CH 49 Vytal Preparations

The following day, the girls decided that they would make the most of their time off and go sightseeing around town. They excitedly watched as many storefronts and businesses began putting up decorations for Vytal.

"The Vytal festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful," Weiss said, admiring the street spanning welcome sign that the old man from Dusk Till Dawn was stringing up.

"I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much Weiss," Ruby said before adding "It's kind of weirding me out," was added in a much quieter tone.

"I don't get the big deal. Isn't it just a tourney? It does last a while though, so there is that." Vyr scanned the various people walking around them.

"It's not just a tournament." Weiss said stomping her foot. "Its a festival dedicated to the cultures of the world. There will be dances and parades, on top of the tournament. Oh the amount of planning and organization that goes into the event is simply breathtaking." Carried away in her excitement she did a small twirl and started following the passersby further into town.

"You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring." Yang chirped up.

"Yeah that still just sounds like a tourney to me. Just like, one of the big ones the king goes to." Vyr shrugged, not seeing much of a difference.

Weiss just huffed and looked out at one of the arriving ships, as they had arrived at the docks.

"Remind me again, why we are spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks." Yang asked, also looking at the new arrival being tied off.

"Oh they smell like fish." Ruby added, pinching her nose. "Ah~ guess some things never change." Vyr said, filled with nostalgia as she leaned onto the guard rail.

"I've heard students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And as a representative of Beacon. I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom." Weiss stated, walking to where the pier ended.

"She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand during the tournament," Blake translated Weiss's thoughts directly. leaving out the excuses.

"Ah! You can't prove that," Weiss complained.

"I'm still shocked you guys signed up to participate." Vyr wondered if their teamwork was gonna be enough to win a whole tournament.

"You never know if you don't try!" Yang said getting pumped thinking about participating.

"You say that like you're not joining." Blake said, inspecting Vyr with her gaze.

Right as Vyr whent to make up an excuse Ruby distractedly stated "that's because she isn't. Ozpin has something else for her to do."

"Ruby!" Vyr exclaimed, shocked.

Ruby looked away from what had distracted her and embarrassedly said "ohh, uh… oops?"

"You're not participating?" Blake asked, surprised. She had always assumed that out of everyone Vyr as the resident combat expert would be the first to sign up. Weiss meanwhile seemed to have thrown a mental fuse in disbelief. Standing still as a statue as her brain tried to recalibrate itself.

Vyr had no time to make anything up and could only say "Look I'm not supposed to tell anyone but Ozpin wasn't too happy with the impromptu concert thrown on school grounds at the orientation. So he asked me to help with the set up for a Prototype concert at the festival. He wanted to keep it as a surprise or something and asked me not to tell."

"He asked YOU. to help set up a concert for the Vytal festival. You didn't know how to set up the dvd player until a week ago. I watched you struggle for half an hour with the cords." Blake said not believing anything the witcher was saying.

Ruby, seeing where this was going, quickly came to the rescue, " Whoa, look over there! Is that the police?" pointing to what had distracted her in the first place.

Blake only gave it a passing glance and was about to return to questioning vyr. When Yang, who knew about Vyr being Prototype, picked up the slack and wrapped her arms around Blake and Weiss's shoulders saying "I think you're right sis. Let's go see what happened." steering the two girls with her away from Vyr.

"That was close." Vyr said, mentaly beating herself for that failure of an excuse.

"Sorry about that '' Ruby apologized, for being the one to put her girlfriend in that situation in the first place.

"Nah its nothing." Vyr said, waving it off. "Was gonna tell them soon anyway. But I definitely don't want to hash things out in the street. I shouldn't have put it off this long anyway."

"Do you think they will take it badly?"

"Blake? No. Weiss? Can't really tell but it won't be pretty either way. Schnee dust company seems to be one of the main problems of a lot of things. Weiss is just too brainwashed or naive to realize it. It's one of the reasons she gets under my skin." Vyr explained as they walked to the police scene.

Two oficial looking guys in button up shirts and shades, were talking in front of a store cordoned off with police tape. The girls could hear them say "This is the second dust shop this week. What could they want with all of it?" "Dunno, but I'd put my money on explosives. They always make sure to take the uncut dust over the powder." "Yeah it sure ain't about cash, they left all the money again." They continued to talk while the girls eavesdropped, but Vyr couldn't help herself and started analyzing the area herself.

'The window was busted from the inside so either a fight, or they were in a rush. No dust marks so probably just a hurried getaway. The glass is pretty scattered but there is a trail leading down the street. Someone went through the hard way. Smell of blood. Faint, but it's there. They got cut but only barely, aura mustov' healed it quickly. Scent trail is headed toward the shipping area of the dock. Some low level grunt must have robbed this place to make up a quota for a shipment. Why else would this be so rushed. Close to the docks too. That has to be it."

Vyr let her heightened senses lull back to a normal level only to hear Weiss saying "-ite fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates."

"What's your problem?" Blake asks, her tone slightly off.

"My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane." Weiss replies completely sure of herself.

"The white fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of missguided faunus."

"Misguided?! They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet." Weiss counters harshly.

"So they're VERY misguided. What do you guys think?" Blake asks, dragging the rest of the group into the argument.

"I try to stay out of things like this." Yang says trying to stay neutral.

Blake huffs at her and turns to vyr asking "And what do you think. Or do you want to avoid talking about the issue too." her tone harsh.

