Epilogue:
Since then, things seemed to have quieted down around Beacon. Professor Ozpin glanced at his watch as he took another sip of coffee.
"I must say, that Melpox outbreak was quite the scare." He said.
"It was good that we had all the affected teachers see the doctor." Glynda Goodwitch commented. "However, I fear that some of our students also came down with it."
"How strange that a sickness once so poisonous to the Grimm could affect humans equally..." Ozpin mused. "It's almost as if the Grimm want to destroy mankind by any means necessary."
"Assumptions aside sir." Glynda said as her bespectacled eyes peered through some reports. "It seems one of our students has actually found a natural remedy to Melpox."
"Oh?" Ozpin's eyebrows rose. "Who might that be?"
Glynda rolled her eyes. "It is utterly baffling, but it appears Ms. Valkyrie in team JNPR has quite the recipe for an effective cure. Pollen of Harradel flowers, Congall eel and the spores of the Rhotian mushroom."
Ozpin lifted his mug, speaking before drinking. "Anything Professor Peach would like to tell us about these peculiar ingredients?"
"I have the report here sir." She held up a small file, no doubt filled with the good professor's notes. "You may be interested to know that while the Rhotian mushroom is used in some delicacies, I cannot fathom how the Harradel flower and Congall eel actually serves as a remedy."
She pushed her glasses up before continuing. "First of, the pollen of the Harradel is quite effective in causing inflammation of the throat and nasal tracts and, in serious cases, fever and especially delirious behavior. The Congall eel itself has a poisonous mucous that should not be consumed unless properly treated."
"Mmmhmm..." Ozpin nodded as he looked into the academy courtyard. "Still, to think she of all people would have a cure. Does it work?"
"Numerous students have already recovered. It seems teams RWBY and JNPR acquired enough for a large amount of medicine." She said. "Still, they left the school grounds and wandered off into the Emerald forests and who knows where to do that. Such actions should not be condoned."
"Now Glynda, while I am fully aware of what they did, do remember that such actions helped us to avoid an epidemic." Ozpin smiled. "The whole school owes them our thanks."
Glynda frowned. "Am I to ascertain that your comment is supposed to convince me to overlook this?"
"Perhaps." The headmaster frowned as he drank more coffee. "How are they doing now?"
Weiss sat down on the chair beside Ruby's bed, keeping a good distance. Not too far to show that she cared for her friend, but not too close to catch the dreadful illness Ruby had contracted from the pollen of Harradel flowers.
The girl was running a slight fever today. Also, she was coughing very violently and had a blocked nose. Normally on any day, Ruby would be hyped up with a bunch of things to do, most of them rather pointless to Weiss. But now, she was lying on a bed in Beacon's infirmary with a cold towel on her forehead.
"Ugh..." Ruby groaned. "How did this happen?"
"Trust me." Weiss said as she gingerly pulled the blanket over. "You're better off not thinking about it."
"This has to be the worst thing anyone can go through..." Ruby sniffled. "Spending a whole week in bed with nothing to do but look through boring lecture notes."
Weiss herself had made the notes for her and, even if she were affronted at Ruby's remark, she knew that Ruby wasn't exaggerating on her situation.
Jaune and Pyrrha fared the best. Pyrrha only had a pulled muscle while Jaune had a slight fracture in his leg. It was only thanks to his Aura that the damage wasn't too great. However, he was also told not to move around till it had completely healed. Weiss turned to look at Jaune glumly lying in the bed directly opposite Ruby's.
Blake had gotten the worst of them all. According to Yang, she had swallowed a whole Congall eel. Every now and then, she would hold up her puke bucket and the obvious followed. Weiss knew that she could just leave, but Ruby would have to put up with the disgusting retching till Blake had finished. But that wasn't the worst.
The worst part was that the natural medications derived for each of their situations had a very common ingredient.
Boiled Melforan cactus paste.
"Alright Ruby." Weiss said as she held up a small bowl of the stuff. "Time for the afternoon medicine."
"No..." Ruby protested through a blocked nose. "That stuff sucks... It's disgusting..."
