CH5: A Rigorous Night.
"Why do we have to pretend to be like normal people?" Ritsu exclaims.
Instead of watching the amazing view of the large island, called Patch, passing by; the muscular boy turns away from the giant window, only to lean back against it. With his hands behind his head.
All three of the Titanist's brothers regard him in silence.
"He's right though." Kluá says, as he turns to Shieri. "If we were already accepted and given a room at Beacon Academy…and been given second-year student privileges. What's the point of us even being enrolled with the first year students?"
From their little corner in the observation deck of the large transport ship, Shieri gazes out into the crowd of first year students, making sure that no one is listening in on their conversation.
This would have been much easier, Shieri thought. If I still had my HUD monocle.
For a moment Shieri looks to all three of his brothers, and remembers that prior to their agreement a few days before they "shipped out."
Shieri says, "It's because the Headmaster wants our presents to be known, in a much formal way."
"I don't get it." Kluá frowns.
Shieri finally looks to his Elementist brother, though he disregards the comment. He also notices that today the Mistralian boy wears: a solid-black muscle shirt with a bronze-colored shoulder guard on the right; a dark-green sash that's also part of his knee-length Fighter's coat-tail, which splits into three sections in the back; a pair of black pants with a dark-green belt tucked into knee-high bronze-colored metallic boots; a pair of bronze-colored fingerless-gauntlets, and on the boy's head, a dark-green bandana, with the Haven academy symbol in white coloring on the front.
The Atlesian boy says nothing, and goes back to gazing out into the crowd.
Unbeknownst to the Atlesian assassin, Fang watches his brother carefully from where he sits on the floor next to where Ritsu stands.
The Faunus boy takes in the fact that the retired Atlesian assassin is wearing a black hoodless military gothic calvary trench jacket, with silver stripes down the sleeves, the side, the front, and with an Atlas academy symbol on the back. He also wears a black and silver striped half mask, draped around his neck, like a scarf. He then wears a pair of silver fingerless-gauntlets; a pair black commando pants, with a thick silver band detail on one leg, tucked into black commando boots.
As the retired White-Fang assassin turns away from his Atlesian brother to doze off into space, the same thoughts that he kept pondering over—ever since he was convinced as to why he should continue down this path that he is on now by Beacon academy's headmaster—have been coming back to him.
I don't understand why I stay here with them, Fang thinks. This is not my fight…yet what the headmaster said about my brothers, the Maidens…and me. I feel as though I must, that I—
Fang never got to finish his thought because his obnoxious Titanist brother.
"Tell me again why we're doing this?" Ritsu speaks aloud, feeling all the senses of boredom.
Fang sighs. "Did you not listen, or do you not even care?"
Kluá, who was only paying half-attention to Ritsu, gawked at his Faunus brother—who hasn't spoken since they learned who—and what—they are.
At the same time though, Kluá takes in what his Faunus brother wears as his signature outfit for their entire stay at the academy.
The Faunus brother wears a tight black sleeveless shirt that has sections of metal plates over his back, chest and abs woven into the shirt, and metal rings sewed into the shirt over his shoulders that replaces the sleeves. Fang then also wears similar commando pants and boots as his brother, Shieri, though without any extra detail. He also still wears the same vambraces, ninja-muffler scarf, and the dark-violet coat-tail.
"So now the lone-dog speaks." Ritsu says mockingly.
Fang turns to the Titanist though Kluá spoke up before he could.
"He's a wolf Faunus, Ritsu. Don't be racist."
"I'm not being racist. I'm just-"
"Enough you two. We're here."
At this point, Kluá, Fang, and Ritsu all turn to their Atlesian brother who now gazes out the giant window, watching the enormous campus and buildings of Beacon Academy coming closer with every second that passes.
"So this is what Beacon looks like when you're a new student." Kluá says in awe.
The Elementist moves pass his two brothers to stand next to his third brother, Shieri.
"Out of the four kingdom's greatest academies. Beacon has a better view." Shieri admits.
"Well…" Kluá starts "actually…never mind. You're right."
Both the Atlesian and the Elementist look to one another for a moment, though no words are exchanged. Instead, only a smirk from Shieri and a grin from Kluá are exchanged between the two.
"—the robbery was led by nefarious criminal, Roman Torchwick…"
Down at the opposite end of the observation deck, from where the four brothers are poised—waiting for the ship to land, the sound of a holo-screen attracts their attention.
Ritsu points out to the holo-TV. "Hey it's that guy you let get away, Shi."
Shieri turns to his muscular brother as the four make their way to the screen.
"As I recall, I was not alone in that failed attempt to capture the thief."
"Yeeaah…but he wasn't my concern."
At that Ritsu points to two girls who stand at a good hundred feet away from them.
"But those sexy sisters are."
When the other three brothers looked to see who Ritsu was pointing at, only Kluá and Shieri realized the two girls were Ruby Rose, and her older sister Yang Xiao Long.
"Hey, those are the girls we met at Junior's club." Kluá says. "Let's go say hi."
Ritsu grins. "Way ahead of you brother."
Shieri shakes his head in disbelief, while Fang mutters something about Ritsu and Kluá being more like Faunus dogs, as the two walk away.
"Hey, Ruby!"
Ruby Rose jumped a little when she heard the familiar voice.
