A/N: So, yea, holidays, birthdays, health issues and real life bullshit all happen. I'm sorry about going dark for that little bit, but am 100% commited to getting back into regular monthly updates for '23.
As to the reviews I've been getting about too much talking/setup/background reveals: 1) One of my goals as an author is to never wind up in the same boat as Tite "asspull" Kubo, which means unless something is supposed to be a shock/revelation/surprise and get foreshadowed, I need to take the appropriate steps to set things up. And 2) For those of you in the back that haven't already figured this out, what we've got planned for the end of the Vytal Tournament/end of act 1 is gonna be BIG, and I want to make sure I take the time needed to get all the moving parts lined up so it hits right and makes sense.
I dont own RWBY, Highschool DxD or make any money off of this.
Blake slides into the seat her teammates had saved for her just as Professor Port finishes introducing Sun's Team.
Mic coverage on the arena's floor is spotty at best, but it does manage to pick up Sun crowing, "Sorry, ladies, but I'm already taken!" Before thumbing at his partner, "This nerd's still on the market."
Taking that as his cue, Neptune flashes one of his trademark 'winning' smiles. Sure, it looks fake as hell to her, but she can all but hear the metaphorical panties dropping around the arena.
"Boooo!" Issei Hyoudou cries from further down the line of teenagers Team RWBY and Rias' peerage make up. "Pretty boys suck! Kiba's bad enough." He's mostly drowned out by catcalls and screeching fangirls, but at least he's honest.
Rias half-shifts in her seat to direct a wan glance at the guy. "Issei…" she trails off with sigh, running a hand over a now agitated Koneko's head. The girl–prodigy fighter the same age as Ruby or not, her size makes it hard to think of her as anything else–seems to be lost in thought. And not happy ones.
"That really hurts, Issei, I thought we were friends." Kiba playfully prods at the disgruntled brunette, the smile on his face nowhere near matching his words as he holds his free hand to his chest in a sort of 'you-wound-me' gesture.
Grumbling, Issei waves his friend off and leans back into his seat, ams crossed, and scowling. Blake, Weiss and Yang all roll their eyes while Asia and Ruby share an awkward giggle at the mostly good-natured guys' antics.
Port starts blustering about wondering who the lucky lady might be, and for a heart-freezing moment the jumbotron shifts to a camera trained on the crowd, only for Oobleck to talk over the portly professor, hyping the match again as the arena randomizers start spinning, and the sounds of a–probably–playful scuffle fill the soundwaves.
As the first half of the arena is set to desert, Oobleck sets the cameras back to the combatants, and Weiss grumbles, "He isn't and he shouldn't be though." in clear response to Sun's ribbing his best friend. Yang rests a mostly sympathetic hand on the petite girl's shoulder, giving her a conciliatory pat, and Blake just shakes her head at it all.
Honestly, Weiss can do better than Neptune. Not that Blake is really one to talk, with her history.
As the two teams start bantering back and forth in the arena while the second randomizer slows to a halt, Blake notices Jaune's group is missing from their recently-enlarged circle of friends. After a quick scan of the nearby seats, she spots Ravel and Ruse, surrounded by two other girls she thinks might be her age doing a passable job blending in as plainclothes bodyguards–better than some of the ones the SDC Execs she'd staked out had had in another life had had, but not by much–probably retainers. "So, where's Team Juniper?" She asks the group in general, not really caring who answers, just hoping for a chance to work on patching things up with her local Devil friends as soon as she's able. A few weeks ago she might have claimed that there was 'plenty to go around' or something like that, but being totally honest with herself, there's more on her than them; and waiting on the team groupthink to get started isn't really something she's especially interested in.
When the rest of her team all answer with shrugs and uncertain looks they all turn to the only Pureblooded Devil present. Rias takes in the quartet of curious glances falling on her in stride and calmly replies as she continues stroking her Rook–Blake thinks, introductions had been something of a whirlwind, and names, forget about positions aren't something she's entirely sure about–"The Arc Peerage is currently attending to… classified matters. Nothing that merits concern, just something that needs to be taken care of in light of recent events and revelations." When Blake, along with the rest of her team, continue gazing–With open dissatisfaction, now–at the crimson haired Devil, Rias simply arches her eyebrow before tacking on, "You are, of course, free to ask Team Juniper yourselves the next time you see them." Her tone is prim, polite and offers no room for any backtalk or further questioning. Blake and her teammates all back off, looking more than a little bit sheepish.
Fair enough, hyperfixating on perceived secrets or half-truths would be just as bad as going against the agreement they now have against them by shooting the metaphorical middleman. Who would be one of their friends in this case. Not something any of them want to do, figuratively or literally. It's also obvious that Rias isn't about to tolerate any accusations being directed her way either; and after Rune's… display, she figures it's best to not push their luck again.
"Hey, Kiba, think we could convince some Huntress babes to spar with us?" The perv among them fires off into the following silence, either unaware or uncaring about the social minefield he had just stepped into. Rias turns in her seat to stare flatly at him while Asia pouts. His confusion at their reactions is almost cute, in a frustrating sort of way.
Honestly…
The match starts and Neptune, predictably, bolts straight past the other team to put as much distance from himself and the water as he can.
Kiba answers at the same time, "Considering our cover story here puts Huntresses on a 'whole different level' than us, probably not. I'm sure if you asked the gals on Team RWBY they'd indulge you, wouldn't you, ladies?" Blake, glances to her right, seeing pretty similar expressions to her own on Yang and Weiss' faces, their answers plain as day without speaking a word, before turning back to the perverted Pawn(?) who wilts back. Kiba amiably shrugs before offering an apologetic smile to his fellow Devil. "Tough luck, man." Ruby is so focused on the match starting down in the arena that she probably missed the entire conversation.
"Awww, nuts..." Issei curses, before his focus shifts from the girls to the match itself as well. He then asks. "The hell's up with blue-hair? I mean, I know I'm not the best at tactics and all that, but running off on his own like that seems kinda..."
"Stupid?" Blake prompts, getting nods from most of the people around her, and a reluctant look from Weiss. "Well, considering that Neptune's afraid of water..."
A few of the other teens all wince at that, and Blake winces herself when the bluntest instrument and heaviest hitter on Sun's team gets himself flipped out of the arena by the blonde on the other team for trying to bail his friend out. "An aquaphobe named Neptune, that's rather ironic, in a sad sort of way." Akeno quips to no one in particular with a small, amused smile on her face.
That girl scares Blake sometimes…
Scarlet makes a better showing, managing to hold his own against the girl in the black and purple combat skirt that makes Weiss and Ruby's outfits look downright reasonable while Sun does his best to get Neptune back in the fight. Sadly, the team's leader isn't able to make any headway, even after Scarlet mostly removes the girl from the fight.
Sun gets to work on trying to win the match instead of wrangling his best friend's phobia. She has to admit that his counter-offensive is exciting. It's enough to get her, along with most of the Mistrali spectators up out of their seats cheering. When he misses and tags Scarlet with a bit of friendly fire that has most of the guys in the stadium wincing in sympathy, Issei and Kiba included. The former is - predictably she thinks now that she's gotten a chance to know the two a bit better - more animated than the latter.
Port wrests control of the camera from Oobleck and starts panning across the audience as Sun sets the other team up for his partner to take them out.
"Oho!" The professor turned announcer exclaims when he finds Blake, and her Teammates and friends on the smaller screen he'd overlayed on the jumbotron's upper right corner. "If the rumors going around campus are true, I suspect Mr. Wukong's new armband might just be Ms. Belladonna's signature bow." Blake freezes for a moment, and she swears she can feel the ire of every girl who'd been crushing on Sun as they turn to glare at her.
For a moment Blake freezes in place, completely at a loss for what to do. Panicking, she channels one of the girls from Ninjas of Love that she definitely hasn't used as a self-insert on a few lonely nights and forces a catty smile that she normally wouldn't be caught dead wearing–Won't Kuroka and Mom be proud–and halfway standing to wave at the camera before popping back into her seat, doing her best to look pleased and smug.
A voice that sounds suspiciously like her mom can barely be heard above the dull roar of the crowd crying out 'That's my girl!' and Blake's cheeks begin to feel like they're on fire.
