'Nother Saturday 'nother upload.

To the few guest reviewers that were asking if I missed an update date? Guuuuys, I have a WHOLE SATURDAY to work with. I'm just sayin' =c=

If you're wondering why those reviews questioning a missed update aren't showing up? I have the ability to moderate guest reviews, and those honestly don't serve a purpose.

Be like that guy that was the Obi-Wan to my Darth Vader. Those I fast track. 8D

That I usually upload it in the wee-hours of the morning don't mean I can't use Saturday as a whole!

In other news. Remember I mentioned I accidentally a competition and ended up with first place? Well I got my prize!

Ruby's pickle scene from last chapter is now immortalized in manga form. Look up Alex-kellar in deviant art. You should be able to find it easily enough. I read harder every time I look at it.

As to the chapter itself! I'm probably gonna get a few people telling me I'm doing Ironwood too one-dimensional, and if that's how you interpret it, then you've got that right brah. Your interpretation is your own.

But maybe keep in mind that there might be stuff happening in the background? Juuust mebbe? Anyways keep an open mind, have I disappointed yet? Don't answer that.

Surprised at the flak I got for Shirou showing up at Beacon. But eh, it let me do the pickle scene, so I am objectively in the right.

The pickle scene is justice.

Anyways here's the next chapter! This one was a doozy to write, two of the scenes gave me particular trouble, sometimes I wonder if I'm too mean...poor Yang. ._.

Heads up when I finish this arc I'm probably gonna put this story on hiatus for a lil' while so I can write up a buffer.

Or maybe start that other thing I was working on before I started this story and it ballooned out of my control.

Shakes fist at Alex-kellar. Look at what you make me do! I blame you for this!

Anyways enough of my rambling I'm going to waste some of my time putting together angry Space Men with guns.

If you like the chapter, drop me a review and let me know why. Them positive reinforcement is one of the things that keeps a guy writing.

If you didn't like the chapter/story? Well...Nothing really I can do about that. But drop me a review and let me know what in specific is the issue if you'd be so kind.

Or don't, I'm not the boss of you.

But seriously review.

I'm also considering putting this up in Space Battles. Humuuu.

The snippet, it be strategery. (งಠ_ಠ)ง

=][=

Qrow scrolled through the Huntsman forums he frequented. A bunch of Mistralean Huntsmen were going crazy because an entire tribe of bandits had been subdued and turned in for bounty money, a fairly infamous bunch of lowlifes at that.

And the ones to apprehend the Karmesinweg were none other than the Branwens.

He read through post after post, a lot of them exulting the Branwens for culling Grimm in their region and regular patrols.

Qrow blinked. This was the seventh bandit tribe the Branwens had subdued and brought in for incarceration? His former 'family' had become legitimate protectors of the peace? What the living hell is wrong with them? Just what the hell is Raven up to? Since when does she give a rat's ass about anything or anyone other than herself?

He could have sworn it was just a run of the mill protection racket, but Raven actually had her group of lowlifes protecting people?

"And how exactly do you propose we do that James!?" Glynda shouted. Oh right, that was happening.

Qrow put away his scroll and pulled out his hip flask. He sloshed the liquid in it to gauge how much he had left, and preemptively prepared his other hipflask. His other other hipflask already sat sad and empty in one of his pockets. If their shouting match went on much longer he might actually run out.

"Did you forget, Glynda," Jamesy growled. "That I am not only a member of the Atlas council, but commander in chief of the Atlas military? I am sure that with enough manpower we'll—"

"He doesn't even remember what she looked like!" Glynda all but shrieked. "Not to mention that if by some miracle you 'secure' her as you said, all you'll achieve is to put him on a warpath! He'll assume, rightly I might add, that you will be trying to hold this girl of his hostage in order to control him! It was already next to impossible to convince him to stay in Beacon for a few days, if you start a manhunt for this girl of his it'll just convince him that we are his enemies!"

"We don't need him to trust us," James whispered. "All we really need is for him to do as we say."

"So you'd stoop to blackmail!?" Glynda screeched. Qrow had to hand it to the woman, she had a good pair of lungs in her.

