chapter 10

Luffy, Yang, and Blake entered a clearing to see what looks like an ancient temple with a series of pedestals aligned in a circular pattern in front of the caved in entrance. On top of the pedestals are a set of chess pieces, though some of them are missing such objects.

"Huh, chess pieces... looks like the king piece Luffy found actually is the relic. Who knew?"

Yang said, confirming her own guess about Luffy's discovery earlier. She continues investigating until she noticed something else.

"Some of them are missing, guess that means someone else was here before us."

Yang theorized, resulting in a nod from her partner. The blonde picks out the white knight piece from one of the many stands and presents it to the two.

"How about a cute little pony?"

She asked cutely to Blake.

"Sure, as long as we have the relic. Now we just have to head back to the cliffs and then we're finished. Come to think of it... Luffy, you don't have a partner, do you?"

Blake asked the straw hat boy, only to be ignored as Luffy looked like he was focused on something else.

Yang catches on to what he's doing, he's using Observation Haki to sense any other students close by.

"Sup Luffy? Did you sense someone?"

she asked her cousin, breaking Luffy from his concentration as he nods his head. Blake quirks a brow in confusion, since she is completely out of the loop of his hidden abilities.

Luffy points in one direction through the forest, gesturing to where the people are. The two girls heard a girly scream from somewhere close to the clearing, but they all ignored it.

"Yup, there's two people coming closer from that way."

he started before pointing to the opposite end of the clearing, where the girly scream came from.

"And then there are two more that way. I think that might be Pyra and Jaune. Don't know why it looks like Jaune is flying though."

Finally, he points to the sky which prompted the two to look up and spot a big black bird overhead.

"It looks like Ruby and Wise are on that thing too."

Luffy finished as they spotted a small speck jump off the bird, which Yang and Blake can discern as an old Nevermore.

"HEADS UP!"

they faintly heard causing Luffy and Yang's eyes to widen when they recognized the voice. Ruby just performed a leap of faith hoping someone would catch her.

Luffy grants that wish as he jumps high in the air below Ruby.

"Gomu Gomu no Fusen (Balloon)"

He inflates himself into a cushion for his cousin to land on. Ruby faceplants into his belly and bounces up slightly before returning to her savior with a smile on her face.

"Thanks Luffy! Kinda figured you would catch me."

Ruby said with a cheery tone, only to get a thumbs up from Luffy so he won't let the air out of him as they slowly float down to the ground.

A figure suddenly flew by below the duo and smacked into a tree. If it wasn't for Luffy's slow descent, Ruby most likely would've collided with the unknown projectile. The figure turned out to be a dazed Jaune as he was groaning in discomfort for the crash.

"Your sister just fell out of the sky."

Blake said to her partner plainly.

She has to admit, Luffy can think on his feet when it comes to his stretchy body.

Yang was just relieved that Ruby wasn't hurt, but before she can do anything a roar was heard at the edge of the clearing.

Luffy deflates himself upon touching the ground, letting the red tipped girl down softly.

Joining the gang in the clearing are a pair of students was an orange haired girl with a hammer in hand and a Chinese oriented man holding his knees in exhaustion, whom they haven't met yet.

The hammer wielding girl was riding an Ursa until it collapsed dead on the ground, most likely from whatever abuse it suffered. The girl hops off her steed and gives a childish pout.

"Awww, it's broken."

she said, saddened that her once living vehicle ran out of fuel. Her companion finally catches up to her while panting.

"Nora... don't ever... do that... again."

the boy in between pants. He looks over to his partner only to find out she is no longer there.

The girl, now named Nora, walked up to the pedestals and plucks a white rook piece and raised it up as if she won a trophy.

"I'm queen of the castle~, I'm queen of the castle~!"

Nora said in a chipper sing song voice.

"Nora!"

"Coming Ren."

she complied to the boy named Ren before they both joined the ever growing group. Nora makes eye contact at Luffy, who had stars in his eyes.

"Your the guy with the stretchy arms! That was so awesome!"

Nora exclaimed to the straw hat boy.

"You got to ride a bear! That was so cool, why didn't I think of that?

Luffy beamed in childish glee.

In that instant, they knew they were both very like minded. Ruby, Yang, and Ren looked between them with a look of horror of what it implied.

'Oh no, there's two of them.'

they thought in unison. One crazy person was hard enough to keep track of, now they have to deal with the two insane individuals united.