"That would certainly explain why the young man was so driven to secure a victory down there." Oobleck hedges as the smaller screen winks back out, the entire display now given over to a celebrating Sun and Neptune, Scarlet doing his hunched over, wheezing best to join them as the stunned and frazzled NDGO trudge towards the water's edge.
Yang leans over and rests a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Blakey, you sure you're okay with getting outed like that? I know we talked about the ups and downs and all that, but from what the news has been saying..."
Blake shrugs, still doing her best to seem calm and happy. "It's fine. The bastards probably had their suspicions already. This just makes things more open. Cheshire wasn't exactly wrong in calling me out on my disguise being stupid. I kept my name, didn't change my style, dye my hair or, well, do anything aside from adding an accessory really." A snickering Ruby holds her finger across her upper lip in whats probably supposed to be a mock-mustache and mush-mouths something about 'not being that Blake' that sets Asia giggling, and Weiss rolling her eyes.
Blake's Scroll buzzes in her pocket, and she fishes it out, smile going a bit more honest when she sees VSPRD HQ Dispatch as the messages sender. "Besides..." Checking it is really more courtesy than curiosity. "Full pardon and a sealed case file." The lilac-eyed blonde grins and pulls her into a half-hug while Ruby and Weiss offer more subdued congratulations.
"What?" Having been distracted from what's happening in the arena by their conversation, Koneko turns to face Blake and Yang and her expression shutters over after Yang shifts back into her seat, giving the younger girl a near unobstructed view of Blake. The white haired girl's eyes dilating as she takes in a hissing breath. When their eyes meet–for a moment at least–Blake feels like she could be looking in a mirror with how familiar the shade of gold the younger girl's eyes are. Koneko's gaze shifts up towards Blake's ears, and her seats armrests crack as her grip on it tightens. "...A pardon and case for what?" The petite girl all but hisses out, muscles tensing up.
Blake recoils slightly, her feline ears pinning themselves to her head. "I…"
Yang narrows her eyes back at the petite girl. "Hey, chill–"
"It's fine, Blake, you don't have to answer if you don't want to." Rias leans over to wrap the smaller girl next to her up in a loose hug, caressing her hair with her left hand and calming the rising tensions all in one go. For a moment, the smaller girl goes even more rigid in her grasp. "Shhh, Koneko, it's all right. You're safe. Blake is not her." After a short pause with more soothing words and more caressing, Koneko nods stiffly, takes a deep breath then leans into her King's embrace, relaxing just a bit.
Her, who?
Ruby leans forward to look past Blake and Yang and more directly at the still slightly panicked looking girl. "Koneko, are you… alright?" She asks, concern clear on her face.
Koneko has to visibly work to tear her gaze away from Blake, leans a bit more into Rias then shifts to look back at Ruby. Her uncannily familiar golden eyes meeting Ruby's silver orbs. She takes one last calming breath before replying "Fine, Ruby. Blake just… reminded me of someone I used to know for a minute. That's all." Ruby's expression shifts from one of concern to understanding, and she nods, sitting back one eye on the youngest of their new friends, the other on the arena below them.
Yang and Blake share a glance, obviously Ruby knows who she's talking about, but…
Blake shakes her head, and Yang shrugs before leaning back into her seat, fully relaxed again. Ruby has been taking to all of this far better than the rest of the Team. If her leader doesn't seem worried about it, she'll stop prying. For now.
Koneko turns away after shooting one more glance at Blake. She doesn't move to break away from Rias' embrace or lean into it as her gaze casts out into the audience; searching for that same someone?
Blake can't help but keep stealing glances at the white-haired girl's direction however, even as the Faunus bodily turns back towards the arena. Koneko obviously doesn't have a problem with Faunus, she's a reincarnated Devil from another world. She probably hasn't even been aware of their existence for long enough to build up any sort of prejudice or even animosity. Even then, Koneko doesn't strike Blake as that kind of girl. The look the younger girl had reflexively shot at her was one of recognition; and not in a 'hey you're that girl I just met' sort of way, but something old, deep-seated and complicated. Blake suspects she has all the pieces to the rapidly forming puzzle that is the petite girl, but she can't for the life of her figure out what they all are right now.
Not that she isn't curious, it's something to pick away at later, when they're all less busy and more settled into their recently widened worldview. The last thing she wants is to push one of her new friends about what's pretty clearly at least one traumatic event she hasn't fully moved past or recovered from yet. Another secret bearing down on her still healing team is one thing, but something personal in a new friend's life like she suspects had set Koneko off is, well, personal.
They're all just on a hair trigger about that sort of thing still.
It's like what Yang had gone out of her way to tell her what feels forever ago now. She needs to slow down, and trust her friends more.
As the professors in the announcer's booth begin reminding the audience how long the intermission between blocks will be, Ruby checks her Scroll and sighs. "So, since it looks like Juniper's gonna be a while, what do you guys say we go to congratulate the winners?" Blake, then the rest of the Team stand up to go with her..
And if the cat Faunus puts a bit more of a switch in her step when some of the girls holding signboards with pictures of Sun's abs on them start glaring at her, well, that's just her prerogative.
_-*R-DxD*-_
As much fun as hanging out with nearly all her friends today was, just lazing around in their dorm's common room with her sister, dad and uncle is just nice.
And wow… Between her Team, Team JNPR, a few more Beacon students, Rias' group, the Hero Faction, and the Phenex girls. Whew. Ruby Rose has come a long way from the handful of friends she'd had Signal. And now that she thinks about it, she really ought to check up on how they've been doing when the Tournament's over. Or once her team gets knocked out, not that she's hoping for or expecting them to! Provided, she doesn't see them while the tournament's still running; or more likely Amaranth drags them all into tracking her down between matches. She'd always been pushy like that.
Still…Not a bad little prelude to her 16th birthday. Sure it isn't until a few days after the Festival ends, but that doesn't make the extra time spent with her family any less nice.
"Really, Yang? Turkeys?!" Dad guffaws out while Qrow shakes his head and Ruby giggles as she remembers–Pfft–Turkey Celica.
Yang shrugs, laughing a bit herself, "What can I say, we were really putting the fight in food fight."
Dad wipes at his tears, his laughter calming, "I'm betting Glynda loved that." The sisters share a cringe. "She read you the riot act, didn't she?"
Ruby offers an awkward laugh, "She was about to, but Professor Oz showed up at the same time she did and stopped her."
Dad's expression twitches and he rolls his eyes. He messes up his combo with the momentary flinch, and Ruby is barely able to hear him grumbling, "Of course, he did…" under his breath.
"Better question, how many times did you have to wash those uniforms to get the stains out?" Qrow asks, sprawled out the couch across from the one her, Yang and Dad are all sitting on.
Yang looks away from their uncle with a sheepish expression. "Actually... we all kinda-sorta threw those uniforms out."
Ruby nods, "Yup. There was no way we were going to get all the stains out, and going to class wearing a reminder of how wrecked we left the cafeteria before Ms. Goodwitch fixed it, would, er..."
"Land you in a lot more detentions than you'd probably have gotten otherwise? You bet it would've." Dad offers, reaching out to ruffle her hair, growling she uses her Semblance to escape to Uncle Qrow's couch. The stupid traitor catches her in a headlock and ruffles her hair anyways, but she manages to worm free eventually, and they fall back into light and easy stories about the year so far.
That and gaming. Qrow is a stupid troll and totally holding back, but overall, it's nice.
Anyway, the story the sisters tell is pretty barebones; really: Hanging out with Team JNPR, tracking down Blake when she'd ran off after outing herself as a Faunus, finding excuses to go to the CCT Tower, study sessions that turned into play spars or just lazing around their dorm, or the common room, or getting yelled at for making too much noise in the library again.
Ruby's mind begins to wander to everything else that happened in the last few months. There's her and Weiss' rescue by and discovery of the Supernatural with the Hero Faction. The near disaster that finding out that Team JNPR are Devils had been. Her and Weiss' time with the Heroes, earning their trust and respect; training with them and even taking down a mad scientist and his Super Grimm together with them. Meeting Rias' group of Devils; then Ravel, and the Twins later on. For all of its rough spots, the year really had mostly been pretty amazing so far.
But no way is she bringing any of that stuff up now.
