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A balding man with a long nose sat in a very blue room. In front of him was a table and four seats. The room was that of a meeting room. There were maps of unknown worlds upon the walls. A globe of Earth was in the corner while on the table was a map of a different world - Remnant. This room was known as the Velvet Room. Five people, all wearing some sort of blue uniform, enter the room and look at the long nosed man. He was their master and his name was Igor. "Elizabeth, Theo. Would you please relieve your guests of their duty for the time being?" Igor says, turning to look at the attendants that were dressed as a stewardess and steward. "Right away," Elizabeth says, bobbing her head. "Come dear little brother!" "Yeah yeah, I'm coming," Theo grumbled, following his younger sister. "Shall we summon our guests as well?" asks the most elegantly dressed attendant. Her name was Margaret. "Heeheehee, yes, please bring them here," Igor chuckles, a large grin splaying across his face. Soon a male with blue hair and a female with brown hair enter the room. They noticed that there were four chairs and three attendants they didn't know. Knowing they would need to wait. The next person was a male with grey hair. This male was confused to see the other two people. He takes a seat. Finally a male with messy, black hair entered the room and was surprised. "About time Inmate! You took forever in getting here!" barked one of the warden dressed girls. Her name was Caroline. "Please, take a seat with these other guests, Inmate," said the calmer of the warden girls. This was Justine. This male shrugs and takes the last remaining seat. "Welcome to the Velvet Room. It would appear the four of you are to embark on a new journey. This world is not like your own and you must work together," Igor says. "A new journey? I though we didn't get a new one when we finished," the silver haired male spoke up. "Normally, that would be the case. But like our Master said, this world is not the one you know," Margaret speaks up. "You will still have your power of the Persona and you can come back here when necessary," Igor says. "Got it Inmate?! You better go help out this different world!" Caroline snaps. The guest referred to as Inmate just waves off Caroline. "I have a question... Will Theo and Elizabeth permanently take our places as the Great Seal?" the female finally speaks up. "Only if you refuse to each give up most of your power," Igor says. "....Explain," the blue haired male says. "Very well. Unlike the other two guests, you two will have to restart most of your repertoire and storage. You will start with Messiah and up to three of your choice," Margaret explains. "We'll do it!" the female guest says. Igor grins and with a wave of his hand, and a mighty surge of power, the twin guests lose most of their power. Elizabeth and Theo return to the Velvet Room, both with gracious looks on their faces. "Elizabeth, Theo. Help your guests pick their Personas and then we can send them to this new world," Igor says. The two nod and go over to their respective guests. The male ends up picking Thanatos, Surt, and Norn. The female ends up picking Thor, Yurlungur and Metatron. "I suppose we should introduce ourselves if we're going to be working together. I am Yu Narukami," the silver haired male says. "Akira Kurusu! You can also call me Joker," the messy black haired male says. "I'm Minako Arisato and this is my twin, Minato Arisato," the female supplies all too happily. "Sup," Minato says. "We will be awaiting your success, honored guests. Good luck," Igor says, grinning widely at them. Each guest then seems to pass out and head back to the realm of reality. But this reality, was one that they knew nothing of. The bond of the Fool Arcana awoken in all of them as they headed into their new journey.
~ Remnant, Ozpin's Office, Time Unknown ~
Ozpin was in his office, his silver brows furrowed. The era of peace that Remnant had come to know was starting to come to an end. He believed in the incoming class of students, however, he knew he needed more help. Hence the headmaster of Beacon was trying to find anyone and anything that could help in the war against Salem that was going to come sooner or later. Ozpin sighs and leans back in his seat and was about to retire to his room when four figures seemingly appeared out of nowhere into his office. He immediately stands up, his cane ready to use in case these newcomers meant any harm. He approaches them and sees that they were all asleep, and were young. Relaxing, he calls Glynda to his office to help move the young people to the hospital wing. Glynda arrives and by using her Semblance, lifts the four sleeping persons. "Who are they Ozpin? And how did they get here?" Glynda asks, frowning slightly. "I don't know. They just... suddenly appeared. Something tells me that they are going to be huge allies in our fight against Salem, however," Ozpin says. "They don't have their Aura unlocked. We should ask the medical staff to unlock it," the blonde Huntress says. Ozpin nods in agreement. They arrive soon enough in the hospital wing, and Glynda sets the four people onto the beds specified by the medical staff there. "Doctor Scarlett!" Ozpin calls out to the red squirrel-faunus. "Yes Headmaster Ozpin?" Doctor Scarlett says, walking over. "Can you and your staff unlock the Aura of these four individuals? There should be nothing else wrong with them," Ozpin says. "Of course, I assume you would like a notification the moment the four wake up?" Doctor Scarlett inquires. "Yes please," Ozpin says. The red squirrel-faunus nods and calls over three medical staff. Ozpin, ever the curious man, decides to see what color Aura the four slumbering persons had. Glynda had left since she had to go make sure another suite would be prepared should these four enroll in the school. The first color that glowed was autumn red from the black haired male. Next to appear was a midnight blue color from the blue haired male. Afterwards was a magenta from the only female. And finally from the silver haired male was a yellow aura. The first of the Persona users to wake in the new world was Akira. His onyx eyes take in his surroundings - a hospital. For a moment, he panicked but he remembers his strange meeting in the Velvet Room. He slowly sits up and sees the other three guests in the beds nearby. Next to wake was Yu. He sits up immediately, but calms upon seeing Akira motioning for him be quiet. Minako was next and she was dazed. Sitting up slowly, she spots her twin next to her and then the other two from before. Minato remained asleep. Grabbing a pillow, Minako starts whacking Minato with the pillow. "Minato! Wake! Up! Already! You! Lazy! Ass!" Minako says, each word a pillow whack. Just as she was to strike Minato again, a hand reaches out and snags the pillow. Annoyed blue eyes glare at Minako. "What," Minato grunts. "We're not the Great Seals! That dream was for real! Also, we're in the new world! So wake up!" Minako says. Minato sighs and sits up begrudgingly. He just wanted to sleep - being a Great Seal didn't allow for sleep. "Oh good, you four are awake. How are you feeling? The Headmaster will be down soon to talk with you. I'll just check your vitals," Doctor Scarlett says, having noticed his four new patients had woken. "....You have a tail," Minato comments, spotting the bushy tail. "Yes, I do. I'm a Faunus," Doctor Scarlett says, as if that was obvious. He sees their vitals were fine. "What's a Faunus?" Yu asks, arching a silver eyebrow. "Well since your vitals are fine and unless you're having amnesia, you're either pranking me or lived under a rock," the red squirrel-faunus frowns. "I assure you, this is no prank," Yu says. The doctor sighs before explaining what the Faunus were to the four. "Now, stay here and wait for the Headmaster to come down," Doctor Scarlett says before bustling off. "Wait, let's make sure none of us are Faunus!" Akira says. All four quickly check for any animal appendages - none of them were Faunus. A singular set of footsteps alerts the four of them to Ozpin's appearance. "Good morning. You slept soundly and through the night since your appearance here," Ozpin says. "Who are you? And where exactly are we..?" Minako asks. "I am Headmaster Ozpin. You are at my academy - Beacon Academy here in Vale in Remnant," Ozpin answers. "Hmmm, so this is the new world Igor sent us to.." Yu says, rubbing his chin. "Did you say Igor? Is he a man with a long and pointy nose?" Ozpin asks. "Yeah," Minato answers. "Know him?" "I do. So it would seem the Velvet Room heard my plea for help. What are your names?" Oz says. Each Persona user introduces themselves to the Headmaster. "Soooo if this is a school, I assume you want us to join as students since you wanted our help?" Akira asks. "Yes. Initiation is tomorrow. Also, you all have Aura now, the power of the soul," Ozpin says. "Oh! I bet our Personas will be even more powerful then!" Minako says, excitement shining in her red eyes and in her voice. "Let's do it," Minato says, Yu and Akira nodding in agreement. "Well then, welcome to Beacon," Ozpin smirks, before leaving the four to their own devices.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Akira, Minato, Minako and Yu were chilling in the auditorium and getting to know each other better, having been told by Glynda that was where they would be meeting. She had also given them all a scroll. Akira was the only one who had ease with the scroll since he was used to a touchscreen phone while the other three were used to flip phones. Soon students started to file into the auditorium, each student vastly different from the next. Minato looks down and notices that he and Minako have their Evokers... But none of the four of them had any sort of weapon on them. "Uh.. we don't have weapons..." Minato states. Three pairs of eyes look at him. "You're right... I'm sure we will find gear in our temporary lockers. I highly doubt we wouldn't be provided with our gear," Akira says. "Or just have Minato-senpai fall asleep and visit..?" Yu suggests. "Or we can see if we can find a door to the Velvet Room.." "Worry about the latter later," Minako says. She gestures to her twin who had almost instantly fallen asleep. "Minato-senpai really likes sleep... Doesn't he?" Akira asks, chuckling softly. He would not have expected the twins to be his senior, but that was fine with him. After all, Minato was pretty cute. "It's a miracle he passed his classes... Always falling asleep when he could," Minako huffed. A few minutes later, Minato wakes up. "Well Minato-senpai?" Yu asks, arms crossed over his chest. "Akira-kun was right," Minato answers. No further conversation was made as Ozpin walks onto the stage. The entire auditorium goes quiet. "I'll...keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge--to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step," Ozpin says before walking off stage nonchalantly. "Tonight, first years will gather in the ball room. Tomorrow morning is your initiation where you will be assigned teams," Glynda announces before walking off as well. "That was stupidly short..." Minako huffed. "But let's go check our lockers!" "Good idea," Yu says. The four head out to the locker room to find their shit. As they made their way, one small girl in a red cape sees them and decides to follow them. She was wondering why the four were heading to their lockers now, instead of later. Each Persona user finds their locker and all were relieved to see their weapons. Minato had his saber and Minako had her naginata. Yu found his katana but did not see the glasses, so he assumed that he didn't need them. Akira was the most surprised - his dagger, gun AND his Joker attire is in there. "Huh, odd. I did not expect this attire to be here.." Akira muses. "What is that outfit Akira-kun?" Minako asks curiously. "Ah, it's my Phantom Thief attire. Which is why I'm surprised..." Akira says. "Uh, excuse me.. Why didn't you expect your special attire to be here?" the small girl with a red cape says. Everyone but Minato jumped. "Well you see, I didn't put them in my locker.. Minato-senpai pulled a prank on me," Akira says. "Oh! I see! Sorry if I was barging in... I'm Ruby Rose!" the girl, now named Ruby, says. "Akira Kurusu." "Yu Narukami." "Minako Arisato!" "Minato Arisato." "Also, why did you call Minato, Minato-senpai..?" Ruby asks, tilting her head cutely. "Ah, where we came from, we have honorifics to show respect or relation to one another," Yu answered. "Oh! That's really cool! Anyways, I'll uh see you around?" Ruby says, before dashing off. All four feel a bond upon meeting Ruby - the Strength Arcana. "Huh, so we're getting Social Links here too.." Yu says. "Oooo! That should make things more interesting while here!" Minako says. "Agreed. Besides, let's head back to the auditorium and grab a spot to sleep," Akira suggests. Minato was easily the first out once hearing the word sleep. Minako just sighs and shakes her head before following him. Akira laughs and follows while Yu just smiles as he follows his fellow Wild Cards out to the auditorium.
~ The Next Day ~
It was initiation and all of the students of Beacon were on the hill before the Emerald Forest. The four Persona users had made sure they had all of their equipment, Akira even putting on his Joker attire. After all, how could he summon his Personas if he didn't have his mask? They listened to Ozpin's and Glynda's statements about how they would be launched into the Emerald Forest and the first person they made eye contact with would be their partner. Akira was the first one launched, Minato, Minako and Yu following after. Akira elegantly makes his way through the trees and does his best to get to the ground safely. He was hoping to partner up with one of the other Persona users, preferably Minato. Jumping down from a tree and rolling out of his landing, Akira starts running through the forest floor to find his partner. He didn't run into any Grimm yet, but was on the lookout for them as he made his way through the Emerald Forest. The Phantom Thief slid to a stop when he caught a faint "BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY!" coming from a bush and he bursts through, knowing it was one of the twins. His face lights up upon seeing Minato and he calls out. Minato had turned on his MP3 player once students started to get launched. His music was blasting as per usual so that if someone was close enough they could faintly hear it. He just kinda chills as he flies through the air, making sure to avoid the big branches as gravity took control. As he makes his way through the tree tops, Minato jumps down to lower branches so he could get to the floor quicker. Just as Minato was about to get to the ground, the branch he jumped on snapped under his weight and he falls into a bush. He sighs as he sits up, Mass Destruction starting to play. "Minato-senpai!" came Akira's voice. Minato looks over. "Akira-kun," Minato says. He locks eyes with Akira to solidify their partnership. "Alright, let's go find those artifacts. Hopefully Minako and Yu will partner up," Akira says. Minato nods in agreement and the two start heading towards where Ozpin had said the artifacts were. Minako, like her twin, had her music going as she was launched. She was a little concerned as she started getting closer to the treeline that her naginata might not be good to have in this type of scenario. If this was a normal way of deployment in this world, she was thinking about seeing if she could get a collapsible naginata. Quickly thinking however, Minako pulls out her Evoker and puts it to her head, much to a certain Deputy Mistress's surprise, to summon Metatron. Metatron gracefully lowers the brunette into the forest and she takes off, looking for a partner. She hears wind whooshing above her and looks up, spotting a grey blur. Her red eyes follow it and she lets out a laugh upon seeing Yu getting stuck on a branch. Yu did not have the most elegant launching. His launch pad got stuck for a moment before he got flung, causing him to go cartwheeling through the sky. Just as he was launched, he noticed that Ozpin had a surprised face before hiding his laughter into his mug. As he soars through the sky, Yu tried to right himself so that he could safely land in the forest and get his partner. He was fortunate to start his decent through a patch of no trees. But that's where his fortune ended as he ended getting draped onto a tree branch. He groans as his stomach made the connection to the tree branch. Hearing laughter, Yu drops to the ground, gracefully enough to land on his feet. He turns and spots Minako laughing at him. "Ah, Minako-senpai. Amused by my amazing landing?" Yu asks, being good natured about the whole thing. A faint smile was on his lips. "That was hilarious!" Minako giggled. When she calmed her laughter down, she locks her red eyes with Yu's grey ones. The two nod and they head off towards the artifacts. Along the way to the artifacts, Yu and Minako run into Minato and Akira. The four Fools were relieved to see each other and they team up for the time being as they make their way through the forest. When they arrive at the artifact site, they found the most amusing sight - Ruby being smothered by a rather busty blonde who was hugging the small girl tightly, an orange haired girl riding in on a bear Grimm and then two people falling out of the sky. "Well! That was quite the show!" Akira smirks, clapping as he walks into the clearing. Ruby had managed to pull free. "Oh! You guys made it! That's good!" Ruby says, glad to see the four she met the previous day had made it. "You made friends and didn't tell me sis? I'm hurt!" the busty blonde says, had to her chest in mock hurt. "Yaaang! I didn't want to assume they were my friends! I spoke to them for only a moment!" Ruby whined. "We're fine with being your friends if you want to be our friend Ruby," Minako chirps. "Really??" Ruby says, her silver eyes widening. Minato gives a nod in confirmation. Ruby then disappears in a flash of rose petals and hugs each of them. "Ruby! Are you fine with the black rook piece?" a beautiful redhead calls out. Ruby looks over as she releases Yu. "Oh yeah! That's fine Pyrrha!" Ruby says. Minato and Minako go over and they each pick up a white knight piece. "Not to break up this lovely social, but don't you guys think we should get going? The Nevermore that Jaune and I dropped in on is circling back.. How I ever let him convince me to do so, I will never know," says a girl all dressed in white. She had a white rook piece in her hand. "Oh shit. Let's get out of here," Minato says, looking up. He didn't have to say much to get the others moving. Just as everyone started to make a run for it, a large turtle Grimm, a Tortuga, emerges from the ground, some trees still on its white bone shell, and blocks their path. Behind them, a large spider Grimm, an Arachne, comes crawling out of the nearby canyon, blocking them in while the Nevermore starts circling above them. "Minato-senpai! We can handle the turtle!" Akira says. "We're helping too!" Minako says, Yu nodding in agreement. "Anyone got an idea for that Nevermore?" Ren asks. "I think I do.. Weiss, I think you need to launch Nora," Jaune speaks. "HELL YEAH! I'LL BREAK ITS LEGS AND WINGS!" Nora grins maniacally. "We'll handle the Arachne then," Pyrrha says. "Yang, Blake! Can you attract the Arachne's attention by shooting at it while Ruby and I take care of its legs?" "Yup!" "You got it." came the replies of Yang and Blake. The two dart out to the side and start unloading their bullets onto the Arachne, causing the Grimm to focus on the two. While Yang and Blake take turns taking shots at the giant spider Grimm, Ruby and Pyrrha run towards the sides, slicing the legs off above the bone plating covering what could be considered the knee. When all eight legs had been sliced off, Pyrrha calls for Yang. "Yang! Let me launch you up so you can deal the finishing blow!" Pyrrha calls out. "On it! Blake, shoot at me would ya?" Yang says, running over to the redhead who had her shield angled. Blake sweatdropped but did as her partner asked and shot at her. Ruby didn't shoot as she knew her bullets would throw Yang off course. Yang jumps up onto Pyrrha's shield and Pyrrha then launches Yang up into the air. Yang activates her Semblance and delivers the finishing punch to the Arachne, the spider Grimm starting to dissipate. The Persona users had started their attack on the Tortuga when the Arachne fight had begun. Akira noted how the trees needed to go first. He looks at his temporary teammates. He was going to use Minato and Yu to take care of the trees and then have himself and Minako distract the Grimm. "Minato-senpai! Yu-senpai! Get rid of those trees on its shell! Minako-senpai, help me distract it from the other two!" Akira calls out. The other three were surprised but shrugged and went with it. Minato and Yu run towards the Tortuga's side so they could easily access the trees. "Odin!" Akira shouts, ripping off his mask, blue flames taking place as the Persona appears, bringing down lightning on the Tortuga's head. "Metatron!" Minako shouts, shooting herself in the head, startling Akira a bit. The angel Persona appears and heavy strike is dealt to the face. Glynda and Ozpin, who were watching through the screens, noticed that this attack took some of Minako's health away while Akira's only took some of his Aura away. "Zaou-Gongen! " Yu commands, the appropriate card appearing above his hand before crushing it. His Persona comes out and after a slight health drop, the trees are cut down. "Surt," Minato says calmly, shooting himself in the head. Yu was alarmed when he saw Minato bring the Evoker to his head. The grey and red Magician Persona appears and sets the trees and other plant matter ablaze. Yu runs back towards the front. "Minato-senpai! Knock it onto its back!" Akira shouts. He runs towards the face and launches himself and digs his dagger into an eye. Yu gets a similar idea and joins Akira on the side and stabs the other eye with his katana. "Norn!" Minato calls out. The Norse Fates appear and giant gust of wind knocks the Tortuga onto its back. Yu and Akira jump down, making sure to take their weapons out. Minako sees a chance and charges forward with her naginata and jumps into the air. Slamming down her naginata into the Tortuga's throat, she pierces the trachea and the Grimm slowly starts to dissipate. Jaune, Nora, Weiss and Ren were setting up as the other two groups took care of the two ground Grimm. Jaune couldn't do much but had come up with a plan. He had seen Weiss use glyphs and figured she had one that could launch Nora into the air. He had seen the hammer that Nora had and knew she was a heavy hitter. And with Ren, he figured that he could bring the Nevermore's attention into range. He was setting up a simple seesaw to help with the boosting of Nora. "Nora! Get on the part of the seesaw that's on the ground!" Jaune instructs once he finished the seesaw. "On it!" Nora says, going to the seesaw end on the ground. Weiss and Ren look at Jaune. "Ren, I'll need you to get the Nevermore's attention and keep it focused in this general overhead area," Jaune says. "Got it," Ren says. "Just tell me when to start." "What do you have in store for me?" Weiss asks, arching a white eyebrow, hands on her hips. "You got a glyph that can launch Nora up into the air?" Jaune asks. "I do, but a slingshot would work better," Weiss says. Jaune smiles. "That's what the seesaw is for. Once Nora is in the air, catch Nora in the glyph. When the Nevermore is in range, launch Nora," Jaune says. Weiss nods in approval, surprised at how quickly Jaune came up with a solution. "Alright, on your word then!" Weiss says, getting read to put her glyph down. Jaune gets to higher elevation. "NOW!" Jaune shouts as he jumps down. Just as his feet connect with the seesaw, Ren starts shooting at the Nevermore, just to grab its attention. As Nora goes into the air, Weiss makes the glyph and "catches" Nora in it. Waiting for the correct moment, Weiss winds Nora back. Nora then gets launched when the Nevermore was centered on them. Nora laughs as she is launched into the air. She fires two grenades to boost herself more before switching to her hammer and then cracking down on the Nevermore's skull. She comes plummeting down with the Nevermore and creates a large crater with her landing. The Nevermore was dead, however. All 12 persons regrouped and smiled at each other, knowing they were all safe and could finish their initiation.
