Chapter XX: A Sea in the Sky

Things had not been the same since court. There was a promise, verbally made, that there were no hard feelings left over, but there still was an isolation for Nora. Though as much as it hurt her, she now had a working scroll and was able to much more easily contact friends. At the moment, the two she called the most were Ren and Jaune. She had been trying to keep up with their progress, but neither had answered as of late. While she knew how dangerous the Grand Line could be now, she still hoped they were just busy or somewhere with bad service.

Luckily, she had the monotony of her new job to fall back into, though it had changed a bit. The marines didn't quite trust Ozpin anymore, but he refused to simply let the matter go. Once they learned that their friends had immediately committed a crime after winning the lawsuit, Ozpin tried using it to verify his actions; however, it seemed the marines wouldn't be swayed. If Goodwitch's reaction to the letter she screened for Ozpin was any indication, the higher-ups had some choice words for him. Then, a few days later, came Ozpin's babysitter.

Pyrrha chastised Nora for using the term, but what other way described it better? As far as Nora could see, the guy was here to watch over Ozpin's every choice and make sure he didn't act up. She had never had a babysitter before, but it sure sounded like one to her.

Nora wasn't a big fan of the babysitter though. He made her want to invest in a heavy duty nose plug the moment he stepped on the ship. Not that he was dirty or anything — though that made her wonder how people with devil fruits bathed — but it was because he smelled so strongly of tobacco. Their room smelled like a hotel room with a loose smoking policy and the guy hadn't even walked by their door! While Pyrrha tried to be polite about it and Yang said it still wasn't as bad as the smell of booze and hangover, Weiss shared in Nora's sentiment.

Then there was the fact that he was so serious all the time. He wasn't really mean or anything, just no fun at all. Oh, and he was weirdly obsessed with their friends. That part really did make Nora uncomfortable. She might need to do something to protect Renny soon.

At the moment, Nora was relaxing and scrolling through media on her phone. Thank goodness she had something to do. If she had to just sit there in silence or awkwardly talk to someone while they were still a bit mad at her, it would have sucked.

She stopped scrolling, a picture of a familiar face with red hair catching her eye. "Uh, Pyrrha. You're on this blog this guy is writing."

Pyrrha sighed. "I guess this sort of thing just follows me wherever I go."

"Well, it's calling you racist."

Pyrrha bolted upright. "What?"

There was a comfort in familiarity even when there was no particular comfort to be found. The rocky landscape looked almost cruel and uninviting, but it was different for Willow. To her it was only the entrance to a safe place she had not been to in years. It was unfortunate that her mission needed to be terminated early, but they had done well in gathering information thus far. Her notes could give them leads to finding Jacques' secrets by other means.

Nostalgia crept up as she saw new recruits training outside. That included spotting unconventional training, like whatever their old plant for Beacon was doing. Willow could see the young revolutionary forcing three boys into what she would describe as cruel and unusual exercise. She was fairly sure that sorting shirts by color and material while under gunfire was not normal training.

The first soldier to greet her did so casually, clearly in a rush and not thinking much of it. The double take of the soldier was priceless.

"Ma'am; you're back so early! Is something wrong?"

Willow waved dismissively. "There was nothing about the army, or even my connection to it, discovered. Circumstances demanded I come back. I'll give my report soon, but first: where is Adam?"

The soldier grew a distant look. "He put a 'do not disturb' sign on his door. I've heard that he's been blogging furiously for the past few days non-stop."

Willow wasn't entirely sure what that entailed, but she decided it would be best to leave him to it. She left the area, navigating the corridors until she came upon a room isolated from the rest. She rapped her knuckles on the door and waited until a voice inside called her in.

As she softly closed the door behind her, the same voice asked for her report. "While Jacques found me out, it had nothing to do with our actual matters. It was all baseless fabrications that led to a coincidental accusation. It was quite lucky that my right hand was able to aid in my escape. As for what I've gleaned, you may want to take note that they have succeeded."

"You said that their most recent devil fruits had no effects," the man from behind the desk replied. It was a rebuttal to what she had said, but it was more of a question.

"Precisely," Willow answered gravely.

Even in terms of the Grand Line, this was an odd experience. Ignoring that for once in his life Jaune wasn't the only one to experience motion sickness, being launched into the sky by a torrent of water was a crazy experience.

"I thought we were dead," whined Ruby. She was sitting and leaning against the wall, holding her scythe and cloak like they would make the bad things go away. One of those wasn't entirely wrong.

"But we're fine and — in the sky," Sun replied. Jaune was with the majority of his crew, peering over the side of the Bucket over the expanse of puffy, white sea that stretched around them.

"Wait," Blake drew their attention, holding up her wrist to show the log pose. It was angled oddly pointing slightly upwards. "This is — are we supposed to be going up?"

