Chapter 11: Betrayal (of expectations)

Chi breathed out slowly as the end of the game drew near, shaking as she did so. The spectacle taking place before her was simply too much for her. A slow, sad despair washed over her that day that may never leave her for the rest of her life...

Teams RWBY and JNPR. They were horrible at basketball.

Well, perhaps that was a bit harsh. It wasn't that they were horrible at basketball specifically, in fact they seemed to be rather athletic and both parties definitely had the structure and potential to be proper teams, with a little coaching. They just didn't seem to give a damn about, y'know, playing the game properly.

They were either messing around too much or completely uninterested in the game. For instance, at the moment there was a read headed girl in possession of the ball. Whenever she got a hold of it, she proceeded to crawl up into a ball and lay on the ground, and no one was able to pry it away from her.

"Nora. Give the ball back." The black haired boy on her team scolded to her, as if a parent would to a child.

"No! My ball!" She screeched back. This is the third time that they had to stop the game and try to get the ball off her.

Somehow, almost everyone seemed to be causing some kind of trouble. The leader of team RWBY decided to wear a long, red cloak into the match. Stylish? Yes. Practical? Not even slightly. It was a huge hindrance in fact, constantly catching the girl's feet and making her trip and fall over again and again. And it always happened at the most crucial times. 'It's painful to watch...' Chi shuddered in secondhand embarrassment.

There was a black haired girl, sporting a black ribbon on her head. And she looked pissed. Folded arms, a foul aura, and stern, frowning eyes that seemed to be highlighted by black circles underneath them. This girl seemed tired, stressed, and clearly didn't want to be here. So it was only natural that the tall blonde of the team was constantly teasing her. Of course she would, wouldn't you? The blonde would usually pass the ball to her and follow up with something along the lines of "Hey Blake! That pass was... well-rounded!" The bowed girl was unimpressed. "Get it? 'Cause balls are round-"

"I know what it means, Yang." she cut off with a glare.

To be fair, the white haired girl on the team did seem to taking this seriously, but seemed to be taking up a leadership role. Which was not the best thing to do when everyone else on your team was either restricted by their choice of clothing, to tired to give a damn, or was busy making horrid puns. "Guys! Stop messing around, they're beating us!"

"Aww, Weiss!" Yang moaned. "Don't stop me now! I'm on a roll with these ball puns... Get it?" Weiss' eye twitched in frustration.

Chi sighed in sympathy for the icy heiress. 'Her and Richard would get along. They can reminisce about their lazy teammates, or something...'

To be fair, the remaining two members of the other team were trying their best to actually play properly. The one with the long, flowing red hair pulled off clever plays with grace and majesty. Chi wasn't into fighting or Huntsmen, but even she recognised that she was Pyrrha Nikos, the esteemed Regional Champion of Sanctum! 'She's so awesome!' Chi couldn't help but praise the Huntress in training. 'I kind of wish Richard got on a team with her! It would be amazing if we got her to promote the tournament! And Drew's plan would have definitely worked because she would've carried everyone to victory! ...Oh, and the other guy is trying his best too.'

But even the infamous Pyrrha Nikos cannot combat that which Chi fears most: empty seats. As much as Chi wanted Drew's cheesy 'Power of Friendship and Sport and Sport Friendship' plan to work on Richy, she did care mostly about her dad's business ventures. This was something he organised after all. 'And with everyone down there messing around, all the audience is leaving...' Chi cringed in despair at the sight of the nearly empty stadium, and the thought of bad publicity.

Meanwhile, down at the match, Ren sighed as he looked upon the defiant Nora, still curled up on the ground and hugging the ball. "I think that's it. I can't do anything at this point. She's immovable." Ren sighed in defeat.

"Are you serious?" Jaune chuckled nervously. "That's... a pretty big problem."

"Indeed. We might get disqualified for this..." Pyrrha also commented

"You guys doing okay over there?" Ruby called out to the huddled team JNPR.

"We can't get Nora to let go, and we don't think she will any time soon." Pyrrha laughed.

"Is there anything we can do to hel-"

"Ruby no!" Yang frantically yanked her little sister's hood, pulling her into their own private conversation. "Let Nora stay like that, then they'll get disqualified and we'll win!"

