28

Chapter 28:

"No way!" exclaimed Yang, hugging her pillow to her chest. "You gave Ice Queen the tickle-torture?"

"Yep," said Jaune proudly.

Weiss growled and glared at Jaune.

"Dang! I wish I could've seen it," said Yang. "Scratch that! I wish I could've done it!"

"Me too," agreed Ruby eagerly.

"Well, it's not going to happen again," said Weiss firmly. "I refuse to take part in such-why are you looking at me like that?"

Weiss reeled back away from Yang and Ruby, the half-sisters sporting mischievous grins that practically screamed how closely they were related. Weiss was already beginning to regret the fact that the two of them had made up with each other.

"No! No! I am not going through this again!" protested Weiss, scooting back across the floor and clambering up on her bed.

It proved to be the wrong move as Ruby shot across the gap between their respective beds in a fraction of a second, pinning Weiss to her mattress and proceeding to tickle the living daylights out of the proud heiress as Yang went to work on her feet.

"Wow..." mused Jaune as Pyrrha nearly doubled over with laughter. "You know, from the perspective of a bystander...that does look pretty cruel."

"Ooh! Can I help?" asked Nora, bouncing from where she sat on Pyrrha's bed, next to Blake. "Blake's a big meanie who won't let us tickle her, and Ren's a big meanie who won't help me tickle her."

"Don't even-" Weiss began.

"Why not," said Yang, overriding Weiss' objection instantly. "There's plenty of Ice Queen to go around."

"Stop talking about me like I'm some kind of tickling commodity! Ren! You're her partner! Rein her in!"

Looking over, Jaune saw Ren keeping a neutral expression, but he swore he saw the faintest upward quirk at the corners of the stoic boy's mouth. "It's probably best to just let them get it out of their systems," he said.

"NOOOOOOO!" wailed Weiss as Nora joined in on the fun, though Weiss' wail was soon replaced by uncontrollable laughter.

"Still," said Blake, looking over at Pyrrha, where she sat next to Jaune, "I wasn't expecting you to take the lead on something like that."

Pyrrha's cheeks colored. "W-well...it seemed like fun at the time. I've never had friends I could do something like that with before. And...It's the sort of thing that should be beneath the Invincible Girl to do. I...I..." Her voice took on a quality that was almost husky, as though she'd participated in some kind of lewd act. "I liked it."

"This-HA!-sort of-HAHAHAHA!-thing is-HEEE!-beneath all of us!" exclaimed Weiss, in between shrieks and squeals of laugher as she struggled in the grip of the three girls.

"No, you're beneath us," said Nora proudly. "That's so we can tickle you."

"WHAT KIND OF LOGIC IS THAT!" shrieked Weiss.

Ren chuckled and stood up. Going over, he gently pried Nora away from Weiss. "All right, that's enough," he said, speaking to all three girls. "She's going to asphyxiate if you keep this up."

"Aww...you're right," said Ruby as she and Yang finally released Weiss, who slumped, panting and gasping, back onto her mattress.

"I'lll...get...you...for this," promised Weiss, glaring fiercely at Ruby, who grinned back.

"Well, if it helps any, Ruby-chan is still very ticklish herself," said Sasame, sporting an almost malicious grin from where she lounged, in the room's corner, her tail seeming to have fluffed up like a pillow so that she could curl it around behind her to use as a cushion.

"Eep!" squeaked Ruby, her smile vanishing and her expression flickering from amused to nervous in a heartbeat as every eye in the room turned on her. She backed away from Weiss, but froze, almost literally, as her arms and legs were locked in place by a set of miniature Glyphs that held her hovering off the floor.

"I don't think so," growled Weiss. "I promised I would pay you back and, now, it's my turn. Who else would like to see if we can make Ruby Rose turn red?"

"Nnonononononono! Please! I'll be good! I promise!" exclaimed Ruby, struggling against her restraints, to no avail. To make matters worse, Weiss' proposition had caught a few interested looks.

"Sounds like fun," said Yang gleefully.

"You do have a delightful laugh, Ruby," said Pyrrha, her smile as pleasantly polite and cheerful as always, yet somehow managing to have a devious edge to it. "Why would I dare miss out on the opportunity to hear it more often?"

"I'm in!" shouted Nora, already bouncing towards Ruby.

"Help me!" wailed Ruby, throwing a pleading look Jaune and Ren's way.

"I know when I'm outmatched," said Jaune with a sheepish grin as he held his hands up in surrender.

"Best to let her get it out of her system," repeated Ren, in reference to Nora.

"Please no! I'll be good, I promise! I'm SORRYYYYYYYYYYY!"

Ruby would have sent a look Blake's way. But she didn't get the chance as Weiss was in front of her, grinning, yet also glaring as she began to run her fingers up and down Ruby's sides, while Yang came up behind her and gave attention to her armpits. In the meantime, Nora dropped down to handle the soles of Ruby's feet. The room filled with the sound of Ruby's laughter as the few of her friends who weren't participating in her torment muffled laughs of their own. True to her promise, Weiss made sure to tickle Ruby until her entire face began to turn red from laughing so hard.

It continued for a few minutes. Jaune let it go just a little bit longer than the girls had gone at tickling Weiss, before getting to his feet. "All right, all right," he said. "That's enough."

He carefully pushed his way through the girls and hooked one arm under Ruby's legs, while using the other to brace her back. Weiss' Glyphs shattered, having been near their limit anyway. Jaune hefted Ruby in his arms in a bridal carry as she gasped and panted for breath.