"You have seen how potent he is," James said in a low voice. "If we can gain control of him, we'll have an unrivaled weapon against—"

"The ends do not justify the means, James!"

"It would be better than continuing to let him run around like a headless chicken! Imagine the progress we could make if he were to work for us!"

Qrow and Ozpin turned from one to the other as they argued, not unlike following the tennis ball in a match. They'd rehashed the same argument with different words for the last two hours.

"Glynda, James, perhaps we should discuss something else for a short while?" Ozpin's quiet request silenced the two loudmouths instantly, which was good because that allowed Qrow to get a drink in peace and quiet. Ozpin raised his cup and sipped from it. "For example, any ideas on how we could begin to undo the damage Raven has caused?"

Glynda and James both grimaced. Qrow snorted.

"Something on your mind, Qrow?" Ozpin asked, pointing at him with the rim of his cup.

"Yeah, you're better off not chasing a lost cause," Qrow said with a shrug and raised his hip flask to his lips.

"Surely there's something we c—"

"He spent the entire time he was speaking to us in one fighting stance or another," Qrow snapped, causing the corner of Glynda's mouth to turn down deepening her grimace. "He zeroed in on you Oz, every time you so much as shifted your weight he was ready to skewer you. Glynda, Jamey and I, he all but ignored as far as hostility went, but you he looked ready to strike down if you so much as breathed wrong.

"My dear sister has done her work quite well. He'd as soon stab you as listen to you, and he won't pay attention to anything any of us say because he'll assume you're the one talking through us." Qrow brought his hip flask to his lips, ignoring Glynda's frown of distaste. "So give up on the idiot kid and move on. Or hell, try telling him all about Salem, if we're lucky he'll run off and go kill her for us."

A heavy silence followed as Glynda glared out the widow and James found himself nodding along. Qrow brought his hip flask to his lips, only to find it empty, so he put it away in the pocket with the other empty and brought out his last flask.

Ozpin gave a long-suffering sigh. "Thank you for your candidness, Qrow, but I refuse to believe the situation is entirely unsalvageable. Actions speak louder than words, so I believe we might make some headway by offering our services to him in his search. Perhaps we could offer him a Huntsman license."

"Without any of the proper schooling?" Glynda demanded.

James stroked his chin and began pacing. "He has proven to be quite adept at battling the Grimm."

"There is more to being a Huntsman than killing Grimm!"

"But if we legitimize the Sword Hunter…"

As the trio of optimistic idiots descended once more into bickering, Qrow went back to his scroll, squinting at it to try and get the letters to focus and stop swaying about annoyingly. He tried taking another drink but that only made it worse.

Stupid Sword Hunter and stupid Raven for keeping him secret, and stupid Branwens for turning into lawmen because that's bound to end badly and most of all, stupid—

"Qrow!" Ozpin's voice interrupted Qrow's litany.

He blinked and looked up from his scroll. "Wha?"

"I asked you why you'd never come forward with the fact that you knew what the Swo-Shirou looked like?" Ozpin repeated calmly.

"That's cause I had no bloody idea what the kid looked like," Qrow answered.

"Wait," Glynda said with a frown. "Then how did you recognize him to bring him here?"

Qrow shrugged. "I didn't. I merely walked up to the kid and tried to get a rise out of him. When that didn't work I said Oz could help him find his girl."

"If you don't mind my asking, Qrow, how did you know he was looking for a green-eyed girl?" Ozpin asked slowly.

"The video from ten years ago, there's one bit where he looks past the camera and says 'not her,'" he answered with a shrug. "So, shot in the dark, he's looking for a girl."

"But how did you know to ask Shirou in particular?" Ozpin pressed.

Qrow sighed. "Oz, I've said that phrase to everyone I saw wearing his outfit for the last ten Godsdamned years."

Their eyes all widened in surprise, and Qrow brought his hip flask to his lips. "Seriously sometimes I feel like you don't appreciate how hard I work."

And with that, he'd had enough of their meeting and made his way to the elevator.

