Blowing Some Steam


Ichigo groaned loudly as he stared into the mirror, he wasn't too crazy about the whole idea of a school dance. He quickly adjusted his tie and fixed his collar before deciding that he was ready for the aforementioned event. With haste he reached for the door and exited the dorm room to find two out of his three teammates waiting for him. He looked around for second with a slightly confused expression.

"Either of you see Rukia?", Orihime quickly and cheerfully responded.

"She was going to put on her dress," Ichigo raised a brow at the statement.

"Wouldn't it make more sense her to get ready with you guys?"

"Pretty sure she had to go pick it up first," chimed Tatsuki as she proceeded to stand up straight. Ichigo shrugged and leaned back against the wall.

"I guess that makes sense," he reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll. Within a few seconds he was typing vigorously. Orihime and Tatsuki looked at each other for a second before turning their attention back to him. Ichigo didn't seem to notice this and proceeded to type, seemingly getting faster by the second. Tatsuki cleared her throat in an attempt to get his attention but to no avail.

"Ichigo!", his head snapped up to face her, "What're you doing?", he shrugged and looked back down at his scroll.

"Nothing special, Yuzu and Karin just wanted to know how I was doing," Orihime made some sort of sound, a squeal of some sort.

"That's so cute!", Ichigo and Tatsuki looked at her with blank expressions.

"I guess? Anyways, Yuzu was curious as to what I've been up to and Karin wants to know all about Beacon, the training, the campus, even the curriculum," Tatsuki blinked a few times when she heard this.

"Damn...she must really want to go here."

"She does," Ichigo looked up at his teammates and put his scroll back into his pocket, "Y'know it's kind of funny…"

"What is?" asked Orihime with an inquisitive expression.

"Those two...hard to believe they're twins, they're just so different," Ichigo chuckled a bit, "Yuzu wants to be a chef when she gets older but Karin wants to be a huntress... I'll never get over that," he sighed and stood up straight.

"Sorry," he rubbed the back of his head and chuckled a bit, "Guess I'm just a bit homesick at the moment."

"No need to apologize," Tatsuki stepped forward, "At this point we're all probably homesick," Ichigo shrugged and looked around.

"Where the hell is Rukia? Seriously if she isn't here in the next two minutes we're gonna have to leave without her."

"Oh really?" the trio turned their attention to the source of the voice, Rukia wearing a long black dress with six inch heels.

"Mind telling us what took so long?", Rukia shrugged as she turned to Tatsuki.

"Had to pick up my outfit for tonight," Ichigo scoffed causing Rukia's attention to shift towards him.

"Is there a problem Mr,Strawberry?", Ichigo rolled his eyes and walked towards her.

"Oh nothing, nothing at all," he swifty poked her in the forehead causing her to lose her balance, however she was fortunate enough to be caught by Orihime before she could hit the ground.

"Alright come on everyone! Don't wanna be late," Ichigo's voice was dripping with sarcasm as he walked away.


The dance was quite extravagant, it was of a much higher quality than most would think possible considering the fact that it was arranged by first year students. The ballroom was adorned with elegant decorations giving the event a rather dignified charm. At the door stood Yang, keeping track of the attendees; she wore a large grin as she looked up to see the members of team RIOT approaching.

"Glad you guys could make it!", chirped the energetic blonde as she began to write their names on the list.

"Gotta say all of you look pretty nice, especially you Ichigo. Really suits you, eh?", Ichigo groaned loudly at her attempted joke.

"Oh come on! That was gold," Orihime abruptly began to laugh as if she just got the joke, "At least she recognizes comedic genius when it shows up," Tatsuki patted Orihime on the head and walked closer to Yang.

"She's just a dork like that, so it doesn't count," in response Yang pouted causing Tatsuki to roll her eyes and proceed forward.

"We'll see you after you're done here alright?", Yang smirked and nodded to Orihime before looking over at Ichigo.

"By the way Ichigo, gonna need you to loosen up and stop being such a grouch," he sighed and began to follow the rest of his teammates, muttering under his breath.

"Seriously, I'm not in the mood for this shit."


