Grimm Reaper of Remnant

by Storm VII

Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long have completed their BEACON entrance exam to officially form Team RWBY. Fate has much in store for them as two especially menacing teams were also accepted in Ozpin's evaluations; Team JACK led by the cold Jin Kisaragi... and Team RAIN led by the enigmatic Ragna the Bloodedge. [RagnaxHarem] ARC TWO FINISHED!

15. Black Reunion

"Guess today's the day they finally get here," one Kagura Mutsuki said, feeling quite pleased as he laid on his bed inside his team room, reading from one of his textbooks while Jin sat on his bed writing his own notes on the homework. It was Friday evening and the group was waiting to hear from Noel and Tsubaki so they could get their 'class reunion' underway. "I don't think Noel was ever going to let us forget about today, she's been darn chipper ever since she's heard the news."

"I can't say that I really blame her," Celica said as she combed her hair, one of the few times that it wasn't done in it's usual ponytail. "The way Noel's been so excited to see her old friends, I've been getting eager to meet them myself! They sound like really great people!"

"I'd curb your enthusiasm slightly," Jin warned as he adjusted his glasses. "The both of them can be somewhat… eccentric and they both have fairly odd quirks to them."

"Eh, even with those I'm looking forward to seeing both of them," Kagura said with his own smile. "You think they've both gotten bigger?"

"Kagura…" Jin responded with a sigh at his teammate's womanizing nature.

"I'm confused, if it hasn't been that long since you've seen them, shouldn't they both be around the same height?" Celica asked tilting her head to the side, as both boys stared at her with a sense of awe.

"...How in the seven hells has he not corrupted you?" Jin demanded as the dark haired member of JACK glared daggers at him. "That aside, has anyone seen Amane today?"

"Apparently he has somewhere else to be today," Kagura said, slowly returned his attention to his book and trying to return his attention to the pages. "...Something about helping Team JNPR."

'That sounds troublesome,' Jin thought to himself.

-At that very moment-

"AAAAAUUUGGHHH!"

"Jaune, just try to bear with it!" his partner, Pyrrha, tried to encourage. "This is just stretching for a warm-up! It's important!"

"And Leeeeean!" Amane said joyfully, using his ribbons to control Jaune and force him all the way to the right, mirroring the stretching position in front of the blonde.

"I've never been in as much pain as I am right now!" Jaune screamed as the ribbons forced his body to move a way he never imagined it could.

"And Baaaaaaaack!" the dancer continued, forcing Jaune to lean back and cause him to shout his head off even further as he was proven wrong.

'And here I thought that stretching was supposed to be good for your health,' the level headed Lie Ren thought to himself, sweating slightly at the sight of Jaune in so much pain that his face was starting to get red, matching the red-based white-striped tracksuit he was wearing.

"And nooooow…" Amane began with a sigh song voice.

"Break! Break! Breeeeeeaaaak!" Jaune screamed in his current predicament. "Let me goooooooo!" Amane and Pyrrha gave soft sighs at his outbursts while Ren was rightly concerned for the current state of Jaune's body.

"Let me try something…" Nora said sweetly to Ren as she walked forward to Jaune as Amane continued to hold him in place with his ribbons whilst posing. "So Jaune… you don't like stretching?"

The blonde shook his head repeatedly, his face begging to be let go.

"But you know, you have to do this right? It's for your own good," she continued, her bright smile seeming a bit misplaced at the moment.

He didn't answer, nor did he look Nora in the eyes as he felt guilty for his own lack of ability.

"That's okay if you don't want to continue stretching, I always have plan B."

Jaune gave her a quizzical look; Nora's plans were almost never practical, most of the time they were barely sensible.

"If you want results REEEEEEAAAL fast... I can always go and grab Ragna."

...Jaune felt his blood go cold. He remember those beatings only too well and even if such treatment had earned him his first victory at the Academy, that was an experience he never wanted to have again in his lifetime. Turning to Pyrrha, he was horrified to see that it looked like she was actually considering it.

"Stretching… please…" he begged, his voice hardly a whisper.

"Good choice," Nora said with a smile before turning to Amane who was still expertly holding the pose. "He's all yours."

"Excellent darling," the dancer responded with an excited smile on his face. "And from the back… we go fowaaaaaard."

'KILL. ME.'

-Back with Team JACK-

"Does anyone else hear screaming?" Kagura commented, pausing in his reading as he strained his ear to listen. All he heard was a series of knocking on the team's front door. "That must be Tsubaki and Noel…" Placing his book off to the side, he rose to his feet and opened the door only to find it wasn't the Yayoi heir waiting for him on the other side.

"Yo," Ragna said casually, his posture having a slight slouch to it as he waited outside the door. At first, Kagura figured he was standing with such informal posture because that was what he normally did and found that it would suit him just fine… but now, after classes, there were heavy bags under the Reaper's eyes indicating a lack of sleep. ...Something that Kagura had a sneaking suspicion towards.

"...Late night?" the Mutsuki heir ask, remembering the situation he and Ruby had come across a few nights ago.

"Not really, mostly just having trouble sleeping," Ragna told him, his tone too casual for it to have been a blatant lie. Looking past Kagura, he caught a glance of his brother who hadn't risen from his work just yet, even at his presence. "Jin, you got a minute?"

His older sibling's words sounded serious, so the blonde nodded as he made his way to his feet. Celica had finished combing and braiding her hair in a hurry as it looked like she had a lot to say to the Reaper, but a quick and authoritative glare from her leader told her that she should do otherwise. Closing the door to Team JACK's room and entering Ragna's own personal room, Jin took a small glance around his older brother's living arrangements, taking special note of the small bonsai tree as well as the small, untouched plate of Atlas cookies that were likely several days old.

"So… what's this about then?" the ice user asked, not cruelly but with enough force that his brother wouldn't have any choice of backing out of this.

"Shit… I've been thinking about how to bring this up so much lately that I barely got any idea of where to start," Ragna began, not looking Jin straight in the eye as he mulled over the options. "We... we've never talked much about things before our first home, did we?"

"...In truth there never really was much more to talk about," Jin told him calmly. "I was only four when we were rescued from that hellhole, so I barely have any memory of that place. Most of what I remember from our early childhood is the time we spent at our mother's church." His eyes narrowed into a small scowl. "...Celica though…"

"You see it too?" the Reaper asked, allowing their conversation to get sidetracked for only a moment since this too was an important subject.

"I can't help but notice the similarities to the woman who raised us, but she's too old to be her daughter." He shook his head. "I've asked Celica about her past on occasion, and the most I've understood is that she has some form of amnesia… it seems a little too convenient if you ask me, even though she doesn't seem to be lying."

"...She seems to like me for whatever reason; not sure how I feel about that," Ragna admitted with a sigh, and Jin could only softly nod. "Back to what I was getting to though, I was out late a couple of nights ago."

"Right, Kagura mentioned that you weren't in your room then," Jin said as he thought back.

"Tch, couldn't keep his mouth shut about that, could he?" the Reaper muttered. "The truth is this wasn't the first time I've been out so late, I've been going out into the outlands every so often to hunt Grimm, something to keep my skills up and such."

"...You could always come to me for a match one of these days," Jin advised, a small smirk forming on his lips.

"Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you?" Ragna retorted, a much snarkier smirk forming on his own lips. "But…" His face went to its familiar serious expression. "While I was out that particular night, I found someone who was able to control the Grimm with these weird gems. Not really sure how those things worked, but... they said they were part of Project Grimm Eater."

A long and pregnant silence.

"...And they weren't lying?" Jin asked.

"Would've been hard for them. That project wasn't exactly public knowledge and they knew enough to ask what my experiment number was," Ragna told his brother, his voice hauntingly toneless. "Also, the power boost that they got when they literally took a bite out of a Grimm was more than a little telling."

"...I'm pretty sure that's different from how your powers are supposed to work," Jin said humorlessly. "What happened to them?"

"Dead. Had this self destruct part to that Grimm controlling gem to keep 'em from talking. The only thing I was able to get was the name Salem, sounds like their boss or something." He sighed. "That mean anything to you?"

"I can't say that it does I'm afraid," the Ice user admitted. "...And here I thought that we were the only ones to survive that place."

"There's just too much about that shitstorm that I still don't know about, even after I scoped out the ruins during my travels," Ragna muttered before he shook his head. "I just thought I'd let you know, keep you in the loop since it concerns you."

"Since it concerns me?" Jin repeated, the slight edge in his voice made it seem like Ragna had said something wrong. "...Does it concern Team RWBY?"

"No, and I haven't told them anything about what I've been doing," the Reaper defended, wondering just where Jin was going to lie his accusations .

"...You should tell them," he finished, a suggestion that Ragna had never thought he'd hear from his brother. Get RWBY involved with something? Was Jin feeling alright? Before Ragna could counter that observation, there was a small knock on his door.

"...It's open," Ragna told the person on the other side while giving Jin a look that told the blonde that this conversation wasn't over, The opening door revealed Noel and Tsubaki standing outside his small bedroom in their casual blouses and long skirts.

"Kagura told us that the two of you were talking with each other," Tsubaki said, the edge in her voice more one of worry for the situation than of aggression against the Reaper. "Are you oka... ready, are you both ready?"

"Both of us?" Jin asked as he turned to his brother. "You're coming today?"

"Yeah, Tsubaki invited me actually," Ragna told him, making Jin pleased that he'd asked his childhood friend to try and repair her relationship with the Reaper. Though…

"And when were you going to tell me?" Jin demanded from his brother, a slightly annoyed scowl in his eyes.

"Whenever your girlfriend decided to give you a heads up, I'd probably let you know five minutes or so after that," he told his younger sibling snarkily, tightening Jin's scowl, causing Tsubaki to roll her eyes, and putting a small blush on Noel's face at the girlfriend side of the comment.

"We should probably get going," Noel told them a little nervously, her feeling of discomfort towards both boys leaking through. "I don't want to miss Makoto and Mai when they get here."

"I doubt we'd ever be able to miss them with you…" Jin began to say, before pausing. It wasn't to stop himself from insulting Noel (though the fact that he did so was still noteworthy), but rather to gently grab his chin as he got an oddly thoughtful look in his eyes. "...Perhaps we should see if Team RWBY would like to come with us, to meet the students from Haven Academy."

"Jin?" Tsubaki asked, surprised that he'd come up with such an idea. "Are you sure that's-?"

"I think the more the merrier!" Noel told him with a bright smile. "We'll go grab them!" Grabbing Tsubaki by the arm, she dragged her friend off to go and invite the potential newcomers. Tsubaki unable to retaliate or deny as she was still processing Jin's suggestion.

"...Alright, what the hell was that?" Ragna demanded. "Even if there's less of a beef between all of us, you'd never invite them with us and with that comment you made earlier… You're planning something."

"I am," Jin told him coldly. He made his way to the door, but with Ragna slamming it in front of his face and glaring harshly, it was clear he wasn't leaving without giving an answer.

"Talk."

Even under his older sibling's aggressive tone and frightening visage, Jin didn't falter as he stared Ragna back, looking him square in the eye and refusing to blink. The two brother's gazes were so harsh anyone else in the room might've been crushed by the tension.

"...Don't think that just because I'm not actively try to stop you that I'm going to let you continue your stupid rush for revenge," Jin told him, leaving Ragna to grit his teeth as they were having this conversation again. "The day I surrender my fight to stop you is the day you come to your senses and abandon that self-destructive hunt for good."

"Is that why you're bringing RWBY along? Either I completely abandon what I've been trying to accomplish my entire life or you tell those four all of the dirty secrets of my past? That's your idea of stopping me?" the Reaper irately demanded. He didn't like threats from anyone, much less his own brother.

"You think I'd try something that petty? That plan is severely flawed and it's completely stupid." Jin's words did little to help their situation. "And more to the point, I don't have to go through with it… In fact I might not have to do anything when they're involved."

"What was that?" Ragna heatedly demanded as Jin opened the door to head out of the Reaper's room. "HEY!"

"Just ask yourself this brother; is chasing after a madman your entire life what you really want? Or are you just clinging to revenge because you're too cowardly to admit you want to stay with the people that care about you?" Ragna went uncomfortably still. His eyes widening as Jin attacked a part of his psyche he didn't even realize was still there. "As long as you're stopped... as long as you're saved… I don't care who has to do it."

Even though it was already time the group to leave, Ragna couldn't move from where he stood as Jin slowly walked outside to join the others and closed the door behind him. Taking over a minute to recover from his shock induced stare, he looked to his gloved right hand and grit his teeth so hard a drop of blood emerged. He then looked to his desk at the small plate of cookies that Ruby had given him, one of the few gifts he'd ever gotten. They lay there untouched and had likely already gone stale… but that wasn't the point. Giving an almost feral growl as he headed over to the plate, he raised his fist and channeled a nightmarish energy into his arm causing his small shockwave to emit from his very person. He needed to start by destroying these if he wanted to cut off these damn distractions. Raising his fist, he yelled as he drove it downwards with enough force to create powerful winds…

...which was enough to push the accompanying note in front of his face.

'Just… be safe, alright? I worry about you sometimes, all four of us do.

