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!

21. Project Hell: Part 1

Crimson XXI: Project Hell Part 1

"So his right arm transforms?" Ruby asked with a tilt of her head.

"Kind of, but the way it looks all covered in bandages is its actual form," Yang explained. "The version of it that looks like a real arm is a result of him having to shut off his Aura and focus on blending in. This is why he's always wearing the same pair of gloves no matter what he usually has on."

"Odd, because Ragna's never exactly struck me as someone who cares that much of his appearance outside of always wearing that red coat of his," Weiss noted. "What makes this so different?"

"There's... some trauma to go along with it," the blonde told her team again. "From what Ragna's told me, he lost his original arm on the same day that he lost his mother... So there's that."

"If that's the case, I can understand why he wouldn't want to expose it to anyone," Blake agreed. "I was in a similar place not too long ago with my ears..."

"Yep! And Ragna helped you sort through that drama so it's our turn to help him sort through his!" Yang energetically encouraged her team... before looking to the subject of their discussion. "See, I told you that this would go over well enough with the others! It even makes it easier for them to believe with the visual aid."

"Visual aid... right," Ragna grumbled as he scratched the back of his head. "...Can I put my shirt on now, think I feel a draft."

"Why? You've got all eyes on you right now," Yang said as the rest of her team couldn't help but peak glances at the Reaper's not-an-arm areas, this being their first time actually seeing him shirtless. Rolling his eyes, Ragna simply started to put on his black hakama again. "Aw, you're no fun..."

"I'm telling people secrets that I've had to fight tooth and nail to keep under wraps for over a decade. You do that and tell me you feel comfortable afterwards," the Reaper muttered as he then threw on his favored jacket. "Jeeze, if you hadn't found me out last night..."

"Speaking of which, how did you find him out?" Ruby asked. "You said that you were heading to the fight club last night, so how did you see his arm when he had his gear on?"

"What gear?" Ragna scoffed. "I had to fight shirtless in those damn things. There was no equipment involved."

"You were... fighting shirtless?" Weiss had to ask as a few images came to her mind, some of those she wasn't exactly proud of having.

'And Yang was hogging that for her... no, it doesn't matter,' Blake told herself as she tried to shake the thoughts out of her head as well.

'If Ragna's built like that it's no wonder that he can swing that massive sword of his around,' Ruby realized. 'Jeeze, he has an awesome weapon, really cool clothes, has a perfectly fit body, and has looks that-' A blush return to the fellow team leader's face, she tried to focus on something a little less embarrassing... and came to a realization. "Wait, if Ragna had to be shirtless when he fought, what was Yang wearing?"

"Th-that isn't important!" Yang tried to redirect. "What's important now is-!"

"Short shorts and a sports bra." Yang hated how smug Ragna was looking as he sold her out. "In front of all of those people that loved watching her fight. Until we had to leave, she was a clear favorite for the crowd."

"...I'm telling dad."

"OH YOU BETTER NOT!" Yang screamed as Ragna could only chuckle at her expense. "That's really nice! And after I did all of the work this morning to find special plans for all of us!"

"Special?" Weiss began.

"Plans?" Blake finished. Both girls looked at each other in concern as they knew how crazy Yang's plan making could go.

"Yep! And we're going to have to work hard to do it all this quarter, so everyone needs to look alive!" Yang encouraged. "I just got word from the Student Planning committee that we have an upcoming event during the eighth week of the quarter. Over that weekend, we'd be heading into the woods for an overnight camping trip."

"Camping..." Weiss repeated, admittedly with a little distaste.

"The Project Hell quarter hardly sounds like the best time for something like this," Blake had to agree. "We'll already be weighed down by projects and making sure our fighting skills will allow us to participate in the Vytal festival next term."

"I mean..." Ruby started reluctantly. Even if she wanted to go on this trip, she knew that she also needed to step up her leadership role in this rough quarter. "I think it would be better if we focused on our school stuff, we're going to need all the time we can to focus."

"Aw, really you guys?" Yang said, completely deflated. "But I had this whole plan ready..."

"Then we should go for it," Ragna interjected.

"Thanks, but I don't need your pity," Yang said with a pout, still a little miffed that he'd ratted on her to Ruby.

"Come on, you know me well enough by now that I don't give pity handouts," Ragna told her. "I've never actually been camping before, so I think we should try it."

"Never been camping?" Ruby asked. "Ragna, your whole thing is that you've spent a lot of time on the road and in the wilds, never settling down in civilization for very long. How can you say that and then tell us that you've never been camping?"

"Because that isn't camping, at least not my definition of it," he explained. "That's just surviving out in the wilds in order to move around, train, and go to where the work is. Camping to me is just heading out into the wilds for a night or two, roughing it either a tent or under the stars, and eating camp food cooking without worry of when your next meal is going to come."

"So... you haven't been camping because staying out in the wastes wasn't fun for you?" Weiss summarized.

"If you knew the kind of person that was teaching me, you'd understand where I'm coming from," Ragna reminded, remembering what training under Jubei was like. "So yeah I'm up for doing that if you all are. Might even be fun if we're able to get far enough ahead in our project."

'Now's my chance!' Yang's thoughts screamed as her eyes gave a plotting shine. "Well if you're interested in that, maybe you'd be interested in what we're doing at the end of the quarter when all of the projects have been completed?"

"...The fact that you're leading into it like this makes me think that I'm not going to like it," the Reaper muttered as he recognized this song and dance before. "Out with it then. What's your idea?"

"Easy, they've got an end of quarter dance for us this year too," she told him, leaving Ragna to scowl. "Come on, it'll be fun."

"You all know that I hate dancing," he reminded her.

"Hey! What about our private lessons!?" Weiss yelled at him.

"I sure as hell ain't there for the dancing tips," he answered gruffly.

"WHY YOU-!" Weiss was about to vent at him until Blake grabbed her to the side and started whispering in her ear.

"I think he's trying to give you a compliment, in his poorly worded way of course," the cat Faunus tried. "Think about it, if he's not there for dancing then that means he goes along for you."

"...If that's the case, then I guess I can forgive him this once," she relented, before looking at Ragna with authoritative eyes. "I still think that you should go to the dance, if not to show off all of the progress we made."

"In front of the entire school that feels like I'm either some womanizing leech or a total loser, sounds fun..." Ragna muttered.

"You'll have friends there too, you know?" Blake reminded him. "Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren... Your brother's team and maybe yours?"

"Still kinda working on those last two, but there's been progress," Ragna admitted. "I still don't know..."

"Which is why I think that now would be a GREAT time to strike a deal between us!" Yang said, taking control of her moment. "Admit it big guy, camping sounds great and all, but I think that you'd prefer it if everyone was there with you. You need to have your entire team come along, you've got some decent friends in team JNPR, this might be a good chance to patch things up with your brother, and I doubt you'd want to go without us."

"I... What's your point?" He wasn't relenting from his moody persona, but Yang had a feeling that Ragna would've wanted everyone there for this camping trip and have it be a loud and involved trip with the people he was close to at the academy.

"My point is that I can do some talking to the other groups and make sure that they're ready to go on this trip with us," she told him. "Here's the deal; I make sure everyone comes to the camping trip, and in exchange YOU have to come to the school dance at the end of the term."

"That's... an offer," Ragna said, stating the obvious as he thought it over.

"Keep in mind that we need to sign up by the end of the weekend and there's no opting out once you've made the decision for your team to join in the camping trip," Yang informed. "I'm going to need all the time I can get if I'm going to get everyone from the other teams on board and stay caught up with my studying, so I need that answer from you soon."

"So you're asking me now so I'm more likely to make a panicked decision and go along with what you say; typical Blackmail Yang for you," Ragna noticed, leaving Yang to smirk at him as she wasn't exactly playing subtle here. "Yeah, I already know damn well what you're trying. But..." He glanced over to the other three. "I'm not doing this if I'm going to screw your projects over in the process. Can you three really afford to miss those couple of days?"

"This quarter is a harder one," Blake began hesitantly, her ears twitching slightly. "But... if you really wanted to go, maybe we could do our best to make sure we're far enough ahead. It'd take a lot of extra work, but I think we can do our part to make sure we're ready for it."

"...I'm honestly not a fan of camping to begin with," Weiss admitted herself as she crossed her arm. "But I suppose if I'm going to be a world renowned Huntress then that means that I'll need to be able to rough it. I might need this practice for my duties down the line."

"As long as we get the projects done on time, I'm more than happy to go!" Ruby said, clearly the most upbeat and cheery of them. So much so, that Ragna couldn't help but break into a small smile. "Let's all have fun and get ready to go camping!"

