Big Issues
AN: Sorry about the delay but had some more family issues taking my time from writing. Spending time in the frosty cold all day doesn't help as it drains me from wanting to do much when I do have time. But I think both problems have been solved and we have a few new followers of this series to welcome. JaiAlaiJedi, DragoLuck78, and Darkmaster10000000. Thanks for enjoying this story and I hope to keep improving the quality. That being said, I'm going to go back to the earlier chapters, particularly the first ten or so and correct a few mistakes that were made in my excitement of writing this. They aren't anything major but my OCD demands that they be corrected while my apathy made them last so long. Yeah strange combination to have. Anyways, I'm going to try to get back to weekly updates, hopefully with the colder weather that will mean less landscaping to attend to and similar jobs to assist with. On with the show!
Vytal Tournament – Round Two!
Team returned to the stands after putting their weapons away in their lockers. As they sat with their friends, they noticed that they smelt slightly scorched from the lava fields. Luckily the light breeze carried the smell away and nobody was rude enough to comment on it, especially since they were likely to work up a sweat in their own matches and it was rather petty concerning that their job ensured they'd be worse at some point guaranteed.
"That was… an interesting way to win." Pyrrha tries to be courteous.
"Yeah! If you got it, you might as well use it!" Nora yells as she stands on her seat to reach out and slap Yang's belly, the flesh bouncing and jiggling in response.
"Hey! You don't just go around slapping people!" Yang warns the shorter girl as she rubs the sore spot.
"Especially bellies!" Team DAIT made their appearance with Talon speaking. "You never know what's in there. A lady could have just eaten or have a baby in there! You should rub a belly unless they want you to smack them." The older girl lectures. It was rather odd that the girl who was proud to be chubby was the comparatively thin one next to the other girls… Anya and Itazura excluded who were the only thin girls in the immediate vicinity of student seating.
Maybe it was the subconscious suggestion, but Nora and Ruby joined Yang in rubbing their guts, Weiss poked her soft hips as Blake squeezed her thighs, and Pyrrha felt her arms that were now as thick as some girl's legs once were.
"Still, that was a great fight!" The fox tries to change the subject, getting the attention of the rowdier members of the group.
"You bet your tail it was!" Nora was quick on the uptake, pointing at the girl who hugged her tail in response. Denko's eyes went wide with his sisters at the comment, both having flashbacks to that day Grelod nearly cut off her tail.
"Did you like our team attack?" Ruby asks, nearly begging for the older student's approval and praise.
"Not bad for something made up on the fly." Denko comments with his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders.
"It wasn't just made up!" Ruby tried to defend her team. An amused grin coming from her friend was matched by the rest of his team made her waver.
"We improvised off of some of our established team attacks." Weiss steps up for her leader. The gazes of the older team turned to her.
"Sounds like they just made it up." Talon says in a teasing manner.
"That is what improvise means." Anya agrees with the same tone.
"Good job making up a team attack on the fly." Itazura continues, thoroughly enjoying making the girls squirm, tail swishing behind her.
"Stop it!" Ruby cries as she pulls her hood over her face and latches onto Weiss in a hug. "Make them stop!"
Weiss wasn't prepared for the sudden embrace but was glad that her friends weight pulled her back from falling over. Looking over the red cloth, her face changed to match the cloak from the grins of their friends. "Sh-shut up!" There was some comfort she found in the soft warmth of the younger girls hold on her, she hoped that it was the same for her partner to calm her down.
"Didn't say anything." Jaune says, withering a bit under her glare. He did perk up a bit as Pyrrha patted his shoulder. At the same time, Nora, Yang, Sun, and DAIT were openly laughing that the two girls.
"So, you gonna sit with us this time?" Yang asks as she leans against the rail, Blake having already taken a seat and Ruby refusing to let Weiss go yet.
"Might as well get a better view of the action." Denko shrugs as he finds an open seat nearby, the rest of his team following suit. Ruby and Weiss finally separated and sat down too.
"Aren't you supposed to be on some sort of security detail?" Neptune asks.
"We are, but we are free to roam as we see fit." Anya responds as she leans back, finding that the seats here were far more comfortable than the general population seats above them.
