[Blake Belladonna POV]
I let out a quiet, measured sigh, adjusting the black bow on top of my head as I followed my new... team. It was still a very strange concept to wrap my mind around. I was used to operating alone, or at least with people whose motives aligned perfectly with my own. Now, I was tethered to a hyperactive fifteen-year-old leader, a boisterous blonde brawler, and the literal heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.
I cast a cool, guarded side-glance at Weiss, who was currently complaining under her breath about the cafeteria's lack of refined dining options. I tightened my jaw. We were going to have a very long four years together.
Ahead of me, Yang suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. Her lilac eyes widened, and a bright, eager grin spread across her face. "Well, well, well. Look who it is."
I followed her line of sight. Sitting at a table near the large windows was the white-haired boy we had seen during the initiation and the team announcements. Katsuya, if I remembered correctly.
Ruby's head immediately snapped up, her silver eyes locking not on the boy, but on the platter of food in the center of their table. "Oh my gosh, I don't care what it is, I smell it and I want it!"
Both sisters burst forward, leaving Weiss and me standing in the aisle.
I followed at a much more measured pace, my innate curiosity getting the better of me. I watched as they practically swarmed the boy's table. Ruby immediately started rapid-firing questions at him about the savory-smelling food, while Yang leaned heavily against the edge of the table, crowding his personal space with her usual aggressive, flirtatious energy.
I expected the boy to shrink back. In this society, guys usually wilted or got incredibly flustered when an imposing, confident girl like Yang turned her full attention on them. But Katsuya didn't. He just sat there, offering a genuinely relaxed, easygoing smile. He answered Ruby's frantic questions without getting overwhelmed and smoothly deflected Yang's teasing antics without missing a single beat. He looked completely comfortable. It was... interesting.
"It looks amazing," Yang purred, leaning in closer to him. She reached out, playfully wrapping her fingers around the hand that was holding his fork. "Mind if I try a piece? Since we're such good friends now?"
He chuckled, completely unfazed by her proximity. "Sure, knock yourself out—"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Yang leaned down and immediately closed her mouth over the fork he was holding. She pulled the small piece of crispy pancake off the tines, her eyes locking onto his with a smug, highly satisfied smirk.
She chewed thoughtfully, her expression melting into genuine surprise at the taste. It was obvious she was thoroughly enjoying both the incredible flavor of the food and the blatant, unapologetic indirect kiss she had just stolen right in front of his teammates. Pyrrha looked like she was about to snap her own fork in half.
I stopped at the edge of the table, crossing my arms. The scent wafting off the platter was incredibly strong—a perfect, savory blend of fried starch and seasoning that was immediately triggering my feline instincts. I didn't care about the flirting, but the smell was impossible to ignore.
"This smells really good," I said flatly, cutting through the sudden tension at the table.
"What kind of pancake is this?"
"It's called a potato pancake," Katsuya answered easily, completely unfazed as he casually took his fork back from Yang's hand. "It's basically just shredded potatoes and onions fried in a batter. I'm actually planning on showing Ren how to make them later.
You're more than welcome to join us in the kitchen if you want to learn the recipe."
I thought about it for a second. Out of the corner of my eye, I could actively feel the intense, burning side-glances being directed at me from two very different directions. Pyrrha was staring at me with a rigidly polite, yet dangerously sharp expression, while Yang was pouting, clearly annoyed that I had interrupted her flirting and was now being invited to a private cooking lesson.
I ignored them both.
"Sure," I said smoothly, keeping my tone perfectly neutral. "Let me know when."
In truth, I had absolutely no intention of actually getting close to Katsuya. I didn't feel any flutter of attraction or lust looking at him, despite what my new blonde teammate was currently projecting. In my experience outside the academy walls, human boys were usually the primary instigators of anti-Faunus harassment. In a society where they were often viewed as the physically weaker or more delicate sex, many of them tried to overcompensate for their fragile egos by punching down—and Faunus were always the easiest targets. I didn't hate all boys, but my past experiences had left me entirely indifferent to them romantically.
