First of all, happy belated birthday Roseflare! Sorry I couldn't get anything specific for you up in time, but I hope that this general chapter of Field of Tomorrow will be enjoyable!
Thank you to everybody who reviewed last chapter! As a little experiment, I will be mixing things up a little bit today. I can also confirm that the plot is finally starting to pick up, so I hope that you'll look forward to that!
A huge thank you goes to both LightZephyr and another friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous in helping with editing and motivating respectively. You two are awesome!
Disclaimer… I feel like it should be obvious by now, but I'm going to have to say it again to be safe: I do not own RWBY or any of its related materials, nor is it my intention to pretend that I do.
Several days had passed since Ruby ran into Weiss' father outside the hospital, and everybody was starting to get busy as their respective lives picked up again. Even with everything else that was going on around her, Weiss Schnee was still unable to remain calm when replaying the scene in her head. The fact that somebody had actually ran into her father still boggled her to this day.
Sitting upright in her bed, Weiss was content with simply watching the different colored leaves spiral down to the ground. Finding something majestic about the sight, the heiress was clearly enjoying herself as a small smile could be found gracing her lips.
"Miss Schnee?"
And just hearing those two words was all it took for Weiss' mood to drop almost instantly.
"Just a minute!" Weiss called in response after a few seconds, fully aware that whoever was outside would wait there until she came out. Groaning silently, the young heiress forced herself to get up from the comfortable comforts of her bed and dragged herself to her wardrobe to make herself presentable to the outside world.
Opening the wide doors to reveal rows upon rows of specially designed and tailored clothes, Weiss' gaze fell on the relatively thick, white dress with black edging in the corner. Smiling, Weiss took the dress and put it on before grabbing a brush and started work on her hair.
Due to intensive care of her hair over the past few years, Weiss didn't need a lot of time to remove all the tangles in it despite only having just woken up. Switching out her brush with her hairband, the young heiress pulled her hair into a ponytail without fully realizing what her hands were doing.
Before she knew it, Weiss was already fully dressed and ready to go out after only a minute or two of work.
Giving herself a qyick once over in the standing mirror, Weiss was happy to see that she couldn't find any way to improve her looks anymore. With a content nod, Weiss moved away from the wardrobe and made her way to her room's door.
"Yes?" Weiss said as she opened the door, revealing an orange haired woman in her early twenties on the other side. While the heiress was shocked to see her of all people at her door, her gaze quickly lowered to the package in the woman's hands.
And everything directly made sense. Weiss didn't even need to hear the woman's words to know why she was there anymore.
"Your father asked you to—" the woman began nervously until a hand was almost shoved into her face, stopping her mid-sentence.
"I know," Weiss sighed dejectedly before taking the package and turning back to the deliverer, "Was that all?"
"Y-Yes, it was," the woman uttered, caught off guard by Weiss' direct response. As she opened and closed her mouth several times without saying anything, she finally managed to force her body to bow, "Have a good day, Miss Schnee. I will be taking my leave now."
"Thank you," Weiss smiled at the older woman, sighing softly as she watched her turn around and walk away. While she wasn't particularly close with any of the staff working for her father's company, Weiss somehow felt something sting deep down regardless at the woman's obvious efforts of keeping her distance.
"I guess I have other things to worry about now that you're back," Weiss muttered whilst eyeing the parcel in her hands. After a few seconds, the white haired woman had made up her mind, "Better get going then!"
It was less than an hour after the delivery that Weiss closed the car's door and found herself standing in front of the hospital once again. With the earlier delivered package tucked tightly under her arm, the white haired heiress stepped through the automated doors and let the warm air from the hospital's heaters grace her skin.
She was about to head for the elevators on the other side of the hall when a familiar voice calling out from behind her caused her to involuntarily stop mid-stride.
"Weiss!"
Before the called woman could even turn around, she was tackled in a fierce tackle by a familiar brunette.
"Ruby?!" Weiss cried out in surprise, correctly identifying the brunette who was latching on to her. While keeping the package in her hand as far away from harm as possible, she used her other hand to try and get Ruby off of her with no success, "Let go!"
