like a forced couple had become even harder with the approaching dance, as Mitsuhide had to turn down a dozen of invitations, all while Weiss was left seething at such occurrence; Mitsuhide had a hard time too, as more than one had approached the ice princess in hopes of swaying her choice of partner.
"Ah! Finally found you!" Both Weiss and Mitsuhide couldn't help but to turn at the origin of the voice, just to find Sun, of all people, waving at them.
"Hey buddy, I was wondering if you…" Sun began his question, just for Mitsuhide to go into the offensive.
"I'm already taken." Mitsuhide's answer had Sun gapping like a fish out of the water for a few seconds, unable to form coherent thought to answer back, then he regained composure.
"NO! I wasn't going to ask you out!" Sun finally defended, trying to convey as much repugnance as possible.
"Thank goodness." Both Weiss and Mitsuhide said at the same time, making Sun boil in anger, still, he didn't show it openly.
"Actually, I just wanted to ask Weiss…" Sun tried again, this time the ice princess replied faster than a meteor, but colder than an iceberg.
"No, just no." Weiss replied, taking a small sip from her cup, leaving Sun with a bewildered expression.
"At least let me finish! I just wanted to ask if you could go to the dance with my partner, Neptune. Poor guy is rather shy and is rather scared of asking you himself." Sun explained while pointing to where Neptune was… apparently hitting on two girls at the same time…
"What do you really want?" Mitsuhide finally asked, annoyed by the unnecessarily long interruption.
"Fine… I just wanted one of you to talk on my behalf with Blake, maybe even getting me a moment to talk to her in private; to at least tell her that I'm sorry." Sun admitted, trying to convince them through good will; he was understandably puzzled when Weiss placed a butter knife on his hand…
"Here, stab yourself with this to death; it'll be easier, faster, and far less painful than what will happen to you if you try to get close to my teammate." Weiss explained, leaving Sun even worse than before.
Cinder and her group, however, were making different preparatives…
"Are you two ready?" Cinder asked to her lackeys, while still making the final touches on her combat clothes; a fine cat suit filled with red dust lines to be used as weapons at a moment notice, all of it built in a way that when the dust finally runs out, it'll unfold into a beautiful dress, ready to blend in when her mission finishes.
"Yes; dress clean and ready, and tablets for the migraine. I can only cover you up at the entrance and against a very small number of curious people; you need to remember to be discrete when you enter though." Emerald replied, looking at herself on the mirror, practicing gestures, and even smiling.
"Don't forget the anti-conceptive; you never know when you'll need them." Mercury cut in, making Emerald go ballistic.
"Shut up, you son of a bitch!" Emerald shouted, apparently highly offended by his commentary.
"Hey! Calm down! The doctor said they would help you greatly if the pain becomes too much; besides, what if you really manage to seduce the monk with that sexy dress of yours?" Mercury shot back, being half serious, and half continuing with his teasing.
"I don't need them, on neither case." Emerald said with a low hiss, and then returned to her practice.
"As for myself, I'm ready. I'm on the clear about the pranks, and on the clear on the medical checkup, which means I can already medicate myself appropriately." Mercury said while waving a tiny plastic bag with a white powder inside, making the other two panic at his antics.
"Holy shit! What the fuck is wrong with you?! Hide that already!" Emerald shouted in absolute distress.
"Mercury…" Cinder's low voice was enough warning for the assassin, who instantly placed his stash in a small compartment oh his leg.
"Geez! Calm down, nobody is going to find about it, ok? Besides, you know very well that this is the only medicine that works for me." Mercury said defensively, making the others shook their heads.
"Whatever, just remember to stick to the plan; getting the patrol schedules was not easy, and we have a very small window of time to act, there won't be another chance, and I'll make you two pay if this goes wrong, did you understand?" Cinder finally said; inside, however, she began to feel that something was wrong. Emerald had taken to this seduction mission with strange focus, like she really meant to keep the priest as her lover, that's why Cinder had not shared her plan on killing him, yet; Mercury had become more desperate as of late, as if his lose to the priest had caused the pain of his prosthetics to resurface, in fact, he almost didn't make it to the latest date of purchasing his damned 'Angel Dust'; the damned thing was a guaranteed shot in the head should he is ever found to have even the smallest spec on his person, let alone the five bags he purchased… that alone would surely catch the attention of the local crime lords.