~ Team Formation Ceremony ~
"Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, and Blake Belladona. You four collected the Black Rook. You shall be known as Team NBRY (Nonbinary), led by Pyrrha Nikos," Ozpin announces. Pyrrha was surprised she was surprised but pleased. A blush appears on her face. "Good job Pyrrha!" Ruby says, latching onto the much taller girl in a hug. Pyrrha laughs but hugs Ruby back. "Thank you Ruby," Pyrrha smiles. Yang pats Pyrrha on the shoulder while Blake sent a smile to Pyrrha. "Jaune Arc, Weiss Schnee, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren. You four collected the White Rook. You shall be known as Team JWNR (Junior), led by Jaune Arc," Ozpin announces. Jaune's jaw drops. "Really? Me?" Jaune asks surprised. "Well, you did come up with the plan to take down the Nevermore," Weiss says. She decided to praise him, despite the flirting she had endured the day before and some of the flirting from earlier in the day. "Hell yeah! Just be sure to tell me which legs to break Jaune and we'll be fine!" Nora chirps. "Don't worry too much about Nora," Ren says. "But good job," he adds on. "And finally, Akira Kurusu, Minato Arisato, Minako Arisato, and Yu Narukami. You four collected the White Knight. You shall be known as Team AMMY (Amy), led by Akira Kurusu," Ozpin finishes. "Good job Akira-kun!" Minako says, hugging Akira. "Yeah, you deserve it," Yu smiles. Sure, he was a little disappointed. But then again, Akira was the one who got them out of their situation. Minato stays silent. He reaches up and pats Akira on the head, going on his toes a bit. "Thanks guys!" Akira laughs. All of them felt their Fool Arcana bond increase after surviving initiation together. Heading off to their dorms to sleep and rest, AMMY caught up with JWNR and NBRY, deciding to at least get names of people they fought alongside with today.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It was still light enough out where neither of the three teams wanted to sleep yet but since initiation had been pretty intense, everyone had agreed that chilling out would be a good enough rest for the time being. Also, everyone, including Ruby, had wanted to get to know each more as they all survived initiation together and would be classmates for the next four years. As so, everyone seemed to have decided that Team AMMY's dorm would be the chill out zone, most likely because it was the first dorm they happened upon. "The room is kinda cramped with how the beds are..." Minako comments, frowning lightly. "True. And if this is how your dorms look, I would imagine that this is what our dorms will look like as well," Weiss says. "Why not bunk beds?" Jaune suggests. After all, a lot of his sisters had bunk beds since there were seven of them. "Hell yeah! Bunk beds! Oooo! Ren! I want to have the top bunk!" Nora says, her eyes lighting up at the idea of having bunk beds. "That's fine with me," Ren says. "Soooo Operation Bunk Beds between Teams AMMY, NBRY and JWNR?" Akira asks. He had swapped his mask for his glasses. "Certainly! It will be a wonderful bonding experience between all 12 of us!" Pyrrha smiles. And with that, everyone started searching for supplies that would make sturdy enough bunk beds for all three rooms. Blake and Yang checked the supply closet that was at the end of the hallway. Yu and Weiss ended up searching for Glynda to see if the professor knew where they could find such supplies. Minato had wandered off on his own and tilts his head upon seeing some faint blue smoke outside when he passed the window. Looking around to make sure no one was near him, he opened the window and hopped out to follow the blue smoke. Minato smiles ever so slightly upon seeing the familiar blue door to the Velvet Room. Well, partially familiar. It was a normal wooden door, if a blue door could be considered normal, but it had more designs on it than the one he and Minako used. There was a diamond on the center which was split into four smaller diamonds, each with a basic profile of one of the Wild Cards. The door also read "War Room". Double checking that no one had followed him out of the window and into the apparent courtyard, Minato steps through. "Heeheehee~ Welcome Honored Guest! I see you have found one of the many doors here!" Igor greets Minato. He gestures to a seat. "Now, may I assist you with something today?" he asks as Minato takes a seat. "Did you pull us together because of Ozpin?" Minato asks. "Ah yes. You see, Ozpin is a good friend of mine. He's one of few people who can appear in the Velvet Room without the power of the Wild Card. A long time ago, he had helped me when a different Wild Card was struggling in their quest and had sent me one of his strongest Huntresses. So now I'm returning the favor," Igor explains. Minato stays silent as he listens to Igor. "How do we get more Personas?" Minato asks. Elizabeth steps forward. "You get them in the same manner as you did before, except instead of defeating Shadows, you defeat the Grimm. As for you and Minako, you will have to have your Fool Social Link leveled up in order to hold more since you both sacrificed a good amount of your power," Elizabeth explains. Minato nods in understanding. He then stands up and walks out of the Velvet Room. When he looked at the door, he saw his portrait dim. 'Ah, so our portraits will light up when we're in there,' Minato thinks to himself. He heads back to the dorms, except this time he finds his way normally as the window wouldn't always be an option for him and the others to use. As the blue haired teen makes his way back, Minato reflects on his time in Remnant so far. On one hand he was glad that he wasn't the Great Seal, but on the other hand, he was kinda sad that the world wasn't Earth. He'd admit it, he missed Mitsuru. Minato's favorite Social Link had been Mitsuru and he had been dating Mitsuru before he had to sacrifice himself. The sad blue boi knew that he had to move on, knowing that he could never return to Earth most likely and knew that Mitsuru would want him to be happy. He would move on, but never forget his favorite Social Link. Finally pulling out of his thoughts, Minato came back to the real world, only to bump into Akira who had been talking with Ruby and Pyrrha. He fell to his butt. "Oh! Minato-senpai! Are you alright?" Akira says, having jumped a bit when Minato bumped into him. He offers his hand to Minato who gladly accepts it. "Yeah, just wasn't paying attention," Minato answers. He looks at Ruby and Pyrrha. "Did you find anything? And should we use that honorific thingy?" Ruby asks. "You don't have to. And no, I did not," Minato says. However, he sends Akira and look saying otherwise. Akira caught it. Ruby missed it and Pyrrha thought she saw something but said nothing. "Neither did we. I'm Pyrrha Nikos by the way," Pyrrha says, smiling at Minato. "Minato Arisato," Minato says. Since he was the last one to officially meet Pyrrha, the familiar sound of a Social Link forming rang through out all four Wild Cards. In their mind, the Hanged Man card appeared. The four then head back towards the dorms to see if anyone else made any progress. Fortunately Blake, Yang, Yu and Weiss were successful in gathering supplies. As they all helped each other make bunk beds, with a certain Deputy Head Mistress supervising, they all properly introduced themselves to one another, causing the Fools to gain six more Social Links. Weiss Schnee is their Empress Link; Blake Belladona is their Justice Link; Yang Xiao Long is their Lovers Link; Nora Valkyrie is their Star Link; Jaune Arc is their Magician Link and Lie Ren is their Hermit Link. Glynda leaves once the bunk beds were all set and no one needed to be brought to the hospital. Minako looks out the window. "Do we still want to hang out?" she asks. "Sure! Besides, it's still daylight out and the cafeteria won't be open for dinner for at least another hour," Yang says. "To Team AMMY's room!" Nora says, pointing down the hallway. "Will our room become the designated hang out spot?" Yu asks. "Yeah, makes it easier on us," Akira says. He yelped when Minako pinched him hard in the side. "Akira-kun! You're making it sound like you wouldn't hang out with the others if it wasn't our dorm!" Minako scowls. Akira rubs his side. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just being lazy! Like Minato-senpai," Akira huffed. Minato gives a thumbs up, showing he didn't mind being called lazy and that he approved of Akira being lazy. Yu sighs and shakes his head to hide his amused smile. Everyone gathers in Team AMMY's room. Minato and Minako were on the top bunks, Akira under Minato and Yu under Minako. Weiss took at seat Yu's desk while Yang and Nora sat on Minato's and Minako's desk, respectively. Ren sat at Akira's desk while Jaune shared the couch with Pyrrha and Ruby. Blake just snagged a pillow and sat on the floor since she didn't want to make the couch a sandwich of people. "Okay, this has been bothering me since that fight during initiation, but how is it that all of you have very similar Semblances?" Weiss asks, needing an answer to this question that had been eating at her. "Well, people in our region tend to have similar Semblances," Yu answers. He knew that they couldn't tell these guys that they're from a different world yet. "I've never heard of regional Semblances. Inherited Semblances, that makes sense," Pyrrha says. "Well, Minato and Minako are twins so it makes sense that they have the same Semblance," Blake comments. "The only similarity between our Semblance is that it's a summoning Semblance. We each can summon different creatures and have a different way to summon them!" Akira explains. "Wait, are you not from one of the four kingdoms?" Ruby asks, tilting her head like a cute puppy. "Yeah, we're from a small island that isn't part of a kingdom," Minako says. It wasn't a lie after all. "Let's assume that your Semblances are indeed regional. You said you have a different way of summoning them. How do you do it? Eventually I will be able to summon as well through my Glyphs," Weiss says. Each member of Team AMMY grin when asked. "Yu-senpai, why don't you go first? I'll go after and then the twins?" Akira asks, as he swaps his glasses for his mask. "Gladly," Yu says. He knew why Akira had chose the order - the twins did have the most dramatic way to summon. The silver haired male brings up a hand and a card with the Fool Arcana appears above it. Yu crushes it and out comes Izanagi-no-Okami who appears next to him. Weiss jumped a bit in her seat since she was closer to Yu. "Whoa.. That's so cool! What's it name??" Nora asks. "Izanagi-no-Okami. A mythical hero in our region's culture," Yu answers before dismissing the Persona. He gestures to Akira to do his thing. "Satanael! Come!" Akira says, tearing off his mask, blue flames appearing where his mask should have been. Satanael appears next to Akira, who bows to his new friends. Satanael returns and the mask is back on Akira's face. "That was so cool!" Ruby says, getting excited at seeing these summoning Semblances. "Are you not blind then?" Ren asks Akira. "I am not. I wear the glasses for style. Plus, I think I look better with them on," Akira says. A mischievous grin then splays on his lips. "Minato-senpai? Minako-senpai?" The twins only smirk. They look at each other and nod, each pulling out their Evoker. They then, in sync, put it against their temples causing the other 8 crying out in surprise for the twins to NOT do that. "Messiah!" "Thanatos!" The twins call out as they pull the trigger. The sound of shattering glass resounds around the room and red and blue eyes seem to glaze over for a moment. Ruby squeaked in surprise and in terror at the trigger being pulled. She had latched onto Pyrrha subconsciously. Pyrrha gasped and held onto Ruby, wanting to comfort her small partner. Even Yang was shook by the show that the twins put on. When Messiah and Thanatos disappear, Minako just smiles innocently at everyone whereas Minato just acted as if nothing odd or extreme just happened. "That was.. AWESOME!!" Nora shouts, her eyes sparkling with something akin to worship. "More like brutal.." Weiss mutters under her breath. "Why do you shoot yourselves in the head...?" Blake asks. "For us, we have to show that we accept death. Depressing right?" Minako says, a slightly sad smile on her face. "Memento Mori - Remember that you are mortal, remember you will die," Minato says. "That is pretty somber. But at the same time, it's a good reminder," Ren says, nodding. "Right! It's a reminder that we cannot be careless and that people depend on us," Pyrrha smiles. Ruby's eyes seem to light up at that. "Definitely! You two are definitely the most qualified to be Hunters!" Ruby says. Both Yu and Weiss are a bit irked by Ruby's proclamation but neither say anything. Akira grins and he easily jumps to Minato's bed and grabs the blue haired lad in a headlock. "The wisdom of Minato-senpai! So quiet, yet so wise!" Akira says, messing up Minato's hair playfully. Minato simply sighs but playfully shoves Akira off of him. Akira laughs, before going back down to his bed. "Jeez, all four of you are intense. I don't know if I'd be able to do that," Jaune says. "I agree with you Jaune," Blake comments to the blonde. "Well, that was eye opening and all, buuut I think we need some fun!" Yang says grinning widely as she stands up. "Yang... Don't do it," Ruby says, having a feeling she knew what her half-sister was about to do. "And we're gonna have some fun by starting it all off with a Yang!" Yang says, nabbing Akira's pillow and chucking it right at Jaune. Jaune makes a noise of surprise as the pillow hits him straight in the face with a solid WHAP. Ruby and a few others groan at Yang's terrible pun. Minako grins. "PILLOW FIGHT!" she shouts, grabbing her pillow and chucking it down at Yu. Blake had stolen Yu's pillow to sit on and with it, she hides behind the pillow in a corner. Minato grabs his and decides to chuck it at Yu as well. Weiss snagged one of the ones that hit Yu. "Partners?" Weiss asks Yu. "Partners," Yu answers, now arming himself with a pillow. Everyone else scrambles for pillow from the other two dorms or take cover. Pyrrha and Ruby had jumped behind the couch, Pyrrha using one of the cushions as a shield. "THIS IS WAAAARR!" Ruby cries out once everyone had returned. Soon enough, it was a pillow fight that had six sides, every pair fighting the other five pairs. The pairs were Minato and Akira, Yu and Weiss, Minako and Nora, Pyrrha and Ruby, Jaune and Yang, and then Ren and Blake trying to stay out of the fight by hiding in the corners where no one would see them, hopefully. Laughter and shouts emitted from Team AMMY's room, causing any passersbyers to move along, except for one grey-haired Headmaster who simply smiles and pushes the propped door open.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
A resounding WHAP came from the pillow that Yang had yote at Nora and Minako as it hits the headmaster straight in the face. All other pillow fight shenanigans had stopped when everyone realized that the pillow hit Ozpin and neither Nora nor Minako. However, the three teams relax upon hearing a chuckle come from their headmaster after the pillow falls to the ground. There were various sized grins on each of the twelve teenagers' faces. Ozpin smiles after his little bout of laughter and looks at the students. "I definitely was not expecting a pillow fight to be happening when I came to check in on my new students," Ozpin says amused. "Yang and I kinda sorta started it," Minako says, grinning a bit more. "Well I'm glad you're all already bonding and becoming friends. After all, you all did survive initiation together," Ozpin says, sipping from his mug of hot chocolate. "Yeah! We all figured that since we fought together in one way or another that we should get to know each other better," Yang chirps. "That's good. I can see that you're all settling in and adjusting well too," Oz says. "Though there was another reason I came to Team AMMY's room first. I would like to speak with them privately. Don't worry, once I'm done speaking with them you may continue your activities." "Don't worry guys! It won't take long, right Headmaster?" Akira asks. "It shoudn't, Mr. Kurusu," Ozpin says with a nod. Teams NBRY and JWNR exit Team AMMY's room, a little worried and curious as to what the headmaster would want to talk to their fellow team about so soon. Once it was just Team AMMY and Ozpin, the silver haired headmaster takes a seat on the couch. Setting his cane to lean against the couch, Ozpin holds his mug with both hands and looks at the Persona users in front of him. "Sooooooo what's on your mind Ozpin?" Minako asks, tilting her head. "I'm curious if you have run into Igor since you're time here on Remnant. And what he might have told you," Ozpin answers. "Only Minato-senpai has been to see him and that was by falling asleep," Yu says, sweatdropping. "Actually, I found a door, Yu-kun," Minato says. "Oh is that what that look was about earlier when you said that you hadn't found anything?" Akira asks. He gets a nod. "Well what did he say?!" Minako asks, growing a bit impatient. "That he's returning a favor to Ozpin. Apparently Ozpin sent a Huntress to help a Wildcard who was failing heavily in their mission," Minato says. "That I did. I stumbled into the Velvet Room one day and had a nice chat with Igor. I even met the Wildcard. However, the Huntress I sent never returned. I know not if she died while assisting the Wildcard, is stuck in your world or if she's stranded in between worlds," Ozpin says. "Well, depending on what happened to her, if Igor knows, we could try to get her back," Yu says. "Oh! I bet if she's stuck between worlds then she's probably in the Metaverse!" Akira says, hopping up from the seat he had taken. Four sets of eyes stare at the youngest Wildcard as if he had three heads. "....Metaverse..?" Minato asks, tilting his head, some of his blue bangs moving out of his eyes as he did so. "....Right. You guys had different ways of fighting the Shadows...." Akira says, stroking his chin. "Would you all enlighten me? As this was a detail that Igor never divulged to me," Ozpin says. "Might as well! I think the Metaverse is probably the most complicated to explain, so the twins, then Yu-senpai and then myself?" Akira suggests. "Works with me," Yu says, nodding. Team AMMY gets settled once more so that they could tell the headmaster about their different worlds of fighting the Shadows. The Arisato twins alternate talking about the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Yu explains the Midnight Channel and the television world. Akira then explains the Metaverse, along with the Palaces of a corrupted individual and then Mementos. Ozpin leans back and mulls this information. It was useful information and it seemed like that out of the three, the Metaverse was most likely the place if his missing Huntress was indeed stuck between worlds. "Interesting. You should ask Igor if he knows. If he does, I would be forever in your debt if you could save her if she is not dead.. As would a certain fellow student of yours," Ozpin says. "Who is the Huntress?" Minato asks, his blue eyes lock with Ozpin's brown. "Summer Rose. Mother of one Ruby Rose," Ozpin says. "Do not bring this up with her, I beg you. All of what we talked about cannot be heard by others until the correct time." "That's the plan. Need anything else?" Akira asks. Ozpin shakes his head. He stands up and grabs his cane before leaving the room and heading back to his office. "You better show us that door when we get the chance," Minako says to her twin as Akira and Yu went to get the others so they could continue hanging out for the rest of the day before sleep.
Later that night...