"I guess that just about seals it," the Reaper agreed... before seeming oddly serious given the situation. "You always seem to go so far out of your way for getting me involved with stuff like this, why bother?"

"Dummy, you know that you're one of my best friends," Yang told him with an obvious roll of her eyes at his denseness.

"If you'd just started doing it now I'd understand, but even early on you've always been dragging me into stuff like this," Ragna remembered as he thought back. "Hell, if it weren't for you I don't think Ruby and I would've even begun talking to each other."

"Course she would've, I just felt like giving my sis a hand and speeding the process up a bit," the blonde told him. "She already had her eye on you for the similar fashion choices as well as that weapon you were carrying, she would've talked to you eventually."

'And that's what got this whole damn ball rolling,' Ragna thought with... well he honestly didn't know how to feel about the memory. "Alright sure, I can buy that. But what about when you first started dragging me to those late night matches? I wasn't that well acquainted with your team at that point, so why did you ask me out so soon?"

'...Guess now is as good of a time as any to let him in,' Yang considered, realizing that the truth would have to come out eventually. "It's because Ozpin had asked me to. He called me in and had asked me in his own words to make sure you got a little positive reinforcement."

"Ozpin asked that?" Ragna asked with an eyebrow raised. Judging from the others' surprised looks, they'd been left in the dark as much as he had. "Okay, but why the hell did he ask you to do that in the first place?"

"Probably had something to do with the scare that you'd caused during your entrance exam," she guessed. While she was the only one who'd heard the real story from Ozpin, the rest of them had heard rumors about what had happened. "He... didn't exactly want a repeat of what happened with the Grimm and..."

"Ozpin was worried about my negative emotions," Ragna finished, showing that he knew what had attracted them. "So that was his whole damn game, should've known. I told him after the exam that it was a split second mistake and that it wouldn't happen. It hasn't happened and he still went behind my back with you."

"Maybe the reason you haven't snapped was because I was there for you?" Yang's tone wasn't aggressive towards him or even self defensive, just casually telling the Reaper what was what. Ragna thought the sentiment over a moment before nodding.

"I guess there's a chance you could be right," he muttered. "At least now I know why you're always-"

"Nope," Yang denied before he could even finish. "Ozpin only asked me to give you a bit of cheer that one time and odds were I was going to try that without him asking. Everything else has been all yours truly." Her smile then turned the slightest bit cocky. "Besides if Ozpin really was behind everything, do you think I could have told you that?"

"...Point taken," he admitted, thinking uncomfortably to the words she'd whispered to him last night.

"W-Why are you blushing?" Blake demanded. Ragna didn't even bother trying to look her in the eye. "What did you say to him!?"

"Oh, you know~" Yang began in a singsong voice. "Just that-"

"ANYWAYS," Ragna interjected to stop her, only adding to the mystery and the other's growing concerns. "I'll talk with the rest of my team and let them know what we're-"

"No need! This is my part of the deal, so I'll break the news to them!" the blonde assured him with a bright smile and a strong tap on his forehead. "Just leave the rest for me and get on with yo bad self!"

"Right..." Ragna said slowly before taking out his scroll and checking the clock. "Just about that time." Pocketing it, he headed for the door. "Catch you all on the flipside, I've got work to do with Cinder in the library."

"Gotcha! We'll all catch you at lunch!" Ruby promised... only for Ragna to not answer right away. "Huh?"

"I'm actually going to be missing out on lunch today... and here's hoping I'll have enough time to catch up on my Solo project afterwards so I can see you at dinner." The Reaper closed his eyes and gave a soft sigh, only to notice Ruby uncomfortably close to his face when he opened them up. "Uh..."

"Any reason why you're missing out on dinner?" she asked with a slight scowl. "Meal time's important and I'm not letting you miss out on it again. You've already skipped out on the last three of them, and that's giving you a pass for when you went out with Yang. Tell me it's not going to become four."

"Easy, it's not like I'm trying to miss dinner on purpose," Ragna tried to tell her, before smirking and patting her on the top of her head. "If it makes you feel any better, I can promise that I'll make the effort to show. Alright?"

"You better!" Ruby told him as she tried to look authoritative, difficult to do with Ragna towering over her and petting her hair. Smirking, the Reaper headed out Team RWBY's room and shut the door behind him. 'But maybe now's the time that I should...'

"You okay Ruby?" Blake asked. "You look pretty deep in thought."

"For once."

"Be nice Snow White."

"Stop calling me that! I didn't like Ice Queen much, but where did that nickname go!?"

"Once we started hearing Ragna call you that, it was pretty hard to use Ice Queen every time," Yang explained before looking back to her sister. "But seriously, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine. I'm just making some plans for later in my head," Ruby said, but didn't elaborate further for once. "Everyone remembers the plan? We're all going to handle our Personal and Random assignments today and tomorrow we'll do our Team and Partner assignments tomorrow?" Everyone gave a firm nod. "Alright Team RWBY... Go out there and give it your all!"

Substory 14: Looking Into The Past

"Ren, this is so boooooring..." Nora groaned as she slumped over her book. "Make the boring stoooooop..."

"Nora, you started reading ten minutes ago and you haven't even turned the page," Ren reminded as he flipped to the table of contents for his own book. "Tell me you haven't been giving Blake this much trouble..."

"Actually we've been having a lot of fun coming up with ideas to Professor Relius's project scenarios," Nora said, showing a bit more energy now that she no longer needed to strictly focus on her present studying. "I come up with a ton of kickass ideas and Blake adjusts them with her own input!"

"You mean that you've been coming up with a ton of crazy ideas and Blake's being forced to have them make the slightest bit of sense," Ren guessed without taking his eyes up from the book.

"Hey! Why would you even say that!?" she demanded, a lot more energy now showing.

"How long have you and I known each other? I'm pretty familiar with how you operate at this point," her partener observed. "I'm not in much better of a situation. Azrael isn't exactly a master of battle strategy himself and he has a lot of trouble putting himself in someone else's shoes when in a fight."

"Huh, and here I thought he'd be great at stuff relating to fights," Nora noted, thinking back to their intense (albeit short and interrupted) spar during the first quarter of classes. "Could sure use a fight now to break up all of this lame history research."

"Nora, don't say that," Ren chided. "If you keep talking like that then-"

"LAME history research?"

"...We'll have that happen," he finished as he realized Nora had complained in front of the professor that had given them this assignment in the first place AND just happened to be the biggest history enthusiast of Beacon Academy and quite possibly Remnant itself. "H-Hello Professor Oobleck."

"That's Doctor Oobleck!" the teacher insisted. "And what's this I hear about your assignments being boring? How any of your are able to find the study of ancient civilization is beyond me! It's a gateway into the past itself! The more we learn about the past, the more we understand our origins and ancestry!"

"All I'm trying to understand is how we're going to get through this assignment," Nora complained once more. Ren swore he saw a shine in the eyes behind Oobleck's glasses. "I can barely understand half of this thing..."

"Which is why it's one of the greatest historical mysteries of this age! In fact it should be one of the most interesting research topics that I could have given you! It's called the Blade of the World Conqueror for pete's sake!"

"...Doesn't sound so interesting," Nora said stubbornly.

"Not interesting!? That's one of the greatest finds of the century!" Oobleck shouted at levels that would earn any student an instant detention from Goodwitch (probably three of them in Ragna's case). "If you'd done any research at all you'd be able to know the intrigue that this weapon has created!"

"Oh, I did the research," Nora said with a shrug, something Ren doubted she'd gotten to yet. "I just don't think some rusty old-"

"NO! What you're not getting is the lack of rust on the weapon!" Oobleck shouted. "When the piece was discovered in the remains of the ruins there was a seemingly impossible lack of rust on it! Given how deep it was buried within the earth it should have rusted several times over, but somehow it had enough of its components remaining to understand its basic form structure! And any attempt to judge its age has come back faulty at best! There's no telling how old the artifact actually is!"

"I... see..." Ren said, taking some notes on Oobleck's lecture. "So what your saying is-"

"What I'm saying isn't even one of the most interesting parts! Inside the blade was even an interlocking mechanical structure that implied that the sword had some way of taking another form. The technology of that blade appeared archaic to be sure, but in some ways it even proved to be more advanced than anything humanity was capable of at the time of its discovery and helped to serve as the basis for improving those mechanisms! Some have even referred to it as the Genesis Blade."

"So?" Nora repeated again with a bored slump.