The young girl turns her attention away from the large monitor to see one of the boys that she met the same night she was accepted into Beacon Academy.
Yang looks at her younger sister with look of disbelief for a brief moment, as the Titanist and the Elementist stop in front of them.
The Blonde-haired girl looks to both boys with a sense of recognition.
"Hey, you're the guys I saw at Junior's club, about a week ago."
Ritsu grins. "What's up, Goldilocks…names Ritsu." The muscular boy looks to Ruby next. "What's up, Ruby."
"Hey, you're that guy who left me with Shieri that night, about a week ago too."
The Titanist puts his hands behind his head, "Yeah…I was tired and I had a long day before that night, so I needed to get some shut-eye."
Ruby giggles almost nervously. "Yeah, me too."
At that Yang glares at her younger sister for a moment before turning her attention to the twins.
Although she's met them before for brief moments at Junior's nightclub, Yang sees that the two boys are wearing different outfits than what they wore before, at the nightclub. Yet, only the Titanist's outfit seems to grab her attention the most, especially since it complements the boy's physique and his tattoos.
This guy is built perfectly, the blonde-haired girl thought, and those tattoos…he can't be from Vale…Vacuo, maybe.
The muscular boy wears: an open black and red two-tone sleeveless vest with gold trims, and wears no undershirt, to show off his chiseled abs and large chest. He also wears a pair of black Eastern Mistralian-style shorts that tighten just below the knee, with a white-threaded dragon detail on his right leg, and four small pouches (two on each outer-thigh); with a coat-tail that splits at the middle, and that has the same dragon detail on the back. Then for shoes, Ritsu wears a pair of color matching shoes connected to a pair of shin guards.
Now as far as accessories go, Ritsu wears a pair of elbow-length fingerless-armbraces with a thick bar-plating covering the knuckles; then two armbands—one with the Shade academy symbol and the other with an unknown symbol—and a headband with a metal plating on the front. Yang then also notices two dust canisters clipped on the sides of the muscular boy's waistband.
"So…how do you guys know my sister?" Yang asks .
She eyes both boys carefully. Though she's looks at the Titanist the most.
There's seriously no way a guy can get that big, and yet still look this good…and that hair—
Out of the two boys, only Kluá seems to be the nervous one, when Yang asked that question.
"I-uh This is actually the first time I'm meeting her." The Elementist says, interrupting the blonde girl's thoughts.
The Elementist avoids eye-contact with the Blonde-haired girl, but tries to with Ruby. With which ultimately failed, since the red-hooded girl is completely oblivious to Kluá's signs of attraction towards her.
Ritsu stands closer to his brother and elbows him.
"O-oh… and I'm Kluá"
Ritsu grins again as he folds his arms across his chest, as he looks to Yang, whose eyes are completely focused on him. He winks at her.
"I was the one that saved your sis' that night Shieri dropped her off at home." He said.
For a quick second, Yang's facial expression, which earlier was flushed red for being caught staring, represented somewhat of a shocked look, though she looked to her sister, the same way a mother looks at their daughter when the child gets caught for doing something bad.
"So you were with a boy last night." Yang says, putting emphasis on the word were. Thus, confirming her suspicions of her younger sister.
"It wasn't a date, Yang!" Ruby cries. "He was just dropping me off at home, after Ozpin said I could come to Beacon…"
"Besides, he's a Huntsman like these two are." The young girl adds.
"Uh-huh…" Yang says, in disbelief. "I'll believe it when I meet Romeo."
At that, Kluá leans towards Ritsu to whisper in his ear. "Sounds like Shieri's gonna get in trouble. Big time, with her."
Ritsu snorts, "I wouldn't doubt it."
In the moment that Kluá was speaking to his muscular brother, Shieri and Fang had made their way to them.
"You two sure know how to make a scene." Shieri says calmly and coldly.
"At least it was entertaining from the distance." Fang adds, sharing the same tone of voice. Yet the Faunus boy could not keep from smiling a small smile.
Ritsu looks to his Faunus brother. "Since when did you have a sense of humor, Fang?"
"Since I learned that one of my brothers would be terrible at humoring beautiful mistresses." Fang retorts.
At that Ritsu just rolls his eyes.
"Whatever you say, butt-sniffer."
Kluá looks to the Titanist with a side-ways glance.
"Dude, enough with the racism, alright?"
Ritsu shrugs. "I don't see what the big deal is."
"The big deal is—"
Before the Mistralian boy could finish, Shieri puts a hand up as a gesture to silence the conversation, which ended up working.
"That's enough…" Shieri puts his hand down, "This bickering can wait 'til we're away from prying eyes." As he said this, the Atlesian boy stared at the two sisters, his gaze careful.
Ritsu scoffs. "Whatever."
In the moment that the argument was halted by the well-armed boy, Yang noticed that the four boys are twins.
Wait, not twins, the blonde girl thought. They're quadruplets…now that's awesome.
She also noticed that each brother has something unique about them, such as their style of clothing, and their weapons of choice—and in Ritsu's and Fang's case; the Titanist's muscle mass, and the Faunus boy's eyes.
"Oh, Shieri." Ruby says, she pulls something out of her little pouch. "here's your hi-tech monocle. You forgot it that night you dropped me off at home."
"Ah, thank you." The Atlesian boy takes a few steps forward and reaches out with a hand to grab his device from the young girl.