Minato, Minako, Akira and Yu were all sneaking out of their dorms. None of them wanted to be caught by other students or by any possible teachers that could be patrolling. Did they think that there would be patrols? Not really, but better safe than sorry! Minato was leading the way to where he found the door, going out the window he found earlier. They figured that they would also come back this way as coming in through the way that Minato came back would get them caught. Minato and Minako were getting memories of their time with S.E.E.S. and their missions to Tartarus during the Dark Hour. Yu got similar memories but of the Midnight Channel and then planing the next day to save whomever he and his friends saw. Akira was just getting the feelings of being a thief again since they were sneaking around. His Shadow fighting was always done in the afternoon. Soon enough the blue war room door was in front of them. "Here we are," Minato says before entering. Minako followed shortly after, Yu and Akira not far behind. The four Fools take a seat at the war table where Igor was seated and the attendants were standing nearby. "Welcome Honored Guests~ How may the Velvet Room assist you today?" Igor greets. "What do you know about Summer Rose?" Minako asks, just getting it out there. "Ah, so Ozpin told you about her. Well, she is alive as far as I'm aware. But she is not in your world," Igor says. "Alright, so looks like we have to search for her in either the TV world or the Metaverse?" Yu says. "Metaverse more likely since it sounds like your TV world was closed off completely after you and your friends won," Akira points out. "That's correct Inmate! But you're not completely right either!" Caroline says. Akira arches an eyebrow at the mini warden. "What Caroline here means is that there's ANOTHER alternate world that you four can enter. Summer Rose was on her way back to Remnant but she got trapped by some Shadows," Elizabeth explains. "...How do we access it?" Minato asks. "Heeheehee~ Good question! This will be the hardest place to get to. It's similar to Tartarus in that you only have a limited time to get there. However, unlike Tartarus, the place where it is changes. You will face Grimm there since Shadows do not exist on this world. Every night at 10PM a rift will open and you four will be able to enter what is known as the Lost Sea. You have two hours before you are forced out. It is also similar to that of Tartarus and the Palaces as they will not change their layout until you find the one you are looking for," Igor explains. "And! To help you navigate the Lost Sea with ease, we've come up with a scroll program that will act as a map!" Theo says. "Yes. This program tracks where you've been and shows the layout of each floor and area. Additionally, if you know who you're looking for and have that person's data, there is a sensor. The closer you get to the person, the more frequent it will beep," Margaret explains. "If you will give your scrolls to us, we can put the program onto it and you can be on your merry way," Justine says calmly. The four Persona wielders nod and they hand their scrolls to the Velvet Room attendant they had during their first adventure. After the program was installed and set up for them, Team AMMY takes their leave and they scurry on back to their dorm, knowing they were going to need their rest for their first day of class.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After a long first day of classes, the Persona users were ready to go on their first adventure into the Lost Sea. Yu had noticed that the map app that was put on their scrolls the night previous had an entrance detector. He then decided to see if he could find the location before 10PM so that they could get as much exploration done as possible. Unsurprisingly, Yu found one Weiss Schnee approach him. After putting his scroll on vibrate, Yu slips his scroll into his pocket as he waits for Weiss to catch up to him. He figured he could start working on the social links they all had. Besides, he felt a deep connection with Weiss. "Hello Weiss. How was your first day of class?" Yu asks when Weiss was within hearing distance. "Not too shabby I suppose. Though I'm starting to have doubts about Jaune being my team leader..." Weiss answers, frowning a bit. Yu arches an eyebrow. "Want to talk about it and take a walk with me?" Yu offers. Weiss blinks but smiles a genuine smile. "If you wouldn't mind. Though, I must admit that I'm surprised you're willing to do that," Weiss says as she starts walking with Yu. "I'll always listen when a friend has a problem, even if it involves other friends. So, what exactly about Jaune is bothering you?" Yu probes. Weiss takes a moment to sort her thoughts before answering. "While Jaune seems to be good at coming up with strategies, his combat is horrific. I don't know how he even got into Beacon with the skills he has. It's like he never picked up a sword before! Before we joined all of you guys yesterday, I had to save his ass multiple times from the Grimm we ran into. And then today in class he was just gazing off into the distance. Or he was focused on Pyrrha and sometimes I swear he was just gazing at me! And then he had the audacity to ask me to see my notes. The only decent thing he has done was come up with that strategy yesterday for taking down the Nevermore," Weiss rants. Yu blinks at all of the information the white haired heiress had just dumped on him. "And how does all of that make you feel?" "Like I've been cheated! I'm frustrated as well. I should have been made team leader! Not Jaune!" "I understand that to an extent. Not as intense but I do feel like I should have also been team leader." "Wait, really? You don't think Akira should be your team leader?" "Not really to be honest. We've all had leader roles back from our homes, I just can't shake the feeling that I should have also been leader. That's not to say Akira-kun is a bad leader but I just feel like he isn't taking this seriously enough. Probably has to do with the fact that he seems smitten with Minato-senpai," Yu explains. Weiss nods in understanding. "That makes sense. But what can we even do?" Weiss asks, furrowing her brow a tad. "Other than support our team leaders by being a good teammate? Not much," Yu says. Weiss sighs and nods. "That is true... I suppose I should offer Jaune some lessons in using a sword. Oum knows he needs it," Weiss says, pinching the bridge of her nose. Yu gives a reassuring smile. "You can do it Weiss. If necessary, I can help if you'd like," Yu offers. "No, this is something I have to do on my own. But uh, thanks Yu for listening and helping me out," Weiss says with a smile. "Anytime Weiss," Yu says. He blinks when Weiss kissed him on the cheek before leaving. However he smiles as he hears the familiar shatter of a social link leveling up. He walks a few feet forward before feeling his scroll heavily buzz and he pulls it out. To his delight, the app had said he had found the entrance to the Lost Sea. Looking around to see where exactly the entrance was, Yu noticed that it was right outside the auditorium. Putting his scroll back into his pocket, Yu turns and heads back to his dorm to wait for his team mates so they could start their adventure into the Lost Sea at 10PM.
~ Later that night...~
Team AMMY was heading to the auditorium. It was 9:50 at night and the halls of Beacon were pretty quiet. Each member was dressed appropriately for their first venture into the Lost Sea. Yu was leading the way since he had found the entrance. The four Wild Cards had arrived at 9:59 and once the clock struck 10, a swirling blue-green light appears in the floor before them with a sound of waves crashing. "Well, it's a literal sea alright. Hope you guys can breathe underwater!" Akira says cheekily before jumping right on in. Minato shrugs and follows the team leader into the blue-green light. "Whalp! Here goes nothing! YEET!" Minako says, jumping after her twin. Yu shakes his head before hopping in. When the silver haired Persona user landed, he was in for quite a surprise as were the others. The floor looked like sand but it was a dark blue-green color. The walls were of a similar color but had that shitty fake water pattern that you find in swimming pools on them. Light streamed in various spots, seemingly coming out of no where as the ceiling was just a dark abyss. Glancing behind them, there was a stream of violent bubbles that went upwards. "So... Who wants to test the theory of the bubbles being the exit?" Yu asks, looking at his team mates. "MINATO WILL!" Minako shouts before shoving her twin into the stream of bubbles. The only sign that Minato had been taken by surprise was the faint widening of his blue eyes. As his body touched the bubbles, Minato was shot straight up into the abyss. The other three wait with anticipation for the eldest Persona user to return to them. After two minutes had passed, Minato landed near them again. He then walks over and thumps Minako on the head with his fist. "...Don't do that again," Minato says. Minako huffs. "You're no fun!" Minako says, rubbing her head. Yu held back a snicker with his hand while Akira just grinned at the interaction between the siblings. "I think we should have someone on map duty each night so that we can more easily find our way back," Akira says. "Why not whoever finds the entrance has to be on map duty?" Minako suggests. "I think that should be fine. We should all rotate who finds the entrance and therefore map duty," Yu says. Akira and Minako nod in agreement. "Minato-senpai what do you- Minato-senpai?" Akira starts, turning to where the short blue-haired male had been standing a moment previous. Noticing that he was missing again, the other three start searching a bit too frantically in attempts to find him. "Dammit! He blends in with this floor!" Yu says. Minako snorts after a few moments. "Found him! What did you find?" Minako asks, skipping over to her brother. Akira and Yu jog over and find Minato squatting by a big, open, dark purple clam shell. There were slim, silver bars curving upwards in an arch. "Return port. Similar to Tartarus," Minato says. He then gives it a swift kick and the clam turns a lavender and the silver bars shimmer. "So when we want to return here, look for purple clam shells...?" Yu asks. "Yup! If this is like Tartarus, I would bet that each 'floor' has a smaller lavender clam shell we step onto. Additionally, we should find something like this every significant amount of floors," Minako says. "And then easily transport to the most recent floor.. I see. Say, did you guys ever have to deal with the Reaper at all?" Akira asks. "Yeah... You think we'll have to deal with him here?" Yu asks. "Well, it would make sense. If the Reaper has followed us around this far, we probably will have to deal with it again!" Akira says. "Idle," Minato says. "Idle...?" Yu asks, furrowing his eyebrows. "Yeah! Once we leave this floor, we mustn't be idle or the Reaper will come!" Minako says. Akira nods to that. "Ah that was how the Reaper came to you guys? I just had to worry about suspicious chests after opening 21 of them," Yu says, rubbing the back of his neck. "....What the fuck," Minato says, staring at Yu as if he had three heads. "He would only come if you opened a suspicious chest..." Minako starts. "After opening precisely 21?" Akira finishes. Yu nodded. Minato just groans before starting to walk away into the Lost Sea, hoping to maybe find a spot of actual water to drown himself in. Minato finds the entrance to the next floor - a small whirlpool the same color as the wall. He steps into it and was immediately sucked into it. Akira blinks before going after Minato and following. Minako and Yu follow shortly after Akira. Once Yu had landed, he pulls out his scroll and opens the map app. The team of four start heading down the oceany hallways, on the look out for the Grimm that was in this world. Akira tests his thief's vision and was quite happy he still had it. He darts over to a crate and breaks it. He bends down and picks up a small purple orb. "What did you find Akira-kun?" Minako asks, looking at the thief. "A bead? I think its one of those full healing beads, not the decorative kind," Akira says, showing it off. "Mmm. Hold onto it," Minato says. Akira nods and he puts into a pocket before rejoining the other three. "Uh guys... We don't have a scanner among us, do we..?" Yu asks, looking at the other three. "....Nope! We'll be fine!" Akira says. "If we hear chains... Run!" "Sooo lets get moving instead of just standing here!" Minako says. The four nod and they head deeper into the Lost Sea. They fight many a Grimm on each floor. They weren't given too much trouble at the moment which was good for the time being. Time seemed to be really slow in the Lost Sea, almost as unmoving as the endless abyss above them. After what felt like an eternity, a huge surge of swirling bubbles shoots them straight up through the abyss and out onto the floor outside the auditorium. They all fell on their asses with a thud. "Ow! Thank goodness for this Aura or I would have most certainly stabbed myself on my naginata!" Minako huffs. "....Get a collapsible one then," Minato says. "No shit Sherlock!" Minako scowls. "So how many floors did we clear?" Akira asks, standing up. He helps the twins up as Yu had already stood up. "We cleared six and were on the seventh," Yu says. Akira nods. "Not too bad for the first day. Well, let's head back to our rooms so we can sleep!" Akira says. Just as Akira said the word sleep, Minato turns and immediately makes a beeline for their dorm. Akira laughs and follows after Minato smiling. Minako shakes her head with an exasperated sigh as she follows while Yu just smiles.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next day, Akira and Yu felt like their asses had been handed to them on a silver platter. The twins just grin at the two younger Wild Cards. The twins knew that Akira and Yu would need the day to recover from their Tartarus-esque adventure. It would also allow for Minako to get a collapsible naginata as to not stab herself when exiting the Lost Sea. While in class, Yu was a little surprised to see Weiss fussing over him but shrugged it off. He also didn't notice Jaune sighing at the sight. Jaune wasn't focusing too well in class today. While the previous day he had been mooning over Pyrrha and Weiss in class, today he was a bit more mopey. He noticed that Weiss was fussing over Yu and Pyrrha was entertaining Ruby in a manner that would allow the younger girl to actually focus. Looking over at the other three members of Team AMMY, Jaune decided that he would talk with Minako after classes. One reason he picked Minako was that she was a girl so maybe she had some insight? He wouldn't ask Akira as the raven haired male seemed to be on the dramatic side and that was not his style. Minato was a no as he felt awkward around the sleepy blue haired male. After classes had ended, Jaune approaches Minako. "Hey, uh, Minako.. Can I talk with you?" Jaune asks nervously. Minako blinks. "Sure! As long as you don't mind coming to the weapon shop with me. I need to get a collapsible version of my naginata," Minako says, holding up her naginata, having finished a spar in combat class. "Oh yeah, I don't mind," Jaune says, relieved that Minako would hear him out. He starts walking with the bubbly brunette. The walk down to the air shuttles was quiet and the ride into Vale was also silent. Minako, despite getting impatient, lets Jaune take his time to put his thoughts into words. Jaune had the words but he didn't know how to go about voicing his words. He opens his mouth and closes it when he and Minako get off the air shuttle. "Alright Jaune! Spit it out! What's on your mind?" Minako asks, unable to hold back her curiosity and impatience any longer. "Uh well I uh.. Hmm. How to put it... I guess I'm having girl problems?" Jaune says, startled at first. He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly as he follows Minako. "Girl problems hmm? Alright, lay it on me!" "Wait, you'll hear me out for something like this?" "Yeah! You're my friend now Jaune and well, I had another friend with a problem like this before coming to Beacon," Minako answers. She thought of her good friend Junpei and a sad smile appears briefly onto her face as memories of her goofy best guyfriend flooded her mind. "Well, if you insist, then I suppose I will tell you. As you may or may not have noticed, I may or may not have feelings for Pyrrha and Weiss.." "And you can't decide between the two of them?" "I'm not even at that stage! I know it's early on and we all just got to know each other but Weiss seems fascinated with Yu and Pyrrha seems to be enamored with Ruby." "Ooooooooh." "Yeah. I can't figure out what Yu or Ruby has that I don't," Jaune sighs. Minako thinks carefully on what to tell Jaune and she stops outside the weapon shop. Jaune waits with her. "Well, for starters, Ruby has the Cute Factor™ going for her. She's two years younger than us, she's tiny with a big ass weapon and an absolute dork when it comes to weapons. Yu-kun has what Minato and I dub the Cool Guy Factor™. He knows his way around with his sword and the way he activates his Semblance just screams 'Hey! Look at how cool I am!'," Minako explains. Jaune slumps. "So I don't have a chance with either is what you're saying," Jaune sighs miserably. "No! Not at all! You just have to go about it in a different way! Like we gotta catch their attention with the Jaune Style™!" "And what would that be?" "Well, from what I can tell about you Jaune, you first need to gain more confidence. But ignoring the fighting, what's something that makes people think Jaune Arc and not Yu Narukami or Ruby Rose?" Minako probes. She steps inside the shop and Jaune follows, thinking. While Jaune thinks on what made him different from Yu and Ruby, the female Wild Card goes to inquire about making her naginata collapsible. Jaune leans against a wall, still thinking while Minako sets up how she wants to unfold her naginata and when to pick it up. Minako then makes her way back over to Jaune. "So?" "Do you know if Yu can play any instruments?" Jaune asks. "Mmmm... He was a drama kid, not a band kid. Minato and I were band kids. Akira-kun wasn't one for either of those," Minako answers after a moment. "Well, I can sing and play the guitar. Maybe I could try serenading either Weiss or Pyrrha after casually showing off my skills?" Jaune suggests. Minako beams brightly. "Hell yes! While Minato and I had played a different instrument, I can still help you in one way or another," Minako says. "Really? Thanks a bunch Minako!" Jaune says, clearly relieved upon hearing this. As the two walk out of the weapon shop, Minako heard the familiar social link noise ring throughout her head.
~ The Next Day ~
Minato was on searching duty and map duty today. He just strolls through the campus, his scroll on vibrate as he was listening to music. Just as Mass Destruction started playing, he couldn't help but stop to start headbanging on that beginning. After all, it was his favorite song, Burn My Dread right behind it. Since his eyes were closed, he did not notice Ruby looking at him and since he had his ears blocked by music, he also did not hear her giggling. After his mini-headbanging session, his blue eyes open again and he starts walking again, still not noticing Ruby. Minato only noticed Ruby when the young girl tapped on his shoulder. Pulling off a headphone, he looks at Ruby, who was grinning. "What song are you listening to?" Ruby asks. Minato pulls out his MP3 player, pauses the song before rewinding it. He offers the removed headphone to Ruby. Ruby blinks but she takes it and puts it on. The blue haired male then presses play and Ruby's ear is assaulted with the sudden string of 'BABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABYBABY!' that signified the start of the song. When the song was over, Ruby hands the headphone back and Minato lets it drop, the headphone bouncing twice off his chest. "Thoughts?" Minato asks, looking into Ruby's silver eyes. "It startled me at first but it's a good song! I can see why you like to headbang to it!" Ruby answers. Minato actually smiles, as small as his smile was, and he starts to walk. He gestures with his head for Ruby to follow and the small girl follows. The two walk in a surprisingly comfortable silence, the only sound besides their footsteps and the general ambiance being the soft crackle of music coming from the unworn headphone. Minato stops when he felt the vibration of his scroll intensify. He holds up a hand to Ruby. "Wait here a moment..." Minato says to Ruby. Before she could argue, Minato slips through the door. Ruby looks around and notices that she and Minato had stopped outside Professor Port's classroom. Curiosity getting the better of her, Ruby peaks through the door. She strains her ear to see if she could understand what Minato was mumbling about but she quickly backs away from the door when the blue haired male starts walking back. When Minato opened the doors, he spots Ruby just rocking back and forth on her heels. "Soooo what was so interesting about Professor Port's room that you needed to go in by yourself?" Ruby asks, tiling her head to the side. "Minako thought she left her MP3 player in his class," Minato lies without missing a heartbeat. He felt bad but he couldn't tell Ruby about the whole Persona thing yet. Ozpin had asked them to keep quiet, not to mention he was unsure if anyone here were Persona users. Also, he and his team were still in the process of attempting to find Ruby's mother to save her. "Oh! Was it there?" Ruby asks. She thought it was plausible but wouldn't Minato want extra help finding it? "Nope," Minato answers before walking back towards the dorms with the young scythe wielder. Noticing that Ruby was following him but seemed to be awkward, he decides to ask her about her weapon. With the small smile returning to his face, Minato listens to Ruby babble on about her precious Crescent Rose. Again, the familiar social link sound rings through his mind as he listens to Ruby babble.