"This isn't over," said Weiss grandly, pointing a finger decisively at Jaune. "I'll have my revenge on you too, Arc."

"I'm still not ticklish anymore," said Jaune.

"Th-that doesn't matter," proclaimed Weiss. "I'll find a way!"

"And what about Pyrrha?" asked Jaune. "Are you gonna have revenge on her too?"

Weiss turned to look over her shoulder at Pyrrha, who stiffened nervously and grinned shyly, offering Weiss a small wave.

"I...I...I'll let her off the hook," said Weiss, "just this once."

"Awww, Pyrrha gets a pass?" complained Jaune, not really all that upset over it. It looks like Weiss is still having trouble dealing with Pyrrha as a normal person. Can't quite get her off that pedestal yet.

It seemed that the same thing occurred to Pyrrha as her slump appeared to be equal parts relieved and disappointed.

Ruby sighed in relief, now that the tickling was over. Reaching her arms up, she wrapped them around Jaune's shoulders and pulled herself to nuzzle against the shoulder on her head's side. "My hero," she cheered softly.

Sasame covered her mouth to muffle her giggle, watching as Jaune's face turned red. Then she heard the sound of crumpling bedsheets. Looking over at Yang, who'd sat back down, now that Ruby was no longer being tickled, she saw Yang's hand clenching, bunching up the fabric at her side. A fierce look of anger that washed over her face. Then she closed her eyes, took a deep breath. Her left hand reached over to grab her right wrist and pull it up. Her fingers slowly uncurled, releasing the bedsheet, then relaxed. Yang continued exhaling, the tension in her body seeming to leave along with the air in her lungs.

Seeming much calmer now, Yang smiled again and looked up. "You do realize that Jaune didn't stop us from tickling you?" she pointed out.

"But he did save me from your evil clutches," protested Ruby, turning and sticking her tongue out at Yang.

That got a laugh from everyone else in the room, even Yang. With the sisters beginning to mend their conflict, things were looking much better already. After they'd returned from dinner, Nora had proposed their first inter-team sleepover to celebrate Ruby and Yang's burgeoning reconciliation. Surprisingly, everyone on both teams seemed for the idea, even Weiss, not even objecting when Ruby volunteered their room for the event, on the condition that she not be ousted from her bed.

Shortly before the affair had begun, Yang had stopped Jaune in the hallway outside the dorm to issue her apology. To her surprise, Jaune accepted it rather easily, though his wording suggested that it was more out of consideration for Ren, rather than Yang herself. For her part, Yang could understand. Ren had gone out on a limb, convincing Jaune not to tell Ruby about what Yang had done to him at the time, while promising to keep her under control from then on. So, as long as what had happened between them in the sparring ring remained a one-time thing, then Jaune was willing to let bygones be bygones, mostly out of respect for RYNB's leader.

Packing nine people into a room originally meant for four was something of a task, with Sasame returning from her talk with Ozpin shortly after the decision had been made. However, they settled on the idea that the members of RASP would sleep in their beds, while Team RYNB would take the spaces between. Sasame made multiple assurances that she was fine curled up in an unoccupied corner of the room. The others were a bit worried, until Ruby assured them that Sasame was, indeed, fine.

Given that they'd just had dinner, there was no need for drinks and snacks. Largely, they spent the evening chatting and playing games. Prodded by Yang, Ruby shared some stories of her experiences on the road and, with a confirmation from Sasame that it was okay, some stories of her time in Onmyo, talking about the training she'd done with the Mibu.

Granted, there was only so much talking they could do during the night. Pyrrha couldn't help but notice that Weiss seemed quite a bit out of her element.

"You're not enjoying yourself?" she asked her partner.

"I'm having a little difficulty," said Weiss. "I've never done anything like this. I couldn't even dream of having a sleepover like this at home. It's not the sort of thing father would have ever allowed."

"I understand," said Pyrrha. "I haven't gotten to do anything like this in a long time."

"But you did go to sleepovers?" asked Weiss.

"And hosted them...when I was younger," said Pyrrha, her head falling. "That was back before I entered Sanctum, and started winning tournaments. Then I became too busy with promotions and endorsements. Then my agent told me that stuff like that was beneath a person of my status." Pyrrha grimaced. "Of course, by that point, I didn't have any real friends that I would want to invite over for that sort of thing anyway."

"I can see that," said Weiss, thinking the situation over. Of course, even if her father had permitted those kinds of activities, none of her so-called "friends" were the kind of people she'd want to have over anyway. She smiled wryly. "If I'd gone to Atlas Academy, I don't think I'd have gotten the chance to do this either."

"For the same reason I wouldn't if I had gone to Mistral," Pyrrha guessed.

"Well, that too," said Weiss. "But the main reason is that no one could do that sort of thing in Atlas Academy. Life there is highly regimented. It's practically a military school. Actually, nowadays, the Academy mainly serves as a recruiting grounds for the Atlesian Military's Special Forces. That's how Winter ended up with them."

"You didn't want to go into the military?" asked Pyrrha.

Weiss shook her head. "Winter doing that is what resulted me in becoming the designated heir. Father disinherited her, accused General Ironwood of stealing and corrupting her. As the next in line, the inheritance fell to me." She frowned. "But, even here, I still need to tread carefully. If Father decides I'm not worthy either, then the inheritance will go to my brother instead."

"You have a brother?" asked Pyrrha, her surprised inquiry drawing the attention of others in the room.

Weiss nodded. "He's Ruby's age actually," she said, looking up at Ruby, who was now listening to their conversation with interest. "But he's a conniving schemer, definitely Father's favorite. At this point, Father is probably just looking for an excuse to pass me over and name Whitley his heir."