Yang watches the well-armed Atlesian boy with intent, as he takes the monocle she caught her sister with, that one night.
This has to be Romeo, the blonde girl thought. I got'cha now.
"So," Yang starts moving closer to Shieri. She folds her arms across her chest, "You're the other guy who saved my sis, and then brought her home."
As Yang spoke, Shieri took the time to put on his HUD Monocle, letting the device synchronize with his brain. Once the synchronization was complete, the boy turned his attention back to the blonde-haired girl. Though this time, the boy discreetly scans the girl with the device.
Interesting, Shieri thought.
The Atlesian boy rereads the information once more before dismissing it all. He then chooses his words carefully.
Unbeknownst to Shieri, the blonde-haired girl discreetly noticed things appearing, disappearing, and then stopping all together in the boy's monocle.
Was he just checking me out? Yang thought. Yet, she dismisses the thought, since she didn't have the proof to think otherwise.
"The first part of your observation is incorrect," Shieri says cautiously. "But the last part is correct," he adds.
He sounds like a soldier. Yang thought, He's gotta be from Atlas.
"So Shieri," Ruby says, seeing that her sister gazes intently at the Atlesian boy.
Jealousy slowly creeps into the young girl's mind as she speaks to the boy that flew her home.
"Other than Kluá, is that Faunus boy your other brother too." Ruby adds.
Shieri nods, "Yes, he is."
Everyone's eyes are on Fang now, though his eyes are focused on something else. Which happens to be the holo-screen, once again.
"Yo. Fang. Say hello." Kluá says, being completely oblivious to what his Faunus brother is watching on the holo-screen.
If anyone was paying attention, they would have noticed that the current news on the screen now has to do with the Faunus organization, the White Fang.
Seeing the White Fang being publicized on screens, makes the Faunus boy want to laugh a little on the inside.
If only Humans knew the truth of what I do for my people. Fang thinks, such a reminder of how the White Fang used to be peaceful would, by the means, be a declaration of war once again.
Just as Fang finished his dark thought, the holo-screen turned off and a holo-image of Glynda Goodwitch, the Beacon headmaster's assistant, appears.
"Look." Fang utters, without diverting his eyes.
At that moment, everyone turned their attention to the holo-image of the huntress. Three out of the four brothers moved to stand by the sisters, so they could all see the holo-image better.
Right on cue, Shieri thought.
"Hello and welcome to Beacon…" Glynda says.
"Who's that?" Yang asks.
"My name is Ms. Glynda Goodwitch…" the huntress continues.
At that moment, standing next to Ruby on her left side, Shieri and the young girl quickly glance at Yang as she makes a response to her already answered question.
"You are among a privileged few, who've received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy…Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsman and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it—"
Ritsu snorts and mumbles something too quiet for everyone to hear except Fang to hear. Though instead of arguing with the muscular boy, Fang continues to listen to the huntress's speech.
"—you have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task…and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge, and training, to protect our world."
Once Glynda finished her speech, the image of the huntress fades away.
"I should've known she was gonna talk everyone's ear off." Ritsu says, feeling irritated by the idea that he had to go through the entire speech.
Kluá looks to his muscular brother as he speaks to him. "Just chill Ritsu. She does this every year for all the new students."
"I could care less about the speech…" the Titanist says, "right now I just wanna fight some Grimm or other students."
"Sheesh, could you be anymore…"
As another argument starts up again between the Titanist and the Elementist, Yang looks to her left and glances up at Shieri.
"Do those two always argue like this?" the Blonde-haired girl asks.
Shieri sighs and folds his arms across his chest. A smirk appears on the Atlesian assassin's face, "I'm afraid it's a common occurrence these days."
Yang opens her mouth to say something else, but the sound and movement of her little sister grabs her attention.
"Woah…" Ruby gasps in awe. "You can see Signal from up here."
As the young red-hooded girl gazes down the city, her sister joins at the large window.
"Looks like home isn't that far away." The young girl adds, her voice sounding something close to sadness.
Noticing the change of the young girl's voice, Yang puts a hand on her sister's shoulder.
"Beacon's our home." The older sister says, comforting her younger sister.
Little did the two sisters know, the sound of Ruby's voice when she said home was not far away, actually had an impact on the four brothers that they did not realize would. Especially now, after what the Beacon headmaster—Ozpin—said to the four, when they came together to his office.
Ritsu sighs. "Now that we're here, where do we go?"
Shieri, who is currently occupied with watching Ruby and Yang wave goodbye as they make their way to exit the ship, wasn't paying any attention to his muscular brother, until Kluá nudged his arm.
"Come on, Knight-in-shining armor," Kluá says jokingly. "Where to next?"
At that Shieri turns his gaze to his elemental brother, whose eyes still show the after effects of sadness, from Ruby's words. Though as calmly as the Atlesian boy was to look at his brother, he looked away—towards the exit.
"Ozpin wants to meet us at the auditorium, before he makes his announcement to the first-year students."
Once the Atlesian boy said this, he started walking towards the exit just as the last of the new students started filtering out. Kluá, Ritsu, and Fang follow suit.
Ritsu threw his hands up in the air as he's walking. "God, just what we need…another speech."
"Calm yourself, Ritsu." Fang says calmly, "After today, the entrance exams will begin…and your reign of Grimm destruction will begin as well."