=][=

"I'm telling you guys he is Mr. Sword Hunter! He made me another magic knife!" Ruby said, excitedly bouncing around the dorm room.

She had been insufferable since she woke up. Weiss sighed and finished brushing her hair, and began to put it up on its customary off-center ponytail.

"Look! This is the new magic knife!" She said, brandishing the same toy knife she'd refused to part with since the Sword Hunter stopped the breach.

"Rubes, that looks exactly the same," Yang said exasperatedly. "Show us both together and we'll believe you."

Ruby's cheeks turned bright red and she started poking her index fingers together. "Weeeeeeeell, turnsoutthemagicknifedisappearsifyouaskMrSwordHuntertomakeanothercauseyoulostyoursImmagofindhimberightback!"

And she disappeared in a burst of rose petals.

Weiss prepared her perfume, Yang started brushing her hair, and Blake turned a page in her book. Probably porn again.

Ruby reappeared in a burst of rose petals and wailed. "Guys it's an emergency! Shirou is gone!"

"Who?" Weiss asked.

"Mr. Sword Hunter! He's gone! I went to knock at his door and it was unlockedsoIopeneditandhewasntinhisroom!"

"Ruby," Blake sighed. "Slow down."

Ruby took several deep breaths. "R-Right! So I went to ask Shirou to come over and prove he is Mr. Sword Hunter but I knockedonhisdoo—"

Weiss put a hand over Ruby's mouth.

"So there is a guy named Shirou. I assume he's the guy we were following all day yesterday," Weiss stated.

Ruby nodded.

"You say he is the Sword Hunter."

Ruby nodded again.

"You went to his room to ask him to prove it."

Ruby nodded harder.

"He wasn't in his room when you knocked."

Ruby nodded so hard Weiss was having difficulty keeping her hand pressed against Ruby's mouth.

"Ruby, it's early in the day. Have you thought that maybe he jogs in the morning? Or maybe he went to get breakfast?" Weiss asked.

By the widening of Ruby's eyes followed immediately by a hug and babbling about being so incredibly smart, Weiss would be forced to guess that no, her fearless leader had not thought about that very simple and likely possibility.

And just as quick as the hug had begun, it was over and Ruby was gone in another puff of rose petals. Weiss sighed and sprayed on her perfume, Yang continued brushing her hair, Blake turned a page.

Ruby reappeared in a puff of rose petals. "Guys! He's in the cafeteria! Sitting in our spot! Mr. Sword Hunter is at our table! How awesome is that!?"

"Ruby," Yang said with a sigh. "If you're so excited about it, why don't you go talk to him?"

Ruby's face got very, very red. She clasped her hands demurely behind her back, started fidgeting and digging the toe of her boot on the floor.

"W-Well…I uhh…I was hoping you guys would come with me and…we could…chat with him? A bit?" Ruby muttered. "I talked with him a little last night and I was kinda hoping you guys would…you know…chat with him too?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, stood up and walked past Ruby. "Well come on, let's go have breakfast."

Weiss ignored Ruby's squeal and blabbering at the rest of her team to get them to breakfast. They made their way to the cafeteria where she saw the redheaded man from the day before sitting at their table, scowling at a plate of eggs and bacon.

He was drawing several curious looks, as he was clearly not a student, but something about his bearing said he wasn't your average Sword Hunter fan. Then again if Ruby was by some miracle correct, he was the Sword Hunter, so on the off chance that was the case, she guessed that made sense.

They got their food and made their way to their table, he glanced up at them briefly before returning his scowl to his plate.

Ruby zipped to the spot next to him, sitting almost shoulder to shoulder with him and said, "Hi."

He blinked at her and absently patted her hair. "Good morning, Ruby."

As Ruby began scarfing down her plate of cookies, the man (Shirou, Weiss supposed) scowled at her. "Is that all you eat for breakfast?"

Ruby choked on her seventh cookie and made a noise that could charitably be considered an affirmative.

"That's not good, come on," he said as he stood up, dragging Ruby off by the hand as she squealed about her cookies.

