superpierce: Curious as to the story of those three girls

LoamyCoffee: Spectacular job, got to see some fun here.
Totally get Jaune still interested in Weiss, though he has chances in the negatives after his theft of the family blade came out. I feel extremely bad for Coco right now. If you used Azure as a reason for her being into girls, I will not complain.
I like that I got to see all these moves with Jack and Azure. Though I have to wonder why the hell Azure's 'Harem' never reigned the idiot in. I get wanting someone to have confidence but damn. Yes, a explanation is definitely needed for their stupidity.

Re: Spaceman and I put a great deal of time and effort into their designs and backstories, as well as Azure's. Jack is the "Ace" of the First-Years, for the Second-Years that's a bit nebulous but I think it's obvious that Team CFVY has that locked down. The Fourth-Years are still complete unknowns, but I like to think I established conclusively that Azure is the "Ace" of the Third-Years, hence why his and Jack's fight was so-intense; because once again, the "Power Scaling" in my portrayal of Remnant is way higher.
If Jack didn't have the [Flamebreaker Armor], he'd have had to do that fight much differently. He still could've won, but both he and Azure would've gotten roughed up way more.
But yes, suffice it to say, the backstory will be quite involved, and I think it's some of mine and Spaceman's best work for this story so far.

Okaze: Goron craftsmanship for the win.

Re: What can I say? Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was/is one of my favorite open-world games, with [Death Mountain] being one of my favorite locations by far. You can tell that the programmers all had a deep love for the franchise with all the easter eggs they left scattered around, and it made me really want to comb every inch for every secret I could find.
Suffice it to say, mixing Legend of Zelda into the "Slayerverse's" mythos was a ton of fun. Mind you, many of the Crossovers were planned well before those homework-esque "World of Remnant" shorts because that information wasn't plugged in organically in the worldbuilding. If I were to try and adapt Jack to the Canon version of RWBY, I'd have to massively Retcon his origin and Nerf him significantly. Of course, in settings like that, it's the Anti-Heroes that give the bad guys the hardest time.

*NEW WORLD*

"Um, Vincent…? What happened to your hair?" Blake asked, stifling a giggle.

"I don't know! Ever since I shielded Weiss with… whatever I shielded her with, it just won't stop!" the RA cried trying to tame his curling spider lily-like hair, his vividly-colored cockatoo astride his shoulder and similarly trying to groom him with her beak. "It's like the worst bedhead ever!"

"Nah, that honor goes to my bedhead," Yang brushed off with a confident smirk.

"Yeah, it looks like the rear end of Jack's giant chicken," Nora added.

"Chocobo."

"I've heard it both ways," she hummed Ren's way.

As this was going on…

"You're like the greatest fire fighter ever!" Ruby squealed excitedly as Jack climbed out of his stone-and-metal armor, the locker room bench groaning in protest.

"Just how-heavy is that stuff…?" Jaune asked as he eyed the bench, which was visibly buckling even to his untrained eye.

"Well, the stuff is made from some of the most flame-resistant rock on Death Mountain, so… pretty heavy, obviously."

*CRUNCH-THUD!*

Looking at the ruined bench, and then at the spiderwebbing of cracks spreading out across equally-ruined floor tiles, Jack eyed the damage before shrugging- "Eh, I'll let the night guy get it."

"I must admit, the craftsmanship is quite remarkable," Pyrrha said as she ran a hand along where the metal met stone. "And where did you say you got this?"

"Death Mountain."

"Yes, alright, but where is that?"

"Not on any map you learned about at school," Jack shrugged as he wrung sweat from the shirt he'd been wearing underneath the armor, practically transparent from all the sweat he'd built up.

"So what other super-cool armors do you have?" Ruby asked excitedly.

"Incoming," Coco chimed in, everyone turning to the hallway to see Azure's teammates making their way towards them, a serious expression on their faces.

"What, you wanna throw down too?!" Yang asked cocking her Ember Celica.

