The sun shone through the large windows, flooding the hall with bright light. It looked rather pretty, as long as you weren't one of the unlucky students faced towards the sun, having to narrow their eyes to protect themselves from rays. It really seemed like everything in Beacon, including the mesa, was designed with aesthetics in mind rather than practicality.
Ruby entered the cafeteria, making her way to the table she and her team usually ate at. Sure enough, she saw all three of her teammates there, along with their... friends from team JNBY. Ruby expected just that
As some of her friends turned towards her, Ruby took a deep breath. She already had the words prepared, ones it took her a long time to pick. She knew she had to be careful not to be too obvious with her intentions, but also not so vague as to be impossible to understand. She thought she had struck the golden mean with her choice of words.
"I think we should go hang out together." She stated loudly.
"Aren't we doing that right now?" Yang asked. Of course she would be the one to poke holes in Ruby's idea. Sisters could be really annoying sometimes.
"I meant hang out somewhere else." Ruby corrected. "Somewhere fun. I mean, eating dinner isn't exactly an attraction and it makes talking a little harder."
"Owly a lffle." Nora said with her mouth full.
"And what exactly do you want us to do?" Weiss asked in that skeptical tone of hers. "While I do not oppose the idea of spending time in a new manner, I cannot think of anything. "
"What do you mean you can't think of anything?" Ruby brushed the concern off. "We could go to an amusement park, there are a few of those in Vale..."
"Great idea!" Nora exclaimed once she swallowed her portion of food.
"You can go without me." Blake said. "I'm not into that sort of thing."
"I was on a rollercoaster once and ended up vomiting." Jaune added. "So you may count me out as well."
Damn, that wouldn't do. The goal of the mission was to have everyone go out and have some fun together, especially Jaune and Weiss. She had to figure out something both Schnees would enjoy, at the very least.
"So, how about we go to the cinema?" She offered. "I'm sure we can find a movie that all of us like."
"Romantic drama?" Blake perked up.
"An action movie?" Yang suggested instead.
"Sci-fi western?" Nora countered.
"Is that even a thing?" Ruby asked. "Ugh, forget it. I guess we kind of have different preferences."
"We are quite a diverse group." Pyrrha said. "I doubt there are that many common interests between all of us."
Ruby sighed. Though Pyrrha was being polite about it as always, her point was pretty clear - finding something enjoyable for all of them to do would be pretty hard. Come to think of it, their little bunch was quite diverse, hailing from three different continents and backgrounds, with not much to bring them together, except for...
But of course, fighting! They all knew how to fight and Ruby was sure they all liked it, in their own separate ways. All she had to do was suggest they would spar to... no, fighting against one another wasn't a great friendship-building exercise and could result in either Jaune or Weiss suffering an injury. But maybe there was a way to profit off that...
"How about we prepare for the Vytal Tournament?" Ruby suggested. "I mean, we still have a few months, but the sooner we start the better."
"That... is actually a reasonable idea." Weiss tapped her chin. "We are sure to face some tough competitors, so it makes sense to start the preparations right away."
"I approve of the idea." Jaune nodded. "But how exactly do you want us to prepare?"
That was a good question. Since sparing was out of the question, maybe they should work on their weapons together? Oh yes, there was no better way to spend time together then to engage in the glorious art of weapon upkeep and... no, that wouldn't work. Chances were, at least one party would object to showing off their weapons to potential future opponents. And besides, while Ruby was able to reap the joy from maintaining her weapon, she imagined someone like Jaune wouldn't see it as that fun, with that simple sword of his.
"Actually, I heard that the first wave of exchange students is due to arrive tomorrow." Pyrrha said, only now joining the intercourse. "One from Vacuo, I believe. We could meet them halfway and talk to them, or maybe just see them arrive and hopefully make out what to expect."
"You wish to spy on the competition?" Yang raised an eyebrow, though her voice betrayed some interest.
"It is a perfectly valid precaution to take." Pyrrha replied. "Though of course that is merely a suggestion."
