Here we are at Chapter 12. It's pretty cool how many people have been viewing this story, so thanks to all of you guys. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 12. Enjoy.
Chapter 12: Bad Idea
So far, Velvet has kept quiet about Blake's past, which the hidden Faunus is grateful for, but she knew she wouldn't keep it that way for long. As for her other secret, Blake has taken extra precautions into keeping her secret stash of 'romance' novels hidden from the others, especially from Ruby. God knows what would happen should she read those and have her innocence tainted. While Velvet told her about telling them soon, she couldn't help but feel like that was a bit of a hypocritical statement, given the fact that she has her own secrets from the team. Currently, Velvet muses on this while taking a shower in the dorm early in the morning before the others. Feeling the hot water cascade down her body helps clear her mind and think on certain things.
"Hm. I told Blake about telling the truth to the others, and yet here I am keeping secrets of my own from them. Then again, who would be more trustworthy, a Faunus or a demon? I bet if I told them that I'm from another world as well, they'd think I'm crazy. Guess I'll just have to keep it to myself for now," she decides as she finishes her shower.
Turning it off, she steps out to put on a towel, only for a sudden flash and a 'click' sound to stop her. She looks to see Yang peeking in the doorway, holding her scroll.
"Got it. Shouldn't have left the door unlocked," she teases.
Yang expected Velvet to feel embarrassed like any normal girl would in this situation…but Velvet is no normal girl. Instead of freaking out, she activates her demon arm and growls at Yang.
Yang chuckles nervously, "Heh-heh-heh, uh oh," she says.
Velvet grabs Yang by the skull with it while grabbing her scroll with her other hand, drags her to the main door, quickly opens it and throws her through Team JNPR's room and closes the door.
"Better delete this before she gets any funny ideas," she says as she goes through Yang's scroll and deletes the picture. However, she then notices the other members of her team, all looking wide-eyed and with faces red as tomatoes. "What?" she asks, not caring about her condition.
"W-W-W-Will you please put some clothes on, for goodness sake!" Weiss shouts as she looks away to cover her blushed face.
Meanwhile, Blake is hiding her face behind one of her books to cover her eyes and her blushing face.
"What's the big deal? We're all girls here," Velvet replies.
"It's indecent! Just hurry up now!" Weiss screams.
"Ugh, fine," Velvet says, and retreats back into the bathroom to dry off and get changed.
During this time, Weiss notices Ruby frozen in place…and her nose bleeding.
"Ruby, are you okay? Your nose is bleeding," she says.
Ruby shakes her head back into focus and quickly gets some tissues to help stop the nose bleed.
"Oh, thanks Weiss, I didn't notice. I just…I just," Ruby trails off as her face starts turning red.
"Enjoy the view, Ruby?" Blake teases her.
"Blake! It was embarrassing! I didn't need to see Velvet naked. I saw that you two were freaked out about it, too!" she retorts.
"Yeah. But we quickly looked away while you kept on staring. Makes people wonder," she jokes, which makes Ruby groan in frustration.
A few minutes later, she comes out, fully clothed in her school uniform. "Happy now?" she asks.
Weiss slowly turns around and sighs, "Yes, much better. What is with you? Don't you have any sense of modesty?" she asks.
Velvet shrugs, "Well maybe if there were any guys in the room, but it's just us so I didn't really think about it. Besides, if anyone's to blame, it's Yang for peeking in the bathroom while I'm taking a shower," Velvet says.
A moment later, Yang walks back in, "Sorry about the surprise visit guys, see you later," she waves to Team JNPR as they leave their dorm before she closes her own door. "Did you really have to throw me into their dorm with your demon claw? I almost ended up in a wrestling match with Nora," Yang asks.
"Well then, next time, don't go taking pictures of me when I'm getting out of the shower,"
"Next time, don't leave the door unlocked," Yang counters.
Velvet activates her demon claw again, "You want to go flying out the window this time?" she threatens.
Yang holds up her hands in surrender, "Nope, I'm good. One claw flight is enough for today," Yang relents, then notices the tissues in Ruby's nostrils. "Ruby, are you okay? Did you get a nosebleed?" she asks, concerned.
"Yeah, but I'm fine. I think it stopped now," Ruby replies as she pulls out the tissues and throws them away.
Quickly, Yang gets a mischievous smirk, "Oh, I see. You got that from Velvet's little display earlier, didn't you?" she teases her.
"Yang! I wasn't expecting to start my day with seeing her naked. It startled me," she defends herself.