At that Ritsu, flexes all the muscles in his upper body and then pounds his fists together. Luckily for the Titanist, he did not put too much power his fists, otherwise the shockwave would cracked the Remnant, as well as send the cruise ship and other students flying, like they were just blown away by the strongest wind ever known.
"Good…" Ritsu says with a wryly grin, as the tone of his voice changed. "My fists have been aching to grab something."
A smile creeps up the Elementist's face. "You know, Yang was right there…and you've been non-stop talking about her…You could've grabbed her—"
Right before Kluá could finish his sentence, both Fang and Shieri quickly turn their heads to face their Elemental brother, with glare that spoke far beyond what words could express.
Once he noticed the stares, Kluá immediately put his hands up in a surrendering gesture. At the same time, his heart was beating faster than when he would fight Grimm, or spar with other students at Haven Academy.
"Okay, okay...okay…No need to get all hostile on me." The Elementist says.
Shieri watches his Mistralian brother fold his arms across his chest, and pouts. Though, he knows that his brother is only joking about his body language.
In a hallway behind the large auditorium room, the four brothers stand around a door that leads into the big room, waiting for the headmaster and the assistant to return to give their final speech to the first-year students.
Beep-beep beep!
Shieri uses his thoughts to answer the incoming call.
"Ironwood, sir."
The Atlesian boy's voice echoes throughout the hallway that's outside the back of the auditorium.
As Shieri spoke, his brothers—Kluá, Ritsu and Fang—turn their gaze to their Atlesian brother, realizing that he's talking to someone on his HUD device.
"Silver Knight. I assume you are in the process of being accustomed well at Beacon Academy." The General says.
The Silver Knight folds his arms across his chest as he looks down at the floor, keeping his focus on the picture of the Atlesian General that appeared on the HUD screen.
"Yes." The Silver Knight says, "Ozpin is about to make his speech, though…he seems distracted."
"I think I may know why…"
"Is it because Huntsman Qrow has not made contact yet."
"I would be careful with what you say in public around those you don't know." Ironwood says cautiously on his end of the call, completely disregarding the Silver Knight's assumptions.
For several heartbeats, Shieri looks to his brothers as they stare at him quietly and intently. Nothing in their body language and their gazes portray anything close to betrayal, for the Atlesian boy.
"My brothers can be trusted…far more than you can, General." Shieri says, his voice terse with anger.
Although the Silver Knight's brothers could not notice the slight change in his voice, the three were at least able to see the muscles in his jaw tighten. But again, the three remain silent as they watch their Atlesian brother continue his discussion, while under emotional distress.
"Silver Knight—"
"It's Shieri Aguno, now." The Atlesian boy says, interrupting the General.
At that, the Atlesian boy cuts contact with the Atlesian General, and removes his HUD monocle from his face and tucks it into one of his utility pouches on his right thigh. Once his device was tucked deep into the pouch, Shieri turns away from his brothers and gazes down the dimly-lit hallway.
Seeing his brother's posture slacken, Fang removes himself from the wall, opposite of his Atlesian brother, and puts a hand on his shoulder.
Kluá and Ritsu then move to stand next to their Faunus brother.
"We may be from opposite sides of the same coin, Shieri…" Fang says, before taking a small breath. "But let me say that you are not the only one who was betrayed by their own superior…
"As I may recall. All four of us were betrayed by someone superior to us."
"Hell yeah we were" Ritsu adds. "That's why I'm gonna kill Narcasa the next time I see him."
For a second, Shieri turned his gaze to his Titanist brother, noticing the controlled rage in his eyes, and the flexed folded arms. Then turns his attention to his other two brothers, noticing the same look in their eyes.
"It's interesting that the four of us feel some need of revenge." Shieri says.
Kluá snorts. "I guess it only makes sense, because our lives that we're living are nothing but lies."
Fang frowns, "We must remember as well, that Ozpin is giving us a chance to start anew."
At that, the Black Fang hears faint footsteps—two of them—down the hall around the corner.
"What's up, Fang?" Ritsu asks, his posture almost battle-ready.
Just as he asked, Ozpin and Glynda turn appear around the corner walking towards the quadruplets. Except the Beacon headmaster still holds the same empty expression that the Silver Knight mentioned before cutting his conversation with the General short.
"Looks like they're ready." Shieri said, as he and his Elementist brother move to meet up with the two hunters.
Ritsu sighs. "Let the games begin, dammit."
In the Headmaster's office at the Kingdom of Atlas.
On the other end of the line, the General sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose, before resting his hands on his large desk, and hunching over it.
This action of his, has now become a common occurrence for whenever he feels distressed, frustrated, or even irritated.
For a moment, silence fills the air as the man opens his eyes once more and stares deeply at his desk. As he stares, the lighting in the room reveals his reflection on the table.
Out loud, the General says, "I am sorry, Shieri Huro—I mean Aguno," the General pauses for a moment as he closes his eyes once again and reopens them.
"I never meant to let this happen to her…" The general continues speaking to his own reflection. "If you truly understood the situation, you would have realized that we could not put you at risk against the enemy…After all, you're the Silver Knight. You're needed more than ever since she got hurt."
Beep!…Beep!...
The built-in guest-sensor continues to beep, indicating that there is someone outside the General's office.
