I can't draw. Covers all my bases, really.

Hey all, long time, I know, but this story NEVER did well in the polls, despite my hinting it would be the quickest to finish after Anything Goes Game Changer. So to combat this, sometime last September or thereabouts I decided to try and update this story on my patty-on-page via small, episode-style stories whenever HP won two of the three monthly polls.

Consider episode-type stories as TV shows where every thirty-minute segment tells a portion of the story, but you have to watch a few together to get the full tale. This has allowed me to continue it, though still slowly.

So much so that I have decided to end the story at a different point than originally thought. That, and… let's face it, I made mistakes with this fic. The whole 'no magic' thing, getting rid of Ranma's curse, and several others. It will still be finished eventually. Just not as neatly as I had hoped.

Beyond that, I'm going to state this outright to avoid any questions: I haven't seen anything beyond RWBY Season 2. If what I say about the geography of Mistral is off… well… I don't care. This is harsh but true. RWBY became so horribly predictable and just plain horrid after season 2 it isn't even funny, and everything I have heard of since has just fueled my disdain for the canon plot. Love the characters, love the weapons and fights, so much so that i get a little side tracked showing character interaction and fun stuff. But I hate the world-building.

This has now been edited by Hiryo and morte24. Thank them both for their hard work, please.

Chapter 19: Escapes, Parties, and Meetings

As the cargo ship drew closer to the docks, the crowd quickly became apparent, and it was every bit as large and noisy as Ranma and the others had begun to suspect after seeing the ships that had come out with people aboard to greet Pyrrha. It was so bad that no work was getting done throughout the sprawling docks, not in the more businesslike area where the ship was heading or the private area for smaller ships around the sides. Staring at the crowd, Ranma likened it to a few crowds he'd seen back in his old world in Japan when an idol group would be seen moving around the city or something.

Ren was shocked, while Nora was just staring, looking at the crowd, then up and beyond them at the city beyond. "Hmm… I might need a bit of juice for this one."

"Do it. And they even created banners," Jaune stared at several large banners whose writing he could make out even from here. Many of those banners were simple: we love you, Pyrrha, welcome back, that kind of thing. Others though…

Seeing one such banner fluttering in the breeze, Nora laughed, bouncing up and down as she pointed to it. "Look at that one! Someone hasn't gotten the memo about international cooperation, have they?"

The banner in question read out, 'Vale can go die. They weren't worthy of our Goddess!' Others in the crowd were more disturbing in a personal rather than a political sense. 'I love you, Pyrrha,' signs, and 'All hail our Virgin Goddess, who belongs to us all equally!' One of them even mentioned the fact she had apparently been beaten by Ranma in a spar. 'Still Invincible in our hearts, only trickery could ever have taken down our Goddess of Victory! All hail Pyrrha!'

"Yeesh. Are gladiators really that popular here?" Reading those signs, Ranma's earlier assumption of Pyrrha's near-idol status was being changed to super-idol status in his mind. And damn me, but some of those signs freak me the heck out! 'Belong to us all equally', what the heck is that supposed to mean?!

Pyrrha shrugged her shoulders, now letting her face shift to show how uncomfortable she was with all of this that none of her public was close enough to see. The smaller ships had long since broken away for their own docks, thanks to the first part of Ranma's plan, the bit of smoke that was slowly billowing from the back of the ship, which was why there was a group of emergency vehicles to one side of the crowd. "Well, yes. Before I was around, there was a middle-aged man named Agamemnon who had won the tournament twice in a row. He was lauded as the Old Warrior, the General and so forth, and I remember seeing news images of crowds for him much like these. So you can imagine how popular I became after winning the tournament four times."

Ranma shook his head. "I never got into the whole idol thing, and I really think this is kind of, well, dangerous." When everyone else looked at him. Ranma shrugged. "How would all those people react if anything happened to Pyrrha? The despair and sorrow would act like a beacon that the Grimm just couldn't ignore, regardless of any natural defenses the area might have."

Pyrrha winced at that, but this was a thought that she had had before. She just didn't know how to combat an entire culture that sanctified the idea of champions and the gladiatorial contests that birthed them. But then Ranma went on.

"I also prefer to see more people training rather than following if you understand what I mean. How many of those people would be willing to try and save themselves rather than wait for the mighty Pyrrha to save them? Ugh." Frankly, it always astonished Ranma how few people in this world understood how to fight at all, let alone had their Aura activated. Back home, being peaceful, normal, etc., was fine. Here, when there's a ravening threat to human existence right outside your city-states, oh, and those nations are more armed city-states than actual nations? Not so much.

"And of course, I also see it from Pyrrha's perspective. How much you want to bet that a lot of that crowd would be willing to, oh, I don't know, try to take pictures of her everyday life? Especially looking for anything they could use to gain popularity among her followers?" He smirked at Pyrrha. "Like what happened when you and I met."

"The paparazzi are a major problem, and one reason why I was so grateful to be accepted into Beacon Academy," Pyrrha admitted, although she refused to be drawn on the rest of Ranma's statement.

"Well, regardless, we don't need to deal with this crowd." Ranma squeezing her hand, then back to the contraption he had built, then the distance to the rest of the city out past the port before nodding. "Nora, you're up."

The hammer wielder gleefully saluted, then raced down into the ship. Soon, more black smog began to rise from the main cargo hatch and several rents in the ship's sides and deck, not just at the back of the ship, and worse, this was far darker smoke than before. To the laymen, like the crowd waiting for them, this meant it signified a worse problem.

As this happened, the crew on deck were all looking rather annoyed, but Ranma had asked their captain for his help in getting away from the crowds. And seeing how he feared Pyrrha's fans might storm his ship if Pyrrha was a little too slow getting off it, he had agreed. Now, seeing the police on the docks only amounted to a dozen scattered uniforms throughout the crowd, the captain knew he'd made the right decision.

"Oh, crap, there really is something wrong with the ship!" shouted someone in the crowd, and they began to back away from the dockyard, shifting this way and that to allow emergency responders to rush forward. Both fire trucks and ambulances had been waiting nearby just in case, not taking part in the crowds cheering, although many had wanted to.

Then as the ship slowed to a crawl against the dock and dropped anchor, the smoke bloomed outward, Nora rejoined her team. "Ready for part two of the operation, fearless leaders!"

"Well done, Sergeant Nora! And as for phase two, I volunteer to go first." Jaune saluted mockingly, stepping forward, as much as he could towards Nora's voice. Visibility was kind of bad right now, after all. "For those who are about to die, we salute you!"

Hearing that, Pyrrha nearly broke down into wild giggles, knowing that that was an old gladiatorial salute to the crowd, although it had fallen out of favor with the discovery of Aura. Then she did giggle as, the next second, Nora, who, on Jaune's command and now high on several batteries worth of electricity, lifted her hammer. "And smash!"

With Jaune balancing on the top, she whirled around, and as Jaune leaped into the air, putting his shield under his feet, the hammer smashed into the bottom of the shield, hurling the Arc boy up and away, bursting out of the smoke. A smoke, furthermore, that was started to turn pink, halting the first responders in confusion.

Seconds later, Jaune was in midair, using his shield almost like a surfboard, as he flew through the air in a very non-aerodynamic fashion. "No, no, oh god, this is going to hurt!" But contrary to his fears, Nora's initial attack had hurled him far enough to put the crowd well behind him. Soon Jaune crashed onto a rooftop, skidding along it on his shield. "Thank you for Aura, Two Brothers!"

With that, Jaune fell to one side, rolling along the rooftop to crash back first into a balustrade there. The stone cracked a bit, but thanks to his immense Aura reserves, Jaune was unharmed, his shield skidding ahead of his initial destination to similarly crash into another wall of the balustrade where it embedded itself. Shaking his head groggily, Jaune moved over to it, trying to pull it out only to fail, the shield's edge having wedged too far into the stone. "Note to self, never let Ranma plan anything non-combat related. Freaking pigtailed psycho."

Back on the ship, Pyrrha was next. Still giggling madly, Pyrrha tied her shield to her boots, then looked at Ranma and Nora, shaking her head, still giggling hopelessly. "You know this is crazy, right?"

"Ya got Aura, what's the harm?" Ranma quipped, winking at his girlfriend. Heh, girlfriend. Damn, but that's nice to think. No fiancé/fiancée thing, no honor obligations, just affection and, oh yeah, attraction. Heh. Lots of that.

The redheaded girl was still giggling as she hopped into the air, signaling Nora to launch her. Which Nora did, with another delighted battle cry of, "And smash!"

Out in the crowd, several people were still looking up, Jaune's dopplering voice and flight having grabbed their attention. Now they saw Pyrrha flying by as if shot out of a cannon, along with the accompanying clap of thunder. "Huh, I always knew our angel could fly," one of them muttered.

The rest were just shouting out various offshoots of, "Is that the Invincible Girl up there? What in the…!" Not nearly as interesting, but somewhat saner, perhaps.

The sound of Pyrrha's shout of, "I'm sorry!" echoed back to them while Pyrrha got her feet under her, skimming through the air like her shield was a surfboard. Her balance was up to this task unlike Jaune's, and as such, she was able to ride it farther than he was, although Pyrrha didn't realize this at first.

Soon Pyrrha saw a set of antennae and poles in the distance deeper into the town and further up the inner face of the caldera. Pyrrha reached out towards them with her Polarity power, one hand outstretched. The other was at her side, using the same power to keep her shield under her feet.

A few moments later, she landed, hopping daintily off her shield, reaching down and scooping it up to her back before she stared around her in consternation. Whatever else could be said for Nora, she wasn't very good at aiming. Pyrrha couldn't see any sign of Jaune out there, which was an annoyance. He was her partner, after all. Then she saw a glint of something and finally spotted Jaune holding his sword in the air. She waved, and the sword signaled back, and Pyrrha had a moment to make a note of the direction before there was a third booming sound from the port, barely heard from this far away.

As he took his turn to be shot out from the Nora Cannon (patent pending), Ren would surely have agreed with Jaune as, not for the first time, he felt himself being launched through the air by Nora's hammer. "All trajectory and distance, bang on!" Nora howled in delight.

Ren was unused to using a shield, even though Ranma had given Ren his. But unlike Jaune, he didn't panic once in the air, instead following Ranma's instructions on how to control himself in midair. Ren first kept his arms close to his body and the borrowed shield facing downward, skimming through the air until Ren felt the initial impetus start to peter out. Then he reached down and flipped himself, grasping onto the shield by the straps with both hands. Then he flipped it onto his back, at which point Ren started to thrust out his arms and legs, then rolled through the air, thrusting out his limbs at set intervals.

And as planned, Pyrrha was able to follow his trajectory and reached for him. Grabbing at the metal of the shield and Lotus flower, Pyrrha was able to drag Ren sideways, pulling him down and towards the right. From this angle Pyrrha's power wasn't strong enough to pull Ren all the way to her, but she could put him down near Jaune. "That is good enough, I suppose," she muttered, sticking out her tongue in concentration, sweat beading down her brow. At that point, she smiled. Hmm, long-distance, large-scale control, yes, I think I just found another means of training my power! How to go about it will be tough. Still, as Ranma says, anything can be training.

Back on the ship, Nora had shrunk Magnhild to its smallest form and was now clasping her beloved to her chest as she moved into a makeshift sling that Ranma had created. "This is going to be awesome! The only thing better than flying would be to land in a pancake store! Oooh, can you aim this thing?"

Shaking away a feeling of pride and comradeship towards Pyrrha that had just passed over him, Ranma chuckled as he pulled the contraption back. Only someone with his strength would've been able to do this. The thing was rickety, raggedy, made of rope wire and several large bits of tortures metal, more resembling a catapult than a sling, whatever Nora called it. The neck portion was bent backward, and Ranma winked at Nora. "Heh, you wish, I don't know this town well enough to know where one of those are, ya pancake addict. Ready?"

"For what I am about to do, I am truly thankful!" Nora shouted back, and Ranma let go.

The catapult, the metal band groaning under Ranma's strength, flicked forward, hurling Pyrrha through the air just as the last of the pink smoke finally dissipated. For a moment, it looked for all the world like someone had set up a catapult on the ship and was about to attack a castle with a Nora rather than a rock.

Her shout of, "Woohoo!" halted any such thoughts.

Midair, Pyrrha flipped herself upward, Magnhild coming up off her chest and changing to its polearm version, allowing Nora to stand on its head where it met the shaft. Once her feet were firmly on the metal, Nora fired her grenade launcher several times more, sailing through the air under her own power towards where she could see Ren waving his hands at her. She could also see Pyrrha, and Nora waved back to Ren before changing her trajectory towards Pyrrha. After all, Ren's got Jauney with him, so the P and N need to get together too!

Seconds later, Nora could feel the moment when Pyrrha began to use her magnetic powers to help her dissent, and soon the hammer rider landed next to the other girl, slowing her dissent with another smash of her hammer, then landing on her feet, grinning at the smiling Pyrrha. "Let's do that again!"

Just then, Pyrrha's scroll went off, and she sighed. "Of course, I should have known someone would try to call and ruin our fun."

"Ooh poo!" Nora pouted before checking her own scroll. "It's only yours, though."

"Ugh. That means it might be my parents. I think I'd rather talk to the Council," Pyrrha grumbled, only to curse those words a moment later as the images of the Mistral Council appeared on her Scroll's screen.