Weiss watched in fascination as this Shirou put together a much better, much more nutritionally balanced breakfast and returned with Ruby to their table.

He slid the cookies away before Ruby could take another one. "You can have more in the evening."

"But they won't be as tasty then!" Ruby whined.

"No buts," he said tonelessly.

Then, to Weiss' horrified incredulity, Ruby began to sullenly eat the first healthy breakfast in the nine or so months that Weiss had known her. Stealing a look at Yang showed her to have a…complex expression.

Half astonishment, half indignation and half envy. With a few fractions of fear and horror thrown in. Even Blake had put her book down!

"Hi guys!" Nora said, slamming her tray down on the table, causing all of them except Shirou to jump.

"Nora," Ren chided gently, "it's rude to startle people."

As always, Ren was much too lenient.

"She's not that bad," Pyrrha said with a small laugh.

Well…Weiss supposed that getting startled every now and then was not that bad. It could even be good for one's circulation.

"H-Hey," Jaune muttered, acting much more demure than usual.

"Morning Jaune!" Ruby called happily, then sighed dejectedly when Shirou gently took hold of the hand she'd tried to sneak to a plate of cookies.

"A question, if I may," Shirou said when JNPR sat down.

"Uhh…sure?" Jaune said slowly.

"Why did the eight of you stalk me all day yesterday?" he asked, causing Weiss to snort some juice up her nose. "Also, you should not release a Grimm in a crowded area, that could have been dangerous."

Ruby made herself as small as she could as the rest of them fidgeted.

Jaune cleared his throat. "W-Well see…I uhh…you see Ruby said that—"

"You can't blame it all on me!" Ruby immediately interrupted, and jumped when Shirou put a hand on top of her head.

"I'm not mad Ruby, I am, however, somewhat disappointed," he said, causing Ruby to flinch. "But maybe you had a good reason, so I'll reserve judgement until I've heard it."

Ruby mumbled something unintelligible as she poked her index fingers together. Weiss once more questioned why she just allowed herself to be swept up into Ruby's rhythm more often than not.

"W-Well…you see," Jaune began.

Yang crossed her arms and huffed. "Ruby said you were the Sword Hunter, and we were trying to trick you into proving who you were by making you throw a sword at something."

Shirou blinked, his scowl deepening. "You know you could have just asked."

Yang shrugged angrily.

He sighed and went back to poking absently at his food. "I've never liked that title anyway. My name is Shirou. I'm not particularly important. It's nice to properly meet you, Yang."

Weiss blinked…had he just…he had just…hadn't he?

"Wait," Jaune whispered, his face white as a sheet, "are you saying you're…t-t-…you're…t-t-t-the Sword Hunter?"

Shirou's scowl deepened. He turned his left palm up and a butter knife appeared into his grip with a muted blue flash. "I did just mention I don't care for that title. Please use my name."

Ruby beamed in a most smug manner at everyone sitting at the table. Weiss realized her mouth was hanging open in a most inelegant manner and closed it with a 'click.'

She wondered what to say, should she start with an apology? Yes she had been following orders, but the fact remained she had been more…zealous than strictly necessary.

As Weiss finally settled on what to say, Jaune fainted dead away.

=][=

"And this is the Workshop!" Ruby said excitedly as she pulled her idol around by the wrist.

Blake huffed in annoyance, so far Ruby had taken the Sw-Shirou around 'the best sights in all of Beacon.' Which according to her fearless leader were the sparring room, the shooting range, and now the workshop.

Ruby had something of a one-track mind.

Blake had merely found herself following out of curiosity. Here was this man, Remnant's greatest enigma, believed by many to be a hero, believed by others to be a selfish coward, but undeniably one of the most dangerous people in the world.

And so far he had been content to let Ruby pull him around and scowl at everything. Maybe he just had a soft spot for their quirky leader?

Blake looked to her teammate Weiss to her left, and Jaune and Pyrrha to her right. The four of them following after Ruby and Shirou like a troop of ducklings. Yang, Ren and Nora had excused themselves before breakfast was even finished.

