Here's chapter 17. Updates will not be as frequent for a while now since there are some things I have to take care of, but this story is far from over. This one starts in Volume 2. Anyway, I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 17. Enjoy.
Chapter 17: Food Frenzy
The break went by without much happening. Velvet got to learn a little more about Ruby and Yang's family, and to her surprise, had a pleasant time at their home. When they returned to Beacon for the new semester, they reunited with Weiss and Blake. Weiss was glad to see them, and happy to be away from her father for the next several months. Blake mainly did a lot more reading during the break, but was glad to see her friends again. However, Velvet started to notice something, not regarding her teammates, but with herself. Specifically, whenever she's near Ruby. Whenever she's near the weapon loving geek, she feels a little happier for some reason, which is strange to her. She originally thought it was because Ruby is always so full of energy and happy most of the time, but as time passed, she started to doubt this theory.
Currently, Velvet is on her way to Ozpin's office as he wanted to speak with her, though for what reason, she does not know. Her teammates asked if they should go with her, but she told them that lunch was starting up shortly and to just save her a seat and some food for her when she gets back. After a few minutes of walking, she enters the elevator to take her to Ozpin's office up above. Once the elevator reaches the top floor, Velvet exits to see Ozpin sitting in his chair behind his desk and Professor Goodwitch standing next to him.
"Good to see you, Velvet. Please, have a seat," he greets her and gestures to a chair in front of him.
"Headmaster. Professor," she nods to them and takes the offered seat. "So, care to tell me why you called me up here?" she asks.
"Well first, I wanted to know if you were adjusting well to school life. Have you been doing well?" he asks.
"It's fine. My teammates help me out. Makes things easier," she replies.
"That's good. Now then, knowing you, it would be best if we got straight to the point. We have some questions regarding your…origins," he confesses.
"I see. Figured this conversation would come around sooner or later. Let me guess, you've been looking for any information about me, and have found absolutely nothing, right?" Velvet says, crossing her arms and one leg over the other.
"Pretty much. Now getting information about people who live beyond the kingdom walls and live in isolated villages is usually more difficult than getting information on those that do live in the kingdoms, but we can still find some records. However…in your case, we have found nothing related to you. No birth records, next of kin, previous school history, or criminal records. It's as if you never existed," Ozpin explains.
"You must understand, Miss Crowe. While you haven't been a problem for any of us, aside from some fights you've gotten into with other students, though they were mostly Team CRDL, you're essentially an unknown for us, and that puts us a little on edge. You said your claw was your semblance, however, you were able to use it even before I unlocked your aura. A person's semblance is tied to their aura, so you having one without the other is impossible. And your story about how you ended up in the Emerald Forest when we first met you isn't exactly a logical one. It is hard for us to trust you when there is so much we don't know about you, and that could put the students in unnecessary danger," Glynda adds.
"We are not your enemies, Velvet. But if we are to be able to trust you more, we need you to tell us about yourself. Please, you can trust us," Ozpin pleads with her.
Velvet looks down, thinking, "I can't just blindly trust them and spill my guts to them. I'm sure they have secrets of their own that they don't want people to know about, being people of their positions and all…But I need some breathing room. Otherwise, it may make things harder for me or for my teammates in the future," she muses to herself before looking back at them. "I can't tell you," she answers.
Ozpin sighs, "Velvet, please you must-," he begins.
"I can't tell you everything. You're better off not knowing. But I can tell you at least one thing," she interrupts him.
"And that would be?" Goodwitch asks her.
"My reason for being here," Velvet says.
"Which is?" Ozpin inquires.
"…To protect Ruby Rose," Velvet answers.
This catches them by surprise, "May I ask why you'd want to protect your team leader?" Ozpin asks again.
"I have my own reasons. But originally…It was because her mother asked me to," Velvet admits, once more shocking them. "Are we done now?" she asks.
"No, we-," Glynda begins.