At this point, Velvet is getting impatient, "If you're all done, we have classes to get to," she reminds them as she begins to leave.
"Wait, what time is it?" Weiss asks.
Blake checks the time on her scroll, "It's…8:50!" Blake exclaims.
"We're gonna be late, again!" Weiss yells as they all race over to their first class.
…
Fortunately, the team made it just in time before classed started. Unfortunately, it was another session with Professor Port and his stories.
"Maybe we should've shown up late," Yang whispers as the story quickly bores her to tears.
"I second that," Blake whispers back.
Meanwhile, Ruby tries to take some notes, though the stories seem to have nothing to do with the class lessons. Her eyes soon wander to Velvet.
"Psst, Velvet," she beckons her attention.
"Hm?" she hums while trying to stay awake.
"Sorry about Yang earlier. She likes to play pranks and stuff sometimes. She did it plenty of times to me back home," Ruby apologizes.
"Eh, whatever. I had an old travel companion that loved to mess with people as well. I'm pretty used to it," Velvet says. "Now that I think about it, Magilou and Yang would've really hit it off."
The class period goes off without much excitement and soon the team leaves to head to their next destination. However…
"Hey, you!" they hear someone shout. They all look left to see Dive, Sky, and Russell of Team CRDL, storming their way towards them. "We gotta bone to pick with you!" Russell shouts while pointing at Velvet
"And why is that?" Velvet asks, uninterested.
"You and that hammer wielding psycho from JNPR broke our leader's legs, and it's high time you payed for it," Sky says.
"And whose gonna make her, you three idiots? When that one Ursa Major showed up during the field trip, you three ran away like gutless morons," Yang comments as she steps up beside her.
"T-T-That was only because we didn't have our weapons with us. If we did, we would've handled that Grimm easy," Dove stutters.
"Oh please, the fact that you ingrates even made it into this school is purely by luck alone. You may have some skill, and that's just me being generous, but you don't stand a chance against any of us," Weiss adds.
"Watch what you say, princess, or that pretty face of yours won't stay pretty for long," Sky threatens her.
"That's enough! You don't talk to my teammate like that!" Blake defends Weiss and steps up only for Velvet to stop her with her arm.
"Whatever you're selling, we're not buying. There's no reason for us to deal with you idiots when we got more important things to do. So quit trying to waste our time. Let's go guys," Velvet says and begins to leave with the others in tow.
"Hey, we're not done with you!" Russell shouts as he makes a grab for her.
However, Ruby gets in his way.
"Leave her alone!" she says as she gets in between him and Velvet.
"Out of my way, shrimp!" he yells and smacks her in the face.
Bad idea…
Suddenly, the temperature in the hall goes up as Yang's hair lights up.
"No one hits my sister and gets away with it!" she yells and prepares to pulverize him, but Velvet stops her. "What the Hell are you doing?! Don't tell me you-," Yang begins, but quickly stops when she sees the look in Velvet's eyes, a look that SCREAMED bloodthirsty anger.
Ruby, who was being helped up by Weiss, looks up and sees the same expression as does everyone else.
"Velvet…" she mutters.
"Listen here, you cockroaches…I don't care who they are. I don't care where they're from…No one lays a hand on Ruby and gets away with it. Not while I'm around," She darkly mutters as she stares daggers at Team CRDL. The look actually starts making the three boys shiver a little bit and take a step back. Velvet steps forward and grabs Russel by his shirt to pull him close to his face. "You wanna fight me so badly? Fine, I'll give you a fight. Next week, in Goodwitch's combat class, you idiots against me. I don't need the others to beat the crap out of you. Don't worry, I'll try not break YOUR legs as well. You miss you're leader so much? Well after I'm done with you, you'll be joining him real soon. Now, scram!" she warns him and throws him back into his teammates, who quickly make their retreat. Velvet wipes her hand together and turns to check on Ruby, losing her scary expression. "You okay, Ruby?" she asks, concerned.
Ruby rubs her cheek, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm tougher than I look. But what about you? You can't just go making fights like that. Fighting Grimm if one thing, but this is different," Ruby worries.
"I agree with her, Velvet. That punk slapped my sister, I can't just let that go. I want in on this too," Yang says.
"As do we all. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. We're a team. Any fight we have, it's together," Weiss adds.
"No. I started this, and I'm going to be the one to finish it. Besides if I can show that only one member of this team can defeat them, than that's more than enough reason for them to leave us alone for good. I know you all want to fight with me, but I need to do this alone. I need to know I can handle something like this on my own before I allow others to help me.
