Chapter 1
Troubles of the Heart
Yang Xiao Long let out a relieved sigh as she plopped down on the ground underneath a large tree and took a long drink of water. Beside her, Blake Belladonna, her partner, sat down with much more grace than the blonde. It had been nearly two months since the mission to Mountain Glenn and all that followed and those months had been very interesting, to say the least.
For starters, Teams RWBYS and JNPR (but especially RWBYS) were basically minor celebrities. The Grimm nearly invading Vale was a hard event to not notice and, as such, word about it and about the brave students who held them off until Atlas could intervene had spread like wildfire. There had been talks about withholding the names of the students involved but, given the high profile nature of Hunters, they eventually decided against it. Professor Ozpin did, however, refuse any attempts the media made to interview them which, honestly, Yang was fine with. As much as she enjoyed the idea of basking in the limelight, she knew that others of her team didn't and so much had happened during that mission that she would honestly feel uncomfortable talking about it to complete strangers.
Then there was the matter of Emiya Shirou. That double whammy reveal of him being a magus and also his tragic history really sent everyone for a loop (some of them more so than others). Everyone had already been pretty nice to Shirou before but the way they treated him now changed subtly. Not only did it explain several mysteries, including Blake's treatment of him (when asked, she confirmed that she had heard of most of his past before), it also recontextualized countless incidents. What had once been seen as Shirou being impossibly nice was now being seen more as him trying to make up for all those lives he couldn't save. While absolutely no one in their right mind would blame Shirou for anything that happened, survivor's guilt was a hell of a thing. As such, there was a bit more of an effort being made to bring Shirou in on various things, even if they were trivial. If it made him feel better, it was worth it.
As for Shirou being a magus, that was something that took a while for everyone to really wrap their heads around. The fact that explicit magic existed seemed absurd but not only was there no reason for Shirou to lie, it was really hard to deny that huge explosion and bounded field thing (which Yang had tested out of curiosity). Then Ruby and Pyrrha explained what they had seen him do (with Pyrrha stating that she had learned this secret some time ago) and that just solidified it. Frankly, most everything Shirou told them went way over Yang's head (and she doubted that she was the only one) but the idea was crazy in and of itself. Naturally, this led to everyone asking him to show them some of the things he could do with it over the months which he happily obliged. The fact that he could entertain them with something so simple seemed to make him happy so it was fine.
Of course, not everything had been progressing so smoothly. In fact, there was one particular thing that hadn't progressed at all since the dance that felt like forever ago. Despite all that time, Yang's relationship with Blake had remained pretty much unchanged. While saying that it hadn't changed at all wouldn't be true, the changes that had occurred were subtle and difficult for even Yang to notice. They were minor things like Blake spending a bit more time around her than before or making a bit of an effort to sit next to her whenever she could. Then there were the couple of times that Yang caught Blake staring at her from out of the corner of her eye, seemingly lost in thought.
While Yang was not someone known for her patience, even she could be patient when it mattered. She knew, to some degree, that Blake had some trauma in her past with regards to a previous relationship and thus would need time and understanding before she could enter a new one. It was for this reason that Yang hadn't been making any overt moves after the dance and instead responded to Blake with slightly more than she gave. Aside from also trying to spend more time with and sit next to her, Yang was taking whatever chance she had to tell Blake stories about her past. She talked about her father, Taiyang Xiao Long, what Ruby was like growing up (pretty much the same as she was now, all things considered), about her Uncle Qrow; everything, really. While she never broached the topic of her mother again and there was still a lot she hadn't told Blake, it was a good start.
Blake, in turn, replied with some stories of her own. While nowhere near as plentiful as Yang's, the blonde appreciated getting even this much. This is how Yang learned about Blake's parents, Ghira and Kali Belladonna, what growing up on Menagerie (the large island given to the Faunus after the Faunus Rights Movement) was like, and a few other things. Yang noticed that Blake only talked about the White Fang in only the vaguest of terms which meant that a large portion of her life was still a mystery but Yang was fine with that. She wouldn't push. Blake would tell her that stuff when she was ready.
Still, even after all of that, things hadn't really progressed between them. Yang felt like she was closer to the Cat Faunus, sure, but the exact nature of their relationship was still a mystery. Blake hadn't made any explicit moves or even talked about it and Yang was doing likewise for her partner's benefit. If she was forced to put it into words, their relationship could be described as being more than friends but less than lovers. That particular classification was so vague, though, that it was starting to drive Yang crazy. She had no idea what was okay to do and what was crossing the line and a part of her was honestly afraid to try anything since the wrong move might hurt Blake and push her away.