"The decor is amazing! Weiss where did you get it? My sister would kill for all of this," Rukia and Weiss were currently occupying the area by the punch bowl, discussing the decoration and furnishings that Weiss had decided to use for the ball.

"Well you know how it is, being the heiress of the Schnee Dust Corporation does allow me to acquire some useful contacts. If you want to know where I got the decor from the-"

"Hold on for just a moment!", Rukia pulled out her scroll and brought Hisana's contact, "Alright, I'm ready," Weiss chuckled and went on to tell her what she wanted to know.

"Whad'ya think they're talking about?", Ichigo looked over at Yang as she walked over to the corner he was standing against. She grinned at him a bit, his focus quickly snapped back to Weiss and Rukia causing him to shrug.

"Dunno, I'd guess something to do with the setup of the dance. Nice job on that by the way."

"What did ya expect? Me and Weiss were the ones putting everything together," Ichigo looked around a bit before looking back over towards the bubbly blonde.

"Weiss? Well that explains the decorations," he turned to Yang and looked at her for a few seconds, "Y'know, I thought you of all people would've wore something a bit more...flashy."

"Something wrong with the dress?", she looked at her attire and smirked, "I thought it suited me pretty well," Yang pressed her arms together to accentuate some of her more noticeable assets. Ichigo looked at her for a few seconds before saying something.

"Nice hair," Yang tried to keep a straight face but failed miserably.

"Really? That's all you noticed?", she couldn't stop her laughter and continued to cackle, causing Ichigo to snicker.

"Well, you need to stop being such a pervert," the blonde punched him in the arm lightly and continued laughing.

"Stop playing innocent! You looked," Ichigo's face went as red as the alternative meaning of his name. He scratched the back of his head a bit as Yang grinned at him.

"Alright, alright, I looked for a second," the fiery blonde began to pat him on the back.

"Wow, look at that Ichigo! You've taken your first step to becoming a man."

"Oh shut up."


At this point the event had been going on for quite a bit and the guests had all began to become more and more immersed in the atmosphere. Most of the students were very social and eager to get on the dance floor...Ichigo was not one of these people. For the past a hour or two, Ichigo had been drifting around the ballroom and engaged in a conversation every so often. As it currently stood he had talked to every member of teams RWBY, JPRN, and RIOT as well as some of the upperclassmen.

"Oh, Ichigo," he turned his head to the side to see who was calling him. To his surprise it was Neptune, who just awkwardly waved at him.

"Hey, didn't expect to see over in the corner like this," Ichigo leaned back against the wall and took a sip from the cup of punch he had gotten a few minutes ago.

"So, there a reason why you aren't out there?", the orange haired teen pointed his thumb to the dance floor, which at the moment was occupied by a large mass of students. In response Neptune shrugged.

"Lemme guess…", Ichigo snapped his fingers and pointed at him, "Can't dance?" Neptune looked as if he was about to deny it but in the end he just admitted it flat out.

"Is it that obvious?", Ichigo shrugged at his question.

"Nah, just made sense to me," he took another sip from his cup and continued, "You have that whole cool dude thing going on, so why else would you be avoiding the dance floor like it's the plague."

"Huh, you the same?", Ichigo shot him a inquisitive look as he said this, "Can't dance either?"

"Dunno. Honestly, I never really wanted to try so, I never did.", Neptune nodded at his response and stopped leaning against the wall.

"Well, I'm gonna go get some fresh air, have fun man," he patted Ichigo on the back as he walked away.

"You too," Ichigo went to take another sip from his cup but soon realized that it was empty. He shrugged and made his way over to the punch bowl. The room seemed to a bit tighter for some reason, perhaps the amount of people and couples attending the event were to blame for this. Ichigo found himself sliding in between people a few times which made him feel a bit uncomfortable as he passed by. However, as he finally reached his desired destination he saw a familiar mass of orange hair come into view; he walked over to the girl and tapped her on the shoulder. She seemed to jump out of her skin as a reaction; she slowly turned around to face Ichigo.