"It's harder for people to see us as security if they see us as just a group watching the fights." Talon adds her thoughts to the conversation, passing a bag of popcorn to her sister.
Sun and Neptune share a look and shrug. "She's got a point." Scarlet says with Sage nodding in agreement.
The matches for the morning were interesting enough to watch that nobody was bored. It was somewhat surprising to them that Team CRDL had won their round against a team from Mistral, though Cardin had made the most unexpected move that those who knew him would have thought of; he used himself as a shield to protect Sky and Russel from the grenade launching man so they could flank and finish him off in a pincer attack. The team leader was out of commission due to injuries, nothing serious but he wasn't going to be fighting in the next round.
Team CFVY handled their opponents from Vacuo with ease, pretty much as expected as few could compete with strength of Yatsuhashi or firepower from Coco. Add in that Fox and Velvet weren't pushovers either, even though Velvet never used her weapon, and there was a team that remained one of the top favorites for making it to the finals.
There were other fights, but from teams that none of them that the group were familiar with, there were teams from multiple schools and varying years after all. But eventually hunger took over and they decided to take a break for lunch, requiring the friends to leave the stadium for the fairgrounds below for the foods available. The airship ride down was uneventful beyond being a little cramped… something about most of the occupants being larger than what the engineers had anticipated.
Once on the ground, the teams separated for a bit to explore what was available for lunch. Team SSSN wandered off towards a largely Mistralian congregation of stands, DAIT went to look at the Vacuoan ones. JNPR found themselves among the Atlas stands while RWBY kept to the main fairway that was dominated by Vale shops, as expected by the hosting kingdom. It was during this time of choosing a place to satisfy their hunger that JNPR found that much of the stalls they walked past didn't offer food beyond samples of what was considered to be high class and the lone stand that advertised Mantle specialties was already swamped. Nearly everything else was showing off some sort of technology, Jaune having to be dragged away from looking at a variety of pistols on display.
"Everyone else has a gun… why can't I have one?" He grumbles before his stomach reminds him on why they were here in the first place.
"Alright! Shish kababs are the best!" Sage tears his mouthful off of the wooden skewer with glee, a bit of the glazed sauce on the vegetables smearing on his face in the process.
"Sage, do you have to be so messy?" Scarlet complains as he hands the larger man a napkin. The redhead was nibbling almost daintily to avoid making a mess of himself, though he did eat quickly. Sun and Neptune tuned them out with practiced ease, the faunus not particularly caring about his face and fingers getting messy until he was done while his partner ate quickly but fairly cleanly.
"Wanna get some stir-fry after this?" The blue-haired boy asks his team as he points with his now empty stick down the path to a stall near an intersection.
"Sure, these are good but need more to go with them." Sun agrees with the other half nodding in agreement. Within minutes, their orders were being prepared in front of them on a large griddle by a professional who was as showy with how she did it as she was able to make delicious food, from the compliments of the other patrons they heard.
"Find anything?" Denko muses as they wander through the stands, not particularly finding anything to truly catch their interest.
"Not really." Itazura shrugs as she looks around.
"That food is just pathetic… do they really call themselves a cook?" Talon could be heard grumbling as they walk by a stand. It was difficult to tell exactly what was being made there beyond looking like just about everything was deep fried. The smell of the oils was overpowering the food and encouraged them to move on quickly.
Further down the path, Anya noticed something that caught her attention, something she'd know anywhere. Her quickened pace made her lead her team, who followed the quiet girl without question. Turning a corner and passing a pair of stands they found a familiar woman working the counter. She wasn't very tall, a little shorter than Denko, with deeply tanned skin and bright blue eyes and black hair pulled back in a long ponytail with several bands keeping the hair together down the length, her bangs held back by a red bandanna. She was sturdily built, someone used to hard work and judging by the calluses on her knuckles, took care of her own problems physically. She wore a simple light blue shirt and pants with a red cloth belt tied around her waist with a dark blue apron in front. Simple black flats adorned her feet.
"Mom!" Anya calls out over the dull mutterings of the crowd as the team came close enough for a visual confirmation.
