Remnant DxD

by Dessel Ordo

When an 11 year old Jaune Arc wandered out into Forever Fall hoping to become Remnants youngest huntsman, that should have been it for the foolish kid. Luckily a passing devil saw potential in him and re-incarnated him. Now, 6 years later House Bael has sent him to attend Beacon Academy to learn more about his homeworld, and establish his own peerage. What could possibly go wrong?

35. Chapter 35: Road to Reconcilliation II

A/N: First off, I dont own RWBY or Highschool DxD and dont make a penny off of this.

Second, a few repeating reviews/responses. As to the sheer number of story threads, a good chunk of those will be combining/getting cleaned up soon, and some of them are just set-up for later plot points and are mostly to avoid asspulls. The other repeating review I'm seeing alot of is the Heroes, I know they arent the most popular, but thats the cool thing about fanfics, you can change things you dont like. You just need to do it in a way thats believable, and sometimes that takes time. That said, I'm gonna repeat something I said in an AN waaaaaay back at the start of the fic: Flames will be ignored or mocked;, and some of the more vitriolic reviews focused solely on the Heroes are getting pretty close to flames. I don't wanna turn guest reviews off, so please, keep it polite at least.

Anyways, on with the story!

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The sun is dipping towards the horizon, and the cloudless sky is beginning to shift towards a beautiful sunset, unmarred save for the lumbering Atlesian warships patrolling around the Kingdom. The early autumn air is playing a refreshingly crisp and clean aroma across Jaune's nose, and the rustling of trees and chattering of woodland critters and chirping of birds across his ears.

A scent almost as enticing as the apples and cinnamon shampoo of the girl nestled into his side, head resting on his shoulders.

Pyrrha has the empty basket dangling on the arm that isn't wrapped around his waist, and Jaune is holding the blanket they'd taken out to the cliffs over the Emerald Forest across their shoulders with the arm wrapped across her shoulders spreading the blanket around her, his free hand tucking it close to his own body to make up for his choice to not wear a jacket or hoody despite the evening's brisk temperature. Honestly, the first of their picnic dates last week had been a desperation play to try to counter his tendency towards foot-in-mouth syndrome, but after having one for the second Monday in a row, he hopes it's a tradition they keep up.

"This is nice." The sweetest girl in any world–no, he isn't biased, thank you–coos lightly as they take the last few steps off of the 'running' path that almost no one uses for its intended purpose. Sure, the views are great, but at this time of day–by some unspoken agreement probably established generations ago–no one is working out, really. The bigger groups stick to the wider trails, the couples are left alone and if you spot another you keep on heading down the trail until all of you have your privacy. It isn't just the Beacon students either, but those from Atlas, Haven and Shade could all be seen either in their uniforms or more casual garb ambling back towards the dorms before the sun can set.

To put it plainly, they have their privacy, time together, and zero pressure from gossipers, fans and paparazzi more worried about Pyrrha's fame than her mental well-being.

He keeps that thought to himself, however. Instead he leans into her a bit. "Same time next week?" He asks lazily, to which Pyrrha just hums an affirmative. If his sisters' griping and gossiping about their respective lovelives was any indication, just because it was nice a few times doesn't mean he can get away with always taking her out on the exact same date. Terra had very nearly not joined the family when she had gotten a bit complacent and Saph got grumpy at one point.

"Bite me, asshole!" A frustrated voice cries out, before an either embarrassed or fuming Emerald stomps past them, hair done up a bit more fancy than her usual twin-tails, clad in a nice enough navy blue dress and smart gray jacket. A few moments later, an equally dressed up Mercury–wearing a slick pair of fitted gray slacks and a shirt that was probably meant to go with his teammate's dress, but had more likely than not clashed horribly–struts past, looking entirely unrepentant, and, if anything amused, by whatever exchange Jaune and Pyrrha had just caught the tail end of.

"Whatever." He scoffs to himself, about half of the couples scattered around and headed home glancing at the blow-up awkwardly, the others studiously ignoring them. The less amorously inclined students deeper into the campus green are being a bit more open, either eyeing Emerald hungrily in hopes of her coming 'back on the market' soon, or Mercury with either sympathy or envy. "You know you'll just come crawling back for more!" He shouts loudly enough for most of the teens in the area to hear clearly, but probably strictly for his apparent date's benefit.

Emerald extends her right arm behind her, middle finger erected and more-or-less aimed in his direction, neither breaking her stride nor looking back.

Ah well, not every evening has a fairy-tale ending.

The rest of their walk back to the dorms, and the tail end of their date is pleasantly peaceful thankfully, the two of them content to quietly enjoy each other's company. At least until they reach the first dorm hall on the row–ostensibly for Festival transfer teams in their Junior or Senior years–where a familiar figure dressed in her leather jacket and half-skirt, yellow tube top, and black spats is leaning against the wall facing the path they are on. Her golden hair shining like a beacon in the evening gloom, Ember Celica resting around her wrists.

Yang spots them quickly enough, pushing off of the wall to strut forward, easily blocking their path and clearing the way before her with the glower on her face.

Ahh, the sun is setting, a Nevermore is shrieking somewhere beyond the horizon, and Jaune's day is about to get totally wrecked…

"The two of you have been holding back in every last spar we've had this year, haven't you?" She growls once they're close enough that no one needs to shout. Yang clenches her hands into tight fists, leaning towards the couple, gauntlets actuating and retracting periodically as she waits for an answer.

Jaune blinks, makes sure that his friend didn't have anything less, oddly obvious, to say. When the silence starts getting awkward, he nods–probably kinda dumbly–at her. Pyrrha looks off to the side, probably a bit embarrassed as well, before offering a confused, "I'm sorry?"

Yang's gaze narrows at Pyrrha's standard, 'polite' reply, silently calling it for the bullshit it is. Pyrrha isn't the sort to want to risk permanently hurting a friend after all, physically or emotionally. "Sure you are. If you guys wanna make that up to me, one of you is gonna spar with me and not hold back." Apparently it takes the members of the somewhat shocked couple too long to reply, as Ember Celica deploy and stay deployed until Jaune offers a tentative 'yes' and Yang stalks off towards the outdoor sparring rings.

Jaune and Pyrrha share a quick, silent conversation as they follow the grouchy blonde. Neither of them are wearing their combat outfits, or even Huntsman-grade clothing. Just something nice for a quiet evening together–that said Jaune's black slacks, forest green button–down and charcoal vest are far less likely to involve putting on a 'free show' than Pyrrha's russet dress is with how acrobatic her fighting style is. So, when they stop by the lockers, Jaune collects Crocea Mors and Pyrrha demurs. Yang's scowl deepens at that, but from there the trek to the soon-to-be-closed outdoor sparring rings. Sure, you can set the cameras in the indoor rings to not record, but that doesn't mean that campus security won't be watching anyways. No need to take any more stupid risks.

Yang silently stalks down into the ring after they close the slab-steel 'gate' set into the hedgerow wall keeping the ring private, takes up a spot at the far side of the ring, and waits, arms crossed, hip cocked to the side and right foot tapping irritably. Jaune strides down to stand opposite her while Pyrrha sets up the arena to monitor their aura levels. When Yang cocks an eyebrow at him, Jaune sighs and allows his wings to manifest. Unnecessary perhaps but Yang seemed to be under the impression that was how a Devil manifested their full power. With the way she's glaring at the appendages, he figures he can correct her false assumption some other time.

After a few seconds, her gaze falls on his drawn sword, and she adds "Well? I said no holding back. Where's your gladius, Jaune?"

At that suggestion, Jaune's gaze hardens considerably. "Yang, you were paying attention when I said that anyone whose blood Crocea Mors draws gets their fate changed to die from it, right?" Yang nods, either not getting it, or not understanding the full depth of what that implies. "One screw-up with its released form in a sparring match would be beyond catastrophic, Yang. Things are rocky between us right now but I can say with confidence that I do not want to kill you, or be carrying the instrument of your eventual demise around with me."

Yang blinks at that, her expression shifting to something more thoughtful but still raring for some kind of fight. "What, so you mean that so long as I don't piss you off royally, if I let you prick my finger with that thing I'll live as long as you do?"

Jaune doesn't let his gaze falter. If anything, he's pretty sure he's glaring at her right now because there is no way that anyone able to make it into Beacon honestly is that stupid. "Yang, I want you to think, just for a moment, about how the concept of 'fate' tends to work in any fairy-tail, piece of folklore or work of fantasy you have ever read, heard or watched." Yang blinks, and despite what's probably her best effort, her expression wavers a bit. Jaune doesn't let up. "If we did something that stupid either you'd keep aging at a normal speed until you're desperate and begging me to put you out of your misery after a few decades of decaying in your own body, there would be some horrible battlefield mishap that ends with you dead at my hands, or an even more contrived set of circumstances will lead to us fighting each other for real and neither knowing until I-once again-wind up with your blood and life on my hands. So, no, I will not be releasing Crocea Mors and allowing its magical effect to come into play."

As Jaune catches his breath, a now very clearly chastised Yang is taking a few steps back, eyes still locked on his weapon, but appropriately afraid instead of thoughtful. Lucifer, he hates having this damned sword sometimes. "Right, big no-no on the murder sword coming out to play in a spar." Yang quips thinly, clearly holding onto her nerves by the seat of her inappropriate sense of humor and crap timing for jokes.

"Everything's ready." Pyrrha announces, probably more to break the tension than inform them, as their smiling faces on the big screen off to Jaune's right, Aura levels clearly displayed below them is pretty Brothers-damned obvious.

They both nod, and, after a few more deep breaths, Yang rushes him, right fist cocked back to put in a haymaker of an opening shot. Yang is fast, but Liban and Beruka–who he's had as sparring partners for years–are much faster. Her opening shot is easily parried by his arming sword. Her follow-up left cross is outright side-stepped, and he easily scores a slash across the back of her knees, sending the blonde tumbling to the ground.

She bounces back to her feet before her momentum fades, and the blonde brawler is once again barreling straight at him. Keeping his features calm–no need to risk Yang getting the impression he's pitying, playing with or looking down on her–he waits for her to get back into striking range. Yang is strong as hell, it's an open debate among their class whether it's her, Nora or Cardin who possess the most brute strength in their class. Gandoma and Ladora blow all three of them out of the water though. He catches Yang's fist on his open left palm, neatly arresting her momentum.

Yang has a moment–a brief flash–to realize just how screwed she is.

Then Jaune buries his right fist in her gut, launching the blonde brawler out of the ring, and bouncing her off the concrete wall forming the pit the elevated ring is set in. The Arena's buzzer declares a win by ring-out as half of Yang's Aura drains away from the hit. He hadn't gone fully all-out, he'd been training under Sairaorg–who is stronger than every other member of his Peerage combined by an order of magnitude–for six years after all. He doesn't want to accidentally cause his friend any permanent harm.

