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Big Issues

Fat Floats

The pool at Beacon Academy, large enough to hold a hundred people comfortably, was currently empty. Part of that was due to not many of the students had seen that it had been reopened after a very thorough cleaning and refilling. The floors around the water were spotless, the water is crystal clear and warm enough for comfort but cool enough to not make any occupants overheat. That fell to the hot tub in the corner, steam wafting into the air only to be disturbed by the handful of large fans on the ceiling that circulated the warm chlorine-scented air. The water barely rippled, only moving thanks to the filtration system.

“Cannonball!” The scream of joy pierced the air of the once nearly silent room, followed by a large splash. Nora Valkyrie had made her entrance, the perky redhead taking advantage of her expanding backside for a bigger splash. The rest of her friends following at a more sedate pace, if Ruby using her semblance to reach the middle or Yang diving headfirst.

Pyrrha slipped into the water wearing a red one-piece suit that was essentially a bikini with a pair of thick straps that connected the top and bottom on the side. Her thicker form easily sank into the water and the fluid smoothly flowed around her soft curves as she moved through the water. Her grace in the pool made Jaune stop and stare as she began a simple backstroke to watch the others coming into the water.

Ren silently entered the water next to him, the movement knocking Jaune out of his stunned state. Not that he could be blamed too much as he’d never seen Pyrrha with so little on her. The male half of JNPR wore simple trunks, Jaune in white and Ren in green, though they did pause to get used to the water once it hit a little below waist level.

Ruby surfaced for air and waved for Weiss and Blake to join her in the pool with a wide smile. The suit she’d found that morning is a black one-piece with small rose patterns in red. She was thankful that it covered her well, even with her round tummy. Weiss deposited hers and Ruby’s towels on a chair before moving to the water, her suit is also a one-piece that started white at the shoulder and gradually turned blue at the bottom, complete with a small ruffled skirt that helped to disguise just how wide her hips had gotten.

Blake had to drop Yang’s towel on another chair since the blonde had thrown it at her to join the two more excitable friends. The cat girl couldn’t wear her usual bow to the pool but refused to let her ears be free for everyone to see, and so she had put her hair up in a swim cap. Her choice of swimwear is a black sports bikini, one that had thick straps all around the chest and tight shorts for the bottom. She was thankful that the bottoms fit as her buns had taken the brunt of her gains.

Still the girls took the stairs into the pool where they sat on the steps so the water covered their shoulders. Just as they began to really relax there was a loud commotion from the changing rooms, resulting in a door being slammed open. Anya stomped out, wearing a full bodysuit that left only her head, hands, and feet exposed from the deep red material. The angry older student dropped herself into a chair in a far corner with a huff, ignoring the laughter from her female teammates.

Talon is dressed in a dark blue bikini that allowed for her curves to be seen, with no sense of embarrassment of being chubby at all. Itazura had found an orange one-piece that had a white sash around her waist that trailed behind a bit with her tail. She did look a bit different than how the others remembered her thanks to her prosthetic ears being replaced by small hemispheres that sat over her ears. Obviously, she had a selection to choose from.

Denko walked out of the men’s room donned in black trunks with a green stripe down the legs, followed by Sun in blue trunks. The latter all but dragging his buddy Neptune by the leg, only letting him go once they were near the chairs. The blue-haired boy quickly finding a seat where he determined that he was out of the splash zone.

“Is this everyone?” Yang asks as she drifts towards the wall in front of Denko who was looking around.

“I guess so, wasn’t anyone else with us on our side.” He responds before looking down at the blonde woman who had pulled herself out of the water enough to rest her elbows on the wall and hold herself up. That also meant that the busty young woman had her girls resting on her arms. Thankfully her choice of attire was better than what she had teased him with back at the store, the bronze-colored bikini top held her in place without being anywhere as restrictive as the earlier one. From his angle from looking from above, he could see the matching bottoms covering her bottom… mostly.

“Well? Come on in!” She encourages before pushing off of the wall with a splash to drift on her back.