"You heard her sis, you better let go before you get hurt," an amused voice could be heard from behind Weiss' back. Twisting her body as much as possible with Ruby's hold, the heiress saw Yang and Blake standing by the door, both wearing a wide smile, "Hey!"
"Could you perhaps stop grinning and help me out here?" Weiss grunted as she still fought desperately to get Ruby away from her. The brunette, much to the heiress' annoyance, had a vice-like grip that she was not sure she could break with two hands, let alone one.
"And end the show prematurely? No way!" Yang grinned as she leaned back. This comment of hers resulted in a painful jab in the sides from Blake, causing Yang to yelp in pain, "Blake! What was that for?!"
"What do you think it was for?" Blake deadpanned before walking over to the still struggling Weiss, "It's a simple trick, really. All you have to do is… this."
In a swift motion, Blake grabbed Ruby's elbows and applied pressure, causing Ruby to retract her arms and freeing Weiss in the process. As Ruby collected herself from the ground, all the while grumbling to herself, Weiss turned to address her savior, "Thanks, I guess."
"You're welcome," Blake smiled before turning serious, "But you owe us an explanation you know."
"An explanation?" Weiss echoed, eyeing Blake and her friends in confusion, expecting the raven haired woman to be messing with her. When she saw similar serious looks on both Ruby's and Yang's faces, Weiss was sure that they weren't messing with her, "What do you mean that I owe you an explanation?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Yang asked while regrouping with the other three, "We saw you by Eleventh Mist earlier today and called out to you, but you just straight up ignored all of us."
"What?" Weiss cried out in shock as she processed this new information. After a few seconds, the heiress added, "What do you mean?"
"Come on Weiss, don't lie," Ruby urged with a knowing smile, "We passed Eleventh Mist on our way here and saw you right outside it. I was practically yelling your name but you ignored me regardless! I thought we were friends!"
"My ears are still ringing…" Blake muttered off-handedly, but soft enough for only Yang to hear her.
"But that's impossible," Weiss mused, brow furrowed as she was clearly deep in thought.
"What do you mean 'it is impossible'?" Ruby asked before turning to both Blake and Yang, "That woman we saw in front of Eleventh Mist. She was wearing a white dress with black edging right? We didn't mistake her for somebody else right?"
"I don't think we have," Yang responded as she frowned in thought, "She even had white hair that came to her waist, and even had a fair skin tone, too."
"I'm still sure that you mistook some girl for me," Weiss held on stubbornly. With a soft sigh, she added, "I was at home the entire day and only just got out to come here an hour ago. I didn't even go anywhere near Eleventh Mist."
"If you're sure," Blake sighed before stretching, a loud clonk could be heard from her shoulders that caused the three other women to jump in surprise. Seemingly content, Blake turned back to the group, "But chatting while standing is such a pain. Isn't there supposed to be a café in the hospital?"
"There is one right there," Weiss said while pointing in the right direction. As sky blue eyes met amber ones, a smile graced both Weiss' and Blake's lips, "Coffee?"
"Tea," Blake responded before following the heiress to the café with a light spring in her step.
The two of them had left both Yang and Ruby behind without even realizing it, almost as if the two sisters didn't exist at all.
"Why do I get the feeling that they are already used to this?" Yang grumbled while walking beside her sister, the two of them going at a visibly slower pace than Blake and Weiss were.
"Well, they do know each other longer than we do," Ruby responded with a shrug before plopping down in the seat across Weiss. It was only then that her eyes fell on the package that the heiress had been carrying all day and, unable to suppress her curiosity any longer, voiced her interest, "Hey Weiss, what you got there?"
"I don't know," Weiss admitted as she slowly lowered her cup, "My father asked me to give this to Winter."
"Winter?" Yang asked, the blonde's voice shaking Weiss back to reality.
"F-Forget I said anything!" Weiss rushed as she glared the older sister, Yang and Ruby getting caught off guard by Weiss' sudden outburst but Blake nodding discreetly in understanding, "What about you? I've seen you quite a lot here lately, Ruby."
"That's right, you have haven't you?" Ruby smiled as she recalled the various times that they had run into one another before going on to answer Weiss' question, "We're here to visit Neo. She's an old friend of ours, I could have sworn that I told you about her already… haven't I?"