"We apologize."

" . . . Whut?" Yang blinked as the three of them bowed their heads.

"I'm sure this must be very confusing to you, us apologizing to you like this in such a civil manner after what occurred," the Indian beauty began.

"We don't expect you to forgive Azure for his transgressions, but at the very least you deserve an explanation for the crux of his actions," the Amazonian Faunus continued.

"If we could have a little bit of your time…" the graceful dancer requested.

" . . . What do you think, Jack?" Weiss inquired after a moment.

"I think I smell like the inside of an old boot," the Ratel Faunus huffed. "Tell you what, give me a bit to get cleaned up, and I'll bend an ear. How does that sound?"

"That is acceptable," the Indian beauty nodded. "My name is Zarina Rajput. These are my teammates Ursula Donn, and Rosewen Argent."

"I'd say it was nice meeting you, but I'm not sure if whatever you have to say warrants you trying to cut Weiss off from the rest of us," Ruby pouted with crossed arms.

"Hopefully our explanation will be satisfactory," Zarina replied, bowing her head once more.

*NEW WORLD*

After Jack took leave to clean himself, Teams RWBBY and JNPR along with Coco and Velvet found themselves in an elegant twilit pavilion area of ivy-covered pillars away from Beacon' main grounds, rounded archways and lion-decorated fountains decorating the oasis of calm and granting them some reprieve after the crazed mania that had spread through Beacon following Jack and Azure's epic clash. Zarina had been kind-enough to provide refreshments at the simple tables they'd allocated for them all; plates of various fruits both whole and sliced, chocolates, confectionaries, and tea.

"Ooh! Cake!" Ruby squealed.

"Hold," Weiss said grabbing Ruby's hood. "Don't accept food from an enemy so-callously."

"A fair assertion," Zarina said bowing her head. "Shall we begin?"

"Yes. Lets," Jack said as he took a seat, his rock-and-metal armor stashed behind him, the armored components all tucked inside the torso piece with the helmet bolted down. "So, just going to come out and ask; what's Azure's deal? Because if you don't have a good fucking explanation for all that, you three are going to get an ingot-shaped boot straight up the ass."

"To put it in simplest terms, Azure's countenance is as much our own faults as it is to that of his upbringing," Zarina began. "Azure Aiden was born the son of two entertainers, with a pedigree stretching all the way back to the Dark Ages where his ancestors performed before the old Royalty. Growing up with famous actors for parents, some of the best method actors of their current age, he dreamed of becoming a 'Hero', eventually taking his parents' method acting to the point that he actually became good-enough to enroll at Beacon."

"Are his parents anyone we'd know?" Yang asked.

"His father, Duke Aiden, made his cinema debut in the action film series Duke Dread, doing many of his own stunts and learning policework from real detective to further his portrayal of the character. When he was set to star in Enter the Tiger, he trained with the Queen of Martial Arts Films, Jade Chan, and after a month could perform the amazing fight choreography the film was known for. His mother, Sapphire Aiden, started in the romantic comedy Alice Blue Dreams, learning from a master chef from Mistral for the role, and when she starred in the drama Madness of Genius, she learned to paint from the best artisans willing to work with film. They've starred in other films, but those are the ones you are most-likely to have seen."

At this bit of exposition, a few interested nods went around. Duke Dread was one of the best action movies with a cult following as soon as colored movies became a thing, as was Enter the Tiger. Alice Blue Dreams and Madness of Genius were a bit niche, but Weiss and Pyrrha both had heard of those, and had fond memories of such.

"Azure, being his father's son, became a ranked martial artis in only three months, while being his mother's son, eventually surpassed his own mother in culinary skills. Such was how-deep he immersed himself in the 'roles' he chose to undertake," Zarina continued. "The major tipping point for his life was when his parents both starred in The Hunter's Moon film trilogy based on The Huntsman Journal series of books which are based on true stories-"

"OOH! I love those movies! And those were some of my favorite books growing up!" Ruby gasped.