"Yang, that's not very fair..."

"To hell with fairness, I wanna win!" Yang yelled as she punched the air.

"What are you planning?" Pyrrha raised a condescending eyebrow. "Just because you can't actually beat us, are you planning on cheating?"

Yang smiled confidently as she crossed her arms. "Hey, I'm not planning anything. It's not my fault if you guys can't control your own teammate."

A small vein bulged in Pyrrha's head, but she tried to remain refined. "Come again?"

"Aww, what's wrong? Peeved that we're the ones who's gonna beat y-owowowow!" Yang's taunts came to an end when Blake snook up behind her, yanked her ear and silently dragged her back over to their side of the court.

The remaining four deadpanned as Yang complained like a child to Blake. Chi also hung her head low. 'I hope things are going better for Richard and Drew...'


Drew caught the ball as he stood in front of team CRDL's ring. It was unguarded. There was only a few seconds left. He decided to take his chance. He stepped forward onto his right foot and used the momentum to leap upward to the ring with his arm outstretched, ready to dunk the ball in.

"I won't let you!" From the side, Cardin stepped out in front of Drew and also jumped upward. He reached his hand out and made contact with the ball, in an attempt to hit the ball away from Drew. Cardin: trying to smack the ball out of Drew's hand. Drew: trying to force his way through Cardin's defenses. The two of them fought in the air.

"ORAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Drew yelled as he focused all his energy into arm.

"UUUUUUURGGGGH!" Cardin tried with all his might to force off Drew's attack, but he just wasn't going down.

"DORARARAAAAAAA!" Drew's muscles ached, but he wouldn't give up no matter what.

"AAAAAAAAARRRGH!" Despite Cardin's desperate effort, he slowly felt his wrist being forcibly bent as Drew forced the ball further back.

"MUDAMUDAMU-"

"Will you two just cut it out already!?" The two ceased their overzealous behavior as soon as Arin voiced his complaint rather loudly.

The bell rang, indicating the end of the match. Drew and Cardin landed on their feet, letting the ball fall to the ground. Everyone in the audience cheered for the teams, greatly enjoying the intense match (which was conveniently not written).

After the first few minutes, the match remained mostly the same, both teams played aggressively and scored highly. But despite their great attempts, team CRDL couldn't close the gap between the two, leaving the final score to be 54 - 48, team DARN's victory.

Oh? 'Why was Drew and Cardin making such a big deal out of those final seconds' you ask? They were just too into it, I suppose.

By now, we are all used to Drew's... exotic personality, but even Cardin didn't quite know why he was so hot blooded. In fact, all of team CRDL was oddly competitive. Normally they wouldn't care much for some stupid sports event, and DARN getting an early lead would be even worse for motivation. So why? Was it some sense of sportsmanship? A hatred for team DARN? Their desire for victory? Not even they knew. All they knew was-

"HA-HA! Suck it, assholes!" Drew jeered insults towards team CRDL. "Hell to the yeah, baby! We win!"

Simultaneously, veins bulged on all four members of team CRDL. Yep. It was definitely hatred for team DARN.

"Cut that out already, you moron..." Arin grumbled as he yanked on Drew's ear.

"Ah! Owowow... Well, can you blame me? We, like, never win anything! This is an achievement for us!"

"Yeah, we got through first round of an unpopular tournament. Woop-de-frickin-doo."

"Yes, but on the other hand, we made to the finals of a tournament!"

"Will you two stop comparing how full the glass is?!" An unhappy Richard interrupted.

Drew looked upon Richard in confused annoyance. "Huh... woulda thought you'd be happier."

"Why would I be happier?! I keep telling you, I never wanted to be part of this event in the beginning!"

"Yeah, but... I imagined you'd, like, re-spark your dying passion for the sport! ...Or something."

"I haven't!" Richard rubbed his temples, finding difficulty dealing with Drew.

"Huh..." Drew turned to Arin calmly. "I think I may have overlooked something in my plan."

"Jeez, what gave you that idea?"