~ That Night... ~
Team AMMY once more heads out to go spelunking into the Lost Sea. Minato leads the way to Professor Port's classroom. Akira was bringing up the rear and he glances behind him, having thought he heard a door. He didn't see anyone in the darkness behind him. Akira pouts a bit when his Thief's Vision didn't work here but quickly hurried up to catch up to his teammates. He was certain someone was following them but he didn't know who. However, he kept quiet about for now. Ruby, who had been the one to follow Team AMMY, had pressed herself against the wall when Akira looked back. She let out a silent sigh of relief when Akira hadn't spotted her. She was following them as she had to know what Minato had been looking for. While Minako did seem like the type to leave something behind in a classroom, she just wasn't sure that that was what Minato was searching for. As such, the red cloaked Huntress-In-Training kept her distance and followed Team AMMY. Ruby hides behind a potted plant as Team AMMY stopped in front of Professor Port's door. "...It's locked," Minato says, trying to door. Akira smirks. "Step aside Minato-senpai~ Your Phantom Thief has come to save the night~" Akira says cockily as he walks to the door. "You better not kick the door down Akira-kun..." Yu says, sweatdropping. Akira scoffs. "Like I said, Phantom Thief, not Barbarian!" Akira says as he produces a lock pick. The twins didn't question where the lock pick came from. Yu almost asked but figured this was one of those 'don't ask questions you don't wan the answers to' moments. After what seemed like an eternity, but was actually just a few minutes, a faint click is heard. Akira the pushes the door open with a flourish. "Way to go Akira-kun!" Minako chirps before heading on into the room, the three males following behind. Ruby crept forward more and blinks when hearing the sound of crashing waves coming from inside. When hearing four faint sploosh sounds, the silver eyed girl peaks her head into the room. Ruby was dumbstruck seeing the blue-green pool in the center of the floor that was NOT there before. Stepping into the room, Ruby looked around for Team AMMY but didn't see anyone in the room. She concluded that she was either crazy or that Team AMMY had gone into the blue-green pool. Shaking her head, Ruby dashes out of the room and uses her Semblance to get her back to her dorm, leaving rose petals in her wake. "Akira-kun, are you alright? You seem slightly... off," Yu comments as he lands down on the blue-green sand. "I could have sworn that we were being followed but I didn't see anyone..." Akira answers. "But we can worry about that later. We need to save Summer Rose!" "Right! Minato! Lead the way Map Boy!" Minako says as she whips out her naginata. She twirls it quickly to expand it the blade narrowly missing her twin's face. Minato's eyes had widen and once more, he thumps his twin on the head before leading the way. The four Wild Cards take the first six floors quickly, fighting off the Grimm they couldn't avoid. They powered through the next six floors, trying to make progress before the two hours were up. When reaching the 13th floor, the room was the same color and patterns... Just empty. "Boss Floor," Minato states. He stays close to the returning clam shell. The other three Persona users carefully spread out, searching for the floor selection clam and possibly the floor boss. Akira may or may not have found some crates and broke them to get some useful objects out of them. Yu finds the big clam and kicks it, powering it up. "Found the floor selection clam!" Yu calls out to the others. "I uh.. I found the Floor Boss!" Minako calls out afterwards. The three male Fools run over to Minako. Akira runs over and uses his Thief's vision to see how much stronger this boss was compared to them. It was yellow, signifying that the boss would be equal to them. The boss in question was a large elephant Grimm, or a Goliath. "Alright guys, this Goliath is around the same level as us so it should be no problem since it's four v one!" Akira says. "...I'm not going to question how you know so let's just go!" Yu says. The twins nod and the four of them charge the Goliath, Minako and Yu staying in the front while Minato and Akira slip around it. Of course, as they pass, the two slash at the Goliath's legs. Grinning madly, Minako pulls out her Evoker and shoots herself in the head as she calls out Thor's name. The Norse God of Thunder appears and unleashes a Ziodyne straight onto the Goliath's head just as Yu's Sraosha unleashes the same time. With the combined lightning attacks, the Goliath was shocked. Blue flames cover Akira's face as Minato pulls the trigger on his Evoker. "Ardha!" "Surt!" their combined shouts come. The grey and red Magician Persona uses Deathbound and hits the Goliath just as Ardha's God's Hand does. The sheer amount of damage knocks the Goliath onto its back, creating an opportunity of attack. "All-Out Attack!" Akira calls out and the other three grin, knowing EXACTLY what their Leader meant. All four launch themselves at the prone Goliath and viciously attack the Goliath. None of them stayed in the same spot as they dashed and slashed with their weapons. When the Goliath seemed to finally manage to lumber onto its feet, the four of them jump back and away. "It's almost dead! We got this!" Minako calls out. She dodges out of the way of a trunk swinging at her. "Can we frighten it?" Yu calls out as he attempts to avoid getting impaled on a tusk. However, he just jumps into the other tusk, the air knocked out of him. Akira's eyes light up and he grins. "Minato-senpai! Minako-senpai! Bring it's attention over here!" Akira says. Minako jumps and slashes at the trunk just as Minako slashes at the leg closet to him. The Goliath lets out a loud cry and focuses on the female who hurt it that ran to the male that hurt it. Just as the Goliath lumbered around to face Akira, Minako and Minato, blue flames erupt where the Phantom Thief stood. Soon enough, the hideous Persona of Beelzebub appears, causing the twins to make a face, and an Evil Smile appears on its face, inflicting fear on the Goliath. Minato immediately knows what to do and shoots himself in the head. "Thanatos," the blue haired boy called out calmly. The ominous Persona looms behind Minato and lets out a Ghastly Wail. The other three Wild Cards involuntarily shuddered while the Goliath starts to disintegrate. A card flutters into Minato's hand and shatters, the blue haired boy absorbing it. "Oooo who did you get??" Minako asks her twin excitedly. "Melchizedek - Justice," Minato answers. Yu walks over, a hand on his side. "Anyone mind healing me..? I would heal myself but uh.. Aura levels are kinda low here," the silver haired Persona user says. "I got it! We could all use a good heal before we return anyways! Yurlungur!" Minako invokes. A shatter and a rainbow colored worm seems to circle them all and each Fool lets out a content sigh as they felt healed. Akira and Minato go off to see if there were chests and lo and behold - there were! Akira picks them open and huffs when he got two paint covered clothes. He returns with Minato. "Well! Let's go get that well earned rest and then we can see what exactly we got!" Akira says. With no complaints from the others, Team AMMY heads to the floor selection clam, returning to the first floor. Funnily enough, just as they arrived, their two hours were up and they were sent upwards via violent bubbles without having to go to the actual exit.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next day after classes, Akira goes to the laundry room to do his own laundry as well cleaning the pieces of clothing he had found in the Lost Sea the previous night. After starting his laundry, Akira sits down in a nearby chair. He leans back in the chair so that it touches the wall, his feet on the table. Some memories of how he and Morgana would just chill by the laundromat as they washed clothes came to mind. A snort then emits from his nose as memories of his teacher, Ms Kawakami, was his maid and would do laundry for him once he got that far along the social link with her. After a bittersweet sigh leaves his lips, Akira minds his own business on his scroll, ignoring the few students that came by to grab their clothes or swap them. He only looks up when hearing the click of heels approach him. Akira smiles. "Hello Pyrrha," Akira greets the redhead pleasantly. "Hello!" Pyrrha greets, a small smile upon her face. "May I sit with you Akira?" "Sure, I got nothing better to be doing," the messy raven haired male said. Pyrrha then takes a seat on the chair. Akira's onyx eyes look Pyrrha over, noticing that the female seemed a bit tense. He pokes the redhead. "Alright what's on your mind?" "O-oh uh nothing! Don't worry about it! I don't want to burden you!" Pyrrha says, having been spooked. She had also waved her hands in front of herself as if to dispel any worry. A black eyebrow just arches in response. "C'mon.. You can tell me. As a fellow leader, let me assist you!" Akira says, grinning a bit. Pyrrha sighs in defeat. "If you insist... I.. I don't know if Ozpin making me the leader of my team was the right choice," the redheaded Huntress-In-Training admits. "Why not? You're intelligent, you're a great fighter and you care about your teammates." "You know how I'm the Invincible Girl?" "More or less." "I can't help but think that it was too easy of a choice to make - The Invincible Girl goes off to Beacon! Becomes team leader of her own team! She's going to have the best team out there!" "Well Pyrrha... I can tell you that you have no need to worry about it being an easy choice. You DID come up with the plan to deal with the Arachne after all. What you need to focus on is not what people think, but on what you want," Akira says. Pyrrha smiles a bit upon hearing that. "You're right Akira.. Thank you. It is time I focus on what I want, isn't it?" Pyrrha says. Akira grins and nods. He gets up to transfer his laundry into the dryer, and as he does so, the social link noise goes through his head. For the rest of the afternoon, Akira and Pyrrha just chat until both of their laundry was finished. When both sets of laundry were done, Akira and Pyrrha walk back to their dorms, only to part ways upon reaching their dorm doors. Akira enters his team's dorm and sets the laundry basket down and starts searching for whatever had been the paint covered clothes. He blinks as he holds up first a vibrant green sports bra and then a set of light blue basketball shorts. He grunts as a shoe hits his head. "AKIRA-KUN! WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE A BRA IN YOUR HANDS?!" Minako shouts, having entered the dorm and yeeted her shoe at him. Yu glances behind him and sweatdrops. "I washed the paint covered clothes and that was one of them," Akira grumbles as he rubs the back of his head from the shoe. Minato walks past his twin and over to Akira. He takes the sports bra from Akira and looks at it before looking at Minato. He throws it at her. "It'll fit," the blue haired boy says bluntly. He ducks and Minako's other shoe sails over him, hitting Yu straight in the face. "Will you please stop throwing your shoes at people Minako-senpai...?' Yu groans, rubbing his face. "It's yeet!" both Akira and Minako correct. Minato just jabs his thumb towards the two in agreement when Yu looked at him. "Not you too Minato-senpai..." Yu groans again, this time hanging his head in defeat. "ANYWAYS! I'm sure there's some sort of beneficial property to it, so go try it on Minako-senpai!" Akira says. Minako scowls but goes into the bathroom to try the vibrant green sports bra on. She walks back out, her school shirt over it. "I haven't noticed anything diff-" Minako starts, only to get buffeted by wind as Minato summons Norn. "MINATO!" "...Just testing a theory," Minato says with a shrug, attempting to hide the small and sly grin that was threatening to appear on his lips. "Oh, I see. Minako-senpai, look at your Aura levels," Yu says, understanding where Minato was going. Minako pulls out her scroll and blinks. "Huh... normally I would have taken a lot of damage since I had Thor equipped.. But- oooohh I understand now," Minako says. "Which means that anything vibrant green will give wind resistance! I bet that light blue is ice!" Akira beams. He then yeets the basketball shorts at Minato, a light whap as the shorts hit Minato's face. The blue haired Wild Card holds the shorts and goes to the bathroom to change. He also switches to Surt. Immediately after stepping out, he was hit with a large ice block, courtesy of Minako. "Light blue is ice," Minato says. Akira grins. "Alright I was right!" the leader of Team AMMY cheers. "So until the twins have their full capacity again, we need to keep a look out for those clothes! We should all also keep an eye out for anything that might increase our Aura levels!" "However, I recommend you only wear those odd clothes while in the Lost Sea," Yu says to the twins, who both stare at him. "No shit," the twins say in sync. "I suppose that was obvious... Wasn't it?" Yu says, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yuuuup," Akira says, popping the p. "Minako-senpai! Did you find the entrance to the Lost Sea today?" "I did. It's in the cafeteria. Are we going today?" Minako replies. "Depends - how do people feel today? Cause I feel magnificent!" Akira grins. "I'm down for it. We need to find Summer and save her as soon as possible," Yu says, Minato nodding the agreement. "Sounds like we're going then!" Minako cheers. She was ready to fight some more. Since there was plenty of hours still left in the day, Team AMMY gets to work on the homework assignments they had, helping each other out when necessary. Ruby had been passing by to her dorm when she had heard Minako shout at Akira, so she paused to see if the conversation was anything interesting. To make it not too suspicious, Ruby had leaned against the wall while scrolling on her scroll. She was not surprised to hear the weird Persona-thingies being summoned as she assumed that was normal for the Arisato twins. However, her ears perked up upon hearing mention the Lost Sea. She connected that to the weird sea that was in Professor Port's room last night. The young Huntress-In-Training nearly dropped her scroll when Yu said her mother's name and saving her. She then zips off to her dorm's room. Ruby needed to talk to Pyrrha and while her sister was on the same team, Ruby knew that Yang wouldn't handle this information easy. Much to her relief however, only Pyrrha was in the room. "Pyrrha! I have something urgent to talk to you about!" Ruby says to the tall female in the room. Pyrrha looks over. "Alright. What's on your mind Ruby?" Pyrrha asks, her green eyes showing concern. "First you gotta promise not to tell ANYONE about what I'm about to tell you!" "Of course. Cross my heart and hope to die." "So I was lingering near Team AMMY's room cause I heard Minako yelling at Akira and was curious about what they were talking about. At one point Yu mentioned something called the Lost Sea. I think Team AMMY goes to this other world to fight Grimm? I'm not sure what it was but I did follow them last night and they went into Professor Port's classroom. And get this - there was this weird sea portal in the floor! And that's not even the craziest thing! They talked about rescuing my mom! My mom is still alive!" Ruby explains, her words getting faster as she spoke her arms flailing as she did so. Pyrrha was shocked by all of this information. "That... That is very surprising," the redheaded girl says. "We gotta help them! We just gotta help them save my mom!" Ruby exclaims. Pyrrha stands up from her desk and puts her hands gently on Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby... We can't just go rushing in to help them. I know you want to save your mother, but we don't know anything about this Lost Sea place," Pyrrha starts out. Ruby's face falls upon hearing her partner's words and her shoulders slump. "However, I will follow after Team AMMY tonight with you and maybe we can take a peak into what this Lost Sea is." "OHMAIOUM! THANK YOU PYRRHA! YOU'RE THE BEST!" Ruby shouts as she basically tackles Pyrrha to the floor, hugging her tightly. Pyrrha hadn't expected Ruby to tackle her so she fell to the floor, a small oof escaping her lips. However, she just laughs and hugs Ruby back. "You're welcome Ruby," Pyrrha replies. A small blush was on her face but so was a smile.
Later that night...
Ruby and Pyrrha waited for Yang and Blake to be soundly asleep before quickly slipping into their combat gear. Pyrrha lightly cracks their door open and waits for Team AMMY to pop out of their dorm so she and Ruby could follow. Soon enough, Team AMMY files out of their dorm, Minako leading the way this time. Pyrrha and Ruby wait a few before following and stay at a safe distance as to not be detected. Ruby blinks when seeing they were headed towards the cafeteria this time. Conveniently, there were two potted plants and the NR of Team NBRY each take a potted plant to hide in or behind while Akira picked the door to the cafeteria. "Honestly, we should just ask Headmaster Ozpin for a copy of all the keys," Minako says. "After we save Summer," Minato says to his twin. Yu nodded in agreement. Akira gets the door open. "Lady, Gentleman and I suppose other! I present the cafeteria~" Akira says, looking at Minako, Minato and Yu in turn. He had bowed with a flutter of his coat to add a dramatic flair. "Why is Minato-senpai called a gentleman and I'm 'other'?" Yu asks, squinting at Akira. "...Cause Narukami Harassment Squad," Minato answers, smirking a bit. Akira just gives Yu a cheeky little shit grin. "Minako-senpai..?" Yu asks. "I'm with them Yu-kun! Someone's gotta be the butt of all the jokes! And there's no Junpei-kun with us soooo," Minako answers. "And there's no Ryuji-kun either," Akira points out. "And no Yusuke-kun..." Yu sighs. "Is this my punishment for being cool in my school?" "Yup," Minato says bluntly before walking after hearing the crashing waves start. The rest of Team AMMY follows Minato and they all enter the Lost Sea. After a few minutes, Ruby and Pyrrha step out of their hiding spots and enter the cafeteria. Ruby immediately goes over to the blue-green swirling light. Pyrrha looked around the cafeteria and saw that the only difference was the swirling light that Ruby was next to. Pyrrha then goes over to join her partner. "So they just hopped into this swirling light?" Pyrrha asks, arching a red eyebrow. "Apparently! Should we investigate? Obviously there's a way out," Ruby says, looking up. "I suppose a small peak wouldn't hurt," Pyrrha says. "Hold onto my hand so we don't get separated." "Good thinking!" Ruby says. After taking Pyrrha's hand, the two jump into the swirling light. The two Huntresses-In-Training gasp when they hit the bottom and took in their surroundings - the blue-green sand, the shitty fake water patterns on the walls, the dark, never-ending abyss above them. The two walk carefully around this floor and notice that Team AMMY was not near them. "This is so weird.. It's like we're under the sea yet we can breathe...." Pyrrha says. She approaches the rather large shell and gingerly touches it. She eeps in surprise when a small display of floor selection popped up. Ruby looks over having heard Pyrrha eep and comes over. "Whoa, so this clam thing allows up to go deeper??" Ruby asks, amazed. "Apparently. We can go to the 13th floor from here.. Which means there is something that would allow us to go to the next floor from here.." Pyrrha says, looking around. She eventually spotted the swirling whirlpool and assumed that would lead them down. Ruby had found the violent stream of exit bubbles. "I think I found the exit!" Ruby calls out to Pyrrha. "And I found the next floor entrance," Pyrrha calls back. Ruby then bounds back over to Pyrrha's side. "Oo! Let's go! At least one floor! Pleeeaaasssseeee??" Ruby says to Pyrrha, using the puppy eyes. Pyrrha, who didn't want to go, sighs in defeat. "Alright. But one floor only!" Pyrrha says. Ruby cheers and after grabbing onto Pyrrha, she jumps in. The pair was not surprised by their surroundings this time. Drawing their weapons, the two start carefully exploring this floor. Ruby let out a yelp of surprise when a small bird Grimm had launched ice at her. "PYRRHA! THESE GRIMM CAN USE DUST ATTACKS!" Ruby calls out as she immediately leaps up to dispel the small bird Grimm. Pyrrha helped get rid of the small flock of Grimm birds that had appeared. "We definitely should not be here. Let's try to find an exit and fast!" Pyrrha says. Ruby nods in agreement and after collapsing Crescent Rose, she wraps her arms around Pyrrha. Using her Semblance to zip around and do her best to avoid the Grimm, Ruby finds a small clam shell that resembled the bigger one. Ruby skids to a stop and sets Pyrrha down. She and Pyrrha then use the clam shell and they return to the entrance. "Holy crap! That was so weird! But we gotta keep quiet about this until we get answers from Team AMMY!" Ruby says. "Agreed. However, let's get back to our dorm for now," Pyrrha says. She grabs Ruby's hand and gently tugs her towards the exit bubbles. Once stepping into the bubbles, the two shoot up through the abyss and are soon enough spat out onto the floor of the cafeteria... Ruby on Pyrrha's lap. Blushing heavily, Ruby gets off and helps Pyrrha up. After dusting herself off, Pyrrha heads out of the cafeteria with Ruby and back to their dorm.