45

"Nonono! This looks absolutely terrible! What did I tell you? I need sangria, not garnet! Are you blind or something?!" Weiss screamed across the half decorated dance hall.

"What's the fricking difference?!" Nora shouted back and threw the red curtain down. It was red! Weiss was just coming up with words!

On the other end of the room, Pyrrha, Blake and Illia were moving around the tables.

"Why did I actually agree to come to help you?" Blake exasperatedly asked. It wasn't accusing in any way but Weiss was definitely taking the thing waaay too seriously.

"You were feeling lonely?" Pyrrha sheepishly answered.

"I actually don't mind helping you out but what the hell did crawl up her ass?" Ilia also spoke up and shot a dirty look across the room.

"Well…"

/

Earlier in the day.

What did he do to deserve this?

That was what was going through the mind of a run of the mill soldier of Atlas. He simply was told to deliver some equipment to the Schnee heiress. Sure, there were some raised eyebrows over a civilian ordering a lot of military hardware but considering that SDC had a not so hidden private army, nobody really bothered to ask too many questions. The Schnees were the most influential family in Atlas and you really wouldn't want to get on their bad side.

For a lot of reasons.

So why was he now in a room with two bickering daughters of that family, his general, the strongest huntress of Vale and the headmaster of Beacon?

"It doesn't matter! She can be the princess of Remnant for all I care, some brat won't be working with this technology and strapping it on you with sticks and duct tape!"

Apparently, nobody told either the general or the elder sister about Weiss' 'little' purchase…

"Yeah, right. Because if I get something from a supposed 'master' who had buttlicked his way into father's good graces, it would definitely be better!"

While the girls were trying to figure out who was in the right, the adults were trying to figure out how and why the children even ordered that kind of thing. And why nobody bothered to send it to Ironwood during the whole process and he only learned about it when the package was already in Vale, about to be delivered.

"Weren't you telling me about keeping better control over my own backyard?" Ozpin jokingly asked.

James, still frowning, kept reading the list of items. "Those are your students, this just means that not only you can't keep things under control, you are now letting it become a problem for others."

Then his scroll rang. Sighing, he turned away from Oz and pressed the answer button.

"Ehm, sir. We…have a problem." On the other end was a very nervous officer. "Those crates you told us to keep an eye on? Well, there was…a thing. Like a red cloud suddenly appeared and before we knew what was going on, everything was gone and there were only some red petals around. Sir. We…we need orders."

In hindsight, either he or Winter should have told them to take it all back to the ship, instead of laying next to the Beacon's landing pads, but considering how chaotic things became when the two sisters started arguing over it… "Report back to the ship." Was he supposed to tell his soldiers to take it all away from a prodigy huntress? None of them had their aura unlocked, they wouldn't even get close.

Meanwhile, the argument between sisters had exhausted itself, at least for a time, and they were listening in to the general's call. "I don't see what is wrong with it. I bought it all so that she would be able to make something good out of it." Weiss commented with a shrug.

"Can you at least tell me what she is making?" Winter exasperatedly spoke while rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"I do have a manual for my things but I don't have Pyrrha's."

"Shouldn't we call Qrow? He knows more about blacksmithing, maybe he will be able to tell us something before he drinks himself into a stupor." Glynda asked Oz. it was slowly becoming obvious that nobody would be doing anything about it but they could at least get an idea what the girls were doing. Preferable before they blew something or themselves up.

"He is with his nieces." Ozpin answered. "I think he can enjoy some good family time."

Winter sighed. "I wouldn't mind some too…"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

Ten minutes later they were told to leave (kicked out of) the office.

/

"...she had a trying day." Pyrrha awkwardly supplied.

"Hey! Stop slacking off! I need you to be done with it and then find somebody who is not colorblind!"

-BBW-

In times like these he was really starting to feel his age. It felt like yesterday, Raven and Summer clashing over their ideas about killing criminals.

Of course the argument was rather quick and one-sided, because while Summer was a bit naive, Raven was just going way too far. The combination of Summer, him and Tai was enough to put the thoughts of 'civilians expandable' well away from her head. At least for a couple of years, before Oz came clean with the whole secret war business. Then Raven rubbed it into their faces every time Oz would send them to deal with some maniac.

