Crimson IX: Short Stories of A Sanctioned Saturday

'Tch, still as lame as ever,' Ragna the Bloodedge thought to himself as he mopped the floors of Beacon Academy for his second day of punishment for breaking into the Training Room, still wearing the same plain apron as yesterday. Despite aiding Jaune in his first win at the Academy, the Reaper still found himself in something of a bad mood and was hoping that this menial labor would end sooner rather than later… unfortunately it wasn't even lunch time yet and the Reaper knew there was still time for a LOT to go wrong before he officially got off in several hours.

'At least things have been relatively quiet so far… Buuuuuut knowing this place there's no way in hell that it'll stay that way all day. And Goodwitch had to tell me IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS that if there's a mess made, I'm the guy that has to clean it up… Damn, you'd think that she has it out for me or something…'

"Heya Ragnaaaaaaa!" the Reaper heard screaming from down the hallway. Grunting in his usual annoyance, he turned and saw Ruby skidding down the floor he'd mopped completely out of control and waving her arms about like crazy. It didn't take long for her to lose her footing completely and ended up in the air ready to land rump first on the ground… right before Ragna caught her.

"Really, again?" the Grim Reaper sighed as he looked down at the young huntress in his arms. Ruby herself on giggled with a guilty smile on her face. That was when to two heard the door leading into the dormitory opening behind them

"Brother, I'd heard that you were left with menial labor today so I thought I'd-"

Whatever Jin had been about to offer was effectively silenced as he got a good look at the two before him, namely the fact that Ragna was carrying the young huntress bridal style. He stared at the two of them, his face going from surprise to annoyance to unshakable anger that caused all of the water on the floor to instantly freeze over. Roughly slamming the door, Ragna was half surprised it didn't completely come off of its hinges.

"...That's going to come back to bite me," the Reaper sighed as he set Ruby back down on the floor albeit with some light blushing from both of them. "Soooo… what exactly were you hoping for?"

"I was… kind of here to help you out," she told him with a slight blush. "I mean it's my fault that you got put into this situation in the first place isn't it? I can at least help you out."

"You just asked me to help Jaune; it was my stupid idea to try and break into the training hall so it's on me and not you," Ragna told her as he tried to resume mopping, breaking his mop out of the ice Jin had made to start.

"I know, Goodwitch told me as much when I brought it up to her a few minutes ago, but that doesn't mean I ca'tn just go out and help you can I?" Ruby offered with a bright smile.

"I appreciate the offer… but I'm already in enough hot water with Goodwitch," he told her as he twisted his mopping implement and started breaking the ice with the handle. "It's just for one day, I can live through that much."

"Yeah, but… I still feel a little guilty…" Ruby admitted. Smirking a little at his best friend's innocence, Ragna gave her a friendly pat on the head.

"Just save me a spot at dinner, hopefully I'll be done by then." Tough as things were, he could at least admit that Ruby genuinely meant well for him and to Ragna that was more than he could ask for… okay, he could ask for more but at the moment he'd take what he could get.

"Got it! I'll save you a whole table if I have to!" Ruby promised him cheerfully.

"Just a seat will be fine," Ragna told her, a little embarrassed by her eagerness to help him. A smiling Ruby walked off, careful to avoid the water that he become frozen by Jin. "Alright… time to get back to work."

Substory One: A Five Course Death

"Tch, so much for that…" Azrael grumbled to himself as he walked through the hallways of Beacon academy. The Mad Dog had wanted nothing more than to grab himself a good sparring partner and go to town. Unfortunately, no one in the training room was worthy of his palate and those that he had found there knew well to avoid him as best as they could. That left Azrael using only the machines and leaving him rather unsatisfied. "I could go after my Team Leader or his brother, but they'd probably just shrug me off. Maybe if I can get a girl involved I can try seeing if I can get that Mutsuki guy from JACK to fight me seriously… Seriously, what does it take to get a decent meal around here?"

"Oh, are you looking for food?" he heard a young and innocent voice asked from behind him. Turning around, he saw his normally scared and timid partner smiling at him brightly as she held onto a few bags filled with cooking ingredients.

"You're… cooking?" Azrael asked as he stared at the bags. "Isn't it almost time for lunch?"

"It is, but I thought I'd try cooking myself and getting a bit of practice," she said as she looked at the bags. "The cooks in the cafeteria were really kind and gave me all of these ingredients to use and suggested a place on the other side of the Academy I could try cooking."

"Good for you, but that's not the kind of food I was talking about," Azrael denied, right before his stomach gave a low growl. "...But I guess I could go for the other stuff." 'In fact considering how deadly her cooking's supposed to be, this might make for an interesting match after all… hah, let's see how far I can go.'

"Perfect! I needed a taste tester anyways!" Noel told him with excitement as she started leading the blue haired giant to the kitchen so that she could begin making a large meal for him to try.