"That's awful!" said Pyrrha sharply.

"It's my family," said Weiss with a shrug. "I'll just have to deal with it by doing the best I can here. Luckily, the Vytal Festival is coming up, so I'll have a definite chance if I can make a good showing in the tournament."

"We'll just have to do our best job," declared Ruby firmly.

"We won't go easy on you though," said Yang, grinning at her sister, figuring it was best to start putting the advice Sasame and Qrow had given her to use.

If anything, that seemed to make Ruby happier than anything else Yang had said or done before. "Good," she said eagerly.

Over in her corner, Sasame silently beamed at Ruby.

They chatted and laughed for a while longer before Ruby raised her arms over her head, yawning hugely. "I think I'm ready for bed," she declared.

"I've been ready for a while now," declared Ren firmly. Indeed, he looked as though he was nodding off where he sat.

"Well, we've got a day to spend in town," said Yang, looking at Ruby. "I guess we don't want to waste too much time sleeping in."

"Yeah," agreed Ruby. "I guess it's lights out, everyone."

"Aww..." groaned Nora. However, hers was the only protest and even she was beginning to lose the battle with the sandman as her eyes drooped.

They began to get ready, the members of RYNB heading back across the hall to use their bathroom for their evening cleanup, while RASP did the same with theirs. The bathroom, only having so much space, could only be used by two people at a time. So Jaune and Pyrrha waited while Ruby and Weiss went first.

"You okay?" asked Jaune, looking at Pyrrha, noticing that she seemed almost reluctant to go to bed.

"It's just..." Pyrrha sighed and sniffled. "I've wanted to do something like this for so long, I've missed this so much...my eyes just kind of want to stay open."

"I know what you mean," said Jaune. "I've had moments like that."

"With your sisters?" asked Pyrrha.

"Sometimes," said Jaune. "Though, if I was lucky, I got invited to sleepovers at my friends' places. That was the only time I got out from under them, so to speak. Having a bunch of guys over at my house generally didn't turn out too well."

"Why?" asked Pyrrha.

"Well, I have seven sisters, all of whom are beautiful in their own way," said Jaune. "Even if I resented them for not letting me train to be a Huntsman, I wasn't about to let a bunch of guys spend the night drooling over them."

"Oh..." said Pyrrha, her cheeks coloring slightly. "I do suppose that might have been a bit of an issue."

"Yeah," said Jaune with a chuckle. "But it's nice to be able to do this now. We'll have to have another one sometime."

"I agree," said Pyrrha eagerly, with a fond smile.

From her place in the corner, Sasame looked on with a smile. She waited until everyone was finished with their toilette and had climbed beneath their covers before leaning back and wrapping herself in her tails. She hadn't shown her body-modification techniques to the students yet, and figured that they could do without that surprise for the night. Covered in the warm wrappings of her fluffy appendages, Sasame closed her eyes and dropped off to sleep, eager to see what tomorrow would bring.

Despite the late evening, both Sasame and Ruby were up, bright and early, on Sunday morning. Despite feeling far less well-rested than the two of them, Jaune, Weiss, and Pyrrha reluctantly got up as well, and joined them for a morning practice session. Sasame looked on, her eyes following Ruby as she worked through her basic katas, nodding in approval to see that Ruby's form was coming along so well.

They came back to a very pleasant surprise, when they saw that Ren had also gotten up early, and was in the process of preparing a breakfast for everyone in the kitchen of the dorm's common room. The kitchen didn't see much use, given that most students were perfectly content to get their meals from the dining hall, even on their weekends. Ren, apparently, had extensive experience making meals, primarily for himself and Nora. After he cleaned up, Jaune also joined Ren in the kitchen, having extensive experience in helping to make breakfast for his sisters.

Together, the two boys were able to put out an impressive spread, by the time the girls finished showering and dressing.

"We're definitely going to have to do this sort of thing again," declared Yang, in between stuffing her mouth with pancakes.

"Aren't Ren's pancakes the best?" asked Nora excitedly.

"I've paid money for pancakes that weren't as good as these," said Pyrrha, who looked particularly enthused that there were no cereal boxes of a particular stripe to be seen.

"Looking for your picture?" teased Yang, making Pyrrha blush.

"Ah!" exclaimed Sasame, looking at Pyrrha. "That's where I saw you before." Her eyes narrowed and she fixed Pyrrha with a petulant glare. "How dare you endorse such tripe."

"Wait!" exclaimed Ruby, looking at Sasame in shock. "You've tried her cereal."

"It's not my cereal," protested Pyrrha. "They just paid my agent to put my picture on the box!"

"What are you upset about anyway?" Weiss wanted to know.

"It's called Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes," declared Sasame, folding her arms across her chest. "It didn't taste like pumpkin at all."

"Uh...I think that's just a sort of brand," said Jaune. "Pumpkin Pete is just the mascot. I don't think that the cereal was supposed to taste like pumpkin."

"But then why would you put 'pumpkin' in the name?" protested Sasame, horrified. "That's just cruelly deceptive."

Detecting confused looks from her friends, Ruby giggled. "Sasame-nee loves pumpkin," she stage-whispered. "She has her own pumpkin patch back home...and she's a total snob, a pumpkin-snob."

"That's a thing?" asked Yang incredulously.

"Well, it's a thing that Sasame-nee is," declared Ruby.

"Ruby-chan..." protested Sasame weakly, looking more than a little unsettled to have lost the upper hand for the first time, since arriving.