"I just don't understand. He isn't…" Weiss waved her hands vaguely in his direction. "You know?"

"Not what you expected?" Blake asked.

"Exactly! I thought that him acting so casually with us after the Breach, before we…you know. I thought that was just to put us at ease. I thought he'd be…I don't know, more assertive? More dignified?"

"I think I know what you mean…" Jaune said slowly.

"Jaune, are you…alright?" Pyrrha whispered, slowly reaching a hand out to his shoulder before pulling back.

Jaune sighed. "Yeah I guess…I dunno, the Sword Hunter has always been something of a…I dunno, forget I said anything."

"Oh! And you totally need to see the coliseum! It's so cool! And it floats!" Ruby swept past them like a storm. Shirou trotting to keep up.

Jaune took a deep breath. "Excuse me! Sw-ahem!-Shirou?"

Ruby did a 180 turn and brought Shirou stumbling to a halt next to Jaune.

"Yes?" he asked distractedly while rolling his shoulder.

Jaune had a 'Deer in the headlights' look as he tried and failed to meet Shirou's scowl.

"I uhh…you see, I was wondering…" Jaune spoke in a breathy whisper. "I-I mean, if it's not too much trouble for you to tell of course, cause you don't have to say anything if you don't want to I mean. The thing I was wondering was if umm…if you'd uhhh…"

"Yes?" Shirou prompted when Jaune tailed off, his scowl unchanged…yet Blake could not feel any annoyance or hostility from him, maybe he was one of those people that looked angry all the time?

"H-H-How long do you plan to stay in Beacon? Sir? If you don't mind my asking?" Jaune squeaked. "A-Actually forget I asked you probably have better things to do than answer dumb questions fr—"

"I'll probably leave this evening, tomorrow at the latest." He answered easily enough, eliciting a strangled gasp from Ruby.

"But we haven't even gotten to talk about swords yet!" she whined piteously.

He blinked down at her, his scowl easing slightly. "Do you want to talk about swords?"

"YES!" Ruby screeched, and they both disappeared in a burst of rose petals.

Weiss shivered and muttered, "At least she didn't do it to me this time…"

Knowing Ruby, she was at their dorm room. With a sigh, Blake pulled out her scroll and frowned as she looked at the time. "Don't your double matches start soon?"

"Eh? Oh right! I should be going over my strategy with Yang!" Weiss said with wide eyed horror and took off running. "I completely forgot about that!"

Jaune's face was somewhere between proud and shellshocked. Pyrrha gave his shoulder a squeeze. "We should also go get ready for our match, Jaune."

"Eh? Oh…right Pyr, we should probably get going," he said distractedly and let himself be pulled along by his partner.

Blake stood at the door to the workshop trying to decide if she felt lonely. With a firm shake of her head, she decided she wasn't and started on her way back to her dorm room.

She spotted Yang on the way, her partner stalking through a courtyard. By the look on Yang's face, she was either about to kill someone, or cry.

Perhaps both.

Blake ran to catch up. "Yang!"

Yang stopped and looked over her shoulder at Blake, her eyes a vibrant red.

"Woah there!" Blake said, raising her hands in a placating gesture. "Yang, you alright?"

Yang closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her shoulders slumped and when she opened them again, they had gone back to their natural lilac. "Hey, Blake. Sorry I uhh…sorry."

Blake approached carefully and put a hand on Yang's shoulder. "You okay?"

Yang gave her a tremulous smile and opened her mouth, the lie plain on her face. She closed her mouth, screwed her eyes shut and brought a hand up to her forehead. "I…I don't think I am."

"It's about the Sw-Shirou, isn't it? About his connection to your…past?" Blake asked slowly.

Yang nodded.

"If you don't mind my asking…why haven't you asked him yet?"

Yang took a deep breath, opened her mouth, failed to make a sound, closed her mouth, opened it again, exhaled, closed her mouth, inhaled deeply, and after taking a few seconds to collect herself, began speaking in a low tone. "I…I…W-What if…what if it's best that I don't know?"