"Hey, Blake, can we talk for a bit?" Yang eventually asked. The stalemate was getting too much for her and talking should be perfectly safe.
Blake looked at Yang out of the corner of her eye before answering, "What is it, Yang?"
No one was around as far as Yang could see and the only sound that filled the air was birdsong. Seeing her partner look around, Blake also shook her head to indicate that even her heightened hearing heard no one. They were in a rather secluded spot to begin with so that way they could practice their special move and keep it secret for the upcoming Vytal Festival tournament but it didn't hurt to make absolutely sure.
"We need to talk about us," Yang said after confirming their privacy.
Blake immediately looked away and began fiddling with a blade of grass. "What about us?" she said with an air of mild disinterest.
"You know exactly what I mean. It's been months since the dance and I still have no idea what, exactly, we are. Are we just friends? Are we more than that? If so, how much more? I'm fine with whatever the answer is, I just need an answer. All of this dancing around is driving me crazy."
Blake looked down as she sighed, her shoulders slumping even as her face fell. "I know. I shouldn't have put things off for this long, it's just…"
Hearing her partner trail off, Yang decided to hazard a guess, "You're afraid of what'll happen if you do."
Blake seemed to collapse further in on herself as she weakly nodded, "Yeah, I am. Ever since my relationship with Adam, I've been afraid to let people get too close or trust my feelings. It's why I was so distant when I first joined the team. If I kept everyone at arm's length, they wouldn't find out that I'm a Faunus and they wouldn't get close enough to hurt me."
Yang hesitated for a moment before putting her arm around Blake's shoulder. She was glad that she did when Blake leaned against her instead of pulling away. "I can't say I fully understand what you went through but I can guess. I've seen what a bad relationship can do to others. Honestly, I'm just glad that you got out of it. I can't tell you how many people I've seen in abusive relationships who refuse to leave.
"I could tell you that this will be different and that I won't purposefully hurt you until I'm blue in the face but I know that you already know that. Instead, I'll just ask you this: Do you want us to be a thing?"
"I do," Blake said as she nuzzled herself closer to Yang and rested her head on Yang's shoulder.
Yang smiled at her partner before saying, "Then everything else is fine. Take all the time you need."
The pair fell silent for a moment before Yang was suddenly overcome by a desire. She reached over with her free hand and carefully undid the bow covering Blake's cat ears. Blake instinctively flinched away but quickly forced herself to relax again. With ever so slow and gentle movements, Yang placed her hand atop of her partner's head and began to scritch at Blake's cat ears. Yang's smile threatened to split her face as she felt Blake relax further and saw a small smile form on her partner's lips.
After a while of this, Blake spoke again, "I'm not just afraid for myself. I'm afraid for you, too. If we got together and it got out that I'm a Faunus, I'm afraid of what that'll do to your reputation. I'm also afraid of Adam. If he comes back…"
"If Adam shows his face around here, I'll just beat him to a pulp. Simple as that. As for my reputation, don't worry. I don't really give a damn about that. So long as I'm happy and those that I care about are happy, I don't care what others think. I've already had people give me shit for my life choices so, honestly, that'll be nothing new."
"I'm still not convinced but… If you're really fine with it… I guess I am, too." Yang smiled as she pulled her hand away only to stop as her girlfriend showed her a lazy glare. "Did I say you could stop?"
Yang chuckled as she continued to scratch between Blake's cat ears as she pulled her closer. "Jeez, you're gonna be really high maintenance, aren't you?"
"What can I say? I'm a cat," Blake said nonchalantly as she nuzzled her cheek against Yang's shoulder. After another moment of silence, Blake spoke up again, "Do you mind if we keep this a bit of a secret? I don't really want to draw a lot of attention to us right now."
"You mean more than we're already getting as the saviors of Vale?"
"Well… yeah. I'd just like for our relationship to be private right now. Something that we can quietly enjoy together."
"Alright. If that's what you want. It's only a matter of time before the others figure it out, though. Rubes already knows that I have feelings for you and we both know how observant Shirou is."
"That's fine. They can find out when they do or when we tell them. But the way things are right now, with just the two of us sitting underneath this tree on a warm day, the cool wind blowing against our skin, and surrounded by just the sound of birds; it's kinda magical. It's like we're in our own little world and all of the troubles outside of it don't need to bother us right now. It's so relaxing and calming and… freeing that I almost feel like crying."