As Azrael would quickly learn, Noel's way of cooking had a certain… style to it. To the young and innocent blonde she treated it as if she were cooking for a good friend and always had a bright smile on her face… whilst butchering the food and doing things to it that Azrael wouldn't wish on anyone. Pair that with the grotesque sounds produced every time she improperly cut a piece of meat or added a spice that she really shouldn't have and the Mad Dog was actually starting to feel unnerved.

"That's the first dish done!" Noel told Azrael as she put her first dish in front of her partner. She'd intended to prepare Pan Fried Trout topped with garlic butter and served with a side of creamy mashed potatoes… the dish looked [Censored] and [Censored] and smelled like [Censored]. Azrael swore he heard the fish beg 'kill me…' and had a feeling that hadn't just been his imagination. "Dig in!"

"Aren't you going to have any?" the Mad Dog asked, looking down at the… well he couldn't call this thing 'food'... challenge, he looked down at the challenge.

"Nope, whenever I cook I usually end up so full just by the smells alone that I'm completely satisfied. More for you," Noel told the Mad Dog.

"...Alright then," Azrael muttered as he grabbed a fork and cut himself a decent sized chunk. Without much hesitation, he brought the hellish concoction to his mouth and began chewing. It felt like sheer hell to go through, but Azrael wasn't one to turn down a challenge. Eventually he managed to slowly swallow the bite and fought hard to keep himself from shuddering. "It… It needs work… but it didn't kill me."

"Really!? I'm so glad you like it!" Noel told him again, her eyes tearing profusely. Azael was thinking that she was making his words more of a compliment than they were meant

"You've got some passion for cooking," he muttered as his stomach begin to gurgle in pain. It was going to be a hellish fight to keep his food down, but the Mad Dog was confident enough that it would be his digestive system to win the day… still might need to spend a few hours on the porcelain throne. "You usually cook like this?"

"Yeah, I had a lot of good friends back in Flare Academy that I always cooked for before I transfered to Beacon. I would always try to cook for them… but they'd usually have eaten by the time I was finished making it…" Azrael bit his tongue hard to keep from speaking out. "So I learned to cook my food even faster so that I'd be able to make it for them before dinner rolled around!"

"You really sure that was the best idea?" Azrael tried to ask, but it was clear that his partner wasn't getting the memo. "Never mind, anyways bring out the next-" The Mad Dog stopped his instructions, a harsh sizzling noise echoing in the background. "You turned off the gas, right?"

"Of course; when cooking it's important that safety comes above all else!" Noel told him, a little offended at how careless he thought she was

'Honestly her cooking's probably more dangerous than any harm she could do while making it… Which works for me, but still… what the hell is…' Azrael then found what he thought might be the source of the hissing; two of Noel's dishes that had been taken out to cool and had been placed close to each other were sizzling over and... mixing. 'That can't be good…'

"What's going on?" Noel asked as she followed Azrael's eyesight towards the mixing death meals. A bright light emitted from the two transgressions against god as they fused into…

A Few Minutes Later

"You know… sometimes I just gotta ask myself… what did I ever do to deserve this?" Ragna asked as he looked over the kitchen. The walls, the floor, the ceiling… everything was covered in some sort of goop that looked downright foul. Noel was plastered the wall by the concoction, giving a mild scream as she tried break free of the apparently thick material. Azrael himself seemed to be fine, in fact there was a small circle around him where the stuff was nowhere to be seen. Walking over to Noel, Ragna sunk his hands into the dense and disgusting material before pulling harshly and managing to break the gasping blonde out of her prison.

"What's going on here?" came Professor Goodwitch's voice as she approached from down the hallway. Her heart skipped a beat as she realized what had happened to the Academy's side kitchen and her accusatory glare immediately went to Ragna.

"Don't blame me; I just got here," he said nonchalantly as Noel looked disappointed in herself more than anything. Azrael didn't say anything, only jumping over the mess and walking down the hallway as he muttered something about strange meals. "Just going to let him go?"

"He's not the one that has to clean this mess," Goodwitch told the Reaper who had to fight not to lose it in front of a teacher. "If you need additional cleaning supplies, there's a janitorial closest down the hell. Take whatever you need from there."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered as he looked down at Noel who was on the verge of tears. He knew that as her leader he should say something, but nothing came to mind immediately. Shaking his head, he surprised the blonde by picking her up in a piggyback carry and heading out to the his Team's room. He shuddered at the feeling of the… whatever it was on his back, but he knew that he'd be cleaning the stuff soon enough anyways.

"I...I'm sorry…" Noel told him on his back. Ragna sighed.

"Just do better next time, alright?" That didn't seem to set the record straight… but maybe it was all he could say to the small piece of Saya he still carried.