"How long has that been happening?" asked Ren.

"I don't know. I guess it was slightly angled, but it wasn't enough to think much of it before. Then we were being chased, and now it's saying the next island is even higher in the sky."

"Whatever that means, we can figure it out in a bit," Jaune said, stepping forward. "Right now we need to figure out what the hell is going —" A loud metallic thud echoed through the ship.

In moments they were armed, and just in time for a man to hop down into the outer edge of the bucket. He was tall, dark-skinned, had a mane of hair shaved at the sides, and sported tattoos along the side of his body. Of his sparse attire, a large, wooden mask concealed his face.

"Who are —"

"I ask the questions!" The man's weapon leveled on them. They were ready for a fight, Cardin and Neo most of all, but they ultimately waited to see what was happening. "What," he paused dramatically, "Is your favorite music?"

"Our what?"

"Answer!" A loud click of his weapon echoed his statement.

In all honesty, Jaune found himself more perplexed than in any sort of fear. Scratching his chin, he answered, "I like Lightning Bugs by Owl Town."

It was hard to read the man's reaction with a mask between them, but he tilted his head as if pondering the choice. "And what type of piece is this: a ballad, a pastorale, or some sort of ode?"

Glancing around, Jaune bluntly answered, "Pop, I think."

"Wrong answer!" The bazooka fired in a flash of light and smoke. The sound of screeching metal said that it had struck the other side of The Bucket. At first, Jaune expected this to be a terrible decision: attacking a group of eight all by himself, but their movements didn't add up. Only when he started lunging did he realize how lethargic he felt, as if his own body was weighing him down. In contrast, the man moved unnaturally. He dashed about at high speeds that stripped away the initial image Jaune had held. Even Ruby seemed to have a difficult time, but she held ground long enough.

Soaring through the other side of their make-shift ship, a lance-wielding knight charged in. The clash of metal rang and the masked man staggered back.

"You side with these fools? You dare protect them? Do you have any idea what poison they listen to? Then you are a fool no better than them — than him!" Despite his words, the masked man seemed reluctant to fight the knight. The barrel of his bazooka lowered to the ground and Jaune was suddenly aware of how thin their floor might be in comparison to the blast. It might be good to question how it survived that geyser later.

"The only poison is your unwillingness to allow others their opinions. Justifiable contempt for one man is not justification to act the same toward another!" With what Jaune could only assume to be a heated glare, the masked man left. With the threat gone, the knight sighed and sat down. "I apologize for this ill welcome. I hope none of you were harmed."

Neo, who lamented over the hole in the side of their ship, wished to say that one of them was hurt. The only two who could translate said nothing, too focused on figuring out their situation.

"Am I correct to assume that you have all just arrived?" He received several nods. "It was not hard to tell. At the normal entrance, there are pamphlets with warnings of how to interact with the locals here. Differing culture, beliefs, or philosophies will not cause any strife as the people of the White Sea are very understanding. There is, however, one topic that can quickly escalate into violence."

"Music?" Blake asked.

The knight nodded. "Yes, I can only assume that you arrived at the White Sea via the Knock Up Stream. That would —"

"Hang on," It was Cardin that interrupted. "White Sea? Knock Up Stream? We don't know who the hell you are, let alone how we got here."

"Oh, I apologize. You may call me Gan Fall. As you have just experienced, violence is common in the area, so I find myself a mercenary to protect those in need. I will allow this time for free, but for the future, my price is only but a melody I have yet to hear.

"You should all know that we are in the White sea. It is a sea high above the Blue Sea, where you are from. There is a large gap between our seas, so it is rare and difficult for any to arrive here. There was once a tourist entrance that introduced foreigners to our ways, but it was closed some time ago. You see, some poor soul hummed a tune and thus sparked a small-scale civil war with those present.

"The only other way for you to have arrived was through the Knock Up Stream: a colossal spout of water capable of launching entire vessels to our sea."

Gan Fall continued to speak to them about the world they had just arrived in, but little else was really elaborated on. Questions of why were met with roundabout answers. The meeting began dispersing when Neo abducted Ruby to help repair The Bucket. Gan Fall left on his bird, and the Straw Hats were left to discuss what to do.

"There must be some sort of layers," Blake insisted. "If this is a sea, then it has islands, and the log pose must be pointing to one even higher up."

"So, not only is there a sea in the sky, but there's a sea in the sky of the sky? Weird," Sun mused.

"We should be careful when talking to anyone like that," Jaune stated. "He never really said what music makes them angry or why it does in the first place. Though, I think it's safe to add pop onto that list."

"Lightning Bugs is a good song though," Neptune added.

Ren shook his head. "It doesn't matter what we think, we need to be careful. Though I do worry about being silent. They may take our refusal to answer as a wrong choice all together."