The woman's head snapped up from her grill, though her hands kept the food moving with practiced ease without needing to be watched. The customers were somewhat awed that she had grabbed a shaker of spices and applied it to the cooking food in the pan without looking. "Anya? Is that you?" She responds, her voice a bit deeper and huskier than either of her daughters.
"Mom!" Talon helped her sister squeeze her way to the counter to see their mother face to face.
"Talon too! It's great to see you girls." She turns back to the food as she kept it mixing in the pan over the Fire Dust stove. The addition of a few more ingredients and a thorough mixing had the dish served in a bowl and handed over to the customer.
"What are you doing here?" Talon asks her mother as the woman continued to work and set up for two separate dishes to be made.
"What does it look like? I'm cooking up a storm!" She laughs as she preps a third meal for the customers.
"You come all the way here and you're not bothering to watch the fights?" Denko comments from behind the sisters.
"Ha! Should have known you'd follow your stomach here!" She pauses to mix a few spices into the pans. "I see you too Foxy!"
"Need any help?" Talon was ready to assist her mother with the stand.
"Are you kidding? I'm doing just fine by myself." She flips the food in the pans a few times to ensure everything is cooked correctly. "If you want to help, be here at closing time." She grins at hearing her girls groan, the clean up was never their favorite part of the restaurant.
"Give me a few minutes and I'll whip up something for ya." The chef tells them before focusing on the crowd in front of the stand.
"Thanks, Bonelli! You're the best!" Itazura shouts as the team moves around the area to look at the goods available.
"Is anyone else starving?" Ruby whines as she slumps over, causing her belly to roll over itself. The team had been looking around but options for food that would actually count as a meal were slim. Sure, there were two cotton candy vendors that they had seen in the short time but that wouldn't do them any good, even as a snack. The lone ice cream stand looked tempting, especially to Ruby, but the older three insisted on a meal first. Same with the candy stall. Something did catch Yang's eye but she wanted to see what else was available… though given the lack of choices in the area, she should have pushed the team there the moment she saw it.
"I may have worked up an appetite." Blake tries to play it cool, only for the loud and echoing growls from her stomach to betray her. The other girls looked at her in shock as she covered her soft paunch with her eyes wide with embarrassment. 'I'm glad Sun didn't hear that; he'd probably joke about an Ursa in my belly.'
"Gee, if only there was some place around campus to get food around here." Weiss was being sarcastic, while disappointed that they had yet to find a place for a meal.
"Well, we could just go to the cafeteria and see what they got." Ruby suggests
"I was being facetious." Weiss counters, falling back to her high-class speech, if only to get a rise out of the rural girl. It didn't fail as the cloaked girl began to fluster, complete with waving her hands erratically.
"C'mon, I know just the place." Yang puts a stop to the argument before it went on too far. She'd be more lenient to let it go on for her own amusement in the privacy of their room and with a full belly. Still, she waved for the three to follow her as she began to walk to her chosen destination.
Weiss didn't even take two steps when her scroll began to ring. Drawing it from her pouch, she found the caller ID; Father. Immediately, she scowled and shoved it back in her pouch, ignoring the repeated call attempts. He'd been trying to contact her since before the tournament began, once or twice a day at first but now… that was the fourth time today. She had left Atlas to get away from him and his influence, she wasn't about to talk to him without it being on her terms. While there was plenty she had to say to the man, there was little she could do about it… for now.
"Hey! It might be hard to eat without this!" A voice stops the girls before they got far. The turn back to see Emerald Sustrai holding up a red wallet with a slightly darker rose emblem stamped on its surface, lien cards sitting in the three pockets on either side.
The moment Ruby saw it, she began to frantically pat herself down. She had pockets hidden within the folds of her skirt somewhere but she couldn't anything but her scroll.
Emerald lets out a small laugh. "Good to see you too, Ruby." She smiles before closing the distance to hand back the wallet.
"Oh! Thanks Emerald!" The young girl was extremely grateful. Not only did that wallet have most of her money that her dad sent her, but it held her physical cards for ID and her licenses for carrying her weapon and what little privileges that being a student in a Huntsman Academy gave her. Among having a discount for Dust, ammunition, and gear, it also carried some leeway with law enforcement… should the need arise, it would show that the owner wasn't a mere vigilante; meaning that depending on the actions taken and the results, the Huntsman or Huntress in training could be let off with a simple warning. Ruby had already once found herself being taken to the police station for helping to stop a robbery. She may have gotten the deal of a lifetime by being asked to attend Beacon Academy thanks to that, but the point still stands.