Drew and Arin's conversation ended, and Drew's gaze began to wander around the stadium. The crowd was quickly leaving, the announcers were closing down equipment, the saddened team CRDL was leaving to their changing rooms- "Hey, wait a minute!" Drew rushed over to Cardin, catching the grumpy bully off-guard. Drew, with an innocent smile, extended his open hand. "G-G."

Cardin's brow furrowed at the gesture. "What?"

"G-G."

"What the... what's that?"

"G-G. Stands for 'Good game'."

"...That's stupid." Cardin dismissively turned and continued walking towards the dressing room.

"Well, okay then!" Drew waved gleefully. "Just give us a shout if you ever want a rematch! Maybe you guys can become the rivals who never actually beat us, or something! Oh, and sorry for the whole 'asshole' comment earlier! Arin says I lack subtlety-!"

"Oh my God, SHUT UP!" Cardin yelled, his rage boiling over.

"Kay then!" Drew then skipped gleefully back to his team.

"You okay there, man?" Russel chuckled, slightly amused by his partner's irritation.

"Yeah, just... God, that guy's so annoying." Cardin sighed through the stress.

"Eh, what can you expect? He seems like the... simple type, y'know?"

"Simple or not, that guy's just a pain in the ass. I mean, you don't go around calling someone an asshole, do you? Not unless you're..." And then, Cardin began to think. That Drew person didn't genuinely think Cardin was that bad was he?

Cardin would admit that, yes, he has done some wrong things in the past. Hell, he's done some pretty bad things since he's entered Beacon alone, but that doesn't make him that bad of a person. Sure, he has blackmailed another classmate... And tried to attack someone with a hoard Rapier Wasps... And he has been rather discriminatory against Faunus... But that's only because their animals! Because they're lower beings! ... or at least, that's what his family's always taught him.

Drew's words echoed in Cardin's head: "Please... Please be less of an asshole..."

Cardin let out a barely audible sigh. "Perhaps he's right..." he mumbled to himself.

"Did you just say something?" Russel turned his head to his partner, who was lagging behind him.

"It's nothing! Let's just get going!" Cardin barked, hiding his hesitance. "We have things to do."

"What things?"

"...Simple things."


"So, we should look for Chi now, right?" Drew suggested as the team exited the changing rooms into the halls.

"Oh! That her?" Nina questioned as she spotted a hunched-up figure at the end of the hallway.

"I guess?" Drew questioned as they walked towards her. "Chi? You okay there, buddy?"

Chi glanced up from the floor, dark circles under her eyes and a dark aura being emitted. "Oh... hey guys..." she mumbled, giving little effort.

"Is this really her?" Arin asked. "She seems kinda out of it."

"I think so..."

"No, no, I'm fine." Chi grunted as she got to her feet, now focused on the conversation. "So, how was your game?"

"We won easily." Richard explained.

"And it was awesome! Like, super intense stuff!" Drew cheered.

"Oh, good... At least it's better than my one..." Chi's voice wavered in despair as she remembered the embarrassing game. "But more importantly," Chi pulled Drew's collar in close to have a private conversation with him. "What about Richy?"

"Yeah, about that. The plan isn't working out as I initially hoped."

"Are... you serious?" Chi deadpanned, too emotionally drained to emote properly.

"To be fair, as Arin pointed out, I should have noticed it that Richard didn't want to take part in the tournament when Richard said that he didn't want to take part in this tournament."

"You two know that he can hear you, right?" Arin asked, pointing to Richard, who was growing more and more irritated with Drew and Chi's conversation topic.

"But don't worry! I have it all figured out!" Drew reassured Chi. "Up next is the finals! It's bound to be a much harder match than out previous one! With Richard getting more serious about winning, he's bound to play better, enter the Zone, and make everything better again."

"Yeah, uh, I don't think that's gonna work." Chi sighed.

"I mean, he's right there!" Arin exaggeratingly gestured to Richard. "You guys just turned your backs! If you walked down to the end of the hall I'd understand, but this is just ridiculous..."

Chi then turned to face the whole team. "As it turned out, the winner of the match I watched was team RWBY. But only due to technicality, they were a horrible team otherwise."

"What did you say about my Ruby?!" Drew yelled, horribly offended at the possibility of his crush being bad at something.