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After a few days of Pyrrha and Ruby first entering the Lost Sea, Team AMMY had found the floor where Summer was. It was the 28th floor. As the clock drew closer and closer to 10PM, Team AMMY headed out of their dorm and surprisingly to the same little courtyard where the door to the Velvet Room resided. Ruby had managed to convince Pyrrha to go with her again that night to Lost Sea and follow Team AMMY at a distance while in the Lost Sea. Ruby had made it a habit to listen to the mostly male team everyday when she noticed they were all in their dorm room together. Ruby and Pyrrha were surprised to see Team AMMY hop out the window lead not by Akira but by Minato. The blue boy just pops the window open and with his hands back in his pockets, proceeds to just yeet out the window like a burglar crashing through the window. Akira and Minako do the same as Minato while the two girls just watch Yu shake his head and climb out the window like a normal person. Ruby zips through the window and into a nearby bush using her Semblance. Pyrrha takes a running start, jumps and vaults her body through once her hands grab the sill. She then rolls into the same bush that Ruby is in. Team AMMY pauses and they look behind them upon hearing the bushes rustle. "Do you guys see anything?" Minako asks, her voice barely above a whisper. Her hand lingered near the Evoker. "I don't see anything," Yu says, shaking his head. Minato shook his head as well, signifying that he did not see anything. "Akira-kun?" Minako asks. Akira approaches the bushes, causing the two girls to hold their breaths as to not get caught by the black haired team leader. Akira takes his Scroll and shines it around real quick. Fortunately for the two hiding, the bushes were dense enough where the Scroll light didn't pierce through them enough. "Nope. We're all set. And oh, would you look at that, right on time!" Akira says, shutting his Scroll light off just as the sound of crashing waves appears. He then strolls on over and proceeds to jump into the Lost Sea, the rest of the Wild Cards following. Ruby and Pyrrha carefully come out of the bushes and approach the Lost Sea. They didn't see the Velvet Room door and walked past it and into the Lost Sea. When the two Huntresses-In-Training landed, Team AMMY was not there. Hurrying over to the large clam shell, Pyrrha selects the upmost floor - Floor 27. They appear and hear some fighting a little bit into the distance and head that way. Pyrrha and Ruby never got too close as they didn't want Team AMMY to find them. Eventually Team AMMY finds the whirlpool and they just hop right in. Ruby steels herself and runs after, not caring anymore, Pyrrha hot on her heels since the small member of Team NBRY didn't use her Semblance this time. However, what Ruby and Pyrrha saw when they emerged on the 28th floor was not what they expected. Upon arriving on the 28th floor, the navigation app that the Fools had started beeping like crazy on Minato's Scroll since he was on map duty. Following the intense beeping, the four come across a lone figure sitting in the middle of the floor. The figure wore a white cape that at this point was pretty tattered. The figure's back was to the group as they approached, only for the hooded head to slowly, ever so slowly, turn to the left and look at the group. A flash of silver eyes is seen from underneath the hood. The figure quickly stands, turning completely to face the group that stood before it. "Summer Rose? We're here to get you out!" Akira says, stepping forward. "Don't get any closer! I see you Shadows have learned to take human faces and forms!" Summer says, a scimitar in her hand, pointed at Akira. "Mrs Rose, I assure you, we are NOT Shadows. We're Persona users much like the ones you helped!" Akira says. "I SAID STAY BACK!" Summer shouts, swinging at Akira. The black haired male jumps back and to the side, only to reveal Ruby to Summer's sight. As the hood falls down, revealing an older version of Ruby but with longer and matted hair, Ruby's eyes widen upon seeing how insane her mother had become. "M-Mom..?" Ruby asks, her voice breaking a bit. The Persona users whip their heads to where they heard the small girl's voice and were shocked to see Ruby and Pyrrha standing there. However, none of them were able to ask why she and Pyrrha were there as Summer spoke again. "Oh! This is just wonderful! Now you're taking the shape of my baby girl if she was a teenage girl!" Summer snarls. Her scimitar drops as she grips her head, a scream emitting from her lips. The students of Beacon watch in horror as Summer's body convulses and starts to shift forms. Summer's head snaps up and where silver once was, bright yellow take its place. Her pale skin turns the soulless black color of the Grimm and a bone white mask with red lines forms around the yellow orbs. The red and black hair of Summer grows out and splays around her head like a halo of fire. Her head, torso and arms enlarges and her arms gain bone on the elbows as her nails grow into sharp, white claws. Where her skirt was is now a blood red rose opening towards the ground, a plethora of thorny, acidic green vines twisting down in place of her legs. Shadow Summer now towered over the teenagers, reaching a height of 7". A light thud snaps the students out of their horror-stricken awe as Ruby falls onto her butt. "No... You're.. you're not my mom! That's.. THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!" Ruby shouts, denial and raw emotion clear in her words. Team AMMY and Pyrrha only have a moment to cover their eyes as a bright shining light emits from Ruby's eyes. Shadow Summer lets out a shriek of pain as the silver light seems to weaken her. Ruby then slumps forward. "PYRRHA! KEEP RUBY SAFE! WE'RE GOING TO FIGHT SUMMER!" Akira shouts to his fellow leader. The redhead in question nods, grabbing Ruby and drags her back, Miló and Akoúo̱ set in a defensive position. The Persona users form a line in front of Shadow Summer, weapons drawn and ready. "Anyone deal with something like this before? Or is this completely new??" Minako asks. "It's similar to what I dealt with and what Akira-kun dealt with. The denial and Shadow selves. I think we just need to beat this Shadow form of Summer and it'll bring her back to normal," Yu says. "Agreed! Just keep attacking until you can find a weakness!" Akira orders. The other three nod. Akira and Minato dash forward, trying to cross slice at Shadow Summer's chest, only to be smacked hard into the ground. Minako jumps over some vines that lashed out at her as she got closer to the base of the vines. She lands a hit and jumps back. "Slashing damage is a no-go on the vines!" Minako calls out. Yu summons the Priestess tarot card and after breaking it, Scathach appears behind him. A large wind storm appears around Shadow Summer. He rolls to the left to avoid multiple vines trying to pierce him. Akira gets up and tries shooting Shadow Summer and lands a few hits. He scowls. "MINATO-SENPAI! TRY USING SURT!" Akira calls out as he absorbs an Eiga attack aimed at him. He mentally thanks Satanael for having being able to absorb curse attacks. The blue haired Persona user gets up and with a snarl, puts the Evoker to his head, pulling the trigger. As the familiar sound of shattered glass sounds around the room, the ruler of Muspelheim appears behind Minato and unleashes a devastating fire attack upon the monstrosity before them. It just did normal damage. An evil giggle emits from Shadow Summer. "What the fuck," Minato growled out. He was pissed and just runs forward, not having this madness that was Summer. He just slashes at the vines left and right. "Minako-senpai! Keep Shadow Summer distracted! Yu-senpai, go grab Minato-senpai! I got something to remove that rage!" Akira calls out, switching to his Mada mask. He fires off a few shots. Minako lets out a war cry as she charges Shadow Summer, leaping into the air. This was effective enough for Yu, who equipped Zaou-Gongen, to overpower Minato enough to drag him back towards Akira. As Minako distracts Shadow Summer to the best of her ability, Akira summons Mada and Minato, who was trying to fight Yu off, seems to calm down. It was only then that Yu let go of Minato. As the team of Fools fought against Shadow Summer, Pyrrha was trying to figure out what to do. She couldn't let them handle this on their own but she couldn't leave Ruby on the floor unguarded either. Momentarily putting Miló and Akoúo̱ away, Pyrrha kneels besides Ruby. She puts her hands right on Ruby's stomach. Closing her emerald eyes, Pyrrha focuses on giving Ruby a jolt with her Aura to wake the small girl up. A gasp signified to Pyrrha that Ruby had woken. Pyrrha opens her eyes and lets out a sigh and slumps back onto her heels as the jolt of Aura took more than she had planned. It takes Ruby a moment to realize what was going on. Upon seeing her friends fight against the twisted version of her mother, Ruby feels something within her awaken. A voice rings out in her head. 'So thou hast awakened to thy power. Believe in thy heart and unleash the fury within!' the voice cries out. Ruby puts her hands over her heart, her eyes closing as she focuses on the power from within. A bright red light, similar in color to her Aura, coalesces around her hands and above her heart. Silver eyes snap open. "Persona!" Ruby cries out. The red light quickly swirls around her and behind her, her Persona emerges. An anthropomorphic, and vaguely female, wolf with grey fur that is wrapped in a red hooded cloak puts its large paws on either side of Ruby's head. The wolf was also dressed in a simple white dress. 'I am Red Riding Hood. My power is yours,' the Persona growls in Ruby's head. Ruby nods and lets her heart guide her, causing the snout of the wolf to lean forward and take in a very large sniff of Shadow Summer. Information about Shadow Summer's weakness fills her mind. "GUYS! SHE'S WEAK TO BLESS SKILLS!" Ruby calls out to the Persona users. All four had turned to see Ruby summon a Persona and were momentarily shocked upon seeing the wolf appear behind the small scythe wielder. They were snapped out of their thoughts by either evading a curse or a vine. They nod to Ruby's shout. "Get ready for that sweet all-out attack you five! I'll give it that crippling blow! I'm the only one with a Kouha type move. The insta-death moves you have won't work!" Akira calls out. "That's including you two!" "Right, ready when you are Akira-kun!" Minako calls out. The sound of shattered glass sounds out and Messiah appears behind Minato, the entire party, including Ruby and Pyrrha, feel refreshed and completely rejuvenated. "Metatron!" Akira calls out as he rips the mask from his face. The blue flames coalesce into the shape of Metatron who unleashes a bright bless attack upon the Shadow Summer. As the twisted form of Shadow Summer falls to the ground, Team AMMY launches forward and starts the all-out attack. Glancing at one another and nodding, Pyrrha and Ruby charge in with their weapons to assist with the attack. Shadow Summer attempts to stand back up and everyone jumps back. However, she crumples to the ground. The students relax upon seeing the twisted form start to shift towards the original Summer. The black particles of the Shadow lift and a slightly battered Summer is seen sitting on the floor. "R-Ruby...? Is that.. Is that really you?" Summer asks, reaching a hand out towards her daughter. Ruby drops Crescent Rose as tears well up in her eyes. "MOM!" Ruby shouts as she launches herself at the older woman, engulfing her in a hug. "I thought you were dead!" she cries. "Sshh... It's alright now... Momma's here..." Summer says, hugging Ruby back. A few tears fall from her own eyes as she coos to her child. The other five step back and let the two have a moment. "Do you think Ozpin will see us if we ring him saying we saved Summer?" Minako asks in a whisper. "I would hope so. We do need to figure out where she is going to stay for the night..." Yu whispers. "...Pyrrha and Ruby. Ozpin needs to know," Minato states. "Right, well let's get everyone out of here since mission accomplished," Akira says. The other three nod. The raven haired male then turns to Pyrrha. "Pyrrha. Thank you. Thank you and Ruby for following us." "Oh it wasn't a problem. Well, it should have been a problem since we were spying on you but I guess it was better in the long run for us to do so?" Pyrrha says, blushing as she admits to spying on them. "Oh it's quite fine Pyrrha. We had a feeling someone would find out sooner or later," Yu chuckles. "Team AMMY and Pyrrha is it?" Summer asks, bringing the attention from Pyrrha, Akira, Minato, Minako and Yu to her. "Yeah. That would us! I'm Akira, that's Yu-senpai, Minako-senpai and Minato-senpai and then of course Pyrrha," Akira says. "Hello!" Pyrrha says, waving. "Thank you all for saving me. Thank you for bringing me home," Summer says with a smile. "Not a problem Mrs. Rose!" Minako cheers. "Well, technically it's Mrs. Xiao Long, but you may call me Summer," the older woman says. She picks up her scimitar just as Ruby picks up Crescent Rose and collapsing it. "Right. Let's head back. This way," Minato says before walking back to the floor selector. Everyone follows behind the blue boy, Ruby not leaving Summer's side.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Ozpin was to say, at the very least, slightly surprised when one Akira Kurusu called him at approximately 11:30PM to inform him that Summer Rose had been found and saved. He was more than relieved upon hearing that the team of Persona users were able to rescue Summer. The silver haired headmaster goes to his office to await Team AMMY and Summer Rose. As he sets up five chairs for people to sit in, Ozpin had a mug of hot chocolate ready off to the side. When the elevator dinged, Ozpin looked over. As expected, Akira, Minato, Minako, Yu and Summer walked out but Ruby and Pyrrha was unexpected. He also noted that Ruby seemed to be glued to her mother's side. "Welcome back to Remnant, Summer," Ozpin says, a smile on his face. Summer returns the smile. "It's nice to be back," Summer says. "Please, all of you, take a seat. Would anyone like some hot cocoa?" Ozpin asks. Summer, Ruby and surprisingly Minato raise their hands. As Ozpin gets up to make more hot chocolate, Summer and Ruby plop into a chair together. Minako hogs one chair with a cheeky smile while Yu offers a chair to Pyrrha. Pyrrha smiles and she takes the chair. Akira smirks and he grabs the small blue boy and sits down in a chair, surprising Minato as he did so. Ozpin looked over when hearing a noise from Minato and chuckles softly. Yu paid no attention to Akira's shenanigans before sitting down in the last remaining chair. Ozpin walks over with three mugs of freshly made hot chocolate. He hands the mugs to Summer, Ruby and Minato before sitting behind his desk. "So.. What exactly happened Summer, if you don't mind me asking?" "Well, after helping that Wild Card as you asked, Igor pulled me back into the Velvet Room. I had gone through the same door that allowed me to assist the Wild Card but when I stepped through, I immediately noticed something wasn't right. As I stepped through, I felt a pull on my being as if an undertow was pulling me down under. I awoke in what these four are calling the Lost Sea and that's when I realized I wasn't getting back to Remnant anytime soon. It was so strange... Seeing the Grimm in there but acting more like the Shadows," Summer explains before taking a long drink of her hot chocolate. "So that's where you went 12 years ago...." Ruby says quietly from her place next to Summer. Said woman smiles sadly down at Ruby. "I'm sorry my little rose petal. I didn't mean to disappear on you like that... I didn't realize that it had been 12 years. It certainly didn't feel like that.. It only felt like a year to me," Summer says. "That's because the Lost Sea only appears for two hours every day," Yu says. "That.. That explains a lot.. To think I spent 12 years in that hell.." Summer says, staring down at the brown liquid. Ruby presses herself closer to Summer since she had a mug in her hand. "If you don't mind me asking Summer... Why did you go berserk upon seeing Ruby in there?" Minako asks carefully. Summer takes a deep breath. "As I said, it only felt like a year to me so seeing Ruby as a 15 year old didn't make any sense. Also, after dealing with those monsters for what felt like a year constantly does make one go insane. I suppose denial is what drove me to that warped version of myself. I can't say for certain.." Summer answers. "Which brings me to this question - Miss Nikos and Miss Rose, why are you with Team AMMY and what do you know?" Ozpin asks, arching a silver eyebrow. The two girls in question blush slightly. "Well uh I followed Team AMMY one night as I found it odd that Minato randomly searched a room by himself earlier that day. Then the next day, I overheard Team AMMY and they mentioned saving Mom so I uh kinda dragged Pyrrha into it since she is my team leader..." Ruby starts out. "Huh, so I was right in thinking someone was following us the day before that laundry day..." Akira says to himself. "I went with Ruby because I knew there would be no stopping her and I wanted to make sure she was safe. So we followed them that night and we only went onto the second floor before retreating. And tonight we followed as Ruby overhead them talking about saving Summer tonight," Pyrrha explains. "So we DID hear something in the bushes! Damn, those bushes must have been really dense to hide you two!" Minako exclaims. Ozpin chuckles a bit. Summer just looks at her daughter with an amused look on her face. Ruby's face in turn became a light shade of pink as she had a feeling what her mother was getting at with that look. "As for what we know, we now know that you four are not from Remnant and that you've done this sort of thing before. And Ruby seems to have one of these.. Persona things," Pyrrha says. "Oh yeah, that was really cool Ruby. That helped a lot since you were able to tell us the weakness," Yu says with a smile. Ruby, with one hand, pulls her hood over her head since her face went from pink to red. "Erm, it was nothing!" Ruby squeaks. A sudden realization dawns upon Ruby. "Wait, if I can wield a Persona and still have my Semblance, that must mean you guys have a completely different Semblances!" "Well, we might but we use the Persona as a cover-up for that situation. It would not do well to reveal that to the majority of the world. But, we haven't the foggiest idea what our Semblances would be," Akira says, stroking his chin thoughtfully towards the end. "Wouldn't it be the fact that you guys can summon multiple different ones?" Pyrrha asks, arching a red eyebrow. "No. We are of the Fool Arcana and have the Wild Card ability," Minato answers. He sets his now empty mug of hot chocolate on the floor. "And as such, yourself and Ruby happen to also have an Arcana associated with you. For Ruby, hers is Strength. Yours is Hanged Man," Yu adds on. "I suppose we have a lot to explain to you two. However, you're not allowed to tell the others about this!" Minako says. "Got it!" both Ruby and Pyrrha say. The four Wild Cards explain everything about Personas, Shadows and everything in between so that Ruby and Pyrrha wouldn't be so confused anymore. By the time all explanations were over, it was half past midnight. Ruby lets out a yawn and blushes a bit. "Well, I think it's safe to say that we all should get to bed. Good thing it's Friday, well Saturday now. Summer, you're going to have to be in the hospital wing for the night as I imagine you're very malnourished, and who knows what other medical treatment you might need," Ozpin says. "You're not wrong Oz. And don't worry my little rose petal, you can see me in the morning," Summer says to Ruby. "Wait... We're going to have to tell Yang all of this..." Ruby says. "Eh, we can deal with that in the morning," Minako says, waving Ruby's concern off for the time being. "If you say so..." Ruby says, pressing her fingers together in a nervous manner. "Should we tell the others? Or let them figure it out on their own?" Yu asks. "The fewer people that know, the better," Minato points out. "What Minato-senpai said. If the others figure it out, then we tell them. Otherwise, this keeps quiet. Yang is the only one we have to tell," Akira says, nodding. And with that, Team AMMY, Pyrrha and Ruby head off to the dorms. Pyrrha and Ruby were fortunate enough to not wake Blake and Yang from their slumber as they enter their dorm. The two girls change into their pajamas and get ready for bed once more. Just as Pyrrha was about to get into her bed, Ruby gently grabs Pyrrha's arm. "Yes Ruby?" Pyrrha asks, her voice whisper. Emerald green eyes manage to find the silver eyes of the younger girl. "Um, would it be okay if I shared your bed? It's just.. after that emotional moment with my mom and everything, I need someone to hold.." Ruby whispers. She looks down after finishing, seemingly fixated on where her foot would be. "Of course Ruby. I understand," Pyrrha whispers. She was smiling and the smile was clear in her voice. Ruby was relieved when Pyrrha said yes. After hugging the much taller girl, Ruby climbs into bed with Pyrrha, curling up and slightly hugging Pyrrha. "Good night Ruby." "Good night Pyrrha," Ruby says before closing her eyes.