'Good thing the mission is going so smooth; I'll have to eliminate Mercury at the end though… maybe Emerald too.' Cinder thought at the end, hopping to finish the mission without any more troubles… without having to face the priest or the silver eyed girl in their full power.
Later that night…
"Don't worry, Nobu; everything is going to be ok!" Blake said to her boyfriend with a rather wide grin, her spirit had been lifted greatly with what they had achieved, and she felt even more comfortable around her boyfriend, clearly seeing a bright future as wife and husband.
"Yes, I know, you did most of the choosing after all." Nobunaga said a little bit dejectedly, for he had wanted to score another victory for himself, instead, Blake was the one to claim it.
"Hey, you made the first choice, and that helped greatly to make the full list of preparations." Blake said while pinching his cheek.
"Don't lie to my face…" Nobunaga said as they reached their rooms, ready to call it a day.
"Seriously, don't do it. I don't want to spend the entire night listening to his ramblings about your ordeal." Mitsuhide said from behind them, also ready to turn in for the night, although not to be separated from Weiss.
"Let's not discuss this right now; I want to kiss Ruby good night before the night ends." Kanetsugu said with a slightly heavy voice; as it turned out, he had to reject quite a sizable amount of girls that had the wrong idea when Ruby was not found at his side; Penny and her team had helped greatly to keep them at bay though.
"Of course." Weiss replied, and then went to open the door to her room; she and Blake found Yang and Ranmaru still practicing their dance moves, thing that had the ice princes rooted on her spot. Blake, being more used to their antics, ignored them and went to her bed, ready to read a little more of her favorite book before swimming in erotic dreams… except that she didn't found the book where she left it; she quickly looked every direction, until her eyes fell on one angry looking Ruby Rose.
"Ruby, is that my book?" Blake shyly asked, knowing that the boys were just outside, and obviously able to hear them. Ruby was not amused, the book had been quite misleading, having not enough ninja action, poorly interpreted love, and way too graphic lewd scenes; she had to admit that some of that had been quite informative, but when she got to a scene that was strikingly similar to what the mint haired thief had shown her, she had had enough.
"This is filth! FILTH!" Ruby shouted while pushing Blake onto her bed, earning a surprised 'eep' from the catgirl.
"Can I have my book back?" Blake meekly asked from behind her pillow, clearly scared of her team leader.
"LATER!" Ruby answered, knowing that now she had a way to explain what was shown to her by the thief…
Next day, at the party reception…
Nobunaga and Blake were dressed in a way that was as elegant as it was strange for most people, the first in a daimyo style suit, with a white hakama and black haori and gi, the symbols of the Oda clan beautifully adorned the back and shoulder clothes, and silk tabi covered his feet; the second sported a midnight black yukata, with a highly elaborated obi, instead of using her black flame symbol she decided to add the Oda crest to her back, as if declaring her and her boyfriend family already.
"See? I told you that it would work." Blake said with no little amusement on her voice; truth is, she had been a little bit nervous about the whole thing, because she had given in her desire to have an Edo style party, instead of a more traditional one; much to her surprise, the entire staff, local students, and a sizable amount of outsiders had been delected with the exotic selection of ornaments and food.
"I never doubted your judgment, my love. I'm worried about what Yang and Ranmaru may do tonight." Nobunaga honestly replied, knowing that he had committed a most grievous mistake; he had left Ranmaru unsupervised, working together with someone who had even less self-restraint than him.
In the small stage, Yang and Ranmaru were in charge of selecting the musical pieces that were being played, starting by typical music of the kingdom, to set the mood, and placing a few recordings of Kanetsugu playing instruments; the poor guy blushed when he noticed his skills being made public, fearing the mockery of his self proclaimed amateurish attempts to imitate his fabled Lady Aya, but the general public seemed delighted by the notes being played. Yang dress was a yellow yukata with a red obi, with orange leaves adorning the fabric, while Ranmaru had a lilac yukata with a white obi, and delicate pink leaves adorned the fabric of his garment… needless to say, all the outsiders were already drooling at their combined beauty.
"Well, this is a very interesting party!" Both Nobunaga and Blake turned to see the newcomers, finding them to be Emerald and her two teammates.