The men on the other end immediately began to remonstrate with her for leaving the port in such a manner. In their eyes the crowd had been a perfect PR opportunity, which was, though they didn't come out and state it, was part of why they had wanted Pyrrha – and her team, of course, to come to Mistral in the first place.

But Pyrrha had been couched on this point by Ranma on the days after they had officially gotten together. Ranma was fine with Pyrrha keeping her public persona going, playing to the crowds and whatnot. However, he was in no way willing to let Pyrrha keep being a pushover for the powers that be. So after a few moments, Pyrrha broke into their harangue in a manner most unlike the Pyrrha Nikos they thought they knew. "Counselors, I became a huntress to fight Grimm, not be some kind of poster girl for the gladiatorial arenas! So if you're not going to talk about my report to you on how fraught the journey here was, we are done here."

All four of Team JNPR and Ranma had sent in reports about what they had run into when their scrolls were within range of the CCT. Ranma's had been the most thorough, but since they were acting as if they were full-fledged Hunters on this mission, JNPR had been forced to write their own.

That statement stunned silence to the group chat, but one of the counselors at least had enough presence to realize that Pyrrha was in no mood to deal with them right now. And he also knew that the report was indeed important, more important than Pyrrha messing up a fantastic PR moment. After all, it was a fantastic PR moment, not just because she's coming home but because of what occurred on their trip.

"I suppose you are right, Ms. Nikos. For now, explain to us the moment right before the Grimm attacked. There was no upswelling of sorrow, anger, fear or any other…" he paused, fumbling for words. "I, it just… Grimm don't act like that! To swarm like that, they have to be provoked, be incited by negative emotions. But your report says nothing on that score."

"Because there was nothing on that score to report," Pyrrha shrugged. "You're free to call my teammates and even talk to Ranma or the captain of the ship. There was no sudden shift of the emotions aboard the ship, no sudden fear or horror before the Grimm began their attack. Indeed, there was hardly any warning at all."

"Perhaps some local upsurge in their numbers pushed them to the surface?" a second councilor spoke up, while their fellows took a bit longer to get over their huff at Pyrrha's outspoken refusal to dance to their tune any longer.

Pyrrha shrugged ignorance at that, then went into detail about the types of Grimm that they had seen. They had covered that in the reports, of course, but she wished to emphasize these points before the councilors could try to push it to one side.

The news of the two S-class Grimm made the councilor's shades visibly flinch, an idea made worse by the fact they had seemingly been working together. That was bad, especially considering the type of S-class Grimm involved. Even within that grade, there was a wide variety in type and ability, and the Leviathan was almost as dangerous as the Dragon-class, a type of Grimm that had spelled the doom of nations in the past.

Yet the councilors refused to come to the same conclusion that Ranma had shared with team JNPR: that they had been targeted by the Grimm specifically. That was a worrisome thought on many levels and one the Council refused to contemplate. Instead, they kept on going on about how perhaps the children on the ship had been full of fear for some reason or something like that, some more blasé reasoning behind the attack. Something had to attract the Grimm. Any other conclusion was unthinkable.

For Pyrrha, it was almost amusing to watch, although she kept that out of her face. Ugh. And these people are supposed to my nation's leaders? I suppose they must have some redeeming qualities, but the courage to face the truth isn't one of them. It's sort of what like watching an ostrich slowly stick his head into the ground, thinking thoughts of, 'I'm not here you can't see me!'

She was broken out of her rather amusing thoughts of the councilors secretly being ostriches by one of them saying, "It is a shame that your weapon was demolished, although for the head of an S-Class Grimm it was a small price to pay. Still, we'll introduce you to several experts' smiths, you can choose among them. Indeed, we can make a production of it."

"An excellent thought. After all, while the Invincible Girl's team is here for the mission… upriver… there's no reason we can't make some public hay from it right away," another counselor enthused, making certain not to actually speak about the mission in question over the scroll for some reason. Nora made a note of that, thinking maybe this mission might actually be important rather than the shitshow she had feared. "We'll send you a list of times and dates, Ms. Nikos, public appearances and such like, as well as the addresses of several of the blacksmiths that can make your new weapons for you. The first will be later tonight."

Pyrrha's teeth ground together, but despite Ranma's training, she still felt the instinctual response of malleable obedience bubbling to her surface, a lifetime's training of doing what she was told and being kind coming to the fore, her new spine having been overused during this conversation. But before Pyrrha could speak, Nora pushed her face into the pickup of the scroll. "Sorry! But we're not going to be doing any of that kind of thing. We're Huntresses, remember! We've got a job to do. And right now, our job is to fill our bellies with some good food that isn't fish! See you."

Before any of the counselors could say anything, Nora had closed Pyrrha's scroll and then very deliberately went into the controls, turning off its ability to receive calls before putting it in her own bag, a slim thing that was always on her back. You're not getting that back," she said firmly as Pyrrha opened her mouth to remonstrate with Nora for her rudeness.

The redhead then closed her mouth and smiled shyly. "Thank you. I'm sorry I'm not quite as good as I hoped about, well, standing up for myself."

"Not a problem," Nora laughed. "You come to Jaune, me or Ranma when you need someone to be rude. We'll do it with smiles on our faces. Honestly, have any of those people ever actually met you? To think you'd be happy to go to some super-popular, super-expensive, super-self-important smithy rather than your Aunt's!"

"Er, some of them have met me once or twice, at parties my parents started to hold after I became famous. Still, you're right. They want to turn my weapons into just another advertisement. Still, it's not the first time they've tried that. They will get over it eventually." Pyrrha looked around, then gesture up towards the next layer of the city. "Let's put some more distance between us and the port. The further away from it we are, the…"

"Nope, I don't think so," Nora shook her head as she interrupted Pyrrha, pointing at a small pouch at Pyrrha's side as she held up a large bottle of water. "Come on, you're just putting it off."

Pyrrha scowled but opened the pouch. Inside was a small clear container holding a kind of thick, heavy goop. Ranma had given it to her, saying it would change her hair color to brown for several hours. "It smells so bad! Ranma said the stench would go away when we mix it with water, but… do I have to?" she almost whined. Pyrrha really wasn't vain about anything beyond her combat prowess most of the time. But Pyrrha did like her red hair and took scrupulous care of it. Not to the extent of Yang, of course, but to put gunk like this in your hair would take, well, a boy's attitude towards haircare.

"Yes, you do if you want to go around without being swamped. Now come on, let's get it over with." With that, Nora grabbed the flask out of Pyrrha's hand. She peered over the side of the street, noting that they were in a back alley somewhere and grinned. "We don't even need a sink."

Shuddering, Pyrrha put her head down against the stone of the rooftop's balustrade so that her head was sticking out over the side. "Just do it."

"Come on, the faster we do this, the faster we get to meet up with the boys. And then we'll buy so much chocolate that if we ate it all at once, we'd turn into blimps like I said. You wouldn't want to make me into a liar now, would you?"

Pyrrha was still laughing as Nora finished mixing the brown goop that Ranma had created once mixing water with the paste that Ranma had given them. Elsewhere, Jaune and Ren were doing the same thing that Pyrrha and Nora were. Except in their case, it was different clothing and hats donated by the crew. No dubious hair product was required. "After all, with Nora and Pyrrha around, who would even bother looking at us?" Jaune muttered as he pulled on a jacket.

"True enough. I wonder why the crew was able to help Ranma with that hair gel he made. Or had the contacts on hand for us," Ren murmured, leaning back and wincing as he put a contact into one of his eyes."

"…You have a point. Methinks our good captain isn't altogether new at helping people escape from whoever is after you, if not often from literal mobs." Jaune shook his head, his own blue eyes having been covered over by brown. "Now, what was the name of that place they want us to meet at?"

"Chocolate heaven," Ren replied, shaking his head slightly, then smiling at the word through newly made jade eyes. "I think Pyrrha's obsession is showing."

Jaune laughed, and with Ren in the lead, they made their way over a few more rooftops before scaling down a fire escape into an alleyway. From there, the two of them moved on, occasionally asking for directions as they made their way to the predetermined gathering point.

OOOOOOO

For his part, Ranma had escaped the crowd just as easily as everyone else. Since dealing with the crowd here, like the one back in Vale when he and team RWBY boarded the train, wasn't part of his job description, he was not required to stay and hobnob. So Ranma simply leaped off the back of the ship, entering the water as easily as a dolphin, and swam away. He put several wharves between him and the edge of the crowd before coming out of the water, then pulled himself up out of the water via the legs of the crane stuck on the edge of one of the other docks.

"Ugh, okay, next time I try to sneak out as part of the crew. Double ugh! I ain't exactly an environmentalist, but damn people, stop dumping your shit in the water and just hope it will magically go away!" Ranma grumbled.

Scowling and wringing out his hair, Ranma hid behind a bit of the crane, staring around for a moment, his eyes narrowed. It looked like they had all gotten away clean but better safe than sorry. A second later, a quick application of ki, and he was dry again, then moving on. I'll change into my new outfit soon, but first, I want to get some distance from the docks. But as Ranma moved off, he frowned, stopping and hiding once more for a few seconds as something twigged his sixth sense. Someone was looking for him and with murderous intent. What the…

After a few moments, the feeling went away without Ranma being able to spot whoever it was, and he scowled angrily. Fine, time to disappear for a bit. But I wonder what caused that? White Fang, or that someone working with the Grimm that Ozzy hinted at. Damn now I wish I had chanced coming up closer to the crowd.

Scowling, but with nothing to go on, Ranma raced off, taking to the warehouse rooftops and away over them as fast as possible before dropping down out of sight entirely.

OOOOOOO

In a small roof-side café, Hazel scowled in anger. "Damn, I lost him. You see why I wished to solicit your services Lil' Miss Malachite?" At first, he had been kind of amused by their mode of travel and hoped they'd hit something but even so, losing them was unacceptable. And oh, is my partner going to be insufferable for losing our quarry so easily. I wonder why the Warden looked around like that, though? Could he have spotted Tyrian somehow?

"Indeed I do," the older woman murmured, pulling away her very ladylike binoculars, setting them aside. "So long as it is only observation, and…" Lil' Miss Malachite tittered, "Finding him first. My word, ya would think he knows someone's after him. Or just prefers to blend in. My price will go up, you know, depending on how well they can do so."

"Good help is always expensive," Hazel replied promptly, gaining a nod from the old woman. The massive man then stood up, his movements fast and controlled for all his size. Find Tyrian first, then… then I think I want to meet with the Cowardly Lion before moving on. "Now, if you excuse me, I think I need to go and corral my partner before he starts taking his anger out on random passerby. You know how to reach me, and I assume what I've already paid you will still work as a down-payment?"

Malachite nodded and watched as he left. One of her men moved to stand in front of her, and she smiled blandly. "I think we can do business with the Mistah Hazel but keep an eye on him. If he thinks his partna is a loose cannon, that might mean trouble for us down the line. And you know how I don't like trouble."

Indeed, near the port where the crowd had gathered and was now slowly dissipating since it was obvious Pyrrha had left, Tyrian was throttling back his killing rage with difficulty. The mistress will be angry with me! I'm going to kill them all! Kill them! And the warden, Ranma he goes first!

OOOOOOO

Unaware of the exact nature of their local opposition, Ranma had changed into jeans and a decent long-sleeved shirt made in the local fashion of being body-hugging except for loose sleeves and a loose neckline. Heh, Mousse would have loved shirts like these, He reflected as he moved through the streets, looking for team JNPR. Say what you would about their outfits, Nora's attitude and Jaune and Pyrrha's height would be easy to pick out if you were looking for them. And what was the name of that confectionary place? Something heaven?

Moving around a corner of a pedestrian-only street like the majority in this area of the port, he spotted the four of them. All were in their own disguises, chatting excitedly as Nora and Pyrrha hefted several bags of chocolate that they had just bought from Chocolate Heaven.

Shaking his head, he wound an arm around Pyrrha's waist, causing her to gasp, then smile in delight. Ranma's touch was distinctive somehow. There was so much strength in his body, coupled with an astonishing amount of gentleness, that it marked him out from anyone else. She nuzzled into his side, a wide beaming smile on her face as Ranma spoke. "I don't suppose any of that chocolate is for me? Otherwise, I might have to force you to work off those empty calories before +much longer."

"We'll share, we'll share," came from JNR.

Pyrrha didn't join in, too busy leaning into his side and sighing contentedly. Wasn't this one of the things on my bucket list? Walking around Mistral arm in arm with my boyfriend, with no one bothering us, check!

Ranma smiled back at her, kissing Pyrrha on the forehead, but Nora's stomach interrupted them at that point. "Er, so, can we get some real food? As much as Pyrr….um, Penelope would like to think, we can't live on chocolate alone."

With Pyrrha leading them, the five teens soon arrived at a café where they all started to look through the menu hungrily. While the food on the ship was good, it was also quite plain and hadn't had much variety. This place had variety, but to Ranma's mind, it was an extremely weird selection. "Lasagna, curry, ramen, spaghetti, fried rice? This looks like the kind of place a couple who came from different nations created after years of arguing over what to feed their kids," he said with a chuckle, getting laughs from his companions.

