The next day came.
And it went.
Because the first half was spent rather uneventfully.
Rio had gone through his usual routine: waking up early, going through his sword exercises for a few short hours, showering, etc. After that, he then decided against the cafeteria in favor of returning to the dorm kitchen to once again make a pleasant breakfast for both him and Aisha.
He hadn't even run into anyone.
Well, no one he knew.
After all, walking through the halls and such, Rio did still garner the occasional glance, which as always, he weathered the best he could.
Still, with the food prepared, he had returned to his room, where him and Aisha had enjoyed it.
Normally, this would be around the time classes started, but, of course, they were cancelled for the duration of the Vytal Festival. So instead, Rio decided to use the time to attempt to learn more about this world.
In other words, he headed back to the library.
At least, up until the point Rio had actually ran into someone on the way.
Several someone's even.
Of course, by that, the white haired boy meant that he had turned a corner and saw a dead-on-his-feet Jaune leading around his, for some reason, still visiting family, and suddenly...
Rio found himself stumbling upon the epiphany that he really, really, did not want to walk the rest of the way down that hallway.
So, with a face devoid of expression, the boy turned on his heel.
Yes; he could always visit the library another time, after all. With that decision, Rio instead quietly spent time in his room, practicing circulating magical essence through his body.
Incidentally.
Soon, it was time for the day's doubles matches, and among others, Rio watched Weiss and Yang's match from the stands, against the two members of a 'Team FNKI', a boy and girl duo that gave them quite the challenge...
Still, the blonde and white haired members of Team RWBY managed to win, securing their way into the singles bracket.
All in all, it was good news, and it went without saying that they were happy.
Very happy, even.
"Booyah! See that, Rio. Didn't I tell you we'd make it?" Yang asked, dropping in a seat, but not before, habitually, impacting his shoulder with the kind of force that the white haired boy simply refused to believe she used against aura-less civilians.
Which, technically, Rio was.
Forcing out a smile despite his muscles slightly screaming in protest, Rio gave his reply to the girl.
"Yes, I remember."
They were in one of Beacon's many lounge rooms. 'They,' referring to not only Team RWBY and Rio, but also Team JNPR... as well as two others; all of which were sitting at a very large round table.
Actually, everybody else had taken to sitting.
Rio had opted out for the time being, but only so he could go to a particular corner of the room, where a familiar contraption resided.
Well, familiar enough.
As far as coffee machines go, this one was pretty substandard. In other words, it was more in line with what he had been used to on Earth all that time ago.
A simple, easy to use drip coffee maker where pretty much the only ingredients were pre-made coffee powder and water boiled in a kettle.
Rio reached for the device.
Only, he paused for a beat. "...Would anyone else like a cup?" he asked over his shoulder, goodnaturedly. "I don't mind brewing several."
"Ah, no thank you, Rio," Pyrrha said kindly, looking his way.
"I'm good," Jaune said lazily, head slumped over the wood of the table.
...Again.
No, the boy looked exhausted.
"I'll take one, if you're offering," Weiss said, in a very polite tone.
"Me as well," Ren said simply.
"Ah, me too, Rio. But only if you add heaps of milk, cream, and sugar. Like, loads," Ruby said, stretching her small arms for emphasis.
"That's not even coffee anymore, little sis," Yang muttered with a sigh. "Ah, and yes for me, Rio. Thanks a bunch."
Nora opened her mouth.
"I'll take—"
"Nora will not be having any."
Nora blinked.
Then whirled.
"Oh, come on Renny! It's already been like forever. Can't you just let it go?"
"Nora, with just one shot of espresso, you caused tens of thousands of lien in property damages and had a shop full of people screaming in terror. After which, it took three Huntsmen and twelve police men to bring you down. No, I will not be 'letting it go'.
...Eh? Rio's movements froze reaching for the cups, face going blank.
"...But, like, Ozpin said he totally handled it, right?" Nora muttered, pouting, and with eyes elsewhere.
"Yeah, he did," Blake deadpanned without looking up from her book. "To which he then followed up with the condition that you were banned from drinking coffee."
A silence occurred.
"No coffee for Nora, Rio," Ren said again.
"Renny, you suck."
"I can live with that."
