RWBY: The Laidback Hero

Chapter 8: Festival

 A sign is being put up by a Shopkeeper that reads in bright red letters "WELCOME TO VALE!" for all the foreign newcomers from their respective kingdoms of Remnant.

Weiss: "The Vytal Festival! Oh, this is absolutely wonderful!"

Ruby: "I don't think I've ever seen you smile this much, Weiss. It's kinda weirding me out..."

Weiss: "How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! Oh, the amount of planning and organization that goes into this event is simply breathtaking!"

Yang: "You really know how to take a good thing and make it sound boring."

Weiss: "Quiet, you!"

Yang: "Remind me again why we're spending our Friday afternoon visiting the stupid docks?"

Ruby: "Ugh, they smell like fish!"

Y/n: "I agree, I'd rather be in my dorm"

Yang: "I'd rather be in the dorm hugged up with my pillow over here"

Y/n: "don't call me that Yang.."

Yang: "why not? It's true, your hair smells like red roses"

Ruby: "they do?~ Hey Y/n. Your sword, why is it so, powerful?

Y/n: hm? Oh, well the legend goes, the blade has a spirit trapped within it. Apparently those who wield it gain something called a "Stand" a manifestation of a persons spirit. Hence why the blade is so strong. But I shouldn't be saying this, Weiss will use it to an advantage."

Weiss: " I am not, I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as a representative of Beacon, I feel as though it is my solemn duty to welcome them to this fine kingdom!

Blake: "She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament."

Weiss: "You can't prove that!"

The team looks at a shattered window down the street and a door full of yellow caution tape of the Vale Police Force before walking over to the detective in front, who is writing on his pad

Ruby: "What happened here?"

Detective 1: "Robbery. Second Dust shop to be hit this week. This place is turning into a jungle."

He walks over to his partner

Yang: (sighs sadly) "That's terrible."

Detective 2: "They left all the money again."

Ruby turns her head when she hears this

Ruby: "Huh?"

Detective 1: "Yeah, just doesn't make a lick of sense. Who needs that much Dust?"

Detective 2: "I don't know, an army?"

Detective 1: "You thinking the White Fang?"

Detective 2: (removing his sunglasses) "Yeah, I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

Weiss: "Hmph! The White Fang. What an awful bunch of degenerates!"

Blake: "What's your problem?"

Weiss: (turning to her) "My problem? I simply don't care for the criminally insane."

Blake: "The White Fang is hardly a bunch of psychopaths. "They're a collection of misguided Faunus."

Weiss: "Misguided? They want to wipe Humanity off the face of the planet!"

Blake: "So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a Dust shop in the middle of downtown Vale!"

Y/n turns to the Robbed store.

Y/n: "Ignorance has one virtue: persistence. It will insist through dogged persistence on leading others to follow its vision no matter how misguided. Ignorance will drive the world to the brink of failure and catastrophe and beyond into the abyss with arrogance and anger because wisdom is often too polite to fight. Wisdom doesn't like to impose its will, but that is all ignorance understands—force over free will and choice. Sooner or later the world comes to its senses, but oh the damage that has been done"

Blake turns to Y/n as Weiss turns to Y/n, stunned.

Y/n: "don't take me for a fool...I'm smarter than I look" 

Ruby: "Hmm... Blake's got a point. Besides, the police never caught that Torchwick guy I ran into a few months ago... Maybe it was him."

Weiss: "That still doesn't change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum. Those Faunus only know how to lie, cheat, and steal."

Y/n: "That's not necessarily true..."

Sailor 1: "Hey, stop that Faunus!"

As the team overhears the cry for help and rush over to investigate, a Faunus with a golden monkey tail named Sun Wukong is seen running down the length of the boat and leaping on to the edge as the two sailors are about to apprehend him.

Sun: "Thanks for the ride, guys! Haha!"

Sailor 2: "You no-good stowaway!"