"Ruby, you're still 'growing up'~" Yang chuckled, pinching at Ruby's cheek.

"As I was saying," Zarina said once Ruby had calmed down. "While Azure's parents could both fight and shoot, most of their more-impressive feats were done with the aid of special effects. During this time, Azure realized he possessed a powerful Aura that eclipsed his parents' own, and from that point he realized he could become a real Hero."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming," Weiss hummed.

"However," Zarina hummed, if only to be contrary. "His entire life, Azure had been taught by tutors, and only played with the children of fellow professionals, so when he eventually did arrive at Beacon, he had never had any interactions with 'real people'. All he had ever known were the strict, paid tutors, actors playing parts, and the children of other rich actors. Outside the stage, away from the cameras, he didn't know what 'character' he was supposed to play."

"So, what, he just got really far up his own ass?" Nora blinked.

"That isn't exactly how we would have worded it, but yes…" Rosewen gracefully replied from behind her cup of tea.

"For better or worse, he decided to play the part of 'The Protagonist'; the handsome, talented guy that slays the monsters, beats the bad guys, and gets the girls. Not necessarily in that order…" Ursula hummed. "He had the confidence, the talent, and the ability to succeed, eventually becoming that 'mask', believing he could accomplish anything."

"And the three of you fed his ego?" Pyrrha inquired. As she listened on, she came to realize that Azure was the worst reflection of what she could've become had she not stayed humble through a combination of rigorous training and virtue by merit of religion.

"We had our reasons…" Zarina admitted reluctantly.

"Do you intend to share those reasons?" Jack inquired, recognizing the look on her face as someone with something to hide. Something shameful, like the content of their interweb search history~

"…I was never truly dumb-enough to fall for Azure's pickup lines. I only ever used him as a stress reliever," she admitted after an awkward moment, a few at the table sputtering their tea. "I have no more interest in him than I would a vibrator."

"Ah! Ugh! Gross!" Ruby retched.

"What about you?" Nora asked in Ursula's direction.

"Well, he might be an arrogant sex-obsessed playboy, but he does have some good traits outside his fire manipulation."

"Like what?" Ren asked.

"He's an excellent cook, is very skilled when it comes to sex, and he has zero prejudice, though I can make due without," the large woman shrugged. "So, what do you have planned this evening~?" she asked turning her eyes onto Jack, who chuckled good-naturedly at the propositioning look in her eye.

"I'm almost afraid to ask why you fed his ego," Weiss said turning to the last of Azure's team, possessively tugging on Jack's sleeve.

"When I found out my parents made my sister the heir and that they were going to marry me off to the son of a business partner, I 'gave in' to Azure's seduction. Since my fiancé-to-be's family was highly traditional, they wouldn't accept a deflowered bride," Rosewen answered. "Sure, they may have disowned me for it, but I didn't care. Azure is an excellent stress-reliever, and the freedom of being a Huntress was more-appealing than being married to some guy twice my age I could never stand."

"Huh…" Weiss hummed as she drank that one in, remembering that she wasn't the only heiress who had those sorts of problems. Sure, Jacques made a big show of letting his eldest children 'run wild', but he'd have married her and Winter off to some rich Dust tycoon somewhere if he could've gotten away with it.

"Soooo… because of all that…" Jaune said slowly, "he believed the act so-thoroughly that everyone else did too?"

"Yeah, pretty much," the three of them shrugged unashamedly.

"That's one hell of a roundabout way for a guy to think he's 'God's Gift to Women'," Vincent hummed aloud, finally succeeding in taming his hair.

"I can see why he'd think he's the 'over-skilled harem protagonist'…" Blake added.

"With teammates like this, who needs enemies?" Weiss inquired aloud.

"And the guy really has no idea he's being used?" Yang asked.

"Would it have mattered to us if he did?" Zarina inquired.