"You're still not impressed?" Ooblecked questioned, once again with a shine in his glasses. "Even if we were barring everything that I'd just told you, there is still a matter of the blade's siblings. The sword I told you about was only the first of its kind found; there was also a spear, a mallet, a bow, and several knives. Aside from the miracle condition they were each found in, we also know that they were related because each of them had a single jewel of onyx forged into the metal, usually in the center of its hilt. Each of these jewels were perfect, uncracked, and somehow had the symbol of infinity carved into each of them."

"...You're sure it was an infinity? Someone didn't just really like the number eight?"

"Nora, please..." Ren begged, but Oobleck seemed too lost in his own thoughts about the artifacts to notice.

"The most surprising thing about them though was the location we found each of those weapons. The original sword was first found in Vale, but after that there were lost weapons found in Mistral, Atlus, and even a few in Vacuo. The spread of these weapons isn't just impressive, but it can lead us to believe that-"

"Professor Oobleck." Turns out there was something in Beacon that could even stop Oobleck's obsession with artifacts, at least for a time. He didn't even try to insist that Goodwitch use his title of doctor here, instead giving a short cough as he adjusted his glasses. "I can understand wanting to discuss these projects with your students and I would always encourage grant help to those who need it, but that doesn't mean that you should do their project for them."

"Understood, I'm afraid I simply got a little ahead of myself there," he said, trying to hide the discomfort of his colleagues eyes burning through him. Breaking said eye contact, he turned to the two students. "Hopefully you're able to look at the study of history in a different light now?"

"You got it Pro-!"

"DOCTOR."

"You got it Doctor! That was totally eye opening for me!" Nora told him as she went back into her textbooks, apparently with new excitement. Oobleck couldn't help but take pleasure in what he'd inspired and smiled as he left. Goodwitch didn't have any such comments and only proceeded to what she'd been doing prior, searching for rulebreaking students (one in particular). "So... you took some pretty good notes, right?"

"I still can't believe you did that," Ren said to his partner with a shake of his head.

"What, it's not like I had to force it out of him. He was plenty happy to start talking about historical artifacts, I just had to give him something to talk about," she answered with a smile. "Now... maybe I can find some way to get Professor Port talking about my Grimm Studies topics."

'...I guess she did save us some time researching,' Ren had to admit with a soft smile.

Substory 15: Encouragement

"...And from there my character will come around the remaining Grimm from behind with a barrage from the submachine gun function on their weapon. Afterwards, any surviving Grimm can easily be dealt with as we both flank them," Jaune concluded as he wrote down his part of the strategy. "The jagged rocks should be able to cover you long enough to execute my part of the attack. Am I missing something?"

"Nothing comes to my mind, I think that's everything," Noel said as she continued writing her notes. "Sorry if I'm holding you back at all, I don't really know the first thing about strategy."

"Don't sell yourself short," Jaune tried to tell her, only to come to a stunning realization. 'So... that's what Pyrrha means.' "I mean you were able to tell how far their guns could accurately shoot just by seeing the model number. That probably saved us both a solid hour of research at least! That's more than helpful."

"If... if you really mean it, then I'm glad to be of use," she said with a beaming smile, a happy glow around her that was contagious as it also seemed to brighten Jaune's face. "But I still think that you have an amazing mind when it comes to combat tactics. In all of the other trials you always knew exactly where to place our characters, and your strategies were completely sound from the start. It's no wonder why you were chosen to be a Team Leader."

"That's really nice of you to say, but it's really nothing. Taking care of strategies like this is the least a team leader should be doing," he explained. "Besides, this is the easy part. All of the people we're put in control of are already pretty strong, so I don't need to worry about my own skill here."

"I... guess?" Noel said with more confusion than actual agreement. "Your strategies would really come in handy for managing my team though; during the first quarter we didn't talk strategies at all because of all the separate issues we had. Even now when most of those have already been resolved, we've been so busy that we haven't had the chance to talk strategy much and this quarter's certainly not going to give us that time."

"I think you guys are kind of past the point of worrying about strategies. Two of your group don't even seem to think strategy is worth bothering with and all of you are really strong power houses in the Academy. For a while at least I think you guys can get by without worrying about battle plans."

"Maybe the other three can, but what about me?" Noel asked, her expression slowly turning crestfallen. "Everyone also in my team is so talented; Ragna understands Grimm fighting better than anyone, Tsubaki's always been a Straight A student and really good at fighting, and Azrael's so powerful that no one tries to mess with him... but I'm none of those."

"Do you really have to be?" Jaune asked.

"Huh?"

"I mean, just speaking personally, I'd give up just about anything so that I could do half the stuff you can with your guns. I could name just about any book in the library and no matter where we put it you'd be able to pull off a miracle shot, ricochet the bullet, and land a hit dead on!"

"I... I doubt I'd be that good..." Noel said meekly.

"Sure you could, I bet that if you kept practicing with your guns like you did there wouldn't be anything in Remnant that you couldn't hit. And that's what can make you special here! Maybe you're not always up close and flashy like everyone else, but there's probably no one they'd rather have to support them from afar. It's a really important role for your team and I think you'd do the job and then some."

"You... really think that?" Noel asked before covering her mouth and blushing slightly. "W-well if there's anything that I can do to help with our project, I'll do everything that I can! Especially if it has anything to do with firearms.

"See? That'd work great!" Jaune told her with a confident smile. 'It's taking me a bit, but I think I'm finally starting to find my own groove here at the Academy. Maybe I can even help someone who's in a position like I was.'

Substory 16: Recollective Teatime

"I'm afraid this won't be much of a visit; in addition to reading through the students reports and judging them I'm afraid I'm also behind in certain research to Atlus. If anything, I may not be able to sleep tonight if I'm going to make my deadlines."

"Ever devoted to your research, but I guess that makes sense given who I'm talking to," Litchi said with a small smile at her old teammate as she poured the tea to begin brewing. "Remember when we had to do our research projects together? Half the time you weren't even working on the same project as us, you'd already finished your portion of the work and moved on far ahead."

"If I'd waited for your husband to catch up to us we'd have never submitted an assignment on time. That love struck fool just needed you to explain each and every part of what we went over, he'd do whatever was necessary so that he could listen to you speak."

"Is that right?" Litchi asked as she put her tea over a small burner. "Bang's never told me that."

"He probably assumed you knew; it's not difficult to see," the professor grumbled before removing his mask... since Litchi was one of the few people that was allowed to see the secret that lay beneath. "Of course Ignis was the first one to notice, almost immediately I might add... she had a way of finding those little details."

"She still does apparently, since she managed to make you of all people into a semi-devote father." Relius didn't bother arguing with that. "So, how are they?"

"Well enough, Carl's short stature doesn't lend himself well to physical ability but despite that he's making great strides in his tactics and research ability. Also he's getting plenty of attention from his female peers because they think he's... what's the word? Ka-something?"

"Kawaii?"

"That. Ada's always gotten herself plenty of attention, but I think her biggest concern has always been her little brother. In fact it might be thanks to that encouragement that Carl's doing so well, those two have always been close as siblings." Relius crossed his arms in his chair. "Which reminds me, how is little Linhua?"

"Working hard as always, it kills me that she's not going to be able to make it here from Mistral for at least a little while longer," the doctor admitted, before giving her colleague a bit of a smirk. "That and she's been asking about her Uncle Relly."

"Damn it Bang, you made her give me that nickname on purpose," the scientist couldn't help but growl, much to Litchi amusement as she let out a giggle. "...The more time that's passed, the more I realize that no one else in our little team BLIR (Blur) is ever going to grow up. Least of all you and your husband."

"Which is why we go so well together!"

"Some people might find that hard to believe."

"One person here already does," she admitted, thinking back to Ragna's less than subdued reaction of her marriage status. "Not completely unrelated, but any students that catch your eye this quarter?"

"...I'll tell you, but you have to promise that not a word of this reaches the other students," Relius told her sternly. Litchi nodded, wondering how an observation (even one made by Relius) could make such an impact after only seeing these students for just a day. "...Never in all of my time as a researcher nor any of my life before it have I ever seen so many individuals with such great potential."

"That's quite the claim coming from you."

"Hardly, I wouldn't be surprised if each and every one of them played vital roles in a future turning point of Remnant itself. Some of them might even be a cause or direct challenge in whatever undertaking that will end up becoming." The soft foot tapping coming from underneath the table told Litchi that Relius was clearly deep within his own thoughts. "It... staggers even my own logic admittedly."