"No, no, it's a good one." Ruby hurried to say. "We can go out tomorrow, see if someone interesting comes around."
It really was a good idea. Not Ruby's first choice, to spy on the competition, but one that some of her friends would certainly appreciate. Moreso, it was one of the few ways to prepare for the tournament that neither Jaune nor Weiss would attempt to sabotage, since being more aware of the competition wouldn't give any of them an advantage against the other one. And if one of them did think to sabotage the other somehow, it would have to be done in broad view, in a way that neither of them would be able to deny and would just cost them credit they could better utilize in a number of ways...
...wow, was Ruby now thinking in terms of complex schemes too? That was worrying. She needed to do something fun soon, simply to keep her sanity intact.
"I suppose since our opponents will certainly be looking for advantages, it's only fair if we do the same." Jaune said after a moment. "And I do not have anything scheduled for tomorrow anyways."
"I am free as well." Weiss stated. "This might indeed be worth our time."
"It's a date then." Yang concluded. "We go town, do a little prying and then maybe go eat something."
"Let's just not forget the last part." Nora added, looking over her empty plate. "The food here has quality, but is lacking in quantity."
"We will eat something afterwards." Ruby promised. "But let's not think about the details. We meet tomorrow and we go town, that's what matters."
For a moment, Weiss looked as though she was about to protest, probably the 'not think about the details' part, but ultimately decided against it. Everyone else seemed on board with the idea as well, some even nodding approvingly.
"Great!" Ruby felt relieved that her idea worked out, but also excited for the trip they now have planned. "I'll promise you guys, it will be real fun."
"Well, first we have to get through our lessons for today." Ren said, before standing up. His plate was empty, much like everyone else's by now. "We only have ten minutes or so before the Plant Science course."
"But I didn't get to eat anything!" Ruby protested, only now realizing her error.
"Well sis, that's the price you pay for being dramatic." Yang got up as well, a slight smile on her lips contrasting Ruby's growing frown. "Just hurry up and you might just be fine."
As people around the table scrambled to their feet, Ruby followed her sister's instruction. She quickly ran to grab as much food as she could, put it all on a plate and started eating even before she got to sit down at the table. She didn't have time to savor the meal, but screw that, she was hungry.
"I wouldn't worry if I were you." Pyrrha said, the only one who was still at the table. She had consumed her meal a while ago from the looks of it, so she probably stayed just out of politeness. Very Pyrrha-ish. "I am sure the teacher will understand even if you do end up turning up late."
"Thanks." Ruby said in-between the bites. "And thanks for giving me the idea too."
"We both want everyone to get along." Pyrrha replied. "In part because I do not want jars of sap aimed at me again."
"Sorry about that again." Ruby smiled apologetically. "Everyone likes you though. I'll get that if you have better things to do than to go with us."
"I will gladly come, actually." Pyrrha said. "Researching the competition really is a valid tactic. And I will welcome a chance to see how Vale is like. I did not have much opportunity until now."
"It's great." Ruby assured her partner. "A large city with a lot of stuff to do, especially with friends at our side. We are going to have lots of fun."
Vale was sort of stinky.
Jaune had been to this city before, even prior to joining Beacon, but he had never really taken time to actually take a walk around its streets. Now, as he wandered these streets with his little group of friends and family, he couldn't say he regretted not having explored this metropolis earlier.
It was nothing like Atlas, with its pristine buildings and impeccably organized streets. t wasn't even like Mantle, which in spite of its relative poverty, worked like well-oiled clock and had its streets patrolled by militants and heated by dust systems. The streets were not all that clean and definitely not surveyed diligently enough - Jaune spotted maybe two security cameras during their walk and he doubted there were many well-hidden ones - and the colorful balloons tied to lampposts to celebrate new arrivals were hardly enough to mask the city's bland looks. If that wasn't enough, the air smelled rather unpleasantly, with a thin odor of dead fish being only part of the malodorous mixture.