For a whole minute, Ironwood recomposes himself and straightens his tie once more before pressing something on his holo-desk to stop the beeping.
"Enter." The General speaks out loud.
The doors to his office make a hiss sound as they open wide, revealing a young woman, who appears to be in her mid-twenties. When the woman enters the room, she walks with an aura of a soldier. Her face blank; her strides purposeful; her hands clenched into fists at her side and her attire neatly cleaned and pressed. Though the girl wears a military uniform, hers is completely different than most officers.
The young woman's outfit composes of a three-piece style suit, though which is also fitted for combat as well. She wears a white blouse under a blue-grayish vest and a long-sleeved coat with a tail that reaches down halfway below her knees; yet the coat is styled with a single clip over the abdomen area and the collar, leaving the chest area open, and the coat-tail open wide for easy walking. Also this coat has hidden dove-tails under the lower-bottom of the coat. The woman then also wears a pair of white tight pants, tucked into gray thigh-high flexible metal boots with three-inch heels
"Winter," Ironwood says, recognizing the woman's snow-white hair and icy-blue eyes, signifying her as the oldest child of the famous Schnee family. As well as one if his most trusted Special Forces agent.
"How goes the progress of our new prototypes?" The General asks.
"Excellent, sir." The woman says as she takes several steps to stand in the middle of the large office. "We should be ready to ship out the prototypes—and additional troops—to Vale, before the Vytal Festival begins this year."
The words Vytal Festival and Vale, being used together has suddenly brought an uneasy feeling to General, causing the man to turn away from the young woman. Leaving the woman, with a puzzled expression.
Ozpin…do you realize what you brought upon us?…and now you have indoctrinated the one only person who can stop this madness…now it looks as though I must take matters into my own hands.
"Uh…something the matter, sir?"
The Atlesian general broke free of his reverie at the sound of his agent's voice. As well as not realizing that he had been staring blankly for, a few minutes, out into the distant snowy mountains of the Kingdom of Mantle.
Or which is now the Kingdom of Atlas, especially since the combination of school, military, and government-imperial-indoctrination have been increasingly changing the views of what the citizens should label themselves.
"No, Winter…" The General then puts his hands behind his back. "Thank you for the update. You are dismissed."
"Yes, sir."
Although, she wanted to press the matter further, Winter knew that this is a topic that would not lead anywhere except to frustrate the General. So instead, the white-haired special agent stood straight, with her heels together, and salutes the man.
Winter then turns on her heel to march out the office, though she stopped in mid-step when the sound of the General's voice echoes in the office.
"Schnee." The General says, without turning away from the single giant window.
"Yes. Sir?" Winter asks. Though for some reason, the young woman's heart races as if she just got done with a training exercise.
"When the prototypes are complete, I will give you the honor of escorting them, and the additional troops you mentioned, to Vale."
Using her mental training, Winter hides what small excitement she has of being able to see her little sister, who will be attending Beacon Academy.
"Thank you, sir." The young woman managed say, surprisingly calm.
Just then, the special agent continues her march out of the office, leaving the General to his long reverie once again.
That same night, several hours after the introduction speech in the auditorium, at Beacon Academy.
Inside the large ball room, every first-year student that was present in the auditorium have now established their own sleeping arrangements, getting ready for the night's end, so they can be ready for the entrance exams that will take place the next day.
The muscular boy, Ritsu, gawks around in amazement as he sees girls: tall, or short; petite, or curvaceous, wander the large ball room getting ready for bed.
"I've never seen so many chicks in one room before." The Titanist says, just as a small group of girls walk pass him, and his brothers.
Two girls in group giggle as they quickly look to the four brothers, and then quickly look away as if they were not noticed.
While sitting on top of their sleeping bags, Ritsu and Kluá both wave and wink at the girls, just as one looked back once more and then giggles again, before turning to whisper her friend.
"I think I'm gonna love being a student here." Ritsu says, watching the group of girls walk further down to the other end of the ball room. He then turns to his Elementist brother.
"Yeah, me too." Kluá says, "The girls here are less formal and stuck up than the ones at Haven Academy."
"Say, how long did you say were at Haven for?" Ritsu asks.
For a minute, Kluá puts a finger on his chin and looks up at the ceiling.
"For a whole year." The Elementist finally says.
"A year? And now they're making restart your first year?"
At that Kluá shrugs. "Yeah," he says, "but it's not big deal. It just means that I get stay as a huntsman-in-training for an extra year."
"You know. Just to make sure these ladies don't get outta place." The Elementist boy adds.
"Ha! Now that's what—" Ritsu high fives his brothers, "—I'm talking about."
…
Once she was ready for bed, Yang walked back to where she and her sister made their little own personal sleeping arrangements.
When her sister was in sight, the blonde-haired girl plopped down on her side on top of her sleeping bad, where she watches her sister write something on a piece of paper.
"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang says.
"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys, though." Ruby says, still focusing on her letter.
"I know I do."
At that Yang makes a purring sound, like a cat, while checking out three boys. Two out of the three boys, horse-play while the third flexes an arm for her.
Though in the same instant that the blond-haired girl notices these boys, Juane—a boy Ruby met during several hours ago—sees her staring and stops mid-step.
