The Dance
Weiss found herself standing before Guyver 2, who was reaching for his chest plates. Weiss was about to draw Myrtenaster, but much to her horror, the rapier was not with her. Guyver 2 let out a small chuckle before turning to his left. Weiss looked to where Guyver 2's attention was directed towards, and gasped as she saw hundreds of innocent people cowering in fear as the evil Guyver charged up his Mega Smasher, his chuckle turning into cruel laughter.
"No…" Weiss whispered as she tried to summon her glyphs, but nothing happened.
Guyver 2 opened his chest plates and fired his Mega Smasher at the innocent people.
Weiss could only watch in horror as those people were wiped out in a flash of light.
"NOOOO!" Weiss screamed, but the screams of the innocent drowned out her voice.
Weiss shot up from her bed, screaming in terror, causing the rest of her team to wake up. Ruby fell off her bed when she heard Weiss's scream and landed face first to the floor.
"Ow…" Ruby whined before shooting up to her feet. "Weiss, what's wrong?" she asked her partner.
"Yeah, it's the middle of the night," Yang said, wanting to go back to sleep.
"Is it another nightmare?" Ruby asked, worried for her partner.
"It's nothing," Weiss said quickly. "Everyone just go back to sleep," she told her teammates before turning around to avoid eye contact with the others.
Ruby and Yang looked at each other, not convinced by Weiss's dismissal of what was bothering her. For the last two nights, Weiss has been having nightmares involving the deaths that Guyver 2 was responsible for. However, the sisters knew that Weiss wouldn't open up to them about the event, which meant that the rest of team RWBY was in the dark about why it bothered her so much. The sisters decided to go back to sleep, figuring that they would talk about it in the morning. Before climbing back into her hanging bed, Ruby noticed that Blake was silent during the exchange, almost as if she wasn't awake.
For the past few days, team RWBY had been coming to terms with what had happened during their first unofficial mission. The fact that many people were killed by Roman and Guyver 2 had a big effect on the girls as Weiss hasn't been able to sleep well because of the deaths. However, the biggest thing that affected the girls was witnessing Sho coming close to killing Roman.
Ruby was terrified that Sho was so willing to kill someone. Ever since she and her friends met him, Sho had been one of the kindest and sweetest guys she had met, next to Jaune. He was even able to befriend team CRDL, off all teams. Yet, the sight of him holding Roman in one hand and preparing to use his vibration blade to slice the criminal in half, horrified her to no end. It was an image that haunted the poor girl in her sleep.
It was like Sho was a dark interpretation of the heroes her father and Yang read to her when she was younger.
'Sho…' Ruby mentally said the boy's name before climbing back onto her suspended bed.
The next day, Goodwitch's class
Today's combat class would be considered a normal one, except that it was a four against one match between team CRDL and Pyrrha Nikos. If the students could bet on these sparring matches, many students, including the ones from the other academies, would be betting on Pyrrha. Nobody believed that team CRDL had a chance of winning, including the RDL members of said team, yet they had no choice as Pyrrha requested that she sparred against them and Glynda agreed to it.
The match was more of a beating as team CRDL couldn't land a hit on her, and any hits that made contact were blocked by Pyrrha's shield. Sky was the first to fall as his skills with his halberd were not as good as one would suspect. Dove and Russel had a good tag team going on but Pyrrha still had the upper hand as she managed to knock Russel down while Dove backed off to fire the pistol portion of his sword. However, Pyrrha blocked the shots before countering and managing to push Dove back. That was when Cardin attacked with his mace, rushing Pyrrha with the intent of putting the pressure on her. This was enough for Dove to recover and join Cardin in double teaming the Mistral champion.
As the match continued, the other students watched in awe at how Pyrrha was dominating team CRDL. Pyrrha's teammates were cheering her on as well as team RWBY. However, Sho wasn't focusing on the match as his mind was on other things.
Flashback
"What do you mean, don't talk about what happened last night!" Sho shouted in disbelief as he stood up from his seat.
Sho was in Ozpin's office with the headmaster, Glynda, and General Ironwood. The three of them had called for him involving the incident in the highway. The three adults knew about team RWBY's little investigation as well as Sho following them. Ironwood, wasn't happy when he found out that a prototype Paladin was stolen and was being used by the White Fang, while Sho wasn't happy about Ozpin telling him to not disclose any information about what happened. His mood wasn't any better when he saw the news report claiming the incident was simply a tragic traffic accident with the casualty count being much lower than it was.
"Mr. Fukamachi, you must understand that we cannot let anyone know about what happened," Ozpin told Sho.
"Are you telling me that I should just ignore the fact that dozens, if not hundreds of people died last night!?" Sho shouted in anger. "A terrorist organization got a hold of a piece of military equipment, a highway chase happened in the middle of the night, and you want to sweep it under the rug with this bullshit story!" he yelled while staring down Ozpin.
"Sho, we cannot let the civilian population know about this as it would cause a panic," Ozpin said before sipping his coffee. "And panic will bring about the Grimm," he added.
"So, you would rather have people ignorant to the danger that is under their noses," Sho said before sitting back down. "I can see that working out fine," he said sarcastically.
"It is in our best interest," Glynda said while looking over the images of the aftermath. "It is our duty as Huntsmen and…" she tried to continue.
"To what?" Sho interrupted. "Lie to the people so that they can focus on some festival that celebrates peace by having students beat the shit out of each other in a tournament," he added, annoyed with what the combat instructor was trying to tell him.
"Believe me, I do not like this either," Ironwood said to Sho, wanting to get the boy to understand that he too did not like this decision. "I would be more than willing to increase security measures so that such a tragedy wouldn't happen," he continued.
"Now James," Ozpin said to the Atlas general. "Shows of force would only cause more problems," he said before standing up.
