Double update night. Updated An Arc for Every Season then I updated this. Hope it's worth it. Here's the 'Denji reveals his past' chapter a lot of you guys were so excited about.

Also, I've got people on reviews arguing that Velvet deserves another chance and the Winter focus is unfair. Like, you guys know the reason Winter got a second chapter so fast is that she overtook the vote, yeah? And she won despite getting a focus chapter after Velvet, meaning Bunny was stacked to win due to being the first girl but Atlas Dommy Mommy won anyway. At this point would another Velvet chapter do anything for the votes?

It all started with a casual comment. Jaune, the buffoon, had spent too much of his lien trying to make a grand romantic gesture for Yang. And it had made her teammate blush and smile the entire night, it also meant that he had nothing left when the weekend came and he couldn't go to the cafeteria for the free food. It was his own fault for being so short-sighted. Really, who needed that many roses?

And no, she wasn't jealous, thank you very much. Just because Yang was in a very happy relationship and Neptune had turned out to be an incorrigible flirt didn't mean she was having regrets.

But back to the matter at hand. The blonde doofus was starving and he'd refused Yang's offer to treat him out of some misplaced machismo, claiming that he could simply wait until the next day. Denji had been passing by and offered to spot him the lien on the assurance that Jaune would pay it back at the first possible opportunity. Denji, despite his crude behavior, took debts seriously.

"Seriously, that shit piles up. Next thing you know you're in debt to the yakuza and you gotta sell one of your kidneys. It sucks and hurts for days after. Trust me, I know."

Jaune had told them about it, but she paid it no mind. It was likely just hyperbole or some kind of off-color joke, perhaps even a threat to Jaune to ensure he wouldn't forget the money owed. Regardless, she didn't think much on it.

And then he made another comment, this time when talking to Ren. After the Mistralian youth had admitted to being an orphan, Denji had commiserated and said that he understood.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I had to leave in a shed out in the woods. Summers and winters were brutal out there, and I still had to pay the damn water bill."

Again, Weiss tried to ignore it when Ren told the group afterwards. So he was an orphan. She sympathized, certainly, but he looked hale and hearty now so there was no point in bringing it up.

And then he talked to Nora about what it was like growing up in Mistral's outskirts.

"So this Mistral's got crime families too? Guess it's pretty similar to Japan. If they're anything like the Yakuza over there I bet they make you pay for your dad's gambling debts. The interest on those never stops gettin' higher."

And so on and so forth. Little anecdotes and comments that he refused to elaborate on. Eventually even she got curious and she, along with the rest of team RWBY and team JNPR, had resolved to ask him about it at the earliest opportunity. They all had different motivations, of course. Curiosity, certainly, but Weiss also wanted to see if he was just a boor who made up lies to garner sympathy.

They found their chance when he was alone in the lounge late at night. Curfew was close, though Weiss knew that the teachers would be too busy preparing for Vytal to really care about enforcing it. They all sat around him on the table and he only barely looked up from his greasy abomination of a burger to acknowledge their existence with a "Yo". He didn't even finish chewing.

"Denji, we've got some questions for you!" Ruby said excitedly. Her partner had been...different in recent days, though it was hard to describe, "Those things you said about debts and living on a shed. That was all real, right?"

"Ruby!" Weiss hissed. While they were going to ask about it, they could've shown some more tact.

"Huh? Yeah." Denji gulped down his mouthful of greasy meat, "What about it?"

"All of it? Seriously?" Yang raised a brow. To anyone else she would've looked nonchalant, but Weiss didn't miss the way her legs shook under the table. The only reason she was here was because she wanted to protect Ruby from Denji's corruptive influence. The same way Blake was only here because she was afraid that if she was alone then his little sister would come by with her dogs, as if that was something to be scared of.

"Yeah...?"

"So you sold your left testicle?" Jaune asked with a tone of morbid curiosity.

"Sure."

"I don't believe you." Weiss shook her head, "This picture you paint of your background is far too grim and fantastical! Living in a shed, selling your body parts, being forced to pay of a debt for years? It sounds like something out of fiction!"

"I mean...it happened." He chewed on his burger, "What's it matter anyway? Past is past."

"We're simply curious about your background, Denji," Ren said, ever the diplomat, "We've known you for months now and yet we know precious little about you. We had even assumed beforehand that you were Mistralian, but you've mad it clear time and again that this isn't the case. You are free to deny our questions, of course. We will understand if it's a personal matter."

"It ain't a secret or nothing, just didn't think it was worth bringing it up." He shrugged, "What do you wanna know."

"Ooh, ooh! How did you meet that Pochita dog that you keep talking about?" Ruby asked excitedly. For some reason, Blake shuddered.

"I met Pochita when I was...six or seven, I think? About that age. I was out and I heard his chainsaw revving." Oh yes, the chainsaw dog. Another one of his fantastical tales, "He was pretty weak. Injured by something. Devils can heal by drinking blood so I gave him some, told him that if I helped him out then he had to help me out. We started living together after that."

