A/N: So... I didn't get this totally completed since I had a friend spontaneously call me up to hang out for New Year's. But I figure, it's New Year's Day! I should at least get something out, even if it isn't totally done! So here's Part 1 of a new 2 Part story! Enjoy!
Have you ever had the experience of waking up with a splitting headache, feeling like every single muscle in your body is aching? Imagine amplifying that same pain by ten. Now you have at least... an idea of the amount of pain that Naoto Kurogane was experiencing.
Feeling as if his body were betraying him, Naoto managed with excruciating amount of pain to shove himself into a sitting position. He was halted in his attempts, however, as he felt a weight pressing down on top of him. Close to screaming in pain, Naoto shoved the individual off of him so that he may sit upright.
His vision was blurred to the point where almost everything were a blur. It was only after sheer willpower that he was able to see that it was actually Yumi that had been sleeping on top of him. She looked fairly disheveled, with her uniform jacket appearing long since abandoned and her hair an absolute mess. It was only her contented expression while sleeping that she looked somewhat okay.
Naoto raised a brow, his mind ignoring the fact that she had been sleeping on top of him. He did register the fact after a moment, feeling somewhat uncomfortable about it. He gently pushed Yumi off of him, laying her on her back on the ground beside him, Naoto's face growing red all the while.
It was no secret that he found Yumi a very attractive girl. It was a mutually agreed upon thing that Yumi was one of the most beautiful girls in the group that the adolescents melded into. With gorgeously styled, dark hair, with the most striking pale blue eyes anybody had ever seen, with a voluptuous set of... assets.
Nothing was helped in particular with her fairly revealing outfit that she wore in her shinobi transformation, leaving few things to the imagination, such as when she would be fighting, with the way her clothing would flow off of her waist or slip around her shoulders. The guys had also taken a fierce interest in the fact that when the ninja girls would lose their clothing during their fights, many times leaving them without a stitch to their name.
"W-wait... what...?" Naoto said to himself. He hadn't realized it at the time, but he had since laid his head back down on the ground, nuzzling his forehead into Yumi's shoulder, breathing in her scent. He sat back up, forcing himelf to sever connection with Yumi and not have these thoughts invading his skull.
He stumbled on his feet almost promptly upon standing up, almost face-planting right against the floor! His legs were unable to work, as his feet had fallen asleep. He collapsed to his knees outright, but the deal with his legs wasn't what had his attention.
His head was an absolute mess! Trying to stand up sent a web of pain shooting throughout his brain that stretched to the back of his neck and down his body! He had to bite his tongue to repress the urge to scream!
"Ugh," a nearby voice said. "Whoever has their knee on my back needs to back the fuck off before I rip off head and spit down their neck."
Naoto raised an eyebrow, looking to the right to see that he was, in fact, unintentionally kneeling against Carmine's back. "Carmine?" Naoto asked. "What in the worlds are you doing here?"
Carmine rolled over. His hair was pure white, indicating he was not currently using his EXS. Naturally, he was looking at Naoto with an animated scowl on his features.
"The fuck should I know?" Carmine asked. "I can't even remember what happened to me."
"Seriously?" Naoto asked. The young Bloodedge looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to recall what information he could. Only to come up with nothing.
His head was still killing him, making it impossible for him to remember anything, with trying only making him even more pained.
"Didn't I tell you to get the hell off of me?" Carmine demanded.
"O-oh, sorry," Naoto said, having to practically throw himself off of Carmine. "I got distracted."
"Whatever," Carmine said.
Confusion came back again as Naoto got himself into a comfortable sitting position. Just what was Carmine doing here? What was Yumi doing here? And, for that matter, what was Naoto himself even doing there?
He tried to take in his surroundings for the first time, because he had not been able to clearly take in the room by that point. His vision was blurry and near-sighted, only able to take in things directly right in front of him. Finally, he was able to make out the place he was in.
