Rice: The Reckoning
Team RWBY (plus Summer) had decided that they would check up on Arthur, of course not because of any reason such as 'concern' or 'care', but because of a certain, unequippable ring that Ruby had attached to her finger.
Of course most of the team, wasn't exactly 'willing' to go to the infirmary so early in the morning, yet still, they somehow all agreed that they needed answers to the ring that wouldn't come off, even with dishwashing soap as lubricant.
Exhaustion could be seen on each of their faces, apart from Summer and Yang, one because she simply didn't seem to be affected by her nightly 'Grimm' hunting sessions and the other due to rage, her eyes glowing an ominous red, as she struggled in her restraints of a strait jacket, leather straps, a muzzle and chains for added security, if they weren't constantly releasing strange whines. Her only form of movement being the wheelchair she was being pushed around in.
"Is it a good idea to bring her?" Blake asked limply with large black bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep.
"Nope!" Summer replied enthusiastically
"Then why are you bringing her!?" A slightly less exhausted Weiss shouted in anger
"Because, it's fun." She bluntly stated getting twitched eyes in return from both Blake and Weiss
Ruby, apart from the other two teammates, much like her mother seemed to not have been affected by Yang's rampage, and instead looked to be nervous as she stood before the door to the infirmary room Arthur was in, hesitating if she should open it or not. Eventually turning back trying to escape down the hallway, only for her mother to appear before her white and red petals in her wake.
"Either you open it. Or I open it and drag you in." she stated not hiding the menace of a mother from her daughter.
Quickly turning around Ruby stood before the door once again. She raised her hand to grab onto the door handle, her hand flinching slightly before finally taking a deep breath, and grabbed the handle and slowly opened the door. Only for her to see Arthur, staring intently, at a golden bale, of something.
Arthur not noticing the arrival of the others moved up to the Bale of Inexhaustibility, noting that it stood about as high as his thigh, while having half that height in circumference. Lifting the lid of the basket Arthur came found his eyes attracted to the small white kernels of rice, pearlescent in lustre while also being slightly translucent. Picking up a handful of the rice Arthur let it flow through his fingers as he brought his hand up to his nose and took a deep breath finding that the rice even uncooked released a strangely mouth-watering scent.
Letting the rest of the rice fall back into the basket Arthur began to scratch his head as he muttered in confusion "The hell am I gonna do with this? Well, I can cure world hunger if I really felt like it…"
"Ruby? What's wrong was he getting dressed?" Summer asked as she watched her daughter freeze in front of the open door, not realizing it was in confusion and not embarrassment. Walking up to her daughter Summer placed her hand on her shoulder as she said "It's alright honey, you were going to see it eventually." She said sending a bright red wave over her daughters face.
"Oh, hey Summer, Ruby." Arthur greeted the two "Come in, come in." he offered. As he watched Ruby and her mother walk in with Weiss and Blake behind her, Blake of course was pushing the constrained Yang who, upon seeing Arthur began to struggle even fiercer than before, sending even more strained metal noises through the room.
"She's… not going to kill me. Is she?" Arthur asked uncertainly as he knew for a fact that Yang was going to kill him.
"What do you think?" Weiss snidely remarked, "Because of your godforsaken ring I haven't been able to get any sleep last night!"
Arthur perked up at the mention of the ring that had been stolen last night as he turned to Ruby who was sitting on a couch at the side of the room, hood covering her head, but not hiding her hands which now had a piece of red and black jewellery on it.
Even more metallic whines could be heard at the mention of the ring. Scaring Arthur as he saw that the chains wrapped around her were not your everyday chains, but full on industrial strength chains.
'Wait, didn't I…" Arthur suddenly thought of something that could possibly save his life, as he thought of his Tome, causing it to come flying through the air softly landing on his palm, automatically opening to the storage page as he selected a 'Calming Incense' and pulled it out of the right hand page from the image section.
"It can actually make stuff…" Blake muttered, incredulously as she stared at the nine inch long incense stick, that seemed to calm her mind as she smelled it, even when it was unlit.
"Anyone have a light?" Arthur asked, holding up the incense stick only to get strange, accusatory stares from Weiss and Summer.
"What!? It's an incense stick!" Arthur argued, getting slightly less accusatory stares that eventually faded away as Summer pulled out a lighter from her back pocket in the shape of a rose.
"Thank you." Arthur said as he lit the incense and placed it in a cup on his nightstand. Making sure to first bring the stick close to Yang's nose, letting her get a decent sniff of the calming smell the incense released. Causing her eyes to slowly return to their normal white and purple colouration, yet not hiding her anger as she glared unblinkingly at Arthur.
"Okay, and what was that?" Weiss asked as she inspected the purple incense stick that was capable of calming the Grimm of beacon from her rage.
"Calming Incense, apparently does what its name suggests if Yang is anything to go by." He answered, not explaining anything more about the stick.
"And did your book just make it?" getting a shrug from Arthur.
"Helpful."
"We can continue with that later." Summer said, staring at Arthur with squinted eyes as she spoke no further, successfully intimidating Arthur.
"Um, uh, haha, I-I take it the ring won't come off" Arthur began sweating as Weiss screamed "You knew!?"