"I don't believe this," Sho muttered, standing up once again. "Here you are, a headmaster of a school dedicated to the safety of the people, yet you want the people to be blind to the immediate danger!" he yelled, his anger building up. "That is the most hypocritical thing I have ever seen in my life," he added.
Ozpin didn't say anything for a moment.
"Mr. Fukamachi, I will say this again," Ozpin said, his tone slightly lower. "Do not tell anyone about what happened last night," he told his student.
Sho stayed silent for a moment, his mind was made up about the event, yet he found himself wondering if Ozpin truly cared about the people.
"Do you honestly think people will trust you if you continue to keep them in the dark?" Sho asked Ozpin. "Especially your students?" he added.
Ozpin didn't reply, but that was enough for Sho.
"Then don't hold your breath on me keeping quiet about this," Sho said as he turned to the exit. "Innocent people died, and I won't let their deaths be forgotten," he added as he left.
End of Flashback
"Hey Sho," Jaune called out to his enigmatic friend.
"Huh…?" Sho said, snapping out of his thoughts. "Sorry, what was it Jaune?" he asked.
"Professor Goodwitch called you to come down to spar," Jaune told Sho.
Sho looked to see Goodwitch looking at Sho, annoyed that he was spacing out. He also noticed that team CRDL was behind him. He also spotted Russel having his right arm being tended to by Nebula, signifying that the four bullies lost. Team RWBY didn't make eye contact with Sho, due to three of them still feeling awful for what happened back on the highway, while Blake seemed more focused on her book.
"You okay man?" Sky, sporting a swollen cheek, asked Sho from the bench behind him.
"Yeah…" Sho replied before standing up and heading to Goodwitch.
Once on the platform, Goodwitch started looking at the other students to find Sho an opponent.
"Now, for this match…" Goodwitch started. "How about we have…" she tried to find a student.
"I would like to be Fukamachi's opponent," a new voice interrupted.
Sho's eyes widened as he turned to the double doors and saw a familiar face.
"Makashima!?" Sho said aloud, shocked to see him in Beacon.
'Makashima?' Glynda noted, confused by that name. 'I could have sworn his name was Zeus,' she thought to herself.
The other students looked at the new comer and several of the girls found themselves blushing at the sight of the handsome young man. The only ones not blushing were Ruby, Nora, and Nebula for different reasons. Ruby, being the naive person that she was, didn't think much about him while Nebula was busy telling Russel that he should have used different tactics during his team's match with Pyrrha. As for Nora, her mind was on something else entirely. Many were certain her mind was on another planet.
The man on the other hand, simply ignored the stares as he focused on Sho.
"Now, wait a minute…" Glynda said as she followed Sho. "You are not a student Mr. Olympus," she told the man.
"Maybe so," Zeus replied. "But I am probably the only person who could give Fukamachi a proper match," he added.
This got the attention of many students, a few of which were not pleased with this man saying that they weren't good enough. However, some were also curious about this man and wanted to see how he stacked against Sho. Two students in particular were very curious, Emerald and Mercury, the exchange students from Haven Academy.
Once Zeus reached the platform, the two men faced each other as Goodwitch gave up on trying to talk Zeus out of this.
"This is going to be a cake walk," Cardin said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Octavia asked. "Neither of them even bothered to get their weapons," she pointed out.
"Sho doesn't need a weapon," Cardin told the redhead girl from Vacuo. "Next to Pyrrha, Sho is easily the best fighter in our class," he boasted.
Team RWBY and JNPR nodded their heads along with Cardin's team at that statement.
"Ready Fukamachi?" Zeus asked Sho.
"Yeah," Sho answered.
Glynda looked at the two before setting up their meters. Sho's was his usual setup while Zeus's was meter was like everyone else. However, the aura meter displayed nothing, much to Glynda and the students' confusion.
"Why isn't his meter green?" Ruby asked.
Zeus smirked at this little confusion.
"You should probably change mine to be like Fukamachi's meter," Zeus told Glynda.
"Any why is that?" Glynda asked.
"GUYVER/BIO-BOOST!" the two men shouted.
Everyone's eyes widened at the sight of two transparent barriers surrounding the two men. The Beacon students were used to Sho activating his Guyver armor while the exchange students were shocked at the sight of the organic teal armor attaching itself to Sho's body. However, none of them expected a dark purple, almost black, organic armor attaching itself to Zeus.
Zeus's armor had a similar setup to Sho's armor, however there were key differences. The first difference was that Zeus's armor had three spikes on each sides of the large horn at the center. The head sensors were on the sides of his head. The lenses for his eyes were smaller than Sho's and if one were to look closely they would notice the slight curve at the bottom of them that curved inwards. There was also a spike on each steam vent. The vibration globes were smaller and were placed between where the nose and mouth would be located.
For the body, there was a curved spike on where the collar bone would be located. The chest plates had a muscular look while still being smooth. Each plate had two organic hinges at the bottom corners, unlike Sho, who had three. The armor protecting the stomach was two pieces that were closely placed together with a smaller third on top of them. Each of his forearms had two vibration blades instead of one.
Overall, Zeus's armor had a more aggressive look in comparison to Sho's armor.
"No way," Jaune said as he looked at Zeus in shock.
"There's another one," Weiss whispered in disbelief and terror as she remembered Guyver 2.
"A third…Guyver," Blake whispered to herself in horror. "No…," she added.
"What the fuck are they!?" Octavia shouted in shock.
"Watch Your Language!" Ruby cried out after hearing Octavia curse.
Many other students started muttering to themselves at the sight of these two armored beings. While the students of the other academies talked about what they were seeing as none of them had ever seen anything like these two, Glynda was shocked at the sight of this dark Guyver.