"I guess not, but still, that's really messed up…" Ruby said, still blushing red at all the sex-talk.

"Eh, I've heard worse," Jack shrugged. "I can't think of any examples off the top of my head… but I have…"

"I can't believe I slept with such a fucking tool…!" Coco groaned, hitting her forehead on the table.

"You wouldn't be the first," Rosewen hummed. "You're the first to know, but you're far from the first he bedded."

"At least when he went after Velvet, it wasn't for the usual reasons," Ursula hummed.

"That doesn't exactly make me feel any better…" Coco grumbled.

"Sooo…" Velvet hummed awkwardly. "What're you going to do now?"

"What do you mean?" Zarina asked.

"I mean… Jack beat him pretty badly. In front of everyone."

"And is that any reason for things to change behind closed doors?" the Indian beauty asked with a raised brow.

"Wait, you mean it won't?" Jaune blinked.

"Just because he lost a fight, doesn't mean sexually-repressed school and village girls won't continue falling for his cheesy pickup lines," Rosewen hummed. "Only thing that's changed is all of you know the nitty gritty."

"Well, that, and, he'll have the good sense to leave the Schnee heiress be," Zarina added. "He's always portrayed himself as 'a man of honor', and he's always been good for his word. You won't be hearing from him again unless you're foolish enough to initiate conversation."

"Thank god for small miracles," Weiss huffed.

"So uh… you guys really weren't his harem?" Coco asked for clarification.

"Only in his narcissistic mind. Why do you ask?" Zarina inquired.

"So you just… let the whole school think what we thought about you and never bothered to correct anyone?"

"Whenever the gender ratio goes 3:1 in favor of the girls, that's the conclusion people will come to even without sex being on the table," Zarina replied.

"Yeah, you should hear what the other third-years think of this whole arrangement~" Ursula grinned waving a finger in RWBBY's direction.

"Besides, Azure thinking he's the 'Protagonist' always got us the best client," Rosewen hummed.

"You got any refills?" Nora asked as the last of the tea ran out.

*NEW WORLD*

"Well that was a hell of a tea party," Yang hummed as they made their way back to their dorm.

"Here's hoping our team dynamic doesn't ever get that… weird…" Ruby said as she groused for the right word.

The less that was said about what was implied the third-years thought of then with their 4:1 gender ratio, the better. The fact that half the team had expressed romantic interests in the "one" didn't help matters either.

"Which only leaves one final piece of business for us to address," Weiss stated matter-of-factly. "Why and how?!" she said jabbing a finger at the armor slung under Jack's arm, only to flinch with a cry of- "Ah! I chipped a nail!"

"Like I said before, there's a whole world out there that you, don't know yet," Jack returned as he adjusted his load. "Chachamaru."

"Jack," the new gynoid maid greeted with a bow, waving them inside.

"Sooo… What else do you have in there, big brother?" Ruby asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Are you really that curious?" Jack asked.

"Jack…" Blake said putting a hand on his shoulder. "I think what you consider 'interesting' is markedly different than what we would find 'interesting'."

" . . . Oh that's right, I forgot you're all a bunch of 'normies'~"

"Hey, I resemble that remark!" Nora snapped.

"Well, if you aren't gonna tell us what neat loot you've got, I'll just have to open her up myself!" Ruby said flipping the latch.

"Ruby don't-!" Jack cried as she flicked the latch.

*Grrrrrr!*

"What the-?" Ruby blinked after sticking her head inside.

*CHOMP*

"AAUUUGH!" Ruby squealed as the steamer trunk she was leaning into grew in size, sprouted eyes, and came down on her torso with a lid full of teeth.

"AHHHHH!"

"AUUUUGH!"

"HUAAAAAGH!"

"HOLY CRAAAAAP!" Weiss, Yang, Pyrrha, and Jaune screamed in succession as the little red scythe-wielder was flailed about like a chew toy from the mouth of a Mimic. An honest-to-Brothers Mimic!