Yang then realizes that the Juane guy is wearing a one-piece bunny pajama suit. The blonde-haired girl then makes sound to express her disapproval for the boy's attire, before quickly averting her eyes towards her sister. Yet, something else catches her attention.
Looking over her younger sister, Yang spots the four quadruplets that she and Ruby met on the cruise ship. Again though, the blonde-haired girl stares at the perfectly-built, muscular brother of the four.
Yang notices the tribal-style tattoos that are completely made up of lines all over the boy's chest, biceps, and—if she had to guess—his upper back.
That's some serious dedication if a guy can get that big…
A sly thought enters the girl's mind. If he's that big, I wonder if his—
"You know," Ruby says breaking her sister away from her inappropriate reverie. "You've been staring at Ritsu ever since we got here."
Yang turns her gaze to her sister—who watches the blonde-haired girl intently—just as she watched the Titanist and the Elementist high-five one another, and laugh about something she doesn't know. Though the blonde girl assumes that it would have to do with the group of giggling girls that walked passed quadruplets.
For some reason a small hint of jealousy creeps into Yang's mind.
Why do I feel this way? It's not like we're dating…yet why do I care if other girls look at him.
"Why don't you just ask him out already?"
By this point Yang looks to her sister with stern look.
"What? And have him be another Blyyd Pherohs guy?" The blonde-haired girl shakes her at that last part. "I don't think so."
"Speaking of Pherohs." Ruby says, "What happened between you two? I thought you two would still be together."
"Pfft. If he wasn't so social with that Melanie Hall chick, then maybe."
"Oh. He cheated didn't he?"
"What do you think?" Yang says, rhetorically.
"Well, Ritsu is nothing like Pherohs."
Yang snorts. "Yeah, we'll see…Anyways, what's that?"
Ruby sighs as she realizes how quickly her older was to change the subject, so as to stop talking about her love-life. So she, too, decides to drop the subject.
"A letter back to the gang at Signal." Ruby replies, "I promised to tell them all about Beacon, and how things are going."
At that, the young dark-red haired girl goes back to writing her letter.
"Aw. That's so cuuute!"
Just then, Ruby throws her pillow at her older sister.
"Shut up!" She says. "I didn't get to take my friends with me to school. It's weird not knowing anyone here."
"What about Jaune," Yang says, "he's…nice. There you go, plus one friend that's a hundred percent increase"
"What? Shieri and his brothers don't count?" Ruby asks, feeling a little annoyed that her sister completely avoided the four brothers.
Yang sighs. "Alright fine, they do. That's a four hundred percent increase to your already one hundred percent."
"Wrong. It's back to zero." Ruby replies.
Yang raises a brow for a second, as she watches her sister lay on her back and stare at the ceiling.
"Whatcha mean?" the blonde girl asks.
"I mean, I'm pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend…and her hate is about a five hundred percent decrease to what I already have…"
"So yeah, back to zero." Ruby adds.
Yang says, "No. You just made five friends, and one enemy."
At that last part, Ruby throws her second and only pillow left in her arsenal at her sister's face.
Yang moves the pillow off her face only to see a sadden expression on her sister's face.
"Look it's only been one day." The older sister says, "You got friends all around you. You just haven't met them yet."
For a brief moment, Ruby ponders thoughtfully over her sister's words.
But it's harder to make friends when everyone is two years older than you and thinks you're a kid. Ruby wanted to say out loud.
Once the young dark-red haired girl finished her thought, the sound of a match being scratched against something grabs her attention.
To Ruby's surprise, she spots the person who lit the match and then lit a candle stick.
Ruby gasps lightly. "That girl."
From where she lays, Yang averts her gaze from her younger sister to where she sees a girl who's about her age, and has black hair, with yellow eyes; a bow on her head, and wears a gray short-skirt nightgown.
"You know her?" Yang asks, without looking at her sister.
"Not really." Ruby replies. "She saw what happened this morning, but left before I could anything."
At that, Yang stood up and at the same time grabbed her sister by her wrist, pulling her up and towards the direction where the other girl was sitting down, reading a book.
"Whelp, now's your chance."
"Wait! What're you doing!?" Ruby cries, as she tries to struggle from her sister's iron grip.
"Look, at that butt move."
After Ritsu figured out where in the ball-room Yang and her younger sister were sleeping tonight, the muscular boy couldn't help but continue to gawk at the blonde-haired girl. More specifically, the blonde girl's butt.
The Titanist couldn't help but realize how much more beautiful Yang was compared to the other girls he's ever seen, or been with. Though, it's not necessarily the blonde girl's looks that attracts him. Instead it's her fighting style and that inner-controlled rage that she manages to contain, and yet, being able to utilize it in a way to make her stronger and more formidable than she already is.
"Ritsu, you're gonna turn into a perv if you keep staring at her." Kluá whispers.
The sound of the Elementist's voice pulls the muscular boy out of his reverie, causing him to avert his eyes to his brother.
"You're just jealous that Goldilocks only looks at me, while her sister doesn't look at you, at all."
Kluá folds his arms across his chest as he goes back to lying down on his sleeping bag.
"Pfft, whatever."
As the Elementist lies on his sleeping bag, he stares up at the ceiling, allowing his thoughts to wander. Though his thoughts mostly keep revolving around Yang's younger sister, Ruby.
