The Neko and the Tank Pt.2

It was a quiet night for Hanns, he would imagine himself drinking some alcohol while he stared deeply into the sky but sadly he only acknowledged Redbull as his superior drink.

The day of the Beacon Dance was one of excitement and joy for the students of Beacon but it didn't feel much to Hanns who was on the balcony.

What else can a non-functioning member of society do when he's forced to partake in things like dancing? Hanns admits to himself he could probably dance but he isn't one to enjoy being judged.

He shudders at a memory before readjusting his 'suit' for the 11th time. It was of course just the equivalent for a German SS Officer, with the red band's symbol replaced by the Valknut as opposed to team WYBRN's tanker uniforms for combat.

"Hey."

A familiar voice calls out to him from behind, it was one he already knew by heart and didn't need to turn to check if he was right.

"Blake, it's pretty early for you all to finish. Did Nora spill the punch?"

She stepped to his side while looking in the same direction as Hanns. "How did you know?"

"I guessed." He shrugged as he responded. "Are you enjoying the dance? I recall Yang wanting to have a tango with boys but decided you'd do better."

"It went well, Yang had a smile on the entire time but I think it was because Ruby was with Weiss behind me trying to dance with what she calls 'lady stilts'."

"That sounds just like her."

The conversation was silenced as the chirps of nightlife reverberated around the area. Hanns had his eyes firmly still as they flickered suddenly from their normal blue color to green.

"What are you thinking about?" Blake asked.

Hanns turns to her but quickly looks away after noticing her in a purple dress for the dance. It was provided by Torchwick who now had a fashion brand that was aptly named Roman Torchwick because he was that kind of guy.

"Errr... where did that come from?"

"You usually stare forwards when you think. It's like a natural position if you wait. Care to share?"

Hanns realized what he was doing. 'Ah, I think I carried that oddity because of Warthunder. I usually center my gun on my tank when I travel from point to point or camp in a bush. So I do that too when I'm in a humanoid form... good to know.'

"A lot of stuff. You won't like it." He warns.

"Really? You say that as if you're expecting me to deny it. Well, go on."

"Would you prefer being drowned in strong acid or placed in a blender?"

Blake blinked twice before answering without any qualms. "I think a blender would have a greater chance of living so I pick that."

"What if you could get out of the acid? Wait, it depends on the strength."

They both thought long and hard before Hanns and Blake arrived at the same conclusion. "Why not both?"

A moment passed before Blake let out a small laugh, it was more like a cough because of how short it was but it was a laugh nonetheless.

"Is this what you always think of?"

"Nope. Mostly on how I can deal with the country, I don't give you all enough credit for being able to manage all of that. By the way, how was your day at Beacon? Especially when you decided not to hide your ears anymore."

"We were all scared that we would miss so many lessons..."

"I sense a but in that."

"You guessed right. We thought it'd be hard but almost every lesson was easier than we thought by a long shot. Combat was easy, we had experience directly in the field which meant we all did well against other students to the point that Miss Goodwitch had to make it a 1v4 but we each won anyways."

"It makes sense for that, experience will always outweigh training. You can train someone to prepare for battle but battle will train someone to succeed."

"The next ones are self-explanatory. We got high scores on our missed tests in Grimm Studies and Military Strategy, seeing as how we all fight Grimm on a daily basis and coordinate attacks, it wasn't hard to imagine we would get a good mark, though Ruby had better Military Strategy scores."

"Hold on."

Hanns sat down on the railings of the Balcony as Blake spoke. He was getting tired of standing despite being a machine. He missed being a tank because he felt like lying down when he was idle.

"What about the rest?"

"Summarizing it, we did decent in anything related to what we do and did decent in some. Yang didn't do bad per se but compared to us she probably had the lowest."

"Did anyone discriminate when you revealed your heritage?"

She swayed her head. "No, I think a good chunk doesn't mind since Faunus were the ones who protect the Villages. Still, someone like Cardin is sour about it. He kept giving me looks during lunch."

"Cardin? The dude that's probably a basic bully and a racist?"

"Same one. I don't think he can do anything about it."

"I would've thought he'd insult you but I gave him too little credit for trying to hold back. He knows you're part of the Volksreich, one word about your ears, and the guys at the base would probably rush here with loaded bomb bays and tanks."

"I can imagine that's what they would do, the Gestapo especially since anything against us would be counted as an attack."

~

Yang was always one to try and joke about people around her, from calling people nicknames, to making fun of their situation or plain teasing.

So when she saw something interesting, she always latched onto it.

"Ooohoho." she playfully repeated.

She was supposed to walk to the balcony to relax after Nora spilled some punch on her white dress. She tried hanging around longer but couldn't take it that people always pointed it out.

Her frustrations were going to be let out by punching something but she happened to do something way more interesting.

"Hmm... now that I think about it, Hanns doesn't feel like a thing at all. We treated him as if he were any other friend. This is so juicy!"

"What's juicy, Yang?" Ruby tried running past Yang, not knowing what Yang was doing near the door.