To be fair, the smell was mostly due to location. They were currently next to Vale's main harbor, one which already had a few ships docked in. According to what they managed to find out, some of the students who intended to take part in Vytal Tournament later this year were to arrive exactly here, at some point during the day. Some of them, because apparently, it was next to impossible to organize a single transport of dozens people throughout Grimm-infested oceans of Remnant. Still, there was a good chance they would meet some of the other students and have a chat with them, if only to know what type of people they would be dealing with.
Or at least, that was the theory. Now that they were here, overlooking a harbor filled mostly with workers of all kinds and awaiting one of the passenger ships to spew out dozens, if not hundreds of people, their initial plan didn't look quite so great.
"Even if we spot someone who's obviously from another Academy, how do we approach them?" Blake asked, or maybe rather complained. "Do we just approach them in a group of eight people and say hi? Will that really start an informative discussion? Or are we going to be direct and just ask them to reveal all their secrets?"
Though Jaune wouldn't admit it, his teammate had an excellent point. He was skeptical of the idea himself, even back when it was first suggested, but decided there was no harm going through with it. Now that he was here, tired and somewhat sweaty under his armor - damn their idea to go out in their combat outfits - Jaune doubted if they would achieve anything by following that plan.
He was fairly sure the point of this little trip was not to actually gain any intel, but to somehow bring the two teams together. Ruby had to be a little worried about how... hostile things had been between them for the last few weeks, and frankly, he couldn't blame her. That little prank war they waged was rather tiring and it might had gone a tiny bit too far on occasions.
"Look, we can always just pass it off as a welcoming party of sorts." Jaune argued without conviction. "We might come off as awkward, but there is no real harm in approaching them and saying hi."
"Exactly!" Ruby agreed, from her place at the front of the caravan. She was the only one in their group of eight who didn't look tired, or resigned, or even all that sweaty. "We can even drop that whole 'spying on our enemies' gig and just try to make friends."
"I'd rather get something out of this trip." Weiss protested. Either she was too tired to hide her irritation with the entire situation, or she was doing it poorly. Jaune couldn't say that he blamed her - she was probably even more tired than him and she had to be at least somewhat reluctant to show her new, forest-green hair publically. "Even if that means just getting to see what our opponents look like."
"I can't believe I'm the one to be saying this," Yang cut in. "But shouldn't you tone down the competitive streak a little? I mean, these are the exchange students we are talking about. Before we can fight them properly, we will need to spend a few months just attending school with them."
"Are you saying we should use that time to arrange some accidents?" Nora asked.
"I am pretty sure that's not what she meant, Nora." Ren replied.
"Well I'm for one, am glad to see all these interesting people and their weap... I mean personalities." Ruby said, rounding a corner. She then paused. "Hey, you guys see that?"
Jaune moved closer to see what 'that' was. He was welcomed to the sight of a street blocked by police tapes, arranged around a small shop with its main window broken, glass fragments scattered across the asphalt of the street. Two people in uniforms were looking over the scene, policemen from the looks of it. They were talking about something, though not loudly enough to be heard.
"What do you think is that?" Pyrrha asked, her voice kept quiet. "And should we help?"
"Not should how much we can do." Jaune replied. Though now that he thought of it, maybe it would pay off to sniff around a little... "Wait here, I'll ask them something."
Ruby reached out to him and opened her mouth to say something - probably about how he shouldn't disturb the public officers during work or something like that - but he opted to ignore her. Weiss made no move to stop him, likely because she knew he had it handled.
"Excuse me officers, can we help you in any way?" Jaune asked, walking right next to one of the officers. The uniformed man opened his mouth, as though wanting to refuse right away, but paused once he got a good look at Jaune. In his armor, Jaune couldn't be confused for anything but a huntsman.
"Who is asking?" The officer asked instead.
"Jaune Schnee, Beacon Academy." Jaune replied, banking on his family name and the school in equal measure. "I'm not representing Beacon or anything, but me and my friends thought we could offer to help."