And now I had to deal with all of it again, this time with their brats… Qrow let out a bitter laugh and reached for his flask. He was sure that he was completely unhelpful. Both girls were just…so weird about it. Ruby only cared about protecting and saving lives because it was her goal as a huntress. She was obviously upset over it but for all the wrong reasons. In the meantime, the only defense Yang had bothered to come up with, was that it was their own fault trying to fly into her.

A raven landed on the tree in front of him. Its red eyes focused only on him.

Qrow sighed. "It's your fault, you know?"

Of course, there was no answer. The bird flew away.

He honestly didn't even know if it was-

A medium size twig fell down and knocked his flask out of his hand, spilling his drink on the ground.

While he was not-so-silently cursing, cawing, that suspiciously sounded like laughter, echoed in the wind.

-BBW-

"I-I won't stand for this!... HELP! TORTURE!"

"Damn it Ruby! It's just heels!" Weiss said in exasperation.

"It's a crime against humanity!"

"Ugh…look, Yang-"

"Doesn't have them!"

"Fine! But Pyrrha wears them almost all the time!"

/

"Shouldn't you go help them?" Pyrrha asked Yang.

The dance party was quickly approaching and while Pyrrha and Weiss had more than enough outfits to choose from, the rest wasn't as fortunate. Yang had one dress from her graduation at Signal, Ruby had one too but it was way too small for her to wear. Blake and her team had none at all.

Shopping trip it was. Unfortunately…

Ruby absolutely loathed anything with even the smallest heels.

Yang already had her own outfit in mind so she was there just to keep Ruby company and possibly help out.

A burst of wind caused some of the clothes around them to fall on the floor.

"Come back here!" Weiss yelled after fleeing Ruby, who had already left the building.

Other two sighed. Hopefully their friends had less problems with their preparation.

A couple streets away Nora cheerfully entered the changing cabin, matching dress and a suit in one hand, tired and hopeless Ren in the other.

-BBW-

"I don't understand why you bother so much." Ilia commented and sat down opposite Blake. On the table were scattered notes on every person the (badly) hidden cat faunus could find. "Our dear neighbors are competing too and well… Yang and Pyrrha can take on a team and win and the only idea you've got on Ruby is -" she picked up a piece of paper marked with the rose and a couple of small hearts. "- to bring so much fire dust to blew up the entire arena." She deadpanned.

Blake briefly looked up from her 'work'. "Didn't expect you to give up before the fight."

"Giving up a fight over something important? Never." Ilia huffed out. "But getting humiliated on live coverage for all Remnant to see? Yeah, I'd prefer to bow out and just enjoy the show."

"And that's exactly why you are not going with me to the doubles round." Blake smirked. "Anyway-" Blake pulled out a blank piece of paper. "Spill."

Ilia gave her a blank stare, still a bit peeved over the doubles comment. So what if Nora was their powerhouse…

"Come on, we both know that you've been spying on the visitors."

"Maybe…" She looked away. "But aura levels are not that big of a deal."

"Yeah, and Yang's never dropped below 95%."

"So you only want to know about the visiting freaks?"

"Be nicer." Blake frowned.

"I call it as I see it." Ilia rolled her eyes. "One took an entire box of fire dust to the face and her only complaint was that Torchwick got away and the other took a bullhead head-on."

"Whatever." She didn't want to admit it but… yeah, they were really, really weird that way. "But we won't have to worry about them unless we luck out and run into them in the first match."

"Really?"

"Yeah, neither Ruby or Yang care about the tournament, especially compared to Weiss."

"Huh… Well, you were able to keep up with Pyrrha until Goodwitch stopped the fight…hmm. Anyway, there are actually two people who might be a big problem."

Blake clicked her pen.

"Okay. One, that Jane guy from Penny's team-"

"Jaune, I think?"

"Sure, why not. Well, he has about as much as Ruby, maybe even a bit more. But compared to them his aura is more or less normal. He just has a lot of it." And it's so painfully bright… She thought that Yang's aura that was akin to a raging inferno was bad on her eyes but this was more like a freaking searchlight…

"Okay, whatever that last part meant…" Blake wrote everything down. "And the other one?"