However, looking over my shoulder at Weiss, who was currently glaring at a smudge on her silverware and complaining about the noise level of the cafeteria, an idea began to form. My new partner was incredibly uptight, demanding, and frankly, a massive pain to be around. But... if I could somehow use this cooking lesson to push her and this seemingly competent, unfazed guy together? If I helped my grumpy partner get a boyfriend, maybe she would finally relax and become significantly less miserable to live with. It was a tactical, long-term investment.
Before I could flesh out the plan any further, a loud, obnoxious laugh echoed from a few tables over.
I twitched, my bow flattening slightly against my head as I turned my attention toward the commotion.
Sitting at a table near the center aisle was Cardin Winchester, the bulky copper-haired boy from initiation, and his team. Cardin was leaning back in his chair, an ugly, arrogant sneer on his face. He wasn't just being loud; he was actively harassing an older girl with long brown hair and a pair of prominent, soft brown rabbit ears protruding from the top of her head. One of Cardin's teammates was laughing, while Cardin himself was leaning over, cruelly tugging on one of her Faunus traits.
I narrowed my eyes, a familiar knot of cold anger and disgust tightening in my chest.
Just as I thought, I noted bitterly. A human boy trying to make himself feel powerful by hurting a Faunus.
My immediate instinct was to intervene, but self-preservation quickly clamped down on it. I had to keep my head down. I couldn't afford to draw attention to myself, reveal my own Faunus traits, or start a brawl on my very first official day at Beacon. With a heavy, guilty sigh, I prepared to look away and force myself to ignore it.
But a sudden, sharp scraping sound caught my attention.
I blinked in genuine surprise, looking back at the table.
Beside me, Katsuya hadn't just noticed the bullying. Without a single word of hesitation to his teammates, or any of the nervous posturing I expected from a boy facing down someone twice his size, he pushed his chair back and immediately stood up. His relaxed, easygoing demeanor completely vanished, replaced by a cold, focused determination as he started walking straight toward Cardin's table.
———
[Katsuya Akiya (MC) POV]
'Ahh shit...here we go again.'
I pushed my chair back, the legs scraping loudly against the cafeteria floor, and stood up. I ignored the sudden silence at my table from Yang, Blake, and my teammates, walking straight down the aisle toward the commotion.
As I got closer, the situation became painfully clear. Cardin Winchester, the guy built like a brick outhouse, was leaning over a table, tugging cruelly on the long, brown rabbit ears of an older student. I stared at the Faunus girl, my mind instantly supplying the phrase 'chocolate bunny girl,' but I quickly forced the thought down. I definitely wasn't going to say that out loud.
I stopped a few feet away, folding my arms across my chest, and just stared at him.
Cardin noticed my approach and let go of the girl's ear. He turned around, putting a hand on his hip, and looked me up and down with an exaggerated, catty sneer that looked completely ridiculous on a guy wearing heavy combat armor.
"Excuse me? Do you mind?" Cardin huffed, his tone pitching up defensively. "We're having a private conversation here. Why do you care about some stray animal anyway? Are you, like, desperate for attention or something? Because you're totally embarrassing yourself right now."
I just kept staring at him, my expression completely deadpan.
Internally, however, the sheer, concentrated cringe was physically hurting my soul. He was a massive, weapon-wielding Huntsman-in-training, but he sounded exactly like a petty, gossiping middle-school diva trying to start cheap drama by the lockers. The flipped dynamics of this world were reaching levels of absurdity I didn't know how to process.
"Are you deaf, white hair?" Cardin snapped, his face flushing red as his fragile pride fractured under my unimpressed silence. "I said, back off!"
He reeled his hand back and swung his arm forward in a wide, dramatic, open-handed slap aimed right at my cheek.
My hand shot up, catching his wrist effortlessly right before his palm made contact. Cardin's eyes widened in sudden shock, his catty bravado completely vanishing as he tried and failed to pull his arm free from my grip.
Before he could even process the blocked strike, I stepped seamlessly inside his guard, pulled my right arm back, and drove my fist squarely into his solar plexus.
All the air immediately left Cardin's lungs in a violent, echoing whoosh. I let go of his wrist, and his massive frame instantly folded in half. He dropped heavily to his knees on the linoleum floor, his hands flying to his stomach as he gasped and wheezed desperately for air. His teammates completely froze, too stunned by the sudden, brutal retaliation to even move.