"I'm glad you like it; please sign the book and enjoy yourselves." Blake told the trio with a delighted voice, obviously proud of having selected this theme.
"If you have any question about the food or the ornaments, feel free to ask anyone from the cult of love, they are the ones dressed Edo style." Nobunaga added, softly smiling and bowing to them.
"Will do." Mercury replied, and then turned to go deeper into the saloon, along the two girls. Nobunaga and Blake grinned at each other, and then motioned for Velvet and Yatsuhashi to come closer, both had been at a close distance, seemingly unaware of who entered the party.
"So, what do you think of our last three guests?" Nobunaga asked with a knowing smile.
"That they were only two." Velvet replied, and then turned to leave with her boyfriend, knowing that her part of the plan had been covered, not that she was aware of the reach of said plan.
"Then to the second step." Blake said with a low voice, sending a small text message to both Ruby and Weiss.
Deep within the room, Ruby and Kanetsugu were standing in awkward silence, not really knowing how to proceed with each other, but still holding hands like kids in love; she was dressed in a beautiful crimson yukata with a black obi, it was a plain design, although she still sported a red rose figure in the black of the obi; he had opted for a white hakama and gi, sporting the Uesugi crest at his back.
"Kanetsugu. Do you think we could talk about… you know what?" Ruby shyly asked, referring to the contents of the book she had shown to the priest, and how she had been curious about them. Kanetsugu didn't had time to reply though, as Ruby's scroll pinged, and showed an expected message.
"Yes, let's go to the balcony, so we can talk in private." Kanetsugu said, being both honest, and making an excuse to have a better line of view; soon both were at the closest balcony, where they would have enough privacy to talk, and an open enough view to survey one of the possible routes for the infiltrator.
"So?" Ruby made an attempt to start, but after remembering how much he had blushed and stammered the night prior, she was afraid of pushing the issue.
"I love you, with all my heart. I want you to be my wife, and I desire you to give birth to my children. I just don't know how to tackle the issue right now, because I want to marry you first before making you a mother." Kanetsugu explained, blushing just as much as the last time they discussed this, while trying to convey her that he was also wishing to be more intimate.
"Well. We don't have to start making children on the first go…" Ruby shyly said, not really knowing where she was going.
"We don't?" Kanetsugu asked in honest confusion, however, their conversation was immediately interrupted, because his hand had shot toward a faraway rooftop, signaling something out of place; Ruby knew better than to ask, for she knew that Kanetsugu was more than a master of divination, she simply followed the hand, and noticed a feminine silhouette running and jumping toward the general direction of the CIT.
"Time to warn the others." Ruby said, and then texted back to Blake and Weiss; after that, both her and her boyfriend entered the room once more, seemingly uncaring about the exterior, and deciding to continue their conversation at a later date.
"It's time for the main event, Nobu." Blake cryptically said as she checked her scroll, as if checking the hour; Nobunaga simply gave a nod to Ranmaru, who despite the distance and the noise, caught on immediately.
In a moment, the music stopped, and the lights dimmed; a set of two stronger lights illuminated the stage, making both Yang and Ranmaru look radiant beyond measure, both had microphones in hand, and then, without the need of a signal, music began to play.
=Start song: "Lapis Lazuli" by AmaLee and Miku-Tan=
The moment the words began to leave their lips at the rhythm of the music, they gained everyone's attention, from the local students to the outsiders, from the academy's staff, to the visiting atlesian soldiers; then they began their slow dance, which made contrast with the mildly fast song, and still, it blend perfectly in the eyes and ears of everyone present, and by the end of the first set of verses, they had everyone enthralled.
"Emerald, Mercury, how is everything in your side?" Cinder asked through her scroll, not failing to notice the sweet song in background noise.
"Everyone is here, nothing out of the ordinary." Emerald reported, failing to mention that she couldn't take her eyes from the singing duo, failing to notice that the Schnee heiress and her toy boy had disappeared behind a curtain.
"Good, keep an eye on our primary targets; the schedule was right, so I won't take long." Cinder said back, almost growling at hearing a dismissive grunt in reply.
Cinder moved in as soon as the guards had left the scene, leaving only the dumb robots to keep the place secure; she knew exactly how to deal with them, because their programming forbid them from attacking humans without first obeying protocol.