"Yes, that is all for now. Thank you for telling us this, Velvet. I believe we won't have to worry about you anymore now. You may go," Ozpin interrupts her.
"I think we can both agree that no one needs to know about this, especially Ruby. Later," she says and gets up. "But make no mistake Ozpin, I will protect Ruby from anyone that would attempt to harm her. That has no exceptions, including you," she says as she leans closer to him. "You do anything that would put Ruby in danger…" she starts and activates her demon claw. "…And I will EAT you," she warns him before deactivating her claw and leaves the office.
"Professor Ozpin, why did you let her leave? What she told us only left us with more questions. How did Velvet know Summer Rose? And Summer Rose is dead, so how would she have told Velvet to watch over Ruby, and for what reasons? More importantly, she just threatened you!" Glynda exclaims.
"I understand your concern, however we can't push her too much, or else she'll never tell us anything. Just as she has to earn our trust, we have to earn hers. Besides, though she is dead, I trusted Summer Rose. She was an excellent student, and an even better human being. If somehow, Velvet met Miss Rose, who sent her here to protect Ruby, then I say we let her perform that task, especially since it may actually help us in the end. As for her threat, she was only making it clear that she WILL protect Ruby, even if it means she would have to go against me. If I ever did do something that would put Miss Rose in unnecessary danger, than I deserve whatever punishment Miss Crowe does to me. Let it go," he explains, making Glynda eventually relent with a heavy sigh.
Back with Velvet, she is on her way to the cafeteria to meet up with her team, though her thoughts drift back to her talk with Ozpin.
"I have to keep the truth from them for as long as I can. I just can't trust them yet…But what about my team? Should I tell them about me, about what I am?" she wonders.
After a short walk, she makes it to the cafeteria, though she hears some noises behind the doors. She opens up the doors and what she sees is a mess. Tables are stacked up on one side of the cafeteria, with some soda machines in front. Only one aisle of tables remains normal in the center of the room. And food and drinks are spilled all over the place. She sees Sun with some guy with blue hair, goggles, a red jacket, and blue pants watching on the sidelines. What she notices the most is how her team and Team JNPR are in the most intense food fight imaginable.
"What the Hell is going on here?!" she yells, getting all their attention.
"Velvet, we need your help. We have to defeat Team JNPR and bring delicious justice to them," Ruby replies.
"Off with her head too!" Nora screams while throwing a pie at Velvet when she wasn't looking.
The pie nails Velvet in the face, which actually makes everyone in the room freeze in place as they looked on in horror. The pie slowly falls off Velvet's face, revealing her left eyebrow twitching and her eyes narrowed. Everyone stays absolutely still as Velvet slowly walks to a lone table off to the side.
"You all want to fight? Okay then…" she says, activating her demon claw and grabs the table with it. "LET'S FIGHT!" she shouts and throws the table straight at Team JNPR.
All except Jaune are able to dodge the table, while the blonde gets slammed by it, sending him into the castle of tables, causing it to tumble down. Pyrrha looks up to see Velvet already on her, and quickly grabs a baguette of bread to use as a sword to try to block her claw strike. She just barely manages to block it, but Velvet grabs it and flings her around before throwing her away towards Team JNPR's side of the cafeteria.
"Aw yeah, now you have to deal with all of Team RVWBY now!" Yang says, and rushes at Ren with a pair of chickens being worn like boxing gloves.
However, as she goes to punch him, Velvet suddenly grabs her left arm, and flings her into the air before slamming her onto the ground and then throwing her back behind her. Ren uses this chance to attack with a pair of leeks at her rear, but Velvet reacts in time to kick him back before going on the attack. Ren tries with three strikes of his leeks, but Velvet grabs a pair of knives and holds them in the fingers of her right hand and starts deflecting each attack from Ren before she goes to grab his skull and slams him through a table. By this, point Yang gets back up.
"What the Hell?! We're on the same team!" she yells.