~The Next Morning~
When Yang woke up, she was not surprised to see Blake already up and reading her book. However, what caught her off guard was her little sister sharing a bed with none other than their team leader Pyrrha Nikos. Quietly grabbing her Scroll, Yang snaps a picture of the two. She reaches up and pokes her partner and gestures to the two still sleeping. When her partner looked over, Yang arches a blonde eyebrow silently asking if Blake knew what that was about. Blake shakes her head in response. Yang figures that she could interrogate her sister after she showered and when the little reaper actually woke up. After about a 20 minute shower and 10 more minutes of getting dressed and making sure her hair was perfect, Yang leaves the bathroom. She smirks seeing that Pyrrha and Ruby were finally up. She saunters over to her little sister and slings an arm around her shoulders. Her lilac eyes meet Ruby's silver and upon seeing those silver eyes widening, the smirk widens even more. "So little sis, wanna tell me why you were sharing a bed with our leader~?" Yang asks, wiggling her eyebrows. "It's not what you think! I can explain! B-Besides, there's uh something I gotta talk to you about with Team AMMY. Sooo let's go!" Ruby says. She was glad that Blake had left to go to the library as that meant she, Pyrrha and Yang could go over to Team AMMY's dorm without having to drag another person into this whole Persona business. "Pyrrha AND Team AMMY? Wow sis," Yang teases, grinning. "YANG!" Ruby shouts. Pyrrha covers her mouth to stifle some laughter. "Seriously though Yang, we have something important to explain and we need Team AMMY to help explain it," Pyrrha says. Yang's teasing manner drops upon hearing that. "Alright.." Yang says, frowning a bit. However, she follows the two over to Team AMMY's dorm, not surprised to see Yu open the door. "Good morning! Please come in," Yu says, stepping aside to allow the three girls to enter. He closes the door behind them. "Is Minato-senpai up yet?" "Nope! Akira-kun! LET'S BEAT HIM UP WITH PILLOWS!" Minako says to the raven haired leader. Said male smirks. He and Minako each grab a pillow and jump up into Minato's bed and start whacking him with pillows. The blue haired boy groans and shoves Minako off the bed since she was on the side and that's just where his left hand went. Minako falls with a thud and whines , but was glad that her Aura took the blow. At the same time, Minato's right hand grabs the pillow Akira had and comes face to face with his leader. "You get a warning," Minato growled out. He did not like being woken up so rudely as he very much did enjoy his sleep. Akira felt his face heat up a bit with how close Minato was and how Minato's voice sounded. Akira just grins cheekily at the shortest member before leaping off gracefully. Minato flops down for a moment before getting out of bed. After jumping down, he pulls out and then on some sweatpants to be somewhat decent for the guests in his dorm. He then sits on his desk. "Now that everyone is awake and here, we have some explaining to do," Pyrrha says, gesturing to Yang. "So what's going on?" Yang asks, hands on her hips, a blonde eyebrow arched. "Yang. Summer Rose is alive and back on Remnant," Akira says. Yang blinks, then gets angry and starts approaching Akira. "Excuse me?? What kind of sick joke is that?! She is dead! Don't tease Ruby with that kind of shit! And who the hell are you that you know who Summer is?!" Yang snarls, getting right up in Akira's face. Akira remained calm as he knew things would be alright. "Yang! He's telling the truth!" Ruby says, tugging on one of Yang's arms. "Pyrrha and I were there! We saw them save Mom!" "It's true Yang. She's in the hospital wing. But before we go see her, these guys have to explain how they saved Summer.. And to do that, you're going to enter a whole new world," Pyrrha says. Yang scowls but huffs. "Fine. Explain everything then," the blonde brawler says before sitting down. She crosses her arms and one leg over the other. The Wild Cards then launch into the same explanation as the night previous so that Yang could understand. As Yang learned more, the less angry she became and the more in awe she became. When they mentioned that Ruby awakened her Persona, the blonde looks to her sister who just smiles. Lilac eyes widen in shock upon seeing the bright red light coalesce around Ruby's hands and an anthropomorphic wolf in a cape and dress appear behind her sister. "Believe us now Yang?" Akira asks, looking at the girl in question. "Yeah... Holy shit..." Yang says. "Do I have one of those Arcana thingies associated with me?" "Lovers," Yu answers. "Your partner Blake is Justice. Weiss is Empress. Jaune is Magician. Nora is Star and Ren Hermit." "Additionally, even though the four of us can use multiple Personas, our true Arcana is the Fool," Minako adds on. "Ruby," Minato says, gathering the young girl's attention. "Yes?" Ruby asks, tilting her head. Red Riding Hood had dispersed at this point. "Only use this in the Lost Sea," Minato says. "Oh yeah, it wouldn't do good for me to use my Persona outside of there if we wanna keep this quiet," Ruby says. "So lemme guess, I can't say a word about to this to anyone? Not even Blake?" Yang asks. "That is correct. Now, let's go see Summer, shall we?" Yu says with a smile. "One more thing. You still haven't explained as to why you were sharing a bed with Pyrrha, Ruby," Yang says, the playful smirk back. The four Fools couldn't but look to their new navigator upon hearing this. "I didn't want to wake you and I uh didn't want to sleep alone after that emotional situation with Mom and everything...," Ruby says, looking at her feet. "If you say so Rubes~" Yang sing-song teases. "YANG!" Ruby shouts before chucking a couch pillow at her sister. During an impromptu pillow fight between the sisters, Minato actually gets dressed. With that all said and done, the group of seven head up to the hospital wing to visit Summer Rose.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After a few days, the hubbub about finding Summer Rose had died down. Ruby was as cheerful as ever and even Yang was overly happy. Ruby had immediately video called Taiyang after Summer woke up the Saturday following her rescue. There were a lot of family tears that morning but it was a much needed relief for the Rose-Xiao Long family. After the hubbub had died down, Ruby basically begged the Fools to take her and Pyrrha to the Lost Sea. She just knew that Pyrrha had to have a Persona. After all, if she could, wouldn't someone as amazing and perfect as Pyrrha have one? Akira agreed to it, using the argument of Ruby needing to get used to her Persona. Yu, who was concerned for Pyrrha since she didn't have a Persona yet, told her that she could come along but only if she was super careful and listened to any command given by the four of them. Of course, Pyrrha accepted the terms, knowing that it would not do well to have her get hurt while she did not have a Persona. On the Thursday after the chaos, Jaune had finally managed to come up with two separate songs to play for Weiss and Pyrrha. After all, it wouldn't do well to try to serenade two different girls with the same song. He maybe a little awkward with romance but he wasn't THAT awkward, especially since Minako was doing her best to help him with his girl problem. Since Weiss was his partner and teammate, he was going to try to woo her first. That afternoon after classes, it was just him and Weiss in their dorm room. Jaune was relieved to see that she hadn't gone off to go find Yu that day. He pulls out his guitar and sits on his bed, casually strumming the tune for the song he made for Weiss, wondering if it would catch her attention. Much to his luck, Weiss was looking at him curiously. He had made sure to keep his head down as he played before starting to sing. The first rendition of his song was highly specific to Weiss and Minako had made him change it to be more vague so Weiss wouldn't realize it was a serenade at first. When he finishes the song, Jaune looks up and in Weiss's direction. "That was very beautiful Jaune. Well written and well played," Weiss compliments. Jaune smiles at the praise. "Buuut it'll take more than a serenade to try to woo me." "I tried," Jaune says, making sure not to deflate in front of Weiss. Weiss smiles at him before getting up and leaving the room to go study in the library like she had originally planned to do before she heard Jaune play. When he was certain that Weiss was gone, Jaune slumps a bit. "Well, maybe I can find Pyrrha.." he says before standing up and sliding the guitar onto his back. He leaves his dorm and he wanders down to Team NBRY's dorm and knocks. A few moments later and Blake opens the door. "Hey Jaune. What's up?" Blake asks, monotonous as ever. "Do you know where Pyrrha is?" Jaune asks in reply. Blake takes a moment to remember. "I think she's out in the courtyard taking a break before she goes to train," Blake supplies. Jaune nods and thanks the ravenette before turning and heading towards the courtyard. He spots Pyrrha and as much as he wanted to make a beeline to her, the blonde just pulls his guitar to his front. He starts strumming the tune as he gets closer, looking like he was just wandering in his own little world. Out of the corner of his blue eyes, he spots Pyrrha turning her head to look towards him and he starts the song he made for her. Minako had him rewrite this one to be more vague. When he finishes, Jaune pretends to be startled when Pyrrha starts clapping lightly. "That was really nice Jaune! I didn't know you could sing or play guitar," Pyrrha smiles. "It was one of the few things I was really good at when I was kid," Jaune says, rubbing the back of his neck. "Keep it up! That was a really pretty song!" Pyrrha says, completely oblivious to the fact that Jaune just serenaded her. Jaune refrained from hanging his head in defeat as he realized Pyrrha was oblivious and had no idea what was happening. "Thanks Pyrrha. You wanna hang out if you don't have anything to do?" Jaune asks. Pyrrha looks at the time on her Scroll to see if she could hang out with Jaune. She gasps. "I'm sorry Jaune! We'll have to hang out another time, I promised Ruby I'd spar with her today!" the redhead female says, throwing an apologetic look to the blonde. "No no, it's fine. Have fun!" Jaune says to her. Pyrrha smiles and then takes off. Jaune sighs, heavily defeated that his serenading didn't work. However, something clicks in Jaune's mind - Pyrrha was going to spar with Ruby, maybe he could learn something about either of them to use to his advantage! Shifting his guitar to his back, the Huntsman-in-Training follows Pyrrha at a distance and goes to a window that would allow him to watch without getting caught. The blonde watches as the two spar but something caught his attention - Pyrrha was weaponless while Ruby had her scythe. Frowning, Jaune goes on his toes a bit and watches as Ruby uses her Semblance to speed around Pyrrha, as if trying to provoke something. After getting a little bored of watching, Jaune starts to walk away but stops upon hearing Ruby squeal in delight. He strains his ear to hear as the window had been left partly open. "You almost did it Pyrrha! You almost got your Persona to come forth!" Ruby says happily. Jaune's eyebrows furrow. "I could feel my Persona! It was like my Persona was just like 'not yet. this is just trying to force me,'" Pyrrha says. Ruby jumps up and down. "Oh I bet the next time we go with Team AMMY to the Lost Sea, you'll gain yours!" Ruby claps. "Hopefully it won't be in a distressing manner like how I gained mine... Eheheheh..." That was all Jaune needed to hear before quickly taking off and pulling out his Scroll to message Minako. J: Minako! Are you free? We need to talk! M: yeah, I'm free! Where are we meeting and what do we need to talk about? J: I'd rather say in person what we need to talk about but uuuuhhh meet me by the statue in the front of the school? M: sure thing! see ya in like 10! Jaune then hurries off to the large statue. He got there first and he paces back and forth as he waits for the lone female of Team AMMY. He had to know what this Persona thing was and what the Lost Sea was as well. And why was Team AMMY involved in this? Were the things that Team AMMY summoned with their Semblances Personas? And if so, why does it sound like Ruby could do it and Pyrrha has the possibility to do it? Was the Lost Sea some super secret training place that Team AMMY, Ruby and Pyrrha all used? He was snapped out of his thoughts when a hand enters his vision, cause him to yelp and flail. "Hi Jaune! So what seems to be the issue that you had to call me out aaaalll the way out here? People might think we're dating~" Minako teases. "This is serious Minako. So I tried serenading Weiss and Pyrrha and it didn't work. However, Pyrrha mentioned she had to go spar with Ruby and so I decided if I could see if there was something else about Ruby that she had that I didn't. Just as I was about to leave, Ruby and Pyrrha started talking about something called a Persona and the Lost Sea," Jaune starts. Minako's face pales a bit. Jaune looks at Minako. "And Ruby mentioned your team and judging by your face, you know exactly what I'm talking about." "Yeah.. I do," Minako says, her red eyes looking away from Jaune. "Mind enlightening me here? Is this some super secret club?" Jaune asks. Minako sighs. "It's not a super secret club. But what I'm about to tell you, you can't tell anyone else. Just keep it to yourself," Minako says before giving the spiel for the THIRD time within the week about the world of Persona. Minako saw determination harden in Jaune's blue eyes as she told him about this second secret world and knew exactly what was going through the blonde's mind. "Take me there. If I can get one of these Persona things and get stronger, that could help my chance!" Jaune says. "Jaune... It's dangerous.. Far more dangerous than the Grimm!" Minako says. "So? That just means better training!" Jaune says. "If you bring me there, and help me, I'll keep it completely secret from the rest of my team and from Blake." "Fine. Fortunately for you, I don't have to go searching for the Lost Sea as it's right here. Meet me here at like 9:55PM. Try not to get caught," Minako says, sighing. Jaune smiles. "Thank you so much Minako! I owe you!" Jaune says. "Fuck yeah you do. You better be willing to pay the price I come up with tonight!" Minako huffs before walking back to the dorms. Jaune was eager to get this special training done. Maybe now.. Maybe now one of the girls he liked would see who he really is and that he isn't just some weakling!
~Later that Night~
Minako was waiting by the statue, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for Jaune to appear. She didn't like the idea of just bringing Jaune alone into the Lost Sea but she DID make a promise with the male to help him out. She looks at her Scroll to check the time and it was just about to be 9:55PM. She wasn't going to bring Jaune to the furthest spot but just start him in the first few floors. It would be easy for her but it would keep Jaune from instantly dying. Hearing footsteps, Minako looks over and sees Jaune running up to meet her. "Oh good, you actually made it without getting caught," Minako hums out. "Yeah, had to wait for Weiss to be fully asleep. So what happens now?" Jaune says. "We wait five minutes for the portal to open. Though I have some rules to go over with you if we're actually gonna do this," Minako says, her usual cheerful demeanor fading into a more serious one. Jaune involuntarily straightened up feeling the shift in Minako's demeanor. "Alright," Jaune says. "Does this include your payment?" "Mhm. Every time I take you here, you owe me either coffee or chocolate. Is that doable?" "Yeah, I can handle that." "Perfect. So here's how this is gonna work. When we go into the Lost Sea, you're to listen to EVERY order I give you. If I tell you to fall back, you're to fall back no questions asked. We're also going to start in the first few floors as the deeper we go, the stronger we get. The Shadows will look like Grimm but they're smarter than Grimm and have elemental weaknesses and strengths. I'd suggest getting Dust some how if possible. If it's a Shadow where physical attacks don't work, I'll be handling it for the time being. We cannot remain idle in case the Grim Reaper appears, but if he does appear, we fuckin run. Also, you need to tell me when your Aura is getting low so I can heal you. Lastly, when you're getting tired, tell me. I don't care if you want to continue, but if you're tired before the two hour mark, tell me and we'll find an exit. Am I clear?" "Yes ma'am!" "Good," Minako says. She takes the last few minutes to calm her nerves and soon enough the now familiar crashing of waves rings in her ears. Jaune was startled upon seeing the swirling blue-green light open at their feet. He yelps as he feels Minako shove him into the portal, a mischievous giggle leaving her lips. She hops in afterwards. When she arrives, laughter rips from her lips as Jaune was face first in the sandy bottom of the Lost Sea. Jaune groans but stands up and he looks at Minako. "Was that really necessary?" the blonde whines as he pulls his sword and shield out. "Totally! Now over here!" Minako says, pulling out her naginata. She walks over to a smaller whirlpool and hops in. Jaune follows, not wanting to be too far from Minako. When arriving on the next floor, Jaune looks around as he follows Minako. It wasn't very long before they ran into a Shadow. Minako let Jaune handle it for the most part. A smile appears on her lips when she sees that Jaune was doing quite well and she had a feeling that this would be more successful than she originally thought. Over the two hours, Minako only had to step in a few times and healed Jaune once. Jaune was taken by surprise when Minako grabs onto him and a surge of bubbles spits them out of the Lost Sea. "What was that-?" Jaune asks, startled. "The forced exit. I have a feeling that if you don't have a Persona, you get trapped down there so I grabbed onto you to make sure you got out. After all, Summer Rose was stuck in there and it was clear that the bubbles avoided her," the brunette explains. "Ah.. I see. Well thank you Minako. I appreciate it, like a lot. I'll buy you a coffee tomorrow for tonight's payment," Jaune says. Minako smiles. "Very well Jaune. Let's get back to the dorms then," Minako says. The two walk back to the dorm, being careful not to wake their teammates as they slipped into their beds and settled down, falling fast asleep.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next week fell into a very rhythmic pattern of school, training and hanging out with friends for the Fools. Minako was in the Lost Sea frequently between training with her team, Ruby and Pyrrha along with helping Jaune and helping him to gain a Persona. With how often the female Wild Card was in the Lost Sea, she could have sworn she saw someone with silver hair darting about the Lost Sea. Every time Minako had looked where she thought she saw the silver hair, the silver would disappear. She never mentioned the silver hair as the silver hair did not seem to harm them. Other than the random glimpses of silver hair, the days went without any issues. When Saturday came around, the Fools agreed to all hang out with different friends that they hadn't had the chance to hang out alone with yet. Minako was the first to find someone to hang out with. It was none other than the energetic hammer-wielder of the Star Arcana - Nora. Well, more like Nora found her. And by find her, Nora tackled Minako in a hug, causing the two of them to roll down a faint hill and into a tree. Minako, after realizing that Nora had found her and tackled her, giggles as they tumbled down the hill, grunting only for a moment when her back slammed into the tree that stopped their tumble. "Hi Nora! That's one way to greet your friends," the brunette says as she stands up. Nora pops up afterwards. "Yup! But that was fun!" Nora grins. "Anyways, I'm kidnapping you today and we're heading to Vale to have an adventure!" "Oooo! Where?" Minako asks, her red eyes lighting up with excitement. "Oh we should also bring Minato!" "Yeah! I was thinking of bringing Ren too! Those two need to get out of their shells more," Nora says, nodding in agreement. "Though where we're going is for me to know and for you to find out!" "Noted! Let's go find them!" Minako says, grabbing Nora's hand and pulling her along. She failed to notice the faint blush that appeared on Nora's cheeks, but even if she did, the blush wouldn't have been there long enough for her to comment on it. Nora happily runs through the campus with Minako, looking for her childhood friend and Minako's twin, not knowing that the two were currently evading them. After about half an hour, the two girls decide to call it quits and Nora basically drags Minako to the bulkheads so they could get to Vale to start their adventure. On the ride down, the two Huntresses-In-Training excitedly talked about the various things they liked to eat and do. Both were thrilled to find out that the other enjoyed video games and loved sweet things. "Oh you're going to LOVE where I'm bringing you!" Nora says one she gets off the bulkhead with Minako. "Yeah? Lead the way then!" Minako says. Nora beams happily and takes the brunette's hand and dragging her off to their destination. Minako takes a good look around Vale as she hadn't had the proper time before to look around the place. It reminded her a lot of the Port Island Station and Paulownia Mall back from her world. As the two ran through Vale, Minako failed to notice the silver hair she had been seeing. Eventually Nora stopped outside a shop that had a bunch of sweet foods as the logo. "Here we are! One of my favorite places to go! The Sweet Tooth!" Nora proclaims. Minako grins and she goes inside with Nora. "Oh wow! It smells heavenly in here and everything looks so great!" Minako gasps. "Everything is soo good. Sometimes I come down here on the weekends for breakfast and they have the best pancakes EVER," Nora says as she walks up to the counter with Minako. "Also, get whatever you like! My treat. Pun intended!" the hammer wielder says, getting a giggle from the Wild Card. "You sure? I don't mind paying," Minako says, not wanting Nora to feel like she had to pay. "I insist," Nora says. Whether Minako knew it or not, Nora had asked her out on a date and was treating it like a date. Nodding at Nora's insistence, Minako takes a good look at the various food and drink options. After knowing what she wanted, Minako steps up and orders a caramel mocha latte and a chocolate chip cannoli. Nora then ordered, getting a pumpkin spice macchiato with an espresso shot and 6 chocolate chip cookies. Nora pays for the entire order. The barista gets the cookies and cannoli for them while another one starts to make the coffees for them. It was not a long wait for the coffees so the girls don't touch their sweets until after they get their coffees. Going over to a secluded area in the cafe, Nora and Minako sit and enjoy their sweets and coffee, all while talking and enjoying the other's presence. As Minako enjoys her time with Nora, she feels the Star social link level up.
~With Minato~
Minato wandered the halls of Beacon after his team split up, listening to music. He was hoping to run into either Blake or Ren, knowing that both of them would have similar vibes to him. He goes outside and finds a lone tree and walks towards it. On the other side tree was Ren, meditating peacefully. Not wanting to disturb the Hermit Arcana from his meditation but wanting to hang out with the calmest member of Team JWNR, Minato sits against the tree next to Ren. The blue boy bobs his head gently to the music playing from his mp3 player, allowing Ren to meditate and approach him when ready. A few songs play and Minato feels a tap on his shoulder. His blue eyes open and he pauses the music before pulling off a headphone. "Hey," Minato says once the headphone was off. "Hello Minato. Can I help you with something?" Ren asks. "Not really. Just wanted to hang out with you is all," Minato hums out. Ren smiles upon hearing that. "I would like that. You're much tamer than the rest of your team," Ren says. Minato snorts. "Same with you," Minato replies, Ren chuckling a bit. "I always see you and your sister with your mp3 players. What kind of music do you listen to?" Ren asks, gesturing to the music player that dangled around Minato's neck. Minato offers the headphone to Ren while moving the other one to his free ear. Ren scoots closer to Minato and takes the proffered headphone and slips it onto his ear. Minato rewinds the song and then presses play. Ren was not startled by the intensity of music, much to Minato's surprise. He smiles, able to tell that Ren liked his type of music and the two boys chill there, until they both feel the hair on the back of their necks rise. Quickly removing the headphone, Ren stands up and pulls Minato up. "We gotta go," Minato says. "Minako's on her way." "And she's with Nora. Uh, know any places to hide around here?" Ren says, looking around. Minato points to the nearby roof before climbing up the tree and jumping from the tree onto the roof. Ren follows suit, not wanting to be found by the two hyperactive females that have joined forces. Both males stay quiet and still on the roof as Nora and Minako look around the area they were just in. Knowing that they could not linger where they were, Minato and Ren take off across the rooftop in search of a new hidey hole to just hang out in. They find a small nook on the roof of a building that only had two floors. The two sit and slump a bit with relief in finding a place to relax and hang out. Minato offers the headphone again and Ren smiles, taking the headphone. Silence mostly enveloped the two, small conversation happening here and there as they got to know each other more. As Minato spends the day with Ren, the Hermit social link goes up.