"Mimi, no, bad girl, spit her out. Ouuuuut," Jack chastised like he were talking to a dog and not a fantasy monster that'd slain many an Adventurer in Grimm & Grottos. "Mimi, I mean it. Don't make me get the spray bottle and the newspaper."

*Blegh*

"Whaaaa… Whaaaa… WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" Ruby cried as saliva dripped down her face, the thing that'd chewed holes in her combat blouse purring as Jack mollified it with a head-rub.

" . . . What, you mean this?" Jack blinked after a moment.

"YEEEES!" everyone cried, pressing themselves to the wall in primal animal fear.

" . . . This is an ordinary steamer trunk."

"NO! IT REALLY ISN'T!" Ruby shouted, actually going red in the face from anger as she fingered the holes in her clothes. "This was my favorite blouse…!"

"Oh, I can have Rachnera fix that up for you," Vincent hummed.

"Thank you. You're a real lamb," Ruby nodded sweetly before turning back on her surrogate brother. "Explanation! NOW!"

"Mimi… She's an ÄRM, isn't she?" Pyrrha suddenly asked.

"Oh? What clued you in?"

"When, uh… she, attacked… she gave off the same feeling as your Guardian ÄRM: Ring Knight and Guardian ÄRM: Saint Anger, but still a little bit different," the red-head returned, Jaune nodding his head as well since he'd been on the receiving end of such as well.

"This… This is going to change every game of Grimm & Grottos we ever play, won't it?" Yang asked as she warily eyed the real-life monster in their midst.

I mean sure, Grimm were also 'monsters', but they were real, not 'fantastical' to the point people thought them purely fiction.

"I think knowing Jack by default has made that the new 'norm'," Blake hummed, her bow flicking as she stared at the currently-docile Mimic.

"So then, what kind of ÄRM is… Mimi?" Ruby asked warily, her interest peeking through even though she was trying to look angry.

"Based on Dr. Oobleck and Jack's lectures, I'd speculate she's a 'Unique ÄRM', since she's too, well… unique to fit into any one category," Weiss stated. "She moves about like a Guardian, but Jack isn't fixed in a single location, she can store more inside of her than should be possible like a Dimensional ÄRM, and she's alive like a Ghost ÄRM but not fused to Jack's body."

"So a living ÄRM like the 'Elder Sphere', then? The Unique ÄRM that was the lynchpin of the global conflicts between the Chess Pieces and the Cross Guard?" Ren hummed aloud, remembering that lecture if only for how-fantastical it sounded.

At least until Jack completely upended what they knew about the world for the umpteenth time.

"I mean, there's all sorts of Semblances and Magic out there in the world, so a Human Soul bound into a polymorphic weapon is perfectly feasible," Blake hummed. "And boy is that a sentence…"

"So all your epic loot is in the stomach of a real-life Mimic?" Ruby summarized.

"She was my mom's."

"Which only digs the rabbit hole deeper…" Weiss hummed as the thing purred when Jack turned his attention back to her, the eyes closing and its bulked-up frame shrinking down until it'd become indistinguishable from an ordinary steamer trunk. "I can see why you aren't worried about showing off your wardrobe if this is what security you have to deal with. Where'd your mom find this thing?"

"Don't know. She kinda got murdered before she could tell me the finer details," Jack sighed as he opened up his steamer trunk and deposited his armor inside. "Anywho, Weiss?"

"Y-Yes?" the heiress blinked as he stared intently at her.

"Seeing as how I fought for your 'honor' and all that jazz and made a complete spectacle of myself in the process, I figure I owe you for objectifying you like that," Jack said as he began to dig into his trunk, the upper half of his body vanishing from view as he rummaged about. "Ah, here we are," he said coming back up for air, a circular object wrapped in a blue cloth held in his hands. "Here. Try it on."

