Chapter 24: Calm Before the Storm


"I'm Bored!" Nora yelled as she slumped back on her bed.

Pyrrha looked up from her textbook as she watched her teammate flop onto her bed.

"Well, you could maybe study?" Pyrrha suggested in an attempt to help cure her teammate's boredom.

"It's so hard to study on my bed!" Nora complained, "I feel like falling asleep every time I open up my textbook."

Pyrrha was about to humbly suggest that Nora not study on her bed but then she remembered an important detail.

The lack of desks in their room.

Due to the nature of her boyfriend's…shenanigans, there weren't any surviving pieces of furniture left. All their room consisted of was four mattresses and a giant hole in the wall.

"We should do something with Jaune and Ren!" Nora said as she bounced back up.

"Nora we can't," Pyrrha gently replied back, "They're working right now to pay back all the damages."

Jaune and companies…adventure a week ago had come at quite the cost and now they had to make up for all the damages they caused.

Pyrrha wasn't quite sure how'd they pay it back, it was a lot of lien and it far exceeded their monthly expenses.

Pyrrha wished she could've helped them out but she couldn't.

She was not made of lien, despite the tournament winnings, sponsorship deals, and being a brand ambassador for numerous products across Remnant.

Come to think of it, why didn't she have more money? Maybe she needed to have a talk with her manager...

Thankfully, someone that was came to their rescue.

Surprisingly, Weiss offered to help the boys out of their predicament…after gloating in their faces for a minute.

Pyrrha thought they would have accepted immediately, and it looked like Sun and Neptune were about to cry tears of joy.

The bigger surprise came when Jaune, Ren, and Mori refused, saying that they caused their problem and they had to fix it.

At that, Sun and Neptune's tears of joy became tears of sorrow.

Pyrrha on the other hand couldn't help but feel proud of her boyfriend for taking responsibility like that and not going with the easy way out.

"I know that," Pyrrha heard Nora shout, interrupting her thoughts, "What I mean is we should visit them right now!"

"Nora, we can't" Pyrrha chastised, "They're probably very busy."

"It's not like we are going to pester them while they're working Pyr," Nora replied as she excitedly got off the bed. "We'll just see how they're doing and encourage them!"

Pyrrha thought about it for a bit. It wasn't easy doing part-time job, and on top of that, there was also the training Team JNPR had to do for the Vytal Festival. One day the two worked so hard that Ren fell asleep while cooking Nora pancakes and Jaune fell onto the floor and slept there the entire night.

…Maybe it would be a good thing to go visit them and support her teammates.

"That and I heard the place where Jaune and Ren were working has uniforms!"

Pyrrha's mind was now made up.

"Let's go," she said promptly.

They were going to go visit the boys at their part-time jobs.

…to cheer them up of course… she was going to go visit them so that she can cheer them up, not because she wanted to see Jaune in a uniform and add it to her photo collection.

Nope, there was no alternative motive for Pyrrha. None whatsoever.

Just supporting her boyfriend.


"Remind me again, why are we here?" Weiss asked her partner as she daintily picked up what she assumed was supposed to be a menu.

"Because it's my turn to choose where we go for lunch." Ruby nonchalantly replied, as the girl briefly looked up from her menu before continuing to purse through her choices.

"Yes, but we could have gone somewhere nice," Weiss whined, "There was this café downtown, with these tiny little sandwiches I've been wanting to try."

"We can try it when it's your turn." Ruby responded back, "But today I want to actually feel full when I finish eating."

"Can't we go somewhere clean at least?"

"Weiss, are you saying that this fine establishment here is not clean?" her partner asked as she raised her hand above her heart and looked at her in shock.

Weiss looked at the gum underneath their table, then at the grease spot near her elbow, and finally, at the light above her that started flickering before responding.

"Yes."

Just as her partner was about to retort, her face lit up with a smile as she suddenly raised her hands in excitement.

"Nora, Pyrrha!" Ruby shouted, "Over here!"

Weiss turned around as the girls on Team JNPR enter the restaurant.

"Ruby!" Nora shouted as she tackled Ruby for a hug.

"Woah!" the girl screamed as she went sprawling to the ground from Nora's form tackle creating a loud crash, "I'm okay!" She shouted as the dust settled while throwing a thumbs up.

Weiss couldn't help but smile a bit from their antics.

"Hello!"

"Greetings, Pyrrha," Weiss responded as she turned from the chaos, "What brings you here to this…establishment?"