Yang staggers to her feet, grinning despite her defeat and the fact that she isn't exactly standing steadily. "Arright 'Vincible Girl. You'n me now." She grunts out as she starts staggering her way back to the sparring ring. When Jaune and Pyrrha don't move right away, Yang's grin starts shifting back to a scowl, more petulant than anything, if he's being totally honest. Jaune and Pyrrha share an awkward shrug, and shift spots.

It doesn't take Jaune very long to change up the participants on the screen, and once he has Yang is, once again, inexplicably grinning. "When you're ready, I guess." Jaune announces

Yang's legs explode into motion as she darts towards the Invincible Girl, who, frowning, announces, "I'm sorry." before raising her left arm, and Yang's fists, shrouded in a fine black mist are pulled perpendicular to the ground, outstretched, and then she is lifted a solid three feet into the air by them, legs still desperately pumping.

Huh, Pyrrha doesn't typically showcase her Semblance like that. His girl-and isn't that still a trip to wrap his head around-really is going all out.

Pyrrha's other hand raises, and a stream of coruscating purple to acid-green flames shriek forth, engulfing the blonde and steadily draining her Aura down. To Yang's credit, she doesn't scream, flinch, or show any other real sign of the pain she has to be feeling. Then the buzzer sounds a second time, the flames cut off and Yang drops to the ground, sweating and heaving as she pulls in huge gulps of air.

She looks down at herself, and her eyes widen when she notices that she is completely unharmed, not a single singe or scorch-mark on her. Her breathing slows as Jaune and Pyrrha jog over to the thoroughly defeated Huntress-in-Training. "Wha—how?" She gasps out in confusion.

Pyrrha offers Yang a hand, which–surprisingly–she accepts. "My Sacred Gear only burns what I want it to."

The shorter girl grunts as Pyrrha pulls her to her feet, then reaches out to help steady the blonde. She then lets out a small "Oh." of understanding. Before Jaune can finally ask Yang why she had asked for this, there's no way she didn't know how this would end, she adds an honest, heartfelt, "Thanks, guys."

"What?" "Why?" He and Pyrrha ask in near perfect unison.

Yang takes another deep breath. "Now I–" another, panting, heaving breath as she nearly topples again. "Now I know how far I really am from the top." Another, shuddering breath forces her to pause. "At least in our class." She stumbles, this time Jaune catches her before she can eat concrete. "And for helping me back to my dorm room?" She adds an awkward, apologetic sort of grin on her face as she looks up at them from where she's stood, doubled over, hands on her knees.

Jaune and Pyrrha share a quick glance over the doubled-over girl's back, more amused by her antics than anything. After a moment, both of them snake an arm under one of Yang's shoulders to support her, before setting off to head back towards the dorms. After they clear the sparring ring, and Yang actually has some air in her lungs again, she looks back and forth between Jaune and Pyrrha. "Sooo... is it just 'poof' and you get that strong when ya get reincarnated or is there more to it than that?"

Jaune and Pyrrha whip their heads down to look at the blonde between them who pointedly isn't look at them. She rolls her eyes before drawling,"Hypothetically. Don't bust out the naughty chess pieces just yet."

Both Devils let out slightly awkward, kind-of forced laughs at that. Jaune answers her question after a quick, silent conversation between him and Pyrrha. "Oh, you get a little stronger at first, but it's mostly just an increased maximum potential. You gotta train hard to get even to the level we're on, which... is kind of a gray area for me right now."

"You do have a stretch of rapid gains after your body acclimates if you train right however." Pyrrha adds helpfully.

Jaune nods in agreement as the trio round a corner.

"Always a catch…" Yang playfully mutters, definitely less confrontational than she had been during their last conversation. It's...encouraging.

Jaune keeps his observation to himself and continues, "Then you keep training like hell if you were reincarnated so that you don't look like an easy target to the sociopaths and blood purists." He has a wry smile on his face at the quip, but can tell it was the wrong sort of gallows humor, as Yang's typical smile looks a bit more forced now.

"So, what exactly did you mean when you said how strong you are in a gray area, Vomit Boy?" Yang prompts before he can try to recover from his misstep.

He heaves a sigh. "Normally, only High-Class Devils are strong enough to have their own Peerage, you need to be able to keep your subordinates in line, after all." Yang nods in understanding, before bobbing her head in a 'go on' sort of way, as neither of her arms can do much gesticulating draped over Jaune and Pyrrha's shoulders the way they are. Well, not much gesticulating that they can easily see while paying attention to her and where they're going. "So, when I was getting towards the upper end of the power scale for a Middle-Class Devil, I... did something stupid, to keep Sairaorg's mom from getting poisoned and get the wannabe assassin caught at the same time. I don't exactly remember much of what happened after–getting poisoned by something tailored to take out people at least an order of magnitude stronger than you sucks–but the way they saved me from that was also a sort of reward for saving Lady Bael's life, and it got me a Peerage of my own and a forced boost to my power."

Officially it was a reward, Lord Bael knew he couldn't afford to publically do anything less for someone who saved his wife. It was fortunate for me that Lord Beelzebub had apparently been working on something to help a lower class Devils gain their own Peerages quicker than whats currently normal. Something about investments involving Remnant, he'd said once Jaune had been a bit more cogent after the rushed, experimental procedure that had saved his life.

Pyrrha steps in to take over the explanation when Jaune pauses to take a breath. "The problem is, while Jaune was close to the level of power he needed to take the exam to become a High-Class Devil, he had nowhere near the amount of political connections or power of his own to even think about applying for that yet."

Yang's nose wrinkles at that, but she doesn't seem lost. Jaune nods and begins to wrap the explanation up, "So, to keep his enemies at bay and allies from losing their shit he sent me somewhere that most of them don't know about: home to Remnant. That bought me the time to catch up power-wise, which I have–at least compared to the other Devils my age with Peerages of their own–but the problem is, I still don't have the connections I need to be considered a High-Class devil, despite the fact that most Middle-Class couldn't take me, or Pyrrha for that matter, in a straight up fight in their wildest dreams."

"Which means that Ren, Nora and myself are all still technically Low-Class Devils, as we can't outrank our King. Not yet, anyway." Pyrrha adds mildly, more amused than put off by that fact. Being underestimated and shortsold like that is probably a pretty novel experience for her.

After a drawn out silence Yang eventually concludes, "That sounds like a load of Grimmshit." Jaune nods in agreement to that, not really having anything of worth to add to her assessment of his situation.

Yang looks around, and, seeing that they are still mostly alone now that nearly everyone is either studying in the library or their dorm hall somewhere, or has turned in for the night. "I guess, between you two and Ren and Nora at least, it looks like romance doesn't work any different for you Devils, at least the ones that aren't stuck with the all the crap that comes with being nobles."

Jaune knows that answering that question truthfully is a bad idea. The people of Remnant are cool with a lot of things, harems, however, aren't one of them. Luckily, after years of moving in the cutthroat political circles of the Underworld's upper-class, he has a pretty damn good poker-face.

Unfortunately, Pyrrha's poker-face is famous and Yang knows her better than your average tournament enthusiast. "What aren't you guys telling me?"

Jaune represses the urge to groan. And things had been going so well too. "It... it's pretty common for a King to turn his–"

"Or her." Pyrrha interjects, probably hoping to be helpful.

"–Peerage into a harem."

For a heartbeat, Yang is perfectly still and silent, eyes hidden by her lustrous locks. The blonde takes a long, slow and hopefully steadying breath as she clearly chews on that revelation. After a pregnant pause, she openly scoffs in a resigned manner.

"Of course that's a thing…"

Jaune winces. Going by the tone of her voice, Yang sounds like she's ready to believe just about anything regarding Devil society. "Yang-–"

"Old school Feudal society, crap birth rates, I get it. Thanks for telling me and not just covering your asses." She cuts him off before gently shrugging off his and Pyrrha's support. It's more surprise and unwillingness to fight than anything, but it still happens.

"Good talk, Arc." She neutrally adds before slowly striding the last few steps to the staircase leading into their dorm hall–at least they got her most of the way back–before wheeling around to glare at the two of them. "But just so we're clear: My sister is off. Limits." She growls out, before setting off into the building and pulling the door behind her.

"That… didn't go as badly as it could have." Pyrrha observes after a few moments of silence, Jaune nodding dumbly next to her.

For a long moment, Jaune and Pyrrha just stand there staring at the door. "At... least the picnic was nice?" Jaune eventually ventures.

Pyrrha nods. "It was. We... should probably go get the basket and blanket out of your locker and put Crocea Mors away. I don't think Yang would take well to it, if it seems like we're trying to force the issue right now." Jaune nods, and takes Pyrrha's hand again as they set off to do just that.

_-*R-DxD*-_

Weiss Schnee feels like a hundred pounds of tenderized, raw ground beef stuffed into a skin-suit.

Looking over at her partner, it's clear to her that Ruby feels a similar sentiment. "Now I understand what Tusca meant when he complained about Hell Week every season." Ruby gripes, throat crackling just enough to indicate that the prodigy team leader still hasn't completely rehydrated from their most recent training session with Cao Cao's inner circle.

Weiss, not quite getting what Ruby is getting at, makes a confused noise as they stagger along the path from the Bullhead docks back to their dorm. "One of my friends from Signal. Total sports nut. Did a different sport with Patch's Junior High every season. And each season, every single one of his coaches spent the first week or two getting the team 'back in shape.'" Ruby tiredly explains.

Weiss slowly nods, "That… does sound like what Cao Cao intended for this week when he decided that we'd be ignoring the agreed upon schedule of Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after class for daily training for our first week of cooperation." Which, Weiss had to admit, was a sensible plan. It let them ride the Bullheads down into Vale so no one would wonder where they had gone. It left them time to keep up on their studies with the two off days during the week, and a few hours after their extra training sessions as well, if they were saddled with a particularly heavy load of coursework at some point in the future, and most importantly would be spaced out enough to constitute training and lead to gains in physical strength and skill, not just break their bodies.

Interspersed between the brutal training sessions and brain-bending magical primers, Semblance stress-testing and training had been mind-numbing hours of lessons on the different supernatural factions, religions and pantheons scattered across Earth. Different members of Cao Cao's inner circle regaling the bruised and overloaded minds with fantastic or sordid tales and myths whenever they had been present and not busy with something the Hero in question recognized as more pressing.

After learning that the Brothers are real, Weiss had thought she was prepared for anything, but some of what she had been told is still a stretch to wrap her mind around despite that.

Ruby wordlessly moans before she turns just enough to shoot a half-hearted pout at Weiss. "I didn't think it would be this bad. I kind of enjoyed the first day!"