With the food ordered, five of them talked quietly about what had happened since they'd escaped the ship, watching as large groups of people went by the café, many of them heading up-mountain, as Pyrrha put it. "Most of the housing districts are either right here on the shore or on the fifth level of the mountain and lower. Oh, the levels are these kinds of stepped terraces. Each of them is six stories tall. They provide farmland and flat ground for everything else."

"It seems like a nice place," Jaune murmured, looking around thoughtfully. "I mean, we're still technically in the port area," he gestured to one side, where through several more buildings, he could see the water of the ocean. "But it's all very clean and ritzy, like a tourist place maybe rather than a real, working port."

"Lower?" Ren asked. "Surely you mean fifth level and higher."

Pyrrha shook her head. "No. Mistral the Port was built from the top of the mountain down. Indeed, a lot of Mistral is like that. The oldest portions of the various towns and hamlets that dot the valleys are always built up and into the side of the mountains. So here, we're still on the fourteenth tier. The first and second tiers have long since been turned over to the anti-air defenses and Haven Academy, while the third to the seventh are housing districts and small-time commercial zones. But the area between here and there as you go up-mountain is where the main industrial areas are. Jaune, this area is actually a bit of tourist attraction, hence why it's so clean."

Ranma nudged his nose into her hair, frowning a bit at how he could still make out a tiny bit of the smell of the brown goop he'd given her. "That makes sense since ya sound like a brochure. When will we see anything you actually call home?" Then he seemed to think about something, and he pulled back to cock an eyebrow at her. "Your father's not going to try the whole scare the boyfriend thing with me, is he? Laughing in his face might be a bad first impression."

"Oh, I doubt it. My Manager might try to browbeat you, but I doubt physically threatening you will be in the cards. As for a place, I would call home… not for a while. A place I call friendly territory, though, that we'll be at in a few hours." Pyrrha laughed, leaning into his side more content than ever, feeling a thrill as Ranma nuzzled back into her neck, moving some of her hair aside to nibble at her ear.

Now that he was in a relationship, Ranma had many ideas about what to do with said girlfriend that he wanted to try out. Quite a bit of them were in the folder marked 'X rated' in his mind, but some were not. Nibbling at her neck and cuddling like this was one of them.

"All right, cut it out, love birds!" Jaune said with a laugh. "You're making the rest of us feel bad."

"Speak for yourself," Nora said, punching him not at all companionably on the shoulder, causing Jaune to wince even through his Aura. "I think it's cute. And maybe I should be taking notes."

Ren, who had better survival instincts than Jaune, stayed silent before changing the subject after trying to avoid Nora's eyes for a second. "So after we get your weapons fixed up, how long do you think it'll be before the Council realizes we really aren't here for a dog and pony show and send us out on this real mission of theirs? I am presuming that the headmaster would not have allowed us to be pulled from classes as we were without there being a real mission for us here."

Ranma frowned, thinking. "I'm hoping it'll be within a day, but we might have to put up with at least a day of showing the flag and that kind of crap."

At that, Pyrrha winced. "My Manager will be fully on board with the idea of such. My mother isn't so much into the whole public spectacle, and she will take my feelings into account. As much as she might think in terms of Semblance marriages, well…"

"Heh, she'll think I fit the bill anyway." Ranma nodded, although a small portion of his inner self cringed at the idea of marriage being talked about so early.

"Exactly. Mother pushed me to become involved with men with powerful Semblances, but she has never pushed past marriage interviews once I showed I didn't like the man. And despite that, and her, well, not really seeing the problem of me being placed on a pedestal, my mother and I do have a stronger relationship than my Manager, and I do."

Jaune winced at that, while Nora and Ren just nodded. Soon the food arrived, and the group of young people was too busy eating to bother talking. As they ate, Ranma's scroll went off, and he pulled it out to see the silhouettes of the Mistral council. Before they could speak, though, he muted the scroll, said, "Can't talk, eating, will call you all back tonight," and hung up.

This nearly caused Ren to choke and Nora to spew food across the table into Ranma's face as she started to laugh. "Oy, keep yer chewing to yourself or else I'll make you do squats until your legs fall off!"

After Ren got finished pounding on his back and the bit of dumpling he'd been eating had come up, Jaune hissed, "You, did you really just tell a ruling council you can't be bothered to take their call?" he kept his voice deliberately low, looking around at the rest of the early lunchtime customers the café had, worried about being overheard.

"Yep. They aren't mine, after all. Besides," Ranma smirked, "politicians are just like merchants. They believe in equivalent exchange. We got something they want, our skills and a certain public person. Now we've shown that we can play hardball and won't dance to their tune. The Council will soon know that they'll have to pony up something to us if they want us to do anything beyond the job they wanted us for. And even then, we might have some wiggle room."

Jaune's eyes widened, then narrowed, and Pyrrha watched with something like sisterly pride as he brought his tactical mind to bear on what Ranma had said. His eyes, now looking almost like Pyrrha's own – the crew not having enough colored contacts to go around – flicked to her, and he smirked. "Heh, that might actually work."

After that, the discussion shifted to Pyrrha telling them more about her Aunt, never mentioning the woman by name before Nora and Ren talked about a few of the adventures they'd had while developing their weapons. The meal soon finished, and Pyrrha then led the way out of the café and soon out of the caldera that was Mistral the city. But, for all its importance as a port, it wasn't where the leadership of Mistral the country was, nor did Pyrrha's Aunt Thetis call it home.

But first, they had to head deeper into the city, which was an interesting experience. As Pyrrha had described, the interior of the caldera had basically been shaped into separate terraces. Each terrace was connected via several dozen trams, which were quite cool to be on, Ranma reflected as he sat on the top of one. There were seats both inside and on the roof of the tram, and all five of them had volunteered to be on the outside, watching as the tiered city passed by as they rose, heading up towards the river Mi'strach. There, they boarded a riverboat, which wound its way slowly upriver along with several others, all of them carrying other people.

About an hour later, they left Mistral the city behind as the ship began to pick up speed, heading rapidly on their way now as two of the other riverboats pulled up to a wharf there, leading into a small town. Their boat kept going until it was near to evening, pushing further into the first of Mistral's settled valleys until they could make out the clear outlines of a second city. It was nowhere near as big as the port, let alone Vale, and was seemed to sprawl across the countryside from what Ranma could see, spreading out on either side of the river. But it was definitely a city, for all that.

"This is Athenia," Pyrrha whispered as they exited the boat. "It's the home of artists, leaders, trainers. It's said in Mistral that if Mistral the city is the sinews of the nation, then Athenia is its brain. I don't know about that, but it is where my family lives, both my parents and Aunt and, alas, where the Council does as well."

"Meh, they haven't left a message, so I suppose they're happy to wait for us to reach out to them. So, with that consideration out of the way, where to from here?" Ranma asked, nudging Pyrrha. "Do we head to your parent's place and beard the beasts in their lair first, or get your weapon looked at?"

"Or is there any place you want to see before you meet up with Thetis?" Jaune inquired.

Pyrrha smiled wryly. "There are several dozen stores I'd like to visit, but I don't think that you or the other boys would like any of them. As for sights… there are a few historical sites I'd like to see further upriver, but whether we will be able to do so or not is in question."

"Why?" Ranma shrugged, pulling at her hair. The two of them had basically cuddled the entire time on the riverboat, leaving the others to find a quiet corner and make out twice before returning. Ranma had liked it. He'd liked it a lot. "I can make more of that junk, you know," he added, tugging at her hair again. "I just have to head to the nearest apothecary or old-time remedy store to get some supplies."

She chuckled at that, reaching up to touch some of her hair as well, bringing it down to eye level for a moment. "Could you do any other colors?"

"Sure, brown was just the default. I could do black, too. But that's about it."

"How did you discover how to do that anyway?" Jaune interjected. "You never struck me as the sort to be good at sneaking around Ranma, at least not in terms of being a spy. Scout work, sure. But spying? The Grimm don't care what your hair color is, do they?"

"Actually, some do," Ranma chuckled. "Some Grimm do actually see with their eyes as well as whatever senses they use to pick out darker emotions. And all Grimm react to movement."

"Still doesn't explain the whole hair changing thing," Nora scowled, unhappy with her own hair. She liked being a redhead, thank you!

"Eh, it was taught to me by a certain old lady of my acquaintance." Spring had forced Ranma to learn some things just in case he ever needed to hide as she had to. Ranma already had a decent enough background in making medicines, thanks to spending time with Beni, who was quite good at them, and on the road with Genma, during which he had learned about them out of necessity.

It took them about forty minutes of traveling, like normal people, to find the blacksmith's shop. The sign over the entrance said 'Thetis Ironworks' and the clamor of hammer on metal could be heard as well as some kind of electronic warble. At first, the building looked almost anachronistic in comparison to a few of the buildings around it. It looked smaller than the buildings to either side and was built like a tiny Greek Temple instead of a regular shop. But that was only the case as seen from the pedestrian street in front of it. When they moved through a side street and back towards the smithy, Ranma realized that that was not the case at all. Instead, the building was like a small square placed against a larger rectangle, which spread back and away from the entrance.

Nor did Pyrrha lead them to that front entrance. She instead led them to a large back door, marked for deliveries. There she pulled out a key that none of the others had known she had, fit it onto the lock and opened the door. Inside was a large storage area, an extremely well-organized one, with labels, little placards here and there and computer screens connected to each set of shelves. On the other end was a ladder leading upwards, where Pyrrha led them.

On the other side of the storage area's interior door, they found themselves standing on a set of platforms overlooking several different areas, each of which contained a different type of weapons development area. One looked like a blacksmith shop out of the European Middle Ages, complete with hammer, anvil and fire. On the other side of the platform, Ranma spotted a group of blacksmiths working on a sword in the Japanese fashion, two people beating on a single weapon, their hammers hammering down in time with one another, as the master blacksmith held the blade against the anvil, beating out the time with a pair of tongs in his other hand on the floor. In another cubicle was a kiln connected to a computer, and an electronics workbench, filled with several different types of circuitry. And in another, someone was working a weapon through mecha-shifting from one form to another.

"Fun," Ranma murmured, winking at Pyrrha as she released his arm. She is so cute when she's all giddy about being able to go around with us incognito. Even though I do prefer her red hair as it seems more in keeping with her personality.

Farther along the walkway, a foreman watched a few of the apprentices below, shouting out orders to them. "Don't let it cool down! Tatsuo, you're wasting too much time! Get the next piece fitted while the metal of the transference tang is still hot! You'll never be able to mecca-shift out of the sword form without that annoying clanking noise if you don't!"

"Aunt Thetis!"

She turned, her face turning thunderous for a moment, before she blinked, staring at Pyrrha. "Who are… Pyrrha!? Girl, what have you done to your hair!?"

"I'm sorry we came in the back way, but you know how Claret is about me. I wanted to avoid her shouting out my name where anyone could hear." Pyrrha smiled, moving into the other woman's arms, and returning the hug tightly.

As they did, Ranma stared at the two women. Thetis looked almost like a carbon copy of Pyrrha except older, obviously, with a streak of gray in ginger-colored hair, which was closer to Nora's hair color than Pyrrha's normally crimson locks. Thetis's eyes were the same, her features were much the same, as was her height.

"I'd heard you were coming and hoped you'd make time to stop by. And this must be your team," the woman said after pulling away from Pyrrha for a moment, beaming over at them, "and your current teacher. Or is that 'minder'?" she teased.

"Boyfriend, actually," Pyrrha blurted out with a giddy little laugh.

This caused Thetis to blink, her eyes flying wide, then narrowing, but she seemed to calm down slightly as she saw how young Ranma was. "Ah, you'd be the Azure Warden. Word has gotten around about you after that battle in Waypoint. So young but so skilled you couldn't be a student and were made a teacher of an entirely new class instead."

"I was kind of shoehorned into it," Ranma admitted. "Don't get me wrong, I like working with Pyrrha and the rest, and they definitely needed a wilderness survival class. But I'd prefer not to be at the school doing it. I wanted a Hunter's license, but Ozpin convinced me that the only way I would get one was to work with him at the Academy for a bit. I don't regret it, obviously, but teaching doesn't come naturally to me and caring about rules comes even less naturally. And after this mission, I might not be going back," he admitted with a shrug. Not if I can figure out a way to find whoever's able to control Grimm, that's for certain.

Thetis shrugged her shoulders, not seeing the problem. There was a long and storied tradition of Masters taking Apprentices as lovers in order for the Apprentice to pay for their learning, for good or ill, romantically or not, in portions of Mistral. Indeed, it had been common in the rest of the world before the Academies started to grow. And since she trusted her niece not to jump into bed with a creep, that was enough for Thetis. "I don't have a problem with it. Her parents might, though," she warned, hugging Pyrrha from the side again. "But come on, let's head up to the house."

The house in question was actually built on top of the blacksmith shop as if someone had simply transplanted a normal home and stuck it on top, which was somewhat like the way the entranceway was too. It was a very cool design, Ranma reflected as they sat down on a balcony overlooking the streets below. The boys waited for the girls to get the gunk out of their hair, becoming introduced to Thetis' husband as the girls raced off now that they had arrived at their destination.