"Orihime, what're you doing over here by yourself?", he looks around the room for a second, "I remember Rukia being with you a little a while ago," Orihime nervously chuckled at his statement.

"Well, she went to talk to Weiss about something, and kinda...drifted over here."

"That's unusual for you, you're normally very open to meeting new people," his voice showed a bit of concern, it was becoming increasingly obvious that he wished to know why she was acting so reserved all of a sudden.

"Well I ju-", her sentence stopped as she looked towards her left, "Ichigo look over there!", he rolled his eyes at her sudden request, thinking it was merely a way to change the conversation's current subject.

"Orihime, I'm not gonna fall for t-"

"No! I'm being serious; just look!", her voice was cracking, she seemed to be trying her damned hardest to keep from bursting out into laughter. Ichigo blankly stared at her for a moment before going along with it; he looked to laugh and nearly choked on his drink.

"Is that Jaune?!", he covered his mouth and fell onto one knee and began to laugh despite his best efforts not to. The source of his laughter was none other than the socially awkward Jaune Arc wearing a white dress with a ribbon tied around the waist.

"Why is he wearing that!", Orihime shouted before cackling at the blond's attire. She was practically in tears as she continued to laugh with Ichigo kneeling beside her, his condition seeming to be no better than her's. The two slowly wiped the tears from their eyes as they began to calm down before observing what else was happening with Jaune. To their surprise, Jaune took Pyrrah by the hand and walked over to the dance floor with her within seconds they were joined by Nora and Ren.

"Wait, did he wear that for Pyrrah?", Ichigo seemed to be taken aback at the thought, "That's weird, looks like it worked out for him though."

"They're actually really good dancers," Orihime watched as team JPNR continued to be the center of attention on the dance floor. She smiled and turned towards Ichigo.

"Hey, would you mind, umm, dancing with m-me?", her face was beet red, Ichigo looked at her and chuckled for a few seconds.

"Sure, I mean it could be pretty fun," Ichigo blushed slightly, he didn't expected to be asked to dance...he also was very worried about what he would look like whilst dancing.

"Come on, let's go!" Orihime wore a big smile on her face as she took Ichigo by the hand.

"I've made a terrible mistake…"


"Damn, dancing is exhausting," Ichigo felt completely drained, he had just spent all of his energy trying to keep with his energetic teammate. He now knew that fighting and dancing are worlds apart, and he was mostly going to stick to the first one. Orihime took a deep breath and turned towards Ichigo.

"See? That was fun wasn't it?", Ichigo chuckled a bit at her statement as he shrugged.

"I guess, I would do it again if you wanted to," her eyes seemed to light up at his response, "But, I think I'm going to go outside and take a quick breather."

"Oh, alright…", Ichigo lifted a brow as she looked down at the floor a bit dejectedly, "Hey, it's not like I'm going to leave, I should be back within a few minutes."

"Alright, I'll see you when you get back then!", he nodded and headed towards the door. The ballroom was still rather packed, the music had switched from some soothing orchestral pieces to more upbeat genres such as EDM, Pop, and some other forms of electronic music. The sudden shift in genres caused nearly everyone attending the event to make their way over to the dance floor. People congregated near the center waiting in anticipation for either their chance to be in the spotlight or to watch some of the more talented and rhythm oriented people have their fun.

"Finally, fresh air!", as he said this Ichigo bumped into Ruby, nearly sending her to the ground upon impact. She stumbled as she tried to maintain her balance in her heels, however it was for naught as began to fall backwards. Ichigo grabbed her arm and pulled back onto her feet.

"Sorry about that," Ruby shook her head as Ichigo tried to apologize for the recent set of events that had just transpired.

"No,no, it's fine! I really should've been watch where I was going," Ichigo shrugged and made his way towards the door, he noticed Ruby heading in the same direction as him and turned his head towards before attempting to strike up a friendly conversation.

"So, you trying to get a breather too?"

"Yea, kinda; this just really isn't my thing, the whole dancing and talking to a bunch of people," Ichigo chuckled.