'James has one of his own,' Glynda's mind was trying to process this fact, as the two Guyvers stood in front of each other.
"We are ready to begin Glynda," Zeus told the blonde woman.
Hearing Zeus speak to her caused Glynda to snap out of her stupor before changing the meter that was used for Zeus to be like Sho's meter. The students noticed this change in setup, which the Beacon students understood while the exchange students didn't.
"Why did she change his meter?" Nebula asked Russel, still having a tough time getting used to see Sho's armor despite seeing it before. With another one like Sho, Nebula was beginning to wonder how many more there were on Remnant with this armor.
"Whenever Sho uses his armor, his Aura is suddenly unreadable," Russel told the Vacuo girl. "The staff set his up this way so that every time Sho gets hit, it would be counted as him taking damage," he explained. "The stronger the attack Sho receives, the lower the meter drops," he added.
"But why set it up like that?" Nebula asked. "All his opponent would have to do is hit him with a powerful attack," she pointed out.
Russel pointed at Yang, who was eagerly waiting for the match between Sho and Agito to begin.
"Yang over there is one of the strongest fighters in our class," Russel started telling Nebula. "She can knock a guy like Cardin out cold with just one punch," he added, getting the NDGO leader's full attention. "She never got Sho's meter to drop past eighty-seven percent," he told her.
"I will beat him one day," Yang said, turning her attention to Russel. "Just you watch," she told the delinquent, determination in her eyes as she believed that she would beat Sho in a match.
"You've said that before Xiao Long and so far, its twenty-four to zip in Sho's favor," Dove pointed out, joining in the conversation.
Yang's response was a bit of stuttering before turning away from Russel and Dove to focus on the match that was about to start.
"You may begin," Glynda told the two Guyvers.
Once they heard Glynda, Sho and Zeus charged at each other. Sho threw a punch at the dark Guyver, but Zeus dodged the punch so he could counter with a kick to Sho's head. Sho stumbled a bit before regaining his footing and fired his head beam at Zeus. Guyver 3 titled his head to the right to avoid the shot before activating his gravity controller to fire a one-handed pressure cannon.
"What the heck was that?" Gwen asked in awe.
The students watched in shock as Zeus's pressure cannon flew at Sho, but the teal Guyver jumped away from it. The pressure cannon hit the platform, obliterating the spot it hit, leaving a clean hole in its place.
"That attack punctured the platform so easily," Pyrrha noted, quite shocked that the Guyvers had that kind of power.
Back to the fight, Guyver 3 rushed Guyver 1, catching the younger Guyver off guard as the older one punched him in the chest, knocking him towards the wall. The force behind Zeus's punch was enough to cause Sho to go through the wall, much to Yang's shock.
"He punched Sho so hard that he knocked him out of the arena," Yang said in disbelief.
As for Sho, he got back into the fight by punching a massive hole through the wall right next to the first hole, much to Glynda's frustration.
"Couldn't you have at least gone through the already broken wall!?" Glynda yelled in anger, throwing her hands up in the air as well.
The many students didn't know how to respond to what Glynda said.
The two Guyvers on the other hand, ignored the teacher as Sho rushed towards Zeus, vibration blades activated. Zeus activated his four vibration blades and prepared to counter Sho's next attack. Blake and Sun realized what was about to happen, so the two of them stood up and ran out of that classroom as quickly as possible.
"What's with them?" Sky asked, confused by why those two would run.
Sky got his answer when a very loud sound invaded his eardrums as well as everyone else when the two Guyvers' vibration blades collided. Everyone screamed in pain as they covered their ears, hoping to muffle or block out the high frequency feedback. For Glynda, it was probably worse as she was only a few feet away from them. The screen on her scroll cracked before breaking completely as well as her glasses.
The two Guyvers pulled away from each other and looked as if they were about to continue. However, Zeus lowered his guard before standing up.
"That's enough for now Fukamachi," Zeus told Sho.
The students were stunned by Zeus calling the match over. They were equally stunned when Sho and Zeus retracted their armors from their bodies before vanishing.
"What…that's it?" Yang said in disbelief.
"What a rip-off!" Octavia complained at how these two just called it quits. She was really getting into the match, seeing such powerful fighters going at it.
Weiss, unlike everyone else sighed in relief. She didn't want to see these two Guyvers go all out and use their more powerful weapons.
"You were holding back during our match," Agito said to Sho through the organisms on his back. "Why?" he asked, wanting an answer from the younger Guyver.
"I didn't want to put the others in danger," Sho told Agito telepathically.
"Is that also why you held back against Guyver 2?" Agito asked.
While this telepathic conversation continued, several students were curious as to why the two Guyvers weren't saying anything.
"Uh…what are they doing?" one student asked.
"No clue dude," another student respond, just as confused as everyone else.
"I see," Zeus finally said aloud, confusing everyone even further as he walked towards the exit. "But you should know Fukamachi, that if you continue to hesitate then Lisker will catch up to you in no time," he told Sho. "You value the friendships you have made here, but those friendships are your greatest weakness," he added before leaving.
Several of Sho's friends didn't like what Zeus said as they glared at the man, but Sho didn't say anything in rebuttal.
"I can't believe that guy would say something like that," Ruby said as she walked up to Sho.
"He's not entirely wrong though," Sho said as he started walking out of the classroom, ignoring Glynda mentioning about the upcoming dance and the students first missions the day after the dance.
Team RWBY, JNPR, CRDL, and NDGO watched as Sho exited the classroom along with the rest of the class.
Once outside the classroom, Sho noticed that Zeus was waiting for him outside.
"Feel like talking?" Zeus asked.
Sho turned his head around to see the friends he made since he got here and remembered how he still hadn't told them the truth about himself.
"Agito," Sho called out to the third Guyver. "Should I tell them the truth about the Guyver and everything?" he asked.