Your bestest friend,

Ruby'

He didn't move a muscle and the darkness continued to a terrible power around his arm body, his fist a hair's breadth from the plate. His heart was beating so hard that he could feel it in his ear drums. He started at the note a long moment, then another… gritting his teeth as he wanted to break Ruby's gift apart, just to convince himself that this was all just a means to an end… but he couldn't. The darkness dispelled, his arm dropped and all of the tension seemed to leave his body. His heart was still pounding like crazy, but he couldn't be bothered by it.

'...What the hell am I even doing?'

Taking one of the days-old cookies in his hand, he brought it up to his mouth and took a large bite out of it. It wasn't an easy thing to do; the cookies was so stale he had to work to get his teeth through it and the frosting on top of it had already spoiled. All of the flavors from the dough was gone and it felt cold as stone inside his mouth. All in all it was probably the worst thing he'd eaten in recent memory.

"...This tastes like ass," he muttered in disapproval at the item, but as went in for a second bite he was unable to stop himself from giving off a small smirk… and the single tear that came with it.

---

Grimm Reaper's of Remnant

Season One Finale

Crimson XV: Black Reunion

"If you'd been any later, you would have made all of us miss the arrival," Weiss Schnee scolded as the group walked through the city streets. "And we're inside the city, did you really have to bring both of your weapons with you? Clarent I would've understood, but people are looking at that oversized hunk of steel you call a sword."

"...It didn't make any sense to leave it behind," Ragna told his from her side, his words uncomfortably hollow with Weiss.

"Ragna…" Blake tried, only to point to her own chin. "You've got crumbs all over your face."

"...Sorry, tried to get a snack in before I left," the Reaper said as he non-committedly wiped his face with his jacket's sleeve.

"Are those the cookies from Atlas that I gave you days ago?" Ruby asked, giving Ragna a big smile to try and cheer her friend up. "And you probably ate them while they were super stale. You might be a bigger cookie freak than I am."

"...As long as you're aware of it," Ragna muttered, not bothering to turn to Ruby or acknowledge her.

'Alright, SCREW THIS!' Yang heatedly thought, not willing to let Ragna to be moopy for the day. "Hey, I sprained my ankle when I was training yesterday and it's starting to flare up…" As expected, he just gave her a gruff grumble. "So carry me, okay?"

"Carry y-? Gah!?" he grunted as Yang practically threw herself onto the Reaper's back, breaking him out of his demeanor and replacing it with only rage. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TRYING TO DO!? GET OFF!"

"Aw c'mon, it really hurts," Yang said sweetly as she held tight while Ragna tried to throw her off. "You're already carrying that giant sword with you wherever you go; I won't add much more weight."

"Weight isn't the problem! We're in public damn it!" he shouted, attracting attention from just about every person in the square. Not he only could he feel the gazes full of public disdain, he could also clearly feel Yang's… dragons.

"...Tsubaki?" Jin slowly began, turning to his childhood friend.

"Yes Jin?" she asked in turn, trying to keep her eyes off of the Reaper.

"Keep your head down, walk ahead, and we'll pretend we aren't affiliated with them."

"Understood."

"GET BACK HERE AND HELP ME YOU ASSHOLES!" Ragna shouted at his group of students as everyone tried to avoid association with the Reaper. "Yang, I swear to god…"

"Fine, fine," she said finally letting go and getting off of him (everyone still kept a respectable distance). "So… feeling better?"

"Not even close," Ragna told with a growl, his voice drenched with venom. "What the hell did you think that would accomplish?"

"Nothing much," Yang said to him casually before playfully tapping the Reaper's forehead with her knuckle. "Just keep in mind you're not allowed to be moody when you're around me…"

"I…" Ragna tried to say in response, only to have Yang cross her arms with a knowing smirk. "...Just don't expecting me to be all sunshine and rainbows."

"Aw, does baby need a kiss to make it feel better?"

"Kiss my ass," he harshly retorted, walking forward and keeping a safe distance from Yang… or as much as he could, she seemed be intentionally following him uncomfortably close by. "What's your-?" At that moment, he realized it wasn't just Yang following him closely by, but rather the entirety of RWBY looking his way in concern.

"Seriously, what's with you?" Ruby asked, her arms crossed as her face was laced with worry for the Reaper. "I don't think I've ever seen you this moody before and… well…"

"That's saying something," Weiss finished bluntly for her team leader. "I want an explanation."

Hoping he'd get some form of support, Ragna turned to Blake… only for the Cat Faunus to look at him just as expectantly as Weiss was. Looking between the four of them, it became evidently clear that Ragna wasn't getting out of this by just brushing them off… but he didn't have an idea of what to really tell them.

"Well…" he tried to begin. "I…"

"Ah! To think I would see my steadfast ally of justice so soon!" came a loud an boisterous voice that caused Ragna to sweat; this could be the worst thing for him right now.

"H-Hey Bang," the Reaper began nervously as the Ninja joined the group, oddly carrying a wrapped bouquet of lilies.

"Steadfast ally of justice?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow at the title.

"It's a long story…" Ragna tried to deny with a cringe worthy smile, leaving all of the girls to know he felt guilty about something.

"And what the tale it is!" Bang said, clearly not getting the message, that Ragna wanted to keep quiet. "There I was, on the cold hard ground, wounded and nearly entrapped by a swarm of monstrous Grimm and their dark master… With no time to recover I thought that night might be my last, but just as things looked their bleakest, this young man made his entrance and charged headfirst into a near army of fiends!"

"He's exaggerating…" Ragna tried to tell RWBY as all of them looked his way in surprise.

"So…" Ruby began, getting uncomfortably close to the his face. Ragna grew worried that she was going to accuse him of something… before he noticed the sparkles in her eyes. "You actually managed to SAVE a Huntsman?" she squealed. "Sooooo cool!"

"Uh…" Ragna began nervously as Bang gave a hearty laugh beside him. "I mean…"

"So that's where you were that night," she said as the pieces started to fall into place. She then gave a girlish laugh. "And Kagura actually thought you were out with some girl!"

'Why the hell does everyone think that's the most impossible thing that could happen?' a deadpanned Reaper thought to himself, not noticing as the three other faces of RWBY seemed… oddly thoughtful.

"Ah, am I a witness in your case against adultery?" Bang asked, leaving the younger scythe user to blush harshly.

"N-No! I'd never accuse Ragna of cheating on me! N-Not that we're close enough that it'd be considered cheating!"

"...Ouch," the Reaper said, his pride taking repeated harsh blows on this topic.

"Y-You know what I mean! You're my best friend!" Ruby screamed. Her face flushed completely crimson. She turned desperately to the rest of her team. "Feel free to step in guys…"

"Are you kidding? I'm starting to wish we'd brought popcorn," Blake denied, the scene before her even better than her newest novel. Her embarrassment hitting its peak, Ruby pulled her hood over her face and hid behind Ragna, the Reaper giving a sigh as he slowly patted his shorter friend's covered head.

"As good it was to catch up, I'm afraid I must be headed to the port Bang told the group before looking at the flowers and eagerly smiling. "MY BELOVED AWAITS!" Before anyone could question his words, the ninja took off in high speed sprint and was quickly gone from view.

"That… man seems to be quite the character…" Weiss tactfully decided.

"That's one way to put it," Ragna agreed, scratching the back of his head. "I sure as hell don't get him."

"...You mind clearing something up for us?" Yang asked. With everything else already working against him, Ragna just gave a sigh and a shrug. "So about your attitude… Does he have anything to do with it?" Under normal circumstances Ragna might've lied… but he decided that they at least deserved a partial answer.

"Nah, it...It was an… idea Jin brought up to me before we left." Ragna's words gave his friends a reason to scowl at Jin's thinking or to show concern concern that he was so affected by said ideas, so Ragna tried to come to his brother's defense. "Don't hold it against him, he's just trying to look out for me… in his own way."

"Yeah, and we're looking out for you too," Yang reminded, clearly she was in the 'scowl' category. "And I'm pretty sure our way's a lot nicer."

"I know…" the Reaper said with another sigh. "...He's counting on it."

"He… he is?" Blake asked. She was going to question him further, but that's when she noticed Ragna's expression. It wasn't one of her harsher ones telling them too drop it, but it would be hard to see how uncomfortable he was with the situation. "Ragna.. you know that if you want to talk about this or anything, we'll always listen… you've done the same for us."

"Trust me, I can't forget that," the Reaper said. Unlike normal times he wasn't giving them a snarky or even sarcastic smirk, now he was giving them a smile; just a sad, small, but understanding smile. "Come on, let's not keep the others waiting."

"If you say so…" Weiss told him, following closely behind the Reaper. 'What's got him like this that he can't talk to us? And what's going on between him and Jin to keep him this way?'

"...You know, about that piggyback ride…" Yang began with a flirty smile. Ragna reasonably expected her to start teasing him again and growled. "Hey, at least I'm asking you first this time. Besides, why wouldn't you want to?"

"Because if I started doing that, people would start thinking I'm your boyfriend," Ragna told her realistically.

"Hey, I don't think it's that bad of a mix-up actually," Yang told him with a with a quick jab to his shoulders.

"If that's your opi… wait, what?" Ragna asked, his face turning as nearly red as his coat as the implication behind Yang's words truly dawned on him.

"You heard me," Yang told him in a teasing voice as she walked ahead of the Reaper, whistling a jolly tune to herself as she walked. Ragna was at a loss of words. Behind him, Ruby was silent for a moment before leaping onto his back which sent her hood off her head. Blinking several times before turning to Blake who just gave him a smile and shrug and Weiss who only smirked wickedly as she gestured for him to move on… understandably, Ragna was starting to feel a little whipped.

Meanwhile -Port-

"We… we can't have missed them, can we?" Noel asked nervously aloud as she walked through the port with Jin, Tsubaki, Celica, and Kagura. Despite Noel's best efforts to arrive early, the ship had arrived early and was already in Vale Harbor. Aside from the occasional worker there, the harbor was empty and it seemed like most of the passengers on the ship had already left. "D-Didn't their letter tell us to meet them in front of the ship?"

"Quit your worrying," Jin told the other blonde harshly. A slight look of disapproval from Tsubaki reminded him that he'd promised to treat Noel with a little more leniency. "If Makoto's letter said to meet them here, they'll be here… Likely with an insane-"

"Squirrel Power!" came a booming voice from atop the ship. As the four looked up, they saw a silhouette outlined by the sunset. With a powerful bound, the figure leaped into the air, flipped forward several times, and landed on the dock floors in front of a startled Noel. "Happy to see me?"

"M… M… Makoto!" Noel screamed happily as she rushed to embrace her longtime friend. Makoto had brown eyes and hair which matched perfectly with the large squirrel poking out from beneath her long black traveling cloak. Though you couldn't see them under her small black cap,she also had a matching pair of matching Faunus ears.

"Aw Noellie, it's great to see you too," Makoto said as the two girls embraced. While they were hugging, she seemed to notice her other friend from the academy standing off to the side and smiling; that was going to stand with her. "Tsubaki! Get over here you!"

"No no Makoto, I'm perfectly alright-" She wasn't given a chance to finish as Celica helped to push the fellow redhead into both the reunion and Makoto's crushing group hug. She smiled while trying not to cringe at the force between the two girls embracing her. "It's great to see you again."

"And it's great to be here! We wouldn't want to have missed this meet up for anything!" she told them both. "Speaking of which…"

"Makoto!" a voice called from further down the docks. "Where on earth did you go when-" A young lady with long blue hair done into a ponytail, wearing a red long coat, and carrying a long red spear on her back came into view. She only had to take one look at the group in front of her before smiling and rushing into the embrace. "Hey you both!"

"Welcome to Vale, Mai!" Noel said eagerly as the other traveler entered the embrace. "I can't believe you're both here!"

"Well it wasn't easy to convince Haven to let us split up from our team and head over early as representatives for the upcoming tournament," Makoto began as the embrace ended. "But you know us, we'll always find a way."

"Yeah, I've come to expect that from the both of you," Kagura said from the sidelines with a cocky smirk on his face. "What, don't I get a hug?"

"As if! You'd just use that as a chance to cop a feel!" Makoto shouted with disdain, apparently used to the womanizers antics from past experiences.

"Heh heh, I guess you know me pretty well," Kagura told them with a smile.

"That's not something to be proud about you perv!" Makoto shouted yet again.

"...Heh."

"Do my squirrelly ears deceive me? Is Jin Kisaragi actually chuckling at something?"

"Don't think anything of it, you all were just being too ridiculous," Jin told her, though now he had to make an effort not to smile.

"We haven't met before, but my name's Celica," the outlier said to the both of them with a welcoming smile. "Nice to meet you both!"

"Nice to meet you too!" Mai said with a happy smile.

"As nice as this is for the lot of you," Jin coolly began. "Are you both sure it's alright to leave the rest of your team back in the Haven?"

"I think they'll be okay without us for a little bit; they'll be here in time for the tournament at least," Mai explained before turning to Kagura. "Oh, Hibiki sends his regards as well."

"Hibiki, right…" Kagura repeated, his confident persona now replaced with bit of an awkward take on the Mitsubishi heir. It didn't last long though as the reunited group heard a series of footsteps quickly approached them.

"Sorry, we're late… didn't mean to take that long," came Ragna's voice as the Reaper headed into the scene followed closely by Team RWBY.

"Dude, either you made an extra stop or you're the slowest walker I've ever heard of," Kagura told them with a groan, though he did notice the small stink eye Yang and Weiss were directing at Jin.