Nearly having her team fall apart around her because of those revelations had been more than enough for this year. Ruby figures she and Yang can talk to Dad and Uncle Qrow about all of that–Like, really Talk–over summer break, and only after the whole team has agreed on how much they're going to share with their families and how to tell them. Probably after asking Jaune and some of the people in Rias' Peerage how much they told their families too.
"So, are you girls enjoying your runs out into the forest?" Qrow eventually asks, after a few rounds, and introducing the both of them to Coco and her team who'd been making rounds through the dorm hall.
Dad tosses an empty bottle across the room to bounce it off of Uncle Qrow's head. Unfortunately for Dad, Uncle Qrow expertly catches it. "Qrow, they're still freshmen. Those runs out into Emerald or Forever Fall are still harrowing experiences, not an excuse to sneak off with your squeeze to make out." He pauses before turning to glare at both of them with a stern look, "Not that I'd be okay with either of you doing that."
Yang blows a raspberry at Dad and waves him off. "Like you're one to talk, old man. Port has quite a few stories about you."
"He-what-when did you-when would you-?"
"Detention." Ruby flatly drones, pointedly ignoring Yang's flinch, her dad's flat glare and her uncle's amused snort.
The next game is Ruby against Dad, so while the two of them are focused on the big screen they'd shamelessly taken over, Yang launches into one of those very stories. A story that was–apparently–wrong, and Dad drops his Scroll to start correcting her, and it turns out that the story was way grosser than what Professor Port had told her sister.
Ruby really, really didn't need to know that her mom and Yang's mom did stuff like that with each other. Or that it maybe hadn't been just to mess with Dad and–blech!–Uncle Qrow is Yang's mom's brother and that's so–
"So; I've been meaning to ask... who posted your bail?" Uncle Qrow asks. Ruby doesn't freeze up trying to think of an answer, and totally loses that round because Dad uses a bunch of dirty tricks that some jerk sharking strangers for Lien at an arcade would when he games.
Aw, crud. Crud crud crud crud crud! Ruby had been hoping Uncle Qrow had forgotten about that.
Stupid Frost…
Then again, Uncle Qrow probably found out about that on his own. Nuts…
Yang shoots a definitely not nervous look over at their Uncle as she scrolls through characters to find one she can beat Dad with. "Dunno what ya mean, old man. We've got detention a few times, but haven't been even close to doing anything that could land us in jail."
Qrow tilts his head, deadpan expression totally not buying Yang's line. "So that mess with the Paladin and Guyliner was a mission from Oz then? I didn't think he usually sent Freshmen on missions like that."
Oh.
Right.
Uncle Qrow works directly for the Headmaster all the time. And as one of Vale's two most prominent Combat School's teachers, it'd be a pretty safe bet to assume he knows Dad too. Need something better than that. "Umm, yeah, it's like Yang said. People knew we were looking into the White Fang." By people she means Sun, Neptune, Penny and Team JNPR. They count, right? "I mean, to anyone who actually knows stuff it's pretty clear why that's something we'd be worried about, considering who Blake is and all that..."
A Faunus formerly with the White Fang. They could tell Dad and Uncle Qrow that much, at least. Heck, if either of them have been on any of their Scrolls' work apps today they might even know already.
Yang's nodding is totally not frantic. "Yeah, you know how we are. If we see a mission on the board that can help my partner stay ahead of the crazies..."
Dad and Uncle Qrow are both looking at them. Looking at them with their 'I'm not mad, just disappointed' faces. "So was it Jaune or Pyrrha?" Dad asks, finally rejoining the conversation, circling back to Uncle Qrow's original question.
Ruby sighs, giving in. "It was Jaune." She can hear her voice half-mumbling. Better out than in.
The room goes quiet, Yang wincing, Dad's 'worried for you' look settling over his face while Qrow shifts around on the couch to be sitting up normally, his posture screaming 'I don't like it but I understand' as his gaze bounces back and forth between her and Yang.
And so, Yang and Ruby have no choice but to divulge all the details of Team RWBY's evening of vigilantism, and their resultant–and thankfully short–stay in a jail cell. Dad and Uncle Qrow's reactions are tamer than Ruby, or Yang–going by her expression–had thought they would be, so, whew, small mercies. If anything they both seem rather resigned in a fond sort of way; not that it stops them from their worrying, or from scolding them–mildly, no one had been seriously hurt according to Professor Goodwitch, after all–about being more mindful of civilian bystanders when they're dealing with threats that aren't Grimm; collateral and biting off more than they can chew when there are better qualified and more experienced friends and allies to call on.
Uncle Qrow looks especially grumpy about the last part.
Neither Ruby or her sister argue their points, if only to avoid the sort of arguments that seem to always crop up around any subject more serious than homework, lunch or who's wearing what for the day lately.
Dad looks them both over, their game having been paused not too long after her and Yang had started spilling the beans. "Anything else you'd like to get out there?"
Yang and Ruby share a quick look before turning towards different empty points on different walls. They still aren't as in sync as they had been… before.
Secrets suck, and how people react to finding out that what you've been saying and doing aren't matching up is even worse. Especially when they're friends or family. Ruby totally gets why people like to brag about their word being their bond now, and totally wants to be that sort of girl after the last few months of hell now. She's pretty sure Yang–and the rest of the Team–feel the same way, but right now they're still stinging and would really rather not poke at that during what was supposed to be a fun reunion with their dad and uncle.
Uncle Qrow picks up where Dad had left off when the silence starts to drag, "Heard from Barty that your team was at ground zero during the Breach. Wild how he knew more about that than your Old Man had."
…Yeah, they'd been, slow, to tell Dad about things that happened the day of the Breach. Especially with all the… Everything that had happened after the near-disaster everyone knows about had started to calm down.
"Yup." Yang drawls into the following silence, popping the 'p' and doing her best to look casual about it, "I'll tell you this much: Taking Amps fucking sucks."
Ruby snorts a bit. "I nearly had to get you to hold Blake down to get her to take hers."
"Was busy holding down an Ursa." Her sister shoots back.
"Weiss had that one." Qrow clears his throat, and their attempt at banter dies.
Dad scowls though the entire abortive exchange, but for once doesn't admonish Yang for cursing. Ruby fights to keep a scowl of her own off her face. Seriously, it isn't as if Ruby hasn't heard worse.
Thankfully Dad just settles for smiling wanly. "Yeah, yeah, it does." After a few moments, he tentatively adds, "If you aren't ready to talk about whatever it is that's bothering you yet, we'll understand, but..."
Ruby thinks on what Dad had said for a bit, while Yang scowls at the TV and Uncle Qrow sneaks an actual sip from his flask. His adam's apple moved, so she knows he swallowed something, not like when he usually puts it to his mouth to get his breath smelling like booze and–
No. She isn't distracting herself from this. She needs to talk to someone about it, and if she can't do that with her Dad, then who can she talk about this with?
Before she can get the words out, they're sucked right back in.
There's no real way to tell them without telling them everything else and she so desperately wants to tell them everything. No more secrets and half-truths.
Yang leans back into the couch with a sigh and shrug. "Well, it's not like we were the only students that helped contain things that day. Juniper got back from their mission not too long after things started, Team Coffee and Sun were there…" She attempts to deflect.
"Sure, but you're the students we have in our sights, Firecracker." Uncle Qrow casually parries, his expression pretty closely matching Yang's; but with a stubble.
If Ruby starts, she's not sure where she'll stop. Or what Yang will have to add; and doesn't that hurt? The only secrets between them for as long as she can remember now are what presents they'd got each other for birthdays and holidays, and what had happened when Yang got back late from some of her dates. Ruby is aware of her voice humming a reluctant agreement with Uncle Qrow as her thoughts continue to snarl in on themselves.
WhatRuby is especially impatient about is stuff about her eyes. That she'd had to find out about that from people she'd just met when she's seen the pictures of mom, which means unless none of her parents' team had known, they all probably had hurts. It hurts alot.
[[Ruby Rose. You, have Silver Eyes…]]
Headmaster Ozpin knew. She'd figured that out herself not too long after she'd learned to actually use the stupid things with the Heroes' help.