Ruby, the easily chubbier and arguably heavier of the two, took the item and secured it within one of the pockets of her skirt, taking extra care to button it. "Ugh! Girl pockets are the worst!" She groans and slums over again, not minding as her sister stepped up next to her.
"What's up, Em?" The blonde greets her with a small wave.
"I just left the stadium after watching your amazing fight. You guys were awesome!" She was all smiles, something that highlighted her chubby cheeks, and raised a clenched fist to show her excitement. The compliment reduced the team leader into a blushing and blubbering mess.
"I saw your team progressed to the next round too." Blake says as she stops next to Ruby, who had yet to regain her composure.
"You know, I feel like we never see your other teammates." Weiss comments.
Emerald held her arms behind her back, and feeling how much she had grown to 'fit in'. She hadn't gained half the weight the girls in front of her had yet her rump and hips had taken the brunt of her gains. Seventy pounds may be small to most of the girls effected by The Issue due to nearly every one of them doubling their weight some time ago, but for Emerald, it was a different story.
More than once a week since starting this plan, she remembered her times on the streets as a starving girl doing whatever she could to get by, usually by theft. Plenty of times, nimble fingers were more than enough to do the job, but after a lift gone wrong with the wrong target, she had unlocked her aura and her semblance. With a little practice, she had honed it and was soon able to steal valuables with ease that she could then sell to buyers, thus allowing her to eat. The problem was that she couldn't do too much or she'd become well known and so she had to perform a balancing act of petty theft to practice her skills and her major ones to live.
Back then, she'd dream often of striking it rich and having the money to never be hungry again. Fantasies of so much food that she could get fat would plague her often enough. When Cinder first found her, she was so thin that she didn't have any curves to be proud of. With her new mentors promise of never going hungry being made reality, combined with the combat training to be used with her Semblance, Emerald grew curves that she could be proud of. Those curves made it even easier to steal things as her new, fuller assets drew attention from her hands nearly as well as her Semblance.
Now, she was practically living her fantasy body… maybe a fair bit smaller than what she had dreamed before but it was getting closer. Her widened hips added more sway to her steps, the hemispheres behind her bouncing… they drew plenty of attention. Her waistline may have filled out to have a small potbelly but her other spheres had grown as well which helped to minimize the gains just below them in comparison.
"How'd they do in the fight?" Yang's question brought her back out of her thoughts.
Emerald leaned back as she looked up to the sky as she remembered how her team did. How she had provided the long-range support with her pistols while Mercury and Cinder took down most of the team from Atlas at close quarters with their boots and swords respectively. A disguised Neo in a gothic outfit got in a few quick shots that helped to finish the team off… including the final opponent who she knocked out with a stomp to the face.
"Really well." She replies, somehow blending being vague and confident together.
"That's great! Um, why don't we all go out and get some victory food together?" Ruby suggests, her own stomach rumbling at the mentioning of food. It didn't help that the other girls' bellies echoed the sentiment.
Emerald's eyes went wide with surprise at the offer. "Oh gosh, that's really nice of you but my teammates are really… socially awkward." She looks over her shoulder to see Mercury sniffing a boot that was on display.
"Yeah…" Yang draws out the word as she watches Mercury of his teammates shoulder. The boy continued to examine the various boots and footwear available, seemingly ignoring everyone around him. "I can see that."
"Oh yeah!" Something suddenly occurred to Emerald. "Merc and I are moving on to the doubles round. What about you guys?"
"Well, as the leader of this team." Ruby began with a hand under her chin and Blake looking amused at her act while Yang stood behind her sister with a confident smirk. "I thought long and hard about this decision." Ruby finished with a proud smile and her arms crossed.
"We put it to a vote." Weiss interjects, popping Ruby's confidence and making the black and yellow portion of their team smile wider at the interaction.
"I- uh, um, I decided that we should put it to a vote." Ruby tries to recover.
"We voted for Weiss and Yang." Blake spared her leader from further embarrassment.