His name was Shen Akhara, and he had very clearly had married into the Nikos family. He was a short and mostly Asian-looking man, the most Asian-looking person beyond Ren and Yatsuhashi that Ranma had seen in a while. He was also the family cook and insisted on making a round of dumplings for them all as part of the welcome. The boys had three each, and Ranma was starting to teach Ren and Jaune some of his family's food-fu style of training when the girls returned.

Ranma turned from the food, letting Jaune have the last dumpling on the plate near them as he smiled at Pyrrha. "Much better," he approved, causing Pyrrha to smile happily as she sat next to her boyfriend, snatching a dumpling from the next plate of such that Shen brought out for them all.

The family atmosphere he and Thetis created enveloped the group as Shen started to tease Pyrrha about how she had gone from being the quintessential straight-laced girl to dating one of her teachers. But Pyrrha responded by pointing out Ranma's age again and that Ranma had been the one to initiate things, causing him to squawked in shock. "I was not!"

"So you weren't trying to flirt with me when you brought that meal up to the crow's nest? And you were to the one who, during a moment of madness induced by your greatest fear, kissed me on the lips? My first kiss, I might add?" Pyrrha questioned, her eyes narrowed in mock-anger.

"We agreed that didn't count," Ranma spluttered, now completely off-balance.

"We did, and then we kissed for real later." She winked at him, then turned to her to Thetis, practically squealing, "And it was magical! Like all those sappy romance novels I've read all rolled into one."

Thetis laughed, happy that her niece had found someone worthy of her and someone who could look past the outer shell of the Champion to the teenage girl within. That made Thetis wonder, somewhat guiltily, when the last time she'd seen Pyrrha acting so openly was. Not for a long time. Not since I made her weapons before her first tournament. I thought she was at least somewhat happy with all the attention and the Invincible Girl moniker, even if she did want a break from it now and then. Now, I feel like an idiot for missing the fact she wasn't.

"I'm happy you found someone worthy of your affections, Pyrrha, and I think your mother will be too. Well, once she gets over her initial snit at not having been involved. But Sally called something like this, you know. She seemed to see something there between you in the video of the two of you fighting."

"Fighting as flirting," Shen shook his head. "I've never understood that. Give me a good bottle of wine, a movie, and thou any day of the week. None of this sweaty bruising nonsense."

"It is an acquired taste," Ren admitted, while Nora grinned and Jaune shook his head, adding to the other boys' words with, "one I have not acquired!"

"But we have to tell you something Aunt Thetis," Pyrrha said, looking over at Ranma. "Ranma."

Ranma nodded, and from out within his ki space, pulled the mangled remains of Milo and set it down on the table between them.

Thetis gasped in shock and horror, staring at the weapon in astonishment. "How?! How did that…"

Pyrrha quickly explained how Milo had been mangled and then how she had used the damaged parts as the projectile in a railgun effect that removed the Tritoshark's head. That brought some cheers from both her Aunt and uncle before Thetis grabbed the piece up in her hands, turning it this way and that "I can see the diamondium blade is still intact, although warped. Good."

Instantly, the older woman's hands began to heat, so much so there was an actual heat haze, and the metal quickly began to glow.

"Is that your Semblance?" Jaune gasped, then pouted. Man, everyone has these cool Semblances! When the heck am I going to awaken mine?

Thetis nodded absentmindedly. "I call it Forge, not very original, I know, but it's descriptive at least. I can heat metal or anything else I touch to any degree I wish. Control took me a while, and it's really Aura intensive. Still, I've always found that mixing Aura with Dust and the base metal has helped me create my masterpieces. Although the starting point is important to which is why…"

Trailing off, the older Nikos began to work on the metal bits pulling the now heated pieces away from the single edge of Milo. She smiled then, and Ranma was struck by the fact that she had smile lines all around her face, to go with a voice like a bull, still female, but deep and loud.

As she was about to finish the work on pulling the piece of Milo away, Thetis shook her head. Contrary to what Pyrrha had hoped, the rest wasn't worth salvaging, and Thetis proceeded to tell Pyrrha that.

As she finished, Jaune clapped his hands. "Hey Pyrrha, do you remember that Ruby once asked you if she could try to design a better version of your weapon?"

Pyrrha nodded, then as she heard her Thetis slowly taking a deep, prideful breath, Jaune hurried on. "Er, she didn't mean anything by it. Ruby is a weapons maniac, and she was just worried that Pyrrha's bullets didn't have enough stopping power when fighting Grimm. Um, she designed Ranma's weapon and built it too. Ranma?"

Happy to help Jaune out from under Thetis's prideful glower, Ranma obligingly brought out his lance from his ki space, setting it down on the ground next to the table, while Thetis and her husband's eyes bulged at this second show of his weapon's space technique. "It was one of two she designed for me, actually. I chose this one because I thought I needed a better-ranged weapon, and it's worked very well alongside my shield."

Setting aside the now freed blade in a bowl of water that Shen had brought out to cool, Thetis stood, picking up the lance, hefting it and then thrusting it forward before shifting it into its rifle mode. Nodding in approval, Thetis's earlier moment of ire at some other blacksmith taking issue with her masterwork faded. After all, this Ruby girl wasn't a competitor, just a girl who apparently had a damn fine gift. "How old is she?"

"That's the most surprising part," Pyrrha laughed as Nora and Ren chuckled.

At Thetis's continued interrogative look, Jaune supplied, "She's only fifteen."

"They don't allow teens that young into beacon!" Shen retorted, shocked, but when Pyrrha nodded in agreement, he was shocked. "A fifteen-year-old, really? I can't imagine the kind of life she must have led to become as emotionally mature as she would have to be to become a student at Beacon."

"I don't think she's so much emotionally mature, as fixated on becoming a huntress. And she's good," Ranma said, with a laugh. "Very good. Her endurance is abysmal, but her marksman skill is well above her freshman grade, and her close-range skills aren't bad either."

"Plus, you can see what she did with that weapon. She even designed her own, which is this sniper rifle scythe combo," Jaune enthused. "She uses it in combat to throw herself around like a jackrabbit. It's a really cool fighting style."

The older woman laughed, her earlier annoyance disappearing entirely. "Now I'm interested. If you think she might have some designs that can give me a starting point, then call her up."

Ranma nodded and told the others to hold on as he called Beacon, which would certainly get through to Ruby. "Er, I know her sisters but not Ruby's."

"I do," Jaune said, and suddenly, Pyrrha and Nora were both smiling at him. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Nora leaned in inquisitively. "And how exactly do you know Ruby's phone number?"

"And why did she come to mind while talking about my weapon?" Pyrrha added while Thetis and Shen watched her in some surprise, startled but happy to see Pyrrha acting like a normal teenage girl.

Jaune flushed a little, looking away. "It's not like that."

"Now is that wishful thinking or denial I hear in your voice," Ren whispered, causing Jaune to smack him on the shoulder.

The call went through after a few rings, surprising Ranma somewhat until he remembered that for all their travel, they'd basically been traveling north for most of it, and so had only traveled one time zone away from Vale, "Hello who is oh, Jaune! So you guys arrived in one piece, then? We saw something on the news about your ship looking almost as if it was going to explode a few hours ago and then saw you guys all exiting like cannonballs, except for Ranma. That was really cool."

"It was hilarious!" Yang shouted, stealing the scroll from her sister for a moment. "A hilarious way to the exit the scene, almost as if you took a clue from the sexy kitty in how to scarper."

"Leave me out of your fantasies, please," Blake's voice came from somewhere nearby.

Yang turned her head, shooting a serious look offscreen. "Never!"

"I can picture Belladonna blushing from here," Ranma stuck his own head into the pickup, interrupting the teasing session. "Serious things first, guys." he looked over at Thetis, motioning Jaune to hand the woman his scroll.

Thetis did so, nodding her head to Yang and asking politely if Ruby could be put back on. Yang blinked, stared at the older woman, then nodded, but was still peering over Ruby's shoulder as she took the scroll back. "Yes, um... you, you wanted to speak to me?"

"I am Thetis Nikos, the woman who designed…"

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Your Nikos Design's chief blacksmith, aren't you?!" Ruby's squeal was so loud that, unseen by the scroll, Blake whimpered in pain, grabbing up a pillow and putting it over her ears. "I've read all this stuff you've posted in magazines about keeping the mech-shift time down and your ideas on how to incorporate dust into the metalwork. It's so cool! And Pyrrha's spear and shield are so amazing!"

"Aha, well, thank you," Thetis said with a chuckle. "But unfortunately, Milo has gone to a better place." She angled the scroll to show the battered, now cooled bits of the former javelin/rifle/sword.

"What no, what happened to the poor baby!" Ruby shouted, looking distraught.

But Yang was quick to ask, "Shit, so it really was bad out there, huh? Were any of you hurt?"

Nora and Ren stuck their heads into the pickup, with Nora waving wildly for the scroll screen as Ranma replied from behind them. "Well, while we ran into a lot of trouble out in the ocean, we all made it through okay."

"We'd heard that on the news," Blake interjected, and Ranma tried not to flinch as he saw an ear appear to one side of the pickup, Blake being unable to push her head into the scroll pickup along with the two sisters. "What exactly happened?"

Realizing this was a discussion between friends who hadn't seen one another in a while, Thetis clapped her hands. "I think that we need to have two conversations going here. The more time we save in the planning stage, the faster I can build you a new weapon, Pyrrha. Ruby? Jaune and Pyrrha both thought that maybe you had ideas for upgrades that could be worked into Pyrrha's weapons? Pyrrha has already told me that she would like to see a better armor design, and I have plans for that, but if you have a plan for a weapon, all the happy to look at it."

Ruby gasped, "But I'm only a student. I mean, I'm really happy that you're looking at it, but…"

"Please, if you have any suggestions or designs, send them to my scroll number. I don't care about your age Ruby, only your skill."

At that, Ruby calmed down, nodding her head firmly. "Well, for one thing, I think her rifle needs to be a higher caliber. Of course, I realize that would mean the rifle's shaft would need to be thicker but…"

Ruby was interrupted by Nora, Yang, and even Blake all shouting, "That's what she said!"

Ruby didn't seem to get it for a moment, while Pyrrha blushed, and the boys all looked amused.

As her little sister finally collapsed into a blushing but blubbering mess, Yang clapped her hands. "Right, why don't we let Thetis and Ruby talk, with Pyrrha helping out. Meanwhile, the rest of us can fill one another in on what's been going on, because let me tell you, you guys might've run into trouble on the ocean, but we ran into trouble here in Vale too."

That discussion took a while, with both teams exchanging stories.

The conversation on a new weapon ended with Thetis leaving with the shaft of diamondum after offering Ruby a job if she ever wanted to come and work for her. "Or I can give your name to a few people I know in Vale. Whenever you want it. After all, sometimes the Hunter business doesn't quite go the way you wanted it to, you know?"

"Oh my gosh, I will sooo keep that in mind, not that I think of anything will happen to me, I mean I'm so fast, and speed is power, but you know, it's well it's a real ego boost to hear that from you," Ruby admitted sheepishly.

Thetis chuckled, and she and her husband, who had been taking down notes for her throughout the discussion, left, heading down into the smithy, talking quietly amongst themselves. Meanwhile, Weiss had arrived from the library and joined the conversation. Jaune and the others had finished describing their ocean adventure, although Pyrrha had to pinch Nora very very hard on the thigh to make her stop from squealing about Ranma and her relationship. Pyrrha felt that revelation should be told to Yang in person. Or at best in private.

Yang had begun to talk about Ruby's new friend and what trouble they'd run into down at the docks. "Along with this monkey boy, who's been making eyes at our kitty girl."

"He's not my type. His abs might be nice, but that's about all he has going for him," Blake said with a roll of her eyes.

To Ranma's surprise, Yang smiled at that, a small, secretive little smile, not one of her big boisterous ones, and he had no idea how to interpret it. But, regardless, something else about their story was odd to him. "It's interesting that Ironwoody…"

That was as far as he got before Weiss squawked out, "What!?" And Yang, Blake, Nora and even Ruby all dissolved into laughter, while Pyrrha shook her head with a laugh and Ren and Jaune exchanged smirks. "How dare you speak about general Ironwood like that!"

"One: he ain't my general. Two, Ironwoody and I had a discussion on this point before. And three, if he wants to try to stop me from calling him names, he is welcome to step up and try again."

Weiss twitched visibly through the pickup, then shook her head with a sigh. "I can now see why my sister really doesn't like you."

"Well, if Winter removed the stick from her…"

Pyrrha saved Weiss from further insults to her sister by covering Ranma's mouth with her hand. "That's quite enough, thank you. There are ladies and children present."

"I resent that remark and resemble it, but I'll take it instead of hearing more cursing," Ruby said with a pout. "Honestly, it's like none of you ever heard of the curse jar!"

"Excuse her, she was dropped on her head by our father several times as a baby," Yang groaned. "Seriously, sis, how lame can you get?"

"Have you all gotten any information of more about what mission they were so anxious to have Pyrrha and her team there for?" Blake interjected before the two siblings could completely derail the discussion. Fun as they were, and Blake thought they were very fun, she was still wondering about what had convinced Ozpin to lend one of his freshman teams to Mistral for real Hunter work.

"No, but we all think it is far more than just a loose, thinly veiled scheme to try to get me back, which I'm quite happy about," Pyrrha replied honestly. "We should learn more either tonight or tomorrow morning."

