A.N. (10/1/20) - Back after a two-week break, and already, I'm a few days late. Excuses later, chapter now!
Chapter 22 - Contact
-10 Months Before the Fall of Beacon-
"And here is the Cross Continental Transmit System, otherwise abbreviated to the CCT system, which forms the base of Beacon Tower. It is one of Atlas' greatest gifts to Vale—"
Weiss continued to talk as Rin followed awkwardly behind her. Somehow, the white-haired girl had roped Rin into taking a tour of the campus with Weiss acting as her guide. And Rin, unable to refuse her, was unable to get a word in before Weiss started her lecture.
The occasional glances Weiss sent her way when she thought Rin wasn't looking only made the situation even more awkward. Even more so when Weiss would blush furiously before turning away.
But really, how was Rin supposed to have predicted this outcome? From what she knew, the only romantic interest Weiss has ever shown to someone was Neptune. And considering how the guy turned out, that didn't exactly put Weiss in a good light in regards to her romantic inclinations.
"—because all four Kingdoms using it, the CCT is an important part of—"
Still, that doesn't exactly solve the current problem.
Right now, Rin is completely dressed up as a guy. Not only does she look more masculine, but with the changes to her height and hair length due to various techniques, it's almost impossible to connect her current appearance to that of Rin Tohsaka. Maybe someone who knew her well, like Tukson or Ruby, might be able to see through her disguise. But definitely not someone like Weiss, who's total interaction with Rin amounted to a sum less than a couple of hours.
Weiss completely believes that she's actually a guy, and even beyond that, is showing hints of romantic interest.
Now, the half-plus-seven rule is something that Rin adheres to pretty strictly. Assuming she's basing her maximum age off of Erik's twenty years of life, plus the additional five years spent on Remnant, then that would put her to about 25 years old. So even though physically, Rin is fifteen years old, the minimum age requirement for Rin to even consider dating would have to be 19.
"—and recently, all Atlas robots are slowly switching to connecting to the wireless network to improve in areas of deployment and efficiency. Most modern units are now directly connected to the CCT—"
So no, Rin's not planning on leading her on. Best nip this before it becomes anything more, and there is one way Rin can go about that.
Telling her the truth.
Making up her mind, Rin cleared her throat before she started. "Miss Schee, I'm sorry to interrupt but—"
Weiss blushed and turned her head to look away. "P-Please, call me Weiss."
Pausing a bit at Weiss's words, Rin continued awkwardly. "Er... very well then. Weiss, this tour was great and all, but I have something I must confess." She took a breath. "I'm actually a—"
"Hello, there~," the familiar voice of Yang came from behind them. "I've been looking everywhere for you, Weiss. And who's this next to you?"
"—stounded at the generosity Atlas has graced this Academy," Rin finished in a panic just as the two turned around to face Yang. "Oh, hello there random stranger who I definitely do not know. Are you a friend of Weiss?"
Yang quirked an eyebrow at the strange response, but Rin managed to sport a natural looking calm smile on her face. Inwardly, however, Rin was less than calm about the situation.
'Ahhhhhhhhh, what do I do?! Wait, why am I panicking? It's just Yang, she'll understand... right? Understand what? That I'm dressing up as someone of the opposite sex just because? It's not like I can tell her exactly why I was dressed like this. Maybe I can just play it off as a hobby. Or maybe she won't notice. No, just tell them who you are already, this is getting ridiculous.'
The sudden look of comprehension on Yang's face made Rin pause in fear. A grin started to grow on the blonde brawler, and Rin guessed that Yang had most likely figured out Rin's identity.
"Well hello~ there. My name is Yang, and I'm just wonder-Rin why Weiss was taking so long to come back to our room," Yang batted her eyes playfully which caused Weiss to scoff. Meanwhile, Rin could feel the emphasis of her name from within Yang's words.
Scratch that, she definitely knew who Rin was.
"I was not gone that long, Yang." Weiss gestured to Rin next to her. "I was just showing a visitor around the campus."
"Oh," and Yang leaned in close as she continued to smile mischievously. "Does this visitor happen to have a name?"
Rin continued to sweat behind her back. Holding out a hand, Rin awkwardly laughed as she replied with the first name she could come up with, "Ritsuka Fujimaru."
"The two of us met earlier and I invited Ritsuka to take a tour of the campus with me," Weiss explained.
"And it's been really great of you to do that Weiss." Not really, but a little lie won't hurt anyone. "But I actually have something important to do, so I think I should go."
"Aw, come on. You sure you can't take the time to hang out with the two of us?" Yang grabbed on to Rin's arms, Weiss glowering at the action. "I feel like we're such great friends already."