Weiss dips into a curtsey. "I will happily represent Team RWBY." She proclaims proudly.
"Yeah!" Yang pounds her fists together hard enough to make her jiggle all over. "We're gonna kick some ass!" Her smirk turned almost feral in anticipation of the fights ahead.
Emerald laughs at their confidence and wildly different approaches. "Well, if Mercury and I see you down the line, don't expect us to go easy on you."
Yang leans back as she chuckles and crosses her arms under her bust. "Wouldn't have it any other way." She was welcoming the challenge.
"Alright, we're going to catch some more fights." The 'Haven student' ends the conversation and turn to walk away.
"Goodbye!" Ruby shouts out as she and her team begin to follow Yang to her chosen destination once more.
"See you later!" Emerald gets in one last shout as Mercury falls into step next to her. As soon as she turned away from the team, her face fell into one of irritation from the friendly demeanor she had been using when talking to the heavier girls.
"So how are the new friends?" Mercury asks as they took a few steps, including using air quotes when he said 'friends'.
Emerald's face fell further into irritation now that she had to deal with her partner again, one that she refused to put on an act for. "I hate them." She says as she looks away and to the ground.
"Orders are orders." Mercury shrugs with a smile.
The thief couldn't contain her feelings anymore, her arms moving to emphasize her words. "It's just- how can they be so happy all the time!?"
The assassin was content to let things go for a few seconds so she could simmer down. "Did you at least get what we needed?"
"It's the heiress and the bimbo." She says dismissively, complete with a wave of her hand.
Mercury puts his hand to his chin. "At least now we know what we're working with." The pair wore disturbingly similar smiles as they blended into the crowds.
Team RWBY could now be found at a stand called 'A Simple Wok'. The girls sat on stools by the counter, waiting for the chef to emerge from checking on the supplies and equipment behind the doors. Three of the girls were lucky enough to be wearing skirts that helped to hide how small the seats were compared to their behinds, more so for Yang and Ruby who hadn't grown too much in that area… compared to the other half of the team, though it could be argued that the younger sister had the larger rump behind her cloak.
As for the black and white duo, their bottom-heavy gains were far more prominent to them as they sat there. Weiss' widened hips made her twice as wide as the seat she was on, though she did her best to sit on it with grace and proper form, glad that her skirt flared out enough to obscure how big she really is and keeping wandering eyes away. Blake… wasn't very lucky. The tails of her vest covered little of the twin round cushions she has, each the size of the seat itself and then some. Her white shorts hid nothing of her size, though with how tight they are, they may actually have tightened the glutes a bit.
Apparently, Yang was a usual customer to the owner of the stand as she asked "I'll have the usual, please." Astonishing quickly, a massive bowl of ramen was slid in front of her. The bowl itself was large enough that it was comparable to the blondes own large belly… and it was filled to heaping levels of noodles.
Ruby saw the meal for her sister and grinned. "I'll have the same!" Just as quickly, she had her own bowl sitting in front of her.
Weiss looked at the portions and grew worried. "Do you have anything with a low salt?" She had her own bowl slid in front of her.
Blake simply pointed at the menu and the owner gave her a nod before disappearing into the back for a short time, returning with a bowl filled with fish. The faunus' eyes lit up in joy at seeing so much of her favorites sitting right in front of her, ready to eat. Her mouth already dripping with drool.
Weiss produced her credit card, unsurprisingly it was blue and had the Schnee snowflake printed on it. Handing it over to the cook proudly, she was ready to eat.
"Aw, Weiss, what's the occasion?" Yang leans around Ruby to talk to the girl.
"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round." She responds almost smugly, turning her face away from the blonde to keep her from seeing her satisfied smile. Blake was too busy reverently staring at her meal to pay her any mind.
Her confidence was shattered by her card being flung back at her hard enough to stick into the wooden bar they sat at. The four girls were shocked at the action, though none more than the cards owner. Blake started looking back and forth between her friend and her meal, hoping to not lose the latter. The cook grunted and pointed at his register, which displayed 'DENIED'. He was not looking happy.