"Hey, hey. Cool off now. Personally I think you both are right." Vyr says placatingly. Blake tenses at this but before she can respond Vyr continues " Now hear me out before you chew my ear off. What it really comes down to is what White Fang we are looking at. The old White Fangs were actually good people with a good cause." Blake relaxes hearing this and begins to show a hint of a smile. While Weiss seems shocked that anyone would disagree with her opinion " The new White Fang though," Vyr continues causing Blake's smile to falter " Yeah they're just a bunch of idiots with no real goal. The vast majority of them are just followers led astray by pretty words, but that applies to most armies as well. They talk about fancy ideals and how they think things should be, while all their actions show they are just as bad as those they paint targets on."

Blake wanted to argue but couldn't find a way to break Vyr's assessment so quickly. Weiss though seemed to think this was Vyr agreeing with her as she said "The white fang are just a bunch of scum. Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

"Every time I think you've made some progress as a person, you go and say some shit like that." Vyr sighed, once again fed up with Weiss's bullshit.

Before anyone could respond a shout came from behind them "HEY stop that faunus!" They rushed back to the pier the ship from earlier was docking on, to see a few men chasing a teen off of the deck.

The boy had bright blonde hair, and a tail of the same color coming from his pants. He wore a white button up shirt, unbuttoned showing off his abs. He ran to the end of the pier and climbed a lamp post before stopping and eating a banana while hanging from his tail. A real life stereotype in action, as it was easy to guess the boy was a monkey faunus of some type.

The police from the crime scene approached him at the behest of the sailors, But the teen just threw his banana peel in their face before fleeing past the group of watching girls.

"I guess he really needed to, Split." Yang said as the teen turned the corner.

Weiss groaned at Yang's pun before shouting "After him! I still need to observe- I mean welcome him to the city!"

As everyone joined in on the chase, Vyr's scroll started to ring. Matching her pace to Blake's in front of her Vyr took out her scoll to check it. It was an alert directly from ozpin <we need to talk. please return quickly>

'What could it be, for him to message me, it had to be something important. I don't remember anything big happening soon though. Did I forget something? Urgh I guess I do need to head back, and here I thought I could spend some time with Ruby.'

Reaching out, Vyr tapped Blake on the shoulder and said "sorry I gotta go. Ozpin wants something and I still owe him for letting us take the trip. Could you let the others know for me?"

Blake gave her an inquisitive look but nodded her head anyway.

"Thanks Blake" Vyr replied and broke off from the team to head back to the beacon student pickup with a wave. A moment later she could hear a loud thud and Weiss's faint yelling. She could only chuckle at it as she arrived at the bullhead. 'Always something fun. I made the right choice to leave Kear Morhen and journey when I did.'

-----------------

Exiting the elevator to Ozpin's office, Vyr could see Oz in his normal place behind his desk. His coffee mug in its eternal place in his hand. 'Does he ever wash it? Maybe he has spares with the same design.'

Glenda Goodwitch was standing next to him, her face in its usual scowl whenever Vyr was around. Something about how she should show more respect for the wizard lizard with a coffee cup and cane. It didn't help that Vyr would press her buttons whenever she was called in class either though.

No one else was there though, not even Amber which was odd. Normally Oz would include the fall maiden in any important conversation. Her absence made Vyr question just how important this meeting really was. It wasn't like Amber didn't stay an elevator ride away from the office anyway.

"So what's this all about wizard dude? I was with the team in town when I got your message. Something important comes up, it ain't like you to send a message." Vyr said, pulling out a chair from the system so she could sit. Who the hell has an office with only a chair for themselves?

"You've changed a lot from when we first met." Ozpin said leisurely, sipping his mug with a smile.

"Really?!" Vyr said exaggeratedly. "No shit. It's almost like when we met. We had just met. It's almost like I didn't know you then." The sarcasm was thick to the point it was almost physical.

"Miss Bloodlotus, you WILL not speak to the headmaster that way!." Goodwitch scolded.

"I'm invested now so it's obvious I act differently from when I couldn't care less. What are you getting at?"

Ozpin only chuckled as Vyr rolled her eyes, "Yes. They do say love makes one an idiot. Quite true wouldn't you say?" He said as he raised a brow with a knowing look.

"Oi if you called me here to talk about my love life, Imma leave. Especially since you called me away from it," Vyr said as she started to stand only to be pressed back into her seat by Goodwitch. Vyr sent an 'are you serious' look to Ozpin and stood up anyway as Glenda tried her best to press her back into the chair.

"Please remain seated, Miss Bloodlotus, I'll get to the point. I called you here today due to some concerning things Glenda has been telling me. Things like you skipping classes, or rebuking your teachers."

"You told on me? What are you, a child?" Vyr asked with absolute shock, looking at the embarrassed Glenda.

"Now now. Miss Goodwitch did the right thing, we can't have you skipping your schooling. Not while you are a student enrolled in my academy." Oz said, enjoying the two's reactions.

"You can not be serious. We already talked about this. You agreed to it. Besides what the fuck am I gonna do with half your classes. This is a four year school, with two years of theory. I'm a trained and true professional. What have I got to do in a theory class?"

"While it may be true that you are trained. It was not by me. There is still much for you to learn here at beacon. As for our agreement, it was under the pretense that you would still maintain your grades while you attend."

"I'm the top of my class!"

"For combat classes, you are below average and falling in the rest." glenda quipped.

"Oh bite me, your history and theory classes are useless for me. Do you seriously expect me to care about any of it?"

"If we do not learn from history it is -"

"Doomed to repeat itself. Yeah yeah. Honestly Oz, what do you really want? If this was really it, you could have just waited till I got back this evening."

"Very well, I need your time this weekend. I'm wanting to bring some people into the fold and felt it would be best to have your opinion. Your view is … refreshing." Ozpin said his eyes were hard and serious.

Vyr was gonna mouth off to him but seeing how serious he was she could only sigh, and ask "it's gonna be a long weekend isn't it?"