"Oh, oh my goodness, it's… It's beautiful!" Weiss gasped as she and the others beheld a lovely silver circlet with a rhombus diamond-shaped sapphire in the center, the band all swooping elegant lines and loops, so-artistic she assumed it was something stolen from her father's 'gallery'.

"It was the first thing that came to mind," Jack hummed awkwardly as Weiss went to the mirror to try it on, fussing with her hair around the unfamiliar accessory.

"Hey, where's my special something?" Yang pouted trying to look cute.

"Alright, alright, you don't need to twist my arm," Jack chuckled as he went diving once again. "Are you an earring person?" he asked coming up with a pair of silver earrings with inverted teardrop-shaped topaz stones in each one, smaller topaz stones set into each clip.

"Maybe on special occasions~" the busty blond grinned, holding them appraisingly in their hands. "How'd you know yellow was my favorite color~?"

"Just a guess."

"Hey, you aren't going to leave your little sister out, are you?" Ruby pouted.

"Here. Don't poke an eye out," Jack said drawing out a V-shaped implement wrapped up in leather, Ruby's eyes sparkling as she beheld a wicked-looking right-angled blade with a bone handle wrapped in green leather. "I didn't forget you, Blake," he chuckled as he handed another like weapon over to his original surrogate sister.

"Hey, how come hers has two blades and mine only has one?" Ruby pouted as Blake's weapon turned out to be the same make as hers, but forked into two zig-zagging wicked-looking blades. At a glance, these were obviously sibling blades to the savage-looking tri-boomerang he'd shown off earlier.

"They're one-handed weapons meant to act like boomerangs. Blake is just a little more versed in that sort of thing than you are," Jack said patting her on the head. "You get good-enough with that thing, I'll let you try out the Tri-Boomerang variety. How does that sound?"

"Hrmmmm. Fine," Ruby pouted, still trying to lay it on, only for her eyes to keep going back to her wicked-looking blade.

"I shudder to imagine what sorts of things you give to actual family," Ren hummed, only to hiss through his teeth at the eggshell he'd stepped on.

"It's fine. You didn't mean anything malicious by it," Jack shrugged.

"You got any hammers in there~?" Nora asked eagerly.

"Nora, no, bad girl," Ren chastised.

"Later, Nora."

"Don't encourage her."

"So it's basically all trophies in there, huh?" Jaune asked as Jack dug back into his trunk, coming up with an armful of antiques which he put up on the bookshelf above his bed.

"Some of it was abandoned, some of it was purchased. You travel outside the kingdoms enough, you'll have a whole wall of odds-and-ends too," he said jabbing a thumb at the antiques overlooking the room. The first was a spherical copper-colored cage-like lantern with a half-melted candle inside, a swooping gray accent across the top, and a lanyard from the top. The second was a golden metal glove with its index finger permanently pointed upward. The last, and most-terrifying of the lot, was a copper-colored eagle statuette with its wings furled slightly outward, its ruby eyes staring imperiously at the room below as it roosted atop an obsidian and gold-colored rectangular tiered pedestal.

"That last thing gives me the willies…" Blake shuddered as she felt the eagle's eyes on her.

"As it rightly should."

" . . . Okay but whyyyy?" Weiss asked nervously.

"As long as you don't say it's name, you'll never have to find out."

" . . . Is that warning legitimate, or are you just being cryptic for the sake of being infuriatingly cryptic…?" the heiress returned.

"Heeheeheeheeee~"

"That giggle does not inspire me with confidence. Never do it again."

*NEW WORLD*

Elsewhile, at the infirmary following an ear-chewing as soon as he'd regained consciousness…

"Azure, how do you fare?" Zarina inquired of her team leader, Ursula and Rosewen off doing their own thing.

" . . . I didn't expect this change."

"I'm sorry?" she blinked.