Somewhat surprising the others, Cardin brought up a point. "He didn't seem to give a shit about the song. He wanted a genre."

Sun snapped his fingers. "Yeah, that's right! He didn't ask for our favorite song, just what music we liked. And when you didn't directly answer that, he asked again. He also gave a list of things. I think it's safe to say those would have been good choices if he offered them up front."

"It could have been a quiz with right and wrong answers," Jaune argued.

"They sounded like the stuff Weiss listens to," Ruby contributed, albeit across the ship. "I don't really know much of it, she used to talk about it a lot before she realized I couldn't really follow along. If only she was here to help us."

Jaune hummed to himself, pacing a small circle before saying, "Okay, we'll keep that all in mind, but we need to focus on where we are right now. Blake says the next island is probably up, and I can't see anything to go against it, so we need to keep our eyes up. Ruby, you're our scout; don't get on the roof, but go out and watch for anything or anyone. Neo, it can wait. No, it's fine for now. The Bucket will live until we can get somewhere safer. Since when do you care this much about it? Yes, I know you — nevermind. Ruby: lookout."

With a nod, their sniper went out the side of their ship to peer over the edge. It limited her view this way, but he didn't want to risk her falling. That wouldn't end well.

"Cardin, give Neo a break with piloting. Blake, make sure we're on course the best you can. Everyone else, keep your eyes peeled and be prepared." His crew shuffled around and fell into motion. There was an odd mixture of tension and calm that blanketed them. It was almost like the fear and nervousness from the beginning of their adventure was becoming an underlying excitement pushing them forward.

"I'm curious," Ren spoke to Neptune. "We never had much time to discuss it before, but you seemed well versed with the law here during court. How did that come about?"

Neptune blinked, but a small grin spread across his face. "Oh yeah, that was pretty interesting. It turns out that one of the marines that helped arrest team PWNY was a spy for some sort of — I think they were called the Revolutionary Army, I'm not sure. The point is, they approached me after the incident and said that they were sympathetic to us and wanted to help. I think there was more going on — I mean, they were a spy — but I didn't question it since we were in a pinch. They got me a bunch of legal information to read through, and it was honestly kind of simple. Just a few lines per paragraph."

A bit of perplexion slipped through Ren's normally stoic face, and Sun muttered something about it working on 'legalese' as well. Neptune was far too in his tale to notice. "Well, I read through it, got the gist of what was going on, and Franky helped me a bit in setting things up. All in all, we were lucky that guy from the Revolutionary Army wanted to help."

"The spy?" Jaune asked.

"No, his boss," Neptune clarified. "Some guy named Adam Taurus."

There was a loud bang from the cockpit followed shortly by Cardin's yelp of pain.

Beacon was weird. There really wasn't any other way to put it. Students zipped through the halls like they were seconds away from being late, yet they had these calm, casual looks about them. If you asked Nami, she would say they were all probably robots. At least it was somewhat entertaining to watch them. It may have been a bit of a cruel thought, but she almost likened it to watching ants busying themselves about. And don't get her started on those coffee fountains that they worshiped like sacred sites. Why couldn't they act normal like people from the Grand Line?

Watching them speed about the halls helped pass time as she waited, something she was far too used to at this point. People liked to tell her not to budge only because they couldn't trust her. Little did they know, that put them higher on her list for their wallet to go missing.

At long last the door opened and she was gestured inside. The office was spacious, the sign of someone either wealthy or important. Nami considered snooping around later, but there were other pockets to be emptied and she was already on thin ice.

The man behind the desk was speaking rapidly to the general that had escorted her here. Past the quick cadence of his words, a certain strain could be heard, and Nami wondered if it was him trying to slow down to be understood. Whatever the case, it was like watching a child on a sugar rush speaking to the blanket across from him. Of course, the blanket was General Ironwood.

"As the current headmaster of Beacon, I felt you should be aware of this situation," Ironwood said. "We had decided to work in some sort of cultural exchange program with the Grand Line, now that we had become aware of their existence. We sent a couple of our students their way, and in return we were given what appears to be a troublemaker. Miss Nami here has been reported on swindling her own government out of money. The only reason she isn't convicted is because she used that same money to settle the matter."

The man, who Ironwood promptly introduced to her as Headmaster Oobleck, glanced at her curiously. "If you have that sort of record, then why do you desire to become a huntsman?"

Nami rolled her eyes. "That's none of your business, but I will have you know that I only steal from crooks."

"You stole from the government," Ironwood insisted. Nami only raised her eyebrow in response.

"Weiss," Yang hissed. "What are you doing?"

The girl's back stiffened in surprise causing the small flock that had gathered around her to disperse. Mechanically, she turned around to see Yang's unimpressed expression.

"Nothing," Weiss responded, forcing nonchalance in her voice.