"Every harvest season, Sasame-nee gets totally pumpkin-crazy," said Ruby. "Every dinner has to have at least one pumpkin dish or she gets pouty."

"Ruby-chan!"

"You made pumpkin cake for four out of six of my birthdays," said Ruby, giving Sasame a deadpan look.

"Yes...well...you said you liked them," protested Sasame weakly, tapping her index fingers together in the same kind of fidget Ruby used when she was nervous.

"Yeah, but I did want to have something different, once in a while," said Ruby.

"But pumpkins are so tasty and good for you," said Sasame. "And you can do tons of delicious things with them. There's pumpkin soup, pumpkin curry, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie..."

Everyone at the table was stifling laughter at this point, glad to see that Ruby's composed and powerful elder sister had some interesting quirks of her own.

The conversation drifted on as they all chatted and laughed, enjoying themselves, not minding the confused looks they drew as other students drifted in and out of the common room over the course of their meal, some of the looks being jealous at the meal that Ren had prepared with Jaune's help.

After they finished eating, and helped to clean up, they all went their separate ways. Ruby, Yang, and Sasame headed to the docks to take the airship into Vale, the sisters debating what activities they could do together, as well as what places they could go. Surprisingly, Sasame had an extensive knowledge of Vale, including places Yang had never heard of. She was even more surprised to learn that, when Sasame did enter a Kingdom capital, she left Kyo behind to wait outside.

"Kyo can't set foot inside the Kingdoms," said Sasame plainly. "Well...he could...but we'd rather not touch off a conflict with the authorities."

"He's a criminal?" asked Yang.

"Unfortunately, yes," said Sasame. "Since he doesn't really mind all that much if he steps on the toes of people with certain interests, he has made some people upset enough to influence the authorities to put a bounty on his head. He has at least one in each Kingdom." She shrugged. "Technically, I could be considered, and technically am, an accomplice to him. But Kyo draws all the attention, so I can move much more freely than him."

"How do you even travel like that?" asked Yang. "People in the settlements you visit would probably report him."

Sasame smirked. "The inhabitants of the settlements value the benefits of Kyo's visits too much to want to report him."

"But if the authorities found out..." Yang said worriedly.

"Then the people could claim that we threatened them with violence," said Sasame. "The authorities would be more than willing to believe such claims, given that they know a certain extent of what Kyo is capable of."

"And you'd let them?" asked Yang incredulously.

"We don't mind," said Sasame. "It's something we've come to expect, and even encourage. If anything, the prospect of a settlement's people siding with us openly is a little too dangerous for our liking, as it brings the possibility of them being punished for their association with us on them unnecessarily."

"But why do you come to the Kingdoms?" asked Yang, wondering. Now that she thought about it, it seemed odd. Ruby had run away from home, and Sasame "just happened" to be wandering the streets of Vale and stumbled upon her. It was the kind of coincidence that seemed suspiciously contrived.

"For various reasons," said Sasame. "Sora-sama decided that, if Kyo and I were going to wander, we should bring back some useful information occasionally. I come into the Kingdoms from time to time to see what the conditions are like and determine how we could potentially interact with them. It's mostly guesswork based on what I see and hear, but it does give Sora-sama and the other Elders something to work with."

Work with for what? Yang wondered.

Sasame led them down a street and to a diner that Ruby recognized. "This place is-!"

"The very same place I brought you six years ago," said Sasame proudly. "I like the food they serve here, and they've stayed open reliably for the past few years."

Yang looked around, noting that many of the diner's patrons were faunus. It was even owned and operated by one. She supposed that they were near the edge of what had, unofficially, been termed the Faunus Quarter, a section of the Kingdom that was largely occupied by faunus homes and businesses.

"I guess it makes sense that it would be here," said Yang as they took their seats.

"You mean in the so-called Faunus Quarter of the Kingdom?" asked Sasame.

"Well...yeah," said Yang warily, feeling a bit nervous about addressing the topic, particularly when there were so many faunus around. It felt like ground that a human like her shouldn't be treading on.

"It's not as though this section of the Kingdom is reserved for faunus," said Sasame. "Nor are they segregated here...not legally anyway.

"After the Revolution, Vale officially opened its housing to faunus, and around here is one of the first neighborhoods that faunus began to move into in numbers. The issue was that the humans who already lived in the vicinity were not happy with this state of affairs. Winning the Revolution might have ended official discrimination, but it did not mean that the attitudes behind such discrimination changed overnight. At first, the humans resisted. But when they saw they could not deter or discourage the faunus enough from moving in, they began to move out. Human residents sought to establish more affluent neighborhoods, away from the faunus, and the criminal element that they believed the faunus would bring with them."

"Wait! They thought that crime would go up, just because faunus were moving in?" asked Yang.

"In a sense, it's a little bit of self-fulfilling prophecy," said Sasame. "Before the Revolution, when faunus were still being fully segregated and discriminated against, they were often forbidden from holding higher-paying jobs, which were reserved for humans. Left with only the jobs the humans didn't want, faunus were often forced to either work themselves to the bone, or turn to more illicit methods to support themselves and their families. Thus, the measures humans enacted against faunus pushed them to turn to crime out of desperation."

Ruby nodded, understanding how desperation could push people into doing things they would normally never even think of doing, just as she had once been so desperate she too had considered turning to thievery...and probably would have, had Sasame not found her.