Substory Two: Spirited Study Hall

"...They really think that I can memorize all of these numbers and make techniques out of each and every Grimm?" Yang asked as she buried her head in her book and let out a low scream. She was with Weiss and her sister in the academy's library, trying to complete yet another assignment for their Grimm Studies class. This was their largest assignment yet on the subject and as such it wouldn't be due until friday of the following week, but the group decided that they should at least get started on the project while they had the chance.

"These details and tactics are going to be one of the most important things that you'll ever learn at the academy; if you don't learn these you could very easily wind up dead," Weiss instructed as she too looked over her book, taking notes methodically and with perfect handwriting.

"Ugh I knooooow," Yang whined. "But memorizing stuff like this isn't my strong suit…"

"Come on sis, I can help you!" Ruby offered with a big smile on her face as she pumped her fist into the air. "I've already read a ton ahead!"

"Oh, in that case do you think I could join in your studying darlings?" came a rather flowery voice that caused Weiss to cringe hard. Amane Nishiki who had been responsible for her forced dance had been the one to speak and he was accompanied by both Jin Kisaragi (wearing reading glasses) and Tsubaki Yayoi (no comment).

"You sure can! Pull up a seat!" Ruby said with a welcoming smile.

"He just called us darlings!" Weiss hissed, while trying to remain quiet due to fact that they were still in a library.

"It's Amane, calling someone darling is probably like saying hello," Ruby figured.

"Right you are my dear," the dancer said with joyous laughter.

"Don't be proud of that!" Weiss vented before looking at Jin who didn't look like he would give them the time of day and Tsubaki, who only seemed to be waiting on Jin. "What about them?"

"Oh? Truth to be told my dear leader and I were headed here to complete the same assignment before Tsubaki found us and asked to join… Of course, I figure that it might be best to leave these two lovebirds to their own studying."

"L-Lovebirds?" Tsubaki repeated with a blush.

"Tch, quit your antagonizing; it's annoying and unproductive," Jin told Amane, cold and as harsh as always. The Kisaragi Heir's eyes scanned the library, the busy library… the crowded, busy library… the FULL, crowded, and busy library. "...I'm afraid there's nowhere else to sit."

"C'mon, we don't bite," Ruby tried to tell Jin as a joke to lighten the mood. Whatever ice talents Jin had been shown to possess up until that point completely paled to the chilling glare he sent toward Beacon's youngest huntress. "I-!"

"Now now, let's all get along," Amane said, trying to be the voice of reason in his own flirtatious way. Jin eventually conceded and took a seat, as did Tsubaki as she made sure to sit next to Jin and Weiss. "A question though, where is the other member of your team… Blake I believe?"

"She said she was going to try and get some training in so she'd take care of the assignment later," Yang informed on her partner's behalf. "I wouldn't say she's bitter, buuuuuut… well, yesterday was sort of a wake up call for her."

"Yester-? Ah, I see then," Amane said, as he and everyone else at his table gained the reason.

The library group managed to make some strides in their studies; it was long hard and all around grueling work. They had managed to go a solid half hour before Yang flopped forward in yet another groan.

"Ugh…" she sighed sadly. "This would be so much easier if Ragna was here…"

"My brother?" Jin asked, a harsh glare beneath his thin framed glasses. "What makes you think of him, woman?"

"The name's Yang, Ice Boy," the heavy hitter responded in kind along with returning her own glare. Everyone else backed up at the obvious tension between the two. Though there wasn't a clear victor to the trade off, Yang eventual gave a short sigh as she dropped her scowl. "Not only is has he read ahead really far, he… he just seems to get Grimm studies, I mean like he could write his own book on the stuff."

"Is that so? He's that informed on the subject?" Jin questioned before shaking his head. "Hmph, I never knew."

"You didn't? Aren't the two of you supposed to be brothers?" Weiss Schnee asked. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ever further as Jin slowly turned to face the silver haired maiden. Jin's glare in his emerald green eyes was absolutely menacing as Weiss had to fight hard not to tremble beneath his unending malice.

"If you must know, my brother and I had been separated for the better part of a decade," he informed. Though his tone was steady, it was so emotionless that it would have been more bearable if he was showing some form of rage. "Don't comment on things that you don't have the information on; as an heir to the Schnee legacy you should know that much." Give Jin one thing; he knows how to hit you where it hurts.

"Then tell us all here one thing," Yang demanded as her scowl returned to match Jin's. "Why the hate for the guy? Do you have something to prove or is this just some sort of twisted game to you?"

"Guys… can't we get along and save this for later?" Ruby asked trying to dissolve the tension. Already there were several students peeking out from behind the shelves, watching the drama unfold.

"Why not let them try to work things out? It would make things easier for your dear friend, would it not?" Amane asked, still not lacking his flirtatious composure.

"Maybe… but… shouldn't Ragna at least be here to weigh in?" the young huntress tried to suggest. That one last mention of his brother's name seemed to be the final straw for Jin. Collecting his books, the Kisaragi heir rose to his feet and began to walk away, though he did stop for a moment.