Blake felt her cat ears stand on end. "W-What?"

Yang shrugged out from under Blake's arm and started pacing, the strain in her voice making it obvious she wanted to be shouting. "I mean…you saw, right? She's working with the friking Sword Hunter! What if…what if there's some…some big secret mission and she is his handler, what if she's out there helping him keep people safe? What if she didn't abandon me, but left me behind so she could concentrate on her work?"

The more she talked, the quieter her voice became until she was whispering. "What if…what if by confronting him…by demanding answers, I ruin everything? What if she was distancing herself all along to keep me safe from…from whatever she's fighting? And she sent him to keep an eye on me and Ruby? To keep us safe because if she did it she might put me in danger? What if that's why he didn't answer my questions back then?

"What if...what if I've been wrong all along? I swore to myself that when I met her I would punch her teeth in for abandoning me and Dad! But…but what if I've been wrong all this time? What if…by demanding to meet her, to talk to her, I'll be spitting on her sacrifice?" She finally stopped pacing and looked at Blake, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "But what if I want to anyways? Knowing that I might ruin everything?"

Blake drew the taller girl into a tight hug that Yang desperately returned, her entire body trembling.

Blake began to rub slow circles on Yang's back. "Yang, if that were the case, why would she have fought him to take him away from the train?"

"I don't know!" Yang wailed with a wet cough. "And it's killing me! But…But what if…"

"Shhhh," Blake soothed and tightened her hug. She waited until Yang had cried herself out and devolved into hiccups. Blake took a deep breath. "It'll be fine, you'll ask him or you won't. Whichever you choose, you'll be fine. I know you'll be fine."

"And," Yang hiccupped, "how's that?"

"Because," Blake said, patting Yang's back, "you are the cranky, violent idiot we all know and love. You are going to make a bad pun and go find Weiss, she's probably panicking because you haven't shown up yet, and together you're going to knock someone out of the competition. She'll be all elegant and stuff, and you'll be flailing around like a lunatic."

Yang hiccup-laughed. "You forgot to mention my crazy good looks!"

Blake barked a laugh. "Hey! Hey! That was almost not bad, you're losing your touch."

Yang stepped back and gave her a wide grin. "Alright! I'm pumped up now! Just you watch I'mma kick some butt!"

Blake grinned and gave Yang a push to get her started. The blonde barked a laugh and took off running in the direction of the coliseum. Blake put a hand on her hip and watched her go. "Seriously, for someone that plays team mom as often as she can, Yang really needs to learn to rely on others every now and then."

Blake's scroll buzzed; she'd gotten a text from Ruby asking what her seat was for Yang's match. Blake shook her head and texted back that she'd be right there. She resolved herself to talk to Yang about not putting herself through the wringer just to spare Ruby.

=][=

The entirety of teams JNPR and RWBY sat quietly in the latter's dorm room. So far Yang's and Pyrrha's victory celebration had consisted of watching Ruby and Shirou play a video game.

Jaune winced as his hero and favorite video game character utterly failed at Kung-Fu Ninja Slayer Ultimate Death Battle 2. He cringed as Shirou had to take his eyes off the screen to press the right button on his scroll.

Ruby mercilessly capitalized on that opening and launched into the punishing if utterly impractical and entirely unofficial Unlimited Swords combo. The first attack being a quarter-circle forward light punch, followed by a half-circle back heavy kick, followed by a dash cancel into a three-quarter circle back light kick flurry, followed by a half-circle forward heavy punch into a mid-air juggle finished with a downward heavy slam, capped off by the double-circle forward heavy punch+light kick grab. All of which had to be performed with pixel-perfect precision in a time tolerance of only three frames.

Jaune looked on in horrified fascination as the Sword Hunter in the screen unleashed a ninety nine hit combo, each attack done with a different weapon, utterly annihilating Lady-Knight's two-thirds-full health bar. Jaune saw him tilt his head with interest as Ruby performed the Rain of Blades Lethality.

"And the Sword Mistress wins again!" Ruby said, jumping to her feet and basking in imaginary applause.