"Not much," Pyrrha replied as she started looking around, "We were just downtown and decided to get lunch here."

At that Weiss raised an eyebrow as she looked around the place. Ruby she could get why the girl wanted to come here, it was just the type of greasy place that suited her and her sister's unrefined taste, but Pyrrha?

"We also wanted to see Jaune and Ren at work!" Nora said as she got up.

That confused Weiss, just as she was about to ask Nora to clarify a familiar voice spoke up behind her.

"Hello, welcome to Greasy's where if your food doesn't take a year off your life span then it's just not worth it, my name is Jaune and I will be your server today how can I…Weiss, Pyrrha, Ruby, Nora? What are you guys doing here!"

"We are here to visit you silly!" Nora shouted as she got up, "That and we wanted to get pictures in your uniform."

"Nora," Jaune sighed, "You already took pictures of us in our uniforms, remember?"

"I know that" Nora responded, "But mama needs pictures of you guys in your natural habitat.," she finished as she starting snapping photos with her scroll.

"Sorry if we are disturbing you," Pyrrha said as she apologized, "We could leave if you want?"

"No, you're fine Pyr," Jaune said as he then turned toward Weiss and Ruby, "How did you guys know we worked here? I don't remember telling either of you where we worked."

"We didn't" Weiss responded, "We are just here because Ruby chose this place."

"Oh, I totally knew you worked here," Ruby said as she took out her scroll and started to copy Nora in taking photos, "Mori told me."

Weiss started twitching her eyebrow in annoyance, why was she the only one that was out of the loop?

"Of course he did," Jaune groaned, "Well, I'm ready to take your orders if you'd like?"

"I'll have a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, and a strawberry shake," Ruby replied as she gave him his menu.

"I'd like the pigs in a blanket please," Nora said as she took a quick look over the menu, "Extra Syrup, and you know my definition of extra!" She said with a grin.

Jaune nodded as he took down both of their orders.

"And you two?" He asked turning towards Weiss and Pyrrha.

"I'll just have the salad," Weiss said as she turned in her menu.

It was the only item on there that didn't look like it was going to give her a heart attack.

"Hmm," Pyrrha hummed as she looked through her menu, "Hey Jaune?"

"Yes?"

"What is the Goliath challenge?"

"Oh," Jaune chuckled, "Trust me you don't want to eat that by yourself, it's a four-person food challenge that this place does."

"Food challenge?" Weiss asked as she looked at Jaune for clarification.

"Yeah, if your group could finish our Goliath Pizza in under 30 minutes then you get a free t-shirt and a photo on the wall over there," Jaune said as he pointed to the pictures.

Weiss raised an eyebrow at that, really? A t-shirt and a photo… that was all they got?

"That sounds—"

"Awesome!" Nora said as she interrupted Weiss, "Let's do it!" She said as she turned to the group.

Of course, Ruby nodded enthusiastically, what surprised Weiss though was Pyrrha smiled and agreed as well.

All eyes suddenly turned to Weiss.

"No," she replied as she firmly stood her ground.

"Come on, Weiss!" Ruby complained, "it's a four-person challenge, we need four people and there are four people here."

"Absolutely not," Weiss said, "It's not becoming of a Schnee, to do something so…so barbaric!"

Weiss was more open to doing a lot of new stuff that she wasn't before entering Beacon, after all, if someone told her she would enter a place like this a year ago she'd laugh in their face, but she had to draw the line somewhere in the sand. It was unbecoming of a lady like her to stoop to such levels.

"Can't we just do it with three people Jaune?" Ruby begged as she turned to the Blonde.

"I mean you can," Jaune answered as he looked at Ruby, "But it's really really hard."

"How hard could it be," Ruby said back, "We have Nora, Pyrrha, and me."

"Trust me, Ruby, it's a lot harder than you think," Jaune replied back, "We barely finished it."

"Wait, you took this challenge before?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, me, Ren, Sun and Mori took it a couple of weeks back," Jaune said as he pointed to the wall.

Weiss walked over to the wall as she inspected the photo Jaune was pointing at.

It was the four of them smiling all wearing a white shirt that said, "I conquered the Goliath."

Weiss couldn't help but notice the sauce that was covering their faces and it only reaffirmed that she made the right decision.

"I guess you're right," Ruby said sadly as she sat down.

"Yeah, even if Weiss joined you guys, I think it would've been a struggle."

"What was that!" Weiss said as she turned around quickly and stamped towards Jaune, "what do you mean it would be a struggle?" she said as she glared daggers at the boy.