Did they know? Did Dad know? Had they been keeping that from her because they think she can't handle it? Because they don't want her to end up like Mom? Or were they just waiting for the right time to tell her like she is about everything else now? If they actually know already, and she isn't just being paranoid and overthinking things because of her…
Experiences…
Yang and Ruby's eyes meet again, and Yang gives her that little grin and ghost of a half-nod that she's taken to giving Ruby to let her know she'll be following her lead ever since they wound up on a Team together. Ruby is quick to look away and back at her uncle.
Uncle Qrow, Weiss's big sister and that Frost guy; that had to be about something involving the Supernatural. And if she remembers correctly, the Headmaster had been involved too
Ruby doesn't want to throw out accusations or pry where she really shouldn't, she doesn't like confrontations with friends and family when she can avoid it at all… but with how high emotions have been running when anything deeper than chatting about the weather or homework lately she has a pretty good idea of how well that talk is going to go. That said–to herself at least–there are some things she feels she needs to know. With how well things hadn't gone with Team JNPR when they'd pressed them for answers… she doesn't want to go through that with two of the people she loves most.
Not…
Not yet, at least. She can wait. Ruby will learn what she can for herself and then talk to Dad and Uncle Qrow about everything.
And considering everything Team JNPR had explained to hers, on top of what the Hero Faction had, and now whatever she'll manage to get from Uncle Qrow and Dad as well, that discussion is one she's sure will go on for a very long time. And that's only if it's done right; without any shouting or hurtful words. Longer than they have together today for sure…
Ruby knows they need to give them something. Hopefully without diving into any of the topics that had nearly torn her group of friends to shreds over the last month. After all of that rushes through her mind, Ruby licks her lips before starting off, "Our friends, Team Juniper they ran off in the middle of the Breach, and when we caught up with them they were… in a bad spot."
Okay, that was lame, but it's as simple as Ruby can manage without spilling her guts!
Qrow nods, "Solus Arc's kid and his team?" The sisters nod. "Yeah, good kids. I was the Huntsman they were working with that weekend. Sent them back to Vale ahead of me when it turned into a month's worth of paperwork on me. From what Oz told me about your class, though, their luck's been almost as bad as it can get for a team of Beacon Freshmen." He pauses and runs his hand through his slightly-less-greasy-than-usual hair. "What kind of 'bad spot' were they in? There was a hell of a lot going on that afternoon."
Memories of the shattered and burning buildings; of the broken bodies and screaming crying civilians; of the Barrage come to Ruby's mind. She lets out a slow sigh "They ...When we found them, they were…They had to…"
"Had to kill people." Yang finishes, ripping off the band-aid she hadn't really wanted to. Dad hisses through his teeth and Uncle Qrow makes an 'ahh.' "And it wasn't the first time that's happened this year." Dad winces, and looks like he wants to press for more, but Uncle Qrow holds up a hand to stop him, taps at his Scroll a few times, then swipes across the screen in Dad's general direction. His scroll pings, the two older men share a quick glance and then all of their focus is back on Ruby and Yang.
Dad's expression is soft, and understanding, "How close were you girls?"
Ruby fights hard to suppress a shudder, remembering the gore splattering all over her… From Yang's expression, she does too. Having seen their friends… after, before hadn't made watching them get coated in other peoples blood any easier for them.
"Pretty close." Yang replies, mock wiping her face clean before blowing a slow breath out and slumping back into the couch when no verbal reaction comes from either of the older men, arms falling limply to her sides. She looks directly at one, then the other, searching their faces for something, then shrugs. "They were doing what they had to do, the guys they were fighting were sadistic assholes. Tried to get around them to go for us almost as soon as we showed up. It's taken us a while to come to terms with that and we get it." Ruby nods resolutely to her sister's words, "But we… Didn't react all that well. Not at first."
Ruby fidgets. "We froze up during the fight after we caught up with them. And then, when they tried to explain things to us afterwards, we…" Had freaked out over the secrets that they'd been keeping from them, kept some of their own despite having acted like they weren't and generally made a mess of things. But that isn't the talk she's trying to have right now. Uncle Qrow snakes a hand around her shoulder to pull her into a half hug and she feels like a hypocrite accepting the comfort with what she's holding back.
"Lets… just say we didn't react very well." Yang interjects pensively. "Things are mostly back to how they were before now though, so there's that?"
Uncle Qrow shifts a bit and Ruby looks up, and can't for the life of her figure out what the look he's giving Dad means. And it pretty clearly does mean something, because Dad goes thoughtful for a moment. After a little bit Dad shakes his head, and Uncle Qrow scowls disappointedly for a heartbeat, before offering Dad an understanding nod. He thinks for a bit longer, and Dad pulls his scroll out of his pocket, quickly skimming whatever it is his brother-in-law had shared with him, grimaces and shoves it back into his pocket.
Just before Yang goes to say something again Uncle Qrow tosses his Scroll and flask off to the far side of the couch. "I hate to say it, but you've gotta experience it–Being in a fight with someone who honestly wants to take your life is... not something you can forget; or train for or even describe right with words." He pauses, and looks over both Ruby and her sister. "And no, Grimm don't count. They want to kill everything, and there's no intelligence behind that the way there is for people."
Dad shakes his head with a forlorn expression. "Accidents happen. Someone with proper training would know better than to keep enough Dust to blow them up all in one place or on their person. Someone used to fighting people with Aura is going to feel like you're fighting someone who has one, even if they don't. Accidents. Freak one-off occurrences that really just boil down to shit luck on everyone's part."
Ruby and Yang nod along, they may have left some things out, but were honest when Dad and Uncle Qrow started prodding them for details about how exactly things had been going so far this year. Or that they want to properly make up with them. "Doesn't make us any less of bitches for how we treated them after they tried to explain things to us."
"If you want to make up for that… Be there for them." Uncle Qrow caps off simply. "If they wanna talk, listen, and don't judge. If they aren't ready for that, they're still your friends, and with how close you brats all are, especially if they're still around with how bad things apparently got between all of you for a while; that probably isn't gonna change anytime soon. We could give you some tips; Team Stark went through pretty much everything you already mentioned and then some back in our day." Uncle Qrow pauses, hand going to where his flask would normally be, then freezes and grimaces. "Or we can stop right here, if you'd rather not get too into it…" He trails off, releasing Ruby from the half-hug he'd been holding her in to lean over and grab his flask. The room–once again–falls into silence, a comfortable, relaxed one mostly, but heavy as well and one she has no clue how to break.
Yang–of course–is able to manage that with ease, a tentative smile stretching across her face. "I was gonna spill the beans on how our little Ruboozy already has something on her no-drink-list before things got all heavy." Ruby freezes and Uncle Qrow–barely–catches her before she can launch herself at her traitorous big sister. "I've got pictures and everything!"
"I will show them the clip of you and Pyrrha from that night if you do that Yang." She growls back at her now serenely smiling hellion of a sister.
"Buuuuut I wanna know how I can help my friends out if they need it first."
It takes... a while. She has questions, Yang has questions. And those questions lead to more questions and Dad and Uncle Qrow are both kinda lousy at the whole psychology thing but they get there eventually.
And then they move on to an impromptu cram session. Weiss' help with her studies and keeping up isn't making as much progress as either of them would really like on filling in all the gaps in her education that skipping two years ahead left her with. Dad and Uncle Qrow are both huge helps with that, with one being a Teacher at Signal, and the other swooping in every now and then to act as a Sub, or do some part time advanced or remedial classes for especially smart, or troublesome students.
After that, they fall back into fun banter and silly stories until it's nearly lights-out and they have to split back up. Not a bad way to spend their time together.
Ruby isn't stupid, she knows she's not some super-shrink now, or anything even close to that. But Team JNPR aren't the only friends she has who might need someone who knows how to listen right if they need to talk about something. Or might need help getting talked back to here-and-now instead of whatever bad place their mind had run off to. Cao Cao, Sig, Jeanne, Herc and the others in the Hero Faction see the world in a way that she never could. One that shows how hard they've had it. Le Fay and Arthur aren't as bad, but they've experienced more than their fair share of hardships too.
After hugging her dad and Uncle she moves to follow Yang back to their room, mind still spinning.