"Not sure how much you can." The other detective replied. "All the action is over. The robbery took place in the night and there is no sign of the culprits now."
Jaune figured as much, but that didn't quite sate his curiosity. "Who are the culprits? Assuming you have an idea."
"Wore Grimm masks, took only the Dust." The officer replied grimly. "There is only one group in Vale that would do something like that. The White Fang."
Jaune heard someone gasp behind him, one of his peers having heard these words. Jaune barely stopped himself from cursing out loud, though the shift in his expression probably indicated how he felt well enough.
The White Fang. Jaune recognized the name, knew what it entailed more than he wished to know. They were the hardened enemies of the Schnee Dust Company, even back when they weren't quite as violent. Back when Jaune first heard of the White Fang, he was somewhat sympathetic to them, or at least their cause - it wasn't as though the SDC or society as a whole was perfect - but they always caused more harm than good with their approach.
And then the truly violent White Fang was born, a brainchild of Sienna Khan and her radical followers. By now almost everyone heard stories about the White Fang and their misdeeds, but Jaune heard every single one of them and was impacted by some. Board member in charge of the company, friends of the Schnee family, anyone with any connection to the SDC was a target for the White Fang. They had their agents in many places, so it was no surprise they were also in Vale. But to be confronted with it like this...
"They are unlikely to return here. I think you should leave the matter to us." The detective said, his voice showing some concern now. Jaune realized that he had been silent for a long moment now and could hardly feign being unaffected by the news.
"Thank you." He said, aiming to excuse himself. when he received a nod back, he quickly turned around and rejoined his peers.
"So... White Fang." Yang said, as though making sure she heard that right. "This is this terrorist group people like talking about these days?"
"A bunch of murderers, I'd rather say." Weiss sneered. "They know nothing but to lie, kill and steal. No surprise they resorted to robbing stores."
"But why would they attack a random store like that?" Blake pondered, seemingly talking more to herself than anyone around. "What would they have to gain?"
"What do you mean?" Weiss retorted. "Dust is valuable. They steal Dust. That's what thieves do, Blake."
"White Fang doesn't commit crimes just because they can." Blake protested. "They're misguided, sure..."
"Misguided?" Jaune cut in, almost despite himself. "That's not the word I would use."
"I believe that we have no reason to argue." Ren said, slowly and calmly. "We cannot discern the motives of the crime and we have no interest in doing so."
Jaune felt calm wash all over him. Ren was right - they were, in all essence, arguing over nothing. Still, hearing the terrorists of the White Fang being referred to as 'misguided' was not something he heard every day. Not something he wanted to hear.
"Well, whatever reasons they have, it's still bad." A high voice said, one belonging to Ruby. "Right? If we can do something to stop it, we should."
"I concur, but I'm not sure how much we can do. We're not detectives, or even qualified huntsmen just yet." Jaune sighed. "I guess I'll just wait until some faunus criminal shows up, then think on what to do."
As Jaune finished the sentence, a blond man in a white jacket emerged from behind a corner and rushed down the street. Two men dressed like sailors ran behind him, no, chased him through the street, though they clearly struggle to keep up.
The blond man, though he really looked more like a boy up close, passed through the middle of the group without sparing them a glance. None of the students had the time to react or even say anything, though as the runner passed him, Jaune could see a unique trait of his - a tail, shaped like one of a monkey and covered in golden hair, trailed behind the boy as he dashed forwards. He put that tail to good use soon enough- in few swift moves he climbed up a nearby lamppost and, using only his tail, hang from it with casual ease.
"Get down here!" One of the sailors shouted as he sprinted closer. "You no-good stowaway!"
"That's not fair." The boy said. His voice was relaxed, carefree, even cheerful. "A no-good stowaway would get caught. I am a great stowaway!"
The boy then pulled a banana from under his jacket and peeled it. Before he could eat the fruit though, he had to jerk his head slightly to avoid a stone of the detectives tossed at him.
"Get down from there this instant!" The officer yelled, trying to sound authoritative. The faunus replied by throwing the banana peel in his face, before laughing in amusement.