A tick mark appeared on Rin's head. "Listen, you blonde bi—"
"Heeeeyyyy~ Yang!" The sound of yet another familiar voice interrupted Rin. "Blake and I were looking for you."
"—eautiful woman, I would love to hang out with the two of you." A forced smile appeared on Rin's face as Ruby and Blake came around the corner to where they were at. Weiss looked jealous at what Rin said to Yang. Seriously, what is up with her luck today? "But maybe another time. I really do have something important to do today."
"Oh, t-then maybe we can t-talk another time," Weiss interjected while pulling something out of her pocket. "How about w-we trade Scroll numbers and meet another t-time?"
Rin looked down to the aforementioned object in Weiss's hands, then up to the blushing girl herself, then sideways to see Yang staring expectantly at her. Sighing to herself, she pulled out her own Scroll as they exchanged their contact info.
Ruby and Blake caught up to them while doing so, with Ruby in a chipper mood and Blake in a dazed state with what looked like her soul leaving her mouth. What?
Even Yang had to comment. "What's up with Blake?"
"Dunno, she's been like that ever since we've left the library. It's not like we were doing much, just studying."
Studying? Rin and Yang turned to stare at Blake, who was shivering in place while staring off into the distance.
"I never thought I could read too much," Blake whispered to herself. "How could they do this to me? Turning the one love of my life into such pain."
...what? Seriously, what happened to her? Yang continued to look confused while Ruby turned to suddenly stare at Rin. Crap, is she gonna figure it out too?
Ruby was staring thoughtfully at Rin. "Hm, you look kinda familiar. Do I know you?"
Even as Rin began to panic, Yang quickly interjected from the side. "Well, how could you Rubes. This here is Ritsuka Fujimaru, a total stranger whom we just met today and never before. Definitely not someone we know familiarly at all."
Laying on it a bit thick there Yang. Still, thanks for the save.
"Hmm," Ruby continued to stare at Rin for another ten or so seconds, Rin sweating the whole time. "...oh well. Must be one of those faces."
Rin nearly fell flat on her face at those words. Seriously, today is really bad for her heart.
"And... done! I'll send you a message later too see when the two of us are free."
Oh yeah, Rin almost forgot about Weiss.
"Er, I'm not sure when I'll be free..." seeing Yang staring intently at her, Rin quickly followed up in a panic. "But I'll see what I can do. I would love to meet up with you later."
"Oh, okay then." And then Weiss blushed again, causing my heart to skip a beat. She awkwardly waving her hand. "See you later, Ritsuka."
She's still only seventeen, Rin. Don't fall in love with that adorable action of her's.
"S-Sure thing," she replied back. And Rin noticed that Yang was stifling her laughter in the background. Turning around to leave, Rin quickly fleed the area as she started to go to where Qrow was supposed to go.
Ugh, since she's technically twenty-five, is she allowed to drink yet? Maybe she can swipe Qrow's flask while he's not looking later. She definitely needed it after everything that's happened today.
The sound of a ping altered Rin to the fact that a text message was sent to her. Half expecting the sender to be Weiss, Rin stared at the message Yang had just sent.
BimboBrawler - U def need to tell me the deets later! Dun worry, I wont say nuthin 4 now. But u better go on dat date w ice queen later.
Rin's face met her hand.
}-{
Tukson stared incredulously at the other man sitting across from him.
"Are you an idiot! That's a horrible idea."
"Not if we receive your aide. With your efforts, recruitment alone will rise due to your reputation."
"Putting aside the idea of me even working for you, your whole plan is stupid. Why on Remnant would you want to attack the city?! Isn't that kind of thing reserved only for the robots of the Schnee Dust Company?"
"It will send a message."
"Yeah, a message saying that we're dangerous and willing to commit genocide to make a point."
The mint-haired girl sitting to the side couldn't help but comment. "Isn't that what everyone thinks of the White Fang already?"
"That's not th— ugh, never mind. I think the three of you already know what I'm talking about, and you either don't care or think that somehow you can get away with it." Tukson glared at Adam, his arms folded across his chest. "But if you think you can just come into my store and force me back, then I'll have to give you a hard pass."
The other boy whistled. "You know that any one of us can kill you where you sit, right?"
The girl frowned. "Wait, what about th—"
The boy waved her off. "Shut up, I'm doing a thing." Turning to Tukson again, he smirked. "But even if we spend the rest of the night threatening you to join, I'm gonna guess that your answer won't change much. But then again..."
A wide smile split across his face. "...you're not the only one we can threaten."