Denko couldn’t help but laugh a little at her antics, she hadn’t changed that much since he had left for Vacuo. That didn’t mean that he was going to jump in as she did, he had his reasons but descended the stairs quickly enough and waded his way out to deeper waters.

“Look out below!” A shout came from the ceiling, causing everyone to look up to see that Sun had climbed up to the rafters and jumped. The resulting splash was likely the largest the pool had ever seen. Unseen by all, Neptune had freaked at the sight of so much water being sent airborne but calmed after he found that he had indeed chosen a seat outside of the splash zone.

Over the next few minutes, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha swam a few laps, Ruby, Itazura, and Nora had a race across the pool with Jaune and Sun playing the judges. The hot tub in the corner found itself occupied by Anya and Ren. At some point, Denko and Talon had disappeared and not even Neptune had seen them leave, though that may be explained by the fact that he was reading a book to ignore the water as much as possible.

“Spike!” A volleyball shot out of a supply closet and into the water where it skipped at high speeds only to catch Jaune in the back of the head.

“Gah! Oh, come on!”

Pyrrha stopped her laps and swam the few feet over to the blonde who was busy rubbing where he’d been struck. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just glad it wasn’t my face this time.” Jaune faced his partner with a dopey grin as he said that.

“Return to sender!” Nora screams as she smacks the white ball as Talon and Denko emerge from the closet. Fortunately for them, Nora’s aim with a volleyball was poor and the ball hit the wall of the pool and arced back towards its origin. Unfortunately, that arc led it onto an Arc, and it pinged off the top of his head. The shock and force combined were enough to dunk the blonde.

“Nora!” Pyrrha had no weapons and no easy way to catch her teammate while she was on solid ground and so did the only thing she could at the moment, splash.

Needless to say, that it didn’t take long for most of the group of friends to join in the splash fight, for those who had experienced it, it was oddly reminiscent of the food fight over a month before. Neptune spent his time during the fight constructing a wall of stackable chairs.

“Come now, think of it as a disguise. If we didn’t do this, more eyes would be on us for standing out so much.” A silky, confident voice addresses her partner.

“I know Cinder, it’s… just so humiliating to blimp up so much.” The girl with a far darker skin and green hair complains.

“I thought something like this would have been a dream of yours Emerald. Something about living on the streets and starving? Not knowing when or where your next meal might come from?” The silver-haired boy laughs from next to her.

Emerald was quick to punch him in the ribs for the comment but had made no denial. Why wouldn’t someone from the slums and streets wish for the opportunity to have enough to eat that they could get fat? It didn’t exactly help that she actually liked the hips and butt that it gave her, though there were limits of what she’d be accepting of and she was getting close to that limit. She was a thief and proud of it but she still needed to get into places and a big ass would only become a hinderance for those aspects of her job.

On the other hand, Cinder, filled her red dress as if she had been poured into it, being blessed in some way that her newly added weight simply added to her natural curves evenly and smoothly. Her face had yet to be touched by the fat and she was fine with that. Plus, she found great amusement as she walked as the sway of her round buttocks and wider hips caused many a young man and plenty of women to be distracted, a few of them have accidents of sort or another. If she felt that she was the envy of many young women before, she felt that her old self might actually envious of her present self.

Her partner Mercury, hadn’t changed all that much but that was to be expected as the serum that was meant to be fare more potent to women. It was a brilliant idea to introduce this weight gain serum into the water system, the doctor that had created it thought that there would be little use for her invention, but Watts had stumbled upon it when peeking through her computer systems. Then it was apparently Tyrian’s demented mind who thought it would be interesting to see how much chaos could be unleashed if the latest generation of Huntsmen being hindered by their own weight and the public perception of their girth interfering with their duties.