"In any case, the prophecy became self-fulfilling again," said Sasame. "Not all the humans could afford to move to more affluent portions of the Kingdom, and were left to live with the faunus. There were more than a few who resisted the idea, and turned to destructive acts to resist what they saw as faunus incursion: theft, assault, vandalism...those sorts of things. Amongst the arriving faunus, there were those who chose to fight fire with fire and, soon, crime rose in the area."

"So it comes down to the fact that crime went up because humans couldn't stand to live with faunus," said Yang glumly.

"Unfortunately, yes," said Sasame. "That's often how it goes."

"How do you know all this?" asked Yang. "You only visit once in a while, right?"

"Yes," said Sasame. "But I was curious and, as I told you earlier, my mandate was to research the social conditions of the Kingdom. Learning the issues lying in the relationships between humans and faunus here seemed quite pertinent to us."

"It does?" asked Yang, looking to Ruby.

Ruby nodded. "Kaa-san is a fanus too, and she's the official ruler of the clan."

"Wow," gasped Yang softly. The only other place she'd heard of, where faunus wielded any authority, was Menagerie, which, of course, was a Kingdom created specifically for faunus.

"Hence, why Sora-sama is so interested in the conditions of the outside world," said Sasame. "Her being a faunus, dealing with those who are not traditionally used to seeing faunus in a position of power could cause issues, when the time comes for the Mibu to engage with the other Kingdoms."

"If you do," said Ruby.

Sasame sighed and patted Ruby's arm. "Well, we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. It's not something you need to worry about, Ruby-chan. You just need to focus on becoming the best Huntress you possibly can."

"I will," promised Ruby firmly.

By this point they had already been seated and had read the menus. The waiter came to take their orders, giving the two human girls an odd look, but treating them politely as Sasame raised an eyebrow. In fact, the trio were the recipients of odd looks from all over the diner as the attention of the faunus patrons was drawn by the two humans in their midst. Still, while there was curiosity, there was a lack of hostility, most likely because they were seated with a faunus and treating her like family.

"Well, let's not worry too much about messy political stuff," said Sasame, waving a dismissive hand. "Yang-san, you're the guest of honor, so to speak. What would you like to talk about?"

Yang gasped, her eyes shining with an excitement as she turned to Ruby. "I want to know," she said. "I want to know where you've been and what you've seen! I want to hear all about it!"

"Um...uh..." Ruby's cheeks colored.

"It's your own fault for leaving her in the dark for so long," said Sasame with a giggle. "We've only just scratched the surface of what you've done so far. It'll take longer than any single meal to cover it all."

"That's okay," said Yang, looking down. "I...The first time I said that to her, it was just one of those things you say when you're worried about someone and you haven't seen them in a long time. The first time I asked it, I didn't really care what Ruby had been doing. But...after I saw how strong she'd gotten, how much she'd changed, I actually wanted to know what she'd been through."

"I see," said Sasame, resting her chin on her knuckles as she watched the sisters. "Then, by all means, Ruby-chan, tell your story."

"A-all right," said Ruby, her eyes darting back and forth nervously. Then, she began to tell more of the story of how she'd come to her current point in life.

Ruby telling her story lasted all the way through the meal and well beyond it. Yang hung eagerly onto her every word, listening with rapt attention as Ruby provided her with a more chronological summary of events, starting with Sasame finding her on the streets and their subsequent journey across the continent and then the sea.

To Yang; who'd wanted to become a Huntress for the thrill of going to places she'd never been, seeing things she'd never seen, doing things she'd never done; it was a story to make her jealous, a story of arduous training in the wilderness, of celebrations in towns she'd never heard of, of bandits, of pirates...

"Seriously? You were boarded by pirates!?" exclaimed Yang, shocked.

"Yes, that was quite the diversion," said Sasame was a giggle. "Kyo and I handled the boarders, but Ruby dueled their leader personally."

"Seriously!?" exclaimed Yang, shocked at the idea of her nine-year-old sister fighting against the leader of a pirate armada.

Ruby nodded, not really seeming to take pride in the memory. "It wasn't really a duel," she said. "Morgan was just toying with me. I got a hit in because she let her guard down, and I did something unexpected. But, if Shinrei-sensei hadn't shown up when he did, I would've gone down fast after that. She was strong...like Huntress-level strong."

"Still, for a girl your age, it was quite the feat," said Sasame. "Our only regret is that that woman escaped us. We never did find her, after Shinrei sank her fleet."

"She got away?" asked Yang.

"Well, she never made landfall on Leng," said Sasame. "We monitored our coast carefully after the incident, but found no sign of her. Since the larger vessels were all scuttled by Shinrei, her only option for escape would have been one of the smaller vessels they were using for harassment. If she didn't go to Leng, which would be the obvious option, given how close to the coast we were, we can only assume that she made sail for Sanus...a daunting task in such a small vessel. There's just as much chance that she never made it."

"You don't sound like you believe that," said Yang.

"I've learned to never discount someone's tenacity," said Sasame. "Until we find some confirmation of her death, I will always be open to the possibility that she's alive, somewhere."

"That's probably a good idea," said Yang.

Sasame sighed and pushed away from the table. "In any case, I think it's time we went elsewhere. There's much more to see. We can continue the story later."

She'd already settled the bill, so they were free to leave without any problems. Now they wandered through the streets, their trip taking them out of Vale's Faunus Quarter and into its commercial district, perusing shops as they went.

"So you didn't want to learn how to use a scythe, like Uncle Qrow?" asked Yang as talked turned to Ruby's training.

"I did," said Ruby. "But the problem is that no one but Uncle Qrow uses a scythe like Uncle Qrow. He's the only one who really could have taught me that."