From what he could recall, this was the old dorm building that the Shadow Operatives had stayed in back when they were the Gekkoukan High group "SEES." They were in the foyeur if he wasn't mistaken. But, naturally, the question was "why?"
Another groaning noise caught Naoto's attention. He looked to his left and saw Lillica pulling herself roughly from behind a sofa, laying awkwardly on top of it. Her own vision seemed to get back in, seeing Naoto and Carmine.
"Oh hey~ guys~" she said. "Wassap~?"
"Lillica," Naoto said, "what're we doing here? What happened to us last night?"
"What?" Lillica asked. "Oh, yeah. I can't really remember. My head hurts too much."
"Are you seriously trying to fucking tell me," Carmine said, "that we are all hungover?"
"What?" Naoto asked.
"Come on," Carmine said. "We're sore all over, we can't remember what happened to us, it's pretty obvious. The only thing I don't get is, you're a major pussy," he said, pointing to Naoto, "and I don't intend to drink."
"That surprises me," Lillica said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Carmine asked threateningly.
"What the hell happened?" a new voice asked. The three turned to see Kanji slowly dragging himself from behind his own sofa.
"Kanji?" Naoto asked. "What happened to... you...?"
The three looked astonished as Kanji turned to face them. He had a squiggly heart-shaped design on his left cheek, that stretched all the way to his forehead and his chin. "What?" he asked.
"Uh... Kanji...?" Naoto began, only to be cut off as Carmine and Lillica burst into fits of laughter!
"What?" Kanji asked again. "The hell're you laughin' at!?"
"Your face!" Carmine laughed.
"You got... you got something on your face!" Lillica said.
"What?" Kanji asked. He knelt down and looked in his reflection in the glass table, seeing his face. "What in the hell!?" He began desperately trying to wipe the smudge off of his face, but found that it was to little avail as it must have been some kind of permanent marker that refused to get off of him.
"This thing is stuck to my face!" he said angrily.
"Okay this is bullshit," Naoto said, scrambling around, clearly looking for something. The foyeur was a mess, with papers strewn about and even a few scraps of clothing that Naoto was desperately trying to shift through.
"What're you looking for?" Lillica asked.
"I'm trying to find my damn phone," Naoto said, taking a minute to stop his search as he rubbed his head. "It's gotta be here somewhere. Hopefully I might find a clue as to what in the name of God happened to us last night."
"I thought I told ya already," Carmine said, sitting up against the sofa. "We got shitfaced. How and why I have no fucking idea, but what else could it have been?"
"Well, yeah," Naoto replied. "But when you consider the adults we regularly hang out with, who would even let us drink? I mean Mitsuru is a big N-O that much is obvious. Even Ragna I think would be hard pressed to let any of us drink alcohol. And then there's that... giantess from the Hanzo Academy who treats the girls like her little sisters. While she seems a bit rough around the edges, I don't think she'd let us do something so utterly stupid."
"Well when you think of a better idea, hit me up," Carmine said, attempting to stand. That is, until a shudder shot through his entire body and he crumpled back to the ground! "Or... you know..." he added, slowly sitting back down. "I can just sit around for a bit longer. I mean, what's the hurt? Not like I got to go anywhere..."
Naoto raised an eyebrow at the In-Birth's antics. Even Lilica giving him a bemused look.
"What the hell?" Kanji's voice said.
"Oh, now what?" Naoto wondered. He managed to force himself to stand, looking at Kanji's direction, finding the Gentle Beast looking at a rather... interesting sight.
Turns out, on top of the dorm building's front desk was a... sleeping Seth. Sure enough, the assassin was curled up like a sleeping cat, content as could be as he was snoozing peacefully on top of the desk. Kanji could only look between he and Naoto with the most flummoxed look imaginable coated on his features.
"What the shit?" he wondered.
"I... have no clue..." Naoto replied, equally as confused.