Their Mistress actually thought that it would be a new twist to her plans to undermine Ozpin, an avenue that neither of them had ever anticipated could or would ever happen. And so, the administration of the formula to the Huntsmen Academies had fallen to Cinder, who was still working out the details of her own plan to infiltrate the Academies and destroy them from the inside, using the Vytal Tournament that was to begin in two months, to amplify the message world-wide. And with the use of the serum, she had so much of all of the Kingdom’s security looking in at themselves, wasting manpower and time guarding things that she had no interest in and drawing the security of her goals thin.

Cinder smiled as everything was going as planned, just as she desired and her desires were all that mattered.

Denko held onto a beachball as he floated towards the deep end of the pool, most of the others had started a three-on-three volleyball game in the shallows and it wasn’t his turn to play. Yang popped up from under the water as the result of the dive that she’d performed. After shaking her hair out of her eyes, she smiled at her fellow blonde.

“What’s up with the ball, big guy?” Her tone was light and teasing as she treaded water, the teasing was something he was long used to.

“Don’t float.” Was his simple answer.

“C’mon, everyone floats.”

“All right, I float about two feet under the surface.”

“Um…” She didn’t know what to say to that.

He sighs as he glances at the girl floating on her back. Her face was obviously above the water, her ponytail that kept most of her mane out of her face drifting under her like jellyfish tentacles. Her arms rested just under the surface while her breasts and belly rose high over the water as if they were floating balls themselves. Her legs floated like her arms, just under but her toes were exposed to the air.

Taking a deep breath, he let go of the ball that suspended him. Immediately Yang saw him sink like a rock until he reached the level he claimed was where he floated. Denko held the position for a few seconds before kicking his way to the surface for fresh air and began treading water.

“Oh!” Was all Yang could say as he shook some water from his hair and pushed it back. “You seem to be floating fine now.” She points out.

“Swimming and floating are different.” The boy states as he looks for the ball only to find that it had drifted to the other side already in the light breeze. Looking back at his friend, he sees her expression asking for an elaboration.

Once again, he sighs, the expulsion of air led to him dropping a few inches before he refilled his lungs and kicked his way back to the surface. “Swimming is about pushing against the water around out to move in a certain direction. Floating is simply the point at which the body finds equilibrium with the pressures above and below and becomes suspended in the fluid.”

“You can’t be that heavy.” Yang scoffs.

“Yeah? How much do you weigh now?” Denko challenges.

The girl blushes and turns her head away for a moment. Looking back at him, “Just under two hundred now…” She glares at him for making her admit that before turning that glare to the three lumps in front of her, focusing on the largest.

Denko laughs a bit. “Really? Got a bit to catch up to me then.”

“There’s no way you’re that heavy!” Yang sits up, or at least goes through the motion so she can start treading water in front of her old friend and look him square in the eyes.

Watching her reaction was enough to keep the laughs coming, “Get me a scale if you want to check yourself. I’m just that physically dense that I don’t float like most people.”

“I dunno if that makes me feel better about having the bigger waistline.” She grumbles, blowing bubbles in the water at the end.

“Hey, at least you float. I need help to stay where I can breathe.” He looks away to see how the game is going but given that the players are all aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses, skill and athleticism has been keeping the game longer than most would expect. Jaune’s boasts about being a volleyball champ were certainly not empty as he probably had the most scores and saves of anyone playing today so far. Sun and Blake were putting him to the test though, the Faunus were both highly agile- even when compared to their peers- and seemed to be in sync as they played. Their teamwork was better than that of Jaune and Pyrrha, while Jaune certainly had the skills, Pyrrha… was on a steep learning curve with the game and often found herself misjudging her timing due to not being used to this kind of activity in the water or the drag it produced when she tried to move quickly. Her expanding measurements were another factor that she trained hard to limit any restraint that they would have on her.

Nora cheered from the pools edge for her teammates, Ren sitting next to her silently but providing his own form of support, a thumbs up. From behind his wall, Neptune encouraged his best friend and Itazura rooted for her fellow faunus to win the game, at some point she’d gotten her scroll and was recording the whole thing. Anya sat in her corner, somehow combining the acts of brooding with enjoying the game. Ruby was rather… vocal in her support of Blake to do well, Weiss had been joined by Talon in the hot tub where they watched the game.