[[The safehouse the Heroes had given them the address to before teleporting them home after the first 'official' meeting is old, a tall three-story gray and black brick construct, with a wide, flat-topped turret at either front corner, the face of the flat-topped building nearly running up to the sidewalk, it's flat topped roof bordered by what looks to be a chest-high, crenelated wall. If Weiss were a betting girl she would wager that this small manor dates back to when Vale's King and nobility still ruled, and that the building had at one point been home to a family sworn to one noble house or another. If the Heroes weren't using it as a safehouse, the probably-ancient building nestled between a more upscale neighborhood and one primarily inhabited by Huntsmen and Huntresses would probably be owned by some historical society.

The door opens, and the eight Heroes currently in Vale step out to meet them, and sweep them along with them to walk to a nearby Huntsman outfitter.

Once inside, Ruby's gaze had fallen on a rack of magazines off to the door's right. Weiss doesn't bother suppressing an eyeroll. "Ruby, you have a subscription to half a dozen of those, already. And this month's issue for the last of them was with the mail Blake picked up this morning." Ruby pouts at Weiss, much to the snickering amusement of Jeanne. "So, why don't you assist our friends in navigating the different brands for field gear, the durability ratings of Huntsman grade fabrics and how personal is too personal for an emblem."

"And you, Lady Schnee?" Cao Cao asks, looking more curious than upset over how quickly she had usurped the 'payment' for her and Ruby training with the Heroes.

Trying not to seem too conceited, she offers him a polite, reserved smile. "Who better than the Heiress to the largest Dust mining and refinement company on Remnant to offer a primer of the different applications of Dust, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of crystal versus powdered–and whether you would be better off using pre-ground or grinding your own for a custom mix?" By the time the rhetorical question is halfway out her mouth, Le Fay, Jeanne, Georg and Leonardo of all people are hovering near her.

They end up spending several hours in the shop, the two more magically inclined, each leaving with half a dozen larger, high-grade Dust crystals each. Apparently the Heroes have a decent set of lapidary tools at their safehouse, so cutting down or grinding up their selections will be no problem. Cao Cao had stopped by one of the shop's patch-stitching kiosks, and has already set his tentative emblem–a minimalist representation of the True Longinus pointed skywards, with several links of broken chain scattered about its base safety-pinned to his shirt's right shoulder.]]

Weiss has to admit to herself that the seemingly boyish innocence on Cao Cao and Siegfried's faces as they had taken part in the tradition that countless generations of up-and-coming young Huntsman and Huntresses considered the true beginning of that life path had put a smile on her face.

Whatever reservations she had had about the Heroes had been steadily evaporating with each interaction she has with them.

She looks over at her partner. "Clearly, you're just focusing on the shopping trip. The actual training on Monday was the harshest we had all week." She grimaces as Ruby does an audible full-body shudder.

"I think you meant, 'in all our lives.'" Ruby groans after a brief pause, clearly giving up on any pretense of their first day under the tutelage of Cao Cao and his comrades having been easy.

[[Weiss is panting on the ground, thoroughly defeated. Siegfried towering over her, face impassive and his 'sword of light' still drawn. "Passable. Barely. There are several holes in your form, and the less said about your stamina and likely physical durability the better." Weiss just glares up at him, and the stupid energy sword he'd claimed was his best weapon for light sparring.

She can't help but compare what she had just endured to the few times Winter had been home, and forced her into a 'proper' spar, claiming that the trainers and coaches Jacques had hired once he accepted Weiss would not be dissuaded from walking grandfather's path were too worried about not being fired from a well-paying job to spar with her honestly. A spar with her classmates being the personal trainers, Siegfried taking the role of too-fast, too-strong, too-skilled-to-properly-fight Winter had occupied all those months ago.

Before Weiss can mention that she's working on a targe to balance out her style and fill some of those holes in, a second voice cuts in, "She mentioned that her family has a hereditary Semblance earlier. Summoning previously defeated enemies to aid them. However I didn't see so much as a Creep harrying you, Siegfried." Georg cuts in. "Furthermore, if that scar is anything to go by, even with her current subpar level of skill she has defeated at least one foe of note that could aid her."

The teen who could be a distant relative of hers were it not for his being born on a different world scoffs at that. "Doubtful, but you make a reasonable point. Leonardo is the one she needs to talk with about summoning minions." At that, he dismisses his weapon, returning its hilt into the folds of his coat with the rest of his arsenal and starts striding towards the back door–a sliding glass construct that has to be something that was added by a more recent owner as it absolutely goes against the aged building's general design focus on defensibility.

Weiss looks over to where Ruby and Heracles had been sparring, the two rough rings surrounded by a series of gardens filled mostly with topiaries, flowering perennial bushes and other low-maintenance plants that had survived however long the building had gone without an owner. Ruby is on her knees, mostly thanks to Crescent Rose, which she is clinging to with both hands as she trembles and pants with exhaustion. The brutish tan Hero has what she can only describe as a considering look on his face. "You're quick on your feet, and have a solid grasp on the body mechanics it takes to turn that overgrown farming implement of yours into a viable weapon." Ruby tries to quip at the brute, though nothing but wordless groaning comes out, probably too tired, Weiss figures. "That said, you're too reliant on the gun to get the momentum you need to get any power behind your blows in a reasonable amount of time, twig-girl."

For a few moments, the courtyard is silent, the remaining Heroes all sat on comfortable looking lawn chairs inside the gazebo overlooking the sparring arena watching with interest, but thankfully not commenting. Then, Ruby does manage to blow a raspberry at Heracles who rolls his eyes in response. "That's because, unlike you, I'm not built like an Ursa. I'm still growing, so I gotta make up the difference somehow." she pauses to pant, and allows herself to flop over onto her back and the torn up dirt. "And it's not like you're using your boomy-thing any better."

"Variant Detonation." He dryly corrects her, looking almost as confused as he does offended at Ruby's label for what is probably his Sacred Gear.

Weiss rolls her eyes at the exchange. Ruby had bugged every member of Cao Cao's inner circle as to what their Sacred Gears were within the first hour of meeting with them. Some of their abilities or sacred weaponry had seemed pedestrian compared-in theory at least-to some of the more outlandish Semblances she's seen or heard of, while others were downright terrifying. Of course, without any point of reference, keeping all of the names and specifics straight had proven difficult for the excitable prodigy. No doubt, after a few live examples any initial difficulty she had had keeping it all straight will become an embarrassing memory.

Ruby nods, cooing, "So cool." Before rolling from her side to her back. "Yeah, Variant Detonation, does it have to come from your fists?" Heracles offers a cautious 'no' before explaining that any physical attack is enough for him to wield it. Ruby snorts out a giggle and something unintelligible about Yang, before continuing, "Then why aren't you using it to get more mobility? Use those bloated muscles smart, not hard, you don't actually need to take every hit someone wants to land on you, right?" Ruby croaks before making a few more suggestions which sound suspiciously similar to Yang's fighting style, again reminding Weiss why she's the Team Leader. All Weiss had been able to get out of Siegfried's style was that he is faster, stronger and more skilled than her, while Ruby had been able to offer back advice to Heracles, despite having been just as thoroughly trounced as she had been.

By the time Ruby's done, Heracles seems about to give a snappy retort before falling silent, clearly considering her advice. Ruby rubs a finger under her nose, having made her point.

"Using explosions for momentum, huh?" he trails off, rubbing his chin with his right hand in faux thoughtfulness. "You mean, something like this?" He snaps the fingers of his left hand, and an explosion–small compared to what he'd been throwing around during the spar–erupts under Ruby, sending her tumbling backward with a startled yelp

Ruby grumbles as she rolls from a heap on the ground back into a crouch to glare at the laughing muscular Hero. "I'll get you for that, you overstuffed meathead!"]]

Grumbling, and swaying on her feet as they step off to the side to give a quartet of jogging upperclassmen enough room to pass by them. "At least you knew who they'd have you sparring against." the petite reaper grumbles, arms crossed for a brief moment before the shift in balance nearly has the bone-tired girl keeling over.

Weiss rolls her eyes. "Yes, because knowing how I was going to be beaten on a particular day was so much fun."

[[Weiss heaves in another deep breath as Jeanne smiles at her from across the torn up sparring ring. Her right sleeve is singed and frayed, and the hem of her combat skirt heavy with ice. "Rubes was right~!" She crows, a plain rapier in her right hand, her left dropping the spent Ice Dust crystal to grab a yellow one. Snarling to herself, Weiss spins Myrtenasters revolver to chamber the cylinder of powdered Gravity Dust. "Practicing with Dust crystals is making it easier to focus on creating fewer swords with specific elements with Blade Blacksmith!"

Which sounds good, Weiss will admit, but her big sweeping attacks summoning mostly plain swords are far easier to avoid with how telegraphed those strikes tend to be.

"I thought we were sparring here." Weiss grumps pointedly at the slightly taller blonde girl, who proceeds to wink, and sweeps her sword across her chest. One gravity Glyph launches Weiss sideways, and a second blocks the last of the half-dozen fiery broadswords Jeanne's attack had sent pinwheeling towards Weiss. As she twists in mid-air, prepared to summon the third Glyph she'll need to get in a counterattack, only for searing pain to erupt from her right side, and her muscles lock up as electricity sparks across her body, skittering across her Aura and lighting up her nerves like she'd never had it unlocked.

"C'mon, Weiss, I've already seen you use that trick, like, a dozen times!" Jeanne playfully chides as she hops back from where Weiss is panting on the ground, dropping the still sparking sword and summoning a fresh one into her hand. First, Siegfried had beaten her with strength and ferocity. Then Arthur had walked circles around her with pure technique and form, and now Jeanne is proving to be far more versatile a swordswoman than Weiss is. The fact that all three of them had clearly been holding back–Arthur and Siegfried moreso than Jeanne–is just salt in the wound, compounded by the fact that most of them were still getting used to having an Aura to rely on, and had yet to develop or display any sort of Semblance. From what admittedly little she has seen of the supernatural world, only the very best of Huntsmen will have the strength and skills needed to compete with the level of power and prowess that seems to be the norm for Devils, Angels and the mortals that set themselves against them.

Though Weiss is beginning to feel that that is just wishful thinking on her part...

Either way, fighting against and alongside that sort of power is both terrifying and humbling. Ruby had certainly been right that they need to be willing to accept training and opportunities to increase their own power from any avenue it can be found.

Jeanne turns to wave as Weiss sighs to herself. If only Ruby were open to talking with Team JNPR again...