"Bite me," the Reaper told him of nonchalantly as he stood with a bit of a slouch to greet the newcomers. "Yo."

"New guy, eh?" Makoto asked as she tried to get a good look at the Reaper. "Red coat, spiky hair, actually willing to stand within three feet of somebody... It's like someone made you to be the exact opposite of Jin."

"Makoto…" Jin began with a tested voice. The Squirrel Faunus just had to take on single look at Jin's complexion to realize she'd said something wrong. "Allow me to introduce you to Ragna the Bloodedge… my older brother."

'She's not wrong though," Yang thought wistfully as Makoto gave a terrified and guilty laugh. "I'm Yang Xiao Long, I'm on Team RWBY which is lead by my little sis Ruby, who's on Ragna's back." From behind her perch on Ragna, Ruby gave a big smile and a wave while Ragna tried to convince himself he wasn't doing something completely wrong here.

"I'm Weiss Schnee, and on behalf of the Schnee corporation I'm happy to welcome you both to the kingdom of Vale and to Beacon Academy."

"Weiss, you know we're trying to keep this casual don't you?" Ruby asked, earning a small chuckle from Mai and Ragna while the Schnee heir sent her a fierce glare. "Sorry about that, she gets like this sometimes. And lastly on this side we've got-"

"Blake?"

"Eh?" Ragna grunted as Ruby was interrupted by Makoto. Glancing between the two he was made aware of how quiet Black had kept during introductions (he'd assumed most of that was attributable to her normally standoffish nature).

"You know each other?" Yang questioned her partner, not having heard such information herself.

"It's… it's old history, we knew each other when we were kids," Blake said, apparently not up for revealing much more than that. Yang looked like she wanted answers, but fortunately for Blake Ragna decided to step in.

"So who's hungry? I know that I'm starved," Ragna quickly commented, breaking any building tension. "Maybe we can catch dinner back at Beacon if we hurry."

"Or maybe I could try cooking again," Noel suggested eagerly, much to Ragna's dismay. "I've been reading a lot about cooking, so maybe I can show you all what I've learned so far."

"That's a… kind suggestion," Blake said awkwardly, remembering what had happened last time she'd gotten too close to Noel's style of cuisine. "But I think Ragna's idea is-"

"I'd love some of Noel's cooking!" Mai blurted out, stopping Blake cold and almost making Ragna drop Ruby. "In fact I've been dreaming of it ever since we decided we were coming."

'Dreaming about Noel's cooking? I'm pretty sure that's a nightmare by definition,' Ragna thought as Blake had trouble processing what Mai had just said.

"Much as I love the idea of cute girls cooking for me, I think I've already got a place for us in town," Kagura told them before smirking. "And I'm even willing to treat since this a special occasion."

"Knowing you that means we're probably headed to a hostess club," Jin muttered. "Still, I suppose I can't complain over a free meal, so thank-"

"Treat the lovely ladies, that's what I meant to say," Kagura interrupted, sending both Ragna and Jin a shit-eating smirk. "Sorry 'bout that, but both of you are still paying."

"DICK MOVE! That's a total dick move!" Ragna shouted while Kagura gave a small chuckle at his expense.

"There's no reason to overreact, I'll be able to treat you," Weiss offered sweetly, a little too sweetly for Ragna's liking.

"And let Blackmail Weiss have us in her pocket? Think I'll take the bill," he told her with a glare of due suspicion.

"Don't call me that! You're giving everybody here the wrong idea!" Weiss shouted, getting right up in Ragna's face and causing him to take a step back at her force. "Besides, Yang blackmails you more than I do."

"Um… are you defending yourself or admitting to it?" Celica asked with a sweatdrop and a small smile.

"Either way, I say we get going; the restaurant's going to get busy soon and I'm not sure easily they're going to be able to seat all twelve of us without a reservation," Kaura suggested. He then gave a polite bow and his best charming smile. "If you lovely ladies would be kind enough to follow me, I'd be happy to show you to our dining extravaganza for the evening."

With that (and a hearty eye roll from Makoto) the group started to head out from the docks and followed behind the Mutsuki as he lead them towards his ideal place of dining. Much like he'd been doing for much of the day already, Ragna stayed towards the back of the group. Also like had happened for most of that day, he couldn't stay completely to himself… though he was surprised on who was deciding to keep him company this time around.

"So… what do you think of them?" Tsubaki Yayoi asked her partner and team leader, this being the first time she'd spoken directly to the man in quite a while. Normally she'd be kept busy with Jin or talking with her reunited friends, but Jin was continuing to stand off to the side while Weiss and Yang talked with Makoto and Mai. Blake of course remained silent on sides while Ruby continued to hide behind Ragna with her hood covering her embarrassed face.

"I mean they seem alright," Ragna told her with a shrug. "...But is Mai suicidal? I know Noel's your friend and all, but you've seen her cooking… Hell, you tried to kill me with it once."

"That I did," Tsubaki said to him, not surprising the Reaper much as she didn't deny his last point. "Mai has this... quirk. Apparently she can taste the 'emotions' in the food she eats instead of the way it tastes itself and Noel's cooking is the only food with emotions that she can actually enjoy."

"Emotions in food? That's either a new concept to the world or the preachiest cooking advice I've ever heard," Ruby critiqued on Ragna's back. "Even still, how the hell does she keep it down? I'm pretty sure that stuff is toxic."

"I'll admit I don't understand it myself," Tsubaki told him. They walked in silence for a long moment as the group up ahead seemed to be getting further away. In fact, by now Ruby had finally gotten off of Ragna's back and had run up ahead to talk to Makoto and Mai… leaving Ragna behind to walk at Tsubaki's pace. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go right ahead, can't promise I'll be able to give you a straight answer though," the Reaper told her with a sigh, knowing he'd already had to dart around a direct answer several times that day.

"Back during the Grimm's Day dance, Jin told me that you'd suggested he ask me to the dance," the red head told him, leaving Ragna to only give her a slow nod. "My behavior towards you even after the entrance exam has been nothing but hostile, so why did you ask him to take me?"

"Because I thought you'd both like it if he did? I dunno, just seemed like an okay idea the time," Ragna muttered running a hand through his silvery hair. "If I was thinking selfishly, maybe because I thought it'd put you in a better mood at the very least."

"Well Jin did ask me to be a bit kinder to you while we were at the dance, so I suppose you accomplished something," Tsubaki told him honestly.

"...So if he hadn't there'd be a knife in my back right now?" Ragna asked, earning a scowl from his partner at the insinuation. "...I guess I've been a pretty shitty team lead, so I can't pin all of the blame on you. I'll be moving back into the team room soon enough, think we can just try to grin and bear it when it comes time for that?"

"That seems reasonable," Tsubaki told him and the two nodded in agreement. "But I'm afraid I have one last request."

"Oh yeah? What is it?"

"Even if I did enjoy myself that night, don't try to push Jin and I together," she told him. "I… I care about Jin, I won't deny it… but even still… it could never work between us."

"If that's what you want, I'll keep my nose out of it," the Reaper promised with a shrug. "'Sides, Jin's grown enough to where he can make his own damn choices about about these things…"

"...You're actually proud of him, aren't you?" Tsubaki asked, the smallest of smiles forming on her face. Ragna didn't answer her immediately, only scratching his head as he embarrassedly averted his gaze. He had to admit though, even when considering all of the crap that she'd given him and the uphill battle the two had to work past it… Tsubaki actually had a cute laugh.

Meanwhile -Hidden Location-

Roman Torchwick was not a happy man. He didn't care for surprise guests at the best of times and this was not one of those times. These guests would often mean that he'd have to put whatever business venture he was planning on hold so they could say their bit and eat up critical time that he needed. It could also mean that they were a member of that group, someone that he was hesitant to accept a meeting from even with all of this beefed up security. Worst of all it could be an individual that he genuinely disliked… This individual met all three of his grounds for intolerance and countless more.

"Do you just happen to have hard boiled eggs waiting in stock, or did you make these especially for me?" a tuxedo savvy green haired man as with a pleasant smile as he swallowed one of the peeled eggs whole. "I haven't been hit on that many times, but I'd have to say this is the closest that anyone's ever gotten."

"That's obviously not the reason we keep them," the mod boss said, too tense to even light one of his cherished cigars. "They make good provisions in needier times… and one of my men knows how to make a killer egg salad."

"Seems like a waste with these delicacies, but who am I to judge?" the guest said, taking another of the eggs and swallowing it whole. "So… how are things going on your path?"

"You made a point to come all this way just to ask me that?" Torchwick demanded, unable to keep his eyes from giving a sharp scowl.

"...Even if I did, a distance like that means nothing if it means I can check on you giving the good fight," the suit wearer continued… before giving a grin so sharp it could cut steel. "When you aren't being thwarted by starry-eyed children and past their prime teachers at least." He knew Roman hadn't made the event that personal… so he had to try and make it personal.

"...Care to explain what you're really doing here? I have an important series of operations to run and we have a key objective to prepare for not long off," the mob boss explained, not appearing to have been affected by the words. The figure seated before him simply shrugged and adjusted his hat.

"I'm here to give you a warning about said job, I have reason to believe that a certain someone is here and that they're on they can likely cause a risk to your operation… if they're not outright here to stop it." Reaching inside his coat, he procured a single photo which he tossed to Torchwick… and watched his associate balk at the image.

"I'm supposed to watch out for… for this?" Roman said, staring at the picture and trying to see if there wasn't a hidden message in it. "Are you sure you're not just pulling my leg?"

"I'm hurt you'd even suggest such a thing, truly I am," the person said taking the last of the eggs and giving it a chidding wave. "I mean, you're free to think whatever you want to… but you got stomped by a shrimp in a hoodie already; get beat out like that a second time and we might think you have a limit to your uses."

"...If they're such a threat, why don't you and help me?" Torchwick demanded as he threw the picture back, only for it to be impaled through a butterfly knife.

"Because that would ruin the one of my irons in the fire, and while I can't say it's my most important iron… it might as well be the one that has the best chance of keeping me entertained down the road." the enigma told him with a smile as he rose to his feet; their business evidently concluded. "But I'm sure you're owed a few favors for extra men aren't you? I know I can count on you to find your own way out of this."

"...I'll find additional manpower somewhere," Torchwick promised as he also rose to his feet. The enigma was about to step out of his makeshift office and finally put an end to this meeting… but once more the figure just had to stop before stepping out, almost as if they knew the discomfort that they were causing and were enjoying it.

"This is nice, we should meet like this more often… you just seem to love my company," the figure said as they turned back with a smile. He was enjoying this and Torchwick hated that fact. "We'll meet again~ Don't know where, don't know when~ But I know we'll meet again some sunny daaaaay!"

'Dammit…" Torchwick groaned to himself as the door finally closed behind him. Reaching for one of his prized cigars, he lit the object and let the collection of flavors dance on his tongue before letting out a quit puff of smoke. 'Tenacious, tactless… and now even tone deaf. I can't stand that damn SNAKE!'

Back with the students

"Maybe we need to give Kagura some actual credit," Ruby said as she exited the restaurant, holding her stomach with a happy smile on her face. "This had to be the nicest place I'd ever eaten at."

"Same here, but I still wouldn't give him jack; his ego's already big enough as it is," Ragna the Bloodedge muttered, walking beside her with his hands in his pockets and a gruff slouch.

"You realize I can hear you, right?" Kagura asked, giving a sigh at Ragna's continued bluntness.

"And what do I care? You made it damn clear from the start that you weren't paying for my dinner with that crap you said back at the harbor," the Reaper told the Knight.

"Oh, in that case is it my turn to be showered in compliments since I paid in your stead?" Weiss Schnee asked sweetly, causing Ragna's complexion to start sweating. Sure he technically could have afforded the meal, what with the prize money he and Yang had been earning, but there was something about spending so much money on food that he didn't cooking that almost felt dirty to him. "Come on, let's hear a compliment from you then."

"Yare yare…" Ragna grumbled at the demand… before seeming oddly focused as he mulled it over.

"Hey! It can't be that hard to think of something nice to say about me!" she yelled at him, causing her partner to snicker next to Ragna.

"Er…" While making quips and poking fun at people was fine, Ragna didn't do positive that often. "It's just…" Taking a deep breath, he gave his best replication of Kagura's charming smile (an act that was killing him inside) towards his fellow albino friend. "It's just that there are far too many good qualities of yours to list, where do I even begin?"

"...Okay, that's a start, but you better think of something else before the night's out," Weiss told him coldly, a tone that was betrayed by the red upon her face. She tried to ignore Yang's burst of laughter as the blonde hit a sighing Ragna in the ribs, feeling hysterical at just how hammy her friend's delivery had been.

"Is that what everyone thinks I sound like?" a concerned Kagura asked from behind them.

"You've got no idea," Makoto told him, happy to stick it to her old classmate. "We should probably start heading for Beacon, we've got to get moving if we're going to catch one of the professors and get assigned our guest rooms."

"Actually, I'm not sleeping in my bed for…" Ragna began trying to come up with a solid excuse. "A… Social Experiment suggested by Ozpin. Haven't slept in it for some time and its still got fresh sheets. It's up for grabs if either of you want that."

'Honestly, at this point he's not even lying,' Blake thought to herself, knowing Ragna's abilities to give strange twists on the truth. "But then wouldn't they have to stay in the same room as… Azrael?"