"How could my card be declined?" Weiss asks out loud. Yang slumped and dropped her face onto her hand in frustration, Ruby was showing some concern for her friend, while Blake… tried to slide her bowl away from the owner while trying far too hard to look innocent as she did. "I was barely into my monthly allowance." Weiss grumbles.
The cook took notice of Blake and took her bowl of fish away, leading to the chunky cat to slump over the counter crying "No!" Ruby smiled in amusement at the actions while Yang rolled her eyes at the act. The heiress was too busy feeling down on herself to really notice her teammates 'plight'.
"Could I be of help?" Pyrrha asks as she and her team walk, or skip in Nora's case, up to the stand having seen them after their fruitless search for food. The champion held up her own card and they had been close enough to see what had happened to Weiss.
"Pyrrha!" Ruby shouts with her hands in the air. She was glad to have more friends around.
"Ah, you don't have to." Yang tries to wave off her offer, she was capable of paying for herself and Ruby, if needed.
"But she could!" Blake was practically begging for her bowl of fish to be brought back and the desperation showed, making Weiss flinch away from the obsessed cat.
Pyrrha put a hand on her hip. "Well, I think you all deserve it after that battle." Her tone was almost playful.
"Mind if we join you?" Jaune asks.
With payment promised, the cook returned Blake's bowl and prepared four fresh meals for the new arrivals. With good friends and good food around, the meal was enjoyed by the teens.
"I'm hoping this doesn't add more to my waistline…" Weiss grumbles as she eats.
"Weiss, you have the smallest waist of the team." Yang comments before slurping down some noodles.
"Yeah! You just have the biggest hips!" Ruby tries to cheer her partner up, only to receive a brief scowl, which she ignored as she was focused on her food.
The snow-haired girl looks to her right, only to see Blake shoveling the fish into her maw with a look of pure ecstasy on her face. "Great lot of help you are." She grumbles to herself, but returns to eating anyway.
The thinnest of the teens, Jaune and Ren, ate quietly though they had a bit more trouble finishing their meal. Though thin was comparative to the girls around them, they were bulky to the shopkeeper. As for their female counterparts, they had no problem finishing their food. Not only were they bigger eaters than the boys from the start – Nora's pancake obsession was on another level – but they were arguably the far more active of the team and thus required more to sustain them.
Still, in the end the teens were satisfied. Blake was content with the aftertaste of fish. Weiss leaned back to hold her stomach feeling the organ churn the meal under her hand, Ruby was proudly rubbing her soft belly that was a little rounder from the meal, while Yang relaxed with her elbow on the counter to prop up her head and her other hand patting her belly as it sat in her lap.
Jaune had struggled to finish and it showed as he looked to be doing his best to keep it down, Pyrrha sat up properly but gave no indication of strain, Nora leaned back to pat her tummy with a smile, while Ren sat calmly and covering his mouth lightly with his hand, appearing more lost in thought than anything else.
"Are you sure it's wise to have eaten before a fight?" The quiet boy asks his team.
"Of course, it will give us energy." Pyrrha was quick to respond. Though it was anyone's guess if she was being honest or simply making an excuse to binge away from the strict rations that they had been eating since the Issue had begun. More than likely, it was both as the school had sent reminders to everyone that the rations would remain in place from the cafeteria for the foreseeable future to help the students get back to their old sizes. The tournament and all of the food that was available was simply a reprieve from the diet restrictions so long as it lasted.
During the short conversation, the cook gathered up the eight bowls and took them back to be washed. Though the deep and echoing belch from Nora nearly resulted in Jaune losing his lunch, if his wide eyes and clasping his hands over his mouth was any indication. Though, he apparently got over the worst of the nausea quickly enough as he slumped over to drop his head onto the counter with a thunk.
"Any idea how long that the medicine takes to kick in?" Yang asks as she had skipped over reading the message sent to their scrolls about it.
Weiss sighs, sometimes wondering how the girl kept getting good grades with her usual attitude. It's not that the girl strived for top grades as she did but she refused to get bad grades which left her as a solid B student. Ruby was the same, though part of that was due to her having to catch up from a two-year grade jump. Blake… was an A student but her grades had suffered greatly from when she had tried to go alone in her investigation. Her grades had been improving since then but she was only a C student. She knew that Pyrrha and Ren were A students and Nora fluctuated between B and C. Jaune, he'd managed to scrape his way up to being a C student.