"Since you seem dead set on hounding me about this, I'll be forward; I do have something to prove to my brother, but that is something between us," he tone was serious and even though they couldn't look him in the eye, everyone at the table knew this wasn't something he could just make. "Honestly though… I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bitter about him abandoning me."

"A-Abandoning? What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss demanded, but Jin wasn't in the mood for saying anything further on the subject. "Hey!" The blonde said nothing on his way out of the Library. As expected, Tsubaki then rose from her chair to follow him.

"I doubt that what I can say will change your mind, but just be aware that my partner will cause you nothing but trouble… He does that wherever he goes."

"Biased much?" Yang muttered as the study session seemed to only be going from bad to worse.

"Hardly… he told me as much when I first met him." And then there were four, the three girls of RWBY (RWY) and one Amane Nishiki who remained an observer to the events.

"...I don't think we're going to be getting much studying done now," Ruby said with a sigh. "Maybe we should call it quits for today everyone, our assignment isn't due for a while anyways."

"Right, we should ask Ragna for help and let him weigh in," Yang said, clearly happy that she wasn't going to be in the library for much longer. What she wasn't happy with was the hesitation that she saw from Weiss and Ruby. "Come on, don't tell me you actually believe what those two were saying about him?"

"I'm not saying that I believe them… but Jin is Ragna's brother, he's told us all as much. Also, he's never been to open about his past. We don't really know all that much about him, do we?"

"It's not like everyone's spilled their guts about life before the academy when they first met anyways," Yang reminded with an eye roll. "I know enough about him to know not to listen to that Ice Boy or Tsubaki. Come on, Ruby do you think Ragna's a bad person just because Jin said one thing that's bad about him?"

"No… but maybe we should give him some room, it looks like he's been having a bad day dealing with his team and his punishment already," the team leader said, remembering what had happened when she'd run into Ragna earlier in the hallway. "I promised I'd save him a seat at dinner later, so let's just see him then."

"Right, right," Yang said with a sigh. "Guess we'll have to hold off for a bit."

Substory Three: Dark Vengeance

'What am I doing here besides wasting my time?' Blake thought to herself as she looked at the training dummies in front of her. They were covered in the cuts that she'd made with Gambol Shroud, both close up as a cleaver and in its chain whip form. Compared to how she normally was though, not only was her aim off but it also looked like her slashes were far from clean and didn't cut half as deep as it normally would. Even her gunfire was starting to miss, further adding to the cat fanus's ire.

'I should probably quit while I'm still ahead,' she sighed as she put her weapons away and began putting the dummy parts that she'd cut into the used bin so that the Academy could try and salvage what parts they could for new dummies. 'What's wrong with me? I've never taken a loss this badly… even when it was to Kagura of all people.'

The events weighing heavily on Blake's mind had happened just the day prior. Directly after Jaune's comeback fight with Cardin, Ragna had been instructed to face off against her in his first one-on-one mock fight. Despite being the quiet and shadowy member of RWBY, Blake was ever so slowly starting to trust the Reaper, at least enough that he would give her a fair fight without her asking… what she'd gotten was a quick loss in under a minute without so much as seeing Ragna's weapon transform (something she'd only heard about from Ruby) or his still unrevealed Semblance. The Reaper had told her that it had been a good fight (his exact wording had more swearing to it), but she couldn't help but feel a little bitter at the events.

'Maybe I should have gone to the library with the rest of my team instead of wasting my time in the training room,' she thought bitterly to herself, realizing that now not only was she behind them on the assignment that they'd been given, her mood had worsened and her skills seemed to have taken a hit that day as well. 'If I can-'

"DAMMIT! RIGHT IN MY EYE!" came familiar swearing from down the hallway. Though the doors were closed, there was no mistaking the vulgar mouth of Ragna the Bloodedge coming from one of the side kitchens with a Closed for Maintenance sign outside. Per usual, he sounded pretty pissed meaning that Blake should give him some room. "COME ON! MY OTHER EYE?!" ...then again, how worse could she make his attitude? Giving a sigh as she figured she could at least try to improve her mood by talking things out with the Reaper, she opened the door only to be meet with an overbearing smell of cleaning supplies along with something much more foul.

"Ugh, what is that?" she gagged as she covered her nose to try and block out the scent. Though Ragna had made some headway since Noel's 'accident' much of the wall remained completely splattered with deadly goop. The Reaper himself was covered in chunks of the stuff and was swearing as he tried to find a way to break the material off of the wall. It took a moment, but he paused once he noticed her staring at him.

"Didn't you see the sign outside? If I were you I'd book it the hell out of here; this stuff is nasty," the Reaper told her, right before his expression turned dire. "Look ou-!"

SPLAT!

Ragna's warning came too late as a large chunk of the goop that Blake had been disgusted with fell straight onto her head, covering her head and her bow in its disgusting texture. She gave a high pitched yelp and a shudder as she leapt in the air before rapidly clawing at the stuff to try and get it off before it could set. Luck wasn't on her side and the stuff seemed to stick in chunks.