"The way you talk like that, it's almost like you're sure that there's going to be a historical event in the near future," Litchi observed. "Is it anything to worry about?"

"You'd have to ask Ozpin, he'd have a much clearer idea of such things." The shrill scream coming from the tea kettle told Litchi that their water was ready, so she left the issue there for now and moved to prepare tea for the two of them. 'With so many imposing pieces on the board, anything can be possible now.'

Substory 17: Tribulation

"Damn, these are starting to get tough as hell," Ragna groaned as he read through the scenario that he and Cinder had been given for their random partner assignment. "Sucks that I know how to fight a lance user, but I don't have too many ideas of how to actually use one." 'Of course after that match with Mai, maybe there's something I'm missing about even fighting.' "I guess the best we can do is work our back from how we're supposed to fight one of them and go from there. It's basic, but it can at least be a starting point."

"Don't forget that you're not alone here. My participant's also here to back you up with a chain and sickle," Cinder reminded, still smiling pleasantly at Ragna... in fact, the Ragna didn't know if there was a time that she hadn't been smiling for him. It should have been a good thing to have someone so supportive and cheery for the Reaper, but for whatever reason... Ragna just couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable, and that was before factoring in some of her other stunts. "...Ragna? Ragna? Are you paying attention?"

"Urk? Sorry about that..." he muttered as he shook his head. "Spaced out for a second there."

"You've been doing that a lot lately," Cinder said, before she closed the distance between herself and the Reaper. Ragna visibly flinched, unable to tell that she was smirking wickedly since she was really that close. What he could tell was that there was another pair of eyes... watching them intently. "Hmmm, you certainly look tired. Did you not get a lot of sleep well last night?"

"I slept fine," Ragna assured her as he tried to lean back and get a little distance between the two of them. He couldn't get much distance, but it was enough so he could at least see who was looking at the two of them, or at least it would have been if they hadn't already run off.

"Maybe... or maybe the issue is that you didn't sleep for long enough," she tried again. "That blonde friend of yours-"

"Yang."

"Right, her name was escaping me for a moment. But she grabbed you to go out last night pretty suddenly, just what was it she needed you for?" Cinder was already fully aware of where Ragna had been for several reasons, but she wanted to see if there was any additional discomfort she could get out of this.

"Just a small time favor, nothing you'll ever have to worry about her asking for again," Ragna said. Cinder was trying not to look too gleeful at the fruits of her labor. "B-But enough about that, I think it's time that we moved back onto our project. You don't have a lot of time before you gotta leave, right?"

"Actually I just got a message a bit ago, they went and cancelled me for today," Cinder told him with an embarrassed smile trying to feign guilt before she further feigned an apology. "Sorry, I'm going to try my best to keep this from happening again, maybe even have a stern word or two?"

"If you think that'll work, I guess go for it. But I know what kind of position you're in, don't bother if you know it's going to screw you over," the Reaper attested. "Seriously though, we really should be getting back to work. We're in a pretty shit situation here; heavily outmanned, just as badly outgunned, and we're supposed to bring one of them in for questioning at the end. This bamboo forest that we're fighting in is going to make things even harder for us if we're not going to have much room to move our weapons around without those thick bamboo stalks getting in our way. The way this thing describes them, they're even harder than steel." 'Which normally wouldn't be a problem, but I'm not the one fighting.' "I'm open to any suggestions you've got."

'Amusing as it would be to play dumb and let him flounder around like this for the entire project, I'll have to pull my weight somewhat or else people will start to get suspicious... that, and it'll make the crippling blow at the end that much sweeter.' "I think our best option is going to be to scare them so they're off balance and we're able to take advantage of that."

"Scare them, you mean with stealth?" Ragna asked as he looked over the enemy profiles. "The profile on these rogue Huntsmen make them sound like a couple of tough sons-of-bitches. I think all an early sneak attack is going to be able to do is give us an element of surprise, not get them to piss themselves in fear."

"Normally I'd agree with you, but I think we might actually be able to get away with it given our location," Cinder told him. "Those bamboo stalks that you described earlier can only grow in a few select places, and the only place that we'd be able to find this many at a time would be the Forest of Whispers in Vacuo."

'Huh, that sounds familiar,' Ragna considered as he thought back. 'Didn't my master tell me about it at some point. I think I remember there being a story about-' Immediately the Reaper's body stiffened as he remembered some of the key rumors of that place.

"There are a lot of rumors about this place being haunted, and plenty of the camp stories you'd hear include this place in some way or another. It makes sense too, given all of the stories that surround the place. Early in there's always a deep mist and it's really easy to get lost in there, the entire forest can feel like it's repeating. The lightest breath of wind can send shivers down your spine. They say you can hear the whispers of damned get louder and louder the further you get in, and once you get lost enough you'll actually see one of the souls... and at that point you join them forever."

"...New strategy; get Fire Dust, turn the forest to ashes."

"Huh?" Cinder asked with actual surprise. "But we're supposed to take one of them-"

"PEACE WAS NEVER AN OPTION! BURN IT ALL!" Ragna fiercely commanded, writing that plan of attack in his notes.

"That's... an idea, but I think Professor Clover would dock us almost the entire score for the problem if we tried that. We'll have to try something a little less needlessly fire crazed." 'I can't believe I'M saying that to him. Why is he going so destructive right after I... Wait.' "Ragna, are you scared of ghosts?"

"Wha-? Th-that's absurd! How the hell could I, the Grimm Reaper, possibly be scared as something as silly as a ghost? I mean, maybe if I was a kid, sure. Who wouldn't be scared of one back then? But I sure as hell ain't afraid of those damn things now!"

"Riiiiight," Cinder told him. "Then why are you thinking we should act so hastily to burn the forest to the ground? Earlier you were so concerned of how we were going to solve the issue the right way, so why the sudden change of plans?"

"It's just... I wanted to make sure we had a backup plan for the time being," he told her weakly. He'd managed to keep his hidden phobia a secret for the entire last quarter, but now it'd been let out for someone.

"Don't worry about it," Cinder assured him as she put a single finger in front of her face before giving him a playful wink. "Wouldn't tell a soul."

"...Good because there's nothing here to tell," Ragna insisted, clearly ready to die on his hill.

"Of course, that's what I meant," she said with a girlish giggle. 'Now I have this as an additional exploit against him, oh how easy is he going to make it for me to exploit him? Not that I'm complaining, but how will I be able to use it without it coming back to me just yet?'

'Ghosts huh?' Ragna thought to himself... trying not to remember the trauma that had caused that fear in the first place. 'I won't be able to murder that son of bitch if I'm cowering like this the moment I see him. Guess I'm going to need to find a damn way to get over it.' Trying to get his mind back to the present so he could focus on his project (hopefully without overthinking the forest's rumors), only to notice another female student heading right for their table. 'Grimm almighty, what now?'

The young lady approaching in her Beacon Academy uniform had such a distinct look to her that he was positive that he'd never seen her around Beacon before, even when it came to his horrible memory about other people. Not only did she have heterochromia eyes like he did with one of them bright pink while the other was a deep brown, but even her hair was split in a similar way. Her skin was paler than would be normal, almost giving off a white color. She had a smirk and certain sway in her steps as she approached, giving off a very cocky persona.

"Finally decided to show up, did you?" Cinder said to the new girl who only gave a dismissive wave with her hand. "We've both had to do plenty of work to cover for you here."

"So this is your partner," Ragna realized, giving a small sigh of relief as he realized that at least now he wouldn't have to worry about helping to cover for Cinder's Partner project. "So you're...?"

"This is Neo Politan, though we just call her Neo," Cinder answered in her place. "Neo, this is Ragna the Bloodedge. He's my Random Project partner, so we've been working closely for a while now." Neo didn't offer a vocal response, only smiling and giving a playful wave to Ragna. With the fact that Cinder had been the one to introduce her and she'd yet to do so much as speak a single word, Ragna had caught onto Neo's muteness.

"Welcome to Beacon," Ragna told her simply, only to receive a nod. "So I guess now that you're here-"

"I'll need to get her caught up to speed," his assigned partner said, closing her grip once again. Putting on her best apology face, she looked pleadingly at Ragna. "I know I've asked a lot from you already, but I really need this favor to get back up to speed. I promise I'll try to keep your workload lighter and getting Neo informed on the project will help with that."

"I guess you've got a point," he reluctantly agreed. "Fine, but I've got dinner plans later tonight, so can we try to-?"