Ruby waves back at Jeanne, having just strode out of the Heroes' safehouse with Le Fay at her side. The prodigy looking just as frustrated as Weiss probably does after her sessions with Leonardo. Granted, Ruby and Le Fay usually spent half of their magic lessons giggling and chattering. As a result, Ruby enjoys her lessons with the Heroes. Not that Weiss isn't grateful for their aid or didn't enjoy their company, but the frustration grates on her far more. Furthermore, Leonardo barely talks, half of his advice is the exact opposite of what Winter says when she has the time to help Weiss with her summoning, and she still only gets whisps and flashes of pale blue energy at best.

Not that she hadn't been making any progress of her own. Georg–after sitting in on her second lesson–had asked her a few questions about her previous tutelage, which led to her recounting the advice on her feelings Winter had given her more times than she cares to recount by now. The specific emotions that are the source of the minute fluctuations holding her back from accessing her Summoning Glyphs are proving maddeningly hard to pin down. Still, some progress is better than none. Georg has been quite encouraging on that front. Even without access to the Summoning Glyph, Weiss has been learning new and creative uses for her Glyphs, as well as gaining skill as a swordswoman from her time spent with the Heroes.

"It doesn't seem like whatever dormant power your eyes have wants to hurt people." The little blonde tentatively observes, twirling her staff–Fairy's Log now, thanks to Ruby–idly as she does so, and the silver-eyed girl perks up. "It does feel close to some of the other Holy powers Angels wield back on Earth, if you squint."

The Heroes hadn't wasted any time telling the pair that Ruby's eyes have some sort of power, either magical or divine, locked away inside of them. Something that is in direct opposition of Grimm. The two of them had come away from that conversation with more evidence that the Brother of Light–along with his Dark sibling–were real than either had expected to be presented with in their entire lives.

"I mean, that's a good thing though, right? It's hard to protect people if you're also killing them." Ruby chirps hopefully, to which Le Fay's only reply is a thoughtful hum.

That first meeting had also been a rather harsh reality check for Ruby, and a depressing yet expected affirmation of expectations for Weiss. Ruby asked the Heroes point blank whether or not they would be killing anything other than Grimm on any potential excursions with them, youthful optimism and naivety bright in her eyes. It hadn't been Cao Cao, Heracles or Jeanne, but Le Fay who had proceeded to inform Ruby that 'kill or be killed' is an unfortunate truism in the supernatural world. To Weiss that had been an affirmation of common sense. Where and how does one imprison the sort of psychopath that has the power to break entire continents, and sees anything with less power as toys at best? What authority could you call on to provide a fair trial for a literal hungering god? The young witch's response had dismayed the silver-eyed prodigy, to say the least.

It had taken Le Fay most of the rest of the evening to restore Ruby's spirits after that, but she hadn't given up until Weiss' partner was smiling and laughing again–Jeanne adding in that they should consider themselves lucky that the Grimm are mindless constructs probably hadn't helped matters–but Le Fay had been dogged in her efforts to help Ruby accept that cold truth. Dogged, but not unsympathetic or unkind. True altruism is, apparently a rare thing in the world their Team is taking their first shaky steps into now that they have been made aware of its existence. Le Fay-in her attempts to restore Ruby's spirits-had pointed out that mercy isn't unheard of either, pointing out that Jaune and his peerage had given the Fallen they'd seen him battling plenty of opportunities to either surrender or flee with their lives. Siegfried had scoffed after overhearing that comment and countered that Jaune should have slain the cabal of murderers after their first offence, and Weiss had-silently-agreed with him.

Jeanne shoots a pitying look at Ruby. "How could that be a good thing, Rubes? Do you want the monsters to come back for you, or your family later?" Ruby makes a weird noise at that, her grin faltering a bit. "Most people either are respectable enough to live and let live; or insane, bloodthirsty killers. They aren't stupid either, and I really don't want to wake up one morning to find anyone else I know had their throat slit in the night because we left some madman lying beaten but alive." Her gaze goes a bit far away for a moment. "If they can't defeat a foe on the field of battle, they end them while they're asleep in their bed."

Ruby audibly swallows before wilting as Le Fay gives her an encouraging pat on the shoulder while whispering something comforting into her ear. Weiss grimaces, she certainly isn't a stranger to living life threatened by dangerous or unhinged people, and it isn't something she'd wish on anyone else. Especially her dearest friend, but here they are.

Siegfried nods from his place leaning against the wall he'd been watching Weiss' and Jeanne's spar from. "Jeanne is sadly correct. We lost more than a few of ours that way while we were still coming together."

Ruby seems defeated, deflating for a beat before her face shifts to something more thoughtful. "The Fallen Angel from the Breach. They killed all those Grimm but spared the White Fang. In fact they were pretty careful about that." Jeanne and Le Fay are brought up short.

Siegfried pauses, a thoughtful, almost confused look flashing across his face before he shrugs. "They were. One with power such as that usually need to keep tight control of themselves in most engagements. It prevents friendly fire, I suppose you could say."

"So… Deaths on the battlefield, at least supernatural ones can be avoidable." Ruby leads on hopefully.

"Hah! If that Fallen wanted to, they could have taken out most of Vale in one shot." And the supernatural world continues to be needlessly terrifying… "Concentrating the power to attack an army of mindless beasts wouldn't be impossible. Once you get past a certain point the restraint is more for fear of giving away yourself away than any real care for your enemies." Heracles barks. Ruby pouts up at him petulantly.

Siegfried smiles almost softly. A pleasant change, Siegfried is usually rather cynical and jaded. "I admire your determination, Ruby. Now hurry up and get off to the study, Lady Schnee. Georg and Leonardo are waiting for you, and Heracles finally has a proper strength training regimen for you two figured out for later tonight."

Wonderful...

Grumbling, Weiss pushes herself to her feet. Ruby and Le Fay are back to chatting amiably, Jeanne joining in. Thanks to Ruby's mechanical genius–or madness depending on how charitable you are feeling–they'd finished all of the segments for her new targe in class today, even with the setback of Ruby deciding that two machine-pistols to the otherwise finished design, and convincing Weiss to agree with her after their first session with the Heroes on Monday. All she has to do now is fit the pieces together.

She will start winning spars soon. Or she'll at least start scratching her opponents in a notable way, damnit!]]

The Heroes had recently begun using their Auric might. As difficult as they had been prior, the two Huntresses-in-Training found their problems against their sparring partners increased Today it was the two of them against Jeanne. The blonde managed to outpace even Ruby with her Aura -unlocked. She was fast before, but today was just absurd.

The elevator dings open, and Weiss stumbles back out into the dorm hall, Ruby leaning against her. The dolt being a few inches taller than her doesn't help the Weiss' wavering of balance. The younger girl giggles sheepishly after reaching out to stabilize her, the two of them supporting each other. "Honestly, I was kind of worried Cao Cao was gonna be kicking us out when he called up to his office after we finished our training today."

"Don't be silly." Weiss scoffs as she rolls her eyes. She very much doubts that Cao Cao would let either of them slip through his fingers so easily. If she had been even half right in her first impression of him that is. They'd already earned their keep as far as the group's leader was concerned apparently. Cao Cao had grandly proclaimed that Remnant was a treasure-trove of potential recruits, quality equipment and resources not long after the joint training sessions had begun. After that the rest of the Heroes had dove into training Ruby and Weiss with everything they had, expanding Weiss and Ruby's abilities as the Remnant natives had shown them paths to expand their own. 'Never settle, always advance' as Cao Cao put it. Cao Cao had gone so far as to claim he'd gotten complacent himself and thanked them both during the meeting earlier tonight. Ruby had been a blushing, stuttering mess afterward because of Cao Cao's honest earnestness.

"Ruby, if you're still beating yourself up about the gazebo, don't. You didn't know enough about Annihilation Maker when you made your recommendation, Leonardo didn't have an ounce of experience using Dust, and to be perfectly fair the two of you should have had me on hand for that experiment."

Ruby snorts at that. "I mean, yeah, probably. Still! We're finally good enough to go out on Grimm hunts with the Heroes!"

Weiss nods, not quite so eager as her partner, but satisfied with her progress nonetheless. She raises her right arm and with a quick flex of her fist, expands her still unnamed targe. Slender steel wedges smoothly slide out of the rectangular box resting just behind her wrist as the spike, nestled between the pair of machine-pistols, pops up. The outward facing surface is polished to a mirror finish, and the right sleeve of her jacket-now slit from wrist to elbow to allow for the defensive armaments deployment is hanging open. It will take her probably right up to the tournament to finish acclimating to using the weapon, but she'd already gotten Arthur, Jeanne and Siegfried to put in just a little more effort in their spars thanks to it.

Granted, none of them had been particularly amused by her new tactic of blocking any straightforward strikes and proceeding to shoot her foe, but neither the Grimm nor supernatural belligerents too crazed or bloodthirsty to adhere to a truce care much for fairness, honor or taking prisoners alive.

Ruby pushes their dorm door open to reveal–No one.

No one, and a note set on top of what looks like a pile of gift cards and held down by a half-dozen shotgun shells. Took most of the gift cards Jaune taped to our dorm door this morning with Blake to help her pick a new outfit for her date this weekend. Be back late – Yang.

Weiss passes the note to her partner, "At least she left a few of Jaune's first attempts at an apology for the two of us." She glances down at the plastic cards and shrugs. "And told us where she and Blake went. I don't know if I can take any more unpleasant surprises this year." They still hadn't found the time or opportunity to tell Yang and Blake about their meetings with the Hero Faction, or secure them an invitation to join as well. That does not sit particularly well with Weiss. If the debacle with Team JNPR the other weekend is anything to go by, leaving something so momentous as a secret can only end increasingly poorly the longer that state of affairs is allowed to continue.

Ruby nods soberly before her eyes shoot open in recognition. "Hey, isn't that the brand Coco is in all those ads for?" Ruby quips after setting the note down.

Weiss looks down to check before absently nodding, "I suppose it is." She sets her blade and shield down next to her desk. "Doesn't matter, I have more than enough clothes from brands that are at least as expensive and durable. The gift cards are yours. Sleeping now."

At least that had been her plan before one of her Scroll's custom ringtones went off. Ravel's unique experience with the politics that can surround inheritance-especially when there are multiple children eligible to do so–had been beyond enlightening. She is fairly certain that Jacques won't go so far as to have her killed to remove a problematic heir, but the fact that he can have her passed over for leadership of the SDC in favor of Whitley does mean that she has to at least acknowledge him when he shoves his nose into her business.

Groaning, Weiss tiredly fishes her Scroll out of her pocket with a now half-dressed Ruby looking down at her owlishly. Right, she should probably change into her pajamas before letting sleep claim her as well.

Weiss's tired face lightens up slightly. It wasn't her father, but Ravel that had sent her a message. Ostensibly to see how she's dealing with the drama on her team, but if Weiss is reading between the lines correctly, the blonde Devil is once again feeling isolated after trading from her brother's Peerage to her mother's. She calls it being a 'Free' Bishop.