"...Well this stinks," Ragna muttered as he put his current work on hold for a moment in order to try and help Blake. "Not gonna lie, this will hurt."

He was honest at least, as Ragna tried his best to pry off the material from her hair Blake tried her best to fight back a pained scream. After a few minutes of this, she slowly started to get used to the pain, but that wasn't making it any better. As gentle as Ragna was trying to be, Blake still had to wince every time he so much as tugged on a clump.

"At least I'm not doing this with Yang," he said with a touch of dark humor. "She probably would've put me through the wall by now…"

"Not like it would've mattered much to you," Blake told him as she gave a short pained grunt as Ragna again pulled at her hair.

"Hey even if I'm a hardass that doesn't mean I like to be put in pain," he told her with a chuckle, but Blake wasn't smiling. "Alright, something's on your mind… what's up with you?" Ragna asked as he took a small knife to try and cut the thick material.

"Can I ask you something?" Ragna didn't say anything, only giving her a hesitant nod. "Why don't you use your semblance? I've never once seen you use it since you've gotten to this academy… Is it because you think you're so much stronger than everyone else?"

"...This is about yesterday isn't it?" Ragna asked as he seemed to again find his way through Blake's intent. "Look, I told you that you gave me a good fight, what more do you want?"

"I fought with you with everything I had, but you still managed to beat me in under a minute," Blake told him. "It… it felt a little demeaning…"

"Yeah, well it's not like I'm perfect in a fight anyways. Remember when you and I teamed up that one time?" Ragna asked, focusing harshly as he had to struggle on a piece of Noel's cooking while trying to not to hurt Blake more than he already had.

Yesterday hadn't been the first time that the two were in the ring at the same time, in fact on one of the Random Partner days the two had been tasked to team up alongside each other against Nora and another girl named Nebula who was a leader of her own team, NDGO. They'd won that fight rather handedly even if Nora proved to pack a decent punch even without charging up. The problem with their team had been Ragna's seemingly skilless style of brute force and Blake calling him out on his reckless nature, though she and the rest of RWBY had to admit that they had made a force to be reckoned with.

"I guess not…" Blake said softly to his earlier question. Ragna just rolled his eyes before he managed to get the last few pieces out.

"Well there's that done with, but your hair's probably going to smell like the stuff until you take a long shower," the Reaper warned. "That and… your bow's still got a lot of gunk on it."

"Great…" the cat said with a sigh knowing the trouble she would be in without it.

"You got a spare?" Ragna asked as he threw the bits he'd gotten off of Blake into the trash.

"I have a few in my room, but I'd rather not walk down the hallways with this… stuff on it," she admitted. "...Is it bad?"

"Pretty damn bad, yeah…" the Reaper had to admit. "I can bar the door if you want to try and scrape off what you can here and now. Might save you a little face at least."

"That seems like a good idea," Blake admitted as Ragna headed over and locked the doors by putting a broom through the handles. Undoing her bow, she managed to take off the piece and reveal her short cat ears for the first time in a while.

"...So that's what your ears look like," Ragna noted as he tried to get back to his work, Blake showing a powerful blush as she realized he was seeing her her Fanus features. "...Cute."

'Cute!?' she thought to herself, not sure whether to by angry or embarrassed, but settling for a mix of the two. "Eyes to yourself!"

"Jeeze, it was just a compliment. Sorry if I didn't know you were so protective of those things," he told her with any eye roll as he resumed scraping the walls.

"There's a reason I wear this bow," she muttered as she tried to get off what gunk she could in the sink, not expecting much of a miracle.

"Yeah, well I already knew what you were, so big whoop… and honestly I don't see why you have to hide it. There are Fanus' on campus aren't there?"

"And they're prosecuted, same as anywhere else," Blake reminded him. "Remember that girl Cardin was bullying?"

"How could I not? That was the first time you said more than two words to me," Ragna bit back humorlessly. "And what happened? I beat his ass into the ceiling, that's what. You seen anyone pulling crap like that since then?"

"No… but I still see what people can do. If they don't disdain us, then they fear us," Blake sighed. "It's always been like that."

"...This have something to do about the White Fang?"

Blake froze at Ragna's question, sweat starting to pool on her forehead. First the fact that she was a Fanus and now this… was there nothing that she could secret from him? Ragna noticed the reaction and just shook his head and continued his work.

"Secret's safe with me… I don't any reason to rat you out and you've never been an ass to me," the Reaper told her, noticing Blake's scowl. "Damn… what the hell I gotta say so that you know I'm not looking for leverage?"

"It's a little hard to believe you when you've got all of your secrets," Blake admitted trying for some kind of answer about Ragna's self. Maybe it was curiosity, maybe it really was a need to 'get even'... maybe it was something else. Ragna sighed, trying to figure out how to say this.