"You're the best!" Cinder said before throwing her arms around the Reaper's neck. No matter how often she gave him these out of nowhere displays of appreciative affection, Ragna was still just as caught off guard as he usually was. Neo herself only tilted her head slightly at the display as Ragna tried to escape his partner's hold. "Neo, it's all thanks to this guy that I've been able to manage while you've been away. He's been a lifesaver!"

"You... don't have to go that far," Ragna tried to tell her as he finally managed to escape her arms. 'Damn... well maybe if I'm able to get her caught up quick enough, I'll actually be able to grab dinner like I promised.'

Substory 18: Bonds of Bros

"Is there any reason why those four keep looking around?" Neptune asked as he gestured over to team RWBY's table. "Now that I think about it, they were doing that a few days ago too, are they waiting for someone?"

"Yeah, and I get the feeling that they're going to need to keep waiting," Kagura muttered before he bit into an apple. "But forgetting that for the moment, where's your random partner?"

"Mercury said he had some other work to catch up on so he wouldn't be able to join us," Sun informed as he bit into a banana. "So what's this about? I get the feeling that you'd rather try to spend your time chatting up a bunch of girls than spending time with your actual partner."

"Just felt like chatting up fellow Men of Culture for a change, my intuition tells me that the both of you were pretty popular with ladies back home in Haven," the Black Gale guessed confidently. "Am I wrong?"

"Nope, you've got a pretty good intuition there. Not to brag or anything," Neptune said, before looking seriously at Kagura. "So is that what this is? A hostile meeting to make sure neither of us step too far onto your turf?"

"If you both think you can win the hearts of this Academy's fair maidens from me, then you're welcome to try," he answered honestly, not too concerned with his own reputation. "I'm just a little curious how the game in Mistral is. Tell me about the girls from there and I'll let you know how things operate around here, exchange some information if you will."

"...Okay, I might be able to get behind that," Sun admitted with a smile. "So there's this one girl that's actually here now. Mako-"

"We've met, actually I've known her and Mai for longer than you have," Kagura interrupted, knowing there was nothing that he could gain here. "What about the other Faunus students there? Are there a lot more of them there since the Headmaster's a Faunus himself?"

"There are more there than you'd find here to be sure, but it's far from the most that I've seen anywhere," the blond monkey answered as he thought back. "As for flirting with students that weren't Faunus, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could get some places... helps that I keep my shirt open most of the time."

"So does that Azrael monster, but you don't see any girls lining up to go out with him," Neptune countered.

"To be fair, he's not looking for romance. If it's not fighting, he's hardly going to bother with it," Kagura admitted. "Sun on the other hand is putting in the effort, and I'm assuming you're getting results?"

"The term 'results' is a bit generous, most of the time things are broken up as soon as the parents are involved," he admitted. "Half the time I can't tell if it's because they won't let their daughter date a Faunus or the parents are just really protective about boys."

"The only reason I've managed to survive so long in my own flirting ways is because I made a point to keep my guard up if my current interest has any ideas of getting her parents involved. Even an awesome reputation like I've got can only get me so far out of trouble," Kagura admitted tactically. "But the greatest prizes usually have a frightening guardian looking after it. If the girl's worth it, then..."

"That's the other problem, but it's a little more complicated than you think," Sun explained. "Sure the girl's at Haven Academy were great looking, sweet, and a perfect wrap in what most people would look for in a girl... but some of them had a tendency to be pretty territorial."

"Ah, I get the hint. They're on the hunt just as much as you are, and it's difficult for connoisseurs like you that just want to play the field," Kagura guessed, earning affirmative nods from both of the guys. "Don't worry, any girls here that are like that are either already in their relationship... or it's obvious enough that most people would be able to see the signals."

"Riiiiight, so are there any that you can introduce us to?" Neptune asked, trying to get a judge of Kagura's character with his response (and because that was what he actually wanted).

"Sure thing, I actually know two girls that we all might be able to have a fun evening with in town," Kagura said without hesitation, showing he wasn't petty enough to leave his new comrades out to dry. "They actually work at bouncers in a nightclub, but they'll be willing to leave their posts for a bit when we show up. Place is a pretty popular dance club, and I can even manage to get you both drinks... if that's your thing."

"Sounds like mischief that can get the three of us in a ton of trouble," Sun realized before smirking. "I'm in, let's see what kind of a crazy time you can show us. Right, Neptune?"

"Dance... club," the blue haired trident user repeated, Kagura taking note of the obvious nerves. "Maybe we can start off smaller? Find a nice cafe that the locals frequent instead of diving head first into the crazy nightlife?"

"Dude, we should be going fast and hard with this stuff. There's no telling how much time Project Hell's actually going to give us, so we should make every second count," Sun said, already thinking of what could be in store for them at this night club. "We've been in riskier situations like this, so you can't be scared of it."

"Of course I'm not scared of getting in trouble; one guy already seems to be eating up all of the trouble at the Academy already for everyone else," Neptune defended.

"Then there's no problem, we'll head out the next time the three of us are sure we can be open," the Black Gale decided with authority. "Don't worry about dancing either, we can just say something that you're sore from an impressive workout and not ready to get going just yet."

"Thanks... not that I'd have any problems on the dance floor!" Neptune said a little too quickly and loudly, trying terribly to save face.

"Sure..."

Substory 19: Brawls and Bargains

"Thanks for agreeing to spar with me after dinner, it's been a bit since I've had a good workout," Makoto said as she adjusted her tonfas before giving the metal weapons a proper spin.

"Not a problem, I was actually robbed out of a good couple of fights myself last night, this is a great chance to break loose and go straight at it," Yang said as she loaded up her shotgun gauntlets with training bullets. "One rule for sparing with me though, you don't go for the hair."

"Don't worry, I've heard plenty of horror stories from the other students. Fun as it would be to see you really go all out, this is just for fun," Makoto noted before smirking. "Besides, if things went sour for me and you knocked me out for a couple of days that would leave you to do our project alone."

(Cue Alexandrite II)

"Why do you think you're not allowed to try it?" Yang shot back with a smirk.

"I can see someone's cocky! Make sure I don't knock you out 'cause I'm not doing the whole project myself either!" Makoto shot back in challenge as she began bouncing side to side on her feet to get into a rhythm.

Instead of rushing forward like Yang had expected her to do, Makoto instead created a small orb of electrified energy in the air in front of her. While Yang reasonably guessed that this was part of the Faunus's semblance, the truth was that Makoto was much more skilled than her personality would let on and was instead using part of her Aura Arts to create this. A glow forming around her fist, she reeled it back before smashing the sphere directly at Yang. The blonde responded by firing off a shot from her gauntlets which collided with the object and caused a small explosion, covering for Makoto as she quickly closed in. There was no glow in Makoto's punch this time as the twos' fists connected in a hefty clash, both of them stumbling slightly back at the equal strengths tested against one another. Recovering quickly, Yang fired off a shotgun blast from her gauntlets which was blocked by Makoto's metal tonfas as it spun around to grant better coverage.

As Yang gave a heavy swing with her gauntlet, Makoto managed to easily crouch under the attack and spun her body into a sweeping kick. The blonde managed to dodge the reaction by leaping into the air and even kept the pressure on by diving down with her fist, causing the ground to shake as her opponent barely managed to leap back. Using her gauntlets to blast her forward she managed to catch Makoto mid-leap, powered through the Faunus's defensive punch, and slammed into her with a full body tackle. Yang then sent them both upward with a flaming uppercut before kicking Makoto away.

Rolling back on the ground before leaping to her feet, Makoto charged her semblance into her fist and allowed the powerful force to carry her forward. Yang raised her fists to guard the attack, but her opponent had actually cancelled out the attack and used the still present force to slide her forward so she could grapple the blonde. Yang tried her best to escape the grab, only to get smacked hard in the face repeatedly. She then noticed that she wasn't getting attacked by Makoto's fist or even her legs, it was a little... fuzzier.

'IS SHE HITTING ME WITH HER TAIL!?'

Finishing with a hit from her glove to lift her off her feet, Makoto then gave a solid punch to Yang's gut that caused her to lurch before she finally got the proper uppercut to send her skyward. Leaping up after her, Makoto proved herself to be quite the able arial combatant as she successfully delivered a heavy punch into a backflip double kick. Rising even further into the air from the force of her uppercut, she then charged her fist with her semblance and smashed downward with enough force that Yang bounced when she hit the floor. Makoto stuck the landing and gave her fists a couple of swings at the open air, waiting for Yang to get off her butt.