"I think you might have mentioned her once…" Weiss muttered as she raked her brain to try and remember a 'Neo' having been brought up.
"She's awesome! Hey, how about we—" Ruby tried to say enthusiastically but was interrupted when a buzzing sound caught all four women's attention.
"Sorry…" Weiss apologized almost sheepishly as she took her phone out and scanned the screen for several seconds. With a sigh, she pocketed her phone again and stood up, "That was Winter. I'm afraid I have to go."
"That's a shame," Ruby said dejectedly as she slumped down in her chair. Both Yang and Blake shared a similar sad look as they watched Weiss gather her things, "We'll have to introduce you to Neo the next time we run into you here then."
"I look forward to it," Weiss smiled. She was about to walk off until she seemingly remembered something. Gently putting the parcel back on the table, Weiss took out several bills and offered them to Blake, "For our drinks. Keep the change."
"You know how I feel about using your money to pay for my expenses, Weiss," Blake sighed as she kept her attention on her cup, "I'm not using your money to pay for this."
"Have it your way then," Weiss shrugged, instead turning her attention to the two sisters and trying her luck with them, "Here. Use it to pay for the drinks."
"Are you sure Weiss?" Ruby asked, unsure of what to make of the situation, "I don't want to feel like we're using you for—"
"Ruby, I want to pay for us," Weiss interjected, stressing each syllable menacingly. With a rough exhalation of air, Weiss slammed the bills on the table and took her belongings, "I'm leaving that there. Do what you want with it."
Without giving any of her three friends a second glance, Weiss turned her back to them and walked off.
It wasn't until five minutes had passed when one of the three finally managed to break the heavy silence.
"Now what?" Yang sighed, eyeing the money that Weiss had left behind, "You think we should find a way to give these back to Weiss?"
"Don't waste your energy, I can guarantee you that that won't work. Trust me, I tried," Blake responded grimly as she stood up and took the bills, "Should we go and visit Neo then? I'll catch up with you two in a bit."
"Winter? Can I come in? It's me, Weiss." Weiss called out after knocking on the door. Taking a step back, the heiress hurriedly smoothened out her dress before the door clicked open.
Before Weiss could fully psych herself up for what was to come, the door had already swung open and a woman in her late twenties or low thirties at most smiled down at her. Clearly a patient there, if the hospital gown that she was wearing was any indication, she had Weiss' eyes, hair and skin tone.
"Weiss!" the woman, Winter, smiled brightly as soon as she saw who was visiting her, "Come in come in!"
"Should you even be out of bed in your condition?" Weiss asked hesitantly, eyeing the state of her sister. While Winter wasn't visibly injured as much as Weiss' words and tone implied she was, the younger sister couldn't help but ask regardless.
"I should be able to do at least this much if my sister comes all the way to visit me, now shouldn't I?" Winter responded with a smile as Weiss helped her back in bed. As soon as the older sister hit the soft covers of her bed, Winter's face turned serious, "So why are you really here? You wouldn't come all the way here just to say hello."
"You got me there," Weiss smiled sheepishly before handing the package that she had been carrying with her the entire day over to Winter, "Father asked me to give this to you."
"I see…" Winter trailed off as she accepted the delivered item. Carefully placing it on the nightstand, she focused all of her attention back on her younger sister, "So how have you been, Weiss?"
"I'm doing alright, just…" now it was Weiss' turn to trail off as the younger Schnee turned to look out the window. Much to her amusement, Weiss saw that the majestic dance of the falling leaves hadn't ended.
"Just… what?" Winter asked after a prolonged period of time, genuinely curious to know what her sister was about to say, "You can tell me Weiss."
"I'm just worried about you!" Weiss blurted out before realizing what she was doing. More so than the fact that Weiss was worried about her, Winter was caught even more off guard by the fact that Weiss' voice cracked whilst saying that. Weiss had seemingly noticed this as well as she was a lot softer when adding, "After what happened with mother, you…"
"Weiss…" Winter breathed out as she watched her sister. While the beginnings of a smile started to form on the older Schnee's lips, she quickly swapped it out for a stern look, "How are your fencing classes going?"