Heck, Asia and Koneko have had it pretty rough before Rias and the others came into their lives… Poor Koneko had seemed like she was having flashbacks about that sister she'd mentioned in that story about the 'black and white cats' she'd told Ruby and Asia earlier on. She'd been picturing Koneko with big white kitty ears on and off ever since, but if she wants to say anything more about that, that's her business. Hmm… All the Faunus she's been exposed to during the Festival probably brought back memories and not good ones. And Blake–apparently–being dang near the spitting image of… what was her name again?
Kuroko? Kunono? Kuroka!
And that's just plain rotten luck for Blake, but maybe the two of them will be able to get over the awkwardness that probably is causing and be friends too?
It's like Yang said, she wants to be a good friend, and good friends help their friends.
_-*R-DxD*-_
So cool so cool so cool!
The fights!
The combat outfits!
The food!
The boobs!
Issei has a few huge–seriously huge–tubs of popcorn, a tray of nachos and a few sandwiches sitting on a tray he'd set down on a small table off to the side of the concession booth while the skeevy-looking dude working it fills up the Peerage's drinks.
He looks over to his right and spots a familiarish babe. With her hoody off he can tell that her sweater really hugs her curves. And those spats! Sure he can see that the neon-green undercut is a dye-job now that he's up close to her, and she isn't that busty, but she's just barely taller than Koneko so that's fine and–
"Hey! Remnant to creeper! What gives, dude?"
Crap!
"Oh, uhh, sorry about that. I got kinda distracted. First time at a Vytal Festival for me."
The punkish looking chick chuckles. "Yeah, fair. Same for me. Being down in the Colosseum was..." The babe kinda trails off, her face going wistful and suddenly he remembers that she lost.
He does his best to play it cool and waves her off. "Don't get too bent outa shape about that. Arc's real close with my–" Shit, cover-story. Umm... "Well, she will be my boss once we graduate, and the dude's an absolute beast. Whatever training him and the Invincible Girl put the rest of their team through is probably something they put their other friends through too, so, yeah. You'll probably kick ass next Festival."
The green haired babe kicks awkwardly at the ground. "I mean, we will be seniors in two years, so unless the randomizers royally screw us again I guess we will." She looks him up and down and takes a big slurp from the drink she'd just bought. "So, you're going to one of those ritzy schools for kids who're gonna inherit something, aint'cha?"
Well, yeah that's supposed to be his cover story, but between the way more important questions like whether the carpet matches the drapes, whether or not her punk look includes any piercings in fun places and her having already called him out on checking her out once, he can't freaking remember the specifics for that right now. "Umm... how'd you guess?" Issei offers kinda lamely; but at least she hasn't started screaming and trying to kick his ass yet? When it comes to girls, he considers that a victory.
Reese–he thinks that's her name at least, the one announcer talks way too fast–shrugs at him. "I mean, you look a bit more ready for trouble than most Combat School kids do, but not quite as much as an Academy student. That and you mentioned someone who's going to be your boss being close with one of Vale's bigger Huntsman families."
"Oh."
"Which really is a shame, since I could really go for a spar now that you went and reminded me of how badly my team got our asses kicked in round one to blow some steam off." She pauses, and expression going from cheery and laid back to something more sinister and aggressive for just a moment. "Buuuuut kicking the ass of some barely trained civilian is kinda a bad look for a Huntress-in-Training, so I guess I'll have to track someone else down for that. Enjoy the festival, dude!" She chirps at him, all the menace gone from her expression again, before waving and sauntering off into the crowd.
Well, crapsticks… Joking or not, that still stings! He wouldn't mind proving her wrong before hitting her with Dress-break for writing him off so easily. As much as he hates to watch the punkish girl go–bantering with her had been kinda fun–the view as she does is pretty great. Ah well, time to go back to booby-watch–
Why is there a pair of sunglasses getting shoved into his face?
"You got great taste, kid, but your subtlety is seriously lacking. Gotta cover those peepers if you can't keep 'em from wandering."
Issei stumbles half a step back as the guy in the food stall says something about his order being ready and there being a line.
He snags the shades–an exact copy of the ones the brunette is wearing–and slips them on his face. "Umm, not that I'm not super grateful for the advice and freebie, but, umm... why? Most babes get all screamy and slappy when they catch me doing what I do..."
The sharply dressed, curvy, beret-clad brunette picks up the tray of drinks he'd been trying to figure out how to juggle with all the other snacks, and jerks her head at them. She's also taller than him. He used to think Rias and Akeno were tall until he met Pyrrha; and now this chick. And that isn't even starting on Ruse and Rune. Ooooh, the fantasies he's been having about those two–Wait, focus dude. Beret's talking! "You're with Arc's friend from out of town, or at least I'm pretty sure you are. Consider it a favor from a fellow… connoisseur."
Oh. Ohhhh. Nice! An in! "So, umm, that Reese chick. Is she–"
"Over-reliant on her board? Yeah." The older girl shifts her head around to glare over the rim of her shades at him. Doesn't help she practically looms over him with her heels. "That is what you were gonna ask me, right? Because if it was about something I may or may not have seen in the locker room, friend of a friend or not, I'd have to turn you into a human pretzel for asking." She cracks her knuckles and glares over the rims of her shades.
It's like getting a bucket of ice-water dumped on his head.
"Over-reliant on her board, sure…" Issei blinks dumbly. Then blinks again. So not quite a kindred spirit then. Not being a stranger to pants-shittingly strong girls, he decides that it's probably in his best interest to not push things. How to salvage this, erm… "I'm Issei. Issei Hyoudou. One of Rias Gremory's, er... subordinates."
The taller girl nods in approval. "Coco Adel, friend of Jaune's and his R.A." She pauses as they push past a boisterous, half-drunk gaggle of what look like college kids. "What sort of subordinate are you? Horse, castle, preacher…?"
What's she talking about…? Oh, right chess pieces. So she knows then.
As he realizes what she's really asking, Issei resists the urge to sigh, and tries to think of a way to not make himself sound lame. It doesn't take him long to land on just ripping off the bandaid. "The whole damn front line." That gets a low whistle and an appraising look from Coco. "So, umm, when you say friend did you mean something like that too, or..." So, yeah, from what she said when she gave him the shades he'd probably be barking up the wrong tree with her, but every good harem needs a girl more interested in the other girls than the dude. To help with quality control and all that.
Coco shakes her head. "Just a regular, and he hasn't made any offers beyond that either. Yet."
Sweet!
If Arc keeps on putting off recruiting her then he can recruit her once he's a King and building his harem! She comes to a halt by an intersection just before the entrance to the seating area. Coco glances away as if glaring toward the blond himself. "But if he puts that off much past the Festival I'm definitely gonna make him work for it. No matter what I decide once the offer's on the table."
Aw, crap.
The both of them just kinda standing there in the hallway is a bit awkward, and people are already starting to look kinda pissy about the obstruction they're causing. "So, umm, are you just here to watch too, or..."
"My team's up at the end of this block. You were just on my way down to the lockers." She answers easily, handing the tray of drinks over to him once he has the other snacks re-arranged so he can carry the thing.
He shrugs as best he can, before offering, "Oh! Good luck then."
The girl shrugs, gives him a light punch to the shoulder and spins on her heel to strut down the side passage. "Not that we need it, but thanks, kiddo." She pauses just before she'd need to start shouting for him to hear her. "Oh, and the shades are a freebie, but you really need to find something that fits your actual look better. Those just make you seem even more skeevy than you already did."
"Wha–? Hey!" He whines–shouts–after Coco. If she had heard him, she doesn't reply, just tossing a wave over her shoulder as she struts away from him. Grumbling, he makes his way through the stands to where the rest of the Occult Research Club is sitting and talking while they wait for the next match to start. "I'm back with the snacks, guys!"
Almost as soon as the words are out of his mouth, the rest of the Peerage is on him.
Koneko grabs one of the tubs of popcorn from his arms–it's nearly the size of her torso–nearly kicking him in the shin as she half stands up to get at it and is back to her seat before anyone else can even turn to acknowledge him, munching away and watching the arena shift into a new configuration for the next match, lost in thought, but not nearly as bad as she'd been before.
Seriously, what's going on with her?
Kiba snatches his salted pretzel, the dipping cup of cheese dip it'd came with and the huge–is it really huge if it's the same size as what damn near everyone else in the stadiums getting?–sports drink.