"They'd get used to him eventually, wouldn't they…?" Noel asked, even she felt a little uncertain about her partner's behavior. Makoto and Mai didn't have any idea who Azrael was, or why the group was concerned for their well being because of him.

"By the by, where is Azzy today?" Ruby asked, looking up to her best friend.

"First off, I want you to be safe and promise me you'll never call him that to his face," Ragna warned, acting oddly protective about the young Huntress. "Second…"

Meanwhile -Back at the Academy-

'So this is how I'm supposed to spend my Friday afternoon,' Jaune thought to himself with a sigh as he lay beaten on the ground. After he'd finished his stretching with Amane (he was still surprised that his limbs hadn't snapped clean off), he team had moved him onto practicing weapon drills and had just finished with a few bouts of sparing. Even with all of Jaune's work, he hadn't come any closer to landing a hit on any of his teammates… though his defense still proved difficult to get through since Ragna had helped to train him.

"Ready to finish up?" Pyrrha Nikos asked as she stood over Jaune, looking over him with a sweet smile. Jaune gave a pained groan as he discovered that his team still had more planned for him even past all of the sparring the group had just done. "You don't need to worry Jaune, you'll be able to get through this next one nicely thanks to the guard that Ragna gave you."

"Didn't we… just work on that during sparring?" Jaune asked, slowly making his way to his feet through some strained effort. Pyrrha offered him a hand to help him rise to his feet. He didn't expect, not out of spite but rather to prove to himself that he could move forward on his own two feet. "So I just need to defend myself?"

"Yep! And to make things easier on you, we only need you to defend against attacks from one person!" Nora told him, letting Jaune give a deep breath of relief; this was doable.

"Alright, guess I can keep going…" Jaune told her, trying to show a slightly more confident side against his normal expressions. "So who am I defending against?"

"Come on out big guy!" Nora shouted.

"B… Big… Guy?" Jaune asked normally, right before large crash was heard from right behind him. Slowly creaking his head to turn behind him with a feeling of indescribable dread, before looking up to see the giant blue hair student's face.

"Hey there blondie," Azrael smirked harshly as he cracked his knuckles. "So you've got an interesting little defence there, don't you?" Jaune gave an audible gulp as his 'exhausted' sweat now became 'scared shitless for his life' sweat. "Let's see how many taps it takes for me to break it."

"Ah… Ah… eep."

"Pyrrha?" a calm and cool Ren asked from the sidelines as he watched his team leader's life be thrown into dangerous territories.

"Yes Ren?" the redhead asked him.

"...I thought we were finishing training today with some sprinting exercise," he noted, remembering their original plan. "Because it looks like all we're doing is hope that Jaune survives an encounter with-"

"HEHEHEHEHEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU!"

"NOT ON MY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!"

"...Ah."

Back to the Plot

"Second… He said he was busy; didn't bothering to tell me what he was doing either," Ragna finally informed. "I get the feeling that he's been getting pretty hungry for some action as of late; action that he hasn't been getting."

"Him and me both," Kagura muttered, a statement that Ragna only gave a small cough at.

"ANYways, I think that we oughta start heading back to the Academy," Makoto said, trying to avoid what Kagura was implying as best as she could. "Trust me after the long day I had, what I want right now is a nice warm bed and maybe a shower if I have time."

"Yeah, we might as well call it a day…" Ragna muttered. "Most of us have already been through enough with classes and-"

"Hey you," a new voice interrupted, annoying the Reaper once more. Giving a scowl, he saw that they were being approached by two black tie and dark sunglasses wearing detectives of the Vale Police Force. Standing behind them were addition members of the force, these however were wearing better protective armor, had nightsticks at their sides… and guns on their backs.

"Can we help you with something officers?" Mai asked, keeping her steady composure around the local law enforcement.

"Yeah, we've got some questions here," one of the detectives said, looking around the group and searching for a certain something. "For her…" he pointed at Makoto. "... and her." He pointed at a scowling Blake. "The rest of you can go about your business."

"...Anything you want to ask these two, you can ask us," Jin told the officers, oddly standing up for his friends. "If anything, we might know things that they don't which will help your-"

"I said you can go about your business," one of the officers interrupted, cutting off advice from Jin that most people would find helpful. "Now I suggest you do that, before I write you up for interfering with police work."

"That's some messed up logic you've got there," Kagura told them. "Listen, we're just trying to-"

"Go on ahead," Blake interrupted the Knight, trying to be the voice of reason. "We'll answer their questions and meet up with you later…"

"I'd listen to this one," one of the detectives told the group. "Move along."

"This is the local law enforcement?" Tsubaki asked under her breath to Noel who only gave a worried shrug since they were leaving Makoto behind. The Beastkin noticed this and gave her friend a flirty smile to let her know she'd be alright. Despite the problems they had with this situation, the group decided to head the detective's warning and moved along to the academy… except of course for one student.

"I told you to move along," the detective said as he adjust his glasses to try and look intimidating. "Or are you trying to get written up?"

"Both of you made it clear that you wanted to talk to a Faunus," Ragna told her as he kept his arm crossed, the students who'd been walking away stopping to here what the silver haired Reaper was trying to say. "...I just happen to be a Faunus too."

"What? No you're not," one of the detectives told him with a scoff, not bothering to deny the first claim Ragna had made. "Now get out of here before-"

"HMRRRRRRRR!"

With its volume, force, and intensity Ragna's feral growl caused both of the detectives to flinch back from the group. It was powerful enough to make the student's question a couple of things about Ragna themselves, as Ruby looked to Jin for confirmation. The blond subtly shook his head to deny his brother's words (an action neither of the startled detectives caught on to), but even he himself seemed surprised his older sibling could sound like this.

"...We don't get paid enough for this," the detective muttered, indicating that he'd at least bought Ragna's story, figuring it'd be more likely for a Faunus to disguise itself as a human than vice versa. Seeing as the two friends had a… wild card backing them up, the rest of the students continued on their way. The officers waited until they were out of sight before finally turning to the three and beginning their questioning. "Watch the news lately?"

"With studying, we usually don't have the time," Blake asserted, keeping her tone neutral at the moment (she was glad to have Ragna backing her up here). "Why, what's going on in the city?"

"Several Dust shops have gotten hit in the past week alone," the officer told her his foot giving an impatient tap, even though he was the one holding them back. "And you know what they all have in common? No money was taken from any of the cash registers, but they didn't leave a drop of dust wherever they hit." He lowered his sunglasses to look intimidating at the students. "Classic calling card of the White Fang."

"So you're racially profiling us?" Makoto asked bitterly. "That's some ass backwards logic if I'd ever heard it. And you never caught that Torchwick criminal, so maybe you should start trying to catch him instead of-"

"I'm asking the questions here!" the detective demanded, his tone charged and aggressive at the three of them. There wasn't anyone in the immediate area and Blake notice several of the other Force members had their hands staying dangerously close to their nightsticks. "Now I want to know, where were you three last night?"

"Studying before heading to bed, we've got plenty of people to confirm we were there," Blake told him as she gestured to Ragna, stepping in for his explanation.

"And I wasn't even here!" Makoto told the officers. "In fact I just got off the boat earlier to-"

"The boat from Haven?" a detective said before bringing his men forward as all of them got their weapons out. "We got word that there were two Faunus stowaways on one of the ships… I'd say that we found the first one at least."

"That wasn't me!" Makoto shouted enraged. "I got here legally through academy transportation! I can even show you my ticket and-"

"Save it for the station, we're bringing you three in for questioning," the first detective said as he went for his radio to call for a car.

"You know, after seeing this it's not a big surprise that Torchwick's still on the loose," Ragna muttered, stopping the law enforcement cold. "You people have your heads so far up your own asses it's a wonder how you're able to call yourselves detectives."

"...Think you're funny, do you?" the detective said, swinging for Ragna's head with a left hook. The Reaper didn't even more to block, he knew that this guy was just trying to provoke him, get some actual dirt on him and get his ass arrested… but he also knew this guy couldn't hurt him either. He gave gave a smug smirk as-

CRASH!

"GAH!"

Ragna's eyes shot open in surprise as the detective was blasted back into one of the armed officers. The collection seemed to be staring at the individual in awe while Ragna once again began to sweat nervously. Rising from the tackle, the individual rose to full height. Blake, Makoto, and all of the officer watched the mysterious figure as they stood uncomfortable still for one long moment. The figure's muscles then tensed up before going into a powerful lunge.

"GOOD GUY!"

"DAMMIT TAO!" Ragna shouted though the pain as the hooded cat creature caught him in a bone crushing tackle hug. Tao was stronger than her thin frame would tell you as she managed to life the Reaper off the ground whilst squeezing the life out of him.

"What in the hell-?" one of the officers muttered before realizing the danger and quickly going for his walkie talkie. "All units- AUGH!"

"This wasn't how I wanted today to go," a new voice sighed, a blond young man with a open button up shirt and a monkey's tail. He'd leaped onto the second detective, stopping his communication and knocking him out of the conflict.

"SUN!?" Makoto shouted at the new arrival as the monkey Faunus gave a sudden shudder. "What are you- Why on earth- How did you-?"

"We've got new hostiles and they're with them!" one of the armed force officers shouted as the group rushed forward with their nightsticks. "Let's bring 'em all down and bring 'em in!"

"Huh? Are these people bothering you good guy?" Tao asked as she looked up from her tackle hug.

"Thanks to you they are!" Ragna shouted as he pushed the feline off of him. He got into a battle ready position, but since these were just regular (if idiotic and corrupt) officers of the law he kept his sword on his belt and prepared for an unarmed offensive.

"Okay!" the cat said happily as swiped paw upwards, uppercutting one of the security guards and blasting them off of their feet. "Tao's gonna beat the guys up so Good Guy will buy her lotsa yummy food!"

"I ain't paying for shit after you got me into this mess!" Ragna shouted as he spin kicked a guy into the air without much effort. Rushing forward, he then caught a second officer with a lunging punch that hit with enough force to cause the officer to crumple to the floor. With every swing of his fists or powerful kick he managed to score another knockout on an unsuspecting guard.

"You just HAD to antagonize them!" Makoto shouted as she threw her coat off, revealing her... revealing her orange battle uniform. Gathering power, she raised her fists and blasted another officer in the guy, sending him flying into the others.

'She's… developed…' Blake thought to herself (with the smallest hint of jealousy) as she looked at Makoto's curves. Focusing back on the fight, Blake wasn't as developed at fighting unarmed as the others, but that didn't mean that the cat Faunus didn't have a few tricks. Using her semblance, she made one of of the officers swing through her semblance before grabbing his arm and flipping him over, sending him straight onto the pavement.

Meanwhile, Sun was using both his natural agility and the inexperience of the officers to full effect. Leaping from head to head, he kicked off of the backs of one of the officers sending him crashing into one of his allies. Flipping forward with acrobatic prowess, he delivered an axe kick on another officers head and caused him to crumple.

Between the three students and the two newcomers, the law enforcement was soon on the ground and groaning from their injuries. Much like Ragna had hoped for, there were no serious injuries dealt to his opponents (light to harsh bruising at most) and he'd even managed to take care of the pent up aggression given to him by Jin. He gave the other's the smallest of smirks… but aside from Tao's joyful bouncing it was clear that they weren't feeling as victorious.

"This is just going to come back and cause more trouble for us, isn't it?" Blake muttered, crossing her arms with a sigh. "Just another card for the Faunus haters to use against us."

"Eh, most of everywhere I've been has had a pretty stacked deck already, so this isn't too big of a deal," Sun said before offering the Cat Faunus his hand. "Name's Sun Wukong, nice to meet-"

WHAM!

"Gah!" Sun grunted as Makoto hit in the gut with enough force to resemble a cannon explosion. Even Ragna had to flinch a little at that once as he felt the powerful shockwave the move emitted. Sun stumbled back from the burst gripping his chest and gasping for air as Blake watched both of them in surprise. "Guh… euh… what was that for…?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Makoto said in a tone that made it clear that she clearly wasn't sorry. "I'm just a little pissed that I almost got arrested after someone decided it would be a good idea to stow away to Beacon!" Sun gave a nervous gulp as he scratched the back of his head. "What the heck is the rest of your team going to do without you?"

"I dunno, something tells me they'll manage, I mean didn't you leave behind-?" Makoto's glare made sure that he didn't finish that sentence. "R-Right..."

"And if he's the first stowaway..." Ragna began as he expression became more serious as he looked at Tao.

"What's the matter good guy? Aren't you going to you going to buy me food?"

"Like hell, I'm going to. If you hadn't jumped in I could've-"

"Rrrgh…" came a low growl that stopped Ragna. The Reaper let out an exasperated breath as he saw the Detectives from earlier rising to their feet, along with whatever soldiers could still participate in the battle "Now you've gone and done it… Attacking officers of the law."

"...Self defence," Sun told the guard with a playful smile.

"Tao loves shellfish!" the Kaka warrior helpfully interjected.

"Quiet you," Ragna growled as he cracked his knuckles. The other detective went for his radio to call in reinforcements. As the others all readied switched their nightsticks out for their firearms for round two. Which served Ragna just fine as he-

"That's enough from the both of you," came a new voice that stopped Ragna's group and the Vale Police Force. Stepping forward was a man wearing a flawless white suit, combed over hair, and a powerful presence that would make people tense up even if they didn't know where it was. Standing behind him was a young orange haired girl in a white top which was covered by a a grey dress placed over her regular clothing

"Ge-Ge-General Ironwood!" both of the detectives sounded of in surprise as the security force behind them went immediately to attention. "We were just questioning these Faunus about a series of crimes in the area in the area before they attacked us! These streets aren't safe sir, I'm telling you."