Realizing that this would be a private conversation, the man whose real name was Agito decided to answer in kind.
"Normally, I would say the less that know the better," Agito told Sho. "However, that was when we had Chronos to deal with, but here in this world there are other problems," he continued.
"I know that much, but…" Sho started but stopped. "But they at least deserve to know about where we come from," he finally said.
"Do you think they will believe you?" Agito asked. "Think about it Sho, four humans from another world. Three of which are equipped with alien armor and the forth can turn into any kind of monster he wants," he pointed out. "If you want to tell them, that is your choice," he told Sho. "But I think you should be focusing on stopping one of them from doing something even more reckless than what happened on the highway," he warned Sho.
Sho's eyes widened when Agito told him that.
"You know about what happened that night?" Sho asked out loud, attracting the attention of his friends.
"Yes, I know about it," Agito answered while turning his attention to team RWBY. "Though, I suspect one of them hasn't given up on the matter," he said to Sho. "You might have to keep an eye on her," he suggested before leaving.
Sho watched as Agito left while his friends caught up to the young Guyver.
"Hey Sho," Ruby said as she approached Sho. "I was wondering, are you still mad at us?" she asked him.
"No, I'm not mad," Sho told Ruby, much to her joy.
"Oh, that's good," Ruby sighed in relief. "We just thought that after what happened, you were mad at us for what happened," she continued.
"Ruby, what happened that night, it's in the past now, so there is no point in being mad at you girls about that" Sho told Ruby. "I'm just disappointed in you girls," he added. "You and your team thought you could handle it, but you couldn't and that led to a lot of people dying," he explained.
"That's not true!" Blake yelled out from behind Sho. "We did everything we could!" she told Sho.
"Did you?" Sho replied. "Or were you blinded by a need to stop something that is far bigger than what you actually thought?" he asked.
"Okay…" Russel interrupted as his team, JNPR, and NDGO caught up. "This looks like a private matter, so how about the rest of us leave them alone," he suggested to the other teams.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Jaune agreed with Russel. "Can't believe I just said that," he muttered to himself in disbelief.
"Good call Russel," Cardin agreed with his unofficial second-in-command.
"Okay," Nebula joined in. "So how about that dance?" she asked her teammates, changing the subject as quickly as possible.
It didn't take long for the rest of NDGO to start talking about going shopping for dresses for the dance, which led to Pyrrha and Nora joining in, wanting to get to know the Vacuo girls.
"And this is where Russel makes his exit," Russel whispered as he slowly walked away from everyone.
"And just where do you think you're going?" Nebula asked Russel without looking his way.
Russel stopped in his tracks and turned around to see Nebula. Nebula turned to face her boyfriend with a sweet smile on her face that was anything but sweet.
"You weren't thinking about leaving me behind just to skip out on clothes shopping now?" Nebula asked with a faux sweet tone.
"What…no, of course I wouldn't," Russel replied in fear.
"Good," Nebula said as she walked towards Russel, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him away with the rest of her team following.
The rest of team CRDL watched as Russel was dragged to his fate.
"Wow, he sure is whipped," Dove commented before turning to Cardin and Sky. "Game night?" he suggested.
"Game night," Cardin and Sky agreed.
With that CDL left, leaving team JNPR to simply just head to their dorm room while Sho dealt with team RWBY.
"Why do you keeping on trying to get us to stop!?" Blake yelled, angry that Sho didn't understand her.
"Because, you're putting yourselves and others in danger," Sho answered. "Danger, none of you seem to understand," he added.
"I'm sure we can handle anything Roman and the White Fang can throw at us," Yang joined in, putting up a brave front.
"Even if they were to send out Lisker to kill all of you?" Sho countered, looking at Yang. "You all saw what he can do, and you also know he won't hesitate to kill each one of you," he pointed out before looking back at Blake. "What would any of you do if Lisker were to show up right now?" he asked.
"We will fight him!" Blake yelled out, her frustration with Sho talking down to them growing.
"And you will die," Sho said in response.
That got the girls to stop as they remembered Guyver 2 and how he killed so many innocent people. They could tell from Sho's voice that there was no doubt in his mind that Guyver 2 would kill them without a second thought.
"This isn't something you can just throw yourself at simply because your enemy won't wait for you to graduate," Sho told team RWBY. "They've put time and effort into their plans and rushing into it head first thinking you can stop all of it isn't going to stop them," he added. "They know what they are doing and will adjust their plans so that they wouldn't be stopped, you girls don't know what you're doing or getting yourselves into," he finished before turning away from Blake.
Blake was shaking in anger at what Sho had told her. She couldn't believe that Sho would tell her that their efforts hadn't done anything.
"Is it true?" Ruby asked Sho, causing the young man to stop. "If we were to fight against Lisker, we would die?" she clarified.
Sho was silent for a moment before turning around to look at Ruby in the eyes.
"There wouldn't be anything left to bury if you girls were to fight against Lisker," Sho told Ruby. "No matter how hard you tried," he added.
Ruby let out a small whimper when Sho said those words, Weiss flinched as her mind went back to the Guyver 2's Mega Smasher, Yang clenched her fists in anger, and Blake looked away from Sho.
"How…how can you be so sure?" Weiss asked, scared of the answer.
"I've killed a lot of enemies the same way Lisker killed those people," Sho answered the Schnee heiress before turning away from the girls. "There is more blood on my hands than anyone else here, and I will continue to spill more blood," he added, which shocked RWY while Blake didn't seem to believe him. "The people who died because of Lisker was only a small fraction," he finished before leaving the girls behind.
Team RWBY watched as Sho walked away, wondering what he meant but were not able to come up with an answer.