"...Understood," Rio said after a beat, a strange expression now on his face. No, how else was he supposed to react to hearing all that at once? Nonetheless, he turned around, that is, to face the table. Three people had yet to answer, after all.
"...Oh, um, sure," Blake said, suddenly looking up from her book with a blink. Then, after a beat, "...Thanks, Rio."
Rio nodded, before glancing at the two remaining members of their group. Having pulled up seats next to the table, two boys met his stare, boys that before had been strangers he saw in passing, but now that they had been properly introduced via Team RWBY...
"Nope. I'm good, man," Neptune Vasilias said with an easy smile.
"Same here. I'm good," Sun Wukong parrotted after a beat, and similarly, with an acknowledging look the boy's way.
Rio smiled pleasantly and nodded back, before turning back around, and a few seconds passed before his next words came out in a murmur, if only to himself. "...Weiss, Ren, Ruby, Yang, and Blake, then."
Incidentally...
Rio didn't see what saying that did to everyone's expressions. They blinked.
"...Uh, wait, you caught all that dude?" Sun asked after a beat, a bit mollified.
Rio, having already begun the task of putting the water on to boil and waiting for it, paused briefly, slightly inclining his head backwards. "Huh? Oh... yes? It's just simple memorization, right? Nothing special."
Yang snorted, before shaking her head.
"Hey, don't mind our role model in modesty over there, boys. We're still working on how to get him to accept compliments and brag... you know, like a normal teenager. Well, both him and Pyrrha."
"I... I can brag," Pyrrha murmured.
"When you can say that without looking like you were just told to punch someone's granny in the face, I'll believe you."
"Crude. And don't you dare infect Pyrrha anymore than you already have, Xiao Long. Even more so with Rio," Weiss told Yang. "His gender already knows how to be obnoxious enough... no offense," she said after a beat, giving a sweeping glance at Jaune, Ren, Neptune, and Sun.
"Uh... some taken, actually," Jaune said with a blink, while Ren just shrugged.
Neptune, however, tugged at his collar and coughed for some reason.
"None taken," Sun said instead, grinning. "Besides. True men don't need to brag. Actions speak louder than words. There's nothing more cool than being humble. Right, Rio?" With way too much enthusiasm, Sun gave a thumbs up the white haired boy's way.
"...Haha." Back still turned, Rio could only force a laugh and a smile for a bit. Of course, after which, he immediately killed it, silently continuing with what he was doing.
"Oh, but thanks for inviting us to hang, you guys," Neptune said, his arms crossing over the backrest of the chair he had slipped into. "I mean, I would say it's because we're just that cool, but I'll reserve judgment on that until after our own doubles match. You know, for when we win."
"When? Not if?" Weiss casually threw out from the table, not even looking at the boy, but stabbing her plastic fork into the fruit salad she was snacking on, beginning to chew.
Neptune noticeably winced. "...W-Well, fair enough, I guess," he said.
Right.
There was still some, not quite tension, but something close to it, concerning Neptune and Weiss. And very much not the good kind. Everyone could see it.
Well, almost everyone.
Because regardless of the air turning slightly prickly behind him... wordlessly, Rio's face continued to remain neutral as he began the process of pouring coffee into cups.
"Hey, nothing wrong with a little confidence," Sun said quickly, and with a bit of a stifled laugh. "Gods knows we'll need it, what with—"
Suddenly, someone's scroll started buzzing loudly on the table, and it gave most everyone in the room pause.
It was Blake's.
The girl had been still quietly reading of course, only to fold the ear of the page she was on... picking up the device and glancing at it.
Unblinkingly at first.
But then Blake's face froze.
Seconds later, she was standing up. "...I have to take this," the girl murmured distractedly, already on her way towards the exit.
That snapped the room out of their funk.
"You... uh, good, Blakey?" Yang asked, trying for a smile, but failing to completely mask the trace amounts of concern. And she wasn't the only one. Whether it was worry, curiosity or simply vague interest, they all were the same as they stared at the girl.
Rio also stopped what he was doing, casting an inquisitive glance backwards.
But... that was why it was slightly surprising when Blake turned towards them all with what was unmistakably a very warm smile.
"...Yeah," she breathed out, tone soft as could be. "I'm okay. Just... good news. Really good news. Better... better than I thought."