"Oh my God Drew, don't act like you own her!" Arin face-palmed at Drew's childish comment.

"Look, the point being that the final match is probably gonna be much easier than your last one." Chi interrupted. She then turned to Drew. "So, what will you do?"

"I'll... think of something."

"No you won't. You'll probably spend the entire match being really creepy around with Ruby." Arin laughed.

"Ha! Joke's on you! I'll be doing that anyway." Drew chuckled smugly.


Yang yawned loudly as she and the rest of the team made their way onto the court. "Oooh! Pretty snazzy, isn't it?" she commented on the large stadium.

"I suppose it'd make sense to move the final match to a bigger stadium." Weiss suggested.

"Still, th-that's a lot of people out there..." Ruby gawked at the large crowd. There was a lot more people here than their last match. There could easily be a couple of hundred here.

"Don't be gettin' stage freight!" Yang caringly ruffled the young leader's hair.

Ruby swatted her sister's hand away. "Yang, knock it off."

"So... practice?" Blake gestured to their end of the court.

"I dunno, I mean do we really have a chance at this?" Yang shrugged, having lost interest in the tournament.

"Not with that attitude." Weiss scolded.

"Aww come on, what's the point? The other team seems so much more into this anyway!" Yang pointed the the other end of the court. There they could see the other team's supposed leader giving a warm-up speech to his teammates.

"HEARTLY! You shall quit drinking alcohol during our breaks! NAYWING! You shall stop giving our strategies ridiculous names! AND CRUSHER! Do not demand additional time-outs so you can manage your pet!"

"But Richy~! Moonmoon needs special attention!"

"Y'know, that's a good point." Drew added in. "We don't want him escaping and terrorizing the audience, do we?"

"You say that, but you'll probably end up terrorizing the audience with your lack of skill." Arin insulted.

"Well, you're terrorizing me with your horrible insults..."

"NO ONE SHALL BE TERRORIZING ANYONE!" Richard wailed, loud enough for the whole stadium to hear.

Yang felt a bead of sweat roll down her head as team RWBY witnessed DARN. "Okay, maybe that's a bad example."

Weiss' brow was frowning in confusion. "How did people like them make it to the finals?"

"I heard their opponents were team CRDL." Blake explained, making Ruby, Weiss and Yang give a collective "Ohhh.." in realisation.

And so, team RWBY made their way to their end of the court and began small warm-ups. Weiss was practicing shooting near the basket, and Yang was trying to start a conversation with a reluctant Blake. Ruby tried her luck by shooting a basket from near the half-way point. It missed completely. "Alrighty, that isn't going to work..." she sighed. She was about to walk back to the ring when she suddenly felt an eerie presence. A shiver ran up her spine, as she got the feeling that she was being watched. Slowly turning her head, she could see one of the boys from the opposing team staring at her with lazy eyes and a creepy smile plastered across his face. Ruby jumped at the terrifying sight and instantly began pacing back to her team.

"Eh-Um-Ruby wait!" Drew blurted out. Ruby stopped and looked back cautiously. "U-Um, don't you remember me?" Ruby knew she should run away. Her sister and father always warned her to just run away from people like this. But...

"Do I know you?" Ruby wondered if she had in fact seen this guy before. Once she got past the creepy look on his face, he did seem somewhat familiar.

Drew was so ecstatic about finally getting a chance to talk to his crush, that he ended up blurting the first thing that came to his mind. "U-Uh, we met a couple of weeks ago! You were with Penny and I was talking about friendship and space!" It dawned on him just how ridiculous that state just was.

"Smooth one there, buddy! Try talking about rainbows and puppies next!" Drew heard Arin's voice echoed across the court. His face turned red in embarrassment.

Despite his shame, he was surprised to see Ruby pondering his statement. "Actually, yeah... I think I remember you now."

"Really?" Whatever dread he felt before was gone when his eyes filled with joy.

Ruby smacked her open palm as the memory came fully back. "Yeah! It was the night at the docks! Blake had run away, and you were looking for your friend too. So that makes you..." Silence occupied their conversation as Ruby drew a blank on his name. "'Kay, just gimme a second here..." She closed her eyes and pressed her finger against her forehead in concentration.