Later that day
Sho found himself standing at the edge of the dorm's roof, looking over the area that led to Vale. After his talks with Agito and team RWBY, he felt the need to be somewhere high. It felt peaceful, but Sho knew that there was something dark beneath it all.
"Hello Sho," a female voice called out behind him.
Sho turned around to see Pyrrha at the door, heading towards him. He also noticed that Jaune wasn't with her.
"Oh, hi Pyrrha," Sho greeted the champ. "Jaune's not with you today?" he asked her.
"No…" Pyrrha replied. "He wanted to ask Weiss out to the dance," she told Sho.
"But I thought you and he were…" Sho started to say while raising an eyebrow.
Pyrrha started blushing at what Sho was saying and begun stuttering.
"N-n-no!" Pyrrha stuttered out. "Jaune and I are just really good friends," she tried to assure Sho, or herself.
Sho looked at Pyrrha, not convinced in the slightest.
"You like him, don't you," Sho told the redhead, it clearly wasn't a question to him. "You should tell him," he added.
Pyrrha stood there in silence, while Sho returned to looking out into the distance.
"You should take his advice kid," another voice said from behind the two teens.
Pyrrha quickly turned around to see who was with them, but she didn't see anyone. Sho on the other hand, kept his focus on the city of Vale.
"I didn't know you could use your invisibility outside of your battle forms," Sho said.
Pyrrha was confused by what Sho said until she saw a man with a noticeable scar appeared in front of her.
"You shouldn't assume that my powers are only accessible to my battle forms," the man said as he walked up to Sho. "I've been hearing about this dance this weekend. It sounds like a perfect chance for someone to strike," he continued, ignoring Pyrrha who was in a state of shock at seeing the man appear out of nowhere.
"Yeah, it does," Sho agreed, sadden by that possibility.
"Um…excuse me," Pyrrha interrupted the two, wanting to let them know that she was still behind them.
Sho turned around to face Pyrrha.
"I'm sorry about that," Sho apologized. "Pyrrha this is Aptom, a comrade of mine," he introduced the man.
"Hello," Pyrrha greeted the man, though her greeting wasn't as cheerful as it usually was.
Aptom nodded his head before turning his attention back to Sho.
"I'll keep an eye out for anything suspicious," Aptom told Sho. "You should consider this a day off for you," he added.
"Alright," Sho replied. "I need to keep an eye on the girls anyway," he added.
"Good," Aptom said before turning invisible once again.
Pyrrha was silent throughout the exchange, which Sho noticed that she was still there instead of leaving the roof.
"Pyrrha, don't think too much about it," Sho told the Mistral champion. "Aptom isn't one for getting to know new people," he explained. "But he is someone you can rely on," he added.
"I…see," Pyrrha replied as she walked back to the door.
"Also, Pyrrha," Sho called out to Pyrrha. "You should ask Jaune out," he told her. "The two of you deserve to have some happiness before we all graduate," he added as he watched Pyrrha leave. "or before it taken away," he whispered to himself.
Haven Academy dorm
"Pyrrha Nikos," Emerald said as she brought up said girl's information on her scroll.
"The invincible girl," Cinder said, sitting on her bed.
"I wouldn't call her invincible," Mercury said looking up from his comic.
"Go on," Cinder said to her associates.
"Her semblance is polarity, but you wouldn't know just by looking," Emerald said.
"After making contact with my boots, she was able to move them around however she wanted," Mercury added in. "But she only made slight adjustments," he continued.
"Just enough to make it look like she's untouchable," Emerald said. "She doesn't broadcast her power," she added.
"Enough to put her opponent at a disadvantage," Cinder said as she contemplated this fact. "People assumed she is destined for greatness, but she is merely taking fate into her own hands," she added. "Put her on the list," she told Emerald. "And what of this Sho Fukamachi?" she asked.
"Yes, the Guyver of Beacon Academy," Emerald said bringing up Sho's file. "There isn't a lot to go on," she told Cinder. "No family, no hometown, no student history," she listed.
"It's like the guy just dropped out of the sky," Mercury commented.
"An unknown element," Cinder said, not liking how there wasn't much to work with.
"But it seems that he has managed to make quite a few friends," Emerald said. "He is friends with team RWBY, JNPR, and the delinquent team CRDL," she listed.
"Quite the odd group," Cinder replied.
"Yeah, but that also means that any of the girls from the first two teams that might be likely candidates will be protected with him around, including little Nikos" Mercury pointed out. "Then there is that dark armored Guyver that we saw today," he added.
Cinder's visible eye widened when Mercury mentioned another Guyver.
"There is a third Guyver here in Vale?" Cinder asked.
"Yeah and apparently, he and Sho know each other," Emerald answered. "That could make things more difficult for us," she said.
"Well then," Cinder started. "I guess that means we need to rely more on Roman's lackey when it comes to dealing with those two," she finished.
Day of the dance
The day had finally come and several students were making last minute preparations for the dance. For one student though, he was focusing on something else.
Sho was sitting on a bench along with Agito, the two of them were silent as many students walked past them. However, they weren't simply just sitting around as they were in the middle of a telepathic conversation.
"So Fukamachi," Agito started while looking at the statue that was at the front of the school. "You think the headmaster here is hiding something," he continued.
"Maybe…" Sho replied. "But I can't tell if it's something in the school or it's some sort of agenda," he explained. "After the incident at the highway, he and that general were so focused on me not telling anyone about it," he added.
"What reason did they give you?" Agito asked the younger man.
"The same speech about how if the public were to find out, it would cause a panic, causing the creatures of Grimm to come," Sho told Agito.
"So, the standard reasoning," Agito said as he remembered how Ironwood would say the same thing, yet he knew that the general was in favor of a more proactive approach. "You're right, this professor Ozpin is hiding something," he concluded.