"Just in case, I looked into it shortly after we arrived," said Sasame. "I wasn't able to find any scythe-users in the Mibu. It would seem your Uncle's style is quite singular."

"Aww...that's too bad," said Yang. "I remember you talking about that High-Impact Sniper-Scythe you wanted to make. You made all those sketches and drawings-"

"And hid them so Dad wouldn't find them," said Ruby with a disappointed sigh. "I wonder if they're still there."

"I think they might be," said Yang. "I don't think Dad really searched your room all that carefully after you left. They might still be there. If we ever get the chance..."

"I don't know if I will," said Ruby. "I still don't know what we're going to do about Dad. Even if we could find them...I don't know what I'd do with them. I don't want to try starting to learn a completely different weapon now."

"True," said Yang. "But it might be nice to have, for nostalgia's sake."

"Have either of you decided anything about what to do about your father?" asked Sasame, making the pair jump.

"Uh...well...no," said Yang, running her hand through her hair. "To be honest, I'm a little worried about what to do. He's going to be mad as hell, when he learns that I haven't told him that Ruby was here all this time."

"Is there any chance his view on her could have changed?" asked Sasame.

"I...I don't know," said Yang hesitating. "I mean, neither of us have seen Ruby for years. She's changed so much. I know that I was able to realize how wrong we'd been when I saw her in action. But Dad..." She shrugged. "Considering how he is, I'm not even sure something like that will change his mind."

"How would you break it to him anyways?" asked Ruby, before imitating Yang doing just that. "'Hey, Dad, by the way, Ruby's here at Beacon with me.'"

"Yeah, that wouldn't go over well," deadpanned Yang.

"Well, I imagine you two will be able to think of something eventually," mused Sasame.

They rounded a corner and came to an abrupt stop. The building they had gone around had an alley between it and the next building down the street. Just a few seconds after they had turned the corner, a girl fell out of the alleyway with a pained shriek, falling to the ground, arms raised to stave off the blow that had just knocked her over.

She was a slim girl, probably somewhere between Ruby and Yang's age. Her dark-brown hair was tied back and braided into a tail that ran down to just past her neck, hanging between her shoulders. Her skin was slightly tanned, with a dusting of freckles across her cheeks. She was dressed in a white tank-top and tight, black pants that hugged the contours of her legs. However, the feature that immediately drew everyone's attention was the bushy, brown squirrel-tail that extended from a gap in the back of her pants. The poor girl's dark-green eyes were wide with fear as she stared back up into the alley.

"Where do you think you're going, freak?" growled a harsh voice from the alley.

"P-please...I didn't do anything," babbled the girl in a panicked rush.

"You slammed into me," the harsh voice snarled back. "Damn faunus! Thinking you can just have your way with me..."

"I-it was an accident!" blurted the girl. "I did-didn't mean to b-bump into you."

"I don't think you're being honest." The owner of the voice swaggered into view, a young man, roughly the same age as the girl he was harassing. He was a fair-skinned boy, with short, black hair, wearing a white shirt, black jacket, and black pants. For all that his voice sounded angry, he was grinning like he'd just found a favorite toy. "What do you think, guys? Think she's being sincere?"

A chorus of negatives echoed out of the alley, and a few other boys sauntered into view. They were dressed in outfits similar to the one leading the torment of the girl. Some of them had piercings or visible tattoos. For all that a few of them looked fairly well-built, there was no indicator that they had any combat training; typical civilian-school delinquents.

"Let's teach this trash what happens to animals who get pushy with their superiors," growled the boy, popping his knuckles dramatically.

"Get away from her!"

Ruby appeared between the boys and their target in a flurry of scattering petals, the suddenness of her appearance causing the boys to reel back in surprise, before stumbling back further as the billowing of Ruby's cloak revealed her sword behind her.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" snarled the leader, recovering from his surprise and glaring at Ruby. "Don't butt into other people's business. Get lost."

"I don't think so," said Yang, sauntering up, putting her impressive assets on full display with the expert sway of her hips and chest, smirking as the boys' eyes were immediately drawn to her breasts...almost hypnotically. "How about you jokers back off."

"Uh...I think these girls are Huntress students," one of the leader's lackeys whispered to him.

"Relax," he grunted to his friends with a smug smile of his own. "Beacon's got rules, you know. If a student uses her weapon on a civilian, she's just asking to be expelled. These two can't do a thing."

He looked forward, another taunt at the ready. However, his words came to a sputtering halt when he saw that Ruby was already ignoring him, instead turning to kneel beside the fallen faunus girl, her hand glowing with a gentle, red pulse of Aura that washed over the squirrel-faunus' body, healing the damage the girl had received, bruises fading away to nothing.

Yang, however, kept her eyes focused firmly on the gang members they were facing down. The leader of the group grinned, sauntering forward again to stand close in front of her, almost the point where they were face to face.

"So what are you gonna do, Hot Stuff?" he asked. "You gonna use your weapons, and get yourself kicked out of school? I bet you ain't such a big deal without those fancy, transforming weapons you people use. Maybe we'll have some fun with you too."

"You want to have fun?" asked Yang, grinning cheerfully as she raised her hands and began to pop her knuckles, imitating what the boy in front of her had been doing earlier. "I'll be happy to play with you."

As Ruby tended to the faunus girl, she ignored the sounds of fists against flesh, and the surprisingly high-pitched screams of the boys behind her as Yang thrashed them thoroughly, not needing to use Ember Celica against untrained civilians.

"Are you okay?" she asked the faunus girl, using her fingers and Aura to brush away one last bruise on the girl's cheek. "Did you get hurt anywhere else?"

