"Wait, Blake," Weiss tilted her head to the side. "You're a ninja?"

Blake froze. That's right, she was supposed to be a secret ninja bodyguard-

Well, the 'bodyguard' part was supposed to be secret. The ninja part, though, she probably couldn't hide. And she didn't really want to hide the ninja part. Which, Blake later realized, may have been contrary to the ninja code.

"yes." Blake waved her arms in the air. "an agent of darkness and death."

"Oh Blakey, that's so cool!"

Blake smiled at the compliment before she caught herself.

Weiss waved away the extras and lead Blake off the pillow set. The pillow skybox was disassembled, the curtains were pulled back (Blake looked back at a freshly revealed clock and saw that the whole ordeal had only taken a little more than an hour.), and Blake blinked in the natural sunlight through the wide, immaculate windows. The stocky maid appeared besides them to remove their make-up, and then a group of maids swarmed them both, replacing their costumes with their pajamas.

Weiss took Blake by the hand and led her into the halls.

"I guess we don't know each other as well as I thought," Weiss said. She pouted and hugged Blake. "That's okay. We'll have plenty of time to get to know each other. Like, did you know that my favorite color is black? I'm not allowed to wear it very much, though."

Weiss released Blake and continued telling the Faunus random facts about herself as she led Blake through a portion of the mansion Blake had never seen before. Though, to be fair, there was a lot of the mansion Blake had never seen before. Maybe they could explore it more, at some point.

Blake looked around the sparring hall. It was large and circular- with a half-circle of bleachers around a sparring arena- and it was well-lit and smelled of sweat and rubber and competition. It had a soft matted floor, with a texture that Blake enjoyed walking on barefoot. There were various machines all around the edges. Blake looked at them, and they stared, unflinching, back at her, offering no suggestion of what their purpose was. There were some target dummies, made mostly of plastic porcelain but soft in the right spots, with rudimentary faces and outstretched limbs.

Weiss fiddled with a control panel and several training dummies were placed around the mat.

"Oh, I forgot to ask if you actually want to demonstrate your ninjaness, Blakey," Weiss brought her hands to her mouth. She ran back to the control panel. "It's okay if you want to keep your air of mystery."

Blake weighed her options.

Blake stalked up to a training dummy and then ninja punched it.

"Woah!" Weiss applauded from the bleachers.

Blake then approached another training dummy. It didn't seem to react to her, but Blake feinted to the right and then jumped straight at it with a ninja kick.

"Wow! So cool!" Weiss said.

Blake pondered the next ninja move she should demonstrate to Weiss.

Then, Blake realized she'd probably look even cooler if she was in her tracksuit, so she ran back to get changed into it. Pulling off her pajamas turned out to be harder than Weiss made it look, but maybe it was just easier to remove other people's clothes. Blake fell on the floor when she got tangled in her own pants, and she was glad that Weiss wasn't there to see that, and she vowed to get faster at changing clothes. Blake eschewed the shoes, though, because she liked how the training mat felt.

Blake decided to take a look at herself in front of the mirror, another time. She looked a little healthier, but that wasn't what she was worried about, now. She made a ninja pose, and decided she looked suitably ninja-y, considering she'd only been one for about twelve hours.

Blake returned, and Weiss remarked favorably on her change of attire. Blake pulled three training dummies in a circle, and then snuck into the middle of them and ninja jumped and ninja spun and ninja whirlwind attacked, knocking all three down at the same time. Or, at least, that was the intention; one of the three was particularly upstanding, so Blake had to push it down after she landed.

"Yay! Go Blake!"

Weiss then made Blake aware of the stockpile of sparring weapons. Blake perused the ninjas swords and ninja throwing objects and ninja farming implements.

Blake procured a nunchaku. She knew that the rookie mistake was to flail it around haphazardly until you knocked yourself in the head with it, but Blake knew they were used for like disarming people or something. Blake tried to use it to rip off a training dummy's arm, but it didn't work. Blake re-evaluated her opinion of nunchaku. She opted to whack the training dummy a few times, until it fell over.

"Heehee, that dummy didn't know what hit it!" Weiss exclaimed.

Blake then went through some more ancient and noble ninja moves that she definitely didn't just make up on the spot, and Weiss was enthralled with each one of them.

At some point, some of the maids showed up. Blake gave a brief intermission on her ninja moves to negotiate temporary use of the Blake doll from the gaunt maid. Blake hid the life-size cloth doll behind her as she set one of the training dummies to spin, and before its arm could hit Blake, Blake ducked and spun and, magically, in the place Blake used to be was only a life-sized plush toy, because Blake had used the ninja substitution technique to replace herself with the doll. Blake rolled on the floor out of the way as the Blake doll slumped over the training dummy's arm.

Eventually, Blake stood in the middle of the training mats, bent over slightly, panting.

Then there was applause, and not just from Weiss.

Blake stood up straight and then bowed. The applause grew louder.

And somehow, in the brief moment when Blake's head was down, Weiss had ran over, fast enough to almost knock Blake off her feet when Weiss tackle-hugged her. "Oh Blakey, you're the cutest, snuggliest ninja kitty ever!"