"I know how you feel. I didn't even really want to come here tonight. But, those three said it would do me some good...well, Tatsuki said I need to stop being such a grouch and go to the damn thing but whatever," Ruby snorted as he said the last part, "Hey, what's so funny?"

"Nothing, just that sounds exactly like something she'd say," Ichigo sighed and put his hands in his pockets.

"That's because she did say that," the two of them smiled a bit as they heard the music get slightly quieter as they stepped foot outside. A calming breeze rolled by causing Ichigo to momentarily close his eyes and revel in it. His eyes quickly opened as he felt Ruby smacking him on the shoulder.

"What do y-", she pointed at the rooftops of some buildings across the street. Ichigo began to focus on them and as he did he saw a woman clad in black running atop them.

"We gotta go see where she's going," Ichigo nodded and turned to go back into the ballroom.

"I'll go get some backu-", he was cut off the sound of heels clicking against the sidewalk, he turned back to see Ruby running in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing? We can't just rush in there!"

"Ichigo, we need to go check this out asap!", Ruby turned away from him and began to sprint...however, she isn't quite accustomed to walking in heels, let alone running in them. She nearly tumbled over but caught herself at the last moment. Ichigo sighed as he walked over towards her.

"We'll do it your way; if you're alone you'll probably break your neck with the way you're walking",he walked over to Ruby, who quickly looked up at him with a determined expression.

"Let's go," the two quickly darted forward. Ichigo quickly looked over at the rooftops and saw that the woman was gone. He cursed under his breath and looked over at Ruby.

"What the hell could they even be after?", Ruby was silent for a few moments before the realization hit her.

"I mean the CCT is over here…"

"Oh no," said the two of them in unison. They began to speed up, their sudden epiphany allowed them to realize the motive of the mystery woman. They likely wished to sabotage the Cross Continental Transmission System (CCT), the very thing that allowed Vale to communicate with the other kingdoms. Should anything happen to it Vale would be in quite the predicament. The two didn't know why or how this woman was going to carry out her plan but they couldn't just stand by idly and let it happen.


Ruby and Ichigo came to a sudden halt as they reached the front of the CCT. The guards positioned outside of the tower were scattered across the ground. There was also no signs of struggle, whoever this woman was she was not one to be taken lightly. Ruby quickly reached for her scroll and entered the coordinates of her current location with Ichigo doing the same thing a second later. The two waited a few seconds before their lockers landed behind them. The pair quickly rushed to their lockers and retrieved their respective weapons, Ichigo throwing his suit jacket into his locker as he did this. Ichigo lugged Zangetsu over his shoulder as he turned towards Ruby.

"Let's hurry," the duo sprinted into the entrance of the tower only to be greeted by the sight of unconscious guards hastily scattered all around the room, the difference between the them and the ones outside was that there were clear signs of a fight, though it was obvious that it didn't last too long there was still some form of struggle on the guards' end. Ichigo and Ruby tensed up for a few seconds, they both knew that should they encounter this intruder that she most certainly wouldn't go down without a fight...that is if the two could even hold their own against her. When together, group of well trained guards would cause a bit of trouble in a fight or at the very least take a decent bit of time to dispose of, even for a Huntsman.

"Bankai," Aura engulfed Zangetsu momentarily before revealing the blade of a very familiar black katana, "We can't take any chances here so we need-"

"To be careful, got it," Ichigo took a deep breath as the two approached the nearby elevator. Ruby quickly hit the button to the top floor of the tower as they entered the elevator. The doors closed signaling that the elevator was now going to ascend. The pair of first years stood tautly as they waited, the fact that this woman was able to break into the CCT with such ease didn't sit well with either of them but, before either of them could begin to inquire or discuss the endless number of possibilities the elevator doors opened, abruptly snapping their minds back to the task at hand.

Ruby was the first of the two to exit the elevator, she began to look around the computer filled room as her grip on Crescent Rose began to tighten.

"Hello?," by this point Ichigo was already following close behind Ruby, the two didn't particularly care about the amount of noise they were currently making as they began to inspect their surroundings. With Ruby in heels and Ichigo wearing dress shoes there wasn't much they could do about the noise of their footsteps; they continued to move forward whilst carefully looking at everything within their range of vision then, Ruby once again stumbled due to her lack of experience with heels causing her to grit her teeth a bit as she quickly adjusted her shoe.