"I didn't mean that as an insult," Jaune said as he covered his face in panic, "What I meant by that is it's a lot of food and I don't think you'd be able to eat it all."

"Yeah, you kind of eat really small portions," Ruby commented.

Weiss suddenly felt her pride be attacked. She chose to eat small so she could maintain a healthy body to be a huntsman.

"Just because I don't gorge myself on food every day doesn't mean I can't eat big portions," Weiss said as she glared at her partner, "I can eat as much anyone, in fact, Jaune, bring us the Goliath!"

"Uh Weiss are you sure about that?" Jaune asked, "Didn't you say this was below you?"

"Do I need to repeat myself Jaune?" Weiss asked icily.

"No ma'am," He replied quickly, "I will get you your pizza."

"Yay!" Ruby and Nora cheered as Jaune ran back to the kitchen.

"I didn't know you had that in you," Pyrrha said as she looked at the girl.

"I'm a Schnee," Weiss said proudly, "There's nothing I can't do."

"Well, hopefully, we'll able to complete this challenge," Pyrrha said with a smile, "I've only lost once but I'm not planning on making that a habit."

"How hard could it be?" Weiss replied confidently, "It's just a pizza."

Weiss would soon begin to regret her words.

The first instance was when Jaune asked them to move to a different table to take part in the challenge.

The second was when the people around the diner started murmuring as they were moving to the new table.

Her final reason for why she was starting to regret this was when Ren brought out the Goliath itself.

It was a pizza that was topped with peppers, onions, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, salami, and olives. Weiss wasn't even sure that many toppings could fit on a pizza that on its own would be pretty bad but what made it truly a monstrosity was—

"That is huge!" Ruby shouted as the girl's eyes widened, "It's bigger than you Weiss!"

"Shush you," Weiss said as she took a look over the pizza.

It's like not her partner was wrong its diameter was easily over 6 feet and she soon understood why this was a challenge.

"Are you sure you still want to do this," Jaune asked as he looked at the group.

Nora and Ruby nodded enthusiastically while Pyrrha nodded after thinking about it for a bit.

Soon all eyes were on Weiss as she looked at the monstrosity in front of her.

As much as she was starting to regret her decision to partake of this challenge, she could not back down. After all, she was no coward.

"Let's do this, Weiss said with conviction, "Now where's my fork and knife."

Once again Weiss could feel all the eyes on her.

"…What kind of monster are you?" Ruby asked with horror on her face.

"What?"

"You don't eat pizza with a fork and knife," Pyrrha gently responded.

"What do I eat it with then?"

"With your hands duh," Nora said as she grabbed a piece and started wolfing it down.

Ruby and Pyrrha followed Nora's example and grabbed pieces for themselves as well.

Weiss could only look with horror at the sight in front of her.

"Come on Weiss," Ruby said with her mouth full, "We don't have much time."

Weiss daintily grabbed a piece and soon started to follow in the other three's examples.

She could feel taste the grease as she swallowed her first bite.

"Weiss that's not fast enough!"

Weiss cursed her partner and her manners but in her heart, she knew Ruby was right, she needed to eat faster.

In order to conquer this godforsaken challenge, she had to throw away what it meant to be a lady.

And so, forgetting all of Klein's lessons Weiss began to imitate her friends eating habits and started to eat faster and faster.

Weiss wasn't sure how much time had passed as she continued to eat and eat.

She had never eaten this much in her life and she felt like she would never want to eat again.

However, this ordeal was almost over, they were almost finished there was only one large piece left. She was confident at least one of them could finish the piece.

"Uggh, no more"

Weiss heard as she looked over at who gave up. It was her partner, Weiss could only find irony in the fact that her partner who challenged her appetite was the first to fall.

No matter there were still others who could finish.

"I…I don't think I could eat any more," Pyrrha said as she pushed her plate away.

Okay, she at least could count on Nora to finish that last piece, after all that girl was the crowned Queen of Gluttony.

"I shouldn't have eaten so many pancakes this morning," Nora groaned as she suddenly went to the ground.

No way even Nora fell!

Weiss suddenly realized the implications of the loss of Nora, it was up to her to finish that last piece and complete this god-forsaken challenge.

It shouldn't be too hard if she rationed it carefully, she should be able to finish the piece in time.

"One minute left," Jaune shouted.

A minute left? Had that much time passed!?

She quickly grabbed the last piece and bit into it.

She could feel her stomach rejecting the piece she just ate.