“I never knew Jaune had those kinds of moves.” Weiss comments as she rests her chin on her arms, something that she noticed was slightly more comfortable than it used to be since her arms had a bit more padding and even her face had gotten slightly rounder.

“What do you mean?” Talon was curious. In her experience so far with the teams, Weiss has always been giving the young man the cold shoulder. It may have been that in the two weeks that she’d been at Beacon now, she’d seen the blonde try to ask the heiress out onto dates no less than three times.

Weiss sighs as she stares at the floor tiles for a bit. “Have you seen him do anything that could even be considered skillful? In sparring class he’s ranked dead last and will trip over his own feet walking down the corridors.” Ice blue eyes turned to lock onto sky blue. “Not to mention how often he tries awful pickup lines. It’s almost as bad as Yang with her puns.”

“I guess I can see your point. But at least you know one set of skills he does have.” The proud chubby comments as the subject in question jumps surprisingly high in the water to spike the ball down for the game point. Sun was a good sport about the loss, giving the winner a fist bump with a smile and the promise of a rematch.

“That may be true but that hasn’t stopped him from being a pest to me.” The Atlesian girl turns her nose up as she turns around to sit normally in the hot bubbling water.

‘Stick in the mud.’ Talon says to herself as she relaxes once more with a jet hitting just the right spot on her back.

Itazura was about to jump back in the pool while the others had giving their own retellings of the best parts of the game, when she saw something unusual. Notably her brother managing to float nearby, but it was how that made her grin and start taking pictures, ‘This will be some great material to bargain with him for!’.

Apparently, Yang was helping her friend to float by being the floatation that he so badly needed. His head rested on her soft stomach while her legs were under his shoulders, his hands holding onto her ankles to help keep them together as Yang used her arms to steer them as Denko kicked gently to provide them some locomotion.

Still… the little fox knew that there was something that could be interesting. After a few moments of thought, she had the perfect pool activity planned. Now she just had to rope a few volunteers into it. With that in mind she began making her way around the pool and whispering into certain ears.

“Have your scientists managed to find anything to help yet, James?” Ozpin asks the Atlas General and Headmaster.

The aging soldier let out a long breath, finding it difficult to stay at military perfection around the man who puts on such a relaxed act. “Unfortunately, not yet. From the briefings I’ve received thus far, these chemicals have a long life within us. Even somehow creating a feedback loop when they are metabolized to recreate themselves. It’s not going to be easy to get rid of.”

Ozpin steeples his hands, not recalling any reports that have gone into that particular detail as of yet. “Do they know how long it will persist? I can’t imagine that it will last forever.”

“No, it won’t. As far as I have been able to understand, biology is far from my field of expertise, if left as it is now… the chemicals will work themselves out naturally in roughly five years so long as more is not introduced into the victims’ system.”

“Hmm… that is disconcerting.”

“I do believe that there was a small breakthrough from one of Theodore’s people looking into this. The possibility of a neutralizing agent to prevent the reactions that cause us to gain weight so quickly.”

“Now that is good news.” Oz sips from his mug of hot chocolate. He’d been limiting himself since the Issue began and when they figured out how it was being transmitted. Not that he was happy about having to cut back on his preferred beverage but he was willing to make a small sacrifice now and then. It still didn’t sit well with him that some of his female students and employees may have nearly doubled their weights by the end of the month. He had to wonder just how bad the problem might become for all four schools by the time that the Vytal Tournament begins in just over a month.

“Yes, it is. From what I’ve seen, a few researchers in all of the kingdoms are adopting that possibility and trying to make it reality. Most are exploring other avenues of mitigation, however.” James explains, his own flask being drawn from inside his coat and added some to his cup of tea. As much as he berated Qrow for drinking often, he couldn’t help but adding a little alcohol to many of his drinks when he wasn’t in front of his troops and students.