"I… I like you, Blake. I like you a lot actually," he admitted. Ragna turned and those he trouble looking her dead in the eyes, he still managed while scratching the back of his head with something of a pathetic smile. "Maybe you got some shit you're still trying to hide, but… at the same time I think you're still awesome. You got guts and you won't walk away from all of the shit hitting the fan… I guess what I mean is I admire you."

"Oh… well," Blake wasn't sure what to say. This didn't exactly feel all like a confession and truthfully if anything she'd always seen Ragna doing this sort of thing with either Yang or Ruby (maybe Weiss, but eh). She couldn't say that she had those feelings for him… but maybe it was starting to become a little easier to Ulitvg Zwzn open up around him. "I-"

"And that's why I don't use my semblance on you."

Ragna interruption was quick and harsh, immediately breaking her out of the idea that he was trying to confess his feeling like a scene from one of her romance books. His tone and complexion had turned deadly serious, made all the darker by his contrasting hair color and skin tone.

"It… dammit, I feel like a total hypocrite, but there's a lot about my Semblance I just can't talk about," he admitted. "One thing I can tell you is that my master just had to take one look at it… He took one look and he said it was probably the deadliest Semblance known to Remnant."

"It's that powerful?" Blake asked, realizing the Ragna might've been holding onto a powerful ability.

"It's that dangerous; to both friend and foe," Ragna told her as he thought back to his days training with Jubei. "My teacher could only tell me about how to master my semblance when it got stronger, he didn't stay for when I tried to put it into practice… I can only hope that I've got it under control for when I need to put it to work."

"You mean it's like an ace up your sleeve?"

"In a weird way, yeah; I won't hesitate to bring it out if the cost of keeping it hidden is me dying," the Reaper conceded. "But besides that…" His fist shook at how hard he was gripping it and he grit his teeth so hard it became painful. "There's only one asshole out there that I'm ready to use it on…"

'...He… he's fighting for revenge then…' Blake thought to herself. 'I guess given what I know about him and the way he acts that makes some sense.'

"I hope you're happy, now you've got some dirt on me," Ragna told her with a sigh. "Do me a favor will ya and tell Ruby and the others? They don't need to hear this just yet."

"And with you telling me that I shouldn't be keeping secrets?" Blake accused as she looked to her ribbon something that she hadn't even started to clean.

"...Alright, how about this then," Ragna said to her as an idea started to form in his mind. "I'll make you a deal… as soon as you're willing to talk to your friends about who you really are, I'll be there to spill my secrets." He gave a small smirk, at first it was his usual snarky one, but then Blake saw it slowly turn to something more well meaning. "And I'll have your back when you need it, that's a promise."

"...I guess I could accept that," Blake said, feeling something she wasn't quite sure how to interpret. That was when she noticed Ragna had extended his hand to her, his pinky finger outstretched. "You're serious?"

"Erk! Sorry…" Ragna said with a blush as he brought the hand down. "It was a way a used to make promises with my… with someone close to me."

'Another secret he's keeping…' Blake thought to herself before raising her own hand and stretched her pinky finger out. Ragna didn't have a response, only shaking it with her own. 'Guess I'll have to wait and see if he can talk then too…'

Later

Once Blake had finally managed to scrub her ribbon down and had left to hopefully change her bow out for a fresher one, Ragna had managed to knuckle down and finally make it through cleaning the disgusting kitchen. It was tiring, demeaning, and for anyone else it might've be a little traumatizing (Noel was the one who'd cooked after all), but he'd finally managed to finish. Knowing that he couldn't half-ass this with someone like Goodwitch dolling out his punishment, he'd also made good to polish the counters and equipment until it shone brightly, making sure it would be ready for its next use.

"Glad to see that you took your work seriously," Ragna heard the professor say from behind him as he admired his handiwork. Despite her compliment, it was quite clear that Goodwitch wasn't going to be giving him a smile, understandable considering the only reason he'd had to work here in the first place was as a form of punishment. "You were in here for quite some time."

"...Trust me when I say that the stuff was near impossible to get out," Ragna said with a sigh. "Am I off the clock?"

"You are, but I'm afraid you're not free to go just yet," Goodwitch told him. The Reaper tried not to groan; what the hell was it now? "Professor Ozpin has asked to speak with you."

"What does he want?" he questioned disdainfully, feeling he'd already had to put up with enough crap for a single day.

"I'm afraid I don't know, I'm only supposed to bring you to him." That struck Ragna as odd because as elusive and enigmatic as the professor was, he always seemed to keep Goodwitch well informed. "If you will..."

Seeing as he didn't have much of a choice, he began following Goodwitch through the hallways to Ozpin's office. She wasn't talking to him at all on the way there and that suited him fine… until he took a look at the clock and realized what time it was.

"Damn, almost time for dinner," he swore, something which Goodwitch had long since given up on trying to keep him from doing. "Is this gonna take long, 'cause I kinda made a promise to a friend of mine about dinner."