"What about you all? Anything new beyond the fight against Roman?" Ranma asked, forcing himself to look at Blake with one eyebrow rising in question. He'd made a note of Roman being involved in the dock escapade and also noted the severe lack of Neo. I wonder what the little ice cream monster was doing instead?

Understanding what he meant, Blake slowly shook her head. "Nothing good, I'm afraid. Still, we should hear something soon. The headmaster has promised to keep me personally in that loop."

Just then, the door to the apartment opened, and two people walked in. One was a tall man who walked with a limp, whose hair was just slightly redder than the normal ginger color, rather than the dark crimson of Pyrrha's hair. Next to him came a woman who looked related to Pyrrha, although not as much as her Aunt, with another shock of reddish hair, a little more ginger than red in her case, and the emerald eyes Pyrrha must have inherited.

Pyrrha smiled at them, although not as warmly as she had Thetis. And she also concentrated on her mother for a moment to the exclusion of her father who obviously noticed this semi-lukewarm reception if the tightening of his face was any indication.

Shaking his head, Ranma looks down at the scroll, "Pyrrha's parents just arrived. I'm going to have to sign off here. We'll call when we have information what the mission we were being sent on if we can. If we can't, you might see us in the news eventually. Otherwise, we'll see you back at Beacon."

Sensing the seriousness in Ranma's tone, team RWBY instantly agreed, leaving Ranma to meet his girlfriend's parents with only the rest of team JNPR beside him.

Turning away from the scroll to look at Pyrrha's parents, Ranma paused, uncertain what to do or say, his eyes flicking over to Pyrrha. This was the first time he was going to meet his girlfriend's parents, and he had no clue how to react. With the Tendos, he had met Soun and Akane at the same time. And it had always been familial honor and their fathers that tried to drive Ranma and Akane together. But, this time, Ranma and Pyrrha had decided on their own to get together, which was a very different thing.

Thankfully, Pyrrha didn't seem to have any doubt about what to do. Sending a smile back to Ranma, she stood up and moved forward to embrace her mother.

As Pyrrha hugged her, she was not surprised to hear her mother whisper, "Oooh, I thought I detected something interesting in that spar of yours with the Azure Warden, and that little look you two just shared tells me I was right! You seem to have found yourself a catch, my dear, and one who is far closer to your own age than most of the people I tried to set you up with, admittedly. I'd apologize, but…" the older woman shrugged as she stepped back from the hug.

"I knew why you were doing it, Mother," Pyrrha answered somewhat repressively. "And I am not dating Ranma for his Semblance or the strength of his Aura. Those honestly don't even register in terms of our relationship. Although I will admit that his martial skill was part of why I found myself drawn to him."

"Perhaps your relationship, but not the future," Sally replied firmly. Then she grinned impishly and pulled fully out of the hug, poking her daughter firmly in her firm, toned stomach, her tone turning wicked. "And I'd wager that there is a direct correlation to Aura reserves and something else~. That's a scientific fact after all~."

Knowing exactly what her mother was talking about, Pyrrha blushed rosily but shook her head firmly. "We're taking our time, Mother, so it will be a while before I can prove or disprove that particular old wives tale."

"Waiting? Really? You didn't get that from my side of the family for sure," Sally laughed before looking at her daughter more closely. "You look good," she said finally. "I had my reservations about you going to school so far away. I understood why, but that didn't mean I had to like it."

"Still, you look good," the older woman repeated, the words freighted with more meaning than such a simple phrase would normally convey, speaking both of Pyrrha's overall health and the small, real smile she was wearing while talking about Ranma. It was with a start that Sally wondered how often she had seen her daughter's real smile.

Pyrrha nodded at her mother once more, wearing that same small, real smile. But when her father moved to try to give her a hug in turn, the smile disappeared, and instead of letting the man do so, Pyrrha thrust out her hand to shake his, very deliberately halting his movement, her emerald eyes cold. "Manager."

Her father growled, his teeth grinding as he gripped her arm. He had been a Huntsman at one point, but he had let himself go to seed quite badly, only retaining the Aura reserves that he had as a Huntsman, and that couldn't augment his strength enough to let him make his daughter even wince.

The relationship between father and daughter had been strained for a while and had steadily gotten worse the more her father had used her fame and fortune to try to rise in Mistrali society. Sally was somewhat the same, but she wasn't as blatant about it, nor did she wish to rise in society so much as among those who believed in Semblance or Aura marriages, which was a slightly different thing. Sally was a matchmaker and a social butterfly, not someone who wanted to be a social and economic mover and shaker like her father.

"it's good to see you back, Pyrrha, for good I trust. Although I have to say I disprove of that bit of foolishness you performed at the docks. That would have been a perfect moment too.."

"We are not back for good, Manager. And as for my addressing the crowd, at no point was I told I would have to speak to the public. Especially under circumstances like that. You know I've never been happy with

Medeve seemed to breathe in heatedly, but Ranma interjected this point, stating calmly, "Thanks to The teen's actions at Waypoint, the Council of Vale decided that despite still being Freshmen, the teams involved could be treated as full-time hunters. The Mistrali Council then requested Pyrrha, her team and me for an assignment. But if that assignment turns out to be some kind of photo op, we will not be taking part in it. I don't freaking care about anything but doing our job as Hunters. Politics can kiss my ass."

"I rather think that's not your decision to make," the older man shot back angrily. "My daughter is a Mistrali citizen, and as a Hunter team, you follow the orders of the local council!"

"Nor is it yours. And yeah, as an active Huntress, Pyrrha answers to the Council. Not to her manager," Ranma replied, repeating the use of the word manager rather than calling the man Pyrrha's 'father'. "But since they are still freshmen, I was given discretionary power on how to comport ourselves here. So I say again, we're here to do a job. It's a job for Hunters. It ain't a PR job. You want someone to jump through hoops, find someone else."

"Now see here you!" Medeve growled, waving a finger in Ranma's face. "I don't care how famous you are as a mere Hunter, but here in Mistral, being a Gladiator matters far more. And I will not let you or my daughter's own foolishness get in the way of…"

Ranma looked down at the finger and then up at the man who owned the hand that contained the finger, and his voice came out almost conversational for all the threat in it as he interrupted the other man's diatribe. "Remove your anger from my face unless you want to lose it."

"Manager, Ranma is telling the truth," Pyrrha interjected firmly, grateful that her boyfriend was backing her up here but not willing to let him fight this battle alone. "I am not back here to resume being a public icon. I am tired of being a symbol!" Pyrrha suddenly shouted, getting in her father's face angrily, Ranma's backing having forced out some measure of the anger she had towards the man.

She waved off Sally, who tried to interject, pointing at them both, practically trembling with repressed emotion. "I, I am sick and tired of being on a pedestal, of being seen like this, this untouchable goddess of victory! The fame, the fortune you can take all that and shove it!"

Behind her, Ranma was nodding his head firmly and quite proudly too. He and Nora, and even Jaune and Ren, had taken pains to work with Pyrrha on saying 'no' aboard the ship, and Ranma had heard that she'd been able to do the same to the Mistral Council earlier that same day. It was great to see that wasn't a fluke. Although here, a lot of buried feelings are helping things along. Regardless, Ranma was happy to see it.

"I am not your tool father to gain fame and fortune! I am not this untouchable, perfect goddess image. I have been beaten and several times since leaving Mistral. I have been pushed to my limits, which was what I wanted when going to beacon. Nothing like the stupid, pathetic excuses for combat that I faced in that last tournament. This is the life I want to lead, a life where my strength of arms means more than how good I look or how perfect I seem!"

"That image has let us move from a barely important family of farmers to becoming famous and rich, Pyrrha! I…"

There was a buzzing noise as a flash of electricity burst between Pyrrha and her father, as Sally used her Semblance, Lightning Bug, to grab their attention, putting a halt to the budding argument. With that opening, Sally pushed her husband back with a gentle but inexorable hand as she looked between her husband and daughter. "I think that we have taken this as far as we can without words being exchanged that both would regret."

From the look on her face, Pyrrha wasn't certain that she would regret anything, or it could be that she was already regretting some of the words now that the confrontation was slowly ebbing away. Ranma wasn't certain, but he put an arm around her shoulders regardless in support.

This caused Sally to smile at him. "It's good to meet you, Azure Warden. Even under these circumstances. I hope you can keep my little girl happy."

Ranma smiled back lopsidedly, "I kind of think that's a two-way street, right?"

"In the best relationships, it certainly is," Sally replied with a nod before looking at her husband. "Come on, I think both of you need a timeout," she said firmly, pushing at his chest.

The man grumbled but gave way, and father and daughter exchanged one last heated glare before turning away. "You will come to tonight's soiree. That is where you'll get your orders from the Council," Medeve informed them over his shoulder, eager to get in the last word of their argument. "And you will be fully presentable there as well."

"Don't worry dear, I'll spread the word that you already have a boyfriend. So you won't see any propositions on that score. Or if you do, you're free to shoot them down as bluntly as you wish," Sally said as an aside, still pushing her husband along.

Throughout this short, sharp exchange, the rest of team JNPR had been set sitting there, quiet and unobtrusive to avoid taking part in this drama, extremely uncomfortable at even witnessing it. Now, Jaune spoke up, giving voice to all their thoughts, even those of Nora. "Well, that was awkward. Almost like being at home and seeing my parents having an argument, only way worse. So what do we do, boss?" While he led team JNPR, Jaune knew Ranma was the leader of this mission.

"I don't think we're going to get out of appearing at this party tonight," Ranma scowled. "Sorry, guys, but if it's where we are supposed to get our orders, then we can't get out of it."

Nora grimaced. "If we have to appear at this shindig tonight, does that mean we have to get into dresses?"

"You fight in a combat skirt," Jaune asked, "Why would that bother you?"

"Are you kidding? Have you seen my legs?" Nora stuck them up almost vertical, showing how flexible she was in a way that would've made most men gulp. "If I show off these bad boys any more than I already do, I'll have to beat the boys off with a stick since they probably won't let me use my hammer. But a stick is so boring."

"Actually, I would wager we could get away with our Huntress Garp," Ranma said. "They expect us to be on show. So why not give them one?"

Pyrrha nodded, indicating she agreed with Ranma, and Jaune nodded after a few seconds, nodding as well. "Ranma's right. Hunter garb team, tonight.

"But before that, let's see if we can start working on replacing your weapons," Thetis announced her presence, peering over Jaune's shoulder suddenly.

Not having realized the older woman had come back from walking her brother and his wife out of the smithy, Jaune yelped in shock, nearly falling out of his chair. But one of Thetis's hands steadied his chair while the other pulled his sword out from its sheath, staring at it in awe. "Is this a genuine Masume Blade?"

"A what now?" Jaune blinked. "I mean, I know the metal on it is special, but I never heard that name before."

"You probably wouldn't. Only blacksmiths like me would be familiar with his name. He was a famous weapons maker from Vale way before Vale became a single nation. How long has your family help had this blade anyway?

"About a thousand years, give or take?" Jaune said with a careless shrug. "We've always had it, as far back as our records go."

"Fascinating!" Thetis's hands began to activate her Semblance as she touched the metal of the blade. Jaune was about to object, but she glared up at him for a second. "Don't worry, I'm not going to heat the blade to the point of damaging it. I just want to see how much it takes before it even starts to heat up."

Unfortunately for Thetis, this proved to actually be quite a bit more than she could handle. Her Semblance was Aura intensive: the hotter the flame and the longer she held the heat in her hands, the more Aura it burned through. After about five minutes, while Pyrrha informed her friends about what to expect at a formal gala, Jaune watched as the older woman tried to heat up his blade. After ten minutes, Thetis was sweating. After fifteen, a visible heat haze was coming off not only her hands but the rest of her body, and after twenty, Thetis was gasping, shaking her head.

At that point, Thetis had to give up. She put the sword down and then lightly touched the filigree along the hilt and guard. Nothing about the blade itself had changed at all. On the contrary, the sword was almost as cool to the touch now as it had been when she had begun. "Fuck!"

She shook her head, looking up at Jaune. "You, Jaune, and you Pyrrha, with me. Let's start fixing your armor first, love. Then you can call Ruby, and we can start planning your weapon's design while I examine that blade. Even without warming it up, there might be something I can do with it."

"What about us?" Ren asked, the quietest of the group speaking up for the first time in a while.

Ranma spoke up before Thetis could. "Refill your Dust rounds and grenades, you two. I know we're all running on empty there. And maybe make certain Nora's pancake portion is filled since I don't think they will have them at the part tonight."

"WHAT?!" Nora gasped in horror. "A party without pancakes, why I oughta…" That was all Nora could get out before Ren clapped a hand over her mouth, and he pulled Nora away and back into the house.

This left Ranma alone for a bit, forgotten by Thetis and her husband in their enthusiasm to get to work and with JNPR all busy. This was fine by Ranma. He had something he wanted to look for on the local web.

Scene break

As Ranma and Pyrrha were having this small confrontation with her parents, Cinder and Emerald arrived in Mistral city via air flight. It was slow going thanks to the distance involved, having been more than twenty-four hours in the air, but still, that was much faster than taking a ship. Few goods could be transported via air due to the mass vs. dust ratio, certainly nothing in bulk, and this made such flights insanely expensive for all but the military.