Lillica managed to stumble her way over, looking at Seth with a very amused look on her face. "Wow..." she said. "Never have I seen him look so happy."
"See if you can wake him up," Naoto said, body leaning against the couch. "I can't really walk yet."
"Good plan Naoto-san," Kanji said. "He might have a clue what happened."
He began to shake Seth gently, eliciting no response. He shook him a bit more rough, but got no reaction once again. "Uh... Seth-san?" he asked, continuing to try in vain to wake him up.
"Is he even alive?" Lilica asked.
"Lilica!" Kanji yelled.
"Hey, it's worth checking," Lilica replied, leaning over to check if he was breathing. "Yup. He's good," she added, before proceeding to begin poking his cheeks.
"Boy," she said. "He's really out of it, huh?"
"Could you cut that shit out!?" Kanji said.
"Why?" Lilica said. "He isn't waking up for jack and squat. Besides, he's cheeks are so squishy. Boy, what do you think he's dreaming about?"
/
Voids. They were swarming. It was only justified. Since they sure as hell weren't gonna be spared from the forces besieging them.
One of the Eliminators was shot from above, cutting the head of one in half. There had been about fourteen in total. Now they were reduced to thirteen.
Seth came down from above in time to slice the snake-like creatures apart with his other Eliminator. Scratch that. There were ten left.
He picked up his other Eliminator, holding both dagger-like weapons in hand. Four Voids lunged for him, as a black blur shot in and chopped them all in half, reducing them to nothing but shadows. The dark shape returned to the hand of its owner, who proceeded to turn on her heel as gracefully as a dancer, and shoot a bullet right through the head of another Void.
Two more lunged for her, Seth was upon them before anything could blink, slicing them apart. Three left.
Her weapon shifted into its sword form. She stabbed one, before chopping the other apart with her sheath.
Seth was hypnotized. One Void left. He didn't even need to look at it, his attention was totally on her the entire time. He cut the Void apart without ever taking the eyes off of her beautiful motions.
Everything was perfect. "The agility of a beast. The mastery of a human. Never ceases to be tantalizing."
She smirked at him. "Guess you could say I still have my fangs," she said.
"Never once did I say you lost them," Seth said.
The two touched foreheads, Seth locked onto her amber colored eyes. Every time he saw her she looked so isolated despite her interactions with her friends.
He can see it in her eyes. Even when she's having such animated conversations; Berating Yang for her childish behavior, bonding with the shinobi girls over their skills, relating to Makoto about her animal traits or reading books with Orie or Shirogane. There's something about the way she stands.
When she stands alone, she looks like the loneliest creature on any Earth.
Blake reached forward, pulling down the collar of her jacket so she could lean towards him, lips open for a-
/
"WAAAAAKE UUUUP!"
Seth was awoken so jarringly he delivered a solid backhand on instinct, smacking Lilica straight in the jaw and sending her to the floor! He didn't stop there, his assassin instincts were on full red alert! He pushed himself up on one hand, spinning his legs in the air to keep any potential opponents at bay, which succeeded in pushing Kanji back as he tried to defuse the situation!
However, Seth failed to account for how he would feel upon waking up, as a web of pain shot through his body as if he were being pricked by burning needles! He promptly crumpled off the desk, smacking his head against it before crumpling to the floor right next to Lilica, who was still writing in pain from that punch! Poison! he internally cursed. These swines must have poisoned me!
He didn't let up, he forced every muscle in his body to move and lean himself up against the desk, pulling the Eliminators from his pocket, even as Kanji was trying to get him to calm down without having to hurt him! Everything came to a grinding halt, however, as a bloody spike was shot into the wall! "Will you all shut the flying fuck up?!" Carmine yelled. "I got a freaking headache and you all losing your shit ain't helping!"
Everyone blinked in surprise, even Seth, as they looked at the In-Birth slowly sit himself back on the ground.
"Okay then," Naoto said. "That... happened."