"But what is he hiding?" Sho asked. "What could be so important that he wants terrorist activities to be kept out of the eyes of the public?" he wondered.
"What indeed?" Agito agreed. "Ironwood may be willing to assist me, but he also seems determined to keep certain secrets away from me," he told Sho.
"You mean to say; the mighty Zeus can't find out what a simple general is keeping away from him?" Sho asked in a joking manner.
"He won't be able to keep his secrets away from me for long," Agito replied. "Not when there are three Guyvers and Aptom roaming in Vale," he added. "Four very powerful men that can destroy any carefully laid out plan with little effort," he pointed out.
"Just like back with Chronos," Sho mentioned. "Agito, I have another question," he said.
"What is it?" Agito asked.
"Ruby Rose is a first-year student like me, but she's only fifteen," Sho told Agito. "I've been told that she got accepted early because she showed to have skills above her age," he started to explain.
"And?" Agito asked, wondering where Sho is going with this.
"Well, no matter how skilled she is, Ruby is still too young to be put in such dangerous situations," Sho continued. "And with these White Fang related crimes…" he added.
"Which may lead to something bigger," Agito interrupted.
"Yeah, like a potential terrorist attack," Sho threw in that possibility. "So why would Ozpin accept her so early?" he asked.
"Maybe he didn't know about it?" Agito suggested, but even he wasn't convinced with that suggestion.
"No…" Sho disagreed. "I've been getting this feeling that Ozpin is always in the loop about everything that goes on in Vale," he told Agito. "And to be honest, Ruby's skills are only slightly above average when she uses her scythe. Take that away and she's nothing more than a kid who can run very fast," he added.
"So, you think Ozpin allowed her in this school because there is something else," Agito said as he considered what Sho told him. "You'll have to ask her during the dance," he told Sho. "Ask her if Ozpin said anything that seemed odd to her when they first met," he instructed. "That might give us something to work with," he explained.
Sho nodded his head after he and Agito finished their mental conversation. The younger Guyver stood up and was about to leave.
"So, who are you going to this dance with Fukamachi?" Agito asked, looking at the boy. "Or are you going alone because of you're still faithful to Segawa?" he continued asking.
Sho stopped after hearing that question, the mental image of a familiar brunette girl, who he had a crush on growing up entered his mind.
Mizuki Segawa.
"Gwen asked me out," Sho answered. "I agreed to go with her, but only as friends," he added before turning to Agito. "I haven't given up on returning home and back to Mizuki," he told Agito before leaving.
Agito watched Sho leave before looking up into the sky.
'If only you knew what happened Fukamachi,' Agito thought to himself.
As Sho made his way through the school, he noticed Blake and Yang inside an empty classroom. He considered listening in, but decided against it. He figured what it was about when he heard Yang tell Blake some sort of story about her childhood and tried to relate it to Blake's actions.
'I guess listening to a teammate is better than listening to someone with more experience in putting other lives in danger,' Sho thought to himself as he continued his way.
The night of the dance
"I look so freaking stupid," Russel complained as he tried to loosen his tie a bit.
"Yeah, that suit and mohawk just aren't working," Sky said as he looked over his teammate, which Russel flipped him the bird in response.
"So exactly how did you manage to get a date with Dew, Sky?" Sho asked the Lark.
"What can I say Sho, women just can't resist…" Sky started bragging.
"He begged me to ask Neb to hook him up with Dew," Russel interrupted, smirking at how Sky suddenly deflated like a balloon.
"Dude!" Sky yelled in shock that Russel would reveal that.
"Okay, that I believe," Sho replied as the three of them made their way to team NDGO's temporary dorm. "Still, I kind of feel bad that no one asked Octavia to the dance," he added.
"I wouldn't worry about it," Russel said to Sho. "Neb told me that Octavia likes going solo," he explained. "Something about it being more fun that way," he added.
"Somehow that doesn't comfort me in the slightest," Sho said in a deadpan tone.
The three boys reached team NDGO's dorm, Russel knocked on the door before the three of them waited.
"Just a sec!" Gwen called out from behind the door as she and her teammates were still getting ready.
Sho, Russel, and Sky looked at each other for a bit before they heard a lot of yelling and construction equipment coming from inside the room?
"What the…?" the three boys said at the same time, confused by the sound of construction happening inside NDGO's dorm room.
"Octavia, enough with that recording!" an irritated Dew shouted at her teammate.
"No way, that was hilarious," Octavia argued, laughing about her little joke.
"I'm surrounded by idiots," Nebula muttered as she opened the door.
The three boys were treated to seeing team NDGO wearing dresses that matched their usual colors. Russel smiled at Nebula, who smiled back while Sho waved to Gwen, and Sky was simply stunned by the sight of Dew in her dress.
"So, shall we get going?" Russel asked before offering his hand to Nebula.
"Let's," Nebula replied, taking Russel's hand before heading down the hall.
Sho and the others followed them, with Gwen walking beside him while Sky was walking with Dew, and Octavia bringing up the rear.
"Y-you look nice in that dress," Sky said to Dew.
"Thank you," Dew replied quickly.
"She's not much for conversations huh?" Sho whispered to Gwen.
"Dew's not the kind of girl who likes pity dates," Gwen whispered back to Sho.
'Ouch,' Sho thought to himself, feeling sorry for Sky that this was a pity date in his date's eyes.
After a few minutes of walking the group of seven teens entered the ballroom, where they were greeted by Yang before mingling with other students. Sho looked around the place and in all honesty, he felt a bit out of his element. He couldn't remember the last time he ever went to a school dance, or if he went to one at all.
"Sho?" Gwen called out to the boy.
"Yeah," Sho replied.
"How about a dance?" Gwen asked, looking out to the dance floor.