Weiss rubbed her cheek on the side of Blake's head. Blake blinked.

"M'lady," said the stocky maid, "You yourself are proficient in swordplay, are you not?"

"She's right brilliant at it, she is."

There were murmurs of agreement from the staff.

"I-" Weiss did that subconscious touch of her medical eye-patch again, "I guess I'm okay at it."

Blake blinked. She wondered how right brilliant at swordplay you had to be to cut your own face during training. Especially the side of your face that's the same as your dominant hand.

But all the same, Blake pushed a training dummy in front of Weiss. Weiss looked it over, and then giggled, and then bopped it with her hand.

The stocky maid pulled a training rapier out of the weapons rack and presented it to Weiss.

Weiss looked, nervously, between the sword and the audience and finally to Blake.

Blake blinked.

"Okay, Blake, I guess I can sword-fight a little, as long as you've got my back?"

Blake blinked.

Weiss took the sword. Weiss approached the training dummy. She looked it over, and then giggled, and then bopped it on the head with her sword.

And together, Blake and Weiss knocked over wave after wave of training dummies. Weiss was laughing by the time they finished.

And then the door to the arena opened, and then everyone went silent.

"Weiss, sweetie," said the other taller Schnee. She smiled. "I see you're sparring again. That's wonderful."

"A-actually," Weiss said. She stood up straight and held her arms straight by her side. "I was just playing with Blake."

The other taller Schnee's expression flattened and she looked to Blake. Blake looked back.

"Well, that's still wonderful," said the other taller Schnee. She refreshed her smile and pontificated. "And I don't know how much your little pet tells you," The other taller Schnee pursed her lips, "But we're going to start training it in combat, starting tomorrow."

"You are?" Weiss looked to Blake. "That's so great!"

"The weapons instructor will start training it during your usual training time, so if you'd like to end your own training hiatus tomorrow, we can arrange that. You can train together. I understand if you want to rest longer, however."

"I – maybe I can just watch, tomorrow?" Weiss said.

The other taller Schnee smiled. "Of course." She turned to Blake. "So why don't you and – Blake, yes?- spar with each other? Show it what you can do?"

"I- I don't know..."

"I'm sure you're careful enough not to hurt your little pet. Everyone makes mistakes."

Weiss's arm and half her face twitched, like she was trying not to move them.

"I-," Weiss turned to Blake. "If you want me to, I can show you how to sword, if you want, Blake. Only if you want, though."

Blake blinked.

The other taller Schnee cleared her throat. "It would be a good opportunity to teach Blake here via demonstration."

Weiss brightened at that. "Okay, yeah!" Weiss turned to Blake. "Does that sound good, Blakey?"

Blake blinked. Besides her, the stocky maid was presenting another plastic sword. Blake picked it up.

It was blunt, it smelled of petrochemicals and playfullness, but it had the weight of a sword.

Weiss smiled and fell into a sword-fighting stance; her left side facing Blake, her left foot forward, her center of gravity lowered, her right hand in the air. It was probably the formal stance for swordfighting.

Blake shrugged. She brought her sword up, crouched over, both hands in front of her. She figured she'd go easy on Weiss so not to embarrass her, especially since her mother was watching.

And then they sparred-

And there was a blur, and a clang, and the sword flew out of Blake's hand. Blake's arm felt sore.

"You did very well for your first time, Blake!" Weiss said.

Blake blinked.

Blake ran over to retrieve the sword.

Blake approached Weiss again. This time, Blake shifted her stance; lower, more flightly, more responsive. She ignored the impulse to slash at Weiss's sword this time and instead went for a torso hit.

And there was a blur, and a clang, and the sword flew out of Blake's hand. Blake's arm felt sore again.

"You're getting better, Blakey!" Weiss said.

Blake's mouth snarled. She retrieved her sword a second time, and then lunged. She went all out, using every trick she knew-

And there was a blur, and a clang, and the sword flew out of Blake's hand. Blake's arm felt really sore.

Blake stared at where the sword landed, and at her hand, and then at Weiss.

"you're," Blake parsed, "actually competent at something."

Weiss clutched her cheeks, still holding her rapier. "Awww, thanks, Blake!"

Blake then recalled her demonstration of fake martial arts moves. Weiss probably knew enough about combat to know they were fake. And she congradulated Blake anyway. Blake blushed and had the urge to hide her face.

"She's also good at singing," said the stocky maid.

"'n songwritin', 'n dance choreomogramaphy." said the young maid.

"Ugh, don't remind me," said the tall maid.

Weiss blushed a little harder. "Actually, I have a lot of help for those, but thanks!"

Weiss and the maids talked more about musical theater. In the corner of her eye, Blake caught the other taller Schnee frowning, but when Blake turned to look, the Schnee's face was neutral.

Then Weiss hugged Blake. The crowd dispersed to do what they were supposed to be doing, and Weiss pulled Blake along to do whatever they were supposed to be doing.