They were all left speechless as the crazed duo pranced around with one arm interlocked and a grin that threatens to split their face as if they were long time friends.

The group was broken out of their stupor and cheer (in Luffy and Nora's case) when Pyrrha broke into the clearing... with a Deathstalker tailing her.

Jaune suggested to explore the cave thinking it might hold the relic they are searching for. After exploring further into the cave, they did run across something glowing. Naturally, Jaune assumed it to be the relic. Unfortunately it had to be the stinger of the Deathstalker tailing Pyrrha at the moment.

"And now we have a girl that just rode an Ursa and another that has a Deathstalker as a tag along."

Blake said dryly.

Yang was facepalming herself at everything that happened so far. She DID wish for something to occur, just not expecting it all to come crashing down simultaneously.

"HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME RUBY!"

they heard a shrill voice from above, and it sounded like Weiss.

"I said 'jump'! Don't worry, Luffy will catch you!"

Ruby shouted back to the heiress with a smiling Luffy nodding, though it looked like Weiss didn't listen.

After they fixed their partnership, they happened to attract the Nevermore with their negative emotions from the argument. Ruby thought it would be a great idea to hitch a ride on the bird with Weiss aboard to get an eagle eye view of where the ruins are. Getting on board was simple enough, it was finding a way down that left them stranded in the air.

"She's gonna fall off."

Blake noted casually.

"She'll be fine."

Ruby reassured them.

"She's falling."

Ren said with no emotion.

She did indeed start her descent to the hard ground with Luffy sprinting below her to use the same strategy as last time. Jaune recovers from his daze to see Weiss falling and decides to play hero by jumping off the tree branch he was perched on. Jaune manages to catch her in a bridal carry with the girl rolling her eyes.

"Just... dropping in."

Jaune said, trying to sound suave. Though it doesn't work if Weiss' scoff was anything to go by. They both stay motionless in the air until they realize that Jaune forgot about gravity.

As they were plummeting, Luffy reaches the location of where they would land and inflates himself once more. The falling duo land on the human trampoline with a shocked expression as they sunk into the belly slightly. But when they sprung up, Jaune ended up bouncing off of Luffy and faceplanting on the dirt with Weiss sitting on top of him.

"My knights in shining armor."

Weiss said sarcastically while looking at her nails.

"My back, ow."

Jaune wheezed out.

Luffy deflates and stands back up to look at the two with a toothy grin.

"Shishishi, now that everyone's here lets get rid of the bird and scorpion thing."

Luffy suggested, getting an eager nod from Ruby.

Pyrrha was soon swatted away by the pincer of the scorpion, flinging her to the rest of her companions.

Ruby was about to dart towards the Deathstalker, or scorpion as Luffy would call it, until she felt a hand on her shoulder. Ruby looks back to see Weiss with a scowl on her face, as if telling her to stay put and don't do something stupid.

"Listen Ruby, as much as you want to prove yourself, think about it first. The armor is too strong for your scythe to cut through."

Weiss informed her partner, who rubbed her head sheepishly at the obvious info.

The Deathstalker barely has any unarmored areas to exploit, so one would need excessive force to break the armor or accurately strike the weak spots.

Before they could think of a battle plan, the Nevermore flapped its wings which hurled a barrage of sharp feathers. Both girls used their semblance to evade, with Ruby using her enhanced speed to leap back quickly and Weiss sliding back with her glyph. The spear like feathers failed to hit a target but were now obstructions on the field.

"Yosh, I got the annoying bird. You guys can kill the scorpion."

Luffy said while placing his fist in his palms in determination.

Weiss hears this and pulls Luffy by the hoodie with an irritated look.

"Idiot! We only need to get the relics. There's no point in fighting them."

Weiss berated the straw hat boy.

Luffy remains undeterred as he stares into the icy blue eyes, still wanting to kill the Grimm. The others seem to agree with the heiress with the exception of Ruby and Yang as they were about to leave the clearing to retreat.

If their cousin was going to stay, then they'll stay by his side.

While the two argued, Ruby picked up the second knight piece while Jaune chose the rook piece.

"If we leave those things alone, what about the others! We would be leaving the other people in the forest to face our problems! This fight is between us and them!"

Luffy shouted back, making Weiss recoil at the outburst and released his clothing.

The group stopped in their tracks upon hearing this, looking wide eyed in realization.