"If you need to cry then do so. I won't judge you. You've been under so much stress lately that it's only natural for you to feel that way. If stuff like this is what you need then I'll be more than happy to give it to you whenever I can."
"Yang, I… I…" Blake's words were cut off as her tears, which had been slowly trickling, started to fall in earnest. As she choked back a sob, Yang twisted around to wrap her other arm around her girlfriend and was only slightly surprised when Blake moved until she straddled Yang's lap, her head buried in the nape of Yang's neck as her tears flowed freely.
Yang didn't know how long they sat there, Blake crying while she gently stroked up and down her spine, but she didn't really care. If it made Blake feel better, it was worth any amount of physical discomfort on her part. Despite being fine with staying that way for hours if need be, Blake eventually pulled away ever so slightly.
With her left hand gripping Yang's shirt as though her life depended on it, Blake wiped away her tears as she fought to control her breathing. She stared into Yang's violet eyes with her yellow ones and lost herself in the love and affection she could see in them. Almost without thinking, Blake closed the distance that separated them and kissed Yang on the lips. It was desperate and needy and Blake knew that it would taste salty due to her tears but she needed this right now and Yang was all too glad to return it.
After a while, Blake broke the kiss and laid her head on Yang's other shoulder. She felt drained but in a good way and the only emotion she could really feel anymore was a lingering warmth that only grew as she hugged her girlfriend closer.
Neither of them knew just how long they stayed like that but neither of them cared. They had each other and that was all that mattered.
OoOoOoO
Emiya Shirou rolled to a stop as he tumbled along the ground, Kanshou and Bakuya blurring as he rose to fend off their twins as they came for his neck. He sent a swift heel kick towards his opponent's stomach and wasn't even a bit surprised when she backpedaled away from it. His followup slash was also fended off by its mirror and the surrounding area became a blur of white and black as the twin sets of married blades tore through the air around them in an intricate dance. Eventually, both of them disengaged and backed away from each other. With this distance between them, Shirou took the time to consider his opponent.
Velvet Scarlatina was every bit the interesting opponent that she promised she would be. Thanks to her Semblance, she had the ability to copy the movements of others and that meant that, after a minute or two of fighting, it was almost like he was fighting an exact duplicate of himself. While he could surprise her and throw her off by tweaking his fighting style or doing new moves, she could very much do the same and had caught him numerous times when he had gotten too into the flow of his attacks being countered by their exact duplicate.
It was a most fascinating experience that, in a way, reminded Shirou of Archer's fighting style and thus his own. Since Velvet instinctively learned the movements of anyone she fought, she could easily trap them in a cycle of attacks before exploiting one of the openings that she was aware of. If one wasn't extremely careful, it'd be all too easy to play right into her hands and be at her mercy. As it was, her biggest weakness was her physical attributes. While by no means a pushover, she wasn't exactly exemplary in any particular area since she needed to divide her training evenly so that she could properly utilize any given fighting style.
This particular fact made Velvet perhaps the perfect opponent for Shirou, were he to truly go all out. While not as perfect a matchup as Gilgamesh, Velvet's Semblance meant that she was very much a master of none just like Shirou was. She was a Faker who stole the skills and experiences of others to use as her own. She could even reproduce the weapons of others using her special camera, even if her "projections" were nowhere near the quality of Shirou's (seeing as how they lasted for only a minute at most, lacked any magical properties, and couldn't be reproduced without taking another picture).
Just as Shirou tensed up to go for another attack, an alarm rang out through the clearing they were in. Both Shirou and Velvet relaxed from their guards with Velvet casually dropping her copy of Kanshou and Bakuya, the weapons dispersing like sand in the wind as they fell, before pulling out her Scroll and deactivating the alarm.
"Well, I guess that does it for today. You're doing great, Shirou," Velvet said as the two of them walked over to the side where they had water bottles and towels waiting.
"Thanks again for helping me train. As you said, seeing my own fighting style being used against me is a great help," Shirou said as he retrieved his water bottle.
"No, I should be the one thanking you. Our sparring sessions have been great for me as well. You should have seen everyone's faces the last time we free sparred!" Velvet said with a smile as she sat down. As Shirou joined her, she couldn't help the feeling of content that washed over her. This clearing that they regularly trained in had quickly become a special place for her and the cool breeze was a heavenly contrast to the warm sun on her skin.
"I'm glad that this arrangement has worked out for you as well. I'd feel bad if I was the only one getting anything out of it."