Ruby had asked about Weiss' Devil friend, not wanting her appointments with Ravel to conflict with their shared sessions with the Heroes–not that that had mattered much this week. After Weiss had explained that she had paused their regularly scheduled summonings, that were really just venting and hanging out more than anything else-Ruby, in one of her flashes of insight that make it incredibly obvious why the Headmaster had made her leader in hindsight, had pieced together why and had become contrite and apologetic almost immediately. She had then proceeded to insist that Weiss not throw away a friendship like that for anyone, even for the Team. And so Weiss and the younger Devil hadn't wasted any time getting back in touch, not that they'd had any time to meet in person since then. Eager to help prevent another debacle, Ravel hadn't been shy about her desire to at least meet Ruby in the texted conversations and Scroll calls they'd worked into their busy schedules over the course of the week. However, Weiss hasn't managed to drum up the courage to ask yet.

The current message was a photo attachment. A jolt of mild excitement runs up Weiss's spine. The photo of Ravel and her two youngest nieces! She quickly pulls her Scroll open and–

Stares dumbly at the shocking image she is presented with. Weiss blinks a few times and wipes at her eyes, but the image remains, this is not an exhaustion induced hallucination, apparently. She belatedly notices the text of [Yes, they are my nieces. My eldest brother and their father, Ruval, has over five centuries on me. They come by their admittedly impressive statures from my dear sister-in-law, Adelaide. I'm confident you'd enjoy their company, even if their presence can be a bit…staggering, at first. They've become quite interested in your world, so don't be surprised if you see them around Vale. You may even meet them before I bring them around for the Vytal Festival. From left to right: Rusora 'Ruse' Phenex, myself and Raenella 'Rune' Phenex.]

Ruby, now clad in her pajama pants and sports bra, tank top dangling from her left hand idly glances at Weiss and notices her slack-jawed expression. "Something wrong, Weiss?"

"Ravel… Ravel just sent me a picture of her and two of her youngest nieces." She passingly realizes that–if Ravel's accompanying text is anything to go by–the Devil had expected her to either forget about the repercussions of Devils extended lifespans, or for her to apply the preconceptions born of her upbringing–in an admittedly broken family to be applied to Ravel's feudally structured family. To say that Weiss had been wrong in her mental image of Ravel's nieces would be the understatement of the decade.

"Ooh! Can I see!?" Ruby chirps, darting over to Weiss in a flash of her Semblance and perching her chin on Weiss' shoulder.

Ruby snatches the Scroll from Weiss's outstretched hand to take a look. She hops back, trips over her own discarded skirt and lands on her back, Weiss's Scroll held at arm's length. Her face screws up in confusion and then awe before she pulls the Scroll back towards her head, tilting it on an angle as if that will change the image displayed on it to one that makes more sense.

"Er, Weiss–?"

"Ravel's the one in the middle, and I know you can read the message she sent with the picture perfectly well. Apparently those two are your age."

"Whaaaat!? But they're so…" There are clearly so many different words Ruby could use to describe the twins–nearly all of them positive–and that just isn't fair.

"I know." The heiress can clearly picture her friend's impish smirk at her reaction. The brat!

Ruby's wide silver eyes look between the girls on-screen. "They must drink a LOT of milk." Is what she winds up settling on, of course. She starts pouting. "No fair."

"They certainly look like they'd have some to spare…" Weiss drawls not jealous one bit eliciting a surprised squawk from Ruby. It's exhaustion that led to Weiss making the uncharacteristically crass response. Anyone who says otherwise is welcome to fight her-after her muscles stop feeling like tenderized ground beef. Ruby must have seen something amusing on Weiss face, as her shock quickly gives way to a snorted giggle of agreement, a small victory, but one Weiss is happy to claim. Even if it had been rude of her. They are still Ravel's nieces, and as Ravel is a dear friend of hers she will not judge the younger girls on appearance alone.

Unfairly sizable as they are.

Tumbling gracelessly out of her bed, Weiss slings her jacket in the general direction of her hamper and shifts her shoulders to let her combat dress slide from her body as she slumps towards the closet her nightie is hanging in. She is absolutely done with the day and cannot slip into the garment's silken embrace and flop back into her bed quickly enough.

The supernatural world–and probably Ravel–apparently had wanted to get in one last laugh today.

So much for little balls of energy...

_-*R-DxD*-_

This is so stupid. Coco can't help but think, perched on a tall barstool next to Yang, dressed in a more-or-less passable disguise.

She'd hid the younger blonde's hair and eye-catching curves behind a baggy hoodie. She had foregone her beret and shades for a gaudy CrimsonSteer ball cap, tucking her lock of dyed hair up into it. Wearing it backwards and tight made her forehead look huge, especially without her sunglasses, and both of them are wearing civilian brands that will shred to tatters if they get in a fight, but blend in with the other people out on the town on this pleasant enough Saturday night.

But Yang had insisted on following Blake and Sun to 'make sure things go well' and had insisted on roping Coco into her idiocy as well. She'd tried to say Coco's role in getting the reserved Faunus to give the monkey a shot first, but Coco hadn't been having any of that. Then Yang had switched tracks to how Jaune had conveniently gifted Team RWBY a treasure trove of gift cards for a fashion line that her current contract-holder had slathered her name all over as an initial attempt at an apology taped to their dorm-room door. A quick conversation reminding the younger girl that Devils ask for valuables, not souls, for contracts these days. Gift cards that she gets basically for free for normally expensive designer clothes had been a no-brainer of a payment for both of them.

Still, it had given the girl enough of a lever to have her here 'keeping an eye on things' instead of relaxing with her Team like she'd like to be on a Saturday night. Still, the blonde got points for originality picking an art gallery at least. The bar and grill they'd tailed the couple to afterwards is clean and the food is decent–not that she's getting any of that tonight.

Coco finally voices her previous thought. "This is stupid, Xiao-Long. It's pretty clear that Blake isn't gonna run off or do something dumb by now, so let's just… just..." She trails off as she notices something, or rather someone out of the corner of her eye, plants both elbows on the bar, then drops her face into her palms.

On the far side of the bar, dressed in a plain tan trenchcoat, wide-brim fedora and a pair of boxy glasses with a fake nose attached and most of the mustache that had been affixed to the bottom of that is Nora Valkyrie, being far more conspicuous about tailing their mutual friends' date.

Yang finally notices what Coco had, leans against her barstool's back, hood dropping open as she groans and goes to rub her eyes. "They're gonna notice her. She couldn't be more conspicuous if she were wearing her battle get-up or naked right now."

Snorting, Coco lifts her head enough to nod in agreement. "We gotta get her over here if we don't want the happy couple to know you decided to stalk them."

Yang shoots a glare at her. "I–we–this isn't stalking and we don't need her!"

Coco tilts her head down at the blonde, before remembering that she isn't currently wearing any shades to lower for a more intense glare, and instead tilts her eyebrows up at the younger girl. "You're really gonna be that petty over something that isn't that big a deal?"

"Petty!? Not a big deal!?" Yang hisses lowly. "I told you my story, Adel; Jaune and Pyrrha get passes, but Nora and Ren are two of my oldest friends. They know enough about of my past, what it does to me when the people close to me keep big, important shit to themselves; and they still decided to keep that from me." Yang slams her fist into the bar on the last syllable, the other hand pointing a thumb at her chest. Coco just rolls her eyes at the melodrama of it all.

Thankfully the hubbub of the bar is enough to keep their conversation from being overheard. "First, you're not entitled to their secrets, Xiao-Long. Second, I know you miss them." Yang opens her mouth to retort but finds no words to rebut Coco's point before glancing soberly towards Nora who gives a tentative smile and wave.

Seriously, seeing an old friendship like this, already strained by ending up on seperate teams, fall apart over crap luck and miscommunications–or a total lack of communication, whatever–would be one of the biggest shames Coco has seen in her life. Fortunately, the blonde seems to be in agreement. Yang slumps in on herself at that, all of the fight and trumped-up righteous indignation fleeing her. "Fine. Go grab Nora." she grunts, before taking a long drink from her Strawberry Sunrise.

Coco flicks a stray lock of the blonde's hair away from her face as she stands up, ignoring Yang's half-hearted squawk of protest. "Lighten up, Xiao-Long, spite's an ugly look on you and if you keep letting your fire burn this hot you'll end up an empty husk of you you used to be." She pauses and flicks the blonde's forehead to keep her from looking away as Yang scowls at her. "And chin up, if I'd just let you leave this to fester it might have taken months or years for things to get back to normal between the three of you, if they ever did at all. That sort of resentment between friends is the worst, trust me."

At that, she struts across the bar, grabs Nora by her collar and bodily drags her back to where they are sitting. Halfway there she plucks the 'disguise' glasses from her face and tosses them into a garbage can behind the bar, the last few whiskers clinging to the parody piece scattering across the bar before they thump into the bin filled with bottles and crushed cans. Coco shoves the hyperactive ginger in Yang's general direction of Yang before crossing behind the other girl to reclaim her seat and polish off her drink. "Umm, hi." Nora offers sheepishly, not quite making eye-contact with Yang, waving awkwardly again, as she shifts her weight back and forth between her feet.

Yang offers the redheaded girl a half-hearted glare. "So, you decided to chaperon for Blake too?"

Nora offers a nod. "I mean, yeah. I don't think Sun would do anything, but I know she's important to you and I figured that maybe if something bad did happen to them me being there to help out would-make-you-less-mad-at-me?" Brothers, it's such a damn shame those two aren't into each other. They'd make such a sweet couple and–No. Velvet will rant and Yats will pout and Fox will snark in her head if they find out she's going back to doing shit like that.

Coco exaggeratedly rolls her eyes. "Blake's a big girl, and from what I've seen Wukong can hold his own in a pinch too."

Yang grunts, nods and slaps the empty space on the bar next to her. Grinning a bit, Nora hops up into it. "Fine, this was pointless and we have better ways to spend our Saturday night."

Nora shrugs. "I mean, kinda, but I wanted to know how the date was going too and with Blake being all… Blakey." she pauses to wave expressively at that. "I figured if I asked when she gets back she'd probably just say 'fine' or 'bad' or some other super unhelpful one-word answer that doesn't actually mean anything so I thought that if I followed them then I wouldn't be so bothered by that."

Yang chuckles a bit at that, though she doesn't look over at her fellow brawler. "Yeah, I suppose there's that too."

Coco follows Yang's vision, and spots Black hanging with a new face about their age at the opposite end of the bar. "What about you, Yang? I think this is the longest you've been single since we figured out cooties weren't a thing?"