"And firing police commissioned stun rifles on these five would solve that problem?" Ironwood returned with a glare, that caused both soldiers to shut up. "I'm glad that you're so confident in Vale's weaponry, but your methods would cause more harm than any of our technology could repair." He then glanced at Ragna, who wasn't faltering under his gaze. "Besides, if you were hoping to question Faunus, why bother him?"

"He… he…" one of the detectives began before looking at the Reaper. "You said…"

"Yeah, and you bought it as soon as I growled once," Ragna returned, disappointingly shaking his head. "Some detectives you are."

"Err," growled one one of the detectives as his partner seemed just as annoyed at Ragna's insult.

"That's enough from you; even if you were provoked there was no reason this needed to escalate so far," Ironwood told the Reaper sternly, his presence causing all pairs of eyes to be directed his way. "Even still, no serious harm seems to have been done to either party so I suggest we leave this mess here. The students will be free to go and I won't have to report the police force's excessive actions to their supervisors… that seems like a fair agreement."

"B-But sir, two of them are still stoyways that got here through unlawful means," one of the detectives tried to protest. "We still have a job to-"

"You mean the two that already left?" Ragna interrupted, glancing behind him. The officers and the detective glanced that way as well, surprised that Sun and Tao had already left the scene like the two hadn't even been their to begin with.

"Wh-when did they-?"

"I believe it was when Ironwood was speaking," the girl in the skirt finally said, though something about her voice felt wrong to Ragna. "Should I have said something?"

"No, these men have bigger worries on their mind," Ironwood said, glaring at the VPF. "Namely who's causing such distress to the local shopkeepers, isn't that right?" He didn't get a response. "I'd like for the three of you to follow me… I have questions for you."

"Yeah yeah," Ragna said nonchalantly, earning a elbow to the ribs from Blake for his rudeness. The three then left with Ironwood and the enigmatic girl, leaving the losers to pick up their men and try to save face from their loss. It wasn't long before they were out of hearing range from the officers. "So…"

"Don't make do that again," Ironwood told him sternly. "I'm here as a guest and I have too much work to attend to on business to worry about you. My reputation can only keep you out of trouble for so long."

"Tch, those assholes were asking for it," Ragna told him back, Ironwood's status not holding his vulgar mouth back in the slightest. "...Does Jin know you're here?"

"I didn't inform him, as I said I'm here on business," the general responded as he crossed his arms. "...I wasn't expecting your master to send you Ozpin's way."

"Neither was I, but that's how it turned out James," Ragna said with a sigh. Calling the Valeian by his first name was met with surprise from Blake and Makoto and another stern glare from Ironwood himself. Ragna didn't care as he redirected his attention to 'James's' companion. "Who's she?"

"Greetings and salutations," the girl said, her smile and movements strangely exaggerated. "I am Penny. I am here to participate in the tournament."

"Seriously? Hope you're ready for a challenge then," Makoto promised. "I'm Makoto, hope to see you there."

"Blake," the cat Faunus said simply before gesturing to the Reaper. "And this is Ragna, leader of team RAIN."

'So Jin's not on his team,' Ironwood thought to himself, mulling over the information. "Stay out of trouble." These words were directed squarely at Ragna, who only shrugged in response. "Penny, we're leaving."

"Of course," she said before bowing deeply. "It was nice to meet all of you. I hope to see you again."

"You… too…" Ragna said awkwardly as the General and Penny left. "Now that that's out of the way I should find Tao and figure out just what she's doing here."

"And I've still got to give Sun a lecture about sneaking his way here when this is supposed to be my trip," Makoto said as she moodily crossed her arms. "So any ideas of how to find them?"

"Just keep an ear out for the closest growling stomach, that'll be Tao for certain," Ragna told her both looking over at a restaurant. "Or…"

"Or…?" Blake began, not sure what Ragna was planning as he stepped into the building, leaving her alone with Makoto.

"So… how long ago did you-?"

"Not very long," Blake finished, clearly not wanting to go into it.

"How did A-?"

"Probably not well, and the less I think about him the better," she interrupted again, this time giving a small scowl.

"Won't bring it up then," Makoto promised before smirking. "So to change the topic like you wanted, what's the story between you and Ragna?"

"Not what you're thinking, obviously!" Blake told her off, a slight blush on her cheeks as Makoto only laughed.

"Come on don't tell me you're still reading those books that I-"

"O-Of course not, I've forgotten all about those things!" she shouted, which was painfully obvious to Makoto that it was a lie. "...So what's that story about you and Sun?"

"If you're asking if we're a thing, we're not," Makoto told Blake. "He's a nice guy and all, but we're on seperate teams and have next to no classes together… besides, I'm already spending way too much time on homework and working under-"

"I'm back!" Ragna interrupted, coming out of the restaurant with a paper bag in his hands, filled with steaming food.

"We're supposed to be looking for Sun and Tao, not getting a second dinner," Blake told him with a disappointed sigh. "Besides, what are you trying to do with those-?"

"MEEEEEEEEEATBUUUUUUUUNNNS!" came a shout from above them as Tao dived down towards Ragna. She'd almost caught him, and likely would have had Ragna not sidestepped her dive and leave her to painfully faceplant into the ground next to him as he took one of the meat buns and began munching on it. "Good guy! Don't hog all of your food to yourself meow!"

"You're lucky I even let you smell 'em; most people wouldn't give you the crumbs after the crap you pulled. More to the point, where's Sun?"

"No idea!" Tao said joyfully as she made swipe for the bag which Ragna expertly dodged as he took another bite out of one of the buns. "Neow, really! He split up with Tao after we met Meowrm-wood."

"That's… Ironwood," Blake told her, a little insulted of Tao's workage of meow into her sentences.

"Whatever, I get the feeling that guy can handle himself and I doubt any cop here is going to get close enough to him. Let's figure out what to do about him later," Ragna muttered as he glared down at his old acquaintance. "What I want to know is what you're doing here; last I heard anything you and Tora were supposed to be traveling through Haven's forests."

"We were, meow!" Tao told him. "But big sis Tora said Tao had to come here to…" For once, Tao stopped in her bouncing and down so no one could see her face. "...Tao isn't supposed to tell anyone."

"Oh well, more meat buns for me," Ragna said before finishing the meat bun he'd already started, liking the tips of his gloved fingers afterwards, just to prove a point to the silent cat. He then grabbed a second meat bun and slowly opened his mouth as it neared his face.

"Guh… Ugh… Hugh…" Tao strugged, hoping that her will would hold out against the sweet smell of the meatbuns and her growling stomach. "It's the White F-MPPPHHHH!"

With Ragna's reaction time, he was able to realize just what the cat had been about to say and had stopped her in the nick of time with her meatbun. Blake and Makoto's eyes grew wide as they stared at each other in shock.

"And… Tora knows they're here?" Ragna asked as he held the meatbun in place. Tao nodded quickly, before she began munching on the meatbun keeping her from speaking. "And what are you supposed to do when you find them?" Tao put both of her paws up, her universal sign that she didn't know. "...So those cops weren't just blowing hot air after all."

"We… we don't know that for sure," Blake said, leaving Ragna to raise an eyebrow as Tao continued chomping down. "For all we know, this Tora person just doesn't know that they're here… or they could be here with a protest."

"If they're protesting, Vale's not the place to be doing it," Ragna told her. "They'd get much more attention if-" CHOMP! "Gah! Dammit Tao! You BIT me!"

"But I'm still hungry!" Tao shouted, eyeing Ragna's bag of buns. The Reaper wasn't done with her just yet, so he instead tossed her a single meatbun from its folds.

"Look Blake, I can't tell myself that there's not any chance that they wouldn't do this," Makoto tried to tactfully tell her friend. "I want to believe in them… but they've been doing some pretty sleazy things lately."

"I know that, but…" Blake tried to say. She was in denial, trying to come up with a reason for their actions. Trying to find a way where the White Fang weren't the terrorists the world was making them out to be.

"Let's… just call it a day…" Ragna muttered before glancing at Tao who continued to eye the bag full of meat buns. "You want this, don't you?" Tao's eager nod was so rapid that Ragna was afraid her head might come off. "Fine, but you find Sun and stick with him. Got it?"

"Got it good guy! You can count on Tao!" Taokaka told him with a spunky salute.

"...I gotta wonder that sometimes," the Reaper muttered as he tossed Tao the package which she expertly caught before bounding down the streets with her meal in tow. "Come on, I think you should let Noel and the others know where we've been."

"Right…" Blake sighed. Under normal circumstances, Ragna might have pushed her for answers… but given all of the secrets he was keeping, that was far from fair.

That Night

'If I can't fall asleep anyways, maybe I should've gone out and hunted,' Ragna thought to himself in annoyance as he walked down the empty hallways of the academy wearing nothing besides a black turtleneck shirt, red pants, and his casual sandals. It was approaching midnight and Ragna's body knew that he needed every minute of sleep that he could get… his damn mind just wasn't cooperating. Makoto and Blake had already returned to their friends to tell them what had happened that day (or as much as they were willing to divulge) so Ragna left them both with that. From what he'd heard, both Makoto and Mai had taken refugee in his team's room for the night since no one could get ahold of Ozpin, not even Goodwitch (she had snapped at Ragna when he'd sarcastically informed that she ought to know where Oz was since she was his nanny). Since there was no one out this late at night, he had the campus to himself in his stroll… or so he'd thought.

'Sounds like someone's in the training room,' Ragna thought to himself as he heard the sounds of a blade being repeatedly swung through the air in a rhythm. Sighing to himself, he decided he should put a stop to whoever was in there before Goodwitch managed to find a 'volunteer' for mopping the next day. Opening the door, he found Jaune in the center of the room, swinging his sword as the sweat dripped down from his brow as Pyrrha silently watched him with a smile on her face resembling that of a proud mother… Ragna figured. "You both seem to be having a late night."

"We're not the only ones," Pyrrha noted as Ragna's voice caused Jaune to give a startled jump. She waved it off, telling him that she'd spare him from Ragna's training regimine. Giving a sigh of relief, Jaune went back to focusing on his sword swings and thrusts. "What's keeping you awake?"

"...Busy day, and my mind's having trouble slowing down," the Reaper informed her, giving her another of his half-truths. Crossing his arms, he rested against the wall as Jaune continued to practice. "How long's he been at this?"

"Since classes ended today, so for quite a while," Pyrrha explained as she watched Jaune, her smiling still present. "He even kept practicing while the rest of us were at dinner; seems like someone's lessons increased his endurance."

"Good to hear it," Ragna said passively as he tried to convince himself that he was tired and that he needed to nod off. He wasn't and this starting to get on his nerves. "So… any reason that you don't have Goodwitch in here sticking you both with mopping duty?"

"I'd asked her for additional time when she was about to close it; she told us just to lock up before we left and everything would turn out fine." Ragna groaned as it sounded like he was getting singled out. "She also mentioned some about not breaking back in."

"Fair enough," Ragna sighed as he continued to watch Jaune swing. "When are you going to stop him?"

"I won't," she told Ragna before calling to Jaune. "A little higher on the second swing, you'll cover more ground and have an easier time working on your balance." Nodding back to her, Jaune made the suggested adjustments and continued practicing the routines. "I told him that he'll stop once he's decided he's done enough training for today and he hasn't given a word of stopping since… apparently this is the easier part of his training."

"And he thought I was sadistic," Ragna muttered, trying to conjure a small smirk.

"Because you definitely are; not having to train with you again is how they're trying to motivate me and it's working," Jaune told him, grunting between the words as he continued to practice a series of swings.

"...Tch, smartass," the Reaper muttered, though now he was able to get that smirk out. Pyrrha only giggled as Jaune continued to swing his weapon. "So… I saw the two of you dancing at the party… does that make the two of you a thing now or-?"

"Ragna!" Jaune yelled as he turned to the Reaper, his face flushed red with a mix of exhaustion and of embarrassment.

"Get back to training Jaune, I can handle him," Pyrrha assured him. Jaune tried to say something in response, but her beaming smile convinced him to get back to training. "Can you keep a secret?" The Reaper slowly nodded. "Don't tell anyone this… but I'm actually heading back with Jaune during the break to meet his family."

"...Damn, kid's got bigger stones than I thought," Ragna crassly complimented.

"I-It wasn't my idea!" Jaune shouted before Pyrrha pointed and instructed him to keep swinging. "My mom… she caught wind that Pyrrha wasn't able to get a ticket home… so she invited her over… that's what happened."

"What about you?" Pyrrha asked.

"What about me?" Ragna rhetorically answer before seeing that Pyrrha wasn't backing down without an answer. "I didn't make any plans to go anywhere and there's nowhere I could really go… maybe I'll just hang here for now."

"It's not like you'd be alone; Ren would still be here." Ragna gave a shrug at that suggestion. "The rest of us barely talk to him; if it wasn't for Nora I'm pretty sure you'd be his best friend."

"That's… a deeply depressing thought," Ragna muttered, only for the redhead to roll her eyes.