"They are going great," Weiss answered curtly, taking full advantage of the question to promptly change the topic of discussion, "As a matter of fact, I have been told that I am ten classes ahead ahead."
"Only ten?" Winter asked with a playful smirk, "When I was at your level, I was at least fifteen classes ahead of the program. What have you been doing all this time?"
"Well, I—" Weiss began, only to trail off after hearing Winter's joyous laughter. With a light pout, and an embarrassed flush on her face, Weiss tried to change the subject once again, "Why did you ask?"
"Here's the thing, and I need you to listen carefully to me…" Winter trailed off, suddenly completely serious once again as she gazed directly into Weiss' eyes, "I want you to bring Myrtenaster with you at all times from now on."
"Myrtenaster? How did—?" Weiss exclaimed in shock, apparently more surprised that her sister knew that she had named her rapier than telling her to bring her with her. Accepting that issue to not be the most important at that time, Weiss instead questioned the actual order, "Why do I have to bring my rapier with me? Isn't that a bit… much?"
Winter did not directly answer her sister's questions; rather, the older Schnee took her time with exhaling the breath that she didn't knew she was holding. It was only when her she inhaled again that Winter turned to look at Weiss again, but something was different this time.
Winter's eyes held an intensity that Weiss had never seen before, intensity so powerful that the younger sister unconsciously took a step back.
"You can't tell anyone, especially father, that I told you this. Do you understand?" Winter started, her eyes still locked on her little sister. Weiss gulped nervously, visibly intimidated by the air around her sister, but nodded to indicate that she would. It was only then that Winter continued, "It wasn't an accident that happened with both mother and I; both times were planned attacks. And they may be planning another very soon."
"What?!"
"I thought I said that I would catch up with you two," Blake grumbled as she saw the waiting Ruby and Yang just a bit away from the hospital's café, "Why did you wait for me?"
"Is that how you thank us for being considerate?" Yang responded with a mock-hurt expression before laughing it off, "In our household, we do things together when possible, right Rubes?"
"We sure do!" Ruby nodded vigorously as the three friends finally reached the elevators, with Ruby taking the initiative to press the button. As they waited for the elevator to descend to the ground floor, Ruby turned back to Blake, "Besides, it's not like we're in any hurry, right?"
"I suppose you're right…" Blake sighed in defeat, causing both Ruby and Yang to grin in response as the elevator doors finally opened.
Blake, Ruby and Yang all stepped inside, with the former pressing the button for Neo's floor. Due to a lack of anything to say, the three of them fell into a heavy silence while waiting to reach their desired floor.
It was a floor before their destination that somebody finally broke the silence.
"Thanks for coming you two," Ruby muttered, with the doors sliding open almost immediately after that, "I'm sure that Neo appreciates it as much as I do, if not more."
"What are you talking about?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow, catching Ruby's attention as the brunette almost gaped at her taller and older friend, "Neo is our friend, too. It's only natural for us to spend time with her, right Yang?"
"You bet that's right!" Yang grinned, being the first to exit the elevator and thus had to wait for the other two to follow her, "Besides, she's done so much for you, Rubes. I feel bad not coming to visit her more often. I owe her!"
"I know Yang, I know," Ruby smiled as the three women began walking in the direction of Neo's room, "How often have you two actually visited her?"
"I think about once or twice," Yang responded sadly as Blake nodded solemnly in agreement, not having visited Neo all that much either, "Our jobs clashed with the visiting hours so we haven't really had a lot of chances to actually visit her."
"Better late than never I guess," Ruby grinned before realizing that she was standing before Neo's door. Sharing a smile with both Blake and Yang, Ruby soon found her hand knocking on the door, "Neo! It's me, Ruby! Can I come in?"
Much to Ruby's shock, the three of them were met with an eerie silence in response. Not knowing what else to do, Ruby tried the door handle and pushed.
The door swung open after the brunette put a bit of weight behind it.
"That's strange," Blake mused as she watched the door swing open, "Neo doesn't normally leave the door unlocked, does she?"
"No, she doesn't…" Ruby breathed out as she entered the room.
A light gasp from the youngest of the three caused both Blake and Yang to rush into the room as well.
"Ruby! What's wrong?" Yang cried out in alarm before taking a good look of the room.