Sho looked to see some of the other students dancing. He spotted Russel and Nebula dancing at one spot while in the middle he spotted Blake dancing with Yang, something he didn't expect. He shifted his attention to the young knife wielding ballerina before him, before nodding his head and led her to the dance floor, much to Gwen's joy.
While Sho and Gwen started dancing, Agito watched from the sidelines. He was invited to the dance by James so he could get to know the staff of Beacon. For Agito, he was more focused on trying to figure out what Ozpin's game was. The conversation he had with Sho early today caused the dark Guyver to investigate some of the students. Given the skills he had developed during his time as his foster father's pawn, Agito was able to hack into some of the files on Ozpin's students.
'Jaune Arc,' Agito thought to himself as he spotted the blonde boy sitting next to Ruby. 'His transcripts are clearly fake as he scored the lowest in nearly every class, yet Ozpin still allows the boy to stay,' he continued thinking. 'And Ruby Rose, fifteen-years-old, but was admitted early because of her skills in handling criminals that robbed a Dust shop,' he focused his attention to the brunette with red highlights. 'Despite what many say, Fukamachi is right about her skills only being above average. It was foolish to enroll her so early when the two years in Signal could have been used in refining her skills,' he continued thinking before looking at Ozpin. 'So why did he admit her into his school so early?' he wondered before walking away from the mass of students.
Back at the dance floor, Sho was finally getting the hang of dancing. At the start, he clearly had no clue of what he was doing. Thankfully, Gwen was patient and helped him out as they danced. Sho could see that Gwen was happy as they danced, the girl was clearly in her element and Sho was happy that Gwen was enjoying herself. As the music slowed down, Sho spotted Ruby sitting alone, holding two cups.
"Something wrong Sho?" Gwen asked him.
"Huh?" Sho replied, turning to look at Gwen. "Sorry, I just noticed Ruby was sitting by herself," he told her.
Gwen looked and saw the fifteen-year-old was indeed sitting by herself.
"That's weird, I thought that blonde guy was with her," Gwen said, confused as to where he went. "Should we go over there?" she asked Sho.
"Yeah, at least for a while," Sho agreed as the two of them made their way to the girl.
After Jaune left Ruby alone when she told him about how Weiss came to the dance alone, Ruby spotted Sho and Gwen approaching her.
"Hi Sho, hi Gwen," the girl in the red dress greeted the two.
"Hey Ruby," Sho greeted as he and Gwen sat next to her. "Enjoying the dance so far?" he asked.
"Kind of," Ruby replied while shifting in her seat uncomfortably. "I'm not really into fancy-pants dances," she told them.
"Oh, don't be like that," Gwen said. "Everyone is here to have fun," she told the younger girl.
"She's right," Sho agreed. "Days like this will be rare with this kind of job," he added.
"Huh?" Ruby wondered while titling her head slightly.
Once she saw Ruby tilt her head, Gwen couldn't help herself as she threw her arms around the girl and gave her a big hug because of how adorable Ruby was. Ruby, in turn, let out a surprised squeak at being hugged suddenly, gathering the attention of several students, including her sister Yang. Once seeing this, Yang couldn't help but smile at how someone was giving her baby sister a hug.
"Oh my God, she is so adorable!" Gwen squealed as she hugged the little girl with all her might.
"Please…stop…" Ruby begged as she was the unfortunate victim of her own cuteness.
"Huh…Russel was right," Sho commented on the scene as many other students looked on. "Ruby did find a way to weaponize cuteness," he added before trying to pry Gwen away from Ruby.
Several nearby Beacon students nodded their heads in agreement.
After a few tries, Sho was finally able to get Gwen to let go of Ruby. Granted, he needed help from Octavia when she finished laughing at Ruby's plight. Octavia led Gwen away from Ruby, who rushed back to give the girl another bone crushing hug before being pried off again, while Sho stayed behind to see if the youngest of the students was alright and still capable of breathing.
"Thanks, Sho," Ruby said after taking a sip of punch.
"No problem," Sho replied as he looked at the other dancers. His gaze landed on Ozpin, who was standing next to Glynda and Ironwood. "Hey Ruby, why did Ozpin admit into his school so early?" he asked her.
"Huh?" Ruby replied, confused by his question. "He let me in because of how I handled those crooks that tried to rob a Dust shop," she told Sho.
"Yeah, but he did he say anything odd when you first met him?" Sho asked, not really trying to be discreet.
"You couldn't at least try to be discreet," Agito chided Sho telepathically.
"Ruby is far too naïve to be subtle," Sho told Agito. "She is also very trusting," he added. "I feel a little bad for doing this," he admitted.
"Oh, I remember how he mentioned how I have silver eyes," Ruby answered Sho's question, breaking him out of his mental conversation with Agito. "That did feel kind of weird," she added.
"Well, silver eyes are kind of out of the ordinary," Sho remarked as he looked at the girl's eyes. "Was that all he said that felt odd?" he asked.
"I think so," Ruby replied. "But it's not as odd as that," she pointed to the dance floor.
Sho followed Ruby's finger to see Jaune…in a white dress, in the middle of the dance floor.
"What…the…" Sho started to say but couldn't finish the sentence.
The sight of Jaune in a dress got a lot of students laughing, even Pyrrha was laughing. However, the laughter subsided as the music picked back up before all of team JNPR started dancing in perfect synch with each other, easily impressing everyone. Even Cardin had to admit he was impressed with Jaune's dance moves.
"What do you know, Jauney-boy's actually good at something," Cardin said to his team, Nebula, and Dew.
"Yeah…" Dove agreed. "But why the hell did he have to dance in a dress?" he asked, feeling disturbed by the sight of a blonde guy in a white dress. Especially when said dress showed a bit of the young man's legs.
"That is an image that cannot be unseen," Sky said with an eye twitch.