"Is anyone there?", they continued to move forward at the pace of snail, "Hello?", Ruby called out for the third time causing a woman to stand up from her current hidden position behind one of the rows of computers. Ruby looked at the woman as she turned to face her.

"Excuse me," the woman looked Ruby and Ichigo in the eyes, as she did this Ichigo could feel his grip on Tensa Zangetsu began to tighten immensely.

"You know it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you take of that-", her sentence was cut short by barrage of crystals flying towards her. Ruby quickly twirled Crescent Rose deflecting the projectiles before quickly digging Crescent Rose into the ground and firing a few shots at the intruder. She held out her hand and simply deflected the bullets as parts of her black attire began to glow bright orange and a crystal like pattern forming with it. The woman spun around quickly summoning a pair of black dual blades. Seeing this Ruby quickly leapt at the woman and attempted to strike her but, she quickly evaded the blow from massive scythe and in response materialized a black bow. Three arrows with glowing orange tips were then fired at the ground in front of Ruby, they detonated upon impact launching the young girl off of her feet.

The masked woman smirked as she saw the explosion, she turned to make her escape but was surprised when a black blade slid past her cheek. She turned to face her new opponent, a first year student with bright orange hair and a really attitude and a temper to match. She quickly summoned her dual blades once again and delivered a heavy handed counter attack which pushed Ichigo back a few feet. The sound of the elevator doors opening quickly alarmed her, she looked behind her opponent to see a smirking Ruby Rose with James Ironwood being the one exiting the elevator.

"Well, this is a problem," she spoke in a whisper as she said before looking behind her and seeing a row of windows, "Not for long I'm afraid." She went to run towards the windows but was once again interrupted by Ichigo. Being irritated at the turn of events that had already transpired she decided to end this little encounter quickly. With immense speed and grace, the woman quickly land horizontal strike on Ichigo's torso sending him skidding back a few feet. As he looked up Ichigo was greeted by a set of three orange tipped arrows speeding towards him. In an explosion of fire with a few accents of black and red Aura Ichigo was flung across the room, slamming into the elevator doors. He looked around the room as he struggled to his feet, seeing the masked woman has completely vanished from sight.

"Damnit," he panted a bit as he finally got on his feet.

"A Vizard?", Ichigo's froze as he heard this, he turned towards General Ironwood who seemed to be a bit surprised and that's when the realization hit him with the same force as getting smacked by an Ursa. When the arrows detonated in front of him not only did he released a small Getsuga to lessen the explosion he also summoned his mask to strengthen his Getsuga to further lessen the damage. Ichigo sat there feeling a bit dumb as Ironwood continued to stare his mask which was now tattered, cracked, and broken in multiple places.

"Odd, Ozpin didn't mention anything about a Vizard attending Beacon," Ichigo just stood there and chuckled nervously before quickly dismissing the what was left of the mask. He began to dust himself off as Ruby rushed over to him.

"Are you okay?!", Ichigo winced a bit as he began to move his arms a bit more.

"Yea, I'm fine, just a bit sore...scratch that very sore."


"We're gonna probably get chewed out by Professor Goodbitch for being late you know that?"

"Naahh, we'll be fine," Ichigo sighed at Ruby stood beside him in the elevator with a giant smirk on her face. The two of them were on their way to the Headmaster's office to discuss the events of last night. Neither of them knew whether this was to be reprimanded or to be praised causing Ruby to a bit fearful of a repeat of the first time she encountered Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch. They stood there for 16 minutes, thanks to all of the buttons on the elevator being pressed the two of them had to slowly wait for elevator to ascend and stop at each and every floor on the way to Ozpin's office causing Ichigo to be a bit mad at Ruby. The doors finally opened up at the very top floor causing Ichigo let out a deep sigh of relief. The two stepped out of the elevator and began to approach Ozpin's desk where General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch where were standing.