"I've never seen that combo pulled off in an actual match…" Yang whispered with awe in her voice.

"It still feels wrong that the character based after me has better stats than Lady-Knight…" Shirou muttered slowly.

"Wanna go again?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"Sure," Shirou answered with a shrug.

Less than three minutes later he garnered his thirty-second consecutive defeat and readily acquiesced for another match.

Jaune gathered his courage and cleared his throat. "E-Excuse me?"

Shirou and Ruby turned to look at him.

"Why umm…why not try a different character?" he said as confidently as he could, which was next to none at all. "It seems Lady-Knight isn't really working out."

Shirou looked back at the character model, his ever-present scowl disappearing. Lady-Knight was petite, blonde and green-eyed, wearing blue and white armor and wielding a two-handed sword that shot bullets. One of the stronger characters in the roster thanks to her speed and striking power, but she lacked toughness.

Not at all a good match against the Sword Hunter, but then again, there was no good match against the Sword Hunter, there was a good reason he was banned in most tournaments.

The Sword Hunter was the most difficult character to learn, but those who put in the effort found that he was immensely powerful. Current meta against anyone playing the Sword Hunter was to go for a character with great health and endurance, and charge the Sword Hunter and chip him down from close range.

"No, this is good," he said as Ruby whooped and launched another match.

Seriously, Jaune was tempted to challenge her himself. He was the better Sword Hunter player out of the two of them, even if the Sword Hunter was extra difficult to fight in a mirror match.

Shirou stopped paying attention to the game as Zwei snuck out from under Weiss' bed and crawled on his belly until he reached Shirou. The corgi sniffed his leg, drawing back with his ears standing on end, then leaned in to sniff again, tilting his head in confusion. The dog sniffed again, his entire body taut with tension, before whispering a confused "boof?"

It turned around and ran back to Yang, headbutting her legs and hiding behind her to stare from Shirou, to Ruby, and back to Shirou, whispering another questioning bark.

"What's up little guy?" Yang asked and leaned down to scratch behind his ears.

Zwei whined and whispered a third confused bark.

"LETHALITY!" shouted the game's announcer, Shirou's utter defeat no longer surprising either of the teams.

"Wanna go again!?"

"Sure."

His ready acceptance of being utterly annihilated over and over again? That did surprise them.

"So how come you're so bad at this game?" Weiss asked, looking up from an essay she was writing for Dr. Oobleck's class. "I think even I'm better than you, and I almost never play."

Shirou shrugged. "I've never played a game before in my life."

Ruby paused. "Wait. You've never played Kung-Fu Ninja Slayer Ultimate Death Battle!?"

Shirou blinked at her. "I mean, technically I have…as of thirty minutes ago."

Ruby blinked. "Huh…yeah, I guess that does explain why I'm winning so much."

"W-Well, how about watching a movie?" Jaune asked. "There's a new drama that came out a few days ago starring the Landslide!"

There were appreciative murmurs, Dogwood 'the Landslide' Jameson was exploding in popularity ever since he retired from the tournament circles and Huntsman work.

Watching a movie with the Sword Hunter! This would be a story he told his grandchildren!

"Who?" Shirou asked, bringing the room to ringing silence.

"The Landslide?" Pyrrha asked. "One of the most popular tournament competitors of the decade?"

"Never heard of him," Shirou said, turning back to the screen.

Jaune tried to swallow the lump in his throat, determined not to fail his idol. "W-Well we could watch Try-Hard 2, Try Even Harder. Its Fresh Banana critical score is not great, but audience reviews say it captures the spirit of the original, and you can never go wrong with a Spruce Willis film."

Shirou shrugged. "I've never seen a movie before, can't see why I'd start now."

Jaune felt the bottom fall out from under his stomach.

"Wait up," Yang said, picking up Zwei to be able to continue petting the adorable corgi. "You've never watched the first Try-Hard?"

"I have not," Shirou answered.

"What about The Lettuce King? That musical is a classic," Blake asked from her bed.

"Never heard of it," Shirou answered.

"Everyone's watched The Huntsman Rises," Nora said, jumping to her feet.