Weiss couldn't do it. There wasn't enough time, and she couldn't eat anymore. This blasted challenge had conquered her.

Should she just give up? After all, no one could blame her for falling to such a beast.

She soon dropped the last piece on her plate ready to surrender to the Goliath.

"You could do it, Weiss!" A voice shouted out, it was her partner, "I believe in you!"

"Come on Weiss you could do it!" Pyrrha then shouted out.

"Don't give up!" Nora shouted.

"You're almost there, Girl!" a voice Weiss didn't recognize shouted out.

"You only have a little left!" Another unknown voice shouted out.

It had seemed their challenge had gathered quite an audience as the patrons of the restaurant were surrounding them and cheering them on.

Weiss couldn't give up not with all these people watching her, cheering her on. With a heroic second wind, she grabbed her piece and started to eat once more.

She chomped chewed and swallowed, chomped, chewed, and swallowed, chomped, chewed, and swallowed.

Bit by bit she went into the piece like a savage beowolf refusing to lose as she could hear the cheers grow louder.

As she finished swallowing once more she chomped at the piece but realized that she was chomping at air.

Did she drop the piece?

No...she didn't...there was no more left!

"You did it!" Ruby screamed as she hugged Weiss.

Weiss soon felt herself being lifted up as the crowd erupted into cheering.

"WEISS! WEISS! WEISS! WEISS!"

The crowd chanted as their group was carried over and brought to the wall.

Weiss had never really heard people cheer for her like that... it was a nice feeling.

Soon they were gathered for their picture and given their prizes, a white shirt that said I conquered the Goliath.

It wasn't the most impressive thing that Weiss had seen, and she had towels that were worth more than it, but at that moment Weiss couldn't care less, it was the most valuable thing she had.

"Ok guys, say cheese," Jaune said as he readied their photo.

Weiss had done it she had conquered the Goliath and now no one could question her appetite anymore, this photo was to be proof of Weiss Schnee's superior—Oh no… she could feel something in her throat… the Goliath was making a comeback.

"3,2,1"

"Bleeeggggghhhh"

"Aghh my skirt!"


"That should be your pay for the week, Mori."

"Thanks, Boss!" Mori enthusiastically said as he accepted his pay.

"You've been a great help here kid, hey if that Huntsman thing doesn't work out you can always come here to work."

"Thanks! I'll keep that in mind."

"Stay safe on your way home."

"Will do, night!"

Finished with the day's work Mori began making his way back to Beacon.

As he went down the street, he began counting his Lien he earned from his past week at work.

"One hundred, two hundred, three hundred." He counted in his head, "I think that should be enough for my portion."

He then smiled and in a happy voice began singing about the fact that he was debt-free while walking on his way home.

People were looking at him strangely but he didn't care he could finally put that nightmare night behind him.

When they rejected Weiss's offer to have her pay off their debt, they decided that the best way to make up for the damages they caused was to just get part-time jobs.

Sun and Neptune decided to make up the money by "modeling."

It was a good idea the two were pretty handsome and they knew it.

Too bad they didn't read their full job description.

Mori couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered the two's faces when they discovered where their modeling career would start… at Pumpkin Pete's Wonder World.

The two didn't read thoroughly and got to spend their days in the sun as Pumpkin Pete and his sidekick Tomato Tom.

Ren and Jaune were a bit smarter and decided to work at that food place with that massive pizza they all ate.

He winced as he remembered that ordeal, he was pretty sure that challenge was the reason for the stomach problems he had been having recently.

Mori himself decided to go into construction.

It was easy, he didn't need to do much and he could lift heavy things without a problem.

It was just the right kind of job for him.

There was no way he would ever catch himself parading in costumes like Sun and Neptune, and based on the stories he got of people from Daewi he would never go into customer service like Jaune and Ren.

"Daewi" he thought to himself as he stopped singing.

Memories from his friends on earth began to fill him as he stopped walking and looked up at the shattered moon.

How was earth right now?

He had all but given up on finding a way back.

After all, he didn't have any way to contact anyone to pick him up, Kintoun was missing so he couldn't get off by himself, and even if he did have his cloud, it's not like he knew where in the universe he was so he couldn't just navigate his way back to earth.

Still despite the futility of ever returning he couldn't help but think about the planet he used to call home.

Was it able to rebuild itself after Ragnarok?

What was it like now with the seal being released?

There were many more questions that Mori wondered about, but the most important question Mori had was … how were his friends doing?

Daewi and Mira.