"I thought I was the only star on this world's stage, the 'Chosen One' that would save the world… But without realizing it, I'd stumbled into a crossover event instead," he articulated, gesticulating like a stage actor who had come to some grand epiphany. "I should've realized it at the sight of them, were I not so arrogant. The cheerful, energetic girl in red, the runaway princess from the land of ice, the ebony-haired loner beauty, the golden-haired brawler girl. And then there was Jack, the dark, brutal antihero protagonist, with a past blacker than pitch, wielding skills of masters both modern and ancient," he continued grandiosely. "And me…? I'm just the idiot from a romantic comedy. The self-proclaimed rival who was never treated as such."

"Well, you know the thing about heroes and rivals; they get stronger as they overcome adversity," Zarina hummed.

"Maybe so…" Azure said rubbing at his head. "That Jack Braxton fellow… He's from a completely different genre than the rest of us."

"I suppose that's one way of putting it," Zarina nodded.

" . . . I want to fight him again someday. But not because we're both pining for the same maiden," Azure nodded to himself, "but as fellow Heroes in our own epic Sagas."

"That sounds like a worthwhile pursuit," Zarina nodded, happy to see that her teammate had grown from this experience, as opposed to plummeting into a downward spiral.

*NEW WORLD*

"I'm not sure how to feel about this 'present'," Jaune hummed back in his room as he looked at what Jack had given him.

Held in his hands was an ordinary-looking claymore, but the leather wrap was yellowed with age and sweat, the blade, cross guard, and pommel all speckled with vivid rust against a dull gray.

"Perhaps you can think of it as an opportunity," Pyrrha hummed. "Once you've cleaned it up, you can use it as a training implement."

"That or he just wanted to offload some of his old crap," Nora shrugged as she swung her sock-clad feet over the edge of the bed.

"I think what she's trying to say is, you can always use it as a club if the blade's completely shot," Ren hummed.

"Neither of those things makes me feel any better…" Jaune sighed. "Still, maybe this is one of those 'wax on, wax off' kind of things and there's some hidden meaning?"

"I saw the look in his eyes when he gave you that claymore. None of the spite he used to have for you was present," Pyrrha stated. "I'm leaning into him giving it to you as a training implement, since it's a decent-quality sword," she said pressing her hand to the cross guard, her Aura shimmering around her hand as she peeled away some of the rust with her [Polarity]. "See? Looking better already?"

"Thanks, Pyrrha," Jaune nodded appreciably. "Still…" he said setting it down on the floor, "we never did find out where he got that armor from other than the name of some mountain we've never heard of."

"Admittedly, we were pretty distracted by what came next after he redecorated," Ren said looking at Nora's pink-and-white socks.

" . . . What?" the ginger-haired girl blinked.

*Past*

"So, do you have any exotic books in there, or is it all swords, armor, and miscellaneous loot?" Blake hummed, doing her best not to eye the eagle statuette now overlooking the room.

"I have one or two," Jack said reaching into the trunk. "Behold! The Invisible Book of Invisibility!"

"For real!?" Ruby gawped at the seemingly-invisible item Jack was holding, only for her hands to pass through the space above his own. " . . . Meanie."

"To be fair, I wouldn't know what an Invisible Book of Invisibility would look like even if I sawone."

"Boooo," Yang heckled.

"I kid, I kid," Jack waved off. "Here's one I think you might like."

"The Monster Book of Monsters?" Blake blinked as Jack handed her a thick tome with a fur-lined cover decorated with tentacle-like tassels, the letters embossed in gold lettering with the last word of the title on the bottom half of the cover, a thick leather belt binding the whole thing shut.

As soon as she undid aforementioned belt however, four spider-like eyes wriggled open alongside a pair of thin nostrils, the tentacles lining the edge of the cover coming alive before it opened up its maw and tried to-

"AUUUUUGH!"

-bite off her fingers.

"What the literal hell?!" Blake yowled, hair standing on end as the thing fell to the floor with a *thump* before it shuffled towards her like the world's most-homicidal Roomba.