But Cinder refused to travel in anything but style when she could, and thanks to the Inner Circle agent called the Cowardly Lion, Cinder and her two fellows were able to get tickets. Indeed, it even worked well with their background, which was much more solid in Mistral than in Vale at present. In Mistral, they were returning Huntsmen, who had been on leave after their fourth team member had been badly injured.

That was supposed to be Neo. But Neo wasn't with them just yet, since Roman had needed her to help lead the remnants of the White Fang's forces as they set up a new base.

Physically, Cinder was nearly back to one hundred percent after feeling the anger of Salem through their link so often of late. Despite that, she had done nothing to stop Emerald from waiting on her hand and foot throughout the flight, although Cinder had made a point of making certain that the girl was looking after herself as well. She had and even allowed Emerald to indulge in her penchant for larceny a couple of times, so long as it couldn't be traced back to the two of them, among the other travelers.

Then again, Emerald mostly returned the items or placed them where they could be found later. With Cinder taking care of the money side of things, Emerald had no need to steal to survive. Instead, Emerald stole because it was fun and because she still harbored a certain amount of hatred for most of the upper class, something Cinder fanned occasionally.

As the luxury bullhead settled down on the landing grid, Cinder exited their room, looking around for their other compatriot. "Where is Mercury?" The black-haired woman paused, frowning as something occurred to her. "In fact, I do not believe I have seen him practically this entire flight." Which has rather added to my enjoyment of this trip.

Emerald rolled her eyes. "Oh, he's off flirting with one of the flight attendants. Apparently, he got lucky last night and wants to make it a regular thing while we're here in Mistral."

"I suppose it takes all kinds," Cinder quipped, smiling slightly as the two women made their way through the main area of the plane. Personally, Cinder couldn't see the appeal. Intellectually, she kind of saw that Mercury was handsome, but his attitude was a tremendous turnoff.

Mind you, having him amuse himself has made certain this trip remained pleasant. Just hours of either being by myself or with Emerald, reading, talking, sleeping, without the need to be constantly on guard or planning.

The haste of this entire trip still left a bad taste in Cinder's mouth, but the manner of travel had done much to allow Cinder to set those concerns aside. Yet, Cinder still felt that Salem was making mistakes, concentrating so many resources on this Azure Warden rather than proceeding with Cinder's plans. Worse, they were reacting, not acting. Cinder knew this was because Salem took anything to do with the Maiden's powers personally and had lost her objectivity when it came to the Azure Warden.

Mind you, perhaps I am also biased, Cinder reminded herself, not for the first time on this trip. After all, I have much to gain him from continuing my operation in Vale, do I not? Even with all the issues, Amber is still there, somewhere, her powers ripe for the taking.

Just then, her scroll began to ping with incoming notifications, and she frowned, looking at it quizzically. She had not been anticipating any calls, but after a moment, she noticed that it was coming in from the Cowardly Lion, presumably something to do with their cover as senior grade Huntsman from the Academy at Haven.

Reading it, Cinder slowly nodded. "Emerald, be a dear and fetch Mercury. Whatever he's doing, or planning." Cinder let Emerald snort in amusement before going on, her own tone serious. "We have plans to make. And I want to make certain that both of you are clear on your roles going forward."

Scene break

Already it was obvious the soirée that team Juniper and Ranma had basically been ordered to attend was going to be as stuck-up as the use of the term 'soirée' implied, Ranma thought glumly. The dozen extremely ornate bullheads parked in the lawn of the mansion that they had been directed to was certainly a clue in that direction, as, of course, was the mansion itself.

But Jaune was ecstatic, pointing at several of the limousines in delight. "Oh my God, that's a Barrel-Doyce Ghost, and an Atari 854 and a Panther CS9! Oh my god, and is that a Drakto special!"

His squeal was so loud Ranma reflected he could hear a few car windows cracking from the sound as Jaune raced over to an, admittedly, kickass looking bike, all black metal and leather. "Yang is going to be so jealous! The Arc Knight raced over to it, taking pictures from every angle he could before moving onto two of the supercars in particular.

Nora also looked interested in the cars, although she wasn't taking pictures, and she had begun to bounce on her heels, hearing some kind of music coming from the large mansion that was up a cobbled path a bit from where they had been told to park.

On the other hand, Ren looked somewhat worried despite his habitual self-control. "Are you sure that we will be able to get away with wearing our Hunter outfits? I know Hunters are supposed to sometimes interact with the upper crust, but this is all happening well before I had anticipated doing so. And all of this is a world away from the orphanage where Nora and I grew up."

"Don't worry about it," Ranma chuckled. "We'll stick out like sore thumbs, sure. But for the right reasons. They expect Hunters and Huntresses to stick out. So just give the civvies what they expect, and they'll be happy. Beyond that, don't get cornered, do not make any kind of social, political. Or romantic statement in public, flee anyone who seems to be asking you too many questions quickly, stick to the main rooms, drink in moderation" Ranma counted off some points on his fingers, "and, search for kids."

"Wait, what?" Pyrrha asked. The rest of Ranma's points were things she had already known, having never once gone to any of these soirées in anything but her Huntress outfit. To do otherwise would have been to send the wrong signal, and it had helped her keep out of possible social entanglements. It also played into her whole Invincible Girl image, which her manager had very much liked.

Not that his likes or dislikes were truly registering with Pyrrha any longer. My need to have his approval or anyone's beyond my team and Ranma's is several weeks behind me. The thought was insanely liberating, but Pyrrha knew her newfound ability to, as Nora put it, not be too polite for the world, was still fragile, and she was worried she might backslide tonight.

"Camouflage," Ranma replied bluntly, a smirk on his face as he turned to look at her, winking and letting his eyes flash down to her bared legs before looking back up at Pyrrha's now flushed happy face. "Think about it. No one will flirt with you or even start a serious conversation if you're playing around with kids. And, as much as you probably don't want to hear it, Pyrrha, it'll make for good PR, but in a very different way, so at least a portion of the crowd will be all for it."

As their leader and Pyrrha's boyfriend, Ranma had decided to treat this whole night like it was a fight, only in an arena he didn't know much about. So while Pyrrha had been fitted with a new outfit – which was basically her old outfit for the moment – he had done some research. Not so much about the people, only the battlefield. And then he had come up with his own strategy after seeing that these parties usually had a few preteens or teens around the edges.

Pyrrha frowned at her boyfriend, crossing her arms and stopping in her tracks, perforce making the others stop too. As she did, Pyrrha was forced to remember once again that she no longer had her weapons on her, unlike her companions. "Explain, please. The last thing I want to do is be even more in the public limelight."

"First, this won't be putting you in the public limelight, really. What will the newsies say? 'Yes, I was there at the party and oh yes, the invincible girl showed up. She was playing with kids.' That's not exactly front-page news. Or if it is, it'll make people realize that you have a softer side to you than your invincible girl persona."

He stopped, reaching out to gently tuck a bit of her hair back behind Pyrrha's ear, causing her to smile and blush at the same time. "And you'll have fun with the kids too. Trust me, at something like this, the parents brought along the kids to be seen and not heard. So the kids'll all be feeling awkward, kind of crazy bored, and if they have a celebrity like you to play with, they'll go all-out to impress you. Which can always be hilarious."

Pyrrha giggled, shaking her head at that, while Nora hopped up and down, grinning. "Kids are cool! They always have a great imagination and fun stories and stuff. So let's go! I want pancakes!"

"Says the girl who ate all of the pancakes my aunt could make us earlier," Pyrrha muttered, the others racing after Nora. "And it looks as if she doesn't remember us telling her that pancakes might not be on the offer here either."

As they went, Jaune turned to Ranma, asking, "How exactly did you come up with that stuff anyway?"

"While you lot went back to talking weapons with Ruby and Pyrrha was getting fitted for her new outfit, I looked up pictures of similar parties. I didn't study people in the center of the frames, the people paying for those pictures. Instead, I looked at the crowd around them and the kids, the fixed expressions and everything. I was also at some of these parties with my Old Man a time or two before coming to Semaphore."

Most of those had resulted in martial arts matches, of course, and at one point, Ranma had been forced to pair up with Kodachi against one of her rivals. That had been a very interesting learning experience all on its own. I hope we don't have to introduce martial arts ballroom dining here. Pyrrha isn't wearing the skirt for it.

As they closed with the mansion, Pyrrha despaired. The soirée had a meat-and-greet line at the entrance, and she was instantly pulled by her manager into a few pictures, Sally looking on apologetically. Manager you are, and manager you will f, freaking stay! Pyrrha thought vindictively even as she didn't fight things, pouting at herself for being unable to curse even in her own head.

But after the third set of having her picture taken with Mr. so-and-so of so-and-so international or whatever, Pyrrha had long since stopped actually listening to their titles, she felt a firm hand on her elbow, and Ranma propelled her on, saying, "We're holding up the event here ladies and gentlemen. Other guests are arriving."

Pyrrha shot him a grateful smile and then spotted a group of kids clustered around the entrance to the mansion's gardens, which was open to the party. As Ranma had predicted, they were preteens ranging from twelve to fourteen, all of them dressed up in finery and all of them looking a little out of place.

She directed Ranma's attention there subtly with her eyes. Soon, her team formed up, and they made their way over. Jaune was the first to make introductions, the kids having fallen silent in awe when Pyrrha and her fellow Hunters approached them. But Jaune was a big brother and a middle sibling and knew precisely how to put them at ease, despite being complete strangers. He and Nora were an instant hit with the kids, and then all of the kids and the five Hunters were out in the garden, smiling and joking around with them.

And to Pyrrha's delight, it worked. The parents were smiling and happy, amused to see the Hunters joking around and having fun with her kids. The few reporters there were somewhat pleased too, taking pictures of this fantastic humanitarian moment. And thus, no one was willing to try to approach Pyrrha or get her alone, surrounded by team and preteens.

Moments later, Jaune and some of the kids found a giant chess set, the toy kind which had plastic pieces the same size as the kids. Jaune made a game of teaching the kids how to play as nearby, Ranma and Pyrrha played with a few girls' hair. Ranma had proven shockingly good at haircare while on the ship, and Pyrrha had roped him into this despite his protests.

Ren was helping Jaune teach chess, making up stories and backgrounds for each of the pieces as Jaune introduced them, stories which the kids lapped up. And is that man over there writing his words down? How odd. To no one's surprise, Nora was the type to want to play horsey and was busy carrying three kids around the garden while chasing two more, causing laughter and shrieks of delight.

Done with braiding hair, Ranma and Pyrrha moved over to help Jaune and Ren teach the finer points of chess, with Pyrrha moving to take one of the Knight pieces, saluting one of the kids crisply, causing him to giggle. "Your orders, sir?"

Ranma moved to take the other Knight piece, then stuck his chin into the air as he pretended to be holding a lance forward. "All troops. forward charge!"

"Silly!" One of the kids who had been learning chess from Jaune laughed. "The Knight doesn't charge. Charges are in a straight line, but the Knight piece moves like an 'L'."

"Wait, the Knights don't charge," Ranma gasped, slapping his hands to his face in a comical expression of amusement that one of the nearby picture takers, who had not ceased to watch Pyrrha and the others, had to take a picture of. He then shook his head with a sigh. "Oh, well, that's good, I suppose. I've never been good at moving in straight lines."

The boy acting as the king looked at him quizzically, and Ranma grinned, tapping his nose. "Why would you move in a way that your enemies can expect.?"

The younger boy nodded sagely at that as if Ranma had just given him some true world wisdom, but they were interrupted by a voice from the other side of the large chess set. This was a female voice, sultry, low, throaty almost and also amused. "Pawn to E-2."

Looking up, Ranma belatedly noticed that they had been joined by two other people. These were not normal partygoers. Instead, they too looked like Huntresses. The one who had spoken was wearing dark black body armor, covering her chest and on her legs and arms. She had two swords strapped to her waist, one on either side of her body, peace-bound as all of their weapons had been, long lustrous black hair, and almost gleaming amber eyes. A faint smirk was on her face, which was more heavily made-up with makeup than either Nora or Pyrrha. In particular, her crimson lipstick stood out in that white face.

The other girl was heavily tanned as if to make up for the white color of her teammate's skin and was dressed in a tan crop top and white shorts. Like her teammate, she was a dual wielder, with two handgun knives strapped to the small of her back. She had green hair, red eyes, and a more natural-seeming smile on her face as she moved forward to move the piece that the other girl had mentioned.

Yet as Ranma's looked at them, something about them screamed danger to his mind. The eyes of the black-haired woman were just a little too predatory, a little too fixated on him. That's the look of a woman who's sizing me up for something. Heh, is she the type to take games way too seriously? Or is it my virtue or my life that's in danger here?

The other one, Ranma couldn't put his finger on why, but the way she moved bothered him. It was almost as if he had seen something like it before, but not quite. Still, they are Huntresses. That they're dangerous is kinda a given. Despite that, Ranma made a note to watch these two closely.

Beyond them stood a somewhat older man, and Ranma noticed out of the corner of his eye that Pyrrha had stiffened very slightly at the sight of him. He was a middle-aged man with a mane of graying tan hair and an equally graying beard, dark brown eyes and an expression that seemed to be the kind to shift from jovial to worried in an instant.