"Even if sparring with you wasn't improving my own skills, I'd still be getting something out of it. I really do enjoy the time we spend together, Shirou," Velvet said with a slight blush. Shirou shot her a look and hummed in acknowledgement but said nothing as he took a drink of water. With his continued silence, Velvet pressed on, "Still, your fighting style is unlike anything else I've ever seen. Even before I copied it, I saw several obvious holes in your defense and was wondering how you could be at the top of your class if that was the case."
"It's a fighting style I picked up a while ago that's perfect for me. Back then, I was constantly fighting foes who were far stronger, faster, and more skilled than I was. As such, the only way for me to match them was by taking advantage of their instincts. By leaving holes in my defense, they would naturally target them. Since I knew roughly where and how they were going to attack, I could be prepared to block or dodge. This is what allowed me to keep up with them and survive several fights I wouldn't have otherwise."
"So I noticed. Still, isn't your style of fighting incredibly dangerous? Even if you're predicting your opponent's moves, you're still leaving yourself open to attack. If the gap between you and your opponent is too large, being able to predict them won't save you."
"This is true but, if the gap was that large, I'd probably have no hope of winning anyway. Besides, I don't really care what sort of danger I get placed in so long as it means I can protect someone else."
"That's incredibly noble, Shirou, but I don't think it'd be a bad idea to worry about yourself a little more. Even if you don't care about your own safety, your friends certainly do and none of us want to see you get hurt."
"That's certainly true but the same thing is true in reverse. If someone's going to get hurt, I'd much rather it be me than someone I care about."
Velvet hummed in response, unable to really argue with him. She was still somewhat worried by the implications of Shirou's sacrificial nature but she couldn't argue with the results nor could she say that Shirou's desires were wrong. Not for the first time, Velvet got the sense that something intrinsic to every living creature was missing from Shirou and it wasn't hard to guess what had caused that piece to go missing. The chances that he'd change and regain what was lost were slim but that just meant that she and his other friends would have to look out for him when he wouldn't.
"Well, I have to get going," Velvet said as she stood up and dusted herself off, Shirou following suit. "Thanks again, Shirou. I look forward to our session next week!" Velvet followed her declaration by giving Shirou a quick kiss on the cheek before running off, her face burning from embarrassment.
Back in the clearing, Shirou froze with an expression of shock on his face. He really couldn't understand why this was happening to him. First Ruby and now Velvet? Shirou didn't see himself as anything special so why did he seem to be so desirable to the women around him? It wasn't that he disliked Velvet or anything, quite the opposite, in fact, it was just that Shirou had absolutely no interest in such things. There was work to be done and lives to be saved. Anything frivolous like romance was simply a luxury that couldn't be afforded. His disastrous date with Ruby back during the dance had only reaffirmed this opinion.
Still, if it turned out that Weiss or Blake held feelings for him as well, Shirou was officially going to give up.
OoOoOoO
Weiss Schnee sighed as she stared down at her binder, the back of her pen tapping away at the pages as she stared blankly at the equally blank paper. It had been a couple of weeks since the business on Mountain Glenn and now all focus was on the ever looming Vytal Festival and the tournament that was held during it. This tournament was easily the biggest event of not only the year but also quite likely of their entire school career. Another one wouldn't be held until her third year when she couldn't participate and thus this was her one and only shot to prove that everything she had struggled through to get to this point hadn't been for nothing. That she had grown and changed and gone beyond everything her father said that she ever would be.
Still, saying that was one thing but actually doing it was something else entirely. If Weiss reflected on herself and on her time at Beacon, she could definitely say that she had changed quite a bit in that time but it was hard to say if it was enough. She felt like she was now a very capable teammate and the support she provided in combat was certainly invaluable but was that truly enough? Her solo performance was more than a little lacking— she would have surely lost to that chainsaw-wielding White Fang goon had Yang not intervened— and she had no truly major accomplishments of her own to boast about. Ruby had been an excellent leader and had successfully halted the train as well as battled numerous White Fang while unarmed (something that made Yang exceptionally proud). Yang had dealt the finishing blow to the Paladin, had saved Weiss, and had taken out numerous powerful Grimm during the attempted invasion. Blake successfully managed to evade and lure away the Paladin and later went on to defeat Roman by herself (even if he was weakened from the wound Shirou gave him). And then there was Shirou. Despite what he may think, his performance had been beyond exemplary the entire school year. There was frankly no way that any of his peers, other than maybe Pyrrha, or even most of the older students could have done half of what he did.
That left Weiss with her problem. She had no big moment of her own. No time where she could shine and prove the worth of her own strength. Sure, she had assisted in a few of those but being strong with her team wasn't the same as being strong on her own and she simply had to be strong on her own, no matter how much she loved her team. It wasn't so much a matter of pride but rather necessity.