"I know! But I'm sure YOU started this whole mess, so that was payback, for that, and all of your stupid puns!' Velvet shouts.
At this point, Weiss jumps in, wielding a swordfish like her rapier and thrusts it at Nora. Nora jumps back before jumping up into the air to grab a pole off the wall and then sticks it into a watermelon, making it into a hammer. She jumps up and tries to slam it down on Weiss, but she jumps back to avoid it. The two then duel against each other, with Weiss attempting a few swings of her swordfish, but Nora swings her melon hammer around before nailing Weiss with a powerful strike that sends her flying into a pillar, breaking it and knocking her out. Ruby jumps and grabs Weiss in her arms before landing with the unconscious Schnee.
"Weiss! Weiss! Don't leave me. NNNNOOOOOOOOO!" she screams dramatically.
"Spare me the drama. Blake, let's go," she says and she and Blake run at the other team.
Meanwhile, Yang fights against Nora with their own food weapons, with both coming at each other to deal a finishing blow. However, Nora's weapon has better reach as she swings it upward, hitting Yang and sending her flying through the roof. Velvet and Blake avoid the falling debris and run at Nora, with Pyrrha getting up behind her. Nora runs at them while Pyrrha activates her semblance, causing numerous soda cans to come together and swarm into the air and after them. Velvet blocks Nora's hammer with her claw, crushing it, and then Blake jumps over her to kick Nora in the face. However, the both of them are forced to move back when the soda can swarm comes at them, giving Nora the chance to retreat. Pyrrha sends all the cans at them. The cans strike Blake and send her flying into a wall, coated in soda colors, but Velvet conjures up a fire arte and fires it through the cans, destroying all of them.
"Ruby, now!' Velvet calls out to her.
Ruby nods and takes a runner's position before using her semblance to shoot over to the other side of the cafeteria. Velvet backflips high over her, impaling her claws into the ceiling to avoid the giant food tempest that follows behind Ruby as she starts spinning around like a red missile. The attack sweeps up the members of Team JNPR, taking them with it, and then Ruby stops right at one wall, damaging it from the shockwave of her stop. Team JNPR crash into the wall, and then Ruby jumps up while the food tempest pounds onto the poor members of Team JNPR, burying them in food. Ruby jumps down, as does Velvet, and looks back to see the defeated team fall onto the ground, leaving their body prints in the wall of food.
"Nice work Velvet. Delicious justice has been served!" Ruby cheers, to which Velvet offers a small smile.
"I love these guys," Sun says to his friend…who is covered in grape soda.
A moment later, Glynda bursts through the doors behind them, growling as she uses her semblance to clean up the whole room in seconds.
"Children, please. Do NOT play with your food," she says, adjusting her glasses.
The members of the two teams, aside from Velvet, look scared until Nora burps loudly and then Yang falls back onto the ground, hard. The two teams start laughing at each other since their covered in food, and even Velvet allows a chuckle to escape her mouth. Glynda gets angry, until Ozpin places a hand on his shoulder.
"Let it go," he calms her down.
Glynda sighs, "They're supposed to be the defenders of the world," she says.
"And they will be, but right now they're still children…So why not let them play the part," he says and turns to leave. "After all…it isn't a roll they'll have forever. I'm sure young Miss Crowe there knows that better than any of them. I think she should be able to smile while she still can, don't you?" he asks and leaves.
Glynda thinks upon his words and looks at Velvet, whose trying to get food out of her hair, and sighs as she thinks that Ozpin has a fair point. After having a few more laughs, the two teams return to their dorms rooms to clean themselves up. Yang is the first to enter, wanting to fix her hair as soon as possible, with Weiss complaining about not wanting her to hog all the hot water again. Soon after Yang gets done, Weiss goes in next followed by Blake, and then Ruby. A short while later, Ruby gets down and comes out, clean and in her regular attire.