With Yang up and the two eager to resume their sparing, they both charged forward and did just that. This time when their fists connected, they both understood the other's strength enough so that they could manage the hits without staggering, leading to exchange of seven rapid fire punches that caused their clashes to echo through the sparring room. On the eighth punch, Makoto used her tonfa as a shield to take the attack before rushing forward with a powerful lunge. Yang sidestepped the lunge before leaping back to avoid the high sweep from the Faunus's tail, the breeze it made that tugged at her hair only highlighted its raw power. But with her opponent's back turned Yang saw her chance and went in for another charge.

Leaping upward right before the attack connected made it so Makoto didn't only dodge the attack, but left Yang open as she went head first into one of the crackling spheres of energy she'd created as a trap. Coming down on top of her with a tail slam, the Faunus quickly knocked her opponent's feet from under her before charging up her semblance once more and catching Yang with a fullpower haymaker that sent her straight into a wall that she again bounced off of before sailing through the air back to the waiting Makoto. Delivering an initial strike to only hold her sparring partner in place, Makoto then let loose a barrage of countless punches that battered Yang all over. Blasting her up to the ceiling, Makoto leapt up so quickly she almost appeared above her and let out a scream as she smashed her to the ground with enough force to create a large tremor in the floor.

(Author's Note: This is normally where 'I BURN' would begin playing. On behalf of the BBTAG community and as someone with a semi-regular Yang, WE'VE HEARD IT ENOUGH DAMMIT! That is all, thank you.)

Exploding with fire as she activated her semblance, Yang charged forward with another tackle before Makoto could even land. While she managed to guard against the first hit, Yang then performed an overhead axe kick that cleanly connected and opened her up. Yang then scored an uppercut and launched Makoto into the air so she could perform her own punch-kick air combo. Firing off an exploding round from her gauntlets, the attack caught Makoto and kept her airborne so Yang could land and be ready for a haymaker into her uppercut. Jumping up again and performing the same combination, she then used a punching dive that brought them both back to the ground with a small eruption of flames. Rushing forward, she delivered a barrage of heavy flaming punches before ending on a final brilliant punch and sending her straight into the wall. Picking herself out, she stumbled for just a few steps but was still up and ready to finish the match.

Creating another sphere and shooting it off with her fist, this time Yang managed to block the attack head on as her opponent rushed in on her. She then shot off her own fire shot to force Makoto to weave around it before the two traded heavy blows which forced them both to slide back. Makoto blocked Yang's low sweeping with her tonfas before retaliating with an uppercut and missing by a hair breadth as her opponent leaned back. Both girls then leaped back and got ready for the charge that would decide the match, Makoto began focusing her Semblance into her fist while Yang did the same with a single fiery punch. They then gave war cries as the attacks came and their fists collided in a titanic impact, so powerful that shock waves from the strike were completely visible in the air around them.

...Both girls then slumped forward slightly, completely spent.

(End theme)

"That's one mean punch you've got," Yang said groaned as she waved her arms around a bit, her arm almost numb from that last clash. "Is that a part of your semblance?"

"Yep, it's a little something called Impact," she explained, patting herself down. "I have to charge up my attacks a bit before I fire them off, but if I can time it right in the heat of combat I can put whoever's on the receiving end in a world of hurt. You certainly took a couple of my better shots and you dealt some pretty fierce damage afterwards. Is that your own little trick?"

"Yep, and I can give back any beatings I take! I'm a hard gal to put down," the blonde declared, still a bit cocky after her fight. "But man if that wasn't a total rush, you've given me just the fight I was hoping for!"

"Glad to hear that, but..." Suddenly Makoto's expression didn't seem nearly as cheery. "It was kind of my plan to tire you out before we talked, just in case I got you... pissed."

"Huh, not a bad strategy at least. We might even want to try that for one of Professor Relius's problems," Yang suggested, her demeanor not becoming any less playful just yet. "So what was it you needed to talk to me about?"

"It's about Ragna," she started. Yang's joyful expression seemed to flicker for just a second in doubt, but she didn't say anything just yet. "I saw you... well, the whole school saw you drag him off from Cinder yesterday."

"You're not getting an apology for that."

"I don't want one; this isn't about her," she responded. Her sparring partner took solace in that fact. "But my point is, are you two close? Like as close as everyone thinks you are? Cause I've gotten a lot of mixed signals about the whole thing and wanted to hear it straight from you."

"...We did get really close during the last quarter," she told her honestly, now showing her own more serious side. "And recently we've been getting even closer. We're not official or anything like that, but..."

"You'd like it if you were?" Makoto asked. Yang wasn't one for lying, and only nodded in honesty. Makoto's expression seemed to deflate further. "Oh, that's... well that's nice."

"Why? Did I just kill any hopes you had of getting together?"

"No, that's not what I'm getting at," the Squirrel Faunus answered quickly. "Ragna seems like a swell guy and all once you get past his brooding, but I'm not after him personally... I'm after him for Blake's sake."

"Huh?" To say that Yang was confused was an understatement. "I'm betting that she didn't put you up to any of this." Makoto shook her head. "Figures, but then what's your angle here?"

"It's... well it's because of her past relationship; back when she was a member of the White Fang she had a boyfriend," Makoto said, scratching the back of her head as she became further unsure of herself. "Shoot, I don't know how much of this I should even be telling you."

"Just say what you think I need to know, Blake can tell us the rest when she's ready," Yang decided. "So tell us about this last boyfriend of hers that we don't know about."

"He was... honestly in some ways, he could be a lot like Ragna himself. A hard exterior, an absolute monster in combat, and not one to take crap from anyone. But that's where those similarities ended. He could get sadistic at times and when it came to Blake he could also get really manipulative. By the time my family had left the White Fang, she was still with him and... her attitude was like she was both dead to the world and afraid of him at the same time. I tried to convince her to come with us, but I couldn't get her to leave him. It was like she was completely trapped into what they'd both become. I was surprised to see her when I first came to visit Beacon, until I saw her I'd always thought she was still in the White Fang... unable to get help."

"Was he the reason why she left in the first place?" Yang had to ask.

"It was that, and she also couldn't stand what the White Fang had become," Makoto explained. "...Something that he'd been responsible for, and probably something Blake blames herself for not being able to stop."

"That's... horrible," Yang could only say, worried that Blake had felt the need to keep this from her and the rest of her team for so long. "Not trying to change subject from what she had to go through, but what does Ragna have to do with this?"

"It's because of what happens when she's around him. Most of the time Blake still acts really reserved and it's hard for most people to get through, even me who was her besty back when we were in diapers. But when Ragna's involved you can see bits of that happy person she was before she was put through all of that. He doesn't even seem to care about the other bits of her past, she just matters to him and that's all he cares about. He's good for her... but the problem is she either isn't seeing that or doesn't want to take another risk. I wanted to give her a small push for good measure, but if what you said is true then I'd just be ruining things between you two."

"I understand what you're saying," the blonde admitted as she tapped her foot and thought it over for a full minute. There was a lot at play here and going in with her usual reckless attitude wasn't an option, otherwise things might end in heartbreak. At the end though, she gave a happier smile. "Alright, I think I've got a solution. Go ahead, give Blake a spark to get started."

"You... you're sure about that?" Makoto asked, rightfully surprised that Yang was so fine with this.

"You're doing this to try and help Blake, I can't ignore that. She's my partner so of course I want what's best for her," she explained. "Here's my full offer: you can give Blake the help she needs to make sure she's not just being stubborn about her feelings, but in exchange you're not allowed to sabotage Ragna's time with anyone else. Does that seem fair?"

"That sounds perfect, I didn't think I'd get a deal this great," Makoto said happily to the terms. "Thanks for hearing me out, I was really worried how you were going to take the request. You're actually really awesome."

"Nice of you to say, you're not too bad yourself," Yang acknowledged with a thumbs up. "To be completely open about things, the rest of my team isn't much better than Blake is. They're still trying to figure out how they feel about the guy, even though it's pretty obvious we all really care for him."

"Eh, I'm sure they'll figure things out sooner or later. Maybe even seeing how close you've already gotten will have some effect and make the rest pick up their slack," the Squirrel Faunus guessed. "But if you're alright telling me, when exactly did you know that Ragna was that guy to you?"

"...I don't really think there was a set moment or thing he did that really told me that," Yang admitted as she couldn't help but give a small smile. "Eventually I just saw enough of him to realize that he's actually a real sweetheart underneath his exterior. And not to give myself too much credit, I wouldn't be lying if I said Ragna's probably interested in me."

"He'd be pretty crazy not to be," Makoto credited before tapping her fists together. "So, round two?"