Then, with that same smile still present, Blake aimed it somewhere else for a spell. Or rather, at someone else.
Huh?
But then that was it.
Without a single word more, the cat-girl was already gone and out the door.
And, still half turned around, a perplexed Rio could only tilt his head. Then, he paused, and something that could have passed for realization flickered in those orange red eyes of his.
—"I want to talk to them again. Mom, Dad."
Oh...
Seconds later, and with a ghost of a smile on his face, the white haired boy was loading many cups of coffee onto a plate, and walking to the table.
"...Okay. That was weird," Nora commented as Rio passed her, first handing off Ruby her drowned in sugar coffee, to which he received a grinning, "thanks," followed by several more after placing the plate on the table.
But back with Nora, she had been, amusingly, quite seriously popping bubble wrap with deadly determination for the past few minutes. Now, she was staring at the doorway where Blake had left, face blank.
"She probably just has her own things going on, Nora. Same as everybody," Ren pointed out, now sipping his coffee.
"Blake isn't everybody Renny," Nora said with emphasis, slapping his arm, resulting in a splash of coffee landing on his bare skin.
Ren didn't even flinch.
Nora continued, throwing her hands up in the air dramatically. "Don't you know? Secrets and her go about as well as, I dunno, pineapple on pizza!"
"Pineapple on pizza is delicious though?" Jaune uttered, one eyebrow raised.
A terrifying silence occurred.
That was the only warning Jaune received before Nora leapt across the table, bringing the suddenly screaming blond to the ground, much like how a starving hyena would its prey. "Take that back! Take that back right this instant, you filthy man!"
"Nora, get off him," Ren said tiredly. Then, after a beat, "...Actually, Jaune, just take it back. You know how she feels about pineapple on pizza."
"N-Never," Jaune rasped out. "And do you think this is new to me...!? I'll have you know I'm used to being beaten up by girls—oh gods, why did I tell all of you that?"
"Hmph. Your strangely pitiful childhood has no bearing here, fearless leader," Nora said, voice eerily calm, like she was some sort of supervillain? "For liking pineapple on pizza, you have chosen death."
Coughing once, Weiss spoke past the violence now happening on the floor.
"Well, Nora's first point still stands. Blake's secrets usually involve the White Fang, and that usually leads to an encounter with them," the girl commented. After which, she took a sip of her own coffee. Weiss blinked, and then she took another.
"Nah," Yang suddenly said, hand propped against her cheek, tapping her cup with one finger. "Girl was way too mellow. She'd be hella tense if it was the White Fang. And I didn't see blood shot eyes and the gaping hate boner. Did you?"
"...Crude. Again," sniped a sour looking Weiss, glaring at Yang, while Ruby and Pyrrha both flushed.
"Which leaves only one option," the blonde girl continued, unabashed, and now grinning. "She's probably got a secret boyfriend~."
They stared at Yang, deadpanned looks filling the room in abundance. Ah, but not Sun. No, the boy looked like he had been shot.
Shot and then spit on.
"But sis..." A hesitant Ruby spoke up, looking at Yang with a slight tilt to her head. "That's... what you say every time someone has a secret."
"Well I've got to be right eventually, don't I!?"
Weiss shook her head with a sigh.
Meanwhile...
Pyrrha had a very odd smile on her face. Ruby put on an expression that said she was now very much unfazed by her sister's antics. Nora, after getting off of a not quite dead Jaune but close, found her way back to her seat, justice apparently dispensed.
...With a groaning Jaune soon following.
Ren just wordlessly went about handing Nora back her bubble wrap, which the girl took with a grin.
But back with Sun, while inwardly still kind of worried about that boyfriend comment, the blond boy just looked amongst everyone and thought not for the first time that these two teams were very strange.
Then he shrugged, smiling.
"Oh, that's right," Neptune suddenly said, snapping his fingers. "That reminds me. Hey, Rio, Sun wanted to know if you have a thing for Blake."
Crash.
That was the sound of a metaphorical piano abruptly and without warning crashing into not only Sun's head, but the heads of each and everyone present, and at breakneck speeds.
The room instantly fell silent.
And it really was quite strange.