He wore a brown greatcoat with a matching mantle, which had cross emblems on each side. He also wore a white dress shirt under his coat, a western necktie and carried a pocket watch. Lionheart also wore dark brown slacks and dress shoes.

"Headmaster Lionheart," Pyrrha greeted, bowing her head very slightly to the man. "Ranma, team, this is the headmaster of Haven Academy. He attempted to convince me to go to Haven instead of Beacon."

"But then we wouldn't have met!" Nora shouted, appearing behind Pyrrha with an abruptness that had Pyrrha, and indeed many of the kids, shrieking in shock, while the ginger-haired girl clasped the redhead from behind, hugging her tightly. "That wouldn't have been fun at all! Who'd our fearless leader be partnered up with then?"

"Hahaha, yes, well, while I cannot answer that question, Indeed I am the Headmaster of Haven," the man answered, bowing from the waist. "I saw you all over here and decided that I would introduce you to two of Haven's alumni. These two represent one of the teams you will be working with on the… upcoming operation."

The woman smiled slightly, nodding politely from her position on the other side of the giant chess set. "My name is Sabrina Fall. This is Evelyn Summerset. How do you do?"

The others introduced themselves, and when it became time for him to do so, Ranma did as well, watching Cinder's eyes. They flicked from person to person, lingering on Pyrrha for a second, but now they were back on him, boring in, one eyebrow rising.

"I've heard of you, the Azure Warden. I am pleased to make your acquaintance," she said, her tone adding a certain texture to the words that made them flirtatious as she cocked a hip to one side, looking around at the kids in the chess set. "Whose idea was this, can I ask? It certainly livens up the party. I've never enjoyed them. I prefer… more private affairs."

This really was too good an opportunity to pass up, Cinder reflected, staring across the chess set at Ranma. The opportunity to actually meet the person who had so far been flummoxed thing her plans without even trying, the man who had captured Adam Taurus, forced Mercury to run away, who had apparently led the successful defense of Waypoint. And who held a Maiden's powers.

She was sure of that now. This close to Ranma, Cinder could feel the small Grimm bug that she had been given by Salem to drain away Amber's powers reacting to the presence of another maiden. How a male could use such power, she had no idea. Nor did Cinder care. Rather, Cinder wondered about the possibility of siphoning off his Maiden powers as they had Ambers. It won't be anywhere near as easy, I'll admit, but it is an idea.

Still, that was for another time. Now is the time to play my role, and more importantly, gain information firsthand about Ranma. That was why Mercury was not present at the party. Given what she knew of Ranma's abilities and the fact that he routinely called himself a martial artist instead of a Hunter in the news conferences that she had seen him in, Cinder had decided that she couldn't take the chance that he would be able to oust Mercury as the watcher from Eastport somehow.

Jaune took the credit for the chess game, and Cinder decided to wait for a second as Emerald, to Cinder's surprise, actually got into it almost as much as Nora, shouting, "forward my minions."

Of course, with kids - and Nora - having taken the role of many of the pieces, the game soon evolved into a game of tag. This ended up with Nora playfully decapitating the King piece before freezing as Ren and Jaune shouted, "Nora!"

"Now see, this is why we can't have nice things, Nora," Ranma scolded while winking at one of the kids who had taken the opportunity to launch a revolution, toppling the queen and king both and declaring himself the ruler.

At that point, the parents of the various kids, including the mother of the young master of the mansion, decided enough was enough. They came over and started to try to take control of things, calming everything down. At that point, Lionheart and the Huntresses and Hunters were very pointedly told to head back inside for food.

"You all explained to me why you decided to start playing chess, but why did you decide to start playing with the children?" Cinder asked.

"Camouflage," Nora burbled happily. "Ranma had the idea of using them as shields against the paparazzi and the rest of the crowd, and it worked too."

"Until someone forgot it was a game and decided to decapitate one of the enemy points like he was a Beowulf," Jaune growled, pushing on Nora's shoulder, just as she took a step. She stumbled to the side, pouting at him, but Cinder ignored their byplay.

Instead, she was about to sidle up to Ranma's side but paused when she saw Ranma hugging Pyrrha around the waist. So instead, Cinder asked simply, "Why? Do you not like to socialize?"

"More like this isn't my society at all," Ranma replied dryly, causing Pyrrha to giggle.

Pyrrha really, really could not imagine Ranma in high society, which frankly made him all the more attractive to her. The trappings of wealth and power that her father had so craved for so long, using her as leverage to enter that society, had never interested Pyrrha.

Cinder nodded at that, then looked over at Jaune. "I take it you are team leader? Would you like to play a real game of chess? We might have time tonight, and I would wager that they have real chess set around here somewhere too."

Ranma didn't let Jaune answer, shaking his head with a sigh. "What is it with people being obsessed with chess? I know Ozpin and Ironwoody both thought it was great, but I've never seen the appeal."

"This coming from the man who decided to replace the Knight in our little game," Emerald taunted. At the same time, Cinder's eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the name dropping, although she couldn't stop her lips from twitching at the 'Ironwoody' nickname. "If you don't like chess, why decide to play?"

"Because playing was better than sitting on the sidelines."

"And why a Knight? Is that how you see yourself, a Knight in shining armor, running across the land solving wrongs?" Cinder questioned as if she was getting in on the teasing.

But for some reason, Ranma thought that her words rang false and with a bit more interest than they should. Still, he replied all the same. "I've never seen myself as any chess piece, really. Although I took the Knight because, like I told the kids, I don't think I could move in a straight line to save my life."

Pyrrha began to snicker at that, shaking her head and leaning against Ranma's side in a way that had several nearby paparazzi snapping pictures. But right now, Pyrrha could not bring herself to care. "That's all too true, believe me!"

Although as Ranma replied, her smile slightly disappeared at the seriousness of his tone. "Nevermind which piece you are, if you think in those terms: if you think of yourself as a piece, all you're doing is admitting you're a toy on someone else's board. I would rather play my own game, thanks."

Cinder's eyes widened at that, while Ranma turned his attention to Pyrrha, moving his arm up to her shoulders and leaning his head against hers. The others had already moved ahead of them, heading for the buffet table. If they hadn't, one of them might have noticed a look of rage and annoyance flashing across Cinder's face as she led Emerald away through the crowd.

As he followed the two young women, Lionheart allowed himself a faint smile at her reaction, but Cinder called him on it as she glared at the man. "What is so funny?"

"Oh, just amused that that man's simple words seem to have caused you some pain. Did his words dent your worldview? After all, for all your power, you are still just a piece on Her board."

Cinder turned her glare on the man, reaching a hand up to touch his face very lightly. Even so, the man flinched away from that touch and her gaze. "If I am a piece, what does that make you, Cowardly Lion? Or do you think that at this point Ozpin would welcome you back?"

He gulped, nodding his head once, then muttered, "There will be a meeting tonight about the mission. You'll be expected to attend."

"And even you do not know all of the details on it?"

"No," Lionheart grumbled, regaining some of his poise. "I am not as connected with the Mistral Council as much as Ozpin is in Vale. But I do know that our Hunters have been pulling in more jobs recently pushing out into one of the valleys on the border."

That was interesting, and Cinder just nodded, realizing she would get more information this time from official channels rather than any spycraft. Cinder stepped away from the man, waving him off. "In that case, I will see you in the meeting. And remember Lionheart, who holds your leash."

Dismissed, the man moved away rapidly through the crowd, and Cinder stood for a moment, looking around and wondering how best to spend her time before that meeting. She didn't think that trying to trail Ranma would do much good, and there was always the chance that Ranma would notice. And then, a slow beat song began, and Cinder decided that she wanted to have some fun, for once. With that, she turned to take Emerald's hand. "Come on, I think I would like to play."

Emerald had only a second to blush and stammer before Cinder had pulled her out onto the dance floor and into Cinder's arms.

Ranma and Pyrrha were already on the dance floor, and Ranma took a brief moment of inattention to wonder about their relationship, noting Cinder was somewhat amused as they danced, while Emerald was a blushing mess. But then his attention was back on Pyrrha, and he was smiling into her hair, smelling the cinnamon and jasmine scent of her, forgetting the two weird women and the crowd around them.

But after a few songs, a discrete cough from behind them made Ranma turn, reluctantly pulling away from a radiant-seeming Pyrrha. He frowned, then took a note from the serving person who had coughed, shaking his head as he noted that Jaune and Cinder were both getting similar messages, as were a few others in the crowd. "Looks like it's business time," Ranma muttered, letting his hands fall from Pyrrha's waist somewhat reluctantly. "Try to have fun without me, would you?"

Pyrrha sighed. "Somehow, I don't see that happening. Without you around, I don't have any protection from the Jackals."

"Punch them in the teeth," Ranma suggested unhelpfully. "Or grab Nora and retreat to the powder room."

Pyrrha snickered at that but didn't do so, watching as Jaune, who had been dancing with a few of the ladies and had actually been impressing several of them with his mastery of the dance floor, moved off, joining Ranma. The two of them nodded to Cinder, who nodded in turn as they met up with Lionheart and several others by the entrance to the main dance area.

Soon the team leaders were all sitting down in what looked like a small amphitheater set up like a rich man's personal movie theater. There, they met several others. All of them were men. Some were gaunt, some were overweight, some were harried-looking, and some cool and controlled. All of them tried to convey a sense of gravitas, power and authority as they stood at the front of the room.

In Ranma's case, this impression failed miserably. The only impression he got was age. So that's the Mistral Council, huh? I ain't impressed.

"Ladies, gentlemen, Hunters all. You all are here on a mission that we have attempted to keep secret. In particular, we don't want Atlas and the SDC to have any hint about what we're up to. Because what we are going to be attempting to do is to break the SDC's monopoly of high-end Dust and Dust crystals."

There were some mutters at that, and more than one of the Mistrali natives sat up abruptly, staring at the Councilman in interest. The biggest external demand that Mistral had was Dust. Mistral produced only a few types of Dust on its own, and mostly in small quantities. Not nearly enough to power their society. Because of this, they had been forced to ally with Atlas, the world's main producer of Dust, after the Color War wrecked much of Vacuo's sources. But it was very much a one-sided relationship.

Ranma watched as a map appeared on the large screen beyond the group of aged men at the front, showing a map of the continent. The continent itself was called Anima, and Mistral was, oddly enough, a very small portion of that continent, consisting of valleys of various sizes, and unlike what Pyrrha had told them, the river Mi'strach did connect them all, but it split off at several points, making the area very oddly shaped.

A few other valleys marked out here and there along the continent's coastline, self-sufficient areas that still answered to Mistral authority. Ranma understood that these areas, and the fact that most of the valleys themselves were almost semi-autonomous, was the source of what Pyrrha called the polyglot nature of the country. Some took after Greece or Rome. Others took after what Ranma would term Japan, and still more, Spain and China.

But each of those valleys was defensible geographically speaking. They still had issues with Grimm inside their borders, but those Grimm were normally young and easily defeated when they popped up. The mountains around them protected those valleys along with antiair cannons from the Grimm beyond, who were anything but young.

The video slowly moved down the river's main branch until they moved beyond the valley that held the last settlement that was part of Mistral. From there, the video widened, shifting forward until it showed an aerial view of an ancient, destroyed city.

"This is the ancient city of Spartoi," the man in the center of the Council explained. "It has been devoid of life for hundreds of years, ever since the last great Grimm rising in 1,222."

Ranma could see why. This valley was at the end of the mountain range that protected the rest, opening up a series of jungles at the far end of the area around the city. Each of them was slightly different from the other, thanks to the number of rivers that ran into or out of them. There were little to no natural defenses, which made it the kind of no-man's-land that Ranma had seen numerous times in Vacuo. If far, far greener than anywhere in that blighted country.

"How high are those walls?" Asked one of the Hunters leaders.

Over fifty meters," one of the men supplied.

"Why are we interested in it?" Another Hunter who had sat by Professor Lionheart questioned.

"We had not been interested in it until recently. The Valley of Masada is one of the most easily defensible natural positions in Mistral. That's why people retreated from Spartoi in the first place. But the reason the city grew to such a size was because of nearby Dust deposits. Dust deposits which we had long thought were run out."

"However, we were wrong," a fourth council member announced.

What followed was forty minutes of interminable information that Ranma could barely follow about mining types, scouts sent in, and various metals being found in large quantities along with deposits of Fire, Ice, and even Lightning Dust. Lightning Dust was extremely rare, and there were some mutters of excitement at that.

"This is all well and good," Cinder interjected, her tone even sultrier than before, almost like sex itself turned into a tone, as she spoke up for the first time in the meeting, staring at the map thoughtfully. But the problems that led to Spartoi being abandoned still exist. The area around it is too open to the rest of the continent, and it's far too easy for Grimm from the rest of Anima to attack in droves at the slightest provocation. How do you expect to deal with that?"

"She's right." One of the other Hunters said reluctantly, an older man around Glynda's age, maybe. "We don't have enough Hunters to really patrol that wide an area on top of our current duties. We'd have to send culling expeditions in, and those would be nasty. Hell, we'd have to clear the city first. And Spartoi fell, if my memory isn't playing tricks on me, to a horde of Lizardians, Montoads, and various Arachnoids. The kind of Grimm that would be very hard to fight in a city environment."