"Now look here Ruby." Weiss said in a tone that registered not unrelenting firmness, but compassionate pity. "You aren't going to get better unless you take your medicine. Even if it is really disgusting..."
Movement came from the right. Weiss turned as Blake lifted up the bucket and...
Weiss covered her ears, but the resulting retch was louder than anything could describe. She winced as Ruby turned her head, eyes widening after seeing something that should have remained censored to human eyes.
"Oh my God..." She gasped. "Weiss, Blake's puke is..."
"Shut up, shut up!" Weiss whispered frantically. "It'll just make it all the more worse!"
Yang had now come over to Blake with a bowl of the same concoction that served as Ruby's medicine. Pyrrha had also readied some muscle relaxant for Jaune, who seemed very apprehensive about her smearing it on him. She seemed very apprehensive as well.
"GOOOOOOD MORNING EVERYONE!"
Everyone (except Blake who was hunched over the bucket) turned to see Nora and Ren wheel in a large trolley laden with a pile of fruits, bread and water.
"Good morning Nora." Weiss greeted. Everyone else (except of course, Blake) waved a hand in greeting.
"Thanks so much for saving Ren's life!" Nora beamed. "I'm so grateful to all of you! But not because we are really close or anything. I mean, we are close, but not that close close."
Ren came in just as Nora was about to start on another circle of thoughts that probably wouldn't end. "What she means is, thanks for helping me with Melpox. And sorry for what's happened to you guys."
"Well, it's no biggie." Jaune smiled, wincing as Pyrrha touched his injured leg with a little too much force than was required.
Weiss stood up and walked over to the pair. "Tell me at least you brought something to help this lot?"
Ren glanced at Ruby coughing and sneezing violently, Jaune still groaning from pain with Pyrrha apologizing and Blake, who was still hunched over the bucket.
"Well," Nora gave the same bright toothy smile while gesturing to the huge tray. "We brought all this food!"
Weiss noted the large amount of fruit and bread stacked upon it. Then she noticed Nora digging through her pockets for...
...her notebook.
"Plus, I have loads of stuff for the conditions you guys have!" Nora said as she flipped through the pages. "So, for Blake, here's what Ren and I need!"
Weiss pulled Ren to the side as Nora continued on. "Please tell me you are just going to let the teachers decide how to handle this?"
"I'll do my best." Ren replied with a thumbs-up as Nora concluded.
"Ren and I will handle this on our own! Don't worry, it's not an excuse to hang out. I mean I'd love to but, that'd be weird right?"
Silence. For a minute, Nora wondered if she had managed to get the attention of everyone in the room. She thought for a bit, placing her hand on...
The trolley slipped out from under her and she tumbled, landing on her back. Additionally, the trolley flipped over, dunking water, fruit and bread all over the floor, some of it onto herself.
"Ooh..." She blinked, regarding the mess in the room. Everyone stared for a few seconds.
Nora stood up, wiping peach slices off herself. "Aww. It's broken..."
Ruby, Blake, Yang and Jaune's laughter exploded through the infirmary. Pyrrha made a failed attempt to hold in her giggling while Ren and Weiss merely looked at each other.
"For some reason, I feel better now. Hehe..." Blake chuckled slightly, her face still pale.
"What would you call this?" Ruby said through a blocked nose.
"Laughter is the best medicine?" Weiss frowned upon hearing Ruby's remark.
"Wow!" Nora exclaimed, flipping onto her feet. "Who knew laughter beats Melforan cactus remedies! We need to find a way to commercialize it! Weiss, do you know how we can feed laughter to someone? Wait, you can't eat it, can you?"
"I know!" Nora raised her finger in triumph. "We'll put forward an idea to mix laughter into conventional medicine! Weiss, can your family do that?"
"Nora?" Ren frowned.
"Yes?" She blinked.
"I don't think Weiss meant that laughter served as a medicine." He finished. "She probably means that a small bit of humor may just help in cheering someone up."
Nora blinked again. "Oh, right. Heehee..."
"I don't think that means you should stop though..." He offered.
Nora beamed. "Alright! Then how about this story of Ren and I taking out King Taijitus?"
Ren smiled slightly as Nora rambled on again about a story from who knew where in her memory. Yup. Just like gold.