Shirou's words to Weiss when she said something like this during the winter break came back to her. What he said back then wasn't wrong by any stretch of the imagination but he simply didn't see the full picture. He couldn't see the full picture. She was proud of her contributions to her team and proud of the fact that they relied on her so much but she simply had to be strong when standing on her own. The fact of the matter was that there were problems in her life that could only be solved through her own strength. There were things that could only be proven through her own strength. If she was to accomplish any of her true goals, she needed to prove to her father that she could be strong without him and his training. That she was someone of significant value even without her family name.
Of course, while that drive was well and good, it faced one major roadblock: the structure of the Vytal Festival Tournament. The way it worked is that it would be split into four major rounds. First was the preliminaries which were held by the schools to select which teams would be going on to the main event. Each school could have three teams participate in the main event but any number could join the preliminaries. After that was the first round of the tournament proper. That one, much like the preliminaries, was a four-on-four team battle. After that, the winning teams would select one set of partners to move on to the second round which was a two-versus-two situation. From there, one of the two would move on to the final round which was one-versus-one. Furthermore, while the first two rounds took place on a variable terrain stage that was randomly determined, the final round took place on a plain stage that lacked any gimmicks.
Given the structure, it was plain to see how things would play out. After Team RWBY won the first round, Yang and Blake would move on to the second and then Yang would finish up the third. There was no doubt that Yang was, by and large, their best single combatant so she'd have to be in the second round which meant that Blake had to be in the second round since she was her partner. That meant that, barring something truly insane happening, there was exactly one round during which Weiss could prove herself. She had one chance and no more. Failure there was simply unacceptable.
That, however, left the problem of what, exactly, Weiss could do to accomplish her goals. She had been diligently working on her summons but she simply couldn't manifest even a part of one yet (Weiss idly wondered if Shirou's unique perspective thanks to his magecraft could help her and made a note to ask him later). She might be able to do it under the effects of Soul Surge but that wouldn't be impressive when Winter could summon creatures at will. She was pretty proud of her progress with time dilation but that had the downside of only lasting a few seconds and putting enormous strain on her body. Then there was her gravity manipulation but, as useful as it was, using it always sickened her. She'd much rather make a grand statement using literally anything else.
"What'cha doin', Weiss?" a sudden voice from behind made Weiss nearly jump out of her skin. She glanced behind herself to see her partner and leader, Ruby Rose, smiling at her.
"Oh, nothing much," Weiss said as she subconsciously smoothed out her clothes. "Just trying to think of a plan for the tournament, is all."
"Oooooo! Can I help?" Ruby asked excitedly, her silver eyes sparkling with excitement.
Weiss considered her partner for a moment before saying, "Very well. You're better at this than I am, after all." She scooted aside her chair to make room and couldn't help but smile and roll her eyes as Ruby gave a cheer and fetched another chair.
"So, any ideas so far?" Ruby asked as she scooted her chair closer and peered excitedly at Weiss' binder only for her excitement to give way to confusion as she saw all of the nothing that was on it.
"Not particularly. We already have a fair number of team attacks so I was trying to come up with something we could do individually."
"Individually? You mean like our Soul Surges?"
"No, nothing that dramatic. Especially since they can't be used during the tournament. I was just trying to come up with any strategies or series of attacks that we could perform on our own. Sort of like how, in your first sparring match with Shirou, you bounded around the room using your Semblance to try and disorient him."
"Yeah, but that didn't really work out," Ruby said with an embarrassed chuckle as she scratched the back of her head.
"Maybe, but that's probably only because of who you used it against. While that move wouldn't work against Pyrrha or myself due to our Semblances, there really isn't anything that Blake or Yang or anyone else in Team JNPR could do against it."
"You really think so?" Ruby asked with a hopeful look in her eyes. When Weiss nodded in confirmation, Ruby giggled bashfully as she said, "Thanks, Weiss. This isn't a bad idea but what made you think of it?"
"I…" Weiss trailed off as she considered her words. Should she just come out and tell Ruby the truth? She could already guess where that conversation would go, though. But if she didn't tell the truth, that meant that she'd have to lie to her and the idea of lying to Ruby left Weiss with a disgusting feeling in the pit of her stomach.