Drew fell to his knees in despair. "I knew it was hopeless..." he muttered.

"No, wait! I got it!" Ruby declared, causing Drew to raise his head slightly in hope. With a cocky smile, she pointed her index finger at him. "You're name's 'Wrote' isn't it?" Drew's body curled up into a fetal position, and became completely motionless. "I'm guessing... that's not it, huh?" Ruby let out a nervous chuckle.

Drew hardly had any motivation left, but slowly got back up nonetheless. "I'm... Drew." he reintroduced himself.

"That's the one!" she snapped her fingers in realisation. "So, yeah... sorry about the whole name thing."

"It's fine." Drew sighed, focusing back on the conversation. "So. Basketball, am I right?"

"Yeah. Our friend Blake was in a bit of a slump these past couple of days. Well, she still is, but-Gah, the point is that we wanted to do something fun and zany to cheer her up!" Drew and Ruby both glanced over to said Faunus, who was trying her best to ignore her talkative partner. "... It hasn't been working as well as we hoped." she muttered. She decided to change the subject. "Buuuut anyway, what about you guys? Why are you here?"

"Well, It's part of a clever plan you see!" Drew puffed his chest out in pride.

"Really? What is it?"

"I'm forcing my friend to do something he doesn't want to in hopes that he'll eventually realise that he loves it."

"...Ugh, you sure that's gonna work?" Ruby asked, trying to tiptoe around saying how bad the plan sounded.

"Absolutely! Plans like these never fail!" Drew assured enthusiastically. "Just you wait! By the time this is all over, Richard will have opened up about his possibly tragic past, we'll have all grown closer as a team, and Richard will probably unlocked his final form, and- owowow!"

Drew's ramblings were cut short when Arin snook up behind him and yanked at a handful of his hair. "Drew, leave the poor girl alone. It's bad enough that we have to put up with you, don't go dragging other people into it."

"Ah! Ow, Arin stop it! That seriously hurts!" Drew whimpered.

Ruby smiled nervously at the banter. "So... You are?"

Arin let go of his grip on Drew and turned his attention to Ruby. "I'm Arin, and I'm sorry for my partner over here. Ozpin asked us to take care of him. He's a... special case, if you catch my drift."

Drew glared at Arin in annoyance. "You already used that one earlier." he scolded.

"Whatever." Arin scoffed, rolling his eyes as he did so. 'Dammit! I should have remembered that. I'm getting sloppy...'

"Hehe, you two are quite the pair." Ruby chuckled.

"You think that now, but try being partners with this guy for months and suddenly it gets a lot less fun." Arin shuddered.

"Arin, leave. You go now. No more Arin." An embarrassed Drew demanded.

Arin scoffed, feigning being hurt "Drew, how could you?"

"Arin, please go. Literally no one wants you here!" Drew groaned.

"Hey! Is that Arin over there?!" A loud, chipper voice called out from the end of the court as the voice's owner jogged over to them.

"God dammit!" Drew stomped the ground in frustration.

The three then found themselves in the company of the boisterous blonde of team RWBY. "I knew it was you, ya big dork!" she smiled as she raised her fist up to him.

"Thanks for remembering me, jerk..." Arin greeted her back, smacking her fist in response.

"W-what the hell is this?!" Drew gasped in shock.

"Oh, do you two know each other?" Ruby beamed happily.

"This guy over here's my drinking buddy!" Yang chuckled. "Arin always hangs around this club that I terrorize-"

"Please don't say that like you're proud of it." Arin rubbed his temples.

"-and I recognised him from that one time on the roof-"

"And yous had a flag-raising encounter too?!" Drew yelped, pointing accusingly.

"Will everyone just shut up and let me talk for one minute?!" Yang yelled at everyone's interjections.

"Carry on..." Drew appologised, visibly deflating in shame.

"Thank you. Anyways, while I'm off messing with Junior and the twins, this guy's usually over at the bar, feeling sorry for himself. So if I get bored I usually talk to him."