"Intruder. Identify yourself." The first robot demanded as it showed his in-built weapons, not loading them until the target had had a chance to properly get close for identification, something that Cinder used to cut its head in a single move; the other two followed suit soon enough, leaving the way clear for the eye of the Abyss.
"Now I understand why Nobunaga suggested that there were no human guards; I don't think she would have shown hesitation to eliminate them." Weiss muttered to her boyfriend, both where watching the scene from a close by rooftop.
"You are giving him too much credit, but you are right, it was for the best; now let's get closer, we have very little time before she reaches the top floor." Mitsuhide said as they made their way to the tower, using Weiss' glyphs to make uncanny jumps, reaching one of the top floor windows just as the woman exited the elevator.
"There she is; now let's place a scroll here to record what she does." Weiss said, and then they secured Mitsuhide's scroll to the corner of the window with a little bit of duct tape, leaving only the lens of the camera looking through the window, to minimize the risk of being discovered.
They watched Cinder calmly walking to the main computer, inserting her scroll in the slot, and then calmly typing commands; then they watched her tense, and they knew they had to jump away from her field of vision. Cinder stood up quickly, and turned around to look at her surroundings; she hadn't like that sensation, of being watched and judged, but after finding nothing out of place, and no one at the windows, she relaxed and went back to work, knowing that there was no time to lose.
"Are you ok?" Mitsuhide asked to a now eye wide Weiss, who was looking intently at him, and then at something behind him.
"You… have wings… they are beautiful." Weiss dreamily said, slightly startling the samurai; in their haste to jump away, she had slipped, and fallen of the edge, startled enough to not summon her glyph, and of course, he jumped after her, wishing with all his heart to stop her falling, to save her; his soul had answered by forming wings of pure aura, developing his semblance in their moment of need.
"It seems love gave them to me, so you can smile." Mitsuhide answered, in a poor attempt to distract her from the fact that he barely knew how to use them, besides to slow down their fall to the ground.
Inside the CIT, Cinder began to feel pressure; the data transfer was almost complete, the time for the guard shift was upon her, and the open communication with her lackeys was absent of their voices, with only that awfully sweet song to make her company.
"I'm almost done here, anything to report?" Cinder asked in an unnecessarily harsh tone, as if attempting to remember them that anything could go wrong in such a critical moment.
"Nothing to report… oh! They kissed…" Mercury reported back, going so far as to describe what he was seeing, as apparently the singers decided to kiss during a music solo… that had her about to burst in flames.
=End of the Song=
It took a few more seconds for her job to be finished, and in that instant, she took her scroll, and make her way to the exit, getting to the main gate just when the next set of guards were seen in the distance; she made a fast retreat, knowing that she had to be seen in the dance before the guards had a chance to report to Ironwood. She never noticed the two sets of eyes following her, nor the winged figure flying ahead of her and into the tower where the dance was being held.
By the time she changed her dress, and had reached her lackeys, the damned song was long finished, and a sedated paced dance was taking place; she watched with delight how Ironwood seemed to receive a sudden call, just to excuse himself and leave the area with haste.
"May I?" Cinder interrupted Emerald and mercury on their dace, much to the relief of the mint haired thief.
"Of course." Emerald replied, and then went to get something to drink.
"So, how was your night?" Mercury asked softly, trying to sound charming, not noticing Cinder scanning the area, trying to identify all the objectives; she was about to freak out due to not seeing the heiress and her toy boy, when they suddenly fell from behind a curtain, with their clothes disheveled.
"It was just perfect, all according to the plan." Cinder finally answered, finally enjoying a moment of peace; she will scold her minions though, as she didn't like how distracted they sounded.
In the background, surveying everything that was happening, Nobunaga and Blake smiled in real satisfaction, knowing that pointless deaths had been avoided, and that the bad guys had been finally discovered.
"So, everything is according to the plan?" Blake asked, while offering her hand to her beloved boyfriend.
"Everything is according to the plan." Nobunaga replied while taking her hand, joining her in a slow and pleasant dance; they enjoyed the night, seeing their friends dancing, and their enemies being drowned in ignorance, the question was left in the air though; who was the real evil, and who was the villain?
Magnus: I seriously suggest you to hear the song mentioned in this chapter, its beautiful; also, you may even imagine who is voicing who! Leave a like in their video too, that is some amazing singing.