The room was much like how Ruby remembered it to be. The walls were as white as Ruby remembered them to be. Everything was in the place that they had to be, or at least where they had been the last time Ruby came here. The only thing that wasn't there was…
"Where's Neo?" Yang asked to nobody in particular, being the first of the three to find her voice again after fully processing the sight of the room that they were in.
"I don't know…" Ruby muttered in response as she slowly made her way to the bed, "This isn't the usual time for her examination, either. Even if it was, she doesn't usually leave the room."
"Perhaps…" Blake mused, apparently deep in thought as she took another look around. When Yang turned in her direction, the raven haired woman knew that she had to elaborate. With a heavy sigh, she did, but was visibly uncomfortable while doing so, "You see… there have been a lot of incidents with people getting hospitalized and hospitalized people suddenly… disappearing… perhaps—"
"NO!" Ruby shouted, her voice sounding a lot louder than it would have due to the quiet atmosphere of the room.
"But what if—" Blake tried again, trying to bring her point across before being interrupted once again.
"I don't believe it!" Ruby almost shrieked, Yang visibly flinching at both the sound of her sister's cry and the sight of the tears in the brunette's eyes, "There's no way that Neo… Neo can't…"
Without finishing her sentence, Ruby had already bolted and made a wild dash for the stairs.
Yang and Blake were both forced to watch her go, unable to think of anything to do or say that might have stopped Ruby in time.
The seconds that followed felt like they dragged on forever, with both Yang and Blake being painfully aware of the heavy silence that was on their shoulder.
"You just had to bring that up, didn't you?" Yang finally asked after what could have been years of silence, her voice practically dripping with anger as she turned on Blake.
"I was trying to get her ready for the worst case scenario," Blake replied defensively, but almost immediately deflated, "You know I didn't mean to hurt Ruby; I don't want anything bad happening to Neo any more than Ruby does!"
"I know…" Yang exhaled, trying to release as much of her anger as possible. When she next spoke, much to Blake's relief, she had visibly calmed down considerably, "But we have to find out what really happened to Neo. It's not like her to just… disappear… like that."
"Should we try the front office?" Blake offered without any hesitation, "If anybody would have any news on her, it would be them. Whether good or bad."
"Right… let's go."
While Blake and Yang were still in Neo's room discussing what to do, Ruby had abandoned the horrendously slow elevator and chosen the stairs instead. In less than half a minute, Ruby had traversed the two flights of stairs to reach the ground floor, and was now racing towards the front office.
"Ma'am?" the man sitting at the front office asked a panting Ruby, "Please refrain from running in the hospital."
"I'm sorry, but you got to help me!" Ruby shouted before being forced to hunch over in a desperate effort to calm down her breathing.
"O-Of course!" the man blurted out, not knowing what to make of Ruby's state and request but still willing to help the brunette out.
"Neo…politan… room… three ten…" Ruby panted before taking "Where is she?"
"Well, she—" the man started, until a loud ring caught both of their attention.
"Sorry…" Ruby apologized sheepishly as she took out her phone. As expected, she received a message.
It was seeing who sent it that made Ruby's blood freeze.
"Ma'am?" the man asked carefully, noticing the change in the brunette's posture after Ruby read the message, "Are you all right?"
"Ruby! There you are!" a familiar voice shouted from the direction of the elevators. While the patients and workers all flinched at the loud call, Ruby herself didn't react in any way to the call.
It wasn't long until both Yang and Blake reached Ruby's side, with the former placing a warm hand on the brunette's shoulder, "We've been looking for you! So you decided to come here as well, huh?"
Blake, not rushing into Ruby like Yang did, was the first to notice the trembling of Ruby's figure, "Ruby, what's wrong?"
Hearing Blake's words was all it took for Yang's cheerful smile to be replaced with a worried frown as she, too, noticed the state that her sister was in.
Before Yang could speak, however, Ruby had turned around and handed her phone to them.
Thank you for reading and until next time! On a side note: I don't own Toaru Majutsu no Index or its spinoff, Toaru Kagaku no Railgun, either; nor do I intend to pretend that I do simply because I referenced those series… multiple times… once again… Take care!