"Okay, Velvet, it's all yours," she says.
Velvet nods to her and heads in to take her shower. As she lets the water cascade down her body, she can't help but feel grateful at the water helping get any food out of her long hair. While she remains in the shower, her thoughts drift back to before she entered the cafeteria.
"Should I tell them? Should I tell them the truth about what I am? About how I came to be a demon and what happened to me in the past? Sure, Blake kept the fact that she's a Faunus and a former member of the White Fang a secret, but there's a difference between being a Faunus and being a demon," Velvet muses while she's in the shower.
Velvet sighs before turning it off and getting out to dry off before putting her normal clothes on, and leaves the bathroom.
"Ah, nice to get all that food out of my hair," she notes as she goes to sit on her bed.
"Food? I had pieces of the ceiling in mine after Nora knocked me into the sky," Yang groans on her bunk.
"How high did you go anyway? You were gone for the rest of the fight after that," Ruby asks.
"Not exactly sure, but I'm pretty sure it was higher than Beacon tower. Too busy spinning in the air to notice. And then I landed back down, hard," Yang says while rubbing her head.
"Well, I say you deserved it. After all, you were the one that started that food fight and got a pie thrown in my face," Weiss adds.
"Oh come on Weiss, don't act like you didn't have fun," Blake notes while reading some notes.
"…Well…I guess I had a LITTLE fun with it," she confesses, making Ruby snicker. "Quiet you!"
"So someone want to explain to me exactly how you guys manage to start a food war with Team JNPR while I was gone," Velvet asks.
"Well, our blonde brute here was playing with Nora, catching food she flung at her with her mouth. After she made ANOTHER terrible pun-," Weiss begins.
"Hey! My jokes are good and you know it!" Yang defends herself.
"-As I was saying, after she made another terrible pun, Nora threw an apple at her face. Yang threw it back, Nora threw a pie that hit my face, and it just went downhill from there," Weiss explains.
"Anyway, why did Professor Ozpin ask to see you before Velvet? What did he want to talk about?" Ruby asks.
"Not much…Just wanted to make sure I'm doing alright. I am technically two years behind after all, in a matter of speaking," she lies.
"Good point. Ozpin did ask me one time about how I'm doing since I'm here two years early. I told him I was doing fine. Took a little while to catch up, but I got it under control now," Ruby says.
"Well anyway, I'm going to go study in the library. Blake, do you what to come with me?" Weiss asks as she grabs a few books.
Blake hesitates, "I…I'll pass, I wanna get some reading done, and there's a quiet spot that I go to for that. Maybe next time," she replies.
"I see…Very well, I'll see you later then," she says and leaves, with Blake leaving shortly behind her.
"Well, I'm going to the training room. Gotta stay in shape after all. See ya later," Yang says and leaves after them.
Velvet looks at Ruby, who's on her own bunk, "…I should tell her at least. I don't want to keep everything away from her. She deserves to know," she muses.
"I think I'll head to the weapons forge to do some maintenance on Crescent Rose. See ya later, Velvet," she says as she goes to leave.
"Actually Ruby, there's something I wanted to talk to you about," she says, getting her attention.
"What's that?" she asks.
"It's best if you sit for this," Velvet says, gesturing to a spot on her bed.
"Um, okay," Ruby replies, getting a little nervous as she sits down next to Velvet. "What's up, Velvet?" she asks.
"Before I start, I want you to know that whatever you decide to do after I tell you, I'll respect your decision, okay?" she begins.
"Velvet, you're making me uneasy. What's wrong?" she asks, getting a little worried.
Velvet takes a deep breath, "Ruby…The truth is…I'm not human."
Cliffhanger! Finally got this one done. Hope I did a good job on the food fight. IT WAS AWESOME! Sorry about the late update, but that's gonna be normal for a while. Don't worry, they'll keep coming around though. Velvet tells Ruby the truth. How will she respond? Until next time, please Read and Review.