"Sorry we're late!",

"Yea, apparently someone hit all the buttons in the elevator," Ichigo turned and glared at Ruby who calmly stared at the three officals dead ahead of her.

"It wasn't me," Ozpin quickly looked at the two as he lowered his folded hands from his face and stood up from his seat.

"Ichigo, Ruby thank you for coming. How are the two of you feeling?"

"Peachy," Glynda glared at Ichigo for the amount of sarcasm in his voice, he couldn't help it slamming your back off of elevator doors hurts.

"Pretty good," said Ruby cheerfully, "Would feel a bit better if my bad guy catching record wasn't 0-3," she let out a slight chuckle, however her little joke didn't seem to get much of a reaction. Ichigo leaned over to Ruby.

"You'd need a chainsaw to cut the tension in here," Ruby nods in agreement to Ichigo's remark before the two of them quickly look on ahead at Ozpin, Glynda, and James. General Ironwood stepped towards the two and placed a hand on both of their shoulders as he began to speak.

"I feel it's appropriate to let the two of you know that I think what you two did last night is exactly what being Huntsman or Huntress is all about. Both of you recognized a threat, took action, and did the very best you could."

"Thank you, sir," Ichigo and Ruby replied in unison, wanting to give the proper respect to the general. It wasn't long after that Ozpin began to speak once more.

"Now, the General here has already informed us of the events that transpired, last night. But, now that you've rested we were wondering if there is anything that the two of you would like to add," almost immediately Glynda turned to the pair to ask a question.

"Was anyone else with here? Did she look familiar to either of you at all?", Ruby looked to the side and began to speak softly as she tried to think.

"I-I don't know, she was wearing a mask and never said anything to me...but I know, she fought with glass. I don't think that was her semblance though. Her clothing lit up whenever she attacked."

"Save for the glass, she sounds like the woman I fought the night we met Ruby," Ironwood turned to Ozpin and began to speak,

"Imbedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique. It could have been anyone."

"No," the three turned to face Ichigo, "She was way too strong to be just anyone. When I fought she managed to nearly destroyed my mask with a single attack not to mention overwhelm my semblance even with the power boost the mask gives me." As Ichigo finished his sentence Ruby looked over at Ozpin and Glynda.

"Wait, you think she's connected with Torchwick and the White Fang?", in a calm voice Ozpin quickly retorted.

"It's possible...but we still lack the required evidence to link the two together."

"Actually," Ruby began to speak in a somewhat nervous voice, "I-I think I remember her saying about a hideout or something in the Southeast. Just outside the Kingdom."

"Interesting," Glynda went to cut in but was interrupted by Ozpin, "Thank you two for your cooperation. Why don't the two of you go and spend some time with your teams?", Ruby and Ichigo looked at each other and shrugged before heading towards the elevator. As the elevator began to descend James turned to Ozpin.

"Before we continue to discuss this I have a question for you"

"And what might that be James?", Ironwood walked closer to Ozpin and looked him straight in the eyes.

"I was wondering why you didn't mention anything to me about a Vizard attending Beacon Academy," Ozpin sighed as he reached over to his mug and took a sip of coffee before standing up.

"I have my reasons James. I'll tell you them in due time But, I think we have a more pressing matter at hand, don't you?", Ironwood sighed as he walked to the window and look out at the city of Vale.

"Yes, that we do."


AN: Hey, it's an update! Over two months later...welp. First of all, I am definitely going to have apologize for this chapter taking so long, even though I said that update schedules were going to be very sporadic due to being busy with things in my personal life, I think a chapter taking over two months to complete and upload is way too long and I will try to get these chapters out to you guys in a much more timely fashion than I currently am. Also, this chapter was kind tough for me to write, I wanted to try to keep most of the character interactions at the dance focused on the members of team RIOT before the whole confrontation in the CCT. Anyways, I hope you thoroughly enjoyed this chapter, or at least enjoyed it a bit, and I hope you all continue to read. Leave a review if you have any pointers for how I can continue to improve this story or my writing in general or even if you just feel like leaving a nice comment. Until next time!