"Since you asked Jaune and I earlier, I think it's only fair that I ask about your love life." Jaune missed a step in his swing and nearly fell over at his partner's suggestion. Ragna could only grit his teeth. "Come on, what you say in here won't leave this room."

"Fine then, you caught me!" he bit at her with a sarcastic voice. "I'm a complete harem master and I've been dating all of RWBY at some point or another! Sometimes all five of us go and-!"

"Don't go on! I get it!" Pyrrha tried to tell him, raising her hands cautiously. "That's a do not press issue!"

"At least someone can take a hint…" Ragna muttered as he thought back.

"Hey Ragna! How does it feel to be dating Ruby when she's so innocent and you're so… you?"
"Is Weiss Schnee really as shallow as she looks? ...Are you just in it for the money?"
"I hear that he nibbles on the tips of Blake's ears when they're alone and calls her his 'little kitten.'"
"So how big are Yang's-?"

All four of the questions ended up with someone inside a wall and every time Ragna would be caught by Goodwitch and sentenced to another day of mopping floors. And these were the ones that were brazen enough to suggest such things within earshot. He was sure that there were plenty of people that whispered and gossipped about him beside his back… in fact, Azrael had offhandedly told him about such conversation once or twice.

"In that case, can you at least tell me what you really think about each of them?" Pyrrha asked him, leaving Ragna to remain within his thoughts. "Ragna?"

"Come on! They're supposed to be offering really awesome cookies in the mess hall today!" a beaming Ruby Rose had shouted as she'd dragged Ragna by the arm, rushing him to the lunch room with her semblance. "Don't fall behind now!"

"You have to stop being so rigid every step you take," Weiss once sighed as the two practiced their dancing, looking at Ragna sternly. "Just relax and move like it's natural… I promise I won't judge you."

"You don't have to pick a fight with every person that gives me a dirty look" Blake said a short time ago, a day out in the city where Ragna had just cracked his knuckles to a group that was giving Blake clear stink-eyes. "I can stand up for myself just fine… since I know you'll have my back."

"Thanks for leaving something for me to handle for once," Yang had told him confidently as he'd stepped out of the ring. The two of them had bumped fists has she'd gotten ready for a rematch with Rojo. "You got me this far partner, let me bring it home!"

"I…" Ragna began before shaking his head.

"As long as you're stopped... as long as you're saved… I don't care who has to do it."

"...Without them I…"

THUD!

'Saved by the bell,' the redhead thought to herself as she looked over to Jaune who had collapsed onto the ground. The blonde wasn't moving, only barely breathing as his body refused to move another inch. "...I think his endurance gave out."

"Yeah, never really showed him how to find his limit," Ragna muttered as he shook his head and walked over to Jaune, gathering his gear and slinging the student over his shoulder. "Then again…"

"You're not the right person to teach him that anyways," Pyrrha finished, something Ragna couldn't argue with. "Mind helping me bring him to his room?"

"No, I'm just lugging him like this because I need a workout too," Ragna told her smuggly, his snarky smile actual able to get his fellow student to laugh.

"Excuse me?" came a new voice as the door to the training room opened. Ragna had been afraid it would be Goodwitch and he'd somehow get shackled with another day of mopping, but this new woman was different. She wore a traditional red chinese dress and had her black hair done up in the back. "Is that student alright?"

"Jaune? He should be fine, probably just collapsed from exhaustion," Ragna told her.

"You say that like it's fine, but being put in such a state has its own risks," the newcomer told him as she got a closer look at Jaune. "And all of these welts on him… very well, I'll have to look him over. Bring him this way please."

"Lady, who do-" Ragna tried to say, only to receive a finger in the face.

"That last person you should think of angering," she told him, her face stern and angry… right before a gentle smile formed on her face. "Litchi Faye-Ling; a huntress that doubles as a licensed doctor and medic."

'She's not wrong,' Ragna thought to himself as he sat in Litchi's office, a room that he'd never been to before. He'd told Pyrrha that he'd take Jaune back to their team room once he'd been looked over by the doctor, so she'd already headed off to bed. 'Definitely wouldn't want to piss a doctor off.'

"This bruising should heal given time, but I think that I'd be able to provide him with a much faster recovery as long as I apply some of my special ointment. Luckily, he's already passed out so he won't have to worry about how much it stings."

'Yep, not effing with her…' Ragna concluded, knowing how badly some of the ointments could sting. "So Doc?"

"Hmm?" Litchi hummed from her work.

"I don't get sick, but are you new here? Don't think I've seen you around campus before."

"The truth was I arrived here from Haven today," she said, not taking her eyes off of Jaune as she applied the ointment to his shirtless skin (which Ragna noted, was starting to slowly tone itself). "I'd just finished setting up my office when I decided I'd take a quick walk around campus to stretch my legs."

"And you ran into us," Ragna told her.

"Exactly, but I never expect to run into 'problem child' Ragna on my first day here," she said told him sweetly.

"Tch, so now I'm famous?" Ragna asked with a low groan. "Yare yare daze…"

"With what Goodwitch has told me, you might as well be," Litchi explained. "You've certainly made an impact on her… especially when you proved that you could go toe-to-toe with her."

"...If it made such an impact on her then why the hell am I still getting put on mop duty?" Ragna demanded crassly.

"Guess that's part of your charm," Litchi teased. Ragna would have growled… except for the running he heard off in the distance. "I almost reminds me of my-"

SLAM!

The force of the door to Litchi's office opening made the doctor jump in her seat and forced her to lose her grip on the ointment she'd been applying to Jaune. Standing out in the hallway was a menacing shadow silhouette. Before Ragna could do anything, the figure leaped into the air closing in on the doctor and the unconscious Jaune. Ragna's eyes widened as-

"LITCHI MY LOVE! AT LAST I'VE FOUND-!"

WHAM!

Ragna watched as Litchi made a perfect split, her leg thrusting upward and striking the newcomer in the chest. The unexpected blow caused the man to gag and it was then that Ragna finally managed to recognize him as Bang Shishigami, the ninja that had a habit of popping in at the strangest times. Crumpling to the ground in pain, Bang gripped his chest in agony as Litchi merely gave a sad sigh.

'...Love. huh?' Ragna thought as he watched on uncomfortably.

"Bang, was that really necessary?" Litchi demanded, looking down crossing at the ninja.

"But Litchi… It's been over a month since we've seen each other…" Bang said slowly starting to recover. Ragna noted that Litchi's kick had left a bruise on Bang's chest, but the doctor wasn't in any hurry to get him medication. "And you didn't even wait for me at the docks… where I was hoping to surprise you."

"I didn't even know you were still in Vale! Weren't you given another assignment?"

"I did, but it's not of the highest priority; they gave me a week to complete it an I can do it in a day!" Bang told her proudly, posing as the strong man of justice that he was… Litchi wasn't impressed.

"So you're ignoring your work, something that you've been trusted with as a Huntsman… to bring me flowers?"

"Ah, the flowers!" Bang told her happily. "I'm glad that you noticed them, I-!" Bang faltered as he saw that the flowers he'd been holding had been crushed beneath him once Litchi had kicked him. "Do… you like them…?"

'This is getting awkward,' Ragna thought to himself as he watched the scene, Litchi calling Bang out on his irresponsible decisions and Bang trying to defend himself. Giving a sigh, Ragna picked up Jaune (after putting his shirt back on) and headed out to JNPR's team room. 'That's some beloved that you've got there Bang. And I thought Jaune's crush on Weiss was painful…'

Later -Vale-

"Are you sure that you want to do this?" Blake asked as she looked to her traveling companion. "After all, you just got here…"

"Oh course I'm sure, who would I be if I let you go alone?" Makoto told her as the two walked through the deserted streets. There would be no one awake at this late hour and that was exactly what the two of them were going for. "Besides, I'll have time to visit with them after we find the White Fang…"

"And what if we do find them, are you okay with that?" the cat Faunus asked. Makoto didn't respond. "After you and your family left… there were some days that I found myself wishing that I'd left with you…"

"Why didn't you? Was something keeping you there?"

"...Blind faith maybe," Blake admitted. "The few friends that I actually still had in that group until the end... and of course-"

"You-Know-Who," Makoto finished. "...Well not Voldemort, but you get the idea." Blake nodded, giving her friend a single sad. "Then you joined Beacon which has a reputation of having a pro-Faunus headmaster… must be the reason why you're able to keep your ears out in public." The last thing she was expecting in a situation this serious was for the reclusive Black to give a small laugh.

"You have no idea; I was a mess when I first got here. I kept to myself so much that most people forgot that they had classes with me. Whenever my ribbon felt even slightly loose I was scared to death that it would come off and my team would find out who I really was. And just because Ozpin's pro-Faunus doesn't mean that all of the students here are; I can think of a particularly blunt team that hates us."

"Yeah, and I can think of a couple of cops since I've gotten off of the boat," Makoto added, puffing her cheeks at the events that had happened that morning. "So… what made you finally take your bow off?"

"...That's a story for another time," Blake told her, not ready to recount the events from the Grimm's Day Dance… that was a secret for her and Ragna only. "Let's focus on finding that Tao girl that Ragna seemed to know. She might've seemed a little… eccentric, but she might know more than she lets on."

"Right and how on Remnant are we supposed to find a stray Faunus out in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night?" Makoto asked rolling her eyes. Blake didn't answer immediately, though she did take her scroll out. "Who are you calling?"

"I'm not; I just want to know if there's a place that sells Meat Buns this late at night." Makoto's confusion lasted all of five seconds before she digged her scroll out as well.

"Six streets down south and it's owned by a Bat Faunus," Makoto said as she closed her scroll. "If we don't find her there at least we'll get some bait to track her down."

The Next Morning

"No sign of them on our end Yang, but we'll keep asking around until we find them I promise," Ruby said into her scroll. "We'll finish up here and head to the restaurant district." Chatter on the other end of the line. "Yeah, I'll talk to you later if…. When we find something." Sighing, the young student closed put her scroll away and looked sadly at the ground. "I still can't believe she just up and left us without even leaving a letter."

"Same here," Mai Natsume told her after she came back from questioning a small group of people of her partner's whereabouts. "Makoto never does things like this, even if she does act pretty hyper most of the time… are you sure you have no idea where they are?"

"Positive," Ragna told her as he kept his arms crossed, only scanning around the streets with his eyes. "If they're hiding from us, they're doing a damn good job of it. Doubt finding them would be easy, even if Makoto stand out in a crowd with that tail of hers."

"Are they in trouble? The three of you all got stopped by the police yesterday and… well I'm worried that Blake didn't tell us the full story of what happened." From what Ragna could tell, Blake and Makoto both had omitted parts about Sun and Tao in their explanations and any part discussing the White Fang.

"I don't think they're in trouble at least. Maybe if Ironwood hadn't shown up it'd be a different story, but I think we managed to get out of there fine… at least until Goodwitch finds out about it." Ragna sighed. "Thanks to her we don't have a full force looking now."

In order to ensure that the students were ready for the Tournament (and that the Vale teams stood a higher chance of winning) Goodwitch had started hosting additional lessons for on Saturday for any students that had wished it and signed up. These lessons would actual take place off-campus in the trial forests, so there was a long waitlist for the additional practice. Ragna himself hadn't signed up (because he already goes hunting enough on his own time), but everyone else from Team RAIN and all of Team JACK had signed up in a hurry. Tsubaki had wanted to go to look for her friend, but Goodwitch had made it clear that if she lost her place on the waitlist, she likely wouldn't participate in the routine until the next semester. Ragna had promised both Teams that he'd help to look for Makoto until they got back, which left him partnered with Mai and Ruby while Weiss and Yang checked on the other end of town. If anything Ragna had figured that the division would had him working with Yang and Mai so Ruby and Weiss could work together as partners… but he hadn't seen any reason to deny Weiss's sudden request.

"Are you sure that you don't have any idea where they are?" Ruby demanded of her partner. "Ragna just shook his head. "What about what they could be doing?"

"That's… well okay, I might have a few ideas there, but nothing that would tell us where they could be," Ragna muttered, earning an expecting look from Ruby as she crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Sorry, 'fraid I shouldn't say more than that."

"Why not?" she demanded, not exactly angry with the Reaper yet, but not pleased with him either. "Is Blake having you keep secrets for her?"

"I guess you could say that," Ragna admitted. "But to fair, Blake's keeping a couple of secrets for me as well… It's an… understanding you could call it."

"Secrets, huh?" Ruby asked before coming up with an idea. Trying to play her cards right, she gave a giggle that Ragna wasn't quite sure how to interpret given the situation.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" he demanded with an eyebrow raised. "You saying I couldn't keep a secret?"

"You seem like the kind of guy that makes sure everyone knows what he's thinking, especially when you're ticked off about something," Ruby told him, which was true. "Trust me, anything that Yang would want to know she could probably pry out of you."

"That… I guess that's a fair point," Ragna said, before trying to put up a more confident expression. "But I still got some pretty awesome secrets that you don't know about!"

"Really, then how about you hit me with one so that I know you're not lying?" Ruby demanded, leaving Ragna to give a nervous expression as he realized he was being played by his best friend. "Just tell me one so I'll believe you and I won't ask you anything else, promise."

"...You better not break that one," Ragna said with a sigh as he thought back to something that he could tell her. There were a couple of stories from his past that would take too long for him to tell now, and some of those certain he certainly couldn't tell Ruby of all people… but there was one small thing. "All right then, how about this? Silver wasn't always my hair's natural color."