Sun: "Hey! A no-good stowaway would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!"

Detective 1: "Hey! Get down from there this instant!"

Sun drops the banana peel on the detective's face, who growls in return. The monkey-like Faunus twirls up to crouch on the lamppost, laughs in amusement, and proceeds to leap off and run away from the detectives. As he runs past Team KRWBY, he winks at an astonished Blake in slow motion before time speeds up again and he continues to be chased by the officers.

Yang: "Well, Weiss, you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes..."

Weiss: "Quick! We have to observe him!"

Y/n: "Observe?"

Y/n, Weiss, Yang, and Ruby give chase. Blake stands still, lost in thought, then comes back to reality and follows her friends. The team rounds the next corner, but then Weiss bumps into someone and trips. She looks up only to see Sun jump on to a building and disappear from her view.

Weiss: "No, he got away!"

Yang: "Uhh... Weiss?"

she points strangely at the girl underneath her teammate

Weiss finally sees that she fell on a smiling girl, which startles the heiress and she hastily gets up.

Penny: (still down on the ground, smiling widely) "Sal-u-ta-tions!"

Ruby: "Um... hello."

Yang: "Are you... okay?"

Penny: "I'm wonderful! Thank you for asking."

Y/n: "Do you... wanna get up?"

Penny: "Yes!"

she leaps back on her feet while the team steps back a little

Penny:,"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Ruby: "Hi Penny. I'm Ruby."

Weiss: "I'm Weiss."

Blake: "Blake."

Y/n: "Y/n"

Yang: "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" (Blake hits her side) "Oh, I'm Yang."

Penny: "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

Weiss: "You already said that."

Penny: ".........So I did!"

Weiss: "Well, sorry for running into you!"

they turn around and start walking away

Ruby: "Take care, friend!"

Yang: "She was... weird..."

Weiss: (looking to her right) "Now, where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?"

Penny: "What did you call me?"

Yang:"Oh, I'm really sorry, I definitely didn't think you heard me!"

Penny: "No, not you."

Penny walks through the group and leans her head down to Ruby "You!"

Ruby: "Me? I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh...""

Penny: "You called me 'friend'! Am I really your friend?"

Ruby: "Uuuum..."

Ruby looks over Penny's shoulder while her teammates motion to deny her

"Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?"

Y/n: slams his head into a wall.

Penny:"Sen-sational! We can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and talk about cute boys!"

Ruby: "Oh, is this what it was like when you met me?"

Weiss: "No - she seems far more coordinated."

Yang: "So... what are you doing in Vale?"

Penny: "I'm here to fight in the tournament."

Weiss: "Wait, you're fighting in the tournament?"

Penny: (saluting) "I'm combat ready!"

Weiss: "Forgive me, but you hardly look the part."

Blake: "Says the girl wearing a dress."

Weiss: (with her arms crossed) "It's a combat skirt!

Y/n: "Combat Skirt indeed"

Weiss: "Yeah!"

Weiss holds out her hand and Y/n low-fives it

Weiss: "Wait a minute. If you're here for the tournament, does that mean you know that monkey-tailed... rapscallion?"

Penny: "The who...?"

Weiss is holding up a poor drawing of the criminal-in-question

Weiss: "The filthy Faunus from the boat!"

Y/n: "this is sounding oddly racist.."

Blake:"Why do you keep saying that?!"

Weiss: "Huh?"

Blake: "Stop calling him a rapscallion! Stop calling him a degenerate! He's a person!"

Weiss: "Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like me to stop referring to the trash can as a trash can? Or this lamppost as a lamppost? Or Call Y/n a Y/n?"

Y/n: "I—"

Blake: "Stop it!"

Weiss: "Stop what? He clearly broke the law. Give him time; he'll probably join up with those other Faunus in the White Fang!"

Blake: (growls, clenching her fist) "You ignorant little brat!"

Weiss: "How dare you talk to me like that! I am your teammate!"