After a short time under Ruby's curious stare, Weiss continued, "I'm dissatisfied with my performance. Wait," Weiss held up a hand to forestall Ruby's immediate rebuttal. "I know that my performance within the team has been satisfactory and I know you all value my presence. That is not the performance I am dissatisfied with. Rather, it is with my performance on my own that I take umbrage. Over the past semester-and-a-half, all of you have had moments where you got to prove your worth and demonstrate your abilities on your own. I, however, failed utterly in my one chance and it was only thanks to Yang that it didn't end in disaster."
Ruby was silent for a moment, clearly deep in thought, before nodding, "Alright, I think I get it. You want to be strong on your own so that way you can take care of yourself if we ever split up again, right?"
"Among… other reasons."
"I totally get that. You're already really strong, Weiss. That was just a bad matchup for you. But I get wanting to be stronger. That's why I train with Shirou so much. If I hadn't, I don't even want to think how things would have gone after I fell. Even after that, I still want to be stronger than I am now so that way I can keep you guys safe and save other people. So, I'll help you."
"Huh?"
"I'll help you. You're my partner and my best friend, right? Then of course I'll help you. And you'll be helping me, too. I don't know what those other reasons are and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to but I'll help you do anything you want. We're partners. So long as we're together, we can do anything. No problem."
Weiss stared in awe at her young leader. She had been offered support plenty of times in the past but there was something about Ruby's unbridled optimism and declaration of unilateral support that was different. She genuinely believed that Weiss was a strong person. She believed that her partner could achieve anything, even that which she had failed at doing for a lifetime.
It was such a strange feeling, having someone honestly say and believe that Weiss was a strong person. Her tutors growing up had been sparse with their praise, mostly only saying that her work was satisfactory. Her sister had been cold and distant when she was around and, while she wasn't harsh, she tended to only criticize her. Her father was absolutely brutal, picking out every flaw, no matter how minor, and always putting her down. Her mother had pretty much not been there at all.
The less said about her brother, the better.
What all this meant was that Beacon had been a truly disturbing experience. People generally praised and commended her efforts and, despite what the dark corner of her mind sometimes said, she could tell that they were being genuine. Her friends liked to have her around and enjoyed her company and her name and wealth basically never came up. They liked her for her and valued her for her skills and her friendship. She was an irreplaceable part of Team RWBYS and she'd always have a place with them.
Overcome with emotion by this revelation, Weiss beamed at her concerned friend even as tears started to gather in her eyes. Before Ruby could say anything, Weiss leaned forward and enveloped the younger girl in a tender hug that Ruby returned after a moment.
"Thank you, Ruby. I can't even begin to tell you what this means to me."
"Hey, don't mention it. I'd do anything to help you, ya know?" Ruby said, her voice slightly higher pitched due to her nerves.
"I know, Ruby. I know."
OoOoOoO
Emiya Shirou sighed as he looked out at the setting sun from the roof of his dorm building, his legs hanging over the side as he leaned back on his hands. It had been a very long, tiring, and confusing day for him and the only thing he wanted to do right now was turn his overheating mind off and enjoy the sunset. Sadly, his mind had other plans as the thoughts that had hounded him all day refused to leave him alone even now.
For starters, there was the whole business with the White Fang that Team RWBYS had handled about two months ago. While that whole affair was resolved on paper, there were too many lingering questions for Shirou to put it down. The biggest of which was the identity of the person or people who had infiltrated Beacon. The only new clue they had to go on was that the infiltrator was a magus which made them even more dangerous than before. When Shirou brought this up with Ozpin, the headmaster had confirmed that he had felt the usage of magecraft originate from somewhere in the school but it had been too widespread and fast for him to hone in on the source. The only thing he could tell was that a spell of that caliber was certainly something that they had been preparing for quite some time.
Naturally, Shirou was assigned to investigate this new lead. He had been given a number of menial tasks to do that would let him cover practically every inch of the school grounds without arousing any suspicion. His search resulted in a lot of interesting discoveries but the only relevant one was that he had detected a bounded field covering Team CFVY's dorm. However, when he informed Ozpin, it turned out that Fox Alistair was a known magus. Since Team CFVY had been away for most of the time the intruders were known to be present and didn't return until shortly before the incident, it was safe to rule them out.
Shirou found it interesting that there was another magus in the school but he wasn't entirely sure what to do with that information. While he got along really well with Velvet and well enough with Coco Adel, he had only met Fox and Yatsuhashi Daishi in passing once or twice and only knew a few things about them from Velvet's offhand comments. It was also hard to say if Velvet was aware of the Moonlit World or if Fox had dutifully kept it a secret from the rest of his team. Either way, Shirou didn't really gain anything from revealing himself as a magus to yet another person, and a stranger at that, so he decided to just sit on it for now.