"Bullshit, I just saw —"

"You saw nothing," Weiss insisted, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

Yang snorted, unsure how to feel. "Wow, okay. You're really defensive about that, aren't you."

"They are cute; they are sky-puppies; I will pet them and I will feed them if I so please!"

"Wait, you actually get them to let you pet them? Maybe you do deserve to feed them. Anyways, that's not why I'm here. I got tired of smelling smokey the marine and thought I'd get some fresh air." She moved next to Weiss and leaned against the railing. Yang let the wind fill the space between the conversation, her face growing a more pensive look. Weiss, who considered herself more perceptive than most, waited to see if Yang would say anything.

When Yang spoke again, it was soft. The entire time Weiss had ever known her, she had never seen this level of reservation from the bold girl. "My birth mother left when I was a kid. Then Summer left for a mission and never came back. Then Dad left — he was still home, but it was like he wasn't really there. Now my partner left and my own sister too. I — I feel so close to giving up, but I don't know what will happen if I do. I'm not sure I could let myself lose anyone again."

Weiss didn't turn, not even when Yang turned a tear filled gaze at her. Instead she kept her eyes over the waves as she thought about how she should respond — if she should even respond at all. She had learned that she wasn't the best with emotions and had no clue how she should even begin comforting her friend.

In the end, she made her decision. "Recently, it seems that our world has been proven to be strange. Nothing will ever be as it once was, but that is because events have done so much to alter the course of our lives. Team RWBY may never be as it was, but there is one thing I know for certain: they are still our friends. As upset as I was with Nora, she showed me just how clouded my vision was. It was so easy for her to fall back into how things were.

"I am not saying that we will give up, but I am saying that we might need to change how we view this. They did not leave to be away from us or because of us; we were invited. This is not a split in our team, but a conflict that needs to be resolved."

Yang wiped her eyes. "Man, you almost sound smart or something. Yeah, I think you're right. Ruby didn't leave me, she just needs my help, right? Blake too. So, we'll — really?"

Yang had closed her eyes for only moments, but when they opened, two seagulls had returned to Weiss. "Can you summon them or something?"

Never would Jaune have guessed that after arriving at an island in the White-White Sea, which was above the White Sea, which was above the Blue Sea (aka, the sea), that none of that would be the most prevalent topic on his mind.

"Okay, how did she expect us to know what a — what was it again?" Jaune had spent most of their time traveling between seas complaining.

"She asked for a concerto," Ren supplied. "I believe it is a piece meant to show off a player's skill."

"I think Weiss told me she knows a piano concerto," Ruby added.

Jaune sighed. "That doesn't change the fact she wanted us to sing one. I mean I can — okay, don't look at me like that! I can kind of sing. But then she wants that as payment to get to this island. And then she just lets us through when we say we can't. I don't understand any of this."

"She let us through, and we're here," Blake retorted, getting off of their ship. "This does seem like the island we were headed to. I have no idea how we would have figured this out if we were stuck below here."

Sun hopped off after her, eager to see the odd beach of clouds. Excitedly, he ran around while the others joined. Even ignoring the wonder of being built from the clouds, the island was beautiful. Blotches of green trees and brown buildings dotted the stark white expanse of the rolling clouds.

Jaune blinked, turning side to side as confusion swept across his face. "Do you guys hear that?"

"Voices," Blake answered. "Lots of them, and angry too. Maybe a mob?"

Jaune clearly didn't agree. "No; I hear some sort of distant — I think it's a beat — coming from that direction." He pointed off toward what looked to be a separate island silhouetted on the horizon.

"Well, I clearly hear a crowd this way, farther into the island." Blake pointed the opposite way. Neither side made much sense to the rest of the crew since no one else could hear anything.

That being said, Ruby was already using her scope to look over the land. "Well, Blake's right. I think I see a protest going on."

AN:

Sorry for the wait. I haven't been feeling well and have been trying to set up stuff with my doctor. I've also gotten hyper focused on a new game and have felt slightly burnt out. On the other hand, I sat down to work on this today and wrote three fourths of it in two sittings, so hopefully I'm back in the groove of things.

This arc was an idea I had as a parody of the canon arc. Having so much in here that mainly came from just me, I thought it would be nice to return to a bit more familiar territory for a bit.

While Ozpin's schemes haven't fully fallen apart yet, they seem to be on a downward spiral, don't they? I'm having a lot of fun planning out his part of the story. I've gotten some exciting ideas for that, and I hope you all like them just as much as I do. For now, he has to be treated as irresponsible and he has to deal with the stench of tobacco. At least he doesn't have a famous faunus starting a blog to call him racist.

Now, the question arises of what students Atlas sent to study abroad in the Grand Line. Actually, how that would work is another question, but I actually have the answer to the first one planned out. Even Ironwood himself doesn't know…

Anyways, next chapter: The Marine King's Crew