Outside of his burning desire for revenge against Mubong Park, they were the main reason he ever had thoughts of home.

He had grown to like it in Remnant, and he couldn't have been more blessed with the friends he had gained with Team RWBY and JNPR.

But Daewi and Mira were special in Mori's heart just as much as his grandfather.

…He missed them so, so much.

How were they doing?

Was Daewi able to make the Jade Emperor's power his own?

Did he ever get to punch Mubong in his stupid face?

…Was he able to save Mira?

Mori quickly shook that thought off.

Of course, Daewi was able to save Mira, he was one of the strongest people Mori knew, once he had decided to do something not even death would be able to stop him from accomplishing his goal.

"You uhh, you ok there kid? You're sort of standing in the middle of the road in the way." A slurred voice called out.

Mori's turned around his thoughts now interrupted.

It was a dark-haired man wearing a cape…who looked wasted out of his mind.

"Sorry about that sir." Mori apologized with a bow, "I was just deep in thought."

"What can a kid like you have deep thoughts for," The man slurred as he made his way to Mori, "You're young, what is there to think about?" the drunk finished as he threw his arm around Mori.

Mori recoiled a bit from the man's breath. He could tell he was very, very drunk.

As Mori daintily attempted to get the man's arm off him the drunk decided to continue his tirade

"I wish I was your age again," the man murmured, "When the biggest thing to worry about was where that bitch of my sister hid my scroll and would Summer want to hang out that night around Vale." He said as he took another drink from his container.

"I'm uhh sorry to hear about that sir," Mori said unsure of what to say.

"Don't be!" The man shouted in a sudden outburst, "Enjoy being young! Because soon time will pass by, and your worries will include where that bitch of a sister is and…" The man's voice suddenly dropped, "How I could've saved Summer." He whispered sadly as he hung his head down.

At that Mori couldn't help but put up a sad smile.

"I know how you feel."

"Do you now?" The drunk replied as he looked at him.

"I do." Mori reaffirmed, "There doesn't go a day by where I wonder how things could've been different if I could've made a decision that would've saved her, or even if I was just stronger…" he said as his voice trailed off.

A feeling of understanding between the two seemed to fill the air before the man broke it by taking another drink.

"How do you forget then?" the drunk asked as he gulped down more alcohol, "You obviously don't drink …to young… so … how do you forget that pain?"

Mori wasn't sure what to say to the man. He wasn't much of a person who cheered people up, he instead preferred to solve his problems through his fists.

And it's like not he could draw from experience from his time as Wukong as well. Because those experiences were more or less the same.

He left all that kind of talk up to Xuanzhang.

Wait…that's it!

What would Xuanzhang say?

"I…I really don't," Mori admitted to the man, "I guess you just got to... keep moving forward?"

That sounded like something his master would say Mori figured to himself.

…Sort of.

"So, you just forget her?"

"No," Mori responded, "I could never, but I know she wouldn't want me to keep dwelling on her and I'm sure your Summer would want the same."

"You are born to be loved," Mori said as he continued to attempt to relay some of Xuanzhangs lessons, "Just because one person who loves you is gone doesn't mean you won't meet more who do."

She would probably say something like that… right?

A moment of silence filled the air as the man digested Mori's words.

Mori could only pray that his words had some effect on the man.

"I can see why they like you so much," The man muttered as he finished his drink, "What size shoe are you?"

"11.5 why?"

"Hurt my nieces and you'll find out!" The man suddenly barked, "But that was a good talk, see ya later kid."

And as sudden as he came the man soon left into the dark alleys and only one thought occupied Mori's mind as he watched the man leave.

"What the hell just happened?"


The beast could feel itself awaken as its master called upon it.

It had been so long since its master had awakened it.

As the beast burst out of its icy home it stared at its mistress bowing its head as it awaited her instructions.

There was only one reason why she would disturb its slumber.

There was something she wanted to destroy.

That's all the beast ever did.

Destroy civilizations that could be a threat to its master.

"Go to Vale!" Its master declared, "Destroy the Remnant of the Gods!"

The beast nodded as it began to swim toward the land its master called Vale.

Once again ready to bring terror upon Remnant.


I'm Back! Sorry for the hiatus, I just had a really busy beginning of the year and just didn't have the time to write. I also got sidetracked because a friend introduced me to Skyrim so that also took away my attention. But don't worry the series hasn't been cancelled, and hopefully, I'll have more consistent updates for the summer.


Beta(s):

Patrician Lurker

Eliad91