"Ruby! Get down!" Ruby gets yanked to the side where they would be less visible.

"Ow! What's going on-mmph!"

"Shhhhhh... the cat's going on the prowl. Maybe it's finally the time since I keep finding more volumes of her weird novel."

Ruby wrestles out of Yang's hold. "First, ew. Second, What are you talking about?"

"Look! Don't you think Blake is finally doing something after all this time?"

"Huh? Isn't that just them talking about random stuff?"

Hanns and Blake meanwhile were talking about if fish sees the water as air and the air as space. It was intriguing by Ruby's standards.

"No, Ruby. Look, have you ever thought Hanns was nothing more than a tank? Did you ever feel like he was not a person but just a thing?"

"Hanns? Never. He may not be fleshy like us but he's got a soul and he's more of a person. It's not like we treat him as if he was not human even though he technically isn't."

"Exactly, maybe Blake finally realizes after so long!"

"I don't see that, Yang. She's just talking like normal to him. I feel like you're reading way too much on this just because Hanns has a human body. You're acting like one of those bizarre people called shippers."

"Ruby..." Yang suddenly grips Ruby's shoulder before hugging her tightly. "You've learned so much... I'm so proud of you."

Suddenly, a loud and boisterous cough came from behind the two of them. Yang lets go of Ruby before awkwardly smiling at the sight of Weiss.

"Ehem! Ruby, Yang... care to explain why both of you are near the entrance to the balcony? Especially you, Ruby! You still haven't learned to dance properly."

Ruby tries to retreat but in the fear of letting her get discovered, Yang stops her from moving an inch away from Weiss.

"Weiss, please I can dance with you all you want but not in these deathtraps!" Ruby pointed to the heels she'd been given as Weiss looked at her in a 'are you serious?' expression.

Yang shushes them both before leaning forward to keep observing. "Can you both keep your heel talk down? I'm still trying to hear what they are saying."

"Hear what we're saying?" Blake narrowed her eyes at Yang at the exact moment Yang tried to listen in.

"Gah! We've been ambushed! Disperse!" Yang leaps over the stairs and a loud thud was heard below. "Oops! Sorry, Ren!" the loud noise of doors getting busted down reaches the rest of the team.

"Oh my gosh, Ren! Is your back okay? Oh, he's unconscious... oh well! A dance partner is a dance partner, let me see you do the worm!" Someone else shouted from below.

"The hell was that?" Hanns asked.

Ruby was fast to answer. "It's nothing much. Yang just kept trying to do her Yang hijinks while I tried looking for a way to escape Weiss and her torture devices."

"So you did try to go leave me! I wanted to try dancing out of my own intention for a while, Ruby!" Weiss responded with a hint of anger and betrayal.

"Not with these things on! You can't make me!" Ruby dove head-first into a sprint before tripping and slamming into the wall. "Ouch! Curse these objects for modern fashion! Wait, no! Weiss, please!"

An angry and sadistic-looking Weiss picks Ruby up with a heavy tug before leaving with Ruby thrashing around and failing to escape Weiss' newfound strength.

"You're not leaving without at least a Waltz or two! I'll make sure you won't rest."

Hanns blinked twice before trying to nope his way out of the building. "That was odd. If you'll excuse me, I think the Dance is coming to an end. I don't have much to do here anyways other than look."

"Wait," Blake announces.

Amber-colored eyes met Hanns' returning blue, and as the music continued below Hanns saw her for a moment. Blake had her ears pricked forward and her eyes slowly dilating as the lights sharpened in the room.

If Hanns had a heart, it would explode - today he was thankful the Moderator didn't give him anything related to one, or else he'd be bolting off the balcony.

"...Can we at least have one dance?"

Hanns didn't have a way out of the request, it was checkmate the moment Blake had a dress on with her cat ears out. Would he really be the kind of person to not say yes to someone like that?

"Think about tanks... Think about tanks... Think about tanks..." he started to chant so he could distract himself. "Yeah sure. I won't guarantee world-class dance moves though. The only ones I know of are doing a squat kick and breaking my hips while flailing my arms."

"Hanns... why are you facing the wall?"

True to her word, Hanns was facing the wall as if he was about to get executed by trial. He avoided eye contact during the conversation and he was doing the same thing.

"Blake, you need to know how I usually act. I've never seen or even interacted with a woman, much less one that is considered attractive. You're that person right now, so I have no idea if I can take a second looking at you in that dress."

Thank the moderator Hanns was blunt, but it was at the expense of his gamer tendencies getting challenged by tangible human emotion.

"Oh... You find me... attractive? I would've thought being a tank would mean you don't see that kind of thing." She tries keeping her cool-headedness while she tried to continue the conversation but fails as she stutters.

"Let me be clear. I may be a race of tanks but I wasn't before. I am an interdimensional being that was human before being a tank. Some series of either fortunate or misfortunate events turned me into a tank before I arrived here."