Yang shrugs not taking her eyes off the boys, letting out a half-hearted, "Ehh, haven't spotted anyone who's my type that I haven't already given it a shot with that isn't already taken since the year started." She lies through her teeth and into a sip of her drink.

The blonde's eyes are locked with a pair of brownish gold eyes belonging to a silver-haired pretty boy who that Mistrali asshole from Cinder's team is currently–if Coco were a betting girl–making a sale's pitch of some kind at. The pretty-boy has long, wild looking hair, and is wearing actual shiny black leather chaps and a matching jacket over his dark red slacks and forest green shirt.

In what Coco assumes is a drastic change of pace from nearly every other boy who's locked eyes with Yang, or realizing that a bombshell like her is eyeballing them, he seems more curious than anything else. Analytical. His eyes not wavering from hers despite the fact that the transfer student is still talking at him. If Coco had to venture a guess she'd say that he's looking for something, and she doesn't have a clue what that could be, as it pretty clearly isn't what she'd expect from a guy their age.

Nora elbows Yang's gut. "Oh, so Winchester or Black don't tick off enough of your boxes then? I've seen you try to 'fix' bigger messes than them before. And most of them didn't even look half as good." Nora glances cautiously over her shoulder at the guys. Not at Mercury so much as the other one. "That guy talking to Mercury, though? I dunno if he's just an ass or has some other issues, but he probably needs someone to lean on. Probably doesn't know or wanna admit it though"

"How do you figure that?" Yang shoots back, doing her best to look disinterested.

"Well, I got here a few minutes before you did, and saw Mercury start talking to him. Couldn't hear what they were saying, but I didn't even see him move before he went from ogling the back of the bar to holding Merc by the throat and looking ready to tear it out. I mean, yeah, he backed off and they started talking, buuut..."

"Yeesh…" Coco quips, taking a sip from her drink to hide a wince. "Way I've seen it, Black kinda has that effect on people when he first meets them to be honest." Yang nods in agreement at that with an amused hum.

Nora shakes her head before casting another wary, defensive look at the guys in question. "No, it's…" The ginger trails off, clearly looking for the right words and painfully aware of how bad at that she tends to be. "Yang, you remember how Ren got when we were cramming Grimm Studies prepping for Beacon's entrance exam last summer? How it was one specific Grimm that set him off?" Yang cringes before nodding, looking a bit more sympathetic now. "That guy had the same eyes."

Coco huffs out a bored sigh. "So Black either knows that dude, or knows enough about him to say the absolute worst thing possible."

"Maybe?" Nora offers with a shrug, her prior seriousness giving way to her usual upbeat mannerisms.

"Whatever, girls. None of our business if Mercury starts some shit and gets his ass handed to him." Coco drawls lazilly.

The pretty boy either finds whatever he was looking for in Yang, or something lacking, and looks away with pointed disinterest to side-glare at the transfer student in a 'are you still here?' sort of way. Mercury quickly raises his hands in surrender, pulls his Scroll out to wave at the stranger before tucking a necklace or medallion under his jacket top then shoves himself to his feet and stomps out of the bar.

The mystery stranger then turns to glance at-at…

Oh…

Oh, damn...

Coco's jaw drops. An absolute smokeshow of a cat Faunus sashays up to the silver-haired pretty boy and very technically wearing a plain black kimono that's all but falling off of her curvaceous, textbook hourglass figure. Her feline ears are bigger than Blake's, but her hair is about the same color and length–Coco could swear they're sisters–though, Yang's partner definitely has either more class, or less confidence than the newcomer, with the way she has her shoulders hanging out of her nearly scandalous traditional North Mistrali garment. One asshole pulling the gold bow cinched under her bust, or her moving just a hair too fast will have her bearing all to anyone who wants to look. Either way, she drapes herself across the leather clad guy before they start talking.

Damn. Coco is unashamedly ogling every curve, every inch of pale flesh the girl is proudly displaying. Normally, she makes sure her shades are in place when she's collecting memories For Academic Purposes, but she'll let reputation-saving habits slide this once. She doesn't normally get so hot and bothered this quickly or easily either but… Damn. It was like that Faunus was born with supernatural sex appeal. Maybe it's her Semblance? Whatever.

After the bar starts chattering again–the newcomer having sidelined nearly all conversation with her entrance–Yang mutters as she can't help but stare at the Faunus. "About the other guys you mentioned earlier, Nora? Yang the Repairgirl is officially retired. Plus Merc and that Emerald chick have something complex going on between them that makes it even less worth poking by sticking my head into that mess." She pauses, sips and takes a very pointed glance away from the faunus Coco is still shamelessly checking out. "Winchester probably isn't as bad as he likes to paint himself as, but his ego and the stupid regurgitated racist jokes and cracks are what get in the way. That other dude Black was trying to strike up a conversation with isn't half bad-ignoring what Nora said-but he seems like a bit of a dead fish." Not that the half-assed jab hides her biting her lip as she stares at the pretty boy who is still distinctly unamused and unaffected by the Faunus woman's antics.

It takes monumental effort to pry her gaze off the cat Faunus and Coco rolls her eyes after noticing who Yang is staring at, "What? Don't tell me you have a thing for leather."

Yang snorts and Nora giggles at that. "Nah, it's just, I never thought I'd ever see a real life, umm, a..." She trails off, clearly searching for something. "There's a word for it, I know it." She mutters, confirming Coco's guess. "It's a whole character archetype in those weird Mistrali cartoons–"

"Anime," Nora corrects offhandedly.

"Whatever." Yang quips back, not even glancing back at them as she starts tapping the bar as she thinks. "Like, the overly photogenic pretty boy thing, that other gray haired guy is kind of a bad-boy take on that and–"

"You mean 'bishounen'?" A different chipper blond cuts in, prompting all three of them to spin on their bar-stools to confirm that, yes, Blake and Sun, the former blushing and latter grinning, had walked up to them at some point.

Curiously, Blake glances at the other cat Faunus and Yang like someone watching a pair of trains headed towards each other full speed and unable to look away. She remains silent, either way.

The three girls all turn, each feeling more than a bit embarrassed at having been caught like this. For a moment silence reigns between them. At least until Blake rolls her eyes and explains "We've known that the three of you were following us from the start. Since you didn't actually interrupt or anything we figured it'd be rude to not at least say 'hi.'"

Sun still hasn't looked away from Coco, looking even more sheepish now than he had after cutting into their conversation. "I… Umm… Only knew that word because my partner's actually a massive nerd and–"

Oh, right, Coco isn't wearing her shades. Ease off on the judgmental gaze before the poor guy makes an even bigger fool of himself. "Wait, how did you two notice us?" Yang cuts him off, buying Coco the time she needs to get her expression under control.

Blake does not look amused by her partner's outburst. She points to herself, "Former White Fang operative." The extended finger flicks over to the boy she's still hand-in-hand with, "Former street kid working with Vale's police for his training missions."

"She's also working with the VSPRD on the regular, so, it's not like, all the cult thing that made her good at spotting tails." Sun adds, clearly trying to be helpful and–

Actually, Belladonna isn't jumping down his throat like she has a few other kids dumb enough to call the Fang cultists in earshot of her.

If anything she seems resigned, almost depressed. Weird.

Yang's mouth drops into a silent 'o' of understanding, before she pulls the bulky hoodie over her head and drapes it over the back of her barstool, Valkyrie shucking out of her trenchcoat leaving it hanging as well, revealing that she had wore her Huntress getup under the coat and called it a day. Well, considering her reasoning for being here it made sense, Coco supposes.

"For the record, we totally weren't stalking the two of you." Yang interjects after shaking her hair back to its usual controlled chaos after snaking it through her sweatshirt, revealing the bright red t-shirt she had been wearing under it.

"Yup, no stalking here!" Nora chirps in agreement.

Out of the corner of her eye, Coco spots the Faunus smokeshow, plants a peck on the silver-haired pretty boy's cheek, still getting no response from the boy other than bemusement–lIke, what the actual fuck, Coco can't believe that anyone could be so unaffected by such a flawless beauty approaching them so forwardly, but whatever–starts to sashay towards their little group. The smokeshow isn't that much older than them, probably in her early twenties to late teens at the very most. Not especially tall, above five feet but only barely as tall as maybe Weiss would be in heels.

"Then what were you three… Doing?" Blake counters, clearly a little grumpy despite her date's cheerful disposition before trailing off in terror as she notices the other Faunus approach. Coco isn't all that interested in the drama playing out before her, as her luck is looking incredibly good with the raven-haired beauty heading–No, no. Your team is more than enough for you, Adel, down girl.

Then again... if they saw her, they'd definitely understand.

Nora, despite having just given a perfectly good reason to follow the reserved girl on her date not more than five minutes ago, falls silent at their friend's pointed glare and terse voice. Why?–Oh. With Yang having mentioned her team's reactions not too long ago, Nora must think she's still on thin ice. Coco opts to leave that alone and instead glances back at the approaching smokeshow who shoots a wink at her. Coco swallows hard and, using every ounce of her willpower she has to avoid making an ass of herself, offers a casual wave in return.

Yang is entirely unperturbed by her partner's ire, probably well used to it by now. "Well, with you being you, we all figured if we asked you how the date went you'd give us some stupidly short one or two word response that wouldn't actually tell us anything, so, well, yeah..."

Before Blake has the time to formulate any sort of reply, the shorter Faunus wraps an arm around Blake's shoulder and pulls her free of her date's hand and into a one-armed side hug. "Fancy that, my little Blakey, and her friends!" She announces gleefully, glancing at Blake before doing a double take when her eyes fall on Blake's...Bow? The short woman's beautiful face goes from playful to annoyed. "Blake." The Faunus woman holds out her hand to Blake who stares at it then her blankly before puffing up indignantly.

"Cheshire, we talked about this." Blake hisses.

"Blake…" The older girl–Cheshire apparently–is unimpressed by Blakes logic, and arches one of her nearly-perfect eyebrows at the Freshman. Blake shrinks in on herself. Cheshire steps forward and Blakes expression wilts. "Gimme." The older girl demands, extending an open palm.

The other gathered teens watch with bated breath until after a pregnant pause, Blake mulishly undoes the bow and slaps it into Cheshires waiting palm. "I have spares." Blake almost petulantly points out.

Yang's jaw drops, clearly in shock that someone had just just outstubborned Blake Belladonna of all people. Cheshire sniffs imperiously, her previous good cheer coming back. "Then you better hope I don't catch you with them."

"'Scuse me," Yang interjects as she hops off of her stool and closes most of the gap that had been between her and the black-haired young woman. "But what makes her 'your' Blakey?"