"That's up to Ozpin, and please… try and show a little respect. Being Jubei's apprentice doesn't give you free reign of the campus."

"Tch, you say to the guy who just had to put in two days of work because of that," Ragna muttered.

"As long as you're aware of your standings," the teacher said to him, only for Ragna to give another groan.

Substory Four: A Deal

Ozpin's office was nothing new to Ragna; he'd already been here twice before, once to register for the academy with a note from his master and an additional second time immediately after he'd cleared the entrance exam. Ozpin was waiting for him looking out of his window with a cup of warm coffee in his hands. He turned to Ragna as he entered and gave a small smile.

'Well… it sure as hell doesn't look like I'm in trouble,' Ragna thought to himself with a little relief. "You wanted to see me?"

"I did," Ozpin said casually before motioning to his coffee pot and tea kettle. "Can I offer you something to drink?"

"...No thanks, hoping to head to dinner after this anyways," he told him passively, though a bit of his tone did indicate that he just wanted to get out of here. Goodwitch was wise enough to pick up on that and gave a slight glare at Ragna for his attitude.

"In that case I hope to not keep you too long," Ozpin said as he took a seat. "Tell me, have you spoken to Jaune D'Arc since his match yesterday?"

"Only once, just wanted to thank me for helping him," the Reaper informed.

"I see, and do you know what he's been doing since then?" Ozpin asked.

"I haven't seen him, but from the sound of things he's been trying to get stronger by working with the rest of his team," Ragna answered again, wondering when Ozpin would decide to get to the point.

"Yes, Goodwitch had told me about the private lessons you'd been giving him, and while I'm sure that you've been told several times that you might've done this in a smarter matter-"

"I get it already, jeeze," he interrupted. Ozpin didn't seem to mind and only smiled wistfully.

"I had a feeling… By the by, did you know that Jaune had faked his entrance credentials to get into the academy?" Ragna didn't respond. "I hadn't called him out on it, as I was curious above all else… but now it seems that he might be earning his place here, with a little help from you of course."

"...And you're telling me this why?" the Reaper asked.

"Well, let's just bring up your own records for a minute shall we?" Ozpin said as he brought out Ragna's files and turned through them. "Despite your attitude suggesting you to be a delinquent, your grades are all above average to varying degrees. You're even at the top of your class in Grimm Studies and you've gone undefeated in the Mock Battles, no doubt a side effect of your time traveling the outlands with Jubei,"

'Damn, I'm actually getting some praise here, what the hell is this?'

"Though… to some degree I think you could afford to do better. There's one area that you're struggling in and that's likely dragging the rest of you down even further; your relationship with you team."

'This shit again.' "Look about Tsubaki-"

"You were right to ask that I keep her here; much of her standing in the academy is aligned with yours. She's even broken up many fights and has taken a role in preventing racism toward Faunus at the academy. Her marks are all strong and she's an able combatant… yet the two of you can't seem to get along if your lives depend on it which is nothing to say of what happens when your brother is involved."

"...She's never really given me a chance and Jin… well there's a reason he's like this," the Reaper sighed. "The rest of my team is… well they aren't much help. Azrael just want to find a reason to go toe to toe with me and Noel's… Noel."

"Which is why I called you in here today; I'd like to make something of a deal with you," Ozpin told him as he took out a few forms along with a pen. "There a small half room that we keep in the dorm just down the hall from where you currently stay. This one hasn't been used in a couple of months so you'll have to clean it yourself if you decide to move in, but given your work today I don't that will be much of an issue for you."

"Let me get this straight. You're offering me a room that I can stay in… a room that's separate from the rest of my team?" Ragna wasn't the only one surprised at the proposal, even Goodwitch herself seemed to be taken aback at Ozpin's idea.

"Indeed, but there are three conditions that I'll need for you to follow," Ozpin told him. "First off this is an effort to help you perform better without the needless stress. If I see a decline in your grades or that you're not taking your academy work seriously then I'll reconsider and move you back immediately."

'That's fair so far,' Ragna thought to himself.

"Second, this is only going to be a temporary measure so you'll have to get on fair ground with your team eventually. You have until the beginning of next semester to get everyone to see eye to eye with each other… and moving you out of your current room may already cause some tension."

"More work for me then." 'That's definitely going to be the hardest part to this.' "And what's the third thing?"

"An event for the academy, one that I need your help with," Ozpin told him. "Tell me, in the time you travelled the outlands did you ever see a Grimm's Day festival?"

"...In a few small villages, yeah."