I stood over his wheezing form, letting out a quiet, tired sigh.
Welp, there goes Cardin's character development, I muttered internally to myself.
I stepped over Cardin, who was still gasping on the floor like a beached fish, and focused entirely on the Faunus girl sitting at the table.
"You alright?" I asked, my tone softening slightly.
The girl flinched, her brown ears pressing flat against her hair, but she offered a nervous, hesitant nod. "I-I'm fine. Thank you. I'm Velvet. Velvet Scarlatina."
*Velvet Scarlatina.* The name instantly clicked with the show's background lore stored in my head.
"Katsuya," I replied, taking a closer look at her and recognizing the slight differences in her uniform compared to ours. "Wait a second. Are you a second-year?"
Velvet shrunk a little under my gaze, looking down at her boots. "Y-Yes."
My brow furrowed in genuine disbelief.
"You're a senior student. Why the hell are you letting a bunch of first-year rookies push you around like that? You should be wiping the floor with them."
Velvet's eyes blew wide in sheer horror at the suggestion. She frantically shook her head, her voice dropping to a panicked, scandalized whisper. "I couldn't do that! They're... they're boys! I can't raise my hand against a boy! What if I seriously hurt them?!"
My brain completely stalled out for the second time today.
Right. The flipped society. Cardin wasn't just a massive, muscle-bound bully to her because of his gender, he was viewed as a fragile, delicate entity who needed to be protected from harm, even while he was actively yanking on her ears. The deeply ingrained societal conditioning in this world was going to give me a permanent migraine.
"Look," I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck to stave off the incoming headache. "Boy or girl, it doesn't matter. If someone puts their hands on you, you defend yourself. You're training to be a Huntress. No matter what, everyone should have pride in themselves. Don't let jerks like him walk all over you just because of some stupid societal rule."
Velvet just stared at me, her eyes completely huge, looking at me like I had just spoken total, world-shattering heresy.
Not wanting to deal with the inevitable cafeteria drama or the growing crowd of staring students, I gave her a small nod, turned around, and walked away, leaving Cardin's teammates to figure out how to scrape their leader off the linoleum.
I made my way back to our table by the window. Yang, Blake, Ruby, and my own team were all staring at me in varying degrees of stunned silence. I ignored the looks, letting out a tired breath as I pulled my chair back out, ready to finally finish my breakfast in peace.
I looked down at my plate.
It was completely empty.
I slowly lifted my head. Sitting directly across from me, Nora had her cheeks puffed out to their absolute limit, chewing aggressively. A single, distinct crumb of crispy fried potato clung to the corner of her mouth. She froze mid-chew, her eyes darting to the side before offering me a wide, incredibly guilty smile.
My shoulders slumped forward, my head dropping in an exaggerated, playful display of utter depression.
"My hard work," I muttered dramatically to the table. "Destroyed. Devoured by my own teammate while my back was turned. I've been betrayed."
Nora gulped down her massive mouthful, looking genuinely apologetic. "I'm sorry, Katsuya! I didn't know how long you were going to be fighting the mean copper-haired boy, and they just smelled so good, and my hands moved on their own!"
"It is alright, Katsuya."
I blinked, looking to my left.
Ren was sitting up straight, holding his own fork. Speared delicately on the end of the tines was a perfectly cut, untouched piece of his potato pancake. He leaned closer, politely and gently holding the fork right up to my mouth, his magenta eyes completely earnest.
"You exerted yourself. You need to eat to keep your strength up," Ren said softly.
I stared at the fork hovering inches from my lips. Then I looked at Ren. The stoic ninja was completely unbothered, acting like hand-feeding his teammate in the middle of a crowded cafeteria was the most natural thing in the world. realizing that Ren was currently executing the quiet, doting 'waifu' archetype to absolute perfection.
It was incredibly weird.
But, my stomach rumbled loudly, and I definitely didn't want to make things awkward for the poor guy by refusing his genuine attempt to share...and i dont want to be alone with girls anymore
"Uh... thanks, Ren," I muttered, leaning forward and taking the bite right off his fork.