It took a few minutes to talk to her ‘assistants’ without others overhearing and spoiling her plan for fun. But it was done and she was watching the clock, in a way. She’d already set her scroll to key into the pools speaker systems and it was ready to play some music that was to be the cue.

All of her partners in crime were sticking near their targets, playing the part well of having fun normally with everyone. A water balloon sat nearby… she’d seen Neptune hiding in the corner behind the little fort he’d constructed to avoid even seeing the water. That and she’d noticed how often he’d flinch whenever any large splash came his way, Nora was very effective with her cannonballs, that was why he’d built the fort in the first place.

Then the fun started as the speakers projected a drumroll that echoed in the large room. Several of the boys suddenly dropped below the waters surface, much to the girls’ confusion, while Nora had jumped out of the pool altogether.

“What!” Blake yells as she’s lifted out of the pool. Looking down to find the source, she spots a familial mop of blonde hair and tanned hands holding her legs. “Sun! What are you-! “The cat girl stopped herself as the answer made itself known by the others being in the same predicament. Blake was sitting on Sun’s shoulders, her plump thighs holding his head tightly even with his hands on her knees.

Pyrrha flushed as red as her hair as she found herself in the same position as Blake, except she was on Jaune’s shoulders. The boy’s face was just as red, though it was obvious that it was embarrassment far exceeding the effort it was taking him to lift the curvaceous champion.

Ren’s eyes went wide once Nora had pounced on him; any expressions he was making were hidden by the water as his oldest friends’ sudden weight had forced him under. But he was an aspiring Huntsman and adapted, helped by the buoyancy of the water to lift the thunder thighs out of the water. That was as far as he could go as Nora had his head in a vice, a soft and fleshy vice, but a vice nonetheless that refused to let go.

Yang squeaked in surprise as she rose up on Denko’s broad shoulders only for the girl to begin laughing as she realized what was going on, the music on the speakers taking on a catchy melody.

“Chicken fight!” Itazura yells as she hops onto Talon’s shoulders to join in the fun melee of water sports. Talon waded towards the other pairs, charging at her teammate as he had some difficulty looking up since Yang had the largest belly of the girls and her laughing only rattled her mounts head as it jiggled.

Five pairs begin.

The distraction did little for the fox as Yang was far stronger and too heavy to push over, Denko making a solid base for the buxom blonde to push with. Not to mention that the Faunus had made herself an open target for the others who wanted some form of revenge for their present situation. And so, the instigator was the first to be out of the game when four pairs of hands pushed her and her short mount onto their backs.

“Too bad sis!” Denko boasts as she goes under.

Four left.

Sun was quick to leap back as best he could with his chubby kitty in the pool as Jaune lunged forward, trying to help Pyrrha push Blake into the water. The champion missed the charge and found herself flanked by the faunus duo, being pushed towards the clashing powerhouses of Yang and Nora. The two noticed the long red hair moving their way and reacted, Yang trying to take advantage and unseat the spartan warrior, while Nora tried to keep her teammate upright.

“Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez.” Jaune mutters as he tries to stay upright.

Pyrrha was caught in a three-way tangle of limbs, doing her best to bob and weave around the pushes and grabs for her arms but there were too many, too much. Blake’s speedy strikes catching her where her guard was low combined with Yang’s raw power were too much for Jaune to handle his ever-shifting load and he fell face first into the water, taking Pyrrha along with him.

“Got ya, P-Money!” Yang jeers.

Three remaining.

Ren stumbled behind his team leader, Nora had tried to brace her friend but missed when she fell, leaving the pair off balance and open. Something that was taken advantage of by Denko as he tripped Ren as he tried to get his feet under himself. Blake managed to push down on Nora at the same time to send the chunky hammer girl into the water.

“Sorry Nora.” Blake didn’t sound very sorry.

Final round.