Is there some universal law that all of those have to end in -ade? Like, even gas-station knockoff brands, and now the most popular choice on an entirely different planet keep to that rule. Before his brain can chase that thought any further, Akeno presses her massive knockers up into his arm as she helps herself to her nachos and cheese and nearly sends their drinks to the ground when she plucks hers off of the tray.
Before that can get too unbalanced, a pouting Asia tries the same thing as she grabs her tub of popcorn and freshly refilled jug of lemonade out of his care. Sure, she isn't quite as pillowy as Akeno had been, but Issei'll never say no to having some sweater-puppies pressed up against him. She bounds back over to her seat, and angles her snack towards the empty one they'd saved for him.
Rias rolls her eyes as she traces her fingers along his chin to shift his gaze to her face, gently smiling before taking the parfait and more reasonably sized drink she'd had him get her from the trays and sashaying back to their seats.
Looks like he'll be between Asia and Rias again. Sweet!
Issei notices their crew is sitting on their own now; Team RWBY not having come back from congratulating Blake's boyfriend and his Team on their win; and JNPR's still a no show. Which makes sense, considering they had to meet with Rias' brother. Looking a bit further back on the upper rows behind their seats he spots the Phenex crowd; Riser's stuck-up little sis glaring daggers at him, the old-school Knight chick on her left and the opera mask Rook babe without her mask sitting to the right of one of the Big Blonde Bombshells–Ruse he thinks, going by the stoic expression on her face–who's saying something to the smaller Phenex she's sitting next to, going by the tilt of the younger girl's head. That the other Twin is missing is a bit weird, but she might be busy with whats got Arc's crew tied up. The younger Phenex visibly huffs, crossing her arms, closing her eyes and leaning back into her seat. Ruse shrugs, then shifts around to look Issei in the eye–He can still remember the feel of her big, soft hand grasping his face–and gives him an acknowledging nod. He responds with a wave before finishing the walk to his seat.
The Arena finishes deploying just as he slides into his seat, ruins on the side that Cinder chick's team is on; desert for the half the sausage-fest from Vacuo are spread across.
Cinder–who can almost pull off the dominatrix look as good as Akeno does–just nods at her team as the fat announcer shouts for the match to start. The green-haired bombshell breaks right, the shortstack goes left and the douche in leather just charges down the other team.
The... fight, is quick and brutal.
The shortstack has a cane–one that's probably a sword or gun too considering how the locals like to build things–dangling from the belt she's wearing with her frilly gothic-lolita looking skirt. Of course the damn thing has too many frills for him to get any good peeks in while she's flipping and spinning around her–her victim, really. Not that watching a dude damn-near get his ankle broken by a kick, get knocked to the ground by an elbow to the side of his skull and then get his neck stomped on is particularly sexy to begin with.
Like, she's a looker but hot damn does he not wanna pick a fight with that.
On the other side of the point where the fake ruined city meets the sand dunes the babe who had - probably–been named after her hair color is weaving around her targets attacks like the poor dude's a toddler.
Between the sleeveless crop-top that matches her hair, the strappy white thing that she's wearing over that supporting and drawing his eyes to her impressive rack and toned stomach, the leather chaps just a bit darker than her skin-tone–which he'd only ever seen like, once or twice in Matsuda's imported American pornos–over her white hot-pants making it so easy to eat up all that junk in her trunk with his eyes and the way that she's bouncing and jiggling as she bobs and weaves around the dudes attempts to hit her while she chips away at his Aura with her kusarigama Issei is definitely in lust with the Mistrali girl.
When she sends the schmuck's gunblade flying with a gravity-defying backflip and parry that almost has her tata's bouncing free for all to see, Issei is damn near salivating. Her wrapping her killer thighs around the guys neck and locking her ankle in the opposite knee as she rides him to the ground is a bit on the brutal side–but if he had to pick a way to bite it, that's top ten right there.
The dude, Mercury something-or-other is almost as impressive as the two babes doing actual fighting on his team. The dude's a denim and leather mess, halfway between a wannabe-biker and the bassist from a boy-band, and Issei would have written him off as just another edgelord if he didn't clearly have the skills to back up the ego a guy would have to dress like that on purpose and in public.
Hell, if Issei hadn't had to put in so much time training to fight and get in control of his Aura lately he might have anyways. But holy crap the way the gray haired dude's keeping two guys twice his size on their back feet with his weird mix of kickboxing and combat break-dancing is just...
Yeah, training goal's right there.
Replace the resting-bitch-faced wannabe bandit queen walking–strutting–behind her Team like she owns the damned arena with Rias, the gray-haired edgelord with him and the other chicks with some of the other girls he already knows he wants in his harem?
He's not gonna lie to himself and say he wants to have to fight all the time, but if they can be that dominant when they do, he'll have plenty of time for more important things.
The end-of-match buzzer blares, and Port's bombastic voice booms out across the floating stadium "And with that dominant display of combat prowess, Team Se–"
"CRIMSON" the chatterbox guy cuts the fatty off. "That's Team Crimson advancing to the next round. Ms Sustrai was rather insistent that her surname is the one used for their Team name, and it would be quite below us as announcers to make such crass jokes at the expense of such skilled students of Mistral."
As Port and Oobleck keep making passes at each other, down in the Arena Mercury says something that has his partner taking a swipe at the side of his head, and the shortstack to offer him her fist to bump, only to retract it and send the guy stumbling at the last second. All three of them at least are grinning. Their Leader...
"Well, someone certainly doesn't look happy about winning." Akeno points out, sounding about as unenthused as the rest of the crowd around them. Well, that is, the people in the crowd not wearing some sort of Haven merch, they all seem happy enough to see one of their teams win that big.
Asia looks from the arena up to the rest of the Peerage. "Maybe she's just worried about the next round? Deciding which half of your Team will fight in the next round can't be easy."
"It'll probably be Black and Sustrai." Kiba guesses, shifting his gaze from the teams respectively striding and limping from the arena to her.
Asia tilts her head to the side and leans forward to look past the rest of the Peerage to Kifba. "Why's that? I mean, they all seem pretty strong so couldn't it be any of them?"
As her fellow blond launches into an explanation about combat prowess, confidence and showmanship that Issei loses track of and starts to tune out, Rias tuts, "Both Jaune and my brother did mention that we should keep an eye on Ms. Fall and her team."
Issei takes a moment to compare them to the rest of the contestants so far, and, yeah, the way they're acting is hella suspicious. "I mean, yeah, the way she didn't even draw her sword, and looked like she already knew how the match was gonna go… There's being confident, then there's whatever the hell she has going on. Almost reminds me of Riser."
Koneko nods once in-between bites and adds in her own two cents, "Don't like'em." Getting lost in thought again almost immediately after as she returns to scarfing down popcorn.
Issei really wants to know what's up, but asking Koneko herself–especially directly like he really wants to –would be a great way to wind up in a world of pain, and still in the dark. Maybe he'll ask Rias or Kiba later. Akeno would probably just tease him if he did, and Asia has been in the Peerage for less time that he has. Sure, she seems to have gotten chummier with Koneko and Ruby lately, but that doesn't mean they're close enough to be sharing the sort of secrets that can do that to a girl's mood for so long either.
He thinks, at least. He could ask Ruse, she and Koneko know each other at least well enough for the bigger girl to be able to give the much smaller one head pats without catching a knuckle sandwich. That and he's pretty sure Ruse had been looking at Koneko when he spotted her earlier, but he isn't about to blow his in with that knockout–or worse, Rias–by looking nosy.
Kiba's lecture for the reincarnated Nun ambles to a halt as he apologizes for getting too excited, with the blonde girl looking even more confused than she had before; easily accepting his apology and offering her own for failing to keep up. She even manages–for once–to do so without also zapping herself by praying in the same sentence. Darting her gaze back and forth between everyone else, Asia is clearly trying to get caught up on what everyone else had been saying. She then tentatively lays her hand on the Rook's shoulder which earns her a surprised look that turns into a small grateful smile that Asia returns.
So much cuteness! It should be illegal!
"Hmm, Ms. Sustrai was 'friendly' enough with Ruby. I'm certain we can play that friendship card to prod for an official meet and greet with the rest of her team?" Akeno muses, her violet eyes falling on the retreating forms of Team CMSN with a slightly predatory glint. Just before they reach the tunnel, she zeroes in on their leader and squints. After they're gone, she shifts to look directly at their King. "Rias, what do you think?"