Tukson glared at the boy. "What's that supposed to mean?"
The boy shrugged. "Oh, you know. The local grapevine likes to tell us things sometimes. Rumor on the street is that a single Faunus male has adopted a young little human girl. Causes quite the whispers among the neighborhood wives, I'll tell you that." The boy continued to ignore Tukson's rising anger. "Especially humans. Some are wondering if you're keeping her for less than honorable reasons."
"You leave Rin out of this!" Tukson roared.
The boy held up his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, I'm just the lackey. My boss has the final say on what goes on in this city. Adam here just wants you to help out once in a while. We don't really need you to join us completely, just handle a few jobs for us."
Adam picked up after being mentioned. "While I do not care for your spawn, I will tell my men to not involve themselves with her. As long as you agree to a few of our terms, the girl will stay safe."
Tukson glared at the three people in front of him, but the image of Rin, being ambushed by the likes of these criminals. Sure, she's good in a fight. But she's not invincible.
"...fine. I'll fuckin do what you want."
"Excellent. We'll keep in contact with you." As the three of them got up to leave, the mint-haired girl turned to look at him. "Oh, and before you get any crazy ideas, don't talk to Goodwitch about this. While she may cause us some problems if she gets Beacon involved, are you willing to risk your daughter's life?"
Tukson glared at her. "Get out before I change my mind and decide to rip out your throat. I'll keep quiet."
A smirk rested on her face. "Heh, guess you ain't just all bark after all." Her face suddenly turned nervous. "But then again, we do have to leave so I'll just go now."
Tukson collapsed onto his seat after the three of them left. Holding his head in his hands, Tukson kept going over what just happened over the past hour.
'What have I done...'
}-{
"Are you crazy! We could've died back there due to your stupid stunt." Emerald gave him a hard wack as she said that. Adam had split from them almost immediately after leaving the store, and Mercury already missed the guy.
Since that meant that he was now alone with Emerald.
"Ow," rubbing his shoulder, he glared at her. "Don't worry, I figured that if I played my cards right, we would be okay."
"Killer! Statues! The guy could've ordered them to kill us, did you think of that?!"
"I doubt the guy even knows about the protection he's got."
Emerald blinked owlishly. "The hell are you talking about?"
Mercury quirked an eyebrow up. "It was obvious. He was freaking out the whole time, thinking we were gonna kill him, and not like a guy who's guarded by crazy robots or something. I managed to spot another one of those weird statues. There was a little bird made out of some kind of gem in the room with us. He barely glanced in that direction. Face it, the man had no idea it was there, so it wasn't him who was controlling it."
She let out a huff of air. "Great, we don't have to worry about the Faunus that we're threatening, but instead some unknown controller of killer statues made out of frickin jewelry."
"Jewelry? I thought it was just Dust?"
She rolled her eyes. "I was a gutter rat who made her way into thievery stealing gems. I'd think I would recognize quality when I see one."
"Hm, didn't the file Cinder gave us say something about the daughter being good with Dust crystals or something? Think it's her that's the danger here?"
"Either way, Cinder will know what to do. We'll see what she tells us once we report to her."
Unaware that their boss was just captured, the two walked back to their base.
Finally, I'm almost done with this event. I'm still stuck on the first week of the Beacon school year, and I've been trying to get out of it these past few chapters. Also spent a few hours redoing this chapter until it felt right.
I know I'm late. Honestly, I should put up a disclaimer or something saying that my post dates are more suggestions than guarantees.
Speaking of which, let's talk about the post schedule for a bit. I mentioned before that I switched to a bi-weekly post schedule and that I would think about changing the post date to another day.
And I dunno if some of you noticed on Sunday, but the site's been acting weird for user accounts. I noticed it while writing the chapter that there was some kind of error that made it unable for users to access their accounts. Needless to say, I also found out that the chapter I was writing at the time wasn't saved, and thus I lost around 60% of it and was unable to complete the rest.
Since I couldn't work on the chapter that day, I concentrated on studying for the midterm (cause I had midterms this week) instead and decided to post this another day.
Because of this, I have an announcement.
From this chapter onward, I'll be changing my post dates to Wednesdays instead of Sundays. It just works with my schedule better (in a weird way that takes into account my procrastinating habits). I'll see how this works for the next couple of chapters.
BTW that means the next chapter will be on Wednesday, October 14th (for those of you who don't check the little schedule of mine that I have on my profile) so wait in anticipation until then.
Now, I gotta go now cause I have a quiz tomorrow, and instead of studying I've spent the last few hours procrastinating on writing this chapter instead of facing my upcoming problems (...author leaves to go scream in a pillow).