"Well, that one is maybe the weirdest I've seen so far…" Ilia rubbed her neck. "It's the leader of team CSMN, the guys that Ruby almost ran over when they were looking for their dorms. She… doesn't have that much compared to Yang or Ruby but…" Ilia paused so she could come up with a decent description. "Remember when I told you that the Schnee looks like she has two auras in one body?"

Blake slowly nodded.

"Well, it's kinda similar but while the Schnee's auras both come from the inside, one of hers looks like it's been glued on top of hers." The difference was even more apparent to her. While Weiss' could be barely distinguished between each other, that girl had two distinct colors and the one on the outside was about three times longer than what Ilia assumed was her aura proper. Did they come up with some weird aura steroids in Mistral? Ugh…at least Atlas made it look professional. This just looked like some weird aura cancer.

"Well… then let's hope they fight it out between each other and the winner would be too tired to fight in the next round."

"Oh? And you are telling me about a defeatist attitude."

-BBW-

While Weiss would have preferred to come to the party with Yang, hand in hand, she also knew that she had the image to keep up. And Coco asked her to take care of all the preparations. And it was much more beneficial for her mental state to let Yang handle Ruby's dressing and her problems with classy footwear.

"Weiss… you need to calm down."

And her sister was also there… And she hasn't come clean about her private life, yet. It would already be a bit awkward dancing in front of her but she could always say that it was just them being friends.

"Weiss, are you even listening?"

So now she just had to look both professional and beautiful while greeting all of the students coming to the party. At least she had Pyrrha to help her out. Two of the most popular students in the first year and possibly the entire school. It was an obvious choice.

"Weiss, I'm not sure Goodwitch will appreciate what you are doing to the floor…"

It was a bit robotic, sure. She only knew about a dozen people by name. And judging by the faces she remembered… Either her year wasn't interested in this kind of event or maybe her class had thinned out without her noticing.

"Weiss!" Pyrrha finally snapped her partner out of her musing. "Would you kindly come over here?"

Weiss slightly flushed out of embarrassment and started to move over to Pyrrha. Unfortunately, due to excessive tapping, her right heel was about half-way stuck in the floor, thus after trying to take a step, she immediately stumbled and Pyrrha had to catch her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Pyrrha asked after helping Weiss get herself on her feet.

Weiss straightened her dress and looked away. "There is nothing to talk about. Just…my nerves are getting to me, I guess." What the hell is taking them so long?

"Wanna make a bet Ruby ran away and Yang is now chasing her around the school? I'm actually more interested in what she will wear…she's been uncharastically secretive about it."

Five minutes later, the rest of their team had finally arrived. Or at least their leader did.

Weiss was slowly massaging her temples. "Ruby…it's not that ha-"

"I agreed to wear them, not walk in them!" Ruby replied, extremely proud of her idea to simply move around using her semblance to avoid walking on heels.

"Don't bother with trying to talk her out of it. Just wait until she gets distracted and stops flying around."

Finally! Weiss turned around aaand…it took a lot of effort to not stare. At least not too obviously.

/

While Weiss kept nagging her about not being so obvious in front of Winter, Ivory instead decided to show off. Her sister might be married to her job but could it take her dancing? Nope. Her fate was to stand by the general's side and watch him try asking Goodwitch for a dance.

As for her own company… "I haven't taken you for such a tomboy. Or that there were suits that could fit your size." Not to mention all the people who were slapped by her hair that was tied up into a ponytail.

Dressed in a black suit with thin yellow vertical stripes and with a loose tie with a flame pattern on her neck, Yang was, for the most part, being led by her date when it came to dancing. She did watch a few lessons but Weiss definitely knew what she was doing more than she did.

"Don't tell me about it. Ruby threw a tantrum over not letting her go in a suit herself. And yeah, I had to make some changes myself."

"Hmm, maybe you and Ruby made a wrong choice of careers. Both of you seem to have way too much experience when it comes to various crafts."

"Eh, not really. Just had to learn when I was younger. Bruises and scratches heal on their own but all the tears and holes wouldn't fix themselves."