"Well~" The older raven-haired Faunus glances her over idly before she impishly smirks with a shrug, and then leans in, pressing her breasts directly into Yang's. "We've known each other since she was little, so I think that if I wanna call her Blakey, I can." She gives Yang a challenging smirk and a wink.

Grunting in surprise, Yang leans forward into other girl with her own breasts, glaring down at her with a smirk. Blake's face, meanwhile goes from ghost-white to a furious crimson. Nora meanwhile places a playfully faux scandalized hand to her mouth and Sun looks like he's at a complete loss for what to do next, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head and looking away. "Still doesn't make her yours, no one likes a cat burglar."

Everyone groans. Everyone except Cheshire who gives a tittering laugh of delight at the lame word-play.

"How meowtrageous!" Yang's eyebrows raise and her jaw drops while the rest groan again, Blake being the most vocally dismayed. "So sorry you feel that way. I suppose a little thing like you has something to compensate for~?" The older raven haired girl cooes teasingly at the taller blonde, as she leans even more heavily into her.

Now that Coco has an excuse to look…Yup, Yang is smaller by at least ten centimeters, based on the numbers she'd taken to running in her head during her modeling career. Unless she's gotten rusty–she hasn't–that puts Cheshire's brassier-bursting bust size at nearly a hundred centimeters. DAMN.

Coco needs to get a shot of Cheshire on her scroll. For posterity.

By now Yang is practically nose-to-nose with Cheshire, lilac eyes narrowed dangerously. "Please! You think you're the first ho I've run into that conned one of her sugar daddies into getting her a titjob?"

And the claws come out. Coco can't believe her luck. This sort of thing just doesn't happen in the real world.

The crowd, of course, has started staring again, a few onlookers even poking their heads up above the half-wall separating the bar from the dining room. The bartender's mouth is shuttering, looking ready to intervene, though she looks just as turned on as Coco feels. Sun and Nora are both vividly red in their faces; the former clearly desperate to avoid pissing his date off, and the latter just enjoying the chaos unfolding before them. Blake has dropped her face into her palms and is either weeping from embarrassment or muttering obscenities. If someone were to walk up and shoot her, Coco wouldn't be surprised if the Faunus thanked them for the favor before she died.

"Fake, are they? Are you suuure~?" Cheshire singsongs with a shrug and a grin, which is the last bit of motion needed for her kimono to fail, and now Yang is blushing–like her face is about to explode, the lucky bitch–as the blonde's hands dart to restore at least some decency to the wholly indecent Faunus. Cheshire puts on a playful pout at Yang's panicked, scandalized reaction. "Aww, you didn't wanna see my kittens? Do they look natural enough to you now?"

Yang is still openly gaping in disbelief at the older woman for her brazen attitude. The blonde then begrudgingly looks at the pillowy cleavage of her opponent and then at her own. Finally, Yang sags in defeat. "Fine, you win."

"Poor widdle dragon isn't used to losing, is she?" Cheshire asks in the sort of voice most people reserve for babies and toddlers, patting Yang on her cheek.

Yang doesn't rise to the taunting. Her blush quickly receding as she just glares, ignoring the patronizing gesture. "Nope. Not around Vale, anyways." Coco resists the urge to roll her eyes, never let it be said Xiao-Long isn't as graceful in defeat as she is in victory. "Wait–how the hell did you know that?"

Cheshire curiously tilts her head in a smooth, almost catlike motion, smirk still in place. "Hmmm?"

Yang scowls suspiciously. "Me and dragons. My last name is Xiao-Long." She gesticulates wildly "Like, nearly all of the different nicknames my dad and Uncle have ever come up with for me have dragon snuck in somehow!"

Cheshire offers another coy shrug, though not enough to unveil her glorious cleavage this time. Damn. "Oh, I suppose you could say the nose just knows." Cheshire replies playfully, ignoring Yang's sputtering at the non-answer as she glances over her shoulder at the silver-haired guy, a thoughtful look on her face. He looks back at her with a raised eyebrow. After a small nod from Cheshire, he glances back at Yang assessingly.

Cheshire turns her grin back to the group. "So! I almost forgot that Blakey was on a date. I wanted to see how it was going but got distracted." She pauses, clearly thinking over something for a beat. "Am I gonna have to kill ya, monkey boy?" Cheshire locks her golden eyes on Sun, her cheerful threat seeming to have pinned the easygoing guy in place; Blake meanwhile glares bloody murder at her…

Sister? Old Friend? Rival? Cousin? Honestly Coco wouldn't be surprised by any of those.

Nora lets out an awkward chuckle. "Yeah, funny story about that, we were kinda-sorta following her for the same reason?"

Yang cuts in, harsh and angrily before anyone can respond to the ginger's quip. "Blake, you never told us you had an older sister."

Cheshire puts on a big, fake pouty and crocodile-tears well up in her eyes at that. "Blakey, you never talked about me!?"

Blake side-eyes the older Faunus as she deadpans "She isn't my sister, just an old family friend with an unfortunate resemblance."

Cheshire tilts her head to make her forced tears even more noticeable. "So cruel~!" She moans, though as soon as she notices that none of them are buying the act she drops it. "You haven't answered my question yet, Blakey." Her gaze, however, is locked on Sun, who forces a chuckle and tugs at the collar of his–-for once–-miraculously buttoned up and tucked in dress shirt with an awkward, forced laugh.

Coco rolls her eyes at the ridiculous antics. "Well enough, and it'll be better with us not following the poor couple around like creepers anymore. C'mon, I know a decent cafe that isn't too far from here. We can all gossip or get to know each other or whatever there. So, what say we give Blake some privacy?." She impulsively grabs Cheshire's arm and starts walking.

Ooh, so soft…

"Fiiine…" the bustier of the two Faunus drawls with a pretty blatant air of boredom. "This kitty's curious to know what Blakey's been up to anyways. She never calls, she never writes."

Yang huffs out a sigh and starts pulling Nora along with her as she moves to follow Coco. Nora turns her head to address Cheshire. "So, you and Blake go way back, huh?"

"Yup." Cheshire replies, turning to blow a kiss at the pretty boy leaning on his hand as they pass him. He just rolls his eyes in response and glances away. Bastard. Who was he looking at now–

That girl is TALL. And this was coming from being on a team with Yatsu. Brothers... Coco stares in disbelief, quickly turning back after the giantess offers her a coy wave and a wink.

What is UP with this place?

"Got any good stories?" Yang presses, shooting a conspiratorial grin at Nora.

"Weeeeellll…Did you know Blakey was into skinship when she was younger?" Cheshire airilly quips in response, a giggle sneaking out.

Coco can hear Blake's angry growl despite the rapidly widening gap between them. "I was eleven and it was your idea!" The younger Faunus howls back.

"Didn't stop you from enjoying it~!" The older cat Faunus sings in response, causing Blake's face to heat up again.

"Oh reeeaaally?" Yang drawls playfully, and Coco shoots a glance over her shoulder to spot thea blushing Blake pulling a bow out of the low-rise form hugging dark purple slacks Coco is confident enough to admit that the Faunus wears better than she had on the runway.

Before they are quite outside earshot Coco can hear Blake moaning out that she's doomed, and Sun trying to console her, clearly not knowing enough about whatever minefield he'd just been tossed into to help.

Whatever, not her problem. Well, at least the black haired beauty next to her doesn't seem like she'll much care about Coco enjoying the view she's offering.

_-*R-DxD*-_

((Meanwhile, in the wilderness outside of Vale))

Heracles is laughing with an Ursa Major held over his head, struggling to break free as the Hero does his best to rip it in two.

Ruby is tempted to just put a shot from Crescent Rose through its head, but she has other things to worry about. Namely, the trio of Beowolves that are trying to sneak up behind Sieg, who has a different magic, Holy or Demonic Sword in each of his hands–all three of them–Ruby had geeked out when he showed them Twice Critical–and is slashing his way through the rest of the pack with an almost manic grin on his face. Ruby's first shot drops the Grimm nearest the grinning ash-blond swordsman, and is more than enough to alert him to the threat behind him.

As Siegfried decapitates the two remaining lupine monstrosities with a spinning backhanded slash, kicking off of on of the now disintegrating monsters to launch himself back into the pack he had been powering his way through. "Above you, Rubes!" Jeanne's chipper voice exclaims, before dozens of sizzling swords flash past her, angled skyward and trailing arcs of electricity.

Ruby glances up to see three Nevermores twitching and shrieking as they fall from the sky, swords sunk hilt-deep into their bodies. A fourth has a deep gash on one of its wings, and is still diving towards Ruby. She snaps off another shot from her sniper-scythe to get herself airborne, twisting around the giant bird-Grimm's outstretched talons just as a half-dozen tendrils of shadow wrap around its wings, legs and torso, mobilizing the beast. Ruby takes the opportunity and decapitates the massive bird Grimm with a quick, neat spinning slice.

"Thanks, Connla!" She shouts as she angles her body to ensure a smooth landing.

She hears the increasingly familiar rattle, and catches a glimpse of Weiss firing off the twin pistols embedded in her bucklertarge. By the time the younger girl lands, a round had pierced through the eye of the Boarbatusk she'd caught on the disk of hardened steel on Weiss' right arm.

Ruby has to hop back, as half of a disintegrating Ursa tumbles across the ground just in front of her. Moments later a trio of charcoal gray, humanoid automatons-or something close to that-lope past. Two are glowing the same shade of red from the segmented hardened plates covering their bodies, and while they are all either slightly too long in the limb, as well as short and wide in the torso. Leonardo's 'Anti-Grimm' are still prototypes, so some have talons instead of hands, or extra pairs of limbs, or their creepy eyeless, tall cylindrical heads will rip open impossibly to bite into a Grimm, or spew out fire or freezing misty brine or bolts of lightning that coincide with the bright Dust-crystal glow emanating from between the armored plates covering their bodies.

Every ten minutes or so, after some had been destroyed a half dozen or so new ones are created, just a little bit different from the last batch. Getting closer to the form and capabilities of the ones that had lasted longer. Still prototypes, but effective. Weiss had had more than a few ideas about those when she suggested working Dust into their creation. Good ones at that.

A line of Glyphs springs to life starting at Ruby's feet, and ending at the head of yet another pack of Beowolves that had been drawn towards the group. Ruby offers a curt nod to Weiss, doing her best to hide her exhaustion. They'd been at this for at least an hour now, and the other Heroes still don't seem to be tiring. And they'd been taking down at least dozens Grimm each with every wave drawn towards the clearing.

This is divine punishment, or karma or something for her usually being the last one to get worn out on her team and always pressing to keep at it just a little longer. It just has to be.

When she'd first met the Heroes, she had thought Uncle Qrow could probably beat any one of them in a fight pretty easily–Now she isn't so sure. She's barely holding herself together, and they all look barely winded. If at all. Is this the difference between a Huntsman and a Hero, or is this just what their best look like?