"Yet you can't look away," Dew commented while suppressing a giggle at her date's stunned look.
"Somebody please make me forget this shit," Russel begged, feeling uncomfortable at the sight of Jaune in a dress.
Nebula rolled her eyes at Russel's complaint before grabbing his face and kissing him. The green mohawked boy appreciated the indigo haired girl's gesture and returned the kiss, happy for the distraction.
Outside the school
As the dance continued, up on the rooftop of a building adjacent to the ballroom, Aptom surveyed the area. He decided to keep an eye out for trouble while Sho enjoyed one of the rare moments of peace he would ever get here. As he continued looking over the city, he noticed a black figure running on the rooftops.
"Who the hell is that?" Aptom asked himself as he turned invisible before jumping down to the roof of another building.
Aptom followed the black figure, which he discovered to be a woman once she ran across an area with better lighting. He also noticed that this woman was running on the rooftops wearing high heels.
'You have got to be fucking kidding me,' Aptom mentally remarked while rolling his eyes. 'What kind of moron roof-hops wearing high heels?' he mentally chastised the woman he was following.
Down below, Aptom wasn't the only one to notice the woman as Ruby saw her after leaving the ballroom, having her fill of the dance. She spotted the same woman Aptom saw and decided to investigate what was going on.
As for Aptom, he maintained his distance despite being invisible, he wanted to see what this woman was up to as she made her way into the CCT. He saw how this woman easily dealt with the Atlas security guards with little effort. He followed as the woman made her way to the central hub and single handedly defeated the guards.
'Atlas's finest,' Aptom thought sarcastically. 'This army needs some serious help if a bunch of kids can do better than them,' he added as he continued following the woman in black.
The woman was currently examining a scroll in her hand before she started talking.
"Oh, that's handy," the woman said to herself before she heard someone talking to her in her earbud. "Which one?" she asked.
'So, she's not working alone,' Aptom made a note of this as the woman continued talking to who she was working with.
"No, we're done here," the woman said to her ally as she finished uploading something. The screen on the monitor had the image of a black queen chess piece.
The woman was about to leave the hub but stopped to hide when the elevator she used opened. Aptom turned around to see Ruby enter the hub with her scythe.
'A scythe,' Aptom mentally groaned at the sight of the red and black garden tool the teenage girl was carrying. 'What is with these kids and cliché weapons you see in a fucking video game?' he wondered.
"Hello, anybody here?" Ruby asked as she slowly walked forward. "Hello?" she called out.
The woman stood up from her hiding spot before approaching the girl.
"Excuse me?" Ruby started. "You know, it's not a masquerade party, so why don't you take off that…" she continued before the woman attacked by firing shards of ice Dust at her.
Ruby tried to dodge, but she wobbled for a bit due to her heels. Luckily, she was pushed out of the way by an unseen force. Both Ruby and the woman were surprised by this as they saw what appeared to be a man flickering into existence.
After pushing Ruby away from the woman's attack, Aptom stood in front of the girl with the scythe.
"Next time, don't bother with pointless banter," Aptom told Ruby while placing his right palm forward, a red lens growing out of his palm, much to the woman's shock. "Just go for the kill," he said before firing a bio-laser at the woman.
The woman in black jumped out of the way of the attack, producing a glass bow with three glass arrows. Aptom and Ruby noticed how the woman's clothes glowed orange when she did this. She fired the arrows at Aptom, who took the hits, but he didn't drop like the woman expected. Instead, the scarred man smirked at the woman.
"My turn," Aptom said as his fingers swelled up and became dart-like before they were launched out of his hands.
The woman's eyes widened when she saw the ten-finger darts flew at her. She could see smoke trails behind each dart. She quickly turned the glass bow into a pair of glass swords and tried to deflect them but the first dart exploded, destroying her weapon and knocking her backwards.
Ruby was shocked at seeing Aptom turn his fingers into explosive darts, or missiles to be more accurate. The surprises don't stop for her as Aptom grew a spear like weapon out of the top of his right forearm. Aptom charged the woman, who created another pair of glass swords, ready to counter.
Once one of her swords encountered the spear, the glass weapon was destroyed instantly, forcing the woman to jump away from the mutant man.
"I'll give this one chance to surrender," Aptom told the woman. "You either take it or you die," he told her, forming more explosive missiles out of his left hand.
The woman backed away from Aptom, thinking of a way to get past this man. She saw her chance once she spotted Ruby still behind the man. She conjured a massive blast of fire and aimed it at Ruby, causing Aptom to move to block the blast to protect the kid.
Ruby braced herself when the fire flew at her, but she noticed that the fire didn't touch her but had severely burned the man in front of her. She wanted to say something, but the man was focused on where the woman was.
"Shit, she got away," Aptom muttered as he began to heal from the fire attack.
It was at that moment where Ironwood and several more soldiers entered the hub and found the two of them.
Author's note: Okay the dance is done and Aptom got some more screen time. I know I didn't focus much on the aftermath of the previous chapter, but it does get brought up more as the story progresses, so don't worry those girls won't get off that easily. For those wondering how could Aptom use his powers in his human form, in the manga and the 2005 anime, Aptom was shown to turn his fingers into bio-missiles and partially transform his left forearm into his battle form, respectively. Personally, I liked the way the manga depicted that because he physically turns his body parts into weapons. Basically, he combines body horror, and Lovecraftian superpowers into one creepy ass package.
Interestingly, Aptom wasn't supposed to be with Ruby during the final bit of the chapter. Originally, it was going to be Sho, but I decided to switch to Aptom because I felt that since I brought him in the story earlier than intended, it would be stupid to not use him for important moments.
Granted this so-called fight was brief and Ruby didn't do a damn thing, but I still need Cinder, so Aptom didn't give it his all and kill her.