"Arin... you're feeling sad, buddy?" Drew asked, serious concern evident in his voice. "Just so you know, we're always here for you to talk to-"

"It's you, Drew." Arin deadpanned. "You're the reason I drink so much. I'm not an alcoholic, I just drink to forget about you."

"Okay, that's just too cruel of a joke."

"What are you talking about, I didn't make a joke."

"You totally were joking just now!"

"The only possible joke I could've made is saying the name 'Drew'! Because you're a joke, Drew!" The two argued over and back.

"Are these guys always like this?" Ruby whispered to her older sister.

"Eh." Yang shrugged. "But to be fair, I can kinda see why he causes Arin so much grief. Hey, wait a minute..." Yang suddenly pointed accusingly at Drew. "That means you're this infamous Drew I keep hearing about!"

Drew and Arin stopped and hunching over. "Uh... yeah?" Drew responded, not sure how to respond to the new attention.

Yang placed a hand under her chin, eyeing up Drew carefully. "Honestly, you don't really pass standards, but... You're right, Arin. He probably is too much of a wuss to do anything."

"Ohh, I get ya." Arin nodded at the comment, realising what she was talking about.

"And you guys are keeping secrets between each other?!" Drew cried again. "Jeez, how did you manage to get such a hot girlfriend before me?!"

"Wait, what? We aren't going out. We're just friends." Arin shrugged dismissively.

Drew returned him a skeptical look. "Really?"

"Really. And besides..." Arin leaned in close to Drew to avoid being heard by the girls. "I think she has her eye on someone else." he giggled menacingly.

"Really? ...Who is it then?" Drew asked.

"Yeah, Arin. Who are you talking about?" Yang interjected, a deadpan demeanor vaguely hiding her annoyance.

Arin chuckled calmly and shook his head. "I'm not naming names or anything. But in the spirit of Yang, I guess I can say that they're a... beautiful lady." Arin smiled evilly as he watched the three's faces for reactions.

Drew, Ruby and Yang simply tilted their heads in confusion."What are... What are you talking about?" Drew mumbled.

"'Spirit of Yang'? How does that work?" Ruby scratched the top of her head.

"U-Umm... It's a pun... A language pun..." Arin explained, feeling awkward about having to explain the joke. "If you knew french, you'd get it."

"What's 'french'?" Yang raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Is that some fancy language from Vacuo?"

Drew then remembered something important: his plan for Richard. "Aaaanyway, I guess you guys are really pumped up for the match, am I right?"

"Nah. Not really." Yang shrugged.

"Yeeeah, we're not really up for this anymore.." Ruby sheepishly admitted.

Drew's jaw hit the floor. "But... I need you guys to help out!"

"Sorry. I mean, we did all this to try and cheer Blake up, but she isn't as, uhh..." Yang glanced over to her partner, who was glaring at the four of them, probably being able to hear them due to her enhanced Faunus hearing. "...as enthusiastic as us, let's say. And we don't really wanna drag her down any more if she's not up for it. So we'll probably just throw the match."

"But... But if you guys don't fight with all your might, Richy isn't gonna be stressed out about winning, and-"

"Look, we're sorry Drew. But we just gotta put our teammate before yours." Ruby apologised.

"O.. Okay..." Drew sighed in defeat.

"So, what's your plan now, leader?" Arin asked.

"Well..." Drew turned to Arin and gave him a reassuring smile. "I guess I'll just trust your judgement."

Arin raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Come again?"

"You kept saying that my skills were really bad, right? Well, what if I'm so bad that I make it harder for us to win?"

"Your plan... is to play so badly that your pal has a hard time trying to win?" Yang dryly asked.

"No, he's right." Arin thoughtfully scratched his chin. "It sounds stupid, but if it's Drew we're talking about he might actually make it work."

Drew enthusiastically punched the air. "My ability to suck will finally help us out!"


The bell rang, making the end of the fourth quarter, and of the final game in the tournament.

"GOD DAMMIT!" Drew yelled, falling to the ground and smacking the wooden floor violently.

"OH. MY. GOD! Even when you TRY to mess things up, you fail at THAT too!" A baffled Arin ranted to his partner.

"I KNEW IT!" Richard pointed at Drew. "You WERE trying to sabotage me throughout that match!"