"When Summer stole it, no. I didn't exactly get much time to say anything once she saw them" Arthur explained as everyone turned to Summer with accusatory stares causing her to wryly laugh as she turned her head up to the sky.
"That being said. I didn't know until it was too late."
"How did you not know until it was too late? It was written in your book wasn't it?" Summer asked as she shook off the glares of the others.
"Well, when you took the ring, it didn't say anything about it not being able to be taken off. That only appeared when I'm guessing Ruby put the ring on…" he answered as he turned to Ruby, who was no longer hiding beneath her cloak and was instead staring at the ground.
"Yes… she put the ring on…" Summer softly said, thinking she hadn't been heard. But saw that both Arthur's and Yang's heads snapped to her in shock.
"Anyways" Summer said moving on from the subject "How do we remove it? 'not that I'm going to let her'" Summer asked, muttering the last part of her sentence.
"Well, uh, that would be nullification of the contract…" he explained as he swore he saw a smile peek through Yang's muzzle.
"So, death or after a year?" Blake concluded
"Yeah, and if possible I would prefer to stay alive for a year before cancelling the contract." He said, causing Ruby to feel strangely downcast.
"Oh, Arthur dear. You act like I'm going to let you do that." Summer said with a wicked 'You're not going anywhere' grin.
"Anyways, what's with the basket? Whatever's in there smells really good." Blake asked slightly salivating at the mouth-watering smell.
"Oh, that's the Bale of Inexhaustibility." He answered
"The, Bale of inexhaustibility?" she replied
"Yes, what you said." He said as he pointed at Blake, tilting his head slightly. Causing her cheek to twitch at his lack of an answer.
"And, what is IN the Bale of Inexhaustibility?" she asked.
"Oh, an infinite amount of rice." Getting confused looks from everyone, including Yang who had finally calmed down enough to be released from the chains, not the strait jacket that stayed on.
"Did you just say…" Blake began
"An infinite amount of rice? Yes, yes I did."
Deciding to humour him Weiss asked "And why do you have an infinite bale of rice?" as she massaged her temples where a vein could be seen.
"Because, why… not?" he answered in mock confusion as he kept his naïve charade going. Specifically just to annoy the heiress.
"…" At this point Weiss's eye was constantly twitching as she screamed "As if we would believe there is an infinite amount of rice in there!" getting nods from most people in the room, except Ruby and Summer, who just blankly stared between the yellow bale and Arthurs book.
"Why, can't there be an infinite amount of rice in there? You don't know, maybe it's Schrödinger's Rice" he remarked causing Blake to take a spit take of non-existent water as she began chuckling, earning a glare from Weiss that shut her up instantly.
"I, you-you just can't! you can't just have an infinite amount of something! How would that even work! It is physically impossible to have an infinite amount of a resource" she argued, vein pulsing and cheek twitching.
"Pfft, who needs that. The Bale of Inexhaustibility don't need your petty physics." He said as he waved his hand in front of himself waving off her assertion. Causing the others to giggle, except Yang. Yang was still angry… just, less.
"Hey, if you don't believe me have a go. Honestly I'm having trouble believing it myself." He said as he held his hand out towards the golden bale of infinite rice. Getting a nod from her as she huffed and marched towards the bale, flinging the basket lid off and pouring out its contents onto the ground, causing an avalanche of rice.
"See! Not infinite!" Weiss yelled as she turned back towards the others with a proud, mocking smile.
"Uhh, Weiss." Ruby called out as she pointed towards the Snowballs feet in shock.
Turning her eyes downwards Weiss saw that she was currently knee deep in a pile of Pearlescent and translucent rice, that kept pouring out of the bale at a consistent rate, never seeming to run out.
"It. It's actually infinite…" Blake muttered as she stared wide eyed at Weiss who was frozen, waist deep in a pile of rice who snapped out of her daze as she quickly returned the bale to its upright position, preventing even more rice from falling out.
"See! I told you! Infinite! Rice! HA!" Arthur yelled triumphantly fist bumping the air.
"This. No. How?. That's not possible. You can't just…" Weiss began mumbling to herself, trying desperately to find the logic in the bale of infinite rice, as steam could be pictured coming out of her ears.
"I think you broke her…" Ruby added, finally talking for the first time since entering the infirmary.
"I see that" Arthur replied as he stared at Weiss who was now frantically digging through the bale, searching for something, anything that could bring logic into the equation.
"Where did you even get it?" she asked, her question being answered by Arthur who simply said "The book"
"Cream Puff?" he said as he held up a plate with a small tower of creampuffs on top of it as he had ended up buying 200 Akal worth of the delectable treat. Which surprisingly only cost 5 Akal per puff.
"Where did you…" Blake was about to ask but saw Arthur tilt his head and made a face that indicated 'You know where'. "Right, the book. What is it even?"
"I don't know…?" his voice cracking slightly at his lie.
"Right…" Blake said unconvinced.
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Alternate Chapter names: (Yes, I am stealing this from Einslion. Bite me.)
{Rice-school musical} {Schrödinger's Rice} {Rice Schnee} {Metal gear Rice-ing}
Yes, I do hate myself for my own puns. and yes, I will most likely be adding in a scene where someone calls Weiss, Rice. It seems appropriate at this point.