As the Glyphs rocket her across the blasted torn up clearing she is able to catch a glimpse of Cao Cao and Le Fay forming a defensive perimeter around Georg–who is working on some sort of complex spell, and Leonardo who is more focused on the performance of the creatures Annihilation Maker allows him to create than his immediate surroundings. The former of the two defenders is lashing out with lazy yet admittedly graceful, precise strikes with the True Longinus, and is clearly holding back just as much as the other senior members of the Hero Faction. He'd had a few things to say about her performance with a polearm, and Ruby had been eager to learn. Ruby is pretty sure that a few of his tricks and techniques would be enough to put Uncle Qrow on the backfoot. Good thing there shouldn't be a reason for them to ever fight for real.

Le Fay is barely moving herself, but the complex deluge of different elemental spell magic circles she's weaving is awesome and her spinning and twirling Fairy's Log just makes it look cooler and Ruby really wishes she was close enough to hear whatever chants or incantations were letting her cast so many different spells so quickly. IF there were even chants. Like the rest of the Hero Faction's bigwigs, Le Fay is just that crazy powerful.

Her train of thought is cut off as she crashes into the pack of Grimm Weiss had aimed her at. Her first slash takes a Beowolf's arm, and the follow-through decapitates the one that had been next to it. She takes a shot from her rifle to send an unlucky Boarbatusk on the far side of the clearing flying into one of Heracles' explosion-propelled punches and pulps the monster. The momentum from the shot sends her scythe arcing over her head, and she spins it in her grip just in time for it to land tip-first into the back of another Beowolf, pinning it to the ground and probably paralyzing it as well.

Using the momentum she'd built up she lets herself pivot over the downed monster, and then with an Aura-enhanced heave that Ruby knows would have been impossible for her before Heracles' strength training she hurls it into the first Grimm in the pack she had cut, sending both of them tumbling into the path of a flurry of Weiss' Dust blasts, killing both of the monsters.

"I have the next prototype Grimm lure ready!" Georg announces. Oh fudge… Haven't they had enough yet? "Deploying now." he adds, just loudly enough to be heard over the din of battle before raising his hands and a sickly orb of black and red and what look like wispy bone fragments shoots skywards before bursting in the air above them.

Weiss turns to face the bespectacled teen to shriek "Really?!"

There is a brief moment of silence after the bone-rattling baas thrumm that the eldritch, creepy orb of magic had let out after bursting.

In that moment, Ruby has a perfect view of Arthur, face calm and placid wading his way through a pack of Ursa on the far side of the forest clearing. He's working seemingly flashy and extraneous flourishes into his otherwise perfect form. She'd call it sloppy if it wasn't immediately clear that every stroke that doesn't kill a Grimm, or make it so it doesn't have any good ways to fight or immobilizing them was opening a portal just big enough for him to step through that puts him behind another Grimm, or with a perfect opening to hit one's weak spot or over to the next group of monsters he's intent on slaying

Normally, Ruby would be ecstatic that not only had Arthur decided to give her idea a try, but that it was working and working well. However, she kind-of agrees with Weiss. That's the fourth 'lure' Georg had tested today and she's really starting to feel worn down by the nonstop stream of monsters coming after them.

Yup, karma, it's gotta be… Their new friends are so into this Yang would probably joke about them 'getting off' on it if she were here. She and Weiss really need to find them some new hobbies.

Not-so-distant Grimm roars announce to all of the gathered humans, naturally born and artificial–and that had been a weird conversation but it did explain a lot about how intense Siegfried can get–Maybe he'd like to meet Penny? They might bond over being people who weren't made the usual way and growing into being more than just lab creations. However that meeting might go, that's a thought for later.

This most recent lure looks like it had been the most successful of all the ones Georg had tried today and she needs to focus on what's headed their way. Not to much later, a mighty crashing heralds a really, really big Grimm had been pulled towards them. Ruby had just barely turned to face the sound in time to see a huge Deathstalker exploding out of the now ruined treeline directly behind Weiss.

The heiress reacts just as quickly as Ruby had, and almost immediately proceeds to all but freeze up. She's alone. Arthur on the far side of the clearing, the Magicians and Heroes with Sacred Gears that are better used for ranged combat in a neat little clump at the wide clearings center, and all of the others scattered, but way too far from Weiss to help her deal with the massive monster. Weiss raises her spiked buckler just barely in time to block the scorpion-monster's first claw sweep, and be thrown from her feet, brilliant blue-white aura rippling across her skin as Ruby's scroll starts blaring over her partner being down below ten percent of her Aura remaining.

No...No. No! This is bad. Really, really bad!

The lumbering beast skitters towards Weiss' prone from, its stinger raised to impale the pale girl.

Weiss is going to die. Her partner, her best friend is about to die, and no one is close enough to save her, to help her. Life is precious, beautiful, something that must be protected. Team JNPR take lives, Jeanne and Le Fay and Arthur and all the other Heroes do too, they all say that you have to to survive, which is terrible/Team JNPR and Jeanne and Le Fay and Arthur and all the other Heroes are her friends, so they have to be good people.

Pain.

Everyone is trying to get her ready for the day when she'll have to end a life too, she isn't dumb/Ruby Rose knows that she is different, that she'll find a way to save people without killing.

Why does it hurt so much? Like someone is jamming railroad spikes into her eyes over and over andoverandoverandoverandOVERANDOVERANDOVER!

In a burst of her Semblance–not too much though–Ruby gets as close as she can. Weiss, is in trouble and someone has to save her. The heiress raises her sword arm over her face–which is probably scrunched up in terror–with a shriek.

Ruby has to protect her best friend. To defend her. To save her life.

Her whole body feels like it's on fire now. The pain flowing out from her eyes until it's all she is.

PROTECT!

Ruby lets out a wordless shriek of denial as the stinger starts to descend towards Weiss' prone form; everything goes blindingly bright. Instinctively she stutters ahead again with her semblance, despite not being able to see properly.

Her vision finally returns, and she is utterly gobsmacked by the scene laid out before her. Weiss is pinned under a very realistic Deathstalker statue, her left arm now encased in a spectral blueish-white armored gauntlet that had intercepted Grimm's stinger.

Belatedly, Ruby notices two Anti-Grimm guarding Jeanne, who is rubbing her eyes a foot away from the statue. After clearing her sight, the older blonde openly gapes at Ruby.

In the sudden silence they notice a slow, polite clapping is somehow resonating across the battlefield. Are the Grimm… running away? "Fascinating." Cao Cao proclaims, clear pride and excitement in his voice.

That single word seems to have opened the floodgates for the rest of the Heroes. Both of them are immediately crowded by Jeanne, Heracles, Le Fay and Georg, both Magicians chattering far too quickly for either of the overwhelmed girls to really process right now. Le Fay has her face right up in Ruby's before pulling back with a blush and apology, though her hyper-focus on Ruby's eyes holds true, while Heracles is patting the crimson-fringed girl on her shoulder enthusiastically. Georg, likewise, is crouched down next to Weiss, keenly eyeing the piece of armor that had encased her arm, Jeanne helping her up, and unhelpfully shaking her excitedly. Ruby is idly aware of Weiss mumbling something about Winter having never done anything like that and Georg countering that something about her using a different mindset to manifest her powers, patting her on the shoulder with pride. Or at least she thinks that's what he's doing, it's like she's underwater and trying to look and listen through something other than air and she's so tired that she just wants to curl up in a ball to nap.

Cao Cao, Siegfried, Leonardo and Arthur approached more sedately, but there's a definite air of accomplishment radiating from each of them. Leonardo and Cao Cao offer their own congratulations, Leonardo's being more of a silent, friendly nod, but by now Ruby thinks she knows him well enough to understand just how much that means. Arthur and Siegfried convey their own congratulations to Weiss.

Ruby is idly aware of Leonardo's Anti-Grimm holding a perimeter around the rest of them with Connla and a few other Heroes she doesn't know the names of, but is too tired to feel particularly guilty about that right now.

"I'd say we're done here." Cao Cao declares. His prideful smile having not left his face, causing Ruby to turn away with a mild blush. "Arthur, would you mind opening us a way back to the safehouse? I believe that we have made plenty of progress for today, the girls look spent, and I suspect that our magical specialists will want to pick their brains for quite some time after their breakthroughs out here."

---

I planned to fit more in, but already missed the monthly deadline thanks to work and holiday craziness, so we ended up cutting a few scenes.

Beta'd by MasterPrince and Hybrid Theory.

Speaking of, MP has an Editors note for you guys as well:

"Greetings, this is co-editor MasterPrince, glad to see y'all have such vested interest in RW's future you're freaking out, but honestly? The negative vibes are off-putting and detrimental to being motivated to even continue writing...
Me, personally? I wouldn't really care. I consider helping to write this fic one of the VERY few pleasures I have in my life given the going-ons in the world right now and, really, I'm writing for my own satisfaction, so again, I wouldn't much care, beyond maybe being just a tad miffed all the focus is on one part of a chapter and not all the rest, but Dessel? Some good feedback goes a long way, he's the bread-winner here, I just look to polish things and throw ideas out there every now and then. Don't bum my pal out of writing altogether, then we all lose.

That in mind, let me just put this out there: RW and the Hero Faction is NOT the end of the world some of you seem to think it is. As to whether RW remain with the Heroes or any other possibility with them? Spoilers. Hell, it's called character development for a reason; the Heroes and RW are going to develop together, RW have their own views and both they AND Remnant can affect the Heroes just as much as the Heroes may affect RW and Remnant. It may not look like it but we have a PLAN for the Heroes you'll all just have to be patient for. And apologies in advance, but whether you'll think it makes sense or not, it's what you're getting.

So if you might be bothered to review on OTHER things that, mind you, we happen to work very hard to write up for the quality of this story, and also recall that we try especially hard to make the monthly deadline, that'd be great. Just be patient, read on and review beyond certain parts you find awful? Seriously, there are other nuggets in the chapters that are there for your reading pleasure.

Seriously, all this bother over the Hero Faction when there are other things to be worried about, it is a RWBY/High School DxD fic, people!
P.S. MogtheGnome, you only review to express your distaste for the Heroes. That's it. If you wish to read another fic, that's your right, but you have literally not written a review except to complain about the Heroes and nothing actually productive regarding the fic itself. Dessel and I are going to politely ask that you stop; we are not altering our plans to accommodate your displeasure."

Yea, so, lots of pre and post-script notes, but things had to be said.

Edit 12/5: One smaller section had a few things that got missed in the last edit pass.

Loved it? Hated it? Misplaced your farming implements and are now trying to make due with shipping crates? Drop a review, I love those!