"You're right that we do intend to use the city. We need a local place to store the mining and Dust refinement equipment, to say nothing of the housing for the workers needed to take advantage of these recent finds. However, we have been planning this for a while."

Several dozen aerial ships were shown after that, along with various other equipment, all of them of the type which could be used to throw up walls quickly or create trenches. "We're going to revive the old Colors War-era method of defense: in-depth ditches, mines, and walls backed by artillery. Indeed, most of the artillery are pieces built for that war."

"But we will need to have the area cleared of Grimm first. That will be your job," the central council member began again. "Enter the city, clear it of Grimm. Create a landing zone for our aerial forces, keep these areas clear until reinforcements arrived, then push forward with the workers as they go to work on creating the new defenses."

"This is a big job," Ranma spoke up now. "How long do you anticipate it taking? And what will we do about the various bandit groups that operate out there too?"

"We'll be expecting reinforcements from Vacuo, several dozen Hunter teams, to add to our own, as well as companies of infantry from our own militia."

That talk went on for a while, but Ranma ignored them, concentrating on the map and manipulating things for a bit. Soon, he began to smile, a plan forming.

Elsewhere, Cinder also began to smile, a plan forming in her mind as well. I do hope that Tyrian and Hazel are on the ball. If not… well, who knows who might be able to advantage of this…

Ranma only began to pay attention once more when the councilmen began to speak about bringing along some news reporters. Before the man could even finish, Ranma had added his own voice to the clamor of "Fuck no!"

But two of the councilmembers were serious about it, saying that "In fact, this is the reason why we asked the Invincible Girl's team. We want to create some enthusiasm among the populace for this new job."

Ranma could actually understand that. After all, this mission was basically going to create a new settlement, and you wanted people enthusiastic and willing to go out to the frontier. Kind of like how in America, the whole wild West thing had created such a move from East to West. At least according to the history books that Ranma could remember anyway.

Regardless, Ranma had an obligation to Pyrrha and her team. "This is way too damn dangerous a mission to have civvies underfoot.

Jaune instantly jumped forward to back him up. "Ranma's right. Bring in the reporters and newsies after-the-fact maybe, not before. Let us clear out the city, then start recording the work going on. That kind of motivational message would be good, wouldn't it?" Jaune's voice dwindled under the glares of the Council members.

"No. That kind of thing would be alright, but nowhere near as good as seeing our Hunters, including our most famous warrior, the Invincible Girl, in action." The council member's tone tried to indicate that this discussion was closed.

It might have worked if Jaune was there on his own, but he wasn't.

"But surely a visit to the dentist is better when you have access to Novocain," Ranma growled, holding up one hand and clenching it slowly. "Do you want to try it the other way?"

"Are you threatening us!?"

"Raise your hands if you want a bunch of reporters following your every move when you're out in the field?" Ranma raised his voice, turning to everyone else in the room.

"Not a single Hunter raised a hand, and Cinder even went so far as to add it is a vainglorious foolish idea. "Besides, we're all hunters here. We all know no one is truly invincible," she taunted gently. "Making all of this about Pyrrha Nikos alone is foolish in the extreme."

"Right. And beyond that, Pyrrha's still officially a student, not a Huntress. And at no point has she ever signed up for being the poster child for this plan of yours. If you continue to push for this live-action crap, and I will pull team JNPR out of this entirely and return to Vale," Ranma announced bluntly.

While his fellows blustered, one of the Councilmen, who had previously been explaining about the various missions to scout the area around Spartoi when a random Hunter band reported finding large deposits of Dust near the surface, held up a hand. "Is there room to negotiate here?"

"No," Ranma answered bluntly. "We are not having this discussion. We will not be saddled with these reporters in the field! If you want to get interviews afterward or follow us around the city once it's cleared, that's one thing, like Jaune said. But not before. Frankly, the whole thing smacks so much of ivory tower thinking that is just pathetic."

"Agreed," snorted one of the other Hunters, an older man, somewhere in his 30s maybe, with a long scar running down his face obscuring one eye. "That would be a better idea and something my team would get behind. But we won't have reporters around acting like mobile Grimm bait while we're fighting for our lives."

"My team will not take part in this either," Cinder added, already working the later use of reporters into her plans.

With all the Hunters in the room backing him, Ranma was able to win the argument eventually, and finally, the councilmembers admitted defeat on this score. The Council did so reluctantly, and they insisted that JNPR give interviews before starting this mission which Ranma couldn't budge them on. He did make certain to schedule them for the afternoon of the next day because Pyrrha would be busy getting her new weapons in the morning.

That'll give us time to get the hell out of dodge, I hope. After all, an agreement made in duress isn't an agreement at all. And I still have an obligation as their teacher to make certain Jaune and the others don't get taken advantage of.

Soon, the meeting began to break up, and Jaune and Ranma hurried off to find their friends.

Back in the main party, Pyrrha had been completely pigeonholed by another group of the locals. Ren and Nora had attempted to protect them, but her father had basically taken her by the arm and led her away from her fellows to talk to people, trying to get her to agree to come back to the Gladiator Circuit when she was done at Beacon. Pyrrha refused this outright. But beyond holding that line without support, Pyrrha had fallen back into her old habits of simply smiling and going along with things, much to her father's happiness.

Out on the dance floor, Emerald was dancing with a few of the other rich and powerful, stealing more than a few of her dance partners blind. But she broke off her when her scroll came in, nonchalantly leaving the dance floor, noticing out of the corner of her eye that once more, Pyrrha was trying to escape from a group of people crowding around her. For someone with her reputation, she's a bit of a wallflower, isn't she?

Shaking her head, Emerald entered the powder room, locking the door behind her. There she found Cinder, smiling slightly at her. "How well do you think you could find this address and then follow someone?" she asked, holding out the address to Thetis Ironworks.

"Findings it's easier Cinder, we've spent enough time here before that I know my way around. But following someone? Like the Azure Warden?"

"No, that would probably be a bad idea," Cinder amended. "Hmm… But could you put yourself in a position to watch if someone else was watching the house?"

Emerald nodded firmly. "That I could do."

"Good. I know that Hazel and Tyrian are in the area and trying to create their own plan against the Azure Warden. You're not to have contact with them or whoever they are using," Cinder ordered seriously.

Hazel was all right. Indeed, Cinder rather got along with him, but he was incredibly loyal to Salem. And the less said about Tyrian, the better, she thought with some amusement. "But I want to know what the Warden and JNPR are up to and what Hazel and Tyrian are up to as well."

Emerald nodded, and the two women left the party soon after.

Meanwhile, Ranma and Jaune had rejoined the party, and Ranma had seen what was going on around Pyrrha. The instant he did, Ranma decided he hated it instantly. The fake smile, the fake look of interest, the eyes that seemed to have become dead glass instead of the lively green fire that Ranma had come to enjoy. Right, that just isn't on, people, Ranma thought grimly, his teeth bared in a snarl as he moved into the crowd, the look scaring several people away from approaching him.

"…I understand that this deal doesn't seem all that interesting to a student such as yourself, but later in life, the money will come in handy, especially if you intend to create a nonprofit organization to help the refugees of Grimm attacks as you said you did," a man was saying.

Ranma instantly shoved his way through the crowd, uncaring that he knocked aside several of the locals, even causing one to splash herself with his own drink. Then he pretended not to notice when he trod down on Medeve's foot, even as he ground his heel into the top of the man's foot.

Then he was by Pyrrha, taking her arm in his and pulling her away. "Sorry gentlemen, Beacon policy is never to sign or even verbally agree to anything without a Beacon approved lawyer's okay. You'll have to talk to Ozpin about that kind of thing."

"Ozpin is all the way in Vale. The Invincible Girl is here now!" One of the men grumbled, but at Ranma's glare, the group, including the now pained Medeve, backed away.

"Thank you!" Pyrrha murmured. "I, I tried to, well, stand up for myself at first, but I…"

Ranma shook his head in reply, and soon they joined the others at the buffet table, and Ranma took up a glass of fruit punch, sniffing it quickly, then holding it out to Pyrrha. "It's just fruit punch, nothing alcoholic in it,"

Gratefully smiling at him, Pyrrha continued to try to apologize. "I, my instincts are just to go along with things, and especially when my manager got involved. I tried to hold the line, but I was crumbling pretty quickly before you arrived."

"You've just got to get used to saying no. Doing so more and more in the future will help," Ranma soothed.

Nora agreed, throwing her arms around Pyrrha. She had found some crepe-suzette things and had been gorging herself on them. "Yeah, just think of it as if it's a skill in an RPG. You need to level up your level of 'No!'"

Pyrrha laughed at that while Ren and Jaune agreed, although Jaune pointed to Ranma. "Right, although I doubt you'll ever get to 'level 99: I don't care' that Ranma's mastered."

"That's me," Ranma smirked cheerily. "I'm just a hick from Vacuo who spent a few years out in the Grimm Lands. So why should I care about society or who I offend?"

They all chuckled at that, but Ranma turned to Pyrrha, asking seriously, "When do you think we can leave?"

"Normally, I'd wait for my manager to tell me when to leave, but…" Pyrrha looked over at where Sally had been standing with a few of the other ladies. All of them had smirks on their faces and seemed to have been talking about something that, if the way they looked at the Hunters in the room was any indication, she didn't want to think about it.

Upon catching her mother's gaze, Pyrrha jerked her head towards the doors leading out of the ballroom. Sally frowned for a second, then shrugged as if to say, 'do what you want', and Pyrrha smiled happily. It was another sign and let her spread her wings way she to. Then the woman's eyes seemed to flicker to the side, a frown appearing on her face.

"Pyrrha! There you are!" a deep, booming voice announced itself.

The man who came with the voice was just as large, a youngish looking twenty-something man, with blonde hair, a handsome face, and heavy tan, reminding Ranma almost of a picture Yang had shown him once of her dad, only a bit wider in the shoulders, and with a far more arrogant expression. He wore what looked like a Roman Legate's outfit, complete with a sword at his side and a tower shield on his back. But, unlike a real Roman Legionnaire, his legs were covered by leather leggings with armor on his calves and thighs. "I would have been here sooner, but I had a last-minute challenger to see off in the arena. You know how it is," the man boomed, moving to push between Ranma and Pyrrha.

This failed badly. As big and powerful as the loudmouth was, without a Semblance that helped his strength, pushing Ranma around even a little bit was impossible. Instead, he bounced backward and frowned at Ranma. "do you mind, little man? I am trying to talk to my Destined One."

"Achilles, I have told you before I do not believe in that tabloid nonsense. I would have through the times I defeated you would have made that plain," Pyrrha shot back, and Ranma was grateful to see that some of her normal fire was back. But this was a personal thing, not a social thing, and here, Pyrrha had always been far better at standing up for herself.

"Ah, but that is just because you are playing hard to get, my dear! You know we are fated to be together," the man exclaimed grandly.

As he did, Ranma noticed that a lot of the people around them were now watching this minor confrontation. Many looked disapproving, some neutral while a third or so actually smiled as if they too believed the man's words, or at least were willing to look as if they did for their own reasons.

It was time, Ranma thought, to create a bit of smokescreen. "Personally, I've never believed in that fate crap," he drawled. "I think we all make our own fates, and your mouth is starting to write a 'destiny' your ass can't cash talking to my friend like that."

"Hah, and who are you? Some Hunter who thinks that dealing with beasts is all that impressive? Manny a Hunter has learned on the sands of the arena that being able to kill beasts matters little against a man, the large gladiator shot back, still shouting.

"Eesh, you got any volume other than max, idiot?" Ranma shook his head, then turned away from the guy as he puffed himself up further. "This the Achilles guy you mentioned?" When Pyrrha nodded, Ranma smirked. It was a wide, infectious smirk that caused the nearby Jaune to gulp in anticipation of incoming trouble. "Well, who am I to argue with tradition?"

That caused everyone who heard him blink in confusion, then Ranma's hands were already moving, striking at points on the man's armor, a mix of Amaguriken and a trick he had learned from Happosai, using ki to weaken points in a person's clothing. His hands moved so fast that even Pyrrha couldn't follow them, and then they were back, grabbing at his drink which hadn't had any time to fall towards the ground.

A second later, other things did begin to fall to the ground: Achilles's armor came apart, and the man was suddenly left in nothing but his underwear, even his leather leggings coming apart. As everyone around him gasped in shock or began to laugh, Achilles looked down and stared. "Wh, what in the, how…"

"Well, I think we've seen all we can tonight," Ranma drawled, getting a laugh from the others as he rapidly backed away from the other man. "Let's get out of here."

JNPR quickly agreed, and as the crowd around them started to react ever louder and ever more negatively to the sight of the nearly naked Achilles, they absconded, stage right.

Behind them, Achilles tried to grab at his pants, but they were in pieces, and all he could do was try to run away through the crowd while the men and women all around pointed and shouted in amusement. As he went, he stared over his shoulder to the equally retreated JNPR and Ranma. Curse you, whoever you are, I will have my revenge!

End Chapter

This was two episodes in one chapter. The next will be three, but that will take us to the next big combat chapter. Then will come a reaction/downtime chapter, followed by an epilogue. So six or seven episode type updates. Don't ask me when it will be updated. I got no clue, LOL.