~With Akira~
Akira was specifically hunting Blake down, wanting to figure out a few things about the mysterious girl. He had suspicions about her but wanted to confirm them with the black themed girl. Sadly, he knew that trying to find Blake would not be easy as she was very elusive outside of class. Akira had gathered from her teammates that she could be found in the library a lot and that's where he went in hopes that he was correct since his Thief's Vision did not work in Remnant. The ravenette makes his way down through the halls, slipping through and around people as he went, eventually making it to the library. Upon entering the library, he searches for his target, but it appeared that she was not there. When no one was looking or was in the area, Akira leaps up and onto the bookcase he was standing next to and lays on his back. Muffled clacks of heels alerted Akira of someone being near him and he looks over to the source of the sound. A wicked smirk comes onto his lips as he sees it was indeed Blake who had finally arrived. He watches the black haired beauty of Team NBRY looks at the book titles, entirely focused on what she was doing. Blake plucks a book off the shelf and flips through it before closing the book and mindlessly reaching upwards as she looks for another book. Akira puts the book back for her. "There you go," Akira hums. "Oh, thanks-" Blake says, before stopping and blinking. She looks to where she heard the voice but doesn't see the source. Shaking her head, thinking she just heard something, Blake turns around and nearly jumps out of her skin. "Akira! Where did you come from??" "Up there," Akira says, grinning as he points to the bookshelf he had been on. "How did you get behind me without me noticing?" Blake asks, tilting her head a bit. Akira chuckles. "A trickster never reveals his tricks~" Akira smirks. "All you need to know is expert maneuvering~" "You're ridiculous Akira.." Blake sighs, shaking her head. "Anyways, did you need something?" "Actually yes. I have... something I wish to confirm with you," Akira says, his playful demeanor fading into a serious one. Blake felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise at the sudden change. "Let's go somewhere private then..." Blake says, grabbing Akira's hand and pulling him along to the nook that she had found. She lets go of his hand and pushes the bookcase a bit to the side and darts inside. Akira blinks at the spot but he steps inside and approves of the small hidden area the library has. "Nice. How'd you find this?" Akira asks as he takes a seat across from Blake. "I was walking by the book case when I spotted the gap between it and the wall. I'm surprised no one else has found it or me yet," Blake answers. She then takes a deep breath and looks at Akira. "What is it that you'd like to confirm with me?" "Are you a Faunus?" Akira asks directly. Blake's eyes widen and she gets ready to bolt. "What if I am?" Blake asks, her voice getting a dangerous edge to it. "If you are, that's fine and from your reaction I'm guessing that's correct. You can relax Blake. There's a reason I wanted to speak to you in private about it - you clearly don't want others to know yet," Akira says. Blake relaxes a bit but sighs. "Yeah, I am a Faunus," Blake says. "What gave it away?" "The eyes, the bow, your movements, your tendencies. If I had to guess.. Cat Faunus?" "Yeah, cat Faunus." "Cute. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me. Now why are you hiding your Faunus heritage might I ask?" "Well, you know how people tend to treat Faunus..." "But that's not all, is it?" Akira presses. He wanted to know why Blake was Justice. All he could figure out was that it had to do with the Faunus. "No. It's not. I used to be part of the White Fang. It wasn't always a terrorist organization. It used to be a peaceful organization but when a new leader stepped up, we became more violent. I left when I realize how far we were spiraling down. I don't understand why they're being this violent," Blake explains. She sighs heavily. Akira reaches over and gently grips her hand. "I'll help you figure this out," Akira says, giving her a comforting a squeeze. Blake looks surprised once more. "Wait really? How do you plan to do that? You're not a Faunus, at least you don't appear to be one," Blake says. Akira only smirks. "Oh don't worry, I'm a trickster after all. Now, shall we plan?" Akira says. Blake nods and with Akira's help, she begins to plan out how to figure out why the White Fang are acting the way they are. The Justice Arcana social link goes up in Akira's mind as they lay out their plans.
~With Yu~
Yu, who would have loved to spend more time with Weiss, was currently walking around the halls, wondering who he would run into. He pulls up his Scroll and looks through the various apps he had. Hearing someone call his name, Yu look up and sees none other than the busty blonde brawler sauntering her way on over. He puts the Scroll away and smiles at Yang. "Hello Yang. Would you like to hang out today?" Yu asks. Yang slings her arm around his shoulders and grins. "Well that's what I'm here for! Let's walk lover-boy!" Yang says as she starts to move both of them. "Lover-boy? That's a new one," Yu chuckles. "Well yeah! You're ALL over Weiss and she's ALL over you! Just ask her out already!" "Haha, maybe! We'll see!" "Just sayin- she eyes only for you! Though speaking of love and what not.. Got any advice?" "Huh? You need advice from me? Who you trying to get?" "Let's just say theoretically I wanted to ask Blake out." "Well, obviously get to know her and what she likes. You tend to come on strong so maybe tone it down a bit?" "Alright, seems like sound advice... For a theoretical situation," Yang says. Yu arches an eyebrow at his companion's behavior. "You're not really here to ask me for love advice, are you?" Yu questions. Yang blinks. "I don't know what you're talking about Yu-" Yang starts out but Yu stops her with a hand. "There's something else on your mind. You can tell me Yang," Yu says, stopping their walk. Yang hangs her head with a sigh. "Am I really that easy to read or is it your Persona thingy?" Yang asks. Yu chuckles. "A bit of both," Yu answers. "So?" "Alright, I actually came searching for you cause you seem the most level-headed of your team. Ever since Summer came back, I've been having questions and issues with my mom," Yang sighs. Yu gently grabs Yang and leads her outside to find a bench to sit on. Once they were seated, Yang explains the whole situation with her own mom to Yu. Yu put a comforting hand on Yang's leg as he listens. "But yeah, that's what's bothering me for real." "While I don't have an answer for you, I will do my best to assist you whenever you need it," the silver haired Wild Card offers. Yang looks up and her lilac eyes widen. "Really? You mean it?" the blonde brawler asks. The Fool nods. Yang then pulls Yu into a very strong hug. "Thank you so much!" she says. "No problem Yang. Anything to help out a friend," Yu says, hugging back. Once Yu was released from the hug, the two teens just shoot the shit, getting to know each other a bit more as Yu leveled up the Lovers social link.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
While the Wild Cards were getting to know their other friends better, Jaune was going to try his luck once more with Weiss and Pyrrha. After all, he had certainly improved with the extra training Minako was providing him with. Did he have a Persona yet? No, but he was sure it would happen soon enough once he and Minako got deeper into the Lost Sea. Also, he's been doing really well in his classes as of late so that was a possible plus! Jaune knew he had to be careful with his decision of who he was going to ask out first in case the person he asked out second thought she was his second choice. Running a hand through his blonde hair, Jaune takes a deep breath and he goes to find his partner Weiss, figuring Pyrrha would be the least offended should she find out. He checks the library first, wondering if Weiss would be studying on a Saturday but did not find her there. Jaune wanders and he eventually finds Weiss sitting with tea in hand on a bench. He wanders over and sits next to Weiss. "Hello Weiss, how are you doing today?" Jaune asks, smiling at the white haired female. Weiss looks over. "I'm doing well Jaune. Thank you for asking," Weiss smiles. "What about you?" "Pretty good actually. Though I do have a question for you," Jaune says, his nerves starting to build up. Weiss arches an eyebrow at her team leader. "Alright, what's on your mind Jaune?" Weiss asks, a little worried. Normally her chats were Jaune were pleasant and fun. Jaune takes a deep breath. "So, I will not lie, I have been forming a crush on you as you've probably noticed. So, I'm just going to say it out right... Will you go out with me Weiss?" Jaune asks, making sure to keep eye contact with Weiss. Weiss winced a bit when hearing that question and she felt some guilt well up. "I'm sorry Jaune... You're a great guy and all after getting to know you but I don't have those feelings for you. I have feelings for someone else," Weiss says, her voice filled with a tinge of regret. Jaune's face falls a bit. "Is it Yu that you like?" Jaune asks. "Yeah," Weiss says, nodding. "I really hope this doesn't affect our friendship.." "It won't, I promise! And I should have seen that coming," Jaune says. He stands up and smiles at Weiss. "Well, I hope you have a good day and that you have some luck with Yu." "Thank you Jaune," Weiss says with a faint smile. Jaune smiles and he walks off, sighing once far enough away. Apparently his improvements and musical performance were not good enough for Weiss. But Jaune was not completely undeterred from his love life yet! He still had a possible chance with Pyrrha. Besides, it was possible that Pyrrha and Ruby just had a sibling relationship that he mistook for romantic feelings. Would he judge Pyrrha for liking Ruby in that way? Not at all! Did he hope that Pyrrha just saw Ruby as a little sister? Definitely. Wandering through the halls of Beacon again, Jaune searches for the beautiful redhead. Having a sinking suspicion that Pyrrha was in the training rooms when she wasn't anywhere else on campus, Jaune decides to grab his sword and shield. He had an idea that maybe if he was able to show off even more of his newfound strength, it might improve his chances. "Hey Pyrrha!" Jaune calls out. Pyrrha looks over and smiles. "Hi Jaune! What's up?" Pyrrha says. "Eh not much," Jaune answers. Pyrrha nods. "Would you like to spar? I've noticed you've improved a lot lately," Pyrrha says. "Sure! A little extra practice doesn't hurt anyone," Jaune says. He walks into the mock arena and draws his sword as his shield splays out on his arm. He gets into a ready stance and Pyrrha takes up one as well. Giving a nod to the redhead, the two start running towards each other to start their spar. Pyrrha jabs her spear out to Jaune and he deflects it with his shield before swinging his sword upwards. Pyrrha blocks and brings her spear down on Jaune's sword, forcing the blonde to back up. Quickly adjusting his grip, Jaune comes in turning to his back over his right shoulder to deliver a backhanded right swing. Pyrrha drops and uses Jaune's motion to trip him by swiping with her spear. Jaune falls on his back, sword falling out of his grip and immediately puts his shield up to block Pyrrha's incoming attack. Jaune pushes back against Pyrrha's spear and manages to shove her to the side away from his sword. He rolls and grabs his sword, popping up just in time to block rifle rounds from Pyrrha. Pyrrha was happy to see Jaune actually being able to hold up in this spar against her. While she knew that Jaune was not quite her level, she was happy regardless to see him improve. She keeps firing rounds off at Jaune to keep him from being able to go on the offense. When seeing Jaune dodge to the left, Pyrrha switches Miló back to spear form and charges the blonde. The two exchange blows and parries as Pyrrha pushes Jaune to the edge of the mock arena. All of the blows Jaune was able to land on Pyrrha hit her shield if she didn't parry them. Soon enough, Pyrrha jumps back and then rams into Jaune full force with her shield and knocks him out of the mock arena. Jaune lands on his ass with grunt. "Good spar Jaune! You've improved by a lot!" Pyrrha says happily. She offers a hand to Jaune who takes it. "Thanks Pyrrha. Weiss and Minako have been helping me out," Jaune says as he stands up. "I'm glad they're helping you out," Pyrrha says with a smile. "Wouldn't do well to see a fellow leader to fall behind," she jokes. Jaune chuckles at that. "You're right about that," Jaune says. "Say Pyrrha... I got a question if you're willing to hear me out." "Of course Jaune. You can ask me anything," Pyrrha says, smiling at the blonde. Jaune takes a deep breath. "Well, I really like you as you're pretty, smart and a really good friend and so, I was wondering if you'd go out with me?" Jaune asks. Pyrrha face falls a bit. "Oh Jaune, I'm so sorry.. But I'm afraid I have to say no.. It's just that, I really like Ruby and you're not my type," Pyrrha says, rubbing the back of her neck. "Oh, well I see..," Jaune says, trying to not let his face fall. He could see some guilt on Pyrrha's face, knowing that the redhead felt bad for letting him down. "Can we still be friends? I do like you as a friend Jaune. You're really nice," Pyrrha asks, biting her lip. "Yeah! That's fine, I wouldn't want something like this to prevent us from being friends," Jaune says, hiding the hurt. "I'm glad to hear that. I hope you can find someone Jaune," Pyrrha says. Jaune thanks Pyrrha before saying good bye and leaving the training room. He trudges his way back to his team's dorm room and decides to spend the rest of the day alone, not wanting to be around anyone else that day. He does send a message to Minako asking if they could go to the Lost Sea tomorrow as he knew that today would be an off day for the female Wild Card. When Sunday night rolled around, Minako was a little worried seeing the darkened expression on Jaune's face. It wasn't the normal determined look she saw when Jaune would meet up with her for the Lost Sea. While waiting for the Lost Sea to appear, the brunette asks him what's wrong. Jaune tells her about how both Weiss and Pyrrha both flat out rejected him, resulting him getting a hug from the girl. "I'm sorry Jaune... But let's go let off some steam," Minako says, her red eyes full of sympathy. Jaune nods. "Yeah.. Let's go," Jaune says. Once the sound of crashing waves hit their ears, Jaune and Minako enter the Lost Sea. They go back to the last landing they had left off on which was floor 28. For the most part, Minako hung back and watched Jaune go through the Shadows and was slightly impressed at how well Jaune was going through them. This time however, she didn't notice the silver hair following her and Jaune throughout the Lost Sea. After about half an hour, Minako had noticed that Jaune's attacks were getting more aggressive, a snarl was on his face and the look on his face was even darker than it was before. On floor 40, the next clear floor since the Persona Users had eliminated the floor boss there, Minako stops Jaune. "Jaune... Do you need to talk? You seem a lot angrier than normal.." Minako asks, worry clear on her face. Jaune whips around to face Minako. "Angry am I? Of course I'm fucking angry! I can't seem to get this damned Persona!" Jaune snaps, glaring at Minako. "Also, how the hell am I not someone's type?! I'm smarter than I look, I'm funny, I care about people and I'm overall a great guy!" "Jaune... Please calm down enough so we can leave," Minako says carefully. Jaune's glare intensifies and he steps closer to Minako, jabbing a finger into her chest. Yellow flashes across his blue eyes. "No, we're staying until we're forced out of here so I can get that Persona so I can prove that I'm worthy and everyone's types!" Jaune snarls, before gripping his head in pain. He stumbles back and his body starts to contort into a new form as Jaune lets out a pained scream. Minako's red eyes widen in horror as she watches Jaune erupt into a Shadow. In place of her dear friend was now a looming dark grey figure dressed in 1400's French armor. Within the center of the Shadow's chest was a large heart shaped hole, two chains crisscrossing over it. There was no helm on the head, allowing for Minako to see the bright golden eyes and the snarl on the dark grey face. The hair was blonde and shaggy, coming to about the shoulders and framing his face. The hair in the back was pulled into a sloppy bun. In the left hand was a golden cross while a long spear with a flag at one end depicting the Arc family symbol was held in the right. "Shit," Minako swears under her breath. She quickly sends out a distress message to her teammates, praying that they were either awake or would wake up to her message. She quickly whips out her Evoker and brings it to her head, bringing out Messiah. A giant gold hand slams down on Jaune's Shadow, only for the Shadow to shrug it off like it was nothing. Minako grits her teeth and dismisses Messiah as she dodges out of the way of the sweeping spear. The female Fool uses her Evoker again and this time summons Thor, striking down with Ziodyne. It did absolutely nothing and the Shadow in turn returns fire with a Ziodyne, also doing nothing to Minako. Minako barely dodges the cross coming down towards her, only for a follow-up Garudyne to come swirling around her. Minako closes her eyes as she awaits the wind to hit her but upon feeling nothing, she snaps her eyes open to see a male with silver hair, covering her. "You alright?!" the silver haired male asks. "Yeah! Thanks to you! Are you also a Persona user?" Minako asks, dodging another sweep of a spear. "Yeah! The name's Mercury!" the now named Mercury says as white coalesces around his hand. "HERMES!" he shouts, as the white surrounds him. Behind her new ally, a blue figure in a white toga looms. The Persona had black Greek styled sandals that came up to the knees with large white wings at the ankle. A black visor with white wings rests on the blue face, as grey curly hair rests on top of the head. Within Hermes's right hand was shining silver Caduceus. Garudyne strikes Jaune's Shadow and much like the physical attack, it just shrugged it off. "This isn't looking good..." Minako says, she switches to Metatron in her mind so that she had the repel electric on to keep herself from getting severely hurt from Ziodyne. "I hope you have help there on the way Miss Wild Card! Cause I don't think the two of us are going to be able to handle this!" Mercury says, dodging an attack from the cross. "I hope they are too! And the name's Minako!" Minako replies, shooting herself in head. Metatron comes forth and strikes down with Almighty damage. After about five more minutes of slowly whittling down the Shadow's health and constantly dodging the attacks the Shadow threw, footsteps were heard behind the two Persona users. "We're here! Ruby! Starts analyzing the enemy!" Akira's voice shouts out. "Got it!" Ruby says as Red Riding Hood appears and starts analyzing the Shadow. Pyrrha freezes in her spot as she felt guilt wash over her. Part of her realized that her rejection could have been a partial cause to the grief and denial Jaune was going through. The rest of the Fools unleash various other attacks upon the Shadow to try to strike its weakness. "Oh Jaune...." Pyrrha says, her heart breaking a bit. She hears a voice ring in her head. 'Thou hast come to real danger. Thy friend is in great turmoil. Listen to thy heart and release me!' the voice booms. Black coalesces around her hands and her green eyes widen. "Yes! I accept!" Pyrrha calls out as the black surrounds her. A figure with olive skin appears behind Pyrrha, about 8ft in height and dressed in red bell cuirass with a gold breast plate. The Spartan styled helmet was gold with a flame as the crest and had orange eyes glaring out from underneath it. Instead of sandals, fire wraps around the muscled legs and flames licked around the Persona's wrists where the bracers would be. Additionally, a shield and spear similar to what Pyrrha wielded was in the Persona's hands. 'I am Achilles. My power is yours!' Achilles says to Pyrrha. "FIRE! USE FIRE!" Ruby shouts moments after Achilles fully formed. Pyrrha instinctively reaches out and a burst of Agilao strikes Jaune's Shadow knocking it down. "EVERYONE! ATTACK!" Akira commands and Team AMMY, Ruby, Pyrrha and Mercury launch forward to take out Jaune's Shadow. As the Shadow struggles to get up, the Persona users all jump back and watch as the Shadow crumples in on itself and gives way to a passed out Jaune on the floor. Pyrrha runs over to Jaune and gives him a jolt of her Aura to wake him, but he doesn't wake. "Guys, Jaune isn't waking..." Pyrrha says, looking over at her friends and the stranger. "Is he breathing?" Yu asks, looking over. "Yeah.. We need to get him to the hospital wing..." Pyrrha says, worry on her face. She scoops up Jaune in her arms. "Are you alright Minako?" Ruby asks, looking at the female Fool. "Yeah, thanks to Mercury here. Though it's a little weird that he was around and watching," Minako answers, jabbing a thumb in his direction. Mercury waves only to get a sword at his throat from the blue boi. "Whoa there... Careful where you point that thing!" Mercury says. Minato glares at him. "You're coming with us," Minato says, a warning edge to his voice. "You got it chief!" Mercury says, watching the blue haired Fool. Once everyone was checked over and all set, they head back to the floor selection clam and leave the Lost Sea, Akira calling Ozpin to let him know what had happened. The group of teens reach the hospital wing after Ozpin and the headmaster lets them in so that Doctor Scarlett, who was on call that night, could tend to Jaune right away. With Jaune settled and being taken care of, Ozpin herds the students plus mystery male out of the hospital wing and towards his office for yet another interesting talk.