"GUYS, CAN I YELL WITH YOU TOO?" A gleeful Nina asked.

"NO!" Richard responded.

Perhaps an explanation is in order, again. The only people who truly participated in the final match were Richard, Drew, and Weiss. The rest were still in the game, but were trying their best not to get involved. They would stay away from as much action as they could, and if they ever received the ball they would simply pass it to someone else. Although Richard didn't particularly care for basketball, his pride refused to let him lose. The same went for Weiss, and so the two fought valiantly to win. Also, Drew was there.

Now, Drew normally does end up causing trouble for his friends, but those were without him intending to do so. Which begs the question: What happens when Drew tries to be a nuisance? The answer is calling out phrases like "Hey Richy, look over here." and "Oh my God Richy, look at that amazing thing over there behind you, you should totally just look over there please." Needless to say, it didn't work. Richard continued to play, only becoming slightly more annoyed thanks to Drew's interference.

And so, the match between, more or less, Weiss and Richard commenced. In an actual fight, Weiss would probably win, but since neither were using their Aura and Semblance, something Weiss makes particular use of in her fights, and Richard is more used to using a basketball, Richard ended up besting her. Team DARN had won, despite Drew's best efforts.

"Can we just go now?" An annoyed Blake grumbled impatiently. "We're done here."

"Hah... hah... yeah..." Weiss responded between pants, her hands on her knees. As much as she would like to deny it, she gave it her all in that match, and it was frustrating to lose. And normally she would be mad at this, but she was simply too exhausted to complain. "Let's... let's go." And so, team RWBY made their way back to their changing room.

Meanwhile, team DARN were still arguing among each other. "NAYWING, HOW DARE YOU DO THIS?! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO SUGGEST WE COMPETE IN THIS STUPID TOURNAMENT! WHY TRY TO MAKE US LOSE?!"

"WELL, EVERYTHING WOULD'VE GONE AS PLANNED IF YOU WEREN'T SO GOOD!" Drew responded.

"WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?! WHY ARE YOU EVEN MAD AT THAT?!"

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE A REAL HARD TIME AND HAVE TO-"

"YOU KNOW WHAT?!" Richard turned on his heel and stomped angrily towards their changing room. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!" he yelled as he stormed away.

"... welp. He's pissed" Arin commented. He turned to his partner and asked "So, what now?"

"I don't know!" Drew huffed, equally as frustrated as Richard was.

"Well, whatever it is you're planning to do, I'm not sure if it'll work anymore. Richy seems a bit beyond talking to at this point."

"I..." Drew pondered any possible idea that might work. Every cliche that worked in this situation, every plot twist that changed someone, but nothing came to mind that would work. (According to Drew) the only way to get Richard to open up was to make him take a game of basketball seriously. But now that the tournament's over, there's no one to... "... I got it."

"Oh? What's your plan?" Arin raised an eyebrow.

Drew stared at Arin, with a look of seriousness. "I will beat Richard."

"... No really, what's your plan?"

"Arin.."

"Drew.."


AN: ... Sooo... How've you guys been doing?...

Look, I'm so sorry for not posting anything for so long. I did have my Mock Exams in the time between this, but I promised that I wouldn't let that get to me. And it did. Not words can express how sorry I am.

So much has happened since as well. We lost the creator of RWBY, and an amazing man. I know that it's a bit late to say this, but rest in peace Monty Oum.

But yeah, bit of a story behind this chapter. Originally, I wanted Richard's arc to be taken seriously, with the matches being went into detail and being very Kuroko no Baske-esque. Even Richard's character development was gonna be the way Drew imagined: Richard secretly loves basketball, and was suppressing it for years thanks to meany old military school, then he reawakened his passion during the final game and everyone's happy. But then I realised something important. That ideas was super fucking stupid.

Don't get me wrong, I love those kinds of plots. But it just didn't belong in this kind of story, y'know? So I had to rewrite how the rest of this arc went. I'm kinda like Drew in that sense, I didn't really think this through. On the plus side though, I ended up changing Richy's backstory to one that wasn't stupid. We'll get into that next time however...

Also, yes. Arin ships Bumblebee.