"Yeah! Let's keep it going! Feels like I'm really on fire now!" Yang shouted enthusiastically as the two resumed their sparring, both with renewed energy as they'd come to an understanding.

Meanwhile

"Glad to see you finally made it, I was starting to get tired of covering for you," Mercury said with a smirk as he sat with the rest of his team in their assigned room. "You sure you didn't just have Torchwick give you extra work so you could skip out on all of this studying?"

"Ignore this idiot, and don't believe him either for that matter," Emerald scolded harshly as Neo just giggled at their familiar and agonistic banter. "He didn't lift a finger to fill in for you, instead we had to convince an idiot named Ragna to step up to do your section of the work for a while."

"She knows, we were actually working with Ragna just now making sure she was caught up on the section he did in her place," Cinder said rather merrily. "Of course I just had to make sure that Neo perfectly understood everything he'd done with great detail."

"And that was already after you kidnapped him for a whole day you monster?" Mercury laughed like he'd given her a compliment (lucky for him, Cinder took it as such). "Between that and the beatdown we made sure he'd take last night, it's a miracle there's anything left of him at this point."

"Actually, there's an update on that from our good friend Torchwick. It sounds like we don't even owe him one for setting us up," Cinder said happily. "Apparently the owner of that place was as happy to send Ragna off as we were, only helped by the large profit he managed to make off of the unexpected double win from the betting. He went so far as to thank Torchwick even... which he intends to use to our advantage."

"Good because we have enough on our plates to worry about with just blending into Beacon, I'm not in any rush to add paying off favors to that list," Emerald stated before she took notice of Neo's confusion. "He was a part of an underground fight arena last night that just so happened to have a connection to Torchwick. We just needed his help to make sure he'd take as much of a beating as possible and leave in a sour mood no matter what happened."

"And boy, did he get absolutely wrecked!" Mercury noted as he thought back with a smug grin. "We all got virtual front row seats as he was pounded into paste, even if he won last night he's still probably feeling it now. Too bad we couldn't record it, otherwise we'd show you for sure."

"I recorded it," Cinder told them casually.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Emerald had to ask. "There's a lot of risk keeping it on your scroll and if anyone finds it, it could get them suspicious of us."

"Let me worry about that, and I'm just taking the necessary precaution and gathering as much data on everyone here that I can," she explained. "Besides I-"

The short but sudden knock on the door was enough to cut Cinder off and get everyone in the room to get on edge. Even if they'd made sure to take necessary steps to not be discovered when dealing with such sensitive materials, the timing was more than just a little suspicious. Heading over with plans already in place should she risk confrontation, Cinder opened the door to reveal...

Substory 20: Mixing Reds

"Heya Cinder!" Ruby Rose greeted with the usual smile on her face. "Sorry for the sudden visit."

"...No need to apologize, we were just finishing a team meeting," she answered, quickly putting on more approachable airs. "What can I do for you?"

"I was..." Ruby seemed to pause for a moment. "Just... on my way to grab some late night coffee before I get back to studying! Right! And I was wondering if you'd like to come with me."

'...Oh I see what you're playing at, little girl,' Cinder thought sinisterly, though her expression remained unchained. "So just a small sort of thing between team leaders?"

"Exactly! Just wanted to know how you're doing now that you're at Beacon," Ruby explained, though Cinder knew that was the least of the girl's worries right now.

"If that's the case, I think I'll take you up on that offer," she agreed before turning back to her team and only giving them a subtle wink before shutting the door. As the two started heading down the hallways, Cinder decided to open her attack soft and subtly. "It's funny, you'd think Ragna would've told me what a sweetheart you are."

"Oh... thanks I guess," Ruby said to the compliment, though she was more focused on how she would word her next question. "Has he talked much about me?"

"Nope, not a single word. In fact, he hasn't told me anything about your entire team." She tried not to look pleased as she let her comment take hold. "But it might just have something to do with working so hard, he hasn't exactly had the time to bring any of you up."

'I mean... It's not like Ragna would want to go into his personal life anyways, and he'd be even less likely to bring us up with some of the rumors still going around the academy,' Ruby considered though at the moment it was more to assure herself. "I've noticed that you guys have been together a lot lately."

"Of course, he's my random partner after all. And the project that we're working together on is going to be graded by the famous scientist. Relius Clover. That more than merits some extra study time together, wouldn't you say?"

"I guess that makes sense," the younger student agreed. When the two got to the break room they seemed to be in luck; not only was there a nearly full fresh pot of coffee already waiting for them, but they also seemed to be the only ones in this particular break room. "So how do you like your coffee?"

"I'm not overly picky, just make mine the same way you prepare yours," Cinder told her.

"You sure about that?" Ruby asked as she dropped five sugar cubes into her mug before adding an aggressive amount of cream as well.

"...How can you drink that?" Cinder asked, not bothering to hide how surprised she was.

"Don't know why you're surprised; Ragna has his with eight sugars," Ruby informed as she left Cinder's mug for her to prepare.

"No he doesn't, he has his black," the antagonist affirmed. The Reaper had already made coffee for the both of them, she'd even insisted to drink his cup the same way she did.

"Usually that's the way he drinks his, but when we used to do our late night study sessions together he always has it closer to my way," Ruby said... wondering why she suddenly felt so proud that she could now tell Cinder something about her friend.

"Late night study sessions?" Cinder repeated as she simply took her own mug without adding any cream or sugar. "So the two of you have been working together for quite a while then."

"Since we've arrived at Beacon we've always been really close," Ruby explained with a smile. "Even since the beginning he's always been looking out for me with studies, practice sparring with me, and a ton of other stuff."

"Sounds like you two are as thick as thieves," Cinder noted, before going in for her real question. "So... what exactly is Ragna to you?"

"He's my..." There was a brief pause in Ruby's voice, easily noticed by the opposing captain. It was obvious that Ruby herself had questions about their relationship. "...Best friend."

"Is that so? I guess it makes sense." She was already scheming up ways that she could exploit this, and came up with more than a few ideas.

"It's been kind of hard to see him this quarter though, normally we'd at least see each other around in the halls, sit next... close to each other during our lectures, and on top of that we're not even eating at the same time." The team leader knew that she shouldn't go full accusatory just yet. "So... have you really been spending all of that time with Ragna?"

'So naive... so easy to exploit.' "I have been and I've needed every second that I can have with him. Our dear friend's helping me in quite the way."

"He is?"

"Yes, because the fourth member of the team and my regular partner didn't get to Beacon until this afternoon. He saw that I was in a bind and not only decided to help with filling in her role for my partner project, but he even stepped in to do some of her work for my larger team project. He even did his part to make sure she was caught up... difficult to do when she doesn't talk back," Cinder explained, though inside she felt she was laying it on a little thick... not that Ruby would be able to see that. "He's honestly been a blessing to have this quarter."

"Okay, I can understand that Ragna's been stepping in for her up until now," Ruby agreed to (though she found it sort of strange that Ragna of all people would be willing to offer, even if she saw him in a better light than most). "But why has he been missing dinner with us? That shouldn't have to happen, right?"

"Normally I'd agree with you, but... I guess it's my fault." Cinder did her best to actually look a bit regretful at the fact that Ragna wasn't able to eat with his dearest friends. "I mean... my work schedule hasn't exactly been set in stone these last few weeks."

"Huh? Work schedule?" the younger student asked. "You... have a job?"

"Indeed I do," Cinder told her sweetly.

"...Okaaaaaay. Uh... I'm..." Ruby was trying to figure out how she could ask this next question without sounding rude. "Are you really sure Hell Quarter is the time for that? I mean... the Hell part already implies how hard it's supposed to be? It's not exactly the time to look for some extra cash on the side."

"Again I'd normally agree, but my situation isn't so cut and dry," the antagonist explained, already having a card to play here. "If the money was just for me I wouldn't be trying to work through this trying time... but my family back home isn't so fortunate."

"They aren't?"

"No, I'm afraid I come from a rather poor part of Remnant. My hometown is so small that it isn't on any map and we don't even have a name for the place. There was never enough to go around and my family has always had to live hand to mouth. Even before I came to Beacon, I was already working part time jobs just so that I'd have something to send home to my family. I'm lucky to have found a job that can at least promise to work around my class schedules... and that I have a Random Project Partner that's so understanding."

Cinder's "Job"

"So... how long many times are you going to stop by here? All you ever seem to do is loaf around or work on that damned Academy's assignments."

"Hush Torchwick, it's part of the plan."

"How is THIS part of the plan to bring down Beacon? Whatever, just don't lead anyone back here. Last thing I need is for our cover to be blown."

