Welcome back everyone! As you may have guess from the fact that this story has been updated, there's a second chapter of the RWBY manga out now.
And I have to say, I'm immensely surprised at how much of an improvement over the first chapter this new one is! In fact, I'd dare say it does some things even better than the show does! There's still stuff in it that I don't like for nitpicky reasons, but in a lesser quantity compared to the first.
Anyway, the same drill as before: I'll try to put aside my personal bias and be as objective as possible, so I'll acknowledge both the good and the bad.
And if I remember my last chapter correctly, Team Ruby was heading off to have dinner, right?
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"Om nom nom nom nom nom!" said Ruby as she gobbled up her cookies one by one, barely taking the time to swallow them before grabbing a new one. Weiss watched on in a combination of rapt fascination and abject disgust.
"I'll never understand how you can eat like that," she said, absently mixing around her fruit salad, "at least your sister uses utensils." She briefly gestured to Yang, who scarfing down a steak with a similar aplomb as her sister, only she cut it into pieces before popping them into her mouth.
Yang looked up from her meal. "...Wuh? If'f goo."
Blake said nothing while this was going on, contentedly picking at her tuna.
"...anyway," said Ruby after finally swallowing her last cookie, "let's get back to our room and read more of that comic book we got!"
"'Graphic novel'," Blake corrected her, taking another bite of tuna.
"I though you hated it, what with how you reacted to your comic self not wearing your cloak," the heiress wondered.
Ruby shrugged. "I just had cookies, I'm in a good mood," she said. "Besides," she added sheepishly, bopping her pointer fingers together, "after thinking about it, I guess I sorta over reacted, didn't I?"
"Juff ah widdle," Yang said.
"Well, I am curious how our confrontation with Cardin plays out," Blake mused, setting her own utensils aside, dabbing her mouth with a napkin. "I doubt it's going to end well for him."
"Given how much the actual Cardin bites off more than he can chew, I wouldn't be surprised." Weiss pushed her plate aside and stood up. "Personally, I hope whoever made that learned their lesson and wrote me better."
"But isn't it already completed?" Ruby asked, piling her plate on top of Weiss's.
Weiss didn't really have any defense against that.
"Try not to pop a vein," Blake quipped, putting her friends' plates on top of hers. She then stood up and began walked towards the doors, "Come on, I want to know what happens next, too."
"'ey! Wai' fuh me!" Yang quickly gobbled up the rest of her steak and hurried after her team.
And then hurried back to grab her plate.
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On the first page...
"Eeee!" Ruby squeed, "I still look so cool!"
Yang clapped her sister on the shoulder, "That you do! Glad you're not still angry about not being drawn with your cloak."
"The cookies helped," she said, her eyes sparkling.
"You know, I never noticed that you had a holster for Crescent Rose," Blake noted. "Then again, you're always wearing your cloak, so I suppose that stands to reason."
"Does it have a rose emblem on it like the one in the picture?" Weiss asked.
"Mmhmm," the crimsonette nodded, "It was gift from my uncle when first made Cress at Signal."
"That was certainly nice of him."
"My dad gave me a pair of boxing gloves when I made Ember Celica," Yang interjected, "He said they were a real knockout!"
They all glared at her.
"Hmph!" she pouted, "Let's just move on..."
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The next page...
"You know," Yang said as she read the next page, "I don't think Jaune was being serious before when he hit on Weiss, he was probably just trying to be funny or something. Maybe you should apologize to him or something."
"He should have known better!" Weiss protested. She huffily folded her arms, "He's lucky I didn't tell Neptune about it and have him rough his scraggly behind up a bit for it!"
"I don't think Neptune would do that," Ruby said, reading further. "And that's a really bad lie; there aren't any rocks in the cafeteria."
"But he was actually like that back when we first started here," Blake noted, "though Cardin hasn't really changed all that much since then."
"'Flying Classes'?" Yang scoffed, "Even toddlers wouldn't buy that! You go, Story Us; glare at him like the wind!"
"That doesn't make any sense," Weiss deadpanned.
"Uh oh, here come Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby shuddered, "Well, whoever made this managed to make her just as scary as she is in real life...!"
"Her hair's all wrong," Yang pointed out, "What's with this artist not being able to get our hair right?"
"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Weiss asked.
"Not until they get it right!"
"Hmm...it looks like the next couple pages is just her going on about the duty and responsibility of being a Huntsman- though they incorrectly say 'Hunter' in this- so do you guys mind skipping forward?" Blake asked, to which the girls collectively agreed. No sense in getting lectured at outside of classes, right?
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In a couple pages...
"Whoa!" Ruby marveled, "Cardin's armor looks awesome!"
"It certainly looks better than the armor he normally wears," Weiss mentioned.
Yang butted in, "It doesn't matter how cool the armor is if it doesn't do its job. Besides, one good punch to the gob and he'll be out like a light!"
"Do you usually get this nervous in large crowds, Ruby?" Blake asked, turning to the next page.
"N-no!" she protested, twiddling her fingers, "I mean...not that nervous..."
Weiss exhaled. "Of course, leave it to Yang to completely forget about her own sister's social anxiety."
"Hey!" Yang exclaimed.
"And leave it to Ruby's inner weapon geek to manifest even when she's scared stiff."
"Weiss!" Ruby cried, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Professor Ozpin looks about right," Blake said.
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The next page...
"*snerk!*," Yang chuckled, "'Mr. Mace Wielder'! I am totally calling Cardin that the next time I see him!"