Rias looks up from the now empty space on Team CMSN's side of the arena leading to the lockers, right pointer finger tapping her chin and her left hand crossed under her rack and holding the other arms elbow. "No. They said to keep an eye on Fall, not investigate her team…which suggests there's something larger at play here they'd rather we keep out of and away from." She relaxes her arms, causing a nice little bounce in her boobs, and plucks her juice from her seats cupholder to take a long drink. "Until they tell us otherwise… We're here to visit with friends and have fun." She glances around to the group, eyes as caring and doting as ever. "Everyone just be careful if you do run into them. I don't want any of you getting hurt or in trouble."
Ahh, Rias…Best! King! Ever!
_-*R-DxD*-_
Resonant Chord is a reassuring weight on Lacey's hip as the sunlight continues to fade and she walks from the Bullhead dock to her safehouse.
The ticket to watch the first round of the Tournament had been a bit outside her budget, but one of the perks of working for a well established crime lord (she supposes) is that getting more work to make up the difference isn't that difficult, really. All she has to do is grab a burner, call one of her supposedly incarcerated current boss' inner circle, tell them she's looking to do a few more jobs than usual, and problem solved.
Not that it was that much of a problem.
One of the points of pride for the Vytal Festival organizers going all the way back to the first had been affordability. Travelling might not always be something a person can do to attend, but just about anyone from whatever Kingdom is hosting any given year can probably afford to attend at least one round of the tournament if they want to.
Sure; she'd had to lean over a bit to see past the support pole off to her right to make out the jumbotron, and the action down in the arena had been nothing but blurs and bright flashes to her eyes; but being in the Colosseum, taking in Huntsmen culture unfiltered and in person had been exactly what she needed.
A reminder of what, and who she wants to be.
Of why she'd ran with the White Fang, and is currently helping Vale's most notorious crook smuggle stolen goods outside the Kingdom and slumming it in one of his safehouses; not warm and safe at home eating a home-cooked meal for her birthday.
One of the Huntsmen she'd been riding back down to Vale from Amity to the cheap–and luckily enough for her kind of close to her safehouse–bullhead dock she'd opted to use asking to see her weapon, then complimenting its craftsmanship had just been the icing on the cake for an otherwise pretty okay day. He'd also said something about fittings for Dust crystals, or a reservoir for powdered dust cartridges in the hilt, but adding Dust to the already hard enough to control amplified sound waves she can sling at her enemies with it is a bit much for her right now.
Maybe next year, once she's at Beacon.
Smiling and humming to herself, Lacey turns down a side-alley. A shortcut, and a risky one at that, but the 'gang' that calls this stretch of not-quite-slums home and one of their rivals had gotten into a pretty bad brawl the other day. With nearly half of both dead, arrested, or convalescing in the back rooms of vets or back-alley-doctors its a good enough way to shave a few minutes off her walk–
The sound of fighting off to her right–even deeper into the network of alleyways and narrow lanes that haven't been knocked over and re-developed into modern streets and buildings yet–snaps her out of her inner monologue.
Of course she ran across a fight. This is exactly what she gets for taking too many stupid risks in one day. Part of her, the part re-invigorated after a full day of immersing herself in Huntsman culture and the life that she's wanted to live for most of her life now, says she should just backtrack to the actual streets and walk where it's safe. Call the police to let them know about the fight if they don't already. She doesn't exactly have Beacon's backing to save her bacon if she's gets caught playing vigilante after all.
…
The other part of her brain–well, if it's just a few muggers or some idiots having a drunken brawl she should be able to deal with the problem and be gone before the authorities get around to showing up. Besides, she's worked with enough of Roman's people that if they're involved she might be able to get a free payday for helping them out.
What's the point of letting a criminal syndicate recruit you in all but name if you don't take advantage of some of the perks?
She edges forward, peeking her head around the corner.
Lacey leaps back almost as soon as she had cleared the wall, a White Fang grunt with a bloody gash across his chest and his right arm bent backwards at the elbow nearly hitting her as he tumbles through the air, before hitting the alley wall and crumpling bonelessly onto the dirty pavement.
Suddenly glad she'd decided to wear her combat outfit today, and acting on instinct she steps into the alleyway and rests her hand on Resonant Chord's hilt. The two humans are surrounded by a dozen or so White Fang thugs, two of them with vibrant green, blue and yellow feathers sticking up from their masks. Fanatics of the worst kind, and they have two humans who look about her age cornered in a back alley.
The bigger of the two, a hulking, tanned mountain of a man wearing a dark purple tank top and dark jeans brandishing his bare fists is... laughing? He sweeps his right arm in a wide arc, his muscled limb sending the terrorist who'd been moving to flank him flying towards the more slender, white-haired teenager to the sickening crunch of shattering ribs.
The second, pale skinned and grim-faced youth handily pirouettes around the flying Faunus, hitting the masked man with one of his swords, and shattering his Aura. The teen's... second left arm? She thinks, the appendage is moving too fast for her to follow it.
He stabs the still airborne Faunus in the gut and slams him into the ground, he follows the Faunus down, and his lower-left arm salms a pommel-strike into the downed terrorists chin, cutting off his pained wheeze with an audible crack that leaves the downed Faunus too-still.
Both of the gray-haired young man's upper arms hold the blades grasped in them up to block downward slashes directed at him by the dead-man's comrades, a bored expression on his face, his stance lazy and motions almost sloppy. "That's four for me already, Heracles." He dryly intones, a slight smirk on his face as he surges upwards, high collared great-coat flaring out as he lashes out with both blades at the pair of Faunus that had been trying to keep him pinned.
The now-named Heracles, still laughing, scoops one of the feather-masked Faunus, lifting the woman above his head before slamming her back-first down into his knee. The first time sends a shattered, skittering neon-blue lightshow playing across her form.
The second a loud crack and aborted scream before he slams the unfortunate woman head first into a nearby wall by her ankle. "Five!" The brute barks back, smiling from ear to ear. And then with barely a snap of his fingers, a small golden orange explosion goes off in front of his hand. His elbow sinks into the face of a White Fang goon who'd been trying to creep up behind him, the limb having moved faster than Lacey's eyes could track to cave in the Faunus' face and send him flying to the far side of the alleyway. "Six!"
Lacey starts slowly backpedaling. She has no love for the White Fang, but helping a pair of–at best unhinged–vigilantes fight them is not something she wants to get caught up in. She's barely paying attention to the fight, focusing on not making any noise as she retreats from what she'd stumbled across.
She was alone in the alley, so it makes more sense to not turn around and risk–
"Hey there, sister, come back to help us deal with these humans?" She knows that voice.
It's a voice she didn't think she'd ever be hearing again after Roman's people had broken her out of the holding cell she'd wound up in after her abortive stint with the White Fang. She half-turns around to see an all too familiar face. Well, half of a familiar face, his Grimm mask is covering the top of it.
The sneer is the same one she remembers seeming permanently plastered across it, as is the patchy stubble on his neck and the spindly, lumpy and unevenly curled rams horns sticking out from behind his ears. The smattering of brightly-colored feathers now affixed to his mask is... concerning.
Sure, he doesn't have as many as the real psychopaths that are getting increasingly common in the White Fang tend to have, according to the other–
According to Roman's Matchsticks.
But the thought of a guy who'd tried to get a girl he's at least a decade older than into his bed less than an hour after she'd been dumped at the barracks poorly disguised as a hotel of a 'safehouse' her White Fang recruiter had dumped her at going down that path is not a pleasant one.
"Actually, I was just passing through. Trying to get back to my new apartment, this is normally a pretty safe shortcut, so..." Lacey does her best to sound casual and not focus on the two crazy guys and pack of terrorists killing each other behind her, or the fact that she is currently standing between three more of the latter group who probably want to help their comrades out.
"It's good to hear you've been doing well for yourself after escaping. We'd all assumed the worst when you didn't make it back after your last mission. You'll have to show us after we've gutted these humans, see how many more of us we can fit in it. I'm sure you remember just how crowded the safehouses can get." The lech drawls, bending at his waist to push his head right down into her personal space.
She nearly gags at the musky stench born of too many people living in too close of proximity to each other layered with the acrid tang of the sort of cheap deodorant most boys learn better than to actually use not too long after they have to start actually wearing the stuff.