The raven-haired girl leaping up onto her desk, the rest of the room's occupants were swift to leap from the floor, one or two scrambling to the bunkbeds while others leapt up onto the nearest desk available.

"HOW!? What…? Just…! HOW?!" Weiss shrieked as she tucked her knees to her chest, the thing's snout thumped repeatedly into the baseboard beneath her desk. "And don't you dare say that thing you always say!"

"Fine. I won't," Jack shrugged as he sat on his bed, completely nonplussed by the unadulterated terror permeating the room.

"Guys. Guys. I have an idea."

"I temper my sense of decency in expectation," Ren hummed.

"I'm gonna drop my shoe over there and distract it," Nora said unlacing her sneaker.

"Is that really going to work?" Pyrrha asked.

"As long as it remains unsubdued, probably," Vincent shrugged from his place on Blake's desk after the raven-haired girl dragged him behind her, the two hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder.

"Alright, I'm gonna do it. Get ready to make a run for it!" Nora said lobbing her sneaker into the center of the room.

The sneaker making a *thump* as it bounced once on the floor, the monstrous book about monsters turned its attention away from the baseboards and shuffled towards the abandoned article of footwear. Like the sound of a roaring chainsaw, the thing proceeded to maul Nora's shoe, the room's occupants staring in morbid fascination as bits of shoelaces, rubber foam, and strips of synthetic leather spilled messily into the air.

After about a minute of this carnage, the thing spat out part of the tongue from Nora's sneaker, a contented gurgling sound issuing from its paper-like body before it began to spin around on the floor like a Roomba deciding which corner of the room to attack next.

"What happened to making a run for it?" Jaune griped as the thing resumed its unholy crusade.

"I got distracted," Nora answered.

"I got traumatized," Yang said from her bunkbed, hugging her favorite boots to her chest.

" . . . Nora, what are you doing?" Ren asked as Nora unlaced her other shoe.

"I mean, what the heck'm I only going to do with only one sneaker?"

"She isn't technically wrong about that…" Weiss conceded, even as she felt an aneurysm from sheer stupidity coming on.

"Jack, where the hell did you get that thing!" Ruby shrieked from her own bunk as she hugged her own favorite pair of boots to her chest.

"It was a gift."

"Which tells us absolutely nothing…" Blake deadpanned with a flat stare.

"And there goes Nora's other shoe," Ren said as more chainsaw sounds echoed through the enclosed space. "Should we lock it in the closet?"

"NO! That's where all our shoes live!" Ruby squealed.

"How are we supposed to subdue this thing?" Weiss added, shielding her eye from a stray aglet.

" . . . OH! I've seen this before!"

"You HAVE?!" Blake gawped as a twinkle shone in Vincent's eye.

"Don't worry, I've got this," he said handing his vividly-colored cockatoo over to Blake before leaping atop the thing with a short-range body splash. His arms wrapping around it as he wrestled it away from the floor, as it snapped its maw at the air below his chin, the RA ran his fingers along its spine, the thing letting a pleased trilling sound as it got a sleepy look in its spider-like eyes, and grew quiet.

" . . . Where and how!?" everyone gawped as Vincent cradled the Monster Book of Monsters in his arms like a newborn babe, perusing through the pages as though the thing hadn't tried to eat his face a moment ago.

*Present*

"Oh, so that's why you've been staring off into space for the past ten minutes," Nora hummed once the flashback ended. "May you rest in peace, third-least-favorite sneakers of mine."

"And boy is that a sentence…" Jaune sighed as he undid the leather wrap around his claymore's handle.

*NEW WORLD*

AN:
Azure Aiden, Zarina Rajput, Ursula Donn, and Rosewen Argent are all RWBY OCs made for use in this story, "co-owned" between Spaceman and myself. I haven't commissioned any Art for them yet, but I know a couple guys if someone wants to commission it apart from myself.

Anyway, I hope to hear from you all in the Reviews column, and I'll see you all next time on Vigorous Vitality!