After that was the matter regarding Salem. It was fairly likely that everything that had been going on was tied back to her in some way but it was hard to say exactly how. During the course of the school year, another settlement had fallen to a seemingly random Grimm attack and that was putting Shirou a bit on edge. When asked, Ozpin said that this event narrowed down the possibilities further but he wasn't prepared to make a statement quite yet. His refusal to even state what the possibilities were annoyed Shirou more than a little but he knew that pressing the headmaster for details would be futile so he let the matter drop. It wasn't like Shirou could do a whole lot with that knowledge that he wasn't already doing anyway.
Then there was the fast approaching Vytal Festival Tournament. Seeing as how he was officially teamless, Shirou was unable to participate. While this upset the rest of his team and Team JNPR, Shirou was more than fine with it. It wasn't something he wanted to participate in anyway. That didn't mean he was entirely free from it, though, as Ruby had asked him to step up her training in preparation for it. Since the true nature of his abilities had been revealed, she had naturally asked what other weapons he could produce. A quick demonstration later and Ruby wanted to change her training from focusing solely on hand-to-hand combat to training against a variety of different weapons. She had some trouble with that in the past and wanted to try and prevent history from repeating itself as much as she could. While Shirou's weapons weren't as wild as the ones usually found on Remnant, they gave her a fairly solid base to work from as most of them included the weapons he could produce at least in part.
Lastly, there was Shirou's seemingly ever present girl problem. Ever since Velvet had kissed him on the cheek a couple days ago, she had been a bit more bashful around him whenever they ran into each other. Shirou had absolutely no idea how to handle the situation since, while he liked Velvet, he had no desire to pursue her romantically. As such, his experience dealing with Saber's embarrassment after their first time wasn't even remotely applicable here. A part of him wished that he was interested in her romantically— he could honestly see himself falling for her were the circumstances different— since that would make things easier to handle but he instantly chastised himself for that thought. Saber and all of his feelings aside, Velvet was someone who was about as completely unrelated to Salem and everything surrounding her as a person could be. If she became too heavily involved in Shirou's life, she would inevitably get dragged into it and the less people who knew about all of that, the better.
And then there was Ruby. Their relationship had cooled off slightly since the date but Shirou got the feeling, now that he had a better understanding of what he was looking for, that the younger girl still had some lingering feelings of affection for him. Now that his past was out in the open, he supposed that a repeat of the dance could be avoided but Shirou had already resolved himself to not bother with dating and romance. Ruby would certainly be better off with someone else and, much like with Velvet, Shirou simply had no romantic feelings for her. He liked her, sure, and they got along well but there just wasn't any romantic love to be found. If fate had been different leading up to this point, he could certainly see them being together but the him who he was simply couldn't.
In the end, there was simply nothing Shirou could do about his feelings and thus he decided to simply wait and see what happened. Ruby's lingering affections would hopefully fade over time and Velvet could be dealt with when needed.
The sound of the door opening pulled Shirou out of his thoughts. A few seconds later, the faint smell of lemon informed him who it was.
"Hey, Shirou," Jaune Arc said as he came up beside Shirou and plopped himself down next to him.
"Hello, Jaune," Shirou replied as he kept his focus on the horizon.
"What'chu up to?" Jaune asked.
"Just thinking."
"'Bout what?"
"A lot of things."
"More girl trouble?"
Shirou gave Jaune a sidelong glance before changing the topic, "How are things going with you and Pyrrha?" While he could get the details from Crocea Mors if he wanted, it was better to hear it from the boy himself.
"Pretty great," Jaune said with a content smile. "I introduced her to my family during that four-day weekend we had a bit ago and they loved her. She also really liked them even if they did almost make her cry during their weekly game of Peril."
"They almost made her cry?" Shirou asked with a tilt of his head. The image this provided was both amusing and concerning.
"Oh, yeah. It wasn't intentional or anything but one thing you need to know about my family, Shirou, is that they take Peril very seriously. I swear, it's almost like our religion or something. When we did free-for-alls, she was less of a player and more of a convenient resource who would sometimes flail helplessly. At one point, she actually begged for someone to put her out of her misery. No such luck.
"The team games weren't much better for her. She ended up teamed up with my mom, who's the best player in the family, against my dad and one of my sisters. But that was practically a handicap match, which is why my mom was chosen as her partner. Pyrrha was pretty much just a meatshield and, again, a convenient resource, but Mom did try to teach her some of the finer points of the game."