Because, instantaneously, even with nearly a dozen people present, all chatter ceased, and it didn't even take a second for blank-faced surprise to wash over each and everyone's faces like a wave.
Sun, of course, looked like he had once again been shot. Or, at the very least, the nearest equivalent, slapped across the face with a sock full of bricks.
And it was with that kind of expression that the boy turned, movements stiff as could be, towards the blue haired Neptune, mouth agape.
Now... it was hardly a secret that a certain monkey faunus had a thing for a certain cat-girl on Team RWBY. And the girl in question not even being in the room with them definitely saved Sun from having a meltdown.
But even so.
There was a huge difference between everyone silently knowing something and respectfully skirting around the issue, and then this, blurting out the kind of statement that all but implied it, and for all to hear.
Well.
For 'one' to hear.
So...
Eyes wide, the still bewildered members of Team RWBY and JNPR could only silently stare at the blue haired boy that had spoken, at the still stun-locked blond haired boy right beside him, and then finally, the person Neptune's question-but-not-a-question was aimed at.
But...
Sitting by himself on a nearby couch with, as usual, enviable posture, and with a sip of coffee halfway to his mouth, a white haired boy could only pause, blink a few times, to which an unrealistically long silence occurred.
And it was only then, with a strange expression on his face, that Rio unceremoniously lowered his cup.
He opened his mouth.
But nothing came out.
"Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!!!" Sun wailed instead, rounding on Neptune, pure unadulterated distress crisscrossing the length of the blond's face.
"H-Haha, you know that? That's my bad. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but, you know, I thought I'd just throw it out there. Rip off the bandaid. I mean, you wanted to know, didn't you...?"
"Nah, man," Sun said with emotion, shaking his head, left and right, over and over again. "Nah, nah, nah. That was seriously not cool."
Again, Blake wasn't even in the room, but still, Sun's face was red. No, if he had animal ears like her, they would definitely be drooping. Although, since he didn't, he looked like he would just settle for sinking to the floor.
He didn't though.
But that was only because Sun also looked like he wanted to close the distance and throttle his teammate.
Thus, it made perfect sense that Neptune, with a steadily growing nervous smile on his face, looked like he was more than ready to bolt out of his chair at any second.
Still, Sun stifled the urge.
Because, as one would imagine, he had other things to worry about. Namely, the belated reaction of one Rio Amawaka, whose gaze was and had been staring at the wall, then the ceiling, and then finally, Sun himself, and with a look that was now calm.
And honestly?
To Sun, that was kind of terrifying.
He had seen the opening Ceremony, after all. Or rather, he had seen the one versus four fight in which the white haired teenager in front of him had that same look on his face as he absolutely demolished adult huntsmen nearly twice his age.
"...Sun," Rio eventually said, with not only a short sigh, but a sudden half-smile... this time forgoing the odd use of 'Mister' that had been used when they met. And, while Sun had preferred that at the time, now, hearing his first name spoken in such a halting way...
Sun gulped.
"Y-Yeah?"
"I don't have feelings for Blake, Sun," the white haired boy said simply, easily even, and the monkey faunus on the other end of them just kind of froze for a second.
Because it was spoken with the kind of concise and deliberate tone an adult used when talking with a child far younger. "...O-Oh," Sun said, a bit delayed. "C-Cool. That's, um... yeah. That's... that's really cool."
Sun had quite the look on his face.
Meanwhile...
"...Wait, that's it? No dramatic question back? No angst ridden reaction? No flashback to a tragic backstory that's a whole episode long?!"
"Yang..." Ruby sighed.
Beside her, Weiss' eye was twitching.
"Yeah, yeah!" Nora chanted a step behind. "Where's the depth?! The passion!?"
Ren silently shook his head.
Jaune just blinked, still bewildered.
That left Pyrrha to smile, unable to pretend she wasn't amused.
"...I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're saying," Rio half said, half asked, a perplexed smile lighting up his features.
"Ignore them," Weiss said instead, giving Rio an approving glance. "Not everyone needs to react in such an immature way to an already immature question. I commend the way you handled that, Rio."
Neptune winced, again.
Rio just blinked.
"Thank... you?"
The conversation continued after that, at least, up until the return of Blake, to which prompted Sun to immediately go as still as could be, and as quiet as a mouse.
The others too, to a degree.