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Before bringing everyone to his office, Ozpin pauses. With the condition Jaune was in, he herds everyone towards the dorms to get Yang, Blake, Weiss, Ren and Nora so that they could all know about the situation, and know about the world of Persona. Pyrrha and Ruby step inside their dorm and wake Blake and Yang up before dragging them out of the dorm room. Ozpin goes to knock on Team JWNR's door but Akira had put his Scroll up to the door, giving a sheepish smile before slipping inside. Yu followed him in and he knew he would probably be the best person to wake Weiss with the least amount of injury. Akira woke up Ren and Nora and the two bring the remaining three out into the hallway. The five that were woken from their sleep were very confused with the situation since Team AMMY, Pyrrha and Ruby were dressed, Jaune was nowhere to be seen, there was a silver haired stranger and Ozpin was there. "Wait a minute... Lemme guess... Something bad happened and it has to do with that world.." Yang says, putting two and two together. "You would be correct Miss Xiao Long. Everyone please follow me as we have many things to discuss," Ozpin says before walking off, the group of students and Mercury following. "Ugh we have to explain yet again what's going on..." Minato groans. "Well look on the bright side! It'll probably be the last time we have to explain it!" Minako chirps. "Explain what exactly?" Weiss asks, looking at Team AMMY. "Everything~" Akira says cheekily. He ducks a smack from Yu. "Basically, a lot of things about us, Weiss. We.. haven't been completely truthful but we had our reason to keep it secret until now," Yu says. "Where's Jaune?" Nora asks, curious as to where her leader was. "He's.... In a coma in the hospital wing," Pyrrha says. "What?!" Weiss says. "Why the hell is he in a coma?!" "All will be revealed in Ozpin's office," Yu says, placing a hand on Weiss's shoulder. The white haired female huffs but she waits. The journey to Ozpin's office was quick this time and soon enough everyone was seated on the floor of Ozpin's office. "Hot chocolate anyone?" Ozpin asks as he walks over to where he kept his supplies. He looks over and sees Ruby, Blake and Nora raise their hands. With a nod, Ozpin makes hot chocolate for himself and the three girls. The suspense was creating tension in his office but he ignored it. Once the hot chocolate was ready, he brings it over to the three girls before sitting at desk. "So, before details of the night are revealed.. It's time we catch the rest of your friends up on the world of Persona." "Persona? Isn't that what you call those creatures you summon..?" Ren asks, tilting his head. "You are correct Ren! We actually don't know what our Semblances are and even if we did have them, we wouldn't be able to use them," Minako says. "As it would attract even more attention suspicion your way..." Blake says. "Precisely. Now we didn't lie when we told you about ourselves, we just didn't tell you the complete truth. We're from another world called Earth," Yu starts. Team AMMY begin explaining everything for the third time, fourth time for Minako, about their homeworld and the world of Persona. They then explained why they were here in Remnant, about the Lost Sea and how they saved Summer Rose. Ruby then piped in about how she too had a Persona before summoning Red Riding Hood. "I... Also have one now," Pyrrha says. She summons Achilles before dismissing him. "And the reason I have a Persona has to do with why Jaune is in a coma.." "Care to explain Minako? After all, you sent us a distress call," Akira says, looking at the female Fool. Minako looks down a little ashamed. "So, Jaune overheard Pyrrha and Ruby talking about Persona and us. He confronted me about it and after telling him, I agreed to help him get strong.. And to try to help him get a Persona. I went along despite the danger, which I warned him about, as it was a great way to improve his fighting but also I did it as I was helping him try to win over either Pyrrha or Weiss," Minako starts. "He did ask me out yesterday..." Weiss comments. "Me as well," Pyrrha says. "That makes me wonder.. Did our rejections drive him to the necessary insanity..?" "I'm guessing that was the case. He was getting really angry and aggressive when we went into the Lost Sea tonight. And well, eventually he snapped and turned into a Shadow. Mercury here came to my rescue, as suspicious as he is for lurking about. Eventually the rest of my team, Ruby and Pyrrha came to my aid," Minako says, sighing. "I feel really bad even though it's not entirely my fault..." Weiss says, wincing a bit. "Will Jaune receive a Persona when he awakens from his coma?" Blake asks. "We're not sure but most likely not since Mom didn't," Ruby says, before drinking deeply from her mug. "Onto a lighter subject, earlier you mentioned something about being the Fool Arcana and having something called a Wild Card ability. Do Ruby and Pyrrha have that Wild Card ability?" Ren asks. "No. As far as we can tell, only the Fool, who is making their journey, are the only ones who have that ability," Yu answers. "The rest of you have Arcana's connected to you though," Minato speaks up. "Can we know what they are?" Blake asks. "Strength, Hanged Man, Lovers, Justice, Empress, Hermit and Star," Akira says, pointing to the correct person. "Jaune was Magician," Minako says. "What about Mercury.. Who ever he is?" Weiss asks. "Chariot. And hi, Mercury Black here," Mercury says, finally speaking up. "Mind explaining why I've seen you lurking about? I've seen your silver hair multiple times in the Lost Sea now that I think about it," Minako questions. "Yeaaaahh... About that.. Well basically, I have two partners, only one of which can use Persona. We're trying to figure out this whole Lost Sea business," Mercury says. "Who are you working for?" Ozpin asks. Mercury clamps his mouth shut upon hearing Ozpin's question. He doesn't answer, causing Ozpin to narrow his eyes at the youth. "Why did you save my sister?" Minato asks, turning his gaze upon Mercury. Those near Minato felt a shudder run down their spines. "This is going to make me sound like an asshole but you Wild Cards need to stay alive," Mercury simply states. Minato goes to get up but Akira puts a hand on his shoulder. "Let me handle this Minato-senpai," Akira hums out, switching from Satanael to Yoshitune. He had swapped Mada out for Yoshitune the other day for the sheer strength factor and boy was he glad that he did. He gets up and walks over to Mercury, who was leaning against a wall. The silver haired male watches the masked Wild Card carefully. Akira suddenly pushes his forearm into Mercury's throat and pins him to the wall, lifting him off the ground. Mercury had tried to move out of the way but the former Phantom Thief was faster. Mercury could still breathe but he was struggling at the sheer amount of strength that Akira was possessing. Akira then presses the barrel of his gun to Mercury's temple. "Let's have a chat shall we~?" "What- what the hell are you doing?!" Mercury gasps out. A few of the others go to pulls Akira off of Mercury but Ozpin and the Fools shake their head. "Just having a chat with you!" Akira says. Mercury lands a kick on Akira's shin, but Akira stayed strong, only grunting a bit. He presses the gun closer to the temple. "Now, I would suggest behaving." "You won't do it so no, I'm not giving in to your scare tactics," Mercury spits out, kicking Akira again. Akira sighs and pulls back the gun, and presses it into Mercury's thigh. He pulls the trigger and since Mercury didn't have his Aura up as a protective shield, the bullet pierces his thigh, causing him to yelp out in pain. "Think I'm messing around?" Akira growls out. Mercury HAD called his bluff but he needed to make Mercury think that he wasn't fucking around. He heard the gasps behind him. He was treating this like a hold up. Did he like using unnecessary violence? No, but if it was necessary, he would. "Ok! I get it! You're serious! Let me down! Augh fuck that hurts!" Mercury says. Akira smirks and he releases Mercury, causing the silver haired teen to fall onto his ass. As Akira walks back over, Weiss storms up to him and slaps him across the cheek. Ruby and Pyrrha had conflicted looks upon their faces as they didn't want to believe that the messy haired team leader could be so cruel and merciless but they couldn't ignore the display they saw in front of them. "AKIRA! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! THAT WAS COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY!" Weiss shrieks at him. "He's fine and alive! Not my fault he was being an ass!" Akira defends. Before Weiss could slap him again, Yu pulls her back. "Worry about morals later Weiss. We need information from Mercury and see? Minako-senpai is already at the works of healing him," Yu says. Weiss looks over as she hears the sound of shattering glass. She watches as a giant rainbow snake appears and after doing a semi-circle around Mercury, it disappears and the wound on Mercury's thigh was now healing, the bullet round being forced out. "Now Mr. Black, will you please answer the questions we have for you?" Ozpin asks. "Yeah... As long as you keep trigger happy away from me," Mercury glares. Akira just waves cheekily at Mercury. "Well, let's start with some basics then, shall we?" Ozpin asks. "Yeah," Mercury says. He wasn't happy about this at all. He was just following orders to keep the Wild Cards alive and now his pride was wounded by first getting shot in the leg and now having to betray Emerald and Cinder. "Get on with it..." "Very well. So who do work with?" "Two people. Cinder Fall, who's basically my boss, and Emerald Sustrai." "Are either of them Persona Users like you?" "Cinder is." "What is your goal with the Lost Sea?" "Figure out what the hell is at the bottom." "Your mission involving Team AMMY?" "Keeping them alive." "Why?" "Cinder wants to bring them to join our cause." "What's your cause?" "......." "What is your cause Mr. Black?" "I don't know the exact details, all I know that you're technically my enemy. Cinder has more knowledge." "Is there someone above Cinder?" "Uuuuhh someone named Salem I think?" Mercury answers after a moment, trying to remember if Cinder had mentioned someone above her. He did not notice the look that appeared briefly on Ozpin's face but Team AMMY had caught it. "I see. Mr. Black, I'm going to have to ask that you join our ranks," Ozpin says, surprising the 11 students with his decision. "What? Why the hell would I do that?!" Mercury asks. "From what I know about your.. ultimate boss.. She does not take kindly to failure nor betrayal. So you would be safer with us but I do ask that you try to convince your partners to join us as well," Ozpin answers. "I don't see that happening in the slightest but fine, I'll defect to your side," Mercury grumbles. "Wonderful, now, I think it's about time that we all get some sleep," Ozpin says. "Mr. Black, you will come with me," the headmaster says. The 11 students head out towards the elevator after Ozpin gives them a dismissal. It was quiet until they were in the elevator, where Weiss rips into Akira, who in turn just remains calm and lets Weiss do her thing. He waits for her to finish her rant at him. "Finished are we?" the mask wearing Fool asks. "Explain yourself now!" Weiss scowls, glaring up at Akira. "That was all for show. I wasn't actually going to shoot him in the head but he called my bluff. If I hadn't shot him in the thigh, he would not have cooperated with us. I did not like doing that but I did it anyways," the ravenette explains coolly. "I have morals. Besides, that was like the many hold ups I pulled in my world." "You were... acting?" Weiss asks dumbfounded. Akira grins in response. Ruby and Pyrrha were glad to hear that they were right in their thoughts that Akira was not as cruel and merciless as he had previously acted with Mercury. "Yup~" He chirps. "It's why we stopped all of you," Minato says. "That... Does make sense now that we think about it..." Ren hums out. "That was AMAZING~!" Nora sings out. "Shame we have to go to sleep now though cause I'm all riled up and excited!" "Nora, you're always excited," Yu comments as they all step out of the elevator. Since it was after hours, the 11 friends quiet down and quickly make their way back to their dorms for their much needed sleep. There was a silent agreement to visit Jaune when they could tomorrow. They all make their way into their dorms and get to bed, those who need to changing. It was going to be a very long day tomorrow.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next day had Jaune's friends in the hospital wing, sitting around his bed quietly. A few others, like Team CVFY, came by to stand with the eleven that were already gathered and stand in silent solidarity. Ruby and Yang had left only to speak with Summer who had almost finished recovering. It was a very quiet and solemn afternoon as the eleven stayed there but none of them wanted to leave Jaune alone for too long, even if he was in a coma. While Teams AMMY, NBRY and JWNR were in the hospital wing, Mercury had headed out to go talk to Cinder and Emerald, knowing that he was going to get a scolding from Cinder since he did not return the night prior. The silver haired male knew he had to focus mainly on convincing Cinder as wherever Cinder went, Emerald would follow. Rubbing his face a bit with a sigh, Mercury makes his way back to the hideout. He slips inside with ease and looks around for the two females he was looking for. "MERCURY!" A sharp voice rang out. Mercury looks in the direction of where the voice came from and sees Cinder, anger crawling onto the surface of her face. "Heya Cinder. Heya Em," Mercury greets, noticing that the green haired female was close behind Cinder. "Where the hell have you been??" Cinder growls out, flames startling to lick the outside of Cinder's visible amber eye. "Besides the Lost Sea? Uh ya know.... Beacon...." Mercury says casually. "What?! You were in Beacon? How??" Emerald asks, shocked. "I may or may not have been caught and the Wild Cards forced me to come with them into the school," Mercury answers. "Explain everything, right now Mercury," Cinder says, the fire Dust woven in her clothes starting to light up as well. "Just don't light me on fire and we're good," Mercury hums out before explaining what had happened to him the night prior. He explains how he noticed Minako and Jaune heading alone into the Lost Sea again and decided to follow them again. He explains how Jaune had turned into a Shadow and that he noticed he needed to intervene before Minako could get too badly hurt since the three of them needed her alive. Additionally, he mentions how the other three Wild Cards came to the rescue and that Pyrrha and Little Red had joined them - Pyrrha gaining a Persona that fight while Little Red was their navigator. Since he was forced to show himself, Mercury then explained how Minato essentially forced him at sword point to come with. The silver haired male finishes the explanation with how he was forced to become a turncoat by stating that Akira was truly a madman after having been shot in the fucking leg. "So yeah. That's about it." "So let me get this straight... You're now working with our enemy, Ozpin, because you were caught and the leader of the Wild Cards is a chaotic dumpster fire?" Cinder asks. "Yup," Mercury says, popping the p. "Unless you can convince this Salem person to not kill me, my hand has been forced." "Why not be a double agent then?" Emerald asks. Mercury just bitch faces her. "Because I'm not a dumbass who's going to risk doing something like that?" the silver haired male says. "And now you want us to betray Salem. You do realize Ozpin probably wants my head for attacking the Fall Maiden, right?" Cinder points out. "Maybe. Maybe since Amber is probably still alive, he would make you the Fall Maiden fully and teach you better than Salem," Mercury counters. "I hate to admit it Cinder, but he has a point there. You haven't received much help for the powers you DO have," Emerald says. Cinder sighs heavily. "Let me think about it. Mercury if you can... Bring one of those Fools here. Preferably... Akira," Cinder says, smirking a bit at the end. "What?! You want the dumpster fire here?!" Mercury asks, jaw dropping. Emerald snickers softly. "Well Yu is too bland in my opinion and Minako is too hyper. That leaves Akira and Minato. We've seen the video feed of them and observed them in the Lost Sea. I'd rather talk with the supposed dumpster fire than the quiet one. It's always the quiet ones you have to look out for," Cinder says. When Mercury didn't move, she rolls her eyes and shoots out some fire from her dress towards him. "Get. Going." "Okay! Okay! I will!" the silver haired Persona User grumbles. He then turns and makes his way back to Beacon. He didn't want to remove Akira from his friends but knew if Cinder was going to eventually defect, it needed to be done. Once back at Beacon, Mercury makes his way up to the hospital wing, assuming that that was where everyone was. Pushing away the awkwardness he felt building up, Mercury makes his way over to Team AMMY. He taps on Akira's shoulder and motions Akira to follow him. Akira pardons himself and follows Mercury. "Heya Merc~ Warming up to me~?" Akira asks with a playful smirk. Mercury rolls his eyes. "Not in the slightest. Cinder asked me to bring you to our hideout to talk," Mercury explains. "Oooohh..." Akira says in understanding. "Okay." "I know- Wait, what?" Mercury says, startled. He had expected to have to convince Akira to come with him. "I said okay. Let's go," Akira says. There was amusement in his onyx eyes as he noticed that Mercury was got off guard by his compliance. "Okay, that's fine. Makes it easier on me," Mercury says, not wanting to push his luck. He then turns and starts heading out of the hospital wing with Akira, not noticing that Minato had decided to follow. Akira had, of course, noticed that his teammate and partner was following at a distance. The messy haired male knew that Minato did not trust Mercury and was glad that Minato had his back as he also didn't quite trust Mercury. It was an awkward but quick walk to the hideout and as Mercury steps through the door with Akira, he calls out to Cinder. A few moments pass and Cinder steps out, Emerald right behind her. "So we finally meet Akira," Cinder says, slowly circling Akira, eyeing him. "So we do. You must be Cinder, correct?" Akira says coolly. Cinder chuckles. "That would be correct. I wanted to talk to you since you're the leader of the Wild Cards and Mercury is trying to get me and Emerald to defect with him," the ravenette female says. The click of her glass shoes soon stop once she was within arm's reach of Akira. "As I've figured. And what is it you'd like to speak to me about?" Akira hums, his eyes looking up a bit since Cinder was two inches taller than him at the moment. "Well, I know how powerful you Wild Cards are but I want to know what I would possibly gain from defecting. I'm already pretty strong as is." "For starters, any one of Wild Cards could probably take you out if we wanted to so there's that. Secondly, if you defected, you wouldn't have to worry about try to con us into helping you and potentially failing. Thirdly, we can train you and Mercury to better Persona Users better than this... Salem.... ever could and finally, all of us can get to the bottom of the Lost Sea quicker by joining forces." "Very persuasive I see. How about this, you battle me and if you win, Emerald and I defect. If I win, you and Mercury have to act as double agents." "Or you could stop being an idiot and just come with us," calls out a voice from the doorway. It was Minato and he was not happy. "I thought I told you to only bring Akira?" Cinder asks Mercury, glaring at him. "I didn't know he was following me!" Mercury says, putting his hands up. Akira grins a bit and waves at Minato. "Thanks for backing me up Minato-senpai!" Akira chirps as the blue haired male approaches. "Yeah," Minato replies as he draws his sword. His sword was soon aimed at Cinder's throat before Cinder could even form Midnight and there was a bored look in his eyes. "Join." "You won't kill me," Cinder says, narrowing her eyes. "No, but I will hurt you. You are a threat at the moment and the safety of my friends means the most to me," Minato says. "Join." "How about you fight me then?" Cinder asks. "Aaah Minato-senpai, I can handle it!" Akira says. "Shush Akira-kun," the bluenette grumbles out. "Fine," he says to Cinder before stepping back and pulling out his Evoker and shooting himself in the head. Thanatos appears behind Minato as the sound of glass shatters. Cinder scoffs as her hand pulsates orange near her heart. "Cinderella! Aid me!" Cinder calls out as the orange swirls around her. Behind Cinder is a completely black, glass, female figure. The Persona has blonde hair pulled elegantly into a French twist with bright, orange eyes peering down at Minato. A deep, scarlet-red ballgown with shimmers of combustion Dust on the skirt clings to the black glass. Gloves made of the same Dust are on the hands and bright orange glass slippers wrap around the feet. The Persona is poised to dance a Waltz. "Oh wow, that's a pretty Persona-" Akira comments, gazing upon Cinderella curiously. However, neither Cinder nor Minato reply to Akira as they run at each, ready to slash at one another. As the swords lock, Thanatos brings his sword down hard and fast onto the glass Persona, knocking Cinder back as Cinderella seemingly shatters for the moment. Minato ignored the pain that shot through him. Cinder growls as she pops up and summons Cinderella again, this time her Persona blasting Minato back with a Bless attack - Kouga. Minato recovered before Cinder could hit him again and he pops up again, summoning Thanatos again, blasting back with a harsh Maeigaon despite Cinder being the only target. Due to the curse amp, the sheer amount of damage causes Cinder to go flying and her Aura shatters. "You lose," Minato states as he runs up to Cinder and steps on her collarbone, sword pointed at her throat. Cinder scowls at how despite exploiting Minato's weakness with the one Persona, she was almost obliterated with a counter attack. "Always knew you quiet types are the ones to watch out for," Cinder comments as she glares up at Minato. However, she made no move to fight back. Seeing that Cinder had accepted her defeat with grace, Minato removes his foot and puts his sword away. "Let's go," Minato grumbles out before just walking out. Akira happily follows after Minato, smiling to himself as he falls more in love with his partner. Cinder gets up and follows the two Fools warily, Mercury on her left, Emerald on her right. Things were about to get weird fast.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Hey guys! Sorry if you thought this was an update. But it's just a quick and very important author's note!So as you all have noticed, updates for this story have been very few and distant, the last update having been 7 months ago, eheheheheh. I am getting major writer's block with this story. I still want to write this story but unfortunately I am going to be putting this on hiatus for a little bit. One of the reasons being that I need to edit it and fix things that are bothering me with it. I started this story almost three years ago (September of 2018). Any updates you get for a while are just edits to make things more logical and to further expand how Persona will work in the RWBYverse.Nothing major will change - like Jaune going into a coma is remaining. But one of the things I'll be changing is how their Auras got unlocked and changing the warden twins to Lavenza. As funny as I found how the twins treated Joker, it doesn't sit right with me anymore. And for those of you wondering why I decided to let the Fools keep their ultimate Personas, it's because they already finished their journey and that will be their initial Personas for this journey. Since I am bringing in the social links with this, they're going to get a new ultimate Personas that will be more RWBY based. I think that's all I have for an update here. Feel free to ask questions on this questions for clarification and I'll answer as long as it's not spoilers for future plans!Thank you all for reading and enjoying the story thus far! I hope you all stick around for when the rest comes out!