Yang and Blake directed their mounts to square off as they kept their hands up and ready. The boys under them giving each other a grin of challenge. On an unknown signal they clashed. The faunus proved themselves to be agile, able to avoid the force of the blondes’ attacks for the most part. But they had trouble pushing back the heavier pair and Denko proved to be able to stay stable despite the forces pushing against him from above.

Something had to give.

Yang managed to get a lucky shot and pushed Blake back towards the water. How she managed to stay up was a surprise to all involved. Sun had managed to hook Denko behind the knee with his tail, providing an anchor point to assist him in keeping his charge up and relatively dry. Blake found in the process of bending backwards so much, found that her bubble butt was apparently large enough to create a solid enough base against Sun’s back to help her sit back up as she squeezed his head in the process with her thighs as she clenched her hidden abs.

Yang was caught with her arms in the air, thinking she had won the chicken fight, when Blake sat up and immediately pushed the blonde. Denko tried to adjust but Sun’s tail was still hooked around his leg and tripped, falling backwards with Yang into the water.

The winners are Blake and Sun!

“Yeah! All right Blake!” Sun cheers, taking Blake for a victory lap around their friends, causing the girl to laugh. Her laughter was infectious as nearly everyone else laughed at the duo’s antics.

The song was still playing… or it had been restarted, but it was Ruby who found a devious side. “Reverse positions!” She shouts. There was a moments hesitation as everyone processed what she had said but it was Yang who acted first, grabbing Denko by the waist and tossing him over her shoulders… after making sure that her hair wasn’t going to be sat on of course. Her soaked golden locks wound up laying across his right leg looking like a snake crawling on him. The blondes laughed as Yang made sure to have a good hold on his knees and grinned a challenge to the rest of her friends.

“We’re not gonna win by default, are we?”

“Heck no!” The Valkyrie responds before flinging Ren over her own shoulders. Though by the look on his face, she may have done so a bit too forcefully and the other boys winced in sympathy.

Itazura grumbled into the water as Talon hopped up onto her friend, most likely complaining about the heavy Huntress she had to carry now. Sun had finally let Blake down to wade in the pool on her own, but now found herself under fire by expectant looks from three separate blondes.

Blake rolls her eyes, “Fine.” And lowers herself in the water to make it easier for Sun to get up. What she didn’t expect was, once the boy sat on her shoulders and thankful that her hair was tucked up under the swimming cap, for his tail to wrap itself around her, just under her suits top. That made her straighten up fast enough to nearly throw the monkey off her back, but the act had caused the tail to hold her tighter.

“Sorry Blake. It has a habit of holding onto whatever I’m climbing.” Sun apologizes while scratching the back of his head.

“Is your tail going to stay there the whole time?” She had a slight glare that he couldn’t see but he heard the warning in her tone.

“Probably…” He laughs nervously. “It moves on instinct most of the time.” He consciously loosens his grip on her ribs.

Blake sighs as she takes a hand from his knee to grab hold of the furry appendage before it could move too far. “It can stay, but it better stay where it is.” She warns.

“Yes madam!” The Haven student salutes sharply in a way that General Ironwood would approve of. During their exchange Jaune had climbed up on Pyrrha, both teens looking more than a little flushed from their position.

“Alright! Everybody ready!” Ruby looks around at the assembled pairs with a happy smile and her own scroll in hand to continue recording. “Let round two of the chicken fight begin!”

Itazura waded her way over towards Pyrrha, hoping that their combined smaller stature would give them the advantage and get at least one victory. The spartan took the challenge readily and their mounted warriors clashed. Jaune had an easy advantage in reach and with both him and Pyrrha being among the tallest in the room, he was easily able to use it. Itazura proved to be agile in the water, capable of rebalancing herself and her load quickly as Talon kept shifting to try to avoid the blondes’ attacks as she couldn’t reach him on her own, possibly in part from her tail pushing against the water. Trying to pull on his arms did little as the taller pair had more strength and bulk to resist.

Finally, the girl went all in on a pull on Jaunes arm only for her to slip on his wet limb and fall backwards into the pool.