One of his cronies steps forward, a broad-bladed khopesh in his left hand, and a weird strip of oddly pink leather knotted around his wrist. "You are still one of us, right, sister?" he prompts, eyelids slowly and deliberately blinking over his reptilian pupils behind his mask. The increasing number of empty-eyed people she's been seeing with bandages wrapped around their heads, stumps of limbs and waists, moving and twitching like they expected something more to be beyond the bandages flashes through her mind.
Lacey is pretty sure she knows why these three didn't just rush past her to help the other terrorists out. A thought that is punctuated by a sickening squelch and an abortive scream ringing out from behind her.
Losing a few people is probably something they'd be fine with if it means bringing in a 'traitor' to make an example of. The ram-horned asshole's hand falling to his hand-ax is all the more of a prompt she needs to act.
Adding the extra half-step and twist of her back on one of the scrolls Jaundice had... left, to her in the Lacquer Box to the draw-slash she'd learned at his Combat school doesn't just make it faster, but the blow land so much harder than she's used to.
The snake-eyed Faunus stumbles back a few steps as the third Fang thug–one with reverse digitigrade legs–cries out in shock and the goat-horned leader of this little group to snarl something about traitors. She doesn't pay attention to either. She'd never really been taught to let up or pull punches. And what little she'd picked up from the stuff her old teachers style had apparently been derived from had only reinforced those lessons.
She takes another step, and reverses Resonant Chord's momentum, hooking the terrorist's khopesh and wrenching it from his hand and slashing into his torso. She kicks the fallen weapon further down the alleyway as she advances on the spindly guy, and with her next step stomps down on his ankle. He flashes purple for a moment and she can hear a loud crack over the din of combat filling the alleyway.
Acting on instinct, she pulls the pocket knife Pewter had given her after the last job she'd been on with the skunk faunus, flips it open and buries it into the unbalanced man's armpit. A snarl from behind her is all the warning she gets that the other two Faunus she's now fighting are present. She pulls the knife free, a jet of blood spraying forth as she does so and turns to face them–and the bloody mess that the rest of the back alley has become. She–barely–manages to slide her knife past the ax-head. It thunks into the wooden haft, and is wrenched from her off-hand, but the abortive block is enough to send the strike that had been aimed for her skull skittering off her shoulder and Aura.
She stumbles away from the tallest goon, and shifts it into a proper dodge when his buddy slashes at her with one of his oversized meat-cleavers. She plants a kick in his gut when he over-balances after missing her that sends him sprawling to the ground, and is able to shift back towards the ram-horned fanatic just as he closes in on her again. Lacey is – barely – able to get Resonant Chord under his guard, pull its trigger and hit him with a weaponized wave of noise before her sword crashes into his short ribs.
Lacey goes for a second attack with her Semblance, but the guy's too big for her to shift without any more momentum behind the hit. With a grunt, he chops down at her sword-arms shoulder, and she dances away from the attack, darting back in with a hop. She resets her stance, and darts forward, aiming to stab the taller Faunus' chest. Finger on her blades trigger, she focuses on her target, determined to time her blow perfectly.
Just as she starts flexing her trigger finger, he pulls his off arm up to block. The tip of her blade hits fabric, then aura, then shifts ever so slightly to rest between the forearms' long bones. A dark brown pattern shatters across his form, and her sword pierces into the arm just as her finger closes around it's trigger.
Ever since she'd forged Resonant Chord, she's trained to activate her semblance every time she pulls that trigger.
The sound isn't the usual overly-loud ringing. Rather, it's partly muffled and modulated, a bit wet even at first before her sword bucks in her hand, then kicks down hard, breaking through bone and meat and skin and fabric before freeing itself. Her arm jerks back as the sword reaches open air, the sound goes to it's usual resonant two-toned ringing and her entire right side jerks back from the unexpected force, and everything she'd just cut through explodes out behind her blade as the asphalt beneath it pulps, her blade swishing clean as it slices through the air until she arrests it's motion once it's pointed straight back behind her.
The Fang grunt drops to his knees, his recently maimed arm held up in front of his face, blood and bits of bone dripping through the crater running the length of his forearm, down to his elbow and dripping to the pavement as a silent scream rips from his mouth.
The last remaining grunt is the first to move, catching his maimed friend by his good arm, slinging him over his shoulder and sprinting back the way they'd come.
Before long, Lacey realizes that the alleyway has gone totally silent.
"Lookie here, Sig, a street-mouse decided to help us out." Hearty, resounding laughter echoes behind her. "Guess not all of these Animal Folk live to cause trouble for humans."
Instinct takes over, and Lacey sprints off to the right, rounding the next corner blindly and not looking back. She slides under an abandoned, empty dumpster, kicking mildewy old clothes and bones out from under it as she does so, then freezes. "The concept of humans living alongside these near-humans does seem to fascinate Cao Cao. I suppose a living thinking creature is a living thinking creature. Such a shame they can't all peacefully coexist with humans. Not wholeheartedly, at least."
"Whatever." The bigger guys voice echoes down the alleyways, just barely audible over the distance and thundering of her heart. "At least these White Fang morons will keep us from getting bored."
Another pause, and still no footsteps. "Barely." The guy who'd had the extra arms voice dryly intones.
"Think we should do anything about the rodent that just scampered off?" No no no no no…
Another pause, probably for a sigh or a twitch or something she wishes she could actually see so she could get a better idea if she should start running again. "There's no need to squash every insect that crosses our path, I suppose. As you said, this one seems to have the right idea, and was passably skilled to boot." A tingling sensation washes over her, and she forces herself to stay as still as she can, both sets of ears still straining for the sound of approaching footsteps. "Not that that is much of a feat, with none of these zealots exceeding the power of a Low-class being." The sensation passes, and as much as Lacey wants to relax, she continues to hold herself as still as she can, breath held in tight control instead of taking the big, panicked breaths she really feels like she needs right now. "I believe this little hunting expedition is finished. Do you agree?"
"Yeah, yeah, I think we're done. Soft as you'an the Boss are going with all the local strays you've been picking up I don't wanna piss him off staying out looking for action for too long."
She can hear barely the sound of a light scoff as they start leaving, mercifully in the opposite direction. "Ruby and Weiss' creative value alone justifies their presence among us. Add to that the local connections and firsthand knowledge they can offer, and we would be fools to turn them away."
"Never said I didn't like'em, Sieg."
"Your versatility and efficiency has gone up notably since we began training them, Heracles." The calmer voice intones, still even and dry as the sound of boots on pavement continues to echo around their words and the sounds of the city.
"Didn't say they were useless either. They've actually grown on me. Just, normally we don't bring anyone in so close so fast. Next thing you know we'll be showin' 'em-" The big guy cuts himself off. The big guy grumbles something she can't quite make out, their voices starting to fade finally. "But, hey! Whatabout that carrot-top Rubes picked out a few weeks ago while we were in town? Your eye was on that one the whole time lil' Rubaby was introducing us."
"I found her… intriguing."
"Oh~? You wantin' a taste for the local cuisine?"
There's another pause, probably one that would be filled by mumbling or grumbling if she was close enough to hear. "Of course you would jump to that conclusion…." The voices finally trail off the rest of the way, things go silent, and Lacey waits, remaining as still and silent as she can.
She's not even gonna think about what it is they were talking about, the less she knows the better.
Now… If she's really in the clear, and going to make it out of this alive, and those nut-jobs aren't following her she's not taking any more shortcuts through back alleys ever again. And she won't be leaving her safehouse for anything other than jobs or groceries until Torchwick is gone and the Festival is over.
The White Fang probably knows she left–betrayed as far as they care–them now.
A/N: So, yea, writing from Isseis POV was... interesting, heh, and here we are at the end of the Team/1st round of the Tournament. Things are gonna start moving quicker now. Only a handful of those moving pieces I mentioned in the first AN need to get put in place left now.
Loved it? Hated it? Have a new years resolution to chug a gallon of gas-station nacho cheese a day and need to tell someone about it? Drop me a review! I love that shit! (Reviews, not chugging gas-station nacho cheese that is.)
Beta'd by MasterPrince713 and Hybrid Theory
Cover art by Icario