"The doctors say that it will take a few days for the agent to circulate through our bodies and attach to the chemicals causing the weight gain, rendering them ineffective and with the chemical structure of the whole changed, will begin to break down." Weiss explains. "It will likely take until the end of the tournament for that to happen. As for the weight we have gained, we'll have to do our best to work it off once our systems have been flushed."
"So… expect this meal to stick around?" Yang asks as she sat up to pat her belly for emphasis. Of her friend group, she easily had the largest belly since her gains were primarily centered there.
"That's what I just said!" The heiress responds with frustration.
"Um… Maybe?" Ruby tried to be neutral between her sister and her BFF.
"Ugh… I think I'm gonna be sick." June moans into the wood.
"Oh! Aim it at the enemy!" Nora suggests with a wild grin as she leans on the counter.
"Nora! That's disgusting." Ren chides his best friend. Then his attention moves to his team leader. "But if you feel the urge." He left it open.
"Got it." The blonde groans while giving a thumbs up.
Pyrrha stands up. "Well, we should be off." It was easy for her to do so, even with her weight. A good chunk of her weight was pure muscle that was covered by a layer of soft fat that was wrapped in her armor, her gains giving her a distinct hourglass shape that many girls wished they had as they grew outward.
"You think you guys are ready?" Ruby asks, excited to see more fights and even more so to see her friends doing that.
"Of course!" Nora answers for the team and began gesturing to her friends. "We have a world-renowned fighter on our team, Ren's basically a ninja, I can bench five of me, Jaune, we trained all year, our weapons are AWSOME, and uh… Jaune?'
The team looks to the blonde who kept his head down through it all. "Are you going to take that?" Ren tried to be humorous and give the young man a chance to defend himself.
"She's not wrong." He groans as he shakes his head as best, he could against the solid surface.
"I'm kidding." Nora tries to walk things back from the unintended insult she gave to her leader. "He knows I'm kidding. Don't be so nervous. The worst that can happen is that we lose, then its just a few more years of walking around the school with everyone knowing that you're a failure, our friends will slowly abandon us for our social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, Ren and I have no parents so we have no home to go back to, and we'll officially be renamed Team Loseper!" And she broke into hysterical laughter before descending into a sobbing mess, slamming her head into the counter like her leader.
Pyrrha and Ren watched her cry on the wood for a few seconds before he spoke. "So, yeah. We're feeling pretty good."
The redhead pats both of her downed teammates on the shoulders. "Don't fret. If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines and not… well, murderers." She recalled the fights they had at the Breach with some of the White Fang, the occasional hooligan in the city, and the stories that Team RWBY had told them. The other team had the grace to look uncomfortable at her choice of words while also proud of their accomplishments.
"Yeah, don't sweat it. We've all faced way worse before." Yang was more on the proud side.
"Let's see." Blake began as she counting off her fingers. "Grimm invasion, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath."
"Oh! And that was while we were still in training!" Ruby nearly squeals as she hugs herself in joy, her sister watching with amusement. "Just wait until we graduate!?"
"Maybe then I'll be able to pay for a meal." Weiss grumbles to herself.
Anything anyone else was going to say was interrupted by the PA squealing to life. "Would Team JNPR report to the battlegrounds immediately." Port was firm in his tone.
"Yes! Like they were scheduled to be several minutes ago!" Oobleck jumps in and sounding rather annoyed.
Pyrrha pulls her scroll out from a pocket and sees the notification that they had been selected… and that they would have no time but to collect their weapons. Quickly she responded that they were on their way. There was no way that she was going to tell them that they missed the message because they were busy eating. "Well, it looks like this is it." The tallest girl says and leads her team to the taxi to get them back to the stadium. Jaune and Nora still looked depressed while Ren was as focused as normal.
"Go get them!" Ruby shouts out with a fist raised high.
"We better get up there to cheer them on." Yang tells her team, taking the role of big sister to them all… again.