"In a shed. Was that part also true?" Blake asked.

"Sure. My old man he...uh, well he offed himself." Weiss' eyes narrowed. He wasn't telling the whole truth there, but she knew better than to pry. The subject of family, especially deceased ones, was sacred, "But turned out he had a lot of debt to the Yakuza. When he was gone the the old guy leading em told me I had to pay it back or he'd hack me up for my organs. Couldn't really afford a better place."

The way he said it was utterly casual despite the horrifying imagery. Weiss' hands balled into fists while the rest of the group's mood had tanked. Even Yang, for all her (irrational) fear of him, looked utterly disgusted.

"That and I couldn't really live on the city. Pochita's still a devil and some Devil Hunter might try to take a swipe at him. Shed was out of town no one really went that way, so I didn't have to worry about that."

So he willingly lived in squalor for the sake of his pet. Oh Gods, if even a fraction of the story was true then...

"H-How old were you when this happened?" Pyrrha asked, "You said you were six or seven when you met this Pochita, so does that mean..."

"About the same time, yeah." He took a long sip of his soda. Even Nora had lost her chipper demeanor at that point and had huddled close to Ren, "Those guys were real assholes too. Every time it seemed like I was making a dent they'd up the interest or tack on 'fees'. Can't count how many times Pochita and I took out some devil and then I got table scraps after they took everything."

The mood in the table had gone from heavy to downright smothering. Weiss wanted to excuse herself and take a cold shower to wash away the guilt she suddenly felt, but then she remembered another thing he said before.

"Back then when we went to the cafe...you said you'd never really had cake before. Was it because of your...debt?" Not his debt, she reminded herself.

"Pretty much. Couldn't really afford it. Or burgers." He took another large bite out of the thing. Somehow it looked less disgusting, "Wait, hold on, that second one's not all true. Sometimes me and Pochita could find some edible stuff out in the trash. People throw away perfectly good food. Made some days better when we ate together."

That did it. Weiss held her chest and grit her teeth. The guilt was almost literally stabbing her now and she felt the urge to smash her face to the table in an apologetic bow. He wasn't lying. Weiss had been trained to spot wolves in sheep's clothing at a young age and nothing in Denji's words or mannerisms indicated he was telling anything but the truth despite his eerie calmness. Either he was a consummate liar or he truly saw nothing wrong with discussing something so horrific as eating food straight from the garbage.

The rest of the table fared no better. Pyrrha, Jaune and Yang looked absolutely horrified, the latter even ignoring her fear judging by how still she'd gotten. Ren and Nora were practically hip to hip and the Valkyrie's lips were warbling with sympathy and understanding. Blake looked the most calm, likely due to her own past with the White Fang, though she did look to Denji with an indecipherable expression.

The worst was definitely Ruby. Her entire face was red and she held her head as she rocked back and forth. It wasn't trauma, as Weiss feared it was, but something far worse: her Rose genes had awakened. The understanding that she had a traumatized blonde man who has a dog - or seven in his case - in front of her had triggered something primal in her team leader. It was only the presence of everyone else that kept her from jumping the table and giving him something to live for.

Ruby could only thank small mercies that he hadn't had his heart broken by a cruel woman then left him with a child to care for by himself. That would've had her jumping him, audience or no.

Weiss was thankfully unaware of this internal struggle from her team leader or she would've needed bleach.

"So, um..." Weiss coughed, trying to move forward despite her urge to cry. Damn her and her sympathies, "Um...you said you sold your organs?"

"Yep. My right eye, one of my kidneys, and my left nut." Jaune gasped and both her and Ren crossed their legs in male sympathy, "I mean you only need one of each, right? Though I didn't get a lot for the ball."

Weiss held in the urge to vomit while Yang asked, "Hold on, your eye? The one that's on your head right now? This has to be bullshit."

"Nah, I got it back." He suddenly looked morose. Oh no, she wasn't sure if she could take much more, "About a year ago the guys who I owed a debt to tried to make a deal with another Devil. Zombie, I think? They cut me up for some weird human sacrifice shit." How was he so calm about this?! "Woulda died there if Pochita didn't save my life. Got all my bits back, transformed, and cut my way outta there...just wished it didn't have to go like that."

Nora was outright wailing now. It took a herculean effort for Weiss not to let at least a single tear fall through. How could someone go through so much and yet remain so blase about it all? It was the same question Blake seemed to be asking herself given how uncomfortable she suddenly looked.

"Wait, is that why your heart looked so..." Ruby trailed off.

"Yeah, that's him." Denji's smile was warm, "Best buddy, still with me wherever I go." He finished off his burger, "So that's what you all wanted to ask about, yeah? Don't see what the big deal is."

"How could you not?!" Yang yelled, "Dude...that's fucked up! Seriously!"