"That sounds… I'm not really sure if I should give her my condolences or…"
Jaune laughed before saying, "Don't worry about it. I mean, she'll get embarrassed if you bring it up, but she told me that she had a lot of fun. She said that 'There was something oddly refreshing about being absolutely destroyed for a change.'"
"I… suppose I can see where she's coming from. Regardless, I'm glad that things are going well for you two."
"Thanks. It's a shame that things didn't work out between you and Ruby but, hey, I'm sure you'll find someone else. A great guy like you probably has to beat the ladies off with a stick, huh?"
Shirou scratched at the back of his head as an embarrassed smile spread across his face, "Actually, about that, I've decided to simply not bother with such things for the time being."
"What? Why not? Giving up just because things didn't go well one time doesn't seem like you."
"It's not because things didn't go well, it's simply because there's just no time. There's a lot going on and a lot I have to do. So many things require my full attention that I simply don't have time to get into a romantic relationship."
Jaune gave Shirou a doubtful look as he said, "I dunno, buddy. It sounds like you're making excuses."
"What do you mean?" Shirou asked with a tilt of his head.
"I mean, it's just that you seem to try really hard to keep yourself from being too happy. I think I've seen you ask for help once the entire time I've known you and getting you to actually talk about what's bothering you is pretty much like pulling teeth. You're a bit better about it now than you were before but even I can tell that you still keep yourself pretty closed off.
"I can't really say I get what you went through," Jaune admitted as he put a companionable arm around Shirou's shoulders, "but I think I get enough of it. I won't say anything stupid like 'We'll be okay so don't worry about us' but you still shouldn't worry so much. It's great that you care about us so much, we really love you for it, and I don't think I'll ever meet another person as nice as you are but you need to take care of yourself, too. It's okay for you to be happy and enjoy yourself. There's nothing wrong with leaning on us for support every now and then. We lean on you enough as it is!" Jaune pointed out with a slight chuckle.
"So, whaddya say? You don't have to pick up speed dating or anything but you can start by hanging out with us more. Goof off! It's hard to say what's going to happen to us or when, so that's all the more reason to enjoy what we've got when we have it, right?"
Shirou was silent for a long moment as his eyes searched his thoughts. Eventually, he gave Jaune a wry smile and said, "Wasn't I the one usually giving you advice?"
Jaune laughed loudly at this before saying, "Hey, I'm only where I'm at now because you gave me that advice. It's only fair for me to try and pay you back, yeah?"
"I suppose. You've certainly given me a lot more to think about."
"Well, at least I've done something," Jaune said as he removed his arm. "Talk to the others about it if you want. They'll probably say the same thing I did."
"What did you come up here for, anyway?"
"Oh! Right! So, Nora tried to cook and—" Shirou was gone before Jaune could even finish his statement.
Jaune chuckled quietly to himself as he leaned back and watched the sunset. His friend certainly had a lot of troubles but he wasn't alone. So long as his team and Team RWBY were there, Shirou would never have to worry about being alone again. The night after Shirou told them everything, they had all gotten together to talk about it, being unable to sleep because of it, and they unanimously came to that decision. Shirou was a person who was precious to each of them and he had suffered more than anyone should. No matter what the future may bring, so long as Shirou still needed someone to look out for him when he couldn't, one of them would be there.
Such was their resolve.
A/N: I'm not dead!
I am so sorry for the long wait; life has been absolutely horrific for me lately. But that doesn't matter because Volume 3 is finished and you can expect weekly updates once again every Wednesday at 3 pm Eastern.
I hope you all are excited because Volume 3 is massive; longer than the first two Volumes combined sitting at over 100,000 words. It's also jam packed with original material! In fact, we won't be getting to canon material until Chapter 7 and there's still plenty of original stuff after that with a lot of the stuff from canon playing out very differently. We are finally at the point where all of the little changes I've been making are building up to big changes. I am so happy to finally be able to share this with you all as this is, in my opinion, my greatest work yet. You guys are in for a wild ride.
A word of caution: These first few chapters jump all over the timeline; even some of the scenes within the chapters aren't in chronological order. Don't worry, though. It should be easy enough to follow along since the exact timing isn't too important. Once the Volume wraps up, the timeline will be updated to show the exact order off events.
As a last note, from this moment on, I'll be referring to omakes as interludes. I honestly have no idea why I didn't do that from the start. I'd go back and change the names in previous chapters like I am on AO3 but updating chapters on is a pain in the ass. If you want the best experience and want me to respond to your reviews in a timely manner (since refuses to send me email alerts anymore), go there.
See you guys next week!