Chapter 1:
"Your cocoa Miss." The waiter said as he placed the small cup down onto the table. The scent of hot chocolate wafted into her nose and her feline ears twitched in satisfaction, causing the black bow to move.
"Thanks." Blake Belladonna replied. The waiter merely nodded and walked off to serve another customer.
The cafe wasn't very crowded for today, which was rather surprising. Normally, it would be packed with throngs of people during the after-school hours, completely shutting the cafe out as a viable hangout spot.
Still, as team RWBY walked through the streets of Vale, they had seen the dock cafe rather sparsely populated. With Ruby being who she was, they naturally chose this spot as their after school study location.
"Control the twitching Blake." Ruby said as she downed the last of her orange juice. "Some of these people aren't known to take a kind gesture to Faunus."
"I can't help it..." Blake said in monotone. "When I smell food I like, it just happens. Besides, you needn't worry about me. Worry more about Yang who might just thrash the whole place if something happens to us."
"Hmm? Who me?" Came Ruby's older sister. She had been boring her eyes into a book from Beacon's library for the past ten minutes and the mention of her name caused her to look up.
"Yang, focus." Weiss said firmly. "We still have a lot to cover here." She reached to her own cup and sipped down some tea before continuing. "Now, let's go back to..."
Blake and Ruby chuckled slightly as Weiss wrestled to bring a rather distracted Yang back to the book. They had already done their own bit of studying and believed they should be safe for the upcoming quizzes the teachers had in store for them.
"So Blake, what do we do now?" Ruby asked. It was still 3pm and they hadn't planned for anything else that day. They had believed that getting studying done was going to take at least three hours. For now, it seemed it was Yang who was going to need the three hours.
"Well we have no plans." Blake said as she finished her cocoa. "Might as well just hang out till we need to go back right?"
The two of them turned as Yang and Weiss appeared to be moving forward in revision, albeit slowly. Suddenly, a television was turned on and the four girls redirected all of their attention to the sudden report.
"We interrupt your daily program to bring you this news." Came the voice of Lisa Lavender, news anchor of Vale News Network. "Police patrol boats currently have no information regarding the disappearance of the cargo ship S.S. Swiftness, which was due to arrive in port by 6am three days ago."
"The ship was reported to be carrying a large amount of cargo that includes Dust from Vacuo." She continued. "Although piracy seems to stem as the leading cause of the disappearance, police sources have still yet to confirm these suspicions."
Ruby frowned as the report switched from the anchor to a local reporter interviewing the chief of police. "Odd huh? How does a ship just vanish without a trace?"
"Maybe the pirates just sunk the ship the minute they got the cargo?" Yang asked, her attention completely turned away from the book. Weiss didn't seem bothered. In fact, the young Schnee heiress was now absorbed by the recent news as well.
"Well, father has been investing more in better security for the cargo ships belonging to the company." She said. "But recently, I heard he is also hiring private shipping lines to help out. After all, the last thing he wants is for some stupid White Fang dolts to ruin it all." Instantly, her eyes widened. "Oops, sorry Blake..."
"It's okay Weiss." Blake nodded. "They really are a bunch of dolts anyways. So, has increased security worked?"
"It's worked that he is now wondering if a financial crisis for the company is due." Weiss replied dryly. "And now with these strange disappearances, it may just get worse. Not a lot of revenue comes in quickly if they are delivered solely by train."
"Right." Blake agreed. She had been part of train heists on Schnee Dust before in her White Fang days. No doubt the White Fang would exploit them if they were used solely.
Weiss sighed. "Anyways, we need to get back to the matter at hand. Yang, you still have three chapters to go through. Remember, Professor Ozpin is only selecting the finest students to attend the Vacuo Open Arms Invitation."
Ruby thought of the announcement Professor Ozpin had given recently. The Vacuo Open Arms Invite was truly a momentous occasion for all at Beacon. It was an entire weekend at one of Vacuo's many training academies in an effort to create international bonds. Unfortunately, it had a very stringent selection criteria, and team RWBY really wanted to go.
"I just hope you don't go poking around too much." Yang joked. Obviously Weiss would be interested so that she could go and gather information on Vacuo's top students.
"You have no proof of that Yang." Weiss scowled. "Now, back to the books."