"That's your big secret?" Ruby question with a shrug, acting like she wasn't impressed.

"Fine, if you're going to be like that about it..." Ragna said with a smirk, turning his back to her as he called his friend's bluff.

"AHHH! TELLMETELLMETELLME!" the young huntress demanded waving her arms wildly and causing Ragna to laugh.

"So back when I was a young runt, before I started to find out I was a Drive user I actually looked a lot closer to my brother," Ragna told her as he pointed to his red eye. "Both of these babies used to be green and my hair was a bright blonde. I mean it was still gravity-defyingly spiky, but you get the idea."

"Is that sooooo?" Ruby asked as she took a good long look at Ragna's hair.

"...You're not allowed tell Yang about this, understand?" he ordered harshly.

"Spoilsport," she told him, causing the Reaper to shake his head. In his gut he knew the obvious truth; Yang would know about his hair in the next week in not sooner.

"That group didn't know anything either," Mai said with a sigh as she came back. "Either of you two find anything?"

"Besides how easy it is to blackmail Ragna, I'm afraid not," Ruby told her, causing the Reaper to facepalm. "Maybe it's time that we moved onto a different area, it's pretty clear that we aren't going to find Blake by sticking around here."

"Yeah… maybe we should try taking a look around the docks or something," Ragna suggested. "Actually, nah… If there's a chance that they went and met up with Sun and Tao, the dock's the last place that they would want to be."

"You mean because of the Vale Police Force looking for them, correct?" a voice behind him asked.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm-WHOA!" Ragna shouted as he made a short hope backwards in sudden surprise. Looking behind him, he saw the strange girl orange haired girl from yesterday with Ironwood nowhere in sight. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"You seem to be swearing again," Penny noted obviously. "General Ironwood has instructed me that doing such a thing is rude and improper."

"You gave me enough of a damn reason to swear!" Ragna shouted at her, still startled by the sudden pop-up. 'Seriously, how in the hell did I not notice her right behind me? My sixth and seventh senses should've picked up on her long ago.'

"So Ragna…" Ruby asked as she tried to get a good look at this odd newcomer. "Who's your friend?"

"Friend?!" Penny asked suddenly, looking up at Ragna with a happy expression that was still pretty damn strange. "Are we really friends?"

"I, uh-" Ragna tried to say, but Penny had already moved on to Ruby and Mai.

"And does that mean that we could be friends as well?" she asked them both excitedly, her eagerness at acquiring new friends almost scary to a degree.

"I mean…" Mai said, understandably caught off guard by this request from a complete stranger.

"Suuuuuure…?" Ruby said with uncertainty. "A-Always pays to have friends."

"Oh how wonderful!" Penny said excitedly grabbing both Ruby's and Mai's hand and leaping up and down. Ruby was doing her best to smile while Mai still didn't know what to think of their situation. From where he stood, Ragna facepalmed and let out a low groan.

'Might as well ask her.' "Now that we're friends and all, think you can help us out with something?" he asked, causing Penny to look at him with curious tilted gaze. "You remember those two girls I was with yesterday when I was meet you, right? Do you have any idea where they could be?"

"Hmm… Blake is a cat, correct? And Makoto is a squirrel?" Ragna nodded slowly. "Hmm… perhaps they're trying to find the two fugitives from yesterday? Why are you searching for them?"

"They're not fugitives and I'm just trying to find them so that their friends are put at ease. Capisce?" the Reaper told her bluntly.

"Understood, I now know what you're trying to do!" Penny said as she gave the three a military salute. "I shall follow the three of you in attempt to help you find the two in question!"

"That's... nice of you and all, but you don't have to go that-" Ragna was about to say as Ruby grabbed his arm. "Eh?"

"More pairs of eyes looking for them can only be good for us, right?" she advised him. "I think we should take her with us and see where it goes. Maybe she'll find something we won't."

"...If you say so," Ragna told her while scratching the back of his head as Penny became focused on asking Mai questions of friendship. "...Let's hope that Yang and Weiss are still on the case."

Meanwhile -Other Side of Town-

"I'm starting to wonder if asking the police for help was a bad idea," Yang observed annoyedly as the two walked out of a shop that had turned into yet another dead end for their search. Early into their investigation, the two had decided that it might be a good idea to ask the VPF if they hadn't seen Makoto and Blake around. They'd recognized who they were talking about easily enough… but with all of the dead ends, it seemed like they didn't want the two to be found. "Seriously, Blake… where the heck did you go?"

Weiss didn't say anything, and that was also become a common trend that day. Normal in situations like this the Schnee heir would try and be the voice of reason and try to come up with a strategy in order to achieve the groups goal. Assign from splitting the teams up earlier in the day, she hadn't exactly said much and had followed Yang's lead, which had proven to be straight forward. Go to the police, see if they have any leads, investigate. Truthfully it was somewhere to start and they had covered a lot of ground… but there still felt like there was a lack of progress being made.

"You know, you still haven't told me why you wanted to team up," Yang noted as she lead the two down the city streets. "I mean… I know that the I'm a little… extreme in some of the things that I do, but I don't get the feeling that you're singling me out."

"If there's anyone that I'd have to make an attempt to single out, it would probably be Ragna," Weiss told her friend, trying to lighten the mood even slightly with a bit of her humor. Blake didn't seem to get it, either that or she didn't find it all that funny. "You're probably the closest to Blake out of any of us."

"What makes you say that?" Yang asked, peering her head into any alleyway for any sign of Blake.

"Uh, you're her partner? That ringing any bells?" Weiss noted, like it was obvious. "You two are together just as much as you're seeing your sister. Studying together, coming up with combination attacks, trying to make her laugh at your jokes."

"She could use a laugh," Yang asserted, defending that last one. "I mean… yeah, we do spend a lot of time together as partners, but… that doesn't mean I know her that well." She sighed. "Who was the first one to find out that she was a Faunus and who was the one that took care of her while she was sick during the party?"

"You have a point, but I'm not sure how I feel about asking Ragna," Weiss admitted, even though it looked like she was guilty about admitting to it. "He… he's been acting really distant from us since yesterday…"

"That's on Jin, not him," Yang defended.

"I know that, but… every time we try to talk to him about changing Jin's attitude he defends him, like he did yesterday. They've been getting better lately, but…."

"There were moments like yesterday, I know," Yang said. "Which is exactly why I tried to get him out of his funk yesterday."

"By jumping on him?" Weiss asked with a sigh.

"Hey, it worked didn't it?" Yang told her with a smirk. "I can't make up Ragna's mind for him, but at the very least I can always be there to keep him real." The Rapier user considered what her friend was saying before nodding reluctantly. "But back to earlier, what were you asking me about Blake for?"

"It's just that Blake is really hard to read and I have hard time telling what she's thinking," she admitted. "Normally I'd be fine with her acting like this, but… yesterday's encounter with the guards probably wasn't the first time she's been attacked for being a Faunus. We've never really talked much so… I can't be sure that she doesn't have a problem with me."

"Why would she have a problem with you, it's not your fault that the Shane company has such a problem on their hand with Faunus rights."

"But it's still my family's company," Weiss told her. "I still can't say for sure if Blake doesn't consider me to be a problem."

"Yeah, and I'm sure going around the city streets on your day off to make sure that you Faunus friend is okay is a total Schnee thing to do," Yang countered.

"...You know that you don't have to put it like that," Weiss told her friend with her arms crossed.

"Put it like this for now; if she does consider you part of the problem, wouldn't going out of your way like this to look for her be just the thing that would change her mind?" Weiss tried to come up with a counter to that… it wasn't easy. Smirking, Yang poked her on the head in a very Ragna like manner. "You think too much sometimes."

"I think as much as I need to!" Weiss shouted moodily. "Come on! We're wasting time here standing around and we've already spent too much time chasing after all of your dead ends."

"Heh, right behind you Snow White," Yang teased, only to earn a glare from her teammate. "What? Is that a Ragna only name?"

"YANG!" Weiss asked with a deep blush. "I'll have you know that-!"

Weiss didn't finish her sentence, it was had to do so with an explosion on the distance.

"Oh, that can't be good…" Yang said. ""Come on!"

"Alright, but don't let this make you think you're right!" Weiss shouted, rushing after her friend. "After all, yesterday you suggested-"

"Yeah, I suggested! What's everyone else's excuse!?"

Meanwhile -Vale Harbor Docks-

(Cue Wario Master of Disguise: Head Honcho Carpaccio Extended)

'Getting me extra hands… making me push my deadline up several days… having what few people I can spare on the lookout for a DAMN CAT IN HOOD… and it still comes to this,' Roman Torchwick thought to himself as he readied his cane gun and fired another shot. 'That snake set me up… I don't know why, I don't know how, but that BASTARD set me up.'

The blast that he'd fired was barely deflected by Blake's sword as the shot soon exploded afterwards, sending her off balance. A white masked wearing swordsman rushed forward and nearly stabbed her in the gut with their extending spear, but Makoto rushed in at just the last minute to blast them away with a charged punch. Nearby, Sun was using his weapon of choice (a quarterstaff) to deflect gun fire while seemed to be literally diving into her opponents as she knocked them to the floor.

"Why are you doing this!?" Yang demanded, blocking the blade from one of the White Fang's members and allowing Makoto to step in again and blast them off to the side. "The White Fang are a proud group that are fighting for Faunus rights! Why are you working for someone like him!?"

"Easy, because I can give them exactly what they want!" Torchwick said as he fired another shot at the group and hit Blake, only for it to turn out to be a double. Instinctively, raising his cane behind him, he managed to deflect her blade before leaping back. "You think they want rights? Hah! They've already got 'rights' and no one gives a damn about them! Who the hell actually believes any of the equality that's not already on paper!" Blake rushed forward with a series of slashes, but Torchwick managed to deflect each of them with ease and land a solid punch on Blake's face.

"No, what they want is the one thing that no human alive can deny! The one thing that you HAVE to acknowledge no matter what you are! Equal Standing!" he was about to fire another shot off at Blake, only for Tao to dive into him and knock him off balance. Following her example, Sun rushed forward and form changed his weapon into its iconic Gun-nunchuck form, every swing sending a blast at the mob boss… but nothing was getting through.

"So you hook them up with weapons? Big deal!" Sun shouted as he turned golden forming several different clones of himself with his aura.

"You need weapons to win a war or show a nation that you're to be taken seriously! I provide those!" Torchwick shouted with a smirk as he proved to be slicker than most, weaving through each of Sun's attacks before smacking him upside the head with his cane. Sun flipped back to recover, landing next to Blake as Tao and Makoto were forced to fend off against the grunts. "Put don't worry yourself; I don't just provide to the White Fang."

"Guys?" came Makoto's nervous voice as she and Tao slowly began backing away. "I… I think we've got trouble…" In addition to even more White Fang soldiers, a new group of outlaws had showed up. These people were human in the vaugest sense of the word; they were cruel, deadly, and didn't think much about what they were doing. All of them were armed and deadly and sneered as they looked at the kids they'd have to fight through.

"So in case you're so offended that I'm just using White Fang, I'll bring in some other muscle to put your little mind at ease. Common criminals sure, but 100% human." Torchwick smirked. "Maybe I'm being a little too progressive, but I'm having a hard time telling them both apart."

"Don't you dare!" Blake shouted as Torchwick played right into her weakness. Using her wire and sickle she made a wide swipe at the criminal, only for it to get easily deflected. Sun did his best to cover her back from the newcomers, but there were just too many of them to wipe out all at once. Blake tried to fight Torchwick up close and personally, switching with her shadow to try and catch him off guard, but Torchwick's reflexes were too quick as he quickly adapted to Blake's attacks knocking her off balance and forcing to the ground via sticking the barrel of his cane-gan against her face.

"BLAKE!" Makoto screamed from across the distance, too far away to do anything.

"Now now! Let's not do anything needlessly stupid," Torchwick told her as he shoved the gun painfully into the Faunus's cheek. "All we really want here is-"

CRACK!

Whatever offer he'd been about to give was thrown out the window as a high power shot blast his cane away from Blake. Taking the moment and using it to her favor, she kicked on Torchwick's chest. Giving a grunt, he looked up and saw a familiar sight.

"And now we've got her…" he muttered, though trying to look dapper. "Hey there Red, did you miss me?"

"Leave my friend alone!" Ruby shouted as she used her weapon to launch her forward swinging into a powerful and deadly spin. Torchwick managed to block the slash and then it was him against Ruby. He managed to block the slash and went to counter with a cane swing, only to have the young student blast herself away and have him miss entirely. Firing a shot at Torchwick again, her target managed to defend the attack before shooting back with his cane narrowly missing Ruby.

"Get the damn cat!" one of the thugs shouted as a group of thugs went straight for Blake as she fought to get to her feet, she noted a flash of white right in front of her. Before any of the enemy forces could get close, a large ice pillar emerged from the ground and forced the enemy to take a cautious step back. "What the-!?"

"YANG!" Weiss yelled as Blake's partner charged in from the side, sending several of the thugs flying with a full powered haymaker. Turning behind her, she quickly helped her friend to her feet. "Can you still fight?"

"Of course," Blake promised, just be sure you watch my back. Using Weiss's sigils to leaped high into the air, she turned her sickle into a deadly torrent, slicing apart the opponent's weapon as Yang put the others in the floor.