"See you around guys!" The boy said before leaping off the lamppost, technically fulfilling the command given to him. He then ran off, barely concerned about the four men that were now chasing him.
Ruby blinked. "Well... that was a faunus criminal. Do we think on what to do now?"
It took conscious effort for Jaune to snap out of bewilderment. "I'm not sure. It is a pretty weird coincidence, but..."
"We have to observe him!" Weiss exclaimed. "Follow that filthy faunus before he gets away!"
The heiress then gave chase, running after the faunus with impressive speed for someone wearing high heels. Ruby shrugged and gestured her team forwards, soon causing the entire Team RRWP to join the chase.
Jaune wasn't sure whether following them was the right move. He doubted chasing after some faunus stowaway would do them any good, even if they succeeded, but it wasn't like they had anything better to do. "Right. Let's go catch that rapscallion." He then took the first step, already knowing that with his armor on, he would have to put some serious effort to keep up with...
"Wait." Blake said before any of them could start running. "Why are we doing this?"
"Doing what?" Yang asked. "I mean, he is a criminal from the looks of it and we're huntsmen, so..."
"For all we know he is just a stowaway." Blake protested. "We don't know if he has anything to do with the White Fang. We shouldn't assume just like that, or to call him names."
Jaune barely stopped himself from sighing loudly. He almost forgot Blake was a faunus and one that was sensitive regarding that sort of thing. Honestly, by now he was somewhat sick of having to mind his tongue whenever his faunus teammate was around, but a team-building trip like this was the last place and time he wanted to have an inter-team argument.
"Even if that's just a coincidence, he is still breaking the law right now." Jaune said, as diplomatically as he could. "Trying to apprehend him is something a huntsman would do."
"Well I don't think it matters anyway." Nora cut in. "They are pretty far away by now."
"Probably for the best." Blake remarked. "Do you honestly want to sit there and wait for some students to arrive so that we can maybe talk to them? And then maybe learn something from them?"
"Well we promised Ruby we would come..." Yang said, without much conviction.
"Well I don't think we can catch up to Ruby now." Blake retorted. "She is somewhere else now and I suspect her team will now be busy tracking some random guy through the streets."
"That's kind of your fault." Yang murmured. "And we really should be preparing for Vytal Tournament somehow."
"How about we go spar?" Nora suggested. "We can just call the guys from RRWP and tell them where we went and that they can join if they want."
"It does sound fair." Jaune nodded. As stupid as he felt for leaving without his objective complete, he couldn't really argue with Blake there. "We can socialize with our future rivals once they're at Beacon."
"Hey, I was promised food!" Nora protested. "Let's go to the restaurant first or something."
"I won't say no." Yang shrugged. "Where are going then?"
"A sushi place!" Blake offered, before coughing in her fist. "I mean, that's one of our options."
Jaune sighed. The depressing thing was, getting to eat something out in the town was probably a better way to strengthen team bonds than what they originally planned on doing. Who knew, maybe it would even be fun, and not in a 'lots of explosions' way some of their pranks were. If nothing else, it would be a nice break from eating in the cafeteria.
He wondered if the other team was doing quite as well.
Weiss panted heavily as she ran through the empty street, trying to catch someone she couldn't even spot. Her lungs burned as the demanded more air and her muscles already began to ache from the effort. In spite of the jogging sessions Ruby made her do, she wasn't the most resilient of people and she really disliked having a layer of sweat cover her brow.
Worse yet, it wasn't working. They had overtaken the detectives and sailors - the men apparently lacked the resolve to keep chasing the stowaway through a wide section of Vale - but they barely kept the pace on par with their target. The monkey faunus ran carelessly through the streets and occasionally jumped on a lamppost or small building, as though he didn't take the chase seriously in the slightest. They had lost the sight of him a moment ago, though they kept trying to catch the faunus by running in the same general direction.