Ruby's so beautiful, Kluá thinks, I wonder if she realizes that she is beautiful. I wonder…
Kluá didn't even bother to finish his wandering thoughts. Instead the Elementist shakes his head and sighs, before closing his eyes. Yet, the Mistralian boy never got the chance to completely doze off yet, especially since his Titanist of a brother wouldn't stop nudging his leg.
"Kluá." Ritsu then whispers louder and shakes his brother against, "Kluá, dammit!"
Annoyed, Kluá sits back up and glares at his muscular brother.
"What, dammit?" Kluá whispers sharply.
The Elementist boy winces, as he realized that his whisper caused his other two brothers, Fang, and Shieri to stir in their sleep.
"Check it out." Ritsu whispers, "I think that's the girl, Shi and Fang were after."
At that, the Elementist follows his brother's gaze with his own, and then notices that Ruby and Yang are awake, and are standing over a girl sitting down against the wall, reading a book.
"Damn. It is." Kluá whispers in surprise.
The Mistralian boy was about to wake both of his sleeping brothers, though once he turned to look at the two assassins who have taken the liberty of sleeping under one of the windows in the ball room; he soon realized that they too, were wide awake. As well as staring at the same girl, that he and the Titanist noticed.
Uh-oh…
Once the two assassins noticed the Faunus girl, they met each other's gaze for a brief moment, though no words were exchanged between the two boys. Instead, Fang nods to Shieri, and then the two went straight back to bed.
"What the hell?" Ritsu says. Luckily, his voice was only loud enough to cause other students lying around them to stir in their slumber.
"Hey!" Ritsu whispers loudly, moving over towards his Atlesian brother.
The muscular boy shakes his brother. "Hey!" he whispers again.
As his brother shakes him again, Shieri continues to keep his eyes shut, hoping that Ritsu would forget about his attempts at waking him. Though, his plan ultimately fails, when the Titanist shakes him a little too hard.
"What, Ritsu?" Shieri utters quietly. At this point, the Atlesian boy had to squander his irritation towards his muscular brother, only because he doesn't want to wake the other students.
"Aren't you and Fang supposed to kill that girl or something?" the Titanist whispers.
"We'll see." Shieri manages to say before yawning.
At that, the Atlesian boy was fast asleep, leaving only Kluá and Ritsu only ones awake.
The muscular boy frowns at his sleeping brothers.
Some lousy assassins you two turned out to be, Ritsu thought.
Ritsu was about to talk to his Elementist brother, though once he turned to him, he too was fast asleep.
Whatever, Ritsu thought. These exams better be fun tomorrow.
At that final thought, the Titanist got up and walked carefully to his sleeping bag, to call it a night.
Once the muscular boy reached his sleeping bag, which was on the other side of his brother, Kluá, loud and familiar voices grab his attention.
"What in the world his going on over here!?" a girl, with snow-white hair and icy blue eyes, asks loudly.
As Ritsu watches, he recognizes the girl—from what his brothers Fang and Shieri told him—to be Weiss Schnee.
That girl looks sexy with her hair down like that, Ritsu thought. Can't wait to get a piece of her too.
The loud voices continue.
"Some of us are trying to sleep here." The girl, Weiss says aloud.
"Oh, not you again!" Both Yang and Weiss shout at the same time.
Damn. I think sleeping's a good idea now.
As the arguments continued, Ritsu couldn't help but smile at how ridiculous the girls sounded. Though instead of staying up to watch the rest, he decided to lie back down on his sleeping bag and by the time he closed his eyes, he was already fast asleep.
Three hours later that same night.
On top of the roof of the large ball-room, the Silver Knight crouches low and looks down at the front entrance of the building, waiting.
"Are you sure you are committed to this plan?" the Black Fang asks, moving to kneel beside his Atlesian brother. "It is more than likely to fail on the first attempt."
Shieri turns to look at his brother, expecting to see the Faunus boy's facial expression, though he can't see his face, when he too wears a full face mask.
It was surprising to the Atlesian boy, that Professor Ozpin allowed his Faunus brother to keep his mask, and not his broken sword, though for only this one purpose.
"Silver?"
Shieri turns to his brother for a brief moment, his thoughts, hanging on the fact that Fang just called him by his knighted name, Silver.
"We have to try…" the Silver Knight says, his voice sounding mechanical. "In order to complete the deal with Ozpin and Glynda." The boy then adds.
"Do you remember the girl's name?" Shieri asks.
Before the Black Fang could reply to his brother's question, the faint sound of a door opening and closing get the attention of bother assassin's.
"On time." The Silver Knight says calmly and coldly, as per his assassin training.
Just then, the two assassin's leap down in front of a girl dressed in a gray nightgown, with a black bow on her head. More specifically, the Faunus girl that the two were sent to kill.
Now, instead of running like she did before, the Faunus girl stands her ground, and is surprised that the two assassins are wearing the same attire that they wore when she first met them, all those weeks ago. Yet, something about how the assassins look, puzzles the young Faunus girl.
Wait, the Faunus girl thought, they're unarmed.
Though that's not what really grabs her attention. In this situation, what really gets the Faunus girl's attention, is that the hero of the White-Fang, the Black Fang, is standing next to her previous attacker, the Silver Knight.
"Black Fang, why is he here? What's going on?" the Faunus girl asks, though she keeps voice leveled, so that no one inside the ball-room can hear her.