"I'm fine now," said the girl.

"Good," said Ruby. "I'm Ruby. What's your name?"

"A-Ashley," said the girl in response. "Ashley Forrest."

"It's nice to meet you," said Ruby, offering Ashley a hand and pulling her to her feet.

By the time the two of them had stood back up, Yang was finished, standing over the sprawled forms of the delinquents.

"Y-you bitch!" coughed their leader. "W-we're gonna report you for this? You'll be out of Beacon in a heartbeat."

"Report her? Report her for what?" Sasame stepped past Yang and into the alleyway, sweeping her tail out and brushing it over the fallen boys, her Aura washing across their bodies, before fading, their bruises and injuries disappearing.

"Wha-what did you do?" demanded the leader, examining his body.

"I healed you," replied the girl simply. "Boys are such clumsy creatures after all. They fall down so easily. It was so funny to see all of you trip and fall at the same time."

"What are you talking about, freak?" snarled one of the other delinquents.

"Well, you seem adamant that my friend attacked you," said Sasame cheerfully. "But I don't understand how you can say that. I see no evidence of a fight after all. Just some silly boys who went and got themselves covered in dirt and grime. What were you going to report her for again?"

The delinquents shuffled back, intimidated and confused by the strangeness unfolding before them. "Y-you won't get away with this," growled their leader.

"Get away with what?" Sasame tilted her head quizzically, before her smile took on a malicious quality. "I have no idea what you're referring to. But you should be careful. If you end up being too aggressive and belligerent, you might wind up tripping again." Her smile widened considerably, somehow appearing cheerfully innocent and downright diabolical at the same time. "I'll happily heal you as many times as necessary, but you boys could wind up falling down quite a few times, before you find your balance."

Standing beside Sasame, Yang grinned and popped her knuckles again. "So boys, are you going to fall down again?"

From the look of anger on his face, it was clear that the leader of the group might have been willing to make another try. Unfortunately for him, his friends were not as enthusiastic and several of them were already backing away, back down the alley. Looking back, the leader took notice of it and then turned and glared at the trio of girls who had taken his intended victim away.

"Fine! Have it your way," he growled. "Filthy animal-lovers." He spat on the ground in front of Yang, who glared firmly at him and raised her fist, making him flinch away.

The gang of delinquents turned and fled down the alley, heading out the other end and disappearing around the corner.

"Th-thank you," stammered Ashley, staring at the three girls in awe.

"You're welcome," said Ruby. "Do you need to sit down?" she gestured to a bench a little further down the street.

"I think I'm okay," said Ashley, examining herself. "I...I uh..."

"Well...this is a little awkward," said Yang.

They didn't know this girl after all. Now that the immediate conflict was resolved, it seemed that no one really knew what to say.

"Why did you help me?" Ashley finally asked, looking between them. "Is it because your friend's a faunus?"

"She's more than a friend," said Ruby proudly. "She's my other big sister."

"Adopted," said Sasame, amused by the look of surprise on Ashley's face.

"Other...?" Ashley blinked.

"My original big sister is right there," said Ruby, gesturing over Sasame's head at Yang, who let out a tiny gasp and looked down, her cheeks turning red. "Well...half-sister actually," continued Ruby. "That's why we don't really look like we're related."

"Oh..." Ashley stared at the trio. "Adopted...?"

"That's right," said Sasame. "She asked if I could be her big sister and she agreed." She paused at the confused look on Ashley's face. "Well...'big' sister is a bit of a misnomer, I suppose. But I am a good bit older than her."

"But...why...why would a human and faunus do that?" Ashley wanted to know. The idea seemed completely foreign to her.

"Because she's awesome," said Ruby, gesturing to Sasame.

"Because she was the most adorable thing on the face of the earth, back then," said Sasame, gesturing back.

Ruby jolted and snapped her head around to stare, aghast, at Sasame. "I'm not anymore?"

"You traded in some of your cuteness for beauty," Sasame replied proudly. "You strike a very fine balance now."

"Oh..." Ruby blinked, wondering what that actually meant, but understood that Sasame was praising her all the same.

Ashley couldn't help it. Seeing the interplay between the two of them made her begin to giggle. She could tell they loved each other quite a bit. Then something occurred to her. "Wait!" She looked from Sasame and Ruby to Yang. "You're adopted sisters," she said, addressing Ruby and Sasame. "But she's not your sister?" She looked pointedly at Yang.

"It's...it's a bit complicated," said Yang with a sigh, running her fingers through her hair. "There was trouble at home, and Ruby ran away for a while. Sasame found her and took care of her. That's how they became sisters. I only met Ruby again and made up with her recently, so it's not as though I got adopted too."

"Well, we could change that," said Sasame cheerfully.

"Huh?" Yang whipped her head around to stare at Sasame in nearly perfect synch with Ruby. "What?"

"Would you like to be my younger sister too?" asked Sasame, beaming up at Yang.

"Uh...well...this is so sudden." Yang balked and blinked. She hadn't really expected this to come up and hadn't even given it much thought, honestly. While she knew better, and certainly didn't want Ruby to stop being Sasame's little sister, after Ruby and Yang had made up, Yang hadn't given any thought to the idea of Sasame extending her the offer of sibling bonds too. "I hadn't really thought about it."

"Well, the offer is open if you feel like it," said Sasame. "You don't mind, do you?" She turned to Ruby, who blinked and thought about it for a second, before shaking her head.

"I'll think about it," said Yang earnestly.