"He went left!" Ruby yelled from her place at the head of the group. With her semblance she was the most capable of keeping up. "I think? I saw a glimpse, but I won't lay my head on the block or anything..."
"Just run!" Weiss snorted, in between her shallow gasps for air. She made a sharp turn at the nearest crossing and emerged from behind the corner just in time to see a tailed blonde disappear behind a rooftop of a nearby building.
"That guy is really... really agile." Ren said, gasping for air even harder than Weiss. "Do we really need to do this?"
"I highly doubt we stand a chance of capturing him." Pyrrha stated. "And now that that I think about it, since we don't have proper licenses, us capturing him could get registered as kidnapping."
"Are we really giving up just like that?" Weiss protested. She would not admit failure when there were still other options. "Ruby, you can still catch him? Just leave us behind and push your semblance further."
"I don't know..." Ruby jiggled her foot nervously. "I already got in trouble for huntressing once... and we don't know if this guy is all that bad, really..."
"Forget it." Weiss snapped. "Just give me an official leave as my leader. I will deal with this personally."
"Sure but... what exactly do you want to do? Are you climbing the building too?"
"I don't intend to climb." Weiss denied, before drawing her weapon. She doubted Myrtenaster would be used in an offensive manner this day, but having it in her grasp always made her more focused. More confident. "I'll go higher than that."
Without any further ado, Weiss launched herself into the air, propelled by the force her aura. The jump didn't take her very high, just two or three meters, but instead of falling back down Weiss created a glyph under her feet. She then propelled herself off that glyph, and then of another one, and another one, continuing her impromptu flight until she was above the roofs of even the tallest buildings.
Annoyingly, even from that height she couldn't spot the faunus thug. Maybe he was purposefully hiding from her, but most likely she just didn't have a good view of the streets from this angle. She wondered if she should go higher or just hover over some other spot, but was interrupted when she heard someone screaming from down below.
"...don't ...semblance!" The voice sounded like Ruby's, though the exact words were hard to make out. "...risk ...tired."
"Can't you see I have to focus?!" Weiss yelled back. Ruby was being an annoyance, which wasn't anything new, but still not appreciated.
Still, Ruby wasn't being as annoying as when the two of them first met, in that she wasn't coughing up explosions. Maybe Weiss attempt at being friendly were working, or maybe they were just getting used to one another. Whatever the case, Weiss was grateful that her team was somewhat operational , even if it wasn't going to help her now that she was... falling through the air at an increasing speed, nothing for her to stand on or to stop her descent.
Oh. She wasn't focusing anymore. That was bad.
An idea came to Weiss that she should create a glyph to amortize her fall, but there wasn't enough time and it wouldn't make much of a difference anyway, her momentum already large enough to splatter her on whatever surface she hit. In a split second she had before reaching the ground, Weiss summoned her aura to protect every inch of her body, protect her from the...
Crash. Weiss heard a loud sound as she collided with a ground, which was good, since it meant she was still alive. She moved her limbs, one after the other, and found that everything was still in place and working as it should. Still, the fall wasn't exactly painless.
Weiss cursed her bad luck. Not only did she fall from the sky because of a moment's inattention, not only did she not manage to land on any of the rooftops which would make the fall shorter and less painful, she didn't even land on the asphalt. She was currently lying on something hard, irregularly shaped and... looking like a redheaded girl in a blouse?
"Ouch." The girl stated. "That hurt a lot. I am feeling pain. Like a normal person." She then smiled, wider than Weiss ever remembered seeing someone smile "Salutations!"
I think this is the shortest chapter in the story, save for the introductory one. Sorry about that, but I kind of needed to end it before the next sequence, or else it would be unbearably long. Also I felt unreasonably proud of that ending.
And in case anyone wonders, I won't be really doing Blake/Sun in this story. Sun will be featured, lest I wouldn't bother introducing him at all, but he won't get to be Blake's satellite character, as the latter is not the protagonist anymore. If you want a watsonian explanation for that, just assume Sun was more distracter here and he didn't think of giving Blake that passing wink as he did in the show.