"I have discovered a revelation, in which explains the reason for his presence…as well as mine, Blake."
"Wh-what do you mean?"
At this point, Blake felt a chill run up her spine before taking a step back, though she still continues to remain her ground. Yet, fear still creeps in the back of her mind as she remembers how close the Atlesian assassin was to killing her.
"You have left the White-Fang, Blake." Fang adds, "Without the proper reassurance from the Alpha Leader, himself."
The Silver Knight slowly glances to his brother for a brief moment, before returning his gaze to the Faunus girl.
The Black Fang continues speaking. "After word had spread about the desertion of Adam's partner during a raid. The Alpha Leader sent me to seek out your death…"
"Though it has come to my attention that I am not only one searching for you." The Faunus boy adds.
"Wait, so on that day, when he—" Blake makes a gesture towards Shieri, "attacked me…you were not there to rescue me?"
Without saying anymore both Blake and the Silver Knight stare at each other for several heartbeats. Their expressions speaking far more than what words could have. Though in the end, once the Faunus girl tore her gaze away from the Atlesian assassin, she felt betrayed in realizing that the Black Fang was never there to help her escape.
Fang continues to stand motionless, while watching the two carefully. Though through the cutting hole made by Shieri's successful attempt at cutting his face, the Faunus boy could see the distraught feelings taking over Blake's body.
"No," Fang says carefully. "I was following our Alpha Leader's orders, yet as I have said before: A revelation was discovered."
"Which happens to be: why we understand your desertion was justifiable…" Shieri adds.
"Meaning, we too have defected from our factions, in search of a new life…For a man here—in this Kingdom—has revealed dark truths of our upbringings." At that last part Fang gestures to himself and his assassin brother.
"I-I'm not following, Black Fang." Blake says.
Which is true for the very shocked Faunus girl, especially since she heard stories that this assassin speaks in old cryptic literature, as per his training to not reveal exact information to the enemy, if he was ever captured.
Feeling the need to paraphrase for his brother, Shieri decides to speak up.
"The Black Fang means: we followed your example of leaving those that we once supported, because they have lied to us."
"Though, that was after we were making attempts at hunting you down and killing you."
Blake now eyes the two assassins carefully. "If you both just now realized this, then why am I here? What do you want with me?"
"Your help is required." The Black Fang answers.
"I still don't understand."
Shieri sighs, "We want to get revenge on our leaders, but we need someone who can help us with that."
"And if you do help us. We will return the favor by making sure no one working for the four Kingdoms, or the White-Fang, will hunt you down for desertion…and destruction of corporate property." The Silver Knight adds.
At that last part, Blake remembers the moment when she cut the caboose to the train carts to prevent her partner from blowing up the rest of the train, and the crew aboard it.
Now for several minutes, the two assassins watch the Faunus girl move several steps away from the two assassins, where she then gazes up at the moon.
Blake carefully ponders on the idea of taking part in their quest for revenge, especially since this may be her one and only chance to deliver justice to all of those in world who have fought for blood and segregation between the Humans and the Faunus people. Though her new found goal in life has quickly changed her mind.
"I'm sorry, but I can't." Blake finally says as she turns around to face the two assassins. "I wanted to get away from that life, and right now living the life of a student who's going to become a huntress, is what I want."
Shieri sighs and then crosses his arms over his chest. "Very well."
At that Shieri summons his wings.
In the same moment Shieri summoned his mechanical wings, Blake had a momentarily flashback to when the assassin flew after her at such blinding speeds. Such a remembrance caused the Faunus girl to feel anxious of her surroundings, but she then also had to remember that the Atlesian wasn't here to kill her. Or she sure hopes so.
"If this is your Answer, then be ready to survive on your own…" The Silver Knight utters coldly. He then turns his back on the girl.
"-For we cannot guarantee your safety after tonight." The Black Fang adds.
Just then, the Silver Knight takes off into the moonlit sky, leaving the Black Fang to linger in front of the Faunus girl for a little moment longer.
The Faunus boy looks up into the sky, in time to see his brother speed fly over and behind the Ball room, though he knows that Shieri is only going to land behind the building and change back into his pajamas and go to sleep.
"Why are you still here?" Blake asks.
Fang turns to Blake, only see her steadily gaze on him…waiting to see any changes in his composure.
"I remain, because although your answer has been, no. I know you have a part in you, which seeks justice."
At that, the Black Fang moves to stand in front of the Faunus girl.
Now up close, Blake—being five-foot six—did not realize that the assassin is quite taller than her. Making him at least six-feet tall.
"Regardless of how this night ends, Blake Belladonna," Fang puts a hand on Blake's shoulder, "you already have the support you'll need to liberate the White-Fang from their demonic ways."
Once again, a puzzled expression splays across Blake's face as she removes the assassin's hand from her shoulder. "What're you talking about, Black Fang?"
At that the Black Fang turns away from the Faunus girl and faces the Ball room building.
"The answers you seek will, come in due time." Was the last thing the Faunus boy says, before leaping high and over the building in front of him, leaving the Faunus girl to gawk in his wake.
Blake lingered outside the building for a little bit longer, while her mind pondered on the Black Fang's words once again, before she realized how cold it was, after her heart and adrenaline had settled. Thus causing the Faunus girl to leave the cold and calling it a night.