Not that Blake even noticed. She just returned to both her seat and book... just with a quiet little smile on her face.
And, if anyone noticed and started to draw their own conclusions as to the identity of that smile, no one pointed it out. Not even Yang. She wanted to. But she didn't.
Still; there were close to a dozen people in that room, and it was only natural that chatter started up again.
And whether that was Nora and her never ending supply of things to talk about, Weiss chiding Ruby on whether she completed a certain assignment yet, or even a still dismayed Jaune making an inaudible comment to Pyrrha, and the girl having to bring a hand to her mouth to hide her smile.
Regardless.
Like always, the light in the sky began to wane, and night inevitably fell, with students retiring to their rooms one after another.
Just like that, another effortlessly ordinary day at Beacon had come to an end.
But not without excitement.
After all, the singles bracket of the Vytal Festival Tournament was now being finalized, and whether people were a part of it or not, hopes were burning bright all the same.
Of course, no one actually knew what tomorrow would bring.
But that mystery was also exciting, was it not?
Yes.
Now...
...If only such a beautiful and fairy-tale-like sentiment could actually last in a world as ugly as this one.
...
...
...
"...You have an important decision before you, Miss Nikos. There's no guarantee this transfer will work. And there's no telling if you will be the same person if it does. I advise you to take time on this matter. But understand that before the Vytal Festival is over, we will need your answer."
The beautiful girl with red hair and armor, the one dressed like some warrior princess; she didn't respond.
No, Pyrrha found that she couldn't.
Her mouth felt far too dry.
And her surroundings, too... Professor Glynda Goodwitch, Headmaster Ozpin, General James Ironwood, the man named Qrow Branwen; they all just continued to stare at her, and it only seemed to further sharpen the severity of the situation pressing down on her from all sides.
Just hours prior, she had been smiling and exchanging jokes with her friends. Talking about the future. They had been looking forward to it.
So.
Why did that now feel so unfathomably distant?
With a raised hand, Pyrrha slowly turned back to the glass, where the thin barrier was the only thing that separated her from the unresponsive brown haired girl on the other side.
A... maiden.
Someone with power... straight out of a fairy tale. Literally. And, who, she, Pyrrha Nikos, would potentially replace.
Or...
The crimson haired girl swallowed.
...Am I the one that's going to be replaced?
It was an unexpected destiny.
One Pyrrha couldn't say she had been prepared for, and not at all where she thought she would end up. But, it was also something that could help countless people by accepting.
And wasn't that why she wanted to become a huntress? To become more than what she was? To become more than the Mistralian girl whose face was known by all but somehow truly reached absolutely no one?
The choice should be obvious.
It was a good thing.
Except...
That didn't change what Pyrrha saw on that glass coffin. That of her own scared expression, reflected on the marred face of a dying girl.
It had long passed midnight.
Not much was said after that. Glynda took to walking the troubled teenager back down the long hallway, and the blonde teacher did her best to hide just how complicated her own expression was.
With a brisk turn, a silent Ironwood turned to follow them.
Qrow cast a brief look at Amber, then Ozpin, before slinking off as well.
And.
That just left the headmaster.
Ozpin, no, Ozma, just continued to stare at the motionless girl, and with eyes that somehow contained each one of his many, many, years. "...Your nightmare is almost over, Amber," he murmured, the only words he could say.
No.
The only words he could think to say.
And, he hated himself for that.
Even more so when he, too, turned away.
Seconds turned into minutes after that, and soon, there was no one left.
Just that girl.
That single girl within her glass deathbed.
...And that was why what happened next didn't make any sense.
The very air in front of her Amber's life support container suddenly distorted. No, it shimmered, and suddenly, where a single blink would have had one missing it, there was now someone standing not even a few feet away from the girl.
That someone wore a black cloak and hood, with just the slightest trace of dark hair that could be glimpsed from beneath it. Similarly, a small white mask could be seen resting over the top half of their face, and it hid the distinct orange and red blend of their eyes from view.
That said...
Rio let out a small breath.
Having dispelled the invisibility art that had cloaked him, he just gazed at the sight in front of him with a subdued expression.
After all, whatever it was he had expected when he had decided to follow those five down to this part of the school he hadn't even known existed...
It hadn't been this.