On the other side of the field, Mai had leaped into action and was helping Makoto and the others fend off the several White Fang members that had them surrounded. She easily made it apparent that her weapon wasn't just an accessory as she swung it around with blinding speed and precision, knocking down several White Fang sending others unconscious. A group thought to wise up and surrounded her, but as they charged in she leaped into the air with expert skill and left her foes to painfully smash into each other. Changing her direction in mid-air using her semblance, she plunged her spear into the ground a made a shockwave that sent several members of the White Fang off of her feet.

'All these kids are starting to make for a real headache,' Torchwick thought to himself in his battle with Ruby. He easily deflected a swing with her scythe as quickly backstepped when she charged her Speed Semblance to unleash a second attack. Managing a quick kick to her chest, he was swung his cane upwards as he forced to the defensive before beating on her guard with a rapid series of cane swings. Hitting her with an unorthodox uppercut he managed to break her defense, his cane and her scythe fired a shot in usion, the impact causing a small explosion that sent Ruby flying back and painfully hitting a metal crate. Torchwick was about to move in… only to find himself covered in a wicked shadow. 'What the-?'

Ragna's Aramasa stuck the ground where the mod boss had been standing just second earlier, cleaving deep into the concrete and creating wicked cracks. Torchwick had to recover quickly to avoid Ragna's follow up blade as it nearly cleaved his head off before firing a second shot. Battering the attack away with his sword, Ragna rushed forward and clashed his massive blade with Torchwick's smaller cane, the force behind his attack sending the criminal sailing back.

"I thought I told you to-" Ruby began.

"I'm not babysitting!" Ragna shouted back to her before glaring at Torchwick and pointing his blade at her. "Call your men off or I'll carve ya in half!"

"Tch, I got a better option!" Torchwick shouted as Ragna heard the roar of jet engines. "How about we send this show off with a bang?"

The fighters arrived quickly, nearly an entire squadron of fighters armed to the teeth and flying low to minimizing the people that could see them. With showmanship snap of Torchwick's fingers, the fired their machine guns at the pier.

"MOVE IT!" Makoto shouted cause the Beacon student to dive for cover. They were quick enough to avoid the oncoming threat and the gunners must have been members of the White Fang as they avoided shooting most of their allies… the renegades weren't so lucky as they were caught in the hailstorm, the thugs screaming as they were gunned down with extreme prejudice. Then one of the ships hit a storage of dust… right where Ruby was standing.

"RUBY!" Ragna shouted as she was flung through the air losing her grip on her scythe. She painfully hit the floor. She didn't appear to be gravely injured by the force… but she was unconscious in the middle of all the sailing bullets Running through the gunfire and deflecting shots when he could, the Reaper desperately tried to make his way to his best friend. 'SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT! I'M NOT LOSING HER TOO!"

Torchwick was there and he was closer than Ragna. Quickly taking his aim with his gun cane, he fired a single shot that would finally rid him of the nuisance of a hunter… only to be deflected by a sudden knife sailing in the shots path and causing both objects to explode. He didn't even have the time to fire a second shot as he was covered in shadow again.

"YOU BASTARD!" Ragna shouted as he swung his sword though deadly force, cleaving straight through Torchwick. He expected to see the mob boss cleaved in half, two bloody and eviscerated chunks of flesh falling to the ground… but he didn't see anything as his blade was only met with the air. Looking up, he saw that the planes had their guns focused soley on him.

ZING!

A burst of green energy erupted from behind the Reaper, cleaving the ships in half. Their White Fang occupants fell to the floor as their ships exploded above them. Turning with shock behind him, he saw Penny firing of a cannon that she'd formed with the same type of knife that had saved Ruby's life just a split second ago. Whatever defenses the ships had were no match for her destructive force as she brought all of the ships to the ground. He was the only one that had seen this… but he couldn't be bother at the moment. Giving her a simple nod, he rushed over to Ruby to ensure that his friend was still safe.

(End theme)

Meanwhile

Torchwick let out a deep breath as his feeling on gravity returned to normal. Looking around he realized that he was back at his base. He should have been cleaved in half by the sudden… well he wasn't sure what that guy's deal was, but they sure seemed to be protective of red. Looking around the back he realized that wasn't alone here.

"So…" came the last voice he wanted to hear. Turning behind him, he saw his visitor from yesterday sitting on his favorite chair, nonchalantly peeling a hard boiled egg whilst giving him the smile of a snake. "...How did it go?"

Back at the docks

(Cue Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Cloud Smiles Extended)

Now that the fighting was over, there was very little left to do. The group left the criminals in the hands of the VPF and even managed to get the charges of illegal boarding dropped for Tao and Sun (thanks to a little encouragement from Blackmail Weiss). Ruby had already fully recovered from the shock, but Ragna had pushed her not to take it too hard. Now this left the group to sort out their own issues.

"So… you used to be a member of the White Fang then?" Weiss asked to Blake, arms crossed as she took her regular authoritative stance.

"Used to, but not anymore," Blake told her before looking at Makoto. "What we saw here today… I'd seen it before… I wanted to run and hide from it… but I also wanted to think that they were better than this… It's stupid, I know."

"Nothing's wrong with having hope for something, even if it seems impossible; I'm starting to hope that my father will finally open his eyes and start running our company a little differently." It wasn't much, but the smile the two of them shared was a step in the right direction.

With Makoto and Mai the issue was solved even easier, Mai simply reminded her partner of the promise that they had to watch each other's back . Makoto gave her an obvious eye roll before throwing her arm over Mai's shoulder, promising that she couldn't keep her away now. Sun had tried to sneak away while he still had the chance, only to receive the noggie of a lifetime from the both of them… Tao cackled at the sight, and suggested that everyone started thinking about eating.

Ragna watched on from the sidelines, giving a small smirk as he watched on from the background with Penny. The feeling was short lived as a white car drove through the police lines and beside the two. The side window lowered to reveal General Ironwood sitting in the backseat and looking at the two sternly. He didn't say anything, but Ragna gave him a small nod. Penny looked to Ragna in concern before looking to her new group of friends. The Reaper gave a small chuckle and proceeded to pat her head, a feeling that Penny didn't seem to understand.

"Take good care of her… she's got a lot of friends hoping to see her again," Ragna told Ironwood as he made his way back over to the rest of the group. Penny gave a smile before slowly getting into Ironwood's car.

"Running off on you own may have worked to your favor this time, but I can't allow you to take such risks in the future. You understand how important you are, don't you?" he asked Penny as he typed out a message to Ozpin. She nodded, but couldn't keep her eyes off the group she'd befriended in such a short time. The car then started moving, making the team smaller and smaller before they were gone... "It's time we made our way back to Atlas; I sure your sisters are worried sick about you."

Later -Beacon Academy-

Once again, Ragna found himself leaning against a wall… but this time he was a little less moody than the others. On the other side of this wall, Makoto was having her reunion with a worried Noel and Tsubaki. All three of them were talking about their problems and Makoto was giving some insight into her past. Azrael was also present, lying on his bed and listening in the background not unlike Ragna… oddly enough, he seemed to be paying attention. Not saying word to them nor even making his own presence known, he rose from his small perch and began walking back to his room… only to see his brother standing in his way. The same brother who had a habit of making his life more complicated.

"...I'm still not giving up," Ragna promised. "I'm never going to be able to let go of what happened to us and you know that. " Jin shook his head as he made his way past. "But you know something?" The blond paused, both brothers with their backs facing each other. "Maybe I'm not ready to let go of… this just yet either." He sighed. "Guess I'll have to find a way where I don't have to give up either."

"I doubt you could come up with one… but you're welcome to try," Jin said to him ominously as he walked on.

With all of the craziness that had happened that day, Ragna felt like he needed a nice long walk to wind himself down. He walked around Beacon Academy, wandering aimlessly as the setting pale moonlight cast a dark shadows against him. There weren't many people out wander the halls now, but Ragna had a habit of running into the few people that were out that night. A sudden sigh cut through the previously silent evening. Looking over, he saw the sigh was coming from Litchi's office; the door open, the lights on, and the doctor herself sighing again as she looked at the ruined bouquet of flowers.

"You kept them?" Ragna asked, startling the doctor as she jumped in her seat. "Sorry, didn't mean to pry…"

"It would've been cruel to throw them away… and Bang always means well, even if he's a little eccentric."

"More than a little, clearly," Ragna muttered, scratching the back of his head. "Hell, after that chewing out you gave him yesterday I'm pretty sure he's halfway to Haven by now."

"I wouldn't be surprised. And what are you doing alone on a Saturday night?" she questioned Ragna as she adjusted her glasses. "I imagine most students your year would either be studying or out at a party. What makes you so lonesome?"

"Habit mostly," Ragna admitted as he looked up at the broken moon. "I've always sort of been that way."

"Guess I was wrong," she said to him, giving the smallest of smiles. "You're not completely like my husband after all."

"Husband?" Ragna questioned, turning back to the doctor with some clear surprise. "...Didn't know that you were married." He gave a small sigh, a little worried that he'd have to keep Litchi's secret from his ninja acquaintance. "Does… does Bang know?"

"I'd like to hope he does," Litchi told him, giving him the smallest of glares. "I know he can be thick in the head at times, but the man I married isn't nearly that clueless."

(RECORD SCRATCH ENDING THE SONG)

"Wait…" Ragna began, his mouth gaping with like a fish as he tried to put his a thousand thoughts into words. "You- I- He- ...BANG'S YOUR HUSBAND!?"

"Indeed, we've been married eight years now," the doctor explained to him, reassessing her judgement of Ragna; he and Bang did have similar voice levels.

"B-But you told me that you last name was Fay-something!"

"Faye-Ling, and I didn't lie," she explained patiently. "When we were married, I decided that I'd keep my maiden name."

"But he leaps at you and goes out of his way like he's still trying to get his first date!" the Reaper shouted.

"That's just part of who Bang is," Litchi told him, giving him a small smile of understanding. "Besides, he's been trying to convince me to change my last name for years, and no matter what I do he won't give up."

"You kicked him square in the chest!" he shouted as his last point.

"He startled me… besides, I didn't think that you'd want to watch him try to woo me if I hadn't stopped him," she told him. "It may seem chaotic on the surface… but underneath it all, we're as loving a couple as any."

"That's… I mean… Okay, maybe you got a point… but for the life of me don't understand it," Ragna told her as he scratched the back of his head.

"Most people don't, but we make do," the doctor told him pleasantly as she smiled brightly for the Reaper. "Do you need an examination, insomnia perhaps?"

"I'll get back to you on that one doc," Ragna told her as he shook his head. "Later."

"Don't feel too bad, you're still young after all," Litchi assured him, sentiment that wasn't helping Ragna's mood.

Not long later, Ragna was outside and sitting on one of his favorite benches. Favorite because it had been a reliable place to doze off when he didn't have another chance.

"...What the actual hell?" he muttered to himself for the upteenth time. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't wrap his head around it. It was taking him a little to become used to the idea, but maybe he didn't have to understand Litchi's dynamic with her… dynamic husband.

"You know, you're lucky I'm not Yang, otherwise you would have been tackled again," he heard Ruby inform from behind him as the fellow student leaned on the back of the bench. "Something on your mind?"

"...Something I just can't understand for the life of me," he admitted as he looked up at the sky and sighed. "I'm starting to think I should just settle for being clueless."

"As long as your stop being clueless right here and now," Ruby said, running a hand through Ragna's hair and embarrassing the Reaper as she pet him almost like you would a dog. "Come on, exams aren't that far away and Weiss wants all of us to start studying now. Yang says that she'll only get started if you come with us and Blake's worried that you don't have anyone else to study with."

"...Right, and why do you want me there?" he asked Ruby, staying seated where he was.

"Aw c'mon, that's easy," Ruby told him with a full smile that almost seemed to be beaming in the moonlight. "Like I'm going to leave you out of a group get together; you're as big a part of team RWBY as any of us… We wouldn't want to leave you out of anything."

"...Twist my arm why don't you?" Ragna told her, a smug smirk forming on his face. "And after the day all of of you already put me through."

"You're not going to be playing the victim here mister," Ruby told him as she grabbed his right arm, forcing the Reaper to his feet. It didn't take much effort and soon she had Ragna following her into the library. Even if it was late at night there were already plenty of teams sitting and trying to get some late night studying in. "Sis! I brought him! We can get to studying now!"

"Darn, I was almost hoping that he wouldn't show…" Yang said with a sigh… before it immediately went to an obvious smile. "Just kidding, let's get going and nail this test!"

"Yang, volume," Weiss said as she raised her book. "Since Ragna's with us we're starting with Grimm Studies, if we're lucky we should be able to cover most of the material tonight… provided he lives up to form of course."

"Let's worry about ourselves first, that's a lot of material to cover for one night," Blake said, giving Ragna a small smile. "And we've already put him through enough for one day."

Ruby tried to ignore the smug look Ragna was giving her at that last comment. "Let's just get started, another Ragna/Ruby all nighter! …Well now it's a Ragna/ Team RWBY all nighter I suppose." Turning back to Ragna, she looked up at her closest friend and gave him one final smile. "Ready to go, bestie?"

"...Ready as I'll ever be I guess," Ragna told her with the smallest of smiles on his face. '...I guess I shouldn't be judging Litchi and Bang after all…

It's not like my love life's what you'd call normal either.'