I took another bite of the potato pancake directly from Ren's fork, chewing thoughtfully. The seasoning really was spot on. I swallowed, feeling significantly better with some actual food in my system, and turned my head to address the rest of our table.
I instantly froze.
Pyrrha was completely slumped forward, her forehead resting heavily against the polished surface of the cafeteria table. Beside her, Nora was also face-down, her arms sprawled out next to her empty plate.
But it wasn't just my teammates.
Yang was completely passed out, her cheek squished against the tabletop right near my elbow. Blake had face-planted straight onto the wood, her black bow twitching faintly.
Ruby was knocked out cold, her head resting awkwardly in Yang's lap. Weiss was nowhere to be seen—she must have excused herself and gone somewhere—but the remaining five girls at our table were entirely unresponsive.
And every single one of them had a very prominent, comically dramatic trail of blood leaking from their noses.
"Uh..." I blinked, completely bewildered, pointing a finger at the pile of unconscious huntresses. "What just happened to them?"
Ren calmly set his fork down, dabbing his mouth politely with a napkin. He looked at the passed-out girls, his expression completely neutral. "I might have a guess..."
"Are you telling me they passed out from a nosebleed because you fed me a piece of potato-" I deadpanned until turning to slight realization orobably different from Ren's.
'Don't tell me they think im gay?!'
Ren just offered a vague, noncommittal hum, taking a sip of his water not helping my own questioning.
Before I could even begin to unpack the absolute absurdity of that reality, my internal clock caught up with me. I glanced up at the large digital clock hanging over the cafeteria doors.
"Crap," I muttered, my eyes widening. "I completely lost track of time. The bell for Professor Port's mandatory first-year orientation class is going to ring in less than ten minutes!"
I didn't have time to wait for them to reboot, and I certainly wasn't going to try and carry five people. Team RWBY was going to have to fend for themselves, or wait for Weiss to come back. I quickly grabbed Pyrrha by the shoulders, hauling her up into a fireman's carry over my right shoulder, before bending down and scooping Nora up under my left arm.
"Come on, Ren!" I called out, already speed-walking toward the exit.
We rushed out of the cafeteria and down the long, sunlit hallways of Beacon. Once we reached the courtyard area right outside Port's classroom, I carefully deposited both girls onto the grass, laying them flat on their backs. They were still completely out cold, their breathing steady but unresponsive.
I knelt beside them, scratching the back of my head. "Okay. We have about four minutes before we're officially late. Slapping them awake seems rude. What do we say to shock them back to consciousness?"
Ren knelt beside me, his eyes thoughtful. He rested his chin on his hand, seriously brainstorming the problem with me.
"We need a phrase that triggers immediate panic or profound interest," Ren suggested softly. "Something that bypasses their current comatose state."
I thought about it for a few seconds. My eyes suddenly widened as a brilliant, terrible idea struck me. I looked at Ren. He looked back at me. We both clearly arrived at the exact same conclusion at the exact same time.
In perfect, synchronized unison, Ren and I brought our right fists down, lightly knocking them against our left palms in a classic 'eureka' gesture.
We leaned over the unconscious girls, took a deep breath, and spoke in a clear, panicked tone together.
"We're naked—"
Pyrrha's eyes snapped open with the force of a detonating Dust crystal.
She bolted upright instantly, her red hair flying wildly as she violently gasped for air, coughing and frantically looking around the courtyard. Her eyes darted immediately toward me, wide and expectant—only to realize I was still fully dressed in my white shirt and dark pants.
A flash of genuine, profound disappointment crossed her face before she quickly coughed into her fist, her cheeks burning a dark crimson as she aggressively averted her gaze.
Beside her, Nora also shot up, rubbing her head and looking around in total confusion. Her eyes landed on me, and she immediately wilted, crossing her arms and looking down at the grass, still clearly feeling guilty about devouring my entire breakfast.
I let out a long, heavy sigh, standing up and dusting off my knees.
"Alright, glad you're both back in the land of the living," I said, gesturing toward the heavy oak doors of the lecture hall behind us. "Now come on. We need to hurry to class."