"Velvet, I still think you should let us help you," Ruby pleads.
"Do you trust me Ruby?" Velvet asks.
"Yes, of course I trust you," she replies.
"Then trust me now," Velvet says.
Her words make Ruby think about her next answer. A moment later, she gets a more determined look in her eye.
"…Alright, I'll trust you with this…We won't interfere, right guys?" she looks to the others. When they're about to retort, she stops them. "If we do help her, it would mean that we don't have faith in Velvet to win. I don't want her or anyone to think like that. Do you?" she questions them, making them all think for themselves before nodding in approval. "Then we'll let her fight. We'll be cheering for you, though. So just remember that while you may be fighting down there by yourself, you're not alone," Ruby says.
"Thank you Ruby. All of you. Don't worry, I'll send them crying to their mommies," Velvet says.
…
Next week roles by, and Goodwitch's combat class comes up. The whole class is buzzing with talk about the fight between Velvet of Team RVWBY and three members of Team CRDL. Some wanted to sneak into the class to watch, but knew better than to do that with Professor Goodwitch teaching, so they opted to have their friends who are in the class secretly record the fight with their scrolls. The rest of Team RVWBY sits up in the seats while Velvet stands in the arena. On the other side, the three members of Team CRDL stand ready, plus one more.
"Miss me, you Faunus-loving freak," Cardin Winchester says, apparently with both legs healed thanks to medical treatments and his aura. "Hope you don't mind me joining this little party," he says, looking smug as ever.
At this point, Professor Goodwitch steps up, "Despite my advice, Professor Ozpin has decided to allow this match to happen, though I will be keeping a close eye on you all. However, Mr. Winchester, you were not included in the making of this match. So unless Miss Crowe allows it, you will be sitting out of this fight. Miss Crowe will also be allowed to have one member of her team join her for this match if she decides it. Miss Crowe, what is your decision?" she asks.
"Go ahead. One more head to smack around. And I'll be fine on my own," Velvet allows it.
The other members of Team RVWBY grow concerned at Cardin being included. They know he's not that strong of a fighter, but they don't like the idea that now the match is four-on-one. However, when Ruby sees the determination and lack of concern in Velvet's eyes, she decides to support her from the stands, as do the rest of them.
"Very well, all competitors, get ready," Glynda announces. The fighters prepare their weapons. "3…2…1…Begin!" she shouts and the match begins.
The four members of Team CRDL come rushing at Velvet, while she remains stationary. Sky Lark is the first to attack as he twirls his halberd around before making a left swing at her. Velvet ducks and backflips away to evade and then jumps over Russell as he attacks and kicks him in the face. When she lands, Dove and Cardin rush at her sides. Cardin swings his mace at her, but she spin kicks it out of the way and then deflects a thrust of Dove's blade before dealing two slashes on him and then fires her gun at Cardin. Cardin blocks the shots with his mace, and then Russell comes in for another attack. Velvet parries his twin swords several times and quickly notices Sky coming at her rear. She jumps as he attacks and lands her feet on his weapon, forcing it down.
Activating her foot blades, she spins all three blades around, dealing several hits to both Sky and Russell, knocking them back. Cardin then jumps into the air to slam his mace on her, but Velvet rolls out of the way and blocks a strike from Dove's sword. Pushing the blade away, she kicks him back and then runs at Cardin. Cardin meets her charge, but when they get close, Velvet slides on the floor, knocking Cardin off his feet and sending him sliding across the floor. Dove and Russell jump over him as they charge Velvet again. Velvet fires her gun again, but the two deflect the shots with their weapons. When they get close, each one starts swinging their weapons at her. Velvet blocks the attacks with her blade, and when she sees an opening, grabs Russell's left wrist with her left hand and pulls him into Dove's path. Dove stops just before he accidently hits Russell, but Velvet uses this chance to kick Russell into Dove and then shoots Russell several times before ending it with a few spinning slash attacks that knock him out of the fight. Sky and Cardin attack Velvet from behind, but she flips over Dove and jumps back to get some distance between them.
Velvet takes this chance to grab a blue Dust crystal from a pouch on her back waist, thinking back to how she got it.
Flashback…
"Here," Weiss says as she gives Velvet a black pouch.
"What's this?" she asks as she prepares her weapon in the locker room.
"Just because we can't fight with you out there doesn't mean the only thing we'll be doing is sitting up in the stands, watching you fight. This pouch has Dust crystals inside for your demon claw abilities. It'll give you an extra edge in the fight," Weiss explains.