Blake: "You are a judgmental little girl."

Weiss: "What in the world makes you say that?"

Blake: "The mere fact that you would sort that Faunus boy with a terrorist group solely based on his species makes you just as much of a scoundrel as you believe him to be!"

Y/n: "that's basically racism"

Yang is sliding up to Y/n looking uncomfortable

Yang: "Um, I think we should probably go..."

Penny pops up behind Ruby, smiling

Penny: "Where are we going?"

Weiss: "So you admit it! The White Fang is just a radical group of terrorists!"

Blake: "That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

As y/n, Yang and Ruby continue to observe, the scene shifts from afternoon near the docks to nighttime in their dormroom.

Weiss: "I don't understand why this is causing such a problem!"

Blake: "That is the problem!"

Weiss: "You realize you are defending an organization that hates Humanity, don't you? The Faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

Blake: "There's no such thing as pure evil! Why do you think they hate Humanity so much? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you, that force the White Fang to take such drastic measures!"

Weiss: "People like me?"

Blake: "You're discriminatory!"

Y/n is sitting on the bed with yang as he polishes his sword. He turns to Yang as she doesn't know what to say.

Weiss: "I'm a victim! You want to know why I despise the White Fang? Why I don't particularly trust the Faunus? It's because they've been at war with my family for years. War, as in actual bloodshed. My grandfather's company has had a target painted across its back for as long as I can remember. And ever since I was a child, I've watched family friends disappear; board members executed; an entire train car full of Dust, stolen. And every day, my father would come home, furious. And that made for a very difficult childhood."

Y/n: it's Okay Weiss, I'm sure you and Blake can come to an understanding, we're a team—"

Weiss: "No!, you're just trying to agree with yore little girlfriend!"

Y/n: "she's not my—"

Weiss turns away and walks back over to Blake

Weiss: "You want to know why I despise the White Fang? It's because they're a bunch of liars, thieves, and murderers!"

Blake: "Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

Silence drops down on the scene again. A surprised Weiss backs away slowly, and Blake realizes her mistake as she looks around at her teammates.

Y/n: "did you just say....."we"?

Blake: "I... I..." she dashes out the door

Ruby: "Blake, wait! Come back!" she runs over to the door and calls to her down the hallway as Yang sits herself down and Weiss looks down. Y/n stunned.

Blake runs outside and arrives at a statue of an armored man with a sword and a hooded woman wielding an axe on an outcropping, staring at the Beowolf under the stone heroes in particular.

She closes her eyes and slowly lifts her arms up to her bow and pulls the string to release the bow from her hair. She wipes away a tear away as the camera pulls up to reveal her Faunus ears. On the verge of crying, she becomes startled when she hears a voice above her.

Sun: "I knew you would look better without the bow."

(I think I'm gonna hate him)

She turns around and looks up.

The scene shifts to morning at Beacon. Ruby wakes up from her beauty sleep, yawning in the process. She looks over at Blake's empty bunk, and groans sadly.

The scene then shifts again to Y/n, Ruby, Weiss, and Yang walking through the empty streets of Vale.

Ruby: "She's been gone all weekend..."

Weiss: "Blake's a big girl, I'm sure she can handle herself!"

Yang: "Weiss, come on. She's one of our teammates."

Weiss: "Is she? We all heard what she said!"

Ruby: "Weiss."

Y/n stops and turns to Weiss.

Y/n: you two are just!—*sigh* let's just find her...

Yang: "Maybe she is, maybe she isn't. Either way, she's missing, and we need to find her!"

Weiss: "A member of the White Fang! Right underneath our noses!"

Ruby: "I just hope she's okay..."

Elsewhere, Blake is sipping a cup of tea and sighing. She looks up at Sun sitting across from her, who holds his drink with his tail as his hand props his head up. He takes a sip when Blake puts her cup down.

Blake: "So, you want to know more about me..."

She looks at him intently as the screen fades to black