"That being said," Kanji said, "the lunatic's got a point. Will you please calm the hell down already, Seth-san? Nobody's tryin' ta hurt you!"
Seth blinked a few times. He carelessly dropped the Eliminators to the ground as he rubbed his eyes, still using the desk for leverage. While the manner in which Lilica did disturb him, that was nothing compared to the dreams he was having before.
Ever since that botched stealth mission into Beacon Academy Seth had been having recurring dreams about that damn faunus girl, Blake. It was starting to become a real nuisance. He barely even knew her, save for what he'd learnt from spying on her. (Which, for that matter, was way more than he needed to know.)
Still... he couldn't deny there was something alluring about her. She certainly seemed like all the descriptions of Night Blade agents he'd heard of. The way she moved, the way she acted, his dreams certainly weren't romanticizing anything, it was all factual.
"Hey, Seth! You still with us?" Naoto's voice asked, cutting his thoughts with a knife.
"I'm sorry, come again?" Seth asked.
"You spaced out on us," Naoto said, having managed to stand himself in front of the assassin.
"Sorry," Seth said. "I just... God, I feel terrible."
"Funny," Kanji said, still rubbing his own head. "That's about the consensus for everybody."
"We were hoping you could tell us what happened," Naoto said. "Nobody can seem to remember what happened to us last night. Or.. why we all feel so sick."
"Well I can't be of much help, I'm afraid," Seth replied. "I feel probably as dreadful as you all do now. Even worse considering that head injury I've just sustained," he added, rubbing his head to check for blood.
"Funny!" Lilica said, managing to stand. "That is about what I'm saying right now after you nearly broke my freaking jaw!"
"You startled me," Seth replied dryly.
"Only because you were taking forever to wake up and I was starting to get irritated!" Lilica replied indignantly.
"Okay, cut it out!" Kanji said. "Naoto-san, have you found your phone?"
"Not really," Naoto replied. "Probably left it somewhere stupid."
"Hey! Ripoff artist!" Carmine yelled. "Your pet ninja girl is waking up! Maybe she knows something!"
"Yumi?" Naoto asked. The group managed to stumble there way over to the place where Yumi was left sleeping soundly, finding her sitting herself up.
"N-Naoto-san?" Yumi asked. "Ugh, what happened to me? Why do I have such a splitting headache?"
"Well," Naoto said, collapsing down beside her. "We were hoping you could tell us that. But I guess you're just as much in the blank as we are."
"Okay, now this is just getting fucking stupid," Carmine said. "You gettin' drunk is one thing. But even I gotta say how stupid it'd be to think that the emo and the prim princess got themselves drunk!"
"Drunk?" Yumi said.
"That was the working theory," Naoto said. "Somehow we all got drunk last night. But to be frank, now we find it really unlikely."
"But what did happen!?" Kanji asked. "And... come to think of it... where is everybody else?"
That was indeed a big question. This particular group was not a regular group to simply meet up. Carmine was not really "friends" with just about anybody, and the same could be said of Seth to a lesser extent, but only because he purposefully kept from communicating with anybody. Lilica was scarcely seen outside of her clique with Heart and the others, and the same could be said for Kanji and the Investigation Team. Naoto was one of the most socially awkward guys on any planet, and Yumi, while not outright antisocial, did tend to stick with girls and those that she could resonate more with.
But if they were in the dorm building that SEES used to belong to, that had to mean that the others were around somewhere, right?
"Come on," Naoto said. "If we look around this place hard enough, I'm sure we can find somebody."
"Good point," Seth agreed. "Let's get looking."
"You want to help?" Kanji asked.
"I want to know why I can't remember anything from the past night," Seth replied. "No more. No less."
"Good enough for me," Naoto replied.
"Then let us begin searching," Yumi said.
"I ain't movin' for shit," Carmine said.
"Same," Lilica said. "I really don't want to move anymore! My body hurts way too much!"