"Not me," Shirou rebuked.

"So…you've really never watched any movie before? At all?" Pyrrha asked with a mixture of shock and pity.

"Correct," Shirou said.

"But…why?" Weiss asked quietly.

Shirou shrugged. "I've never taken the time, don't really see the point in movies when I'm busy with more important things."

"Like running around protecting towns and being a hero?" Ren spat bitterly.

The awkward air in the room shifted into one of mute shock. Ruby stared at her friend with an almost betrayed look as Shirou turned his scowl to Ren, who met his gaze defiantly.

Shirou shrugged again. "I'm no hero, I just like to help people when I can."

Ren stared back at Shirou, a single eyebrow rising slowly as the two stared at each other. Nora placed a hand on Ren's shoulder and gave it a squeeze, prompting him to break eye contact. He looked to the side, flushed, and muttered a quiet apology that Shirou promptly accepted.

"Besides you absolutely totally completely surely are a hero!" Ruby said jumping to her feet.

Shirou turned to look at her. "But…I'm not."

"A hero is a person who is admired or idolized for their courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities!" Ruby said as she pointed an imperious finger at Shirou's nose. "Ergo! You have no say on whether you are a hero or not!"

Everyone looked at Ruby with varying degrees of shock.

"Okay…since when do you…I mean…I…huh?" Weiss babbled as she ran her hands through her hair in bewilderment.

Shirou nodded. "Exactly. I'm not admired or idealized, I'm not courageous, and I have no outstanding achievements or noble qualities. So I'm not a hero, I just like to help people and go about my business."

"But liking to help people is a noble quality!" Ruby shrieked at the top of her voice. "There is nothing nobler than self-sacrifice!"

Shirou opened his mouth to retort.

"Not admired?" Weiss grumbled, then jumped to her feet. "Have you been living under a rock!?"

Shirou turned to her to answer.

"I'm pretty sure there's a movie about you in production," Blake said from her perch on her bed.

Shirou tilted his head and turned to her with a questioning expression.

"RUBY HAS BEEN BEATING YOU UP WITH A VIDEOGAME VERSION OF YOURSELF! IN A GAME WHERE YOU ARE THE STRONGEST CHARACTER!" Yang roared, her hair giving off a muted golden glow.

Shirou blinked.

"I…But…That…" he muttered, his scowl deepening. "That…doesn't make any sense. Why would anyone ever admire me? I'm not important or special."

"Yeeeeah," Nora said with a grin. "Not gonna lie, I'm not exactly your biggest fan but you're kind of a big deal. Or what, you thought that any random person could just up and walk into the Headmaster's office whenever they wanted to?"

Shirou turned to look at her with an expression that all but stated that yes, that is exactly what he had thought.

"Uuumm," Pyrrha said as she poked her index fingers together. "People are always wondering if I could beat you in a fight?"

Shirou blinked owlishly at her. "Are…you famous?"

"A little?" Pyrrha said with an awkward smile.

"I...see?"

As Shirou continued to be berated about his status as a Hero, Jaune turned to Pyrrha and simply admired her as she bit her bottom lip, all but bouncing on her seat and squeezing her left bicep with her right hand. He sighed and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Just ask him, I know you're dying to."

She turned to look at him with wide, surprised eyes. "I…do you really think it'll be okay? He won't be mad? I mean…He's the Sword Hunter, you know?"

Jaune gave her as reassuring a smile as he could. "What do you lose by asking? The worst thing that can happen is he says no."

Pyrrha smiled back and nodded resolutely, then cleared her throat. "E-Excuse me? Mister Shirou?"

Shirou turned to look at her. "Please don't ever call me mister again."

"Eh? I ah…sorry?" Pyrrha said as she scratched the back of her head. "I was umm…I was wondering if you'd agree to spar with me?"

A sudden quivering silence filled the room as the members of the two sister teams looked between Shirou and Pyrrha with wide eyes.

Shirou's scowl eased slightly. He tilted his head as he regarded her. After a few seconds he shrugged. "Sure."