"Please, you know I'm too good for that."

"And stop eating my chocolates! Those things were hella expensive and can only be found in Atlus! They're premium goods!"

"If they're so premium you would think that they'd taste better."

"THEN STOP EATING THEM!"

"NO."

"Whoa, I had no idea," Ruby said. 'I was way too quick to jump to conclusions... Ragna's actually doing a really good thing here and Cinder's just in a tough position.' "So I guess that means you guys have both been really hard together. Like SUPER hard. Yeesh, and I thought... never mind."

"Thought what?" Cinder pressed, though she clearly already had a pretty good idea of what it was.

"It's nothing, nothing at all!" Ruby tried to protest, though it wasn't eyes with Cinder's gaze tearing right through her. Setting her mug down on the counter, she again tried to pick her words carefully. "I just... for a bit there... I was kinda thinking that you... maybe... had a crush on Ragna?"

"...Oh." Just by looking at her, she could see the discomfort at the younger girl's gaze as she spilled her confession... She wasn't about to let an opportunity this good go to waste. "You weren't completely wrong."

"Wh-what are you saying!?" Ruby asked, almost aghast with what she'd just heard.

"Just that I'm keeping an open mind when it comes to what happens between Ragna and I," Cinder said, still smiling sweetly and now trying to act like she was dreamily thinking about the Reaper. "After all, I always liked what I saw in him... but I was a little hesitant to step in with you both in that compromising position."

"That..." Ruby began with a blush as she thought back to how the two had looked when she'd brought Ragna to the floor with her tickle trap during sparring. "I mean-"

"But like you just said, he's your best friend! This means that I don't have to worry about stopping anything between the two of you!" With her oh-so-sweet smile secretly full of the delight as she watched the girl in front of her squirm, Cinder did her best to play innocent.

"Didn't you grab his arm on the first day of classes? That seems a little over eager for a first step," Ruby observed defensively. 'Okay, don't lose your cool here. You're just here to talk and clear things up between each other.'

"I just wanted to thank him, he's been nothing but helpful since I've gotten to Beacon," Cinder explained. "Though... I've been trying to come up with some way to pay him back for all of this. Maybe you'd know something I could do for him? It'd have to be small so I could work our studies and my work schedule around it, but I'd still like to try doing something."

"N... Nothing I can think of," she lied, not exactly something she was used to doing. "But if you wanted to make things easier on him, then maybe... you could try not latching onto him like you've been doing?"

"Maybe will... if Ragna asks me that," Cinder said as she got close to Ruby. "Are you sure there's not anything else between you two?"

"I..." Ruby tried to think of what to say. Did she really see Ragna in that light? What about the rest of her team? They all seemed plenty close to him as well, so were they closer than she was? And how did Ragna himself think of her? He'd been her friend from the start, but did he think that the two of them... And if he didn't, how would their friendship...? "...No... we're just close friends..."

"Right, I was just checking," Cinder said as she took a long sip out of her mug, if only to hide her victorious smirk. "You're welcome to talk to Ragna about this of course, but... he might end up getting the wrong idea like I did." Ruby didn't say anything in response, so silent that the words might not have registered. "Thanks for the coffee, but I've got loads of more studying that I still need to get caught up with. See you around, Ruby."

"See... you," Ruby answered, just barely present in her current state of mind. Cinder took special note of this and headed off as she'd said, but instead of studying she'd be planning her next moves. Meanwhile the young scythe user stood there frozen for full minutes, trying to process parts of her relationship that she had no idea how to feel about. Fed up with just standing around, she quickly dumped her unfinished coffee mug and rushed through the hallways to Team RAIN's room. She'd made it to their door before... pausing, her mind starting to finally catch up with her reckless thinking.

"Ruby?" It was Noel, clothed only in a bathrobe that she'd gotten from Tsubaki as a gift. Her bright blonde hair was damp and wrapped in a towel showing that she'd just come back from the showers to head into her team room. "Did you need Ragna for something?"

"...No, just wanted to say hi." 'Maybe... we're better off staying friends? But is that really the right thing to do here?'

"Oh." Noel didn't look like she was completely convinced, but she wasn't the type to press for more information either. "I'm afraid you just missed him then. He said he was going out and left a little while ago."

'Ragna headed out after working with Cinder all day? Didn't he say that he even needed to do his own project? He's got to be exhausted after all of that,' Ruby thought to herself. 'Maybe he's going Grimm hunting again? But why is he going after the day he's already had? He probably hasn't even had dinner yet.'

It was pretty easy for Noel to see Ruby's concern for Ragna, even if she was doing her best not to show it. While she'd still had yet to interact much with her team leader given the chaotic dynamic that had afflicted their team the last quarter, it was blindingly obvious that the two meant a lot to each other. She'd already had to see plenty of this already with the stagnant relationship between Ragna's brother Jin and her friend Tsubaki and while she'd learned that some kinships were better left while they were, she couldn't help but feel that her classmate could use a little positive reinforcement like she'd gotten from Jaune that morning.

"I can let Ragna know that you stopped by for him, I'm sure it'd put him in a good mood," the blonde offered with a kind smile. Ruby seemed to perk up a bit. "He doesn't talk to us much, but whenever anyone mentions you he comes really close to openly smiling. Something about him just seems to change, almost like he gets happy just thinking about you."

"R-Really?" she asked, blushing a bit at that news... but it was less of a worry than she thought. "Sure, that would be great. Thanks a lot Noel."

"Happy to help a friend in need."

Meanwhile

It was a calm night in the woods. The broken moon shone brilliantly overhead and leaked through the trees to alight the forest's ground. A gentle breeze caused the rustling of leaves and a slight sway of branches over head. Sounds from the forests inhabitants echoed through the trees as they settled into their burrows for the long day's end. For most people it would be a perfect site for a long and relaxing walk... but for Ragna it was nothing short of agitating.

"This is seriously getting ridiculous," the Reaper growed to himself as he came to a stop in a large empty clearing of the forest land. Glancing around for a brief moment first, he then raised his accursed right arm and let it become enveloped in dark flames. He stood there a moment... two... a few minutes... nothing. "Damn it, most nights this draws them like moths to a flame. So what the hell's going on?"

Shaking his head, he walked on to search for another spot in his dangerous hunt... feelings of unease forming a heavy pit in his stomach.

Next Time:Denial

Author's Note

So for all of you that have been keeping track and recognize the upcoming title, the next chapter that I'm putting out is going to be one of the chapters that made on the separate "Grimm Reaper's Extensions" story. There's a good reason for this. Most of my stories in that section are usually just fun little ideas, while they all technically mesh with the story none of them are necessarily considered canon to the main branch. It's more on the reader to consider if something there is canon.

The expedition is the chapter Denial. It works TOO WELL for what I have planned for the main story. There are some minor changes I'm going to have to make (there's a scene in there that comes readily to mind), but it should be a much quicker process.

TL;DR: Next chapter is going to be a repost with a few needed changes. Go ahead and check out the original on the Extensions story if you want an idea before you come back here for the canon repost.

Got it? Good. Review time.

Fernandamichelleraya: Take that Cinder indeed, but she's still got a few cards up her sleave.

ArmantusCumPinnae: For once that wasn't a mix up on my part, Goodwitch was just listening in on the conversation. Interesting extension ideas and I do have a little something like that planned, but it won't be for a while since I'm on a base story spree right now.

P3R50N4: Let's hope so.

Yuki terimi: Yeah, I would've liked to show the grudge building a little earlier, but I did my best to imply it now.

Javier Amon Belmont: Ragna just keeps getting on step closer to the edge and he's about to... Linkin Park reference here.

Wlyman2009: The problem is that letting loose Armegedon is kind of her whole schtick.

The Unplanner: Ragna ain't vain in the slightest, there's definitely more at play here.

Ragriz: Chaos is a good word for it, but I'm having fun just writing and listening to some background music.

Darklight of the 0 arcana: Not exactly sure what you're saying here.

Guest: That is AN idea...

GM9000: Again, another idea for the future.

Guest (2): Just a bit too early for that.

Qmaster: Aside from the obvious BlazBlue fandom troll (whose name I won't say here), the community as a whole is pretty welcoming. Most of it is just people having fun with a series they love.

Bismarck Alexander: Leaving all versus ideas aside (not really my thing), it was fixed and there was some fixing with Mai as well. It's just a part of the story.

Yuki terimi: And you're roleplaying in the first chapter's reviews... huh.

Until next time everyone! Ciao!