Ok, Hanns was incredibly blunt. It wasn't much of an important thing like he thought, it was only about him being not from Remnant and being used to being human.

To Blake though, it was mind-blowing. "You... were human?" oddly enough Blake showed more relief than any kind of negative emotion. "So I was right," she whispered to herself.

"Well, you all never asked where I was coming from. Everyone assumes I'm a tank so I just kept it going. Are you gonna tell the others? I don't mind if you do, it's nothing concerning."

If Hanns was turned around by now, he would've seen Blake smiling while trying to hide it with her hands. "No, I suspected it from the start. You describe things only a person can experience. When you had a human body, you immediately knew how to act like one. If you've never been human, then you wouldn't be feeling sleepy, you wouldn't have a concept of fatigue and you would've never said you wanted a drink like Redbull unless you already had it before."

She approached Hanns while he was still staring at the wall. "Don't look." Hanns tried to turn as he heard Blake but was stopped by her hands stopping him from doing so.

"Uh..." Hanns didn't know what to do. "Think about tanks... Think about tanks... Think about tanks..."

She chuckled. "I won't tell them for now. I'd like a little secret between us if that's okay. Thank you by the way, for everything."

"For what? I don't think I did a lot to receive thanks. I'm not the best person to be thanking, trust me."

"You don't see what you've done for me?"

"Shit, I don't mean that I don't pay attention a lot. I just think it's unfair to compare me to a good person since I wouldn't think of myself as such."

"It's fine. That just means you do good things as a reflex." She lowers the volume of her voice. "You may not know yourself but I definitely will remember."

"Hey!" someone suddenly shouted. "Did anyone see Ruby?! She ran away just as I was going to teach her another of my favorite dances!"

Weiss then notices both Hanns and Blake facing away from each other, acting completely normal. "Have you seen her?"

"Nope." Hanns answers. "I think she used her semblance to get away from you."

Weiss had a fire in her eyes. "I will look for her, I will find her, and I will make her dance until daybreak."

Her words sounded more of a threat because of how she growled her voice near the end. It is safe to say both Blake and Hanns were praying for Ruby if she ever got caught.

As Weiss stormed off, Hanns sighed from the whole experience. "This is why I don't usually go to these kinds of events. I miss my computer so much."

"Hanns?" Blake asks.

"...Yeah?"

She offers a hand without another word, her face was turned away from him but Hanns probably could see slight tints of red if he was paying attention.

"Eh, why the hell not? I could probably mimic something or follow you if I have to."

~

A blade runs along the cold hard floor, unnoticed by the masses and already done with her previous task, a woman with tied-up blonde hair smiled as she approached a machine.

Inside a chamber of steel and glass lay the previous maiden, a lack of protection from the serious attack wasn't present. The woman licked her lips as her blade raised, with a thrust she would end it all.

"Well, if it isn't Glynda or so I should suspect."

The woman whirls around and casts her eyes on a drunken man with the rim of his flask touching his mouth. He wipes off the residue before slowly walking towards a disguised Neo.

"You probably don't talk because of a problem but that's fine by me. That person inside is someone I promised to protect."

Neo bit her lip as Qrow sheathed out his weapon, her semblance wasn't used for extended periods but she got enough experience trying to constantly hide. Qrow wasn't an easy foe and Neo knew she would lose based on her guess.

"But."

She questioned him for stopping so suddenly. No one would know anyone who came to the basement of the school since Neo's existence never got out too much since she'd been advised to keep her identity a secret.

"My niece, she's working with Hanns and so do you. This is a hard choice for me to make, I even had to grab Taiyang's stash at the bottom of a plank under the stairs."

The names Neo took note of but ignored the drunken ramblings of Qrow. Neo didn't take any chances, her semblance was already activated as she crept to the side, hoping he wouldn't notice.

"The maiden's power can be dangerous. I- I can't choose my niece for someone innocent. I promised Summer that I would do everything to keep her safe. If you're still listening, I'm not here to attack you. This thing is just for show."

His weapon gets placed back to his back where Qrow keeps it. It had been difficult for him as a person to try to change his moral stance on the matter, it made him more depressed than before.

"Do what you must, she's been suffering all this time. Ozpin didn't tell me but I already checked a while ago - her soul is incomplete after part of her powers were stolen by who you call Cinder, the least you can do is to give her a quick end."

Qrow quickly stepped back to the elevator before pouring out the contents of his flask directly into his throat. It was an extreme burning sensation, but it paled in comparison to the burn he was feeling in his conscience

Neo's positional illusion broke after the encounter. She still had herself as Glynda so she went back to the life-preservation machine and lifted her sword again.

In a singular act, she thrust it into the glass, cracking it open as the blade impaled the person inside. Without a sound, a soul was released and the final remnants of the maiden's magic followed the other half.

With suspicion still going to rise, Neo placed a device on the side of the machine before clicking a button for it to activate. Minutes from now, everyone will have an alibi while an extra surprise was going to happen for the headmaster to discover.

She opened her scroll and typed another message.

"Enigma Incomplete."