"Um…Thanks. This'll help," Velvet says as she takes the pouch.
"Just be sure to make it extra painful for them," Weiss says.
Flashback ends…
"Thanks Weiss. I'll put them to good use," Velvet thinks. What she notices is that she doesn't feel any pain from the Dust absorption. "Looks like my body is finally used to the Dust absorption. That's good to know."
She activates her demon claw and absorbs the Dust crystal, causing the claw to turn a faint blue. This makes everyone in the arena, aside from Team RWVBY and Professor Goodwitch, shocked at what they're seeing.
"What the Hell?! How did you do that?! There's no way that's fair! She's cheating!" Cardin yells.
"Her semblance allows her to absorb different forms of energy through her claw. Dust is a form of energy, so it works. You'll just have to deal with it, Mr. Winchester," Glynda says as she looks on over the match.
Cardin grinds his teeth in irritation and he charges at Velvet again. Velvet aims her demon claw and fires of some ice shards at them. Cardin breaks the ones aimed at him with his mace, but Dove and Sky get hit by theirs at their legs, freezing them to the floor. Cardin swings his mace at Velvet when he gets close, but she swipes the attack away with her claw and then smacks Cardin out of her way before she runs at Sky and Dove. Both fire the gun mechanisms in their weapons at her, but she easily moves around to avoid the shots. When she gets close, she jumps up into the air, her claw encased in ice, and then slams her fist into the ground, sending large ice spikes at the two boys. The attack knocks them free of their ice shackles, and takes out the rest of their aura, eliminating them. Velvet turns around to see Cardin get back up, seething with anger at seeing her wipe the floor with them.
"Why won't you just go down?! I won't be humiliated by an animal loving freak like you!" Cardin shouts.
"From what I see, the only 'animals' here are you and your teammates. No strategy, no skill, and damn sure no intelligence. That ego of yours is your biggest problem. You underestimate everyone around you, and yet it is everyone around you that prove to be better than you," Velvet insults him. Cardin screams and charges her again, completely focused on brute strength. However, when he swings his mace downward at her, Velvet casually sidesteps the attack, knocks it out of his hands, and grabs his skull with her claw. Cardin tries to break free, but it proves fruitless. "You're strength is not even worth absorbing," Velvet says.
She picks him up and slams him into the ground, hard. The strike takes out the rest of his aura, ending the match as a buzzer sounds off.
"And that's the match. The winner is Velvet Crowe," Glynda announces as Velvet deactivates her demon claw. "Well done, Miss Crowe. You proved that you've earned your place at this academy," Glynda praises her.
"Thank you, Professor," Velvet says and leaves.
…
Later that night, Velvet is up on the dorm roof, getting some fresh air and some peace after a long day.
"Finally, some peace and quiet," she mutters.
"Velvet," she hears behind her.
"Or not," she mutters again and turns around to see Ruby in her pajamas. "What's up Ruby?" she asks.
"I wanted to see how you were doing. You did have a 4-on-1 match today after all," she notes.
"Meh, those morons were easy pickings. I didn't even need to go all out. I told you I could handle them myself," she says, but she then notices Ruby's solemn expression on her face. "What's wrong Ruby?" she asks.
"Uh, it's nothing…Well, actually…*sigh* I just don't really like how you're always fighting on your own these past few weeks. We're a team Velvet, that means that we fight together," Ruby replies.
"Ruby…" Velvet says.
"Is it because of me? Is there something that I'm not doing to be a good leader for you?" she asks, concerned.
Velvet's expression softens at this, "Always thinking about others before yourself. That's you in a nutshell," Velvet thinks. She then walks up to Ruby and surprises her by bring her into her arms in a warm embrace. "Nothing's wrong with you. You have always shown more concern for your teammates and for others than you do for yourself. You are a great leader. Don't ever forget that," Velvet encourages her, leaning her head on Ruby's head.
Blushing, Ruby slowly returns the embrace, "Thank you Velvet. I needed that," she says.
"And I promise that from now on, we'll fight together as a team," she promises Ruby.
Ruby nods her head in acceptance, "Thank you Velvet…You're a lot nicer than you try to make yourself out to be," she thinks, but then her thoughts drift to their embrace. "To be held like this from Velvet… It feels…really nice," she muses as she blushes a little more.
And Velvet has taken out the trash! I just couldn't resist writing a chapter where she kicks the crap out of Team CRDL. A little more bonding between Velvet and Ruby doesn't hurt either. What awaits our favorite team in the future? Until next time, please Read and Review.