"Fine," Naoto said. "You two stay here if you like. We're gonna look around."
On stumbling feet, the four managed to force their ways down the hall. While it would definitely be a slow and redundant process, they simply began opening or knocking on any and all doors they could to see if anyone was inside.
A/N: Happy New Year!
Sorry again that the chapter isn't done in full, but today was a spontaneous meet-up with a friend of mine for New Year's, and the fact that I won't have the time to do so tomorrow since I'm working, not to mention I made an endeavor that if I didn't get this chapter done on New Year's Eve, I would at least have something out by New Year's Day.
So this is based on a request by Will DeGrave where he wanted some of the group to wake up with a good old fashioned holiday hangover! And how could I not?
In terms of the characters I chose to open up with, I went with Naoto, Yumi, and Kanji since I thought they'd be nice, relatable and down to earth sorts, with Lilica being fun and bouncy, and Carmine being his aggressive self, since I haven't used him much.
Also, I threw in a bit of a crackship here with Seth and Blake. I'll be real, I'm not really shipping them hardcore, I still ship Black Sun. But I figured I'd throw this in for a joke for multiple reasons. The main one is the fact that every other member of Team RWBY is shipped with a character outside their franchise, and I think the one that worked the best for her (that wasn't taken already) was Seth, considering his descriptors for her and the fact they both had a full-blown routine built during the start of their battles.
Feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments! I'm genuinely curious! XD (BTW, I already thought of a ship name for them and you can't stop me: Shadow Dance.)
More to come! Don't you worry! I will finish Part 2 as soon as I can!
Review Time:
To Mystech Master: Thanks as always for the requests! Again, it's not that I'm directly against darker content, but since I labelled this story initially as "Comedy" I figured it'd be a bit awkward if I tried doing darker stuff at times. Either way, it's always great to get more opportunities to use Ragna than I think I give him. Thanks again!
To SolarS: 1.) Totally check out AH3 and SK whenever you can! I haven't played much myself, but from what I've seen, they're super fun! I'm working through Estival Versus in my own time, and intend to pick up the new version of AH3 soon as I can! 2.) I like to think I have a clear beat on what I want for most of the characters, so it means a lot that you think so too! 3.) YES! YES! YES! Thank you! 4.) Daidouji is fairly tall, about 5'7". But moreso she's 'filled out' if you know what I mean. Namely, the six-pack. Either way, thanks for the comments!
To mikkeljerome13: Not a problem! Thank you for leaving the name for their pairing! I knew I loved it the moment I saw it. Feel free to let me know what other thoughts you have!
To Kamencolin: I really resonated with the idea of having Qrow and Daidouji working together when I initially thought of it. I just figured the way they operate in their respective franchises would mesh well, and I standby what I said about Daidouji looking like Qrow's daughter. So you can expect to see them more in the future!
And on the same subject, to Will DeGrave: Don't worry about sounding pushy, you're good. And I'll certainly dwell on the idea you had for Qrow and Suzune hookin' up. You know me, won't turn down a good ship ;).
And to the guest user disappointed I didn't have Ragna and Mitsuru hook up in the last chapter - I'm sorry! I'll admit I was still playing with the idea initially, letting others see what they think. I promise I'll have them connect more in the future!
To fernandamichelleraya: Yeah, the more I thought about it, Akihiko and Yang worked the best. He's the only person that Yang genuinely flirted with (unless you count Yosuke looking better in the trash can as "flirting") and overall, they had an undeniable flare.
To Naoto Redgrave: Yeah, I think I may have overdid it with Neptune a bit there. But I don't regret it! XD
And finally, to Neptunia56: Thanks as always! Glad that ending warmed the heart.
Overall, thank you all as always for reading and leaving your thoughts! I hope you all had a happy holiday, and Happy New Year once more! Until next time (preferrably soon) have a wonderful evening, and take care!