As it turns out, Bonelli had been experimenting with her dishes. She cooked up a special dish of stir fry of crevice worms, mole crab, and cactus leaves from Vacuo with rice from Mistral, and beef and vegetables from Vale. The addition of a few seasonings and spices, excluding Vacuo's local spice, made the meal something that Team DAIT asking for second helpings. Upon seeing how the dish was loved by the team, more than a few patrons began asking for the meal.
"Are you sure you don't need help, Bonelli?" Denko asks as he finishes a large cup full of tea to wash out his throat. "I'm sure your girls' offer still holds."
The mother looks at her daughters as they looked at her expectantly. "Oh, alright. You two can help me out since the crowd is growing again." The two girls cheered, only those close to Anya ever seeing her so happy could easily count how often she was that way in public. The Eaglewing family was always close and they bonded over their love of cooking and fighting.
"Hey! JNPR is going to be fighting soon." Itazura holds up her scroll for her brother to see.
"I guess we should get back up there." Denko admits before turning to the women behind the counter, the younger pair washing their hands. "You two fine here?" He gave them one last out.
"We'll be fine." Talon dismisses him with a wave, throwing some water at him in the process.
"Just get going or you'll miss it. We can listen to the fight on the scrolls." Anya proves her point by setting her scroll up where it could be seen while out of the way, tuned into the live feed from the stadium where currently the arena was being cleared of debris.
Then the PA announcement was made to get the late team moving to the stadium, prompting the siblings to make their way to the transports as fast as they could.
By coincidence, they were close to docks and saw Teams JNPR and RWBY board a ship right before it took off. So, they took the next one with Team SSSN who were on their way back as well.
In the Amity Colosseum, RWBY made their way through the stands, unaware that Emerald and Mercury followed them part of the way. The two shared a look, unaware themselves that Yang had caught them in the corner of her eye when looking to Ruby and turned to see them fully walking away.
On the arena floor, the two teams made their way from the tunnels of their respective schools to the central dais. The crowd roared their approval for the next round to begin, not minding that there was a slight delay as it allowed many to use the time to relive themselves and/or gather more food and drink. One of those who had used the time to get food was Mercury, who sat in the red section eating from a massive container of popcorn.
"I wonder who's gonna win?" He asks as he stuffs a handful into his mouth.
"Tsk, as if we didn't already know." Emerald scoffs at both his question and talking with his mouth full. Behind them, Cinder walked to her seat wearing her Huntress clothes that exposed her upper arms and stomach to the world while having her generous bust and hips wrapped in bandages. The brown vest left open to reduce restriction of her chest and the upper half of her soft belly. The wraps were tight enough to create a subtle muffin top that was made again by the belt that held her dark grey pants up on her wide hips. The wraps around her wrists that disappeared under her fingerless brown gloves completed her look, giving the appearance of poverty despite the looks that many women would kill for and her well kept hair that often hid her left eye from the world. Even the leather pauldron didn't look out of place on her left shoulder, in fact with her only having one it added to her preferred look.
"Oh, come now." She chides her subordinates as she reached into the bucket and plucked out a kernel. "Even if you know how a story ends, it doesn't make it any less fun to watch." She says as her fingers glow yellow briefly and the kernel pops before she eats it. 'Could use a little butter for flavor.'
The pair in front of her took her words to heart as they turned back to watch the upcoming fight with smirks on their faces.
Denko, Itazura, and SSSN found where RWBY had chosen their seats to join them in cheering on their friends as they listened to the announcements.
"Team JNPR of Beacon versus Team BRNZ of Shade!" Port proclaims and the projections of the terrain randomizers came to life and began cycling through the options. A few seconds later, the forest and mountain terrains were selected and the outer ring retracted to allow the new environment to rise into place. The lush trees and grass on Vacuoan side and the towering mountain with sparce shrubs and a few evergreens on the Valean side locked into place, the eight fighters taking a few moments to appreciate the scenery.
"Three! Two! One! Begin!" Port declares and the teams surged at each other as the crowd roared. With their friends, Ruby whooped as the other teams were content to be more reserved.
AN: I did intend to have the full fight in this chapter but forgot how much there was between RWBY's and JNPR's so I had to cut it off early. On the other hand, we got to see some of the results of other fights early on. Plus lunch time was rather filling. Hehe.
I'll see you all next time for JNPR's fight against Team BRNZ!