Grimm's Day was a bit of an… odd celebration. It wasn't exactly one that people would look forward to every year or even participate in, but it wasn't outright outlawed either. The point to these festivals was that adults would go out into the city dressing as the Grimm-like costumes. Considering that the Grimm were seen as such monster, these costumes would often look nothing like them or even look so exaggerated that they were hard to take seriously and easy to have a laugh at. Another part of this ceremony was the children that would often dress up as a more mythical take as a Hunter or Huntress and would run around pretending to slay the creatures. There was some resentiment with the celebration, like with the safety risks of dressing up as Grimm and as such these festivals were something of a rarity.

"I want you to organize and host a Grimm's Day festival at the academy," Ozpin told the Reaper. Seeing Ragna was ready to protest, the professor put his index finger up to instruct the student to hear him out. "While you've never struck me as a party student, I can only assume that such an activity could help to integrate you into Beacon's social circles all the more. Pair that with your mentioned talent in Grimm Studies and you make for an obvious choice."

"Come on, you can't really believe that," Ragna muttered. "I don't know anything about decorating, getting costumes ready, planning events. Why me?"

"I never said you'd be doing such a thing alone," Ozpin told him before smirking. "Certainly you've made at least one or two friends while you've been here? I'm sure if you went to them for help they could lend a helping hand?" Ozpin then took a long sip of his coffee. "I'll be sending you the details such as budget in supplies in the coming weeks. Speak to Goodwitch to exchange keys after you've had dinner and you can move yourself to your new room… though that would make for even more cleaning today."

"Tch, not like that's a problem; I'd move in now if Ruby hadn't already promised me a seat at dinner with her team," the Reaper muttered as he headed into the elevator and the door closed behind him.

"...His attitude still needs some adjustment," Goodwitch said to the headmaster.

"That much we can both agree with, but let's see what he can do with these gifts that he's been given," Ozpin said before turning serious. "Though… I can't help but find one thing odd in all of this. The parallels between Ragna and Team RWBY… and the Story of the Seasons."

"If I remember correctly, this was something that you helped to make when you talked to Miss Xiao Long. Are you really that surprised?"

"Maybe not… but then again there were already signs before our discussion. I simply wanted to make sure that Ragna's Grimm attracting nature didn't go out of control. But you can't deny the similarities."

"...I don't wish to take something this serious at face value," Goodwitch said. "If you'll excuse me, I need to find that key we promised him."

Nodding in acknowledgement Ozpin took out a few additional sheets of paper, many of them were listed important via the sending of one James Ironwood. No doubt something about the progress he was making in his mobile weaponry development. Ozpin began looking over the documents, but couldn't help but let his mind wander.

Meanwhile in the cafeteria, Ragna had finally made his way to dinner, albeit still covered in some of the gunk from Noel's cooking. Ragna had already been plenty late to dinner, so Team RWBY had been kind enough to set him up with a ready made plate. Ruby had caught sight of him and eagerly waved him over to her table. Yang of course made a cringe worthy joke to him about janitor duties while Weiss had to comment on the Reaper's current smell. Blake remained passive as usual, reading her book while adjusting a backup ribbon… though she did send him a small smile. The Reaper chuckled as he took his seat, readying himself for whatever insanity was going to happen during dinner.

"One thing's for certain," Ozpin mused back at his desk. "This will almost certainly be an interesting semester…"

Author's Note:

Hey guys, managed to get a chapter out by Friday! YES! I may have gone silent for a while, but I like to think that I'm slowly getting back on track. At this pace expect a chapter either by next week or the following depending on the chapter's length.

Well this is another experimental chapter that I wanted to try out. Originally when I came up with the idea I had a very different direction for how this chapter would go, but then I realized that I needed to make sure several factors were set up.

Since I promised a special 'Halloween Update,' I'll likely try and post another one or two chapters before that deadline to make sure I'm ready. Now for some review responses.

DarkBeast42: Heh, interesting alternate take, but I think Tsubaki's cruelty is a little too 'in your face.' Ragna's a bit of a pessimist at times, hence why I have him insult himself, but maybe I have had him do it a little much lately.

Wlyman2009: Because everyone was too obsessed with 'Bullet Proof Frying Pans.' Not much plugging in today's reviews though.

EpicLinkSam: Sans the bicycle, but pretty much.

SomeGuy and silversean25: ...There might be a reason to that, just hang in there.

The Unplanner: Heh, I sort of had a bit of a smile on my face when I was writing Jaune blocking Cardin's first strike.

Althea Sirus: I'm all for it myself… just as long as they don't add Senran Kagura, but I'm going to have to wait and see for that one.

ragriz: Eh, everyone has their own opinion on Jaune and as long as they're not obnoxious about it I can certainly understand where you're coming from.

makeanotherone: All things to consider down the line I'm sure.

Guest(1): Soon enough, I've been going back to rewatch the anime and iron out some details here and there.

WideBrimmedHat: DON'T SHOVE GRANDMA!

Guest (2): Again, more things to consider down the road.

fernandamicmichelleraya: That they do, even in Cross Tag's story mode Ragna's looking out for her… and the P4 cast when she was too busy shooting at him.

Until next time! Ciao!