"It might sound spoiled but I would usually just throw away the damaged clothing…"

"Well… I probably could but dad wanted us to learn about responsible spending early on and… Ruby was blowing it all on sweets and weapons and I had a period of time when I kept setting my clothes on fire."

"I wouldn't mind seeing that." Ivory softly giggled. "I think we should pause and take a little breather. I feel a bit parched."

"Sure, I have some water with me."

"There is a punch, Yang, and I think we can handle it if it's spiked." She rolled her eyes.

"Pff, it's not a question of if it's spiked but if the various combinations of whatever was poured in will only give you some buzz or send you to hospital with organ failure." Especially with uncle Qrow around. Hell, she already saw Cardin, Nora and some third year add something to the mix.

/

"Heeey! Sun, buddy! *hic*"

Four cups is all it took, huh? Sun sighed and put a hand on Neptune's shoulder to stop him from swaying. "Yeah, hi. Hey, Nep? I think it's time for you to head back to the dorm."

"Relaaax! The night is still young~!"

"It's 8 pm."

"Exactly! *hic* Hey, I wanted to ask you something about that Ilya girl you've been hanging out with."

"Shoot."

"Well, you said she is a chameleon faunus riight?"

Thank brothers for the loud music…

"Sooo… can she do the whole long sticky tongue thingy?"

Sun sighed and remained quiet. He is lucky she went to the bathroom, otherwise we would be entering the tournament as a three men team.

/

Blake was really glad she wasn't a dog faunus. Her nose would have probably fallen off by now if that was the case.

"Whywoun't you behlieve me!?" *Bleeh*

Also, drunk Pyrrha was a menace.

It started innocently. They all knew the punch was spiked but nooo, she assured them that she's been occasionally drinking at the various victory parties. Sure, she definitely had some resistance but all things have its limits.

First she went into a panic mode over not knowing how to make all of them dance together, despite the fact that they had already done it in pairs and as a trio.

Then she almost got into a fight with Penny over Ruby only to fall over and start bawling about not being good enough.

Blake and Ruby decided that some fresh air would definitely help her. Also Ruby was getting really tired of all the sweaty people bumping into her.

On the balcony, Pyrrha then started loudly ranting about scheming old men, magic, conspiracies and alcohol.

And then she threw up over the edge.

So now she was holding her hair while Ruby was switching between soothingly rubbing Pyrrha's back and running off to get some water.

"Heyk! Thew is on te rooof." Pyrrha pointed to the rooftops.

"Yes, yes. An evil old witch is on the roof. Just let it out, you will be fine afterwards."

/

"Looks like the party is already over for some people." Weiss remarked with sarcasm as she and Yang looked at curled up Pyrrha getting floated out in a blob of petals. "That little..! Where are her shoes!? This- this just ruins the whole outfit!"

"Oh relax. She probably sneaked a bunch of weapons in with her, a pair of sneakers is nothing."

"B-but- Aarh, whatever." Weiss huffed. "Maybe we should call it a day too?"

"A last dance?"

"Of course. I'll go tell the DJ to put on something appropriate."

"Don't step on anybody!"

/

/

/

Okay… screw the highschool drama. Next chapter will start Mt. Glenn stuff and then I'll fast track to the tournament. Anyway, question for you, my dear readers. For the Beacon arc finale, with how many things there will be going on simultaneously, would it be better to have separate chapters of average length or just spend two months doing one until it has about 20k and covers the entire finale?

/

To Kyunin9: Emerald's illusions are perception alterations. Meaning that 1) she can't change the perception of someone she is not aware of. 2) Let's say a person is already having hallucinations, is completely insane or hell, just blind or has some enhanced faunus senses. As a normal human she wouldn't be able to alter their perception without tipping them off due to not understanding the way her targets perceive the world around them.

Between Weiss and Ivory she would be only able to fully affect the one in charge because 1) she doesn't know that there are two and 2) the one in the background perceives the world differently from the one in charge and Emerald just can't trick them believably enough.

In this sense, Ruby and Ilia are pretty much immune to her semblance from the get go. Ruby can sense stuff through her petals and Ilia has an aura radar. Neither of the things can be replicated in a manner that would trick either of them.