"Isn't that a little mean?" Blake wondered.
"Pfft, no! It's not like I'm gonna pick on him or anything!" the blonde waved dismissively. "Besides, it's not like there's anything wrong about the name; he does wield a mace, after all."
Blake regarded Yang for a moment before letting the matter drop with a sigh.
"That totally sounds like something you'd say, Weiss!" Ruby said, pointing at the "motivation" Weiss was dolling out in the book.
"I...suppose," Weiss related, reading the offending passage, "even if I still sound a tad mean..."
They turned the page...
"Holy crap, things just got intense!" Yang exclaimed. "It makes me wish I could see you two fight for real!"
Ruby looked apprehensive at her sister's suggestion. "I don't know..."
"Hang on, you're not scared of him, are you?"
"No, but I'm such a better fighter than he is-"
"OK, OK, don't get a swelled head, Sis!" She ruffled Ruby's hair, much to the younger girl's chagrin.
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The next page...
"...Huh? What's this panel about?" Weiss pointed to a corner panel that depicted a pack of Beowolves leaping to attack what looked like a couple young girls.
Yang and Ruby looked strangely subdued.
"Oh, I remember this," the brawler said, "Not really one of my finer moments..."
"Yeah," Ruby agreed, rubbing her arm, "that was scary..."
"Um...," Weiss tried to ask, but was unable to when she saw how morose her partner and partner's sister were. She decided to try a different tactic, "Blake, do you know what's-"
Blake laid a hand on Weiss's shoulder.
"Let them be," the Faunus said, "If they want to talk about it, they will."
Weiss nodded before something occurred to her. "Wait, do you what this is?"
"Yang told me about it once," she explained, nodding. "And before you ask, it's not my story to tell." She turned to the next page, "Let's keep reading, OK?"
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The next page...
"Hey, Ruby?" Blake wondered, gesturing to the narration boxes, "Have you ever doubted yourself like this?"
"...Nope!" she said after thinking for a moment. "I've pretty much always known I wanted to become a Huntress."
"Whatever!" interrupted Yang, "Next page! ...more fight scene, next page!"
"Stop skipping ahead!" Weiss scolded, "We're missing the story!"
"No we're not, it's just fight scenes and Ruby narrating something we already know!"
"She's not wrong," Blake agreed.
"Besides, Ruby just won the fight!" She held up the book for all to see, showing Ruby striking the winning blow with Crescent Rose against Cardin. Along the side of the panel were smaller panels showing the various others reacting to Ruby's victory.
"Uh oh," Ruby said, "looks like the artist got lazy drawing Jaune."
"His face does look rather squarish," Yang noted.
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A couple pages later...
"So that's what the rest of JNPR looks like!" Yang said, nodding in approval. "Her hair looks wrong."
Weiss finally had enough of Yang's needlessly specific nitpicking. "Will you give it a rest about the hair!?" she exploded, shocking the other three, "So what if someone doesn't draw our hair right? Big whoop! It's not hurting you, it's not hurting the story, it's not hurting anything! So shut up about the stupid hair before I personally take a pair of scissors to your own hair in your sleep!"
Needless to say, everyone was stunned silence.
"...OK," Yang relented timidly, stroking her own locks protectively, "no more talk about hair." Then she drew herself up to her full height. "But just so you know," she declared, "if you ever touch my hair, I will punch you all the way back to Atlas. Comprendé?"
"Yang...!" Ruby warned, "Remember what Dad said about threatening people?"
"Yeah," Yang deflated, "let's just keep reading..."
"Hmm..." Blake read the bottom of the page, "I wonder what Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch are talking about?" She turned the page. "And it seems like we're not going to know that just yet."
"It looks like something brewing," Yang noted, reading further.
"If the Me in the story does like it, I don't like it," Weiss stated adamantly.
Blake turned the page. "Oh, Well, that's not what I was-"
"YES!" Ruby cried, throwing her arms up in jubilation, "They finally gave me my cloak back!"
"See?" Yang clapped Ruby on the back, "Everything turned out all right in the end!"
Ruby just grinned.
"I guess that's it, then," Weiss said, getting up. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to get ready for bed now."
"But there's one more page left!" Ruby reminded her as Blake turned to the final page, "And it's-!" She stopped when she saw what was on it. "...Torchwick!"
"Oh yeah, that guy who's always in the news for never being caught!" Yang said, snapping her fingers in recognition.
Blake said nothing, glaring silently at the page as she remembered her fight at the docks.
"...Look!" Ruby pointed at a bit of small text on the bottom of the page, "It says the next part's about you, Weiss!"
"Well, it'll have to wait," the heiress said, already in her nightgown, "We have school tomorrow, and I for one don't want to wake up late."
"That's probably a good idea," Blake said, closing the book, "we don't want Professor Goodwitch and them mad at us for being tardy."
"OK," Ruby yawned, crawling into her bunk, "bedtime it is; we read more later..."
"At put pajamas on first!"
fin.
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And that, in a nutshell, was chapter two of the manga! I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well this next chapter turned out, especially with how the first one got so many things wrong! This chapter did the same thing for me that Vol 2, Ep 1 did in regards to Nora, and now I'm eager to see what's supposed to happen next.
Now, to address one of the guest reviews I got for the last chapter, I never specifically stated when this story is supposed to take place in the timeline. I'm also not going to change it, because it's funny.
Also, this is probably going to become a regular thing whenever a new manga chapter comes out. So until the next one!