Ashley looked on in bemusement, understandably feeling removed from the events playing out in front of her. She had no idea what to make of this, humans and faunus claiming one another as family, and openly at that, even if it wasn't by blood.

"Is that why you helped me?" asked Ashley, looking at Ruby specifically. "You have a faunus sister?"

"Um...Well...sort of..." Ruby glanced down. "I grew up around a lot of faunus. But, really...it's not good to let people get away with doing something like that to other people. I don't care if they're humans or faunus."

Sasame beamed proudly, while Yang's expression was conflicted, her mind going back to that day in the cafeteria, last week, where Team RASP and RYNB had both watched CRDL picking on Velvet...but only Ruby had taken action. The rest of them had been fine to look on, perhaps express disgust or disapproval, but not actually act on that for a girl who was a stranger to them.

Sasame, sensing Yang's unease, gently brushed her tail over Yang's forearm, relaxing her. Sasame then turned her attention back to Ashley. "Is there somewhere specific you were heading? We could accompany you."

"Um...You don't have to..."

"Nonsense," said Sasame cheerfully. "While you are safe now, there's no guarantee that those boys aren't still hanging around and just waiting for us to leave."

Ruby said nothing, even though she sensed no sign of the delinquents. While her skill at sensing the Auras, unlocked or not, was not on par with Sasame, a pack of hostile jerks with no training to speak of, who'd never learned how to hide their presence, or even that hiding their presence was actually a thing they could do, would not have been able to get close enough to watch them without her noticing, especially since she'd been putting more work into keeping her awareness up all the time. But she was also reluctant to simply leave Ashley to her own devices. At the very least, Ruby wanted to be sure that Ashley got wherever she was going safely.

Ashley hesitated, uncertain of whether or not to accept the offer.

"If you really don't want us to, I won't pressure you," said Sasame. "But we just want to be sure you at least reach your destination safely."

That put Ashley at ease and she nodded slowly. "All right," she said, giving them a nervous smile. "I was heading back home from work." Uncertain of what else to do, she began to walk, her three new friends falling into step with her.

"You work around here?" asked Ruby.

"Yeah, in a flower shop a couple blocks that way," said Ashley, pointing over her shoulder.

They talked as they walked, Ruby, Sasame, and Yang learning a great deal about their new friend in the process. They learned that Ashley was a student at a school near the edge of the commercial district. It was actually a fairly well-respected school, which only accepted students who demonstrated a certain level of ability. Ashley had qualified for it, a rare feat for a faunus, making her only one of a small handful of her kind who attended that school. As it turned out, that wasn't a bad thing, not entirely. Most of her class appeared to see a faunus among their number as a novelty, rather than an affront, and treated her with respect, though she hadn't made much in the way of friends, so far.

On the weekends, she had a part-time job at the flower shop she'd mentioned. The owner was one of the few faunus who'd managed to set up a shop in the commercial district, his skill at his craft earning him a loyal customer base. The alley she'd fallen out of had been a shortcut she'd taken regularly, only, today, those delinquents had been hanging out there, and Ashley had provoked them when she'd tried to move around them.

Despite her initial reluctance, Ashley began to warm up to her escort before long, having always found the trip from her job to her home, in the Faunus Quarter, to be a stressful one. While she was rarely harassed, much less outright attacked, she got plenty of strange and dirty looks from the humans she passed along the way. While those looks didn't disappear in the face of her companions, it became a lot less troubling, now that she had company.

They arrived at the block of apartments in the Faunus Quarter, where Ashley lived with her family. There, they said their goodbyes.

"It was nice meeting you," said Ruby.

"Likewise," said Ashley. "Thank you for walking me home."

To Ashley's surprise, Ruby blushed slightly and looked down, scuffing her foot shyly. "What is it?" she asked.

"Um...Would you...would you like trade contact info?" asked Ruby bashfully.

"R-really?" asked Ashley, her eyes going wide and her own cheeks coloring as well. "Uh...Why?"

"B-because I really liked talking with you," said Ruby. "I'd like to do it again if we get the chance. Maybe we could get together and hang out."

"Y-you mean...like friends?" asked Ashley.

"Yeah!" said Ruby, balking at the eagerness in her own voice and backtracking. "I mean...if it's all right with you."

Ashley hesitated for a second, the blurted out, "I'd love to!"

"Great!" exclaimed Ruby, while Yang and Sasame looked on proudly.

The girls traded their scroll contacts with one another, Yang joining in, asking Ashley to call her if those delinquents ever gave her trouble again. Afterwards, Ruby and Yang realized that they were running fairly late, getting back. They would either need to run to catch an airship to Beacon before the dining hall closed or find a place to eat and in Vale. They quickly said their goodbyes to their new friend and set off, debating what to do.

Ashley watched them go, a giddy smile on her face. The smile remained as she made her way up the stairs, and unlocked the door to her apartment. Entering, she traded greetings with her parents, her mother making dinner, as usual. The topic of what had happened and Ashley's new friends would come up during the meal. But that was for later. At the moment, Ashley entered her room and shut the door.

Leaning against the door, Ashley let out a slow breath, her smile fading. Reaching into the back pocket of her pants, she pulled out what her employer had given her that day. It was a simple pamphlet of white paper, folded over. Unfolding it, Ashley stared at the red lion's-head design, over a series of three parallel slash marks. Taking the pamphlet in her hand, she held it out over her room's wastebasket. She hesitated for a long moment then, slowly, pulled her hand away and sighed, the pamphlet still pinched between her fingers. Opening the drawer of her desk, Ashley slipped the pamphlet between a few other things she had in the drawer and closed it.