"I mean yeah, but...it already happened. No point in wallowing in it, yeah? Best thing you can do is move forward."

"By getting money, a home, and a girlfriend," Weiss said, recalling his introduction.

"Pretty much."

"Man...no offense, Denji, but how are you not a supervillain with a past like that? People went full crazy for way less," Jaune said. Blake winced uncomfortably.

"What's the point? I don't wanna take over the city or whatever." He just wanted simple things. What Weiss once considered something so petty had made her feel a crushing guilt.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but...what happened after?" Pyrrha asked slowly.

"Got a job hunting Devils. It's, ah, kind of a long story. Don't really wanna get into it too much."

"I'm confused. You talk of Devils as if they're commonplace, like the Grimm are here, and yet they're rarely present. Where did this take place?" Ren asked.

"Oh yeah, I'm from another world."

...

In hindsight, that made a lot of sense. The bombshell, which should have caused more of a reaction, barely got a few nods of understanding in the wake of what he'd told them. Down the line she was sure she'd doubt and question, but right this moment a part of her simply wanted to buy an entire cake store and offer it to him as a gift.

"Let's change the subject!" Nora said, just a bit too loudly and with obviously forced cheer, "You were hunting Devils, right? What was that like? Is it just like hunting Grimm?"

"Eh, kinda? Fuckers don't really die. You kill em and they get sent to Hell. They die in Hell they get sent back to Earth. Over and over and over." He sounded more annoyed than anything, "There are some that are so strong they don't die, though. Devils get stronger based on how much people are scared of em, so the Tomato Devil is gonna be pretty shit but then you got crazy weird, super strong bastards like the Darkness Devil."

For some reason the name caused a chill to go down her spine. And she wasn't alone; the rest of the group suddenly looked afraid as Denji continued his story.

"A few months ago me and a buncha other people got taken to Hell." Again, he said that way too casually, "We're in this fucked up looking flower field and then the Fiends - uh, Devils wearing human bodies or whatever - start freaking the hell out. Then everything goes dark and then we this...this hall full of astronauts. At least that's what I think they're called? The guys with the space suits."

"Yes, continue." Weiss said, finding herself oddly enraptured with the table.

"So they're cut in half. Left side you got everything above the hip, right side everything below it. And these astronauts...they're praying to their own goddamn legs sticking outta the ground. Freaky shit." She could see it in disturbingly vivid detail. A field full of bisected humans molded like grotesque dolls, "Darkness Devil comes out of nowhere, then we hear a...frog's ribbit. And suddenly everyone's losing their fucking arms and shit. Most of us didn't make it out of there."

"Stop, stop, stop! I changed my mind! I don't wanna hear this!" Nora squealed.

"Why astronauts?" Blake asked, curiosity overriding her fear.

"I dunno." Denji shrugged.

"Fear of the unknown. Space and the deep ocean, the one thing that's always around you is the darkness," Weiss muttered. She was a well-read young woman and she knew of historical attempts to explore the stars. They all failed, Dust losing their properties once it left the atmosphere, but many tried anyway with attempts to keep the Dust working or with alternative energy sources.

It caused many deaths. She suddenly wondered what the last thing those doomed explorers thought before they died.

"Th-Then it's a good thing I can see in the dark." Blake shuddered.

"I mean...not sure how much it really helps. We saw Darkness Devil pretty damn well when he was cutting off arms and turning the rest of us into-"

"I don't wanna hear it!" Nora shouted, even louder than before, "Just...please stop!"

"Hey, you guys asked." Denji sipped his soda and looked at his scroll, "Shit, it's late. Gotta go back before Nayuta gets pissed. See you guys."

The eight of them returned to their dorms feeling utterly drained and defeated. Her sympathy for Denji was mixed with a raw, primal fear that she couldn't explain. It was stupid. Clearly they weren't in Hell, so there was no danger of them suddenly losing their arms. And beyond that, Denji came from another world entirely. This Darkness Devil on a separate plane of existence entirely.

And yet all four of them refused to turn off the lights.

"...This is ridiculous." Weiss huffed and stood up then clicked the lights shut. The rest of the team yelped in response, "Listen! We are not going to act like children because of a scary story! We are Huntresses! We are being trained to fight the Grimm! If we can't even sleep without the lights on, then we truly have no hope!"

Her impassioned speech seemed to be enough to calm them down. Weiss trudged back to the bed and closed her eyes, ignoring her slightly elevated heartbeat. It's fine. It happened in the past and there was no chance of them being in danger from some primeval monster.

...

...

...

*ribbit*

Team RWBY and team JNPR's shrieks were heard all across the campus.

Unknown to team RWBY, Nayuta was at the corner making frog noises to freak them out :P Anyway, I don't really feel too confident with this chapter. It really felt like one of those reaction fics. But then again people like those so what do I know?

Next chapter will be the Summer meeting, Yang intervention, Kobeni's time with Neo, or maybe a Velvet chapter since some readers are really insistent on it.