“I won?” Jaune questions the relatively new experience at the Huntsmen Academy, especially when it was against a third-year student. “Ha-ha! I won!” He cheers, Pyrrha sharing in his joy with a bright smile.

Four to go.

“Sorry Jaune.” Came a calm voice from behind the blonde along with a pair of hands on his shoulders, causing the team leader to gulp nervously.

Ren never gave his friend a chance to pull away as he maintained his grip while Nora waded backwards with her immense strength and toppling the taller pair with a splash. The quiet boy said nothing but that didn’t mean Nora was.

“We should have gotten them from the front Ren! That way we could have seen their faces when they fell! Ha-ha! That would have been great!” The short redhead turns to face the blondes who were locked in an intense grapple while Yang was able to push Blake backwards slowly whenever she had to adjust her stance.

Three left.

Blake couldn’t move without Yang forcing her to retreat, even when she wasn’t trying to move her feet were sliding in the tiles that lined the pool. The boys above her were in a stalemate, always breaking even whenever they engaged, even when they tried to throw the other to the side, they were able to react quick enough that the other blonde couldn’t capitalize on it. It didn’t help her any as she knew that Yang was far stronger than she is and she is heavier… not that the girl liked to admit it but it was hard to argue with the scales and measuring tapes.

“What’s wrong Blake? Got a monkey on your back?” Yang taunts with her near characteristic cocky grin whenever she’s enjoying herself in a fight. Blake refused to say anything or give her the satisfaction of getting under her skin, even if she knew Yang meant no harm with her words. “Cat got your tongue?” That one had her hidden ears twitching… and some of her bundled hair to tickle their sensitive insides.

That was when Ren ran into the boys and breaking their grapple while Nora hit the girls below, a knee catching Yang in the stomach and hip checking Blake to the side. On one hand, it broke up the stalemate. On the other, it made sure that the blonde and faunus pairs had a common enemy and target.

Yang and Blake locked eyes and nodded before moving to flank, the boys on top having no desire to counter the girls’ actions. At the same time, Nora wore a wild grin at the chance to fight two at once. Ren on the other hand, was regretting getting involved in this insanity. It didn’t mean that he was going down without a fight.

Unfortunately, Ren focused on fast, precise strikes over strength. His opponents had both speed and power and the ninja was immediately on the defensive. And losing fast. Nora jumping around and trying to stomp on the feet of Yang and Blake didn’t help him keep his balance at all. Especially when Sun and Denko shoved him simultaneously, he may have gotten his arms up to take the hit but the force nearly ripped him out of Nora’s grip on his legs. Yet he was unseated from Nora and fell into the water.

“Yeah!” Denko and Sun cheer, giving each other a high five.

Final round!

The blondes all grinned at each other, Blake settled for a smirk.

“I hope you’re ready to swim, monkey boy!” Yang taunts.

“Better hold onto that anchor Yang, or he might not come back out of the water.” Sun responds.

“You really think you can back that up?” Denko waves for them to come to him.

“That’s it! Let’s get them Blake!” With that the faunus charged the blonde duo who surged to meet them.

This time when they clashed there was no stalemate, Blake realized to late that Yang wasn’t going to stop and Denko had shifted to plow through Sun. Then they collided, Sun had the wind knocked out of him by Denko’s palms in his chest and pushed back hard. Blake found herself smacked by a soft wall as the plump blonde used her belly as a battering ram to push her over.

This time it was the previous rounds winners in the pool. This round goes to Yang and Denko!

“Ha! We won this time!” Yang shouts as she tosses her friend off her shoulders where he lands with a splash next to her, landing on his feet since she had launched him high enough.

“That we did!” Denko couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he lifted Yang’s hand into the air for their victory. Those who were simply watched applauded, except for Ruby who tackled her sister with a burst of her semblance, creating a large splash and nearly pulling Denko’s arm from its socket.

The pool was filled with more than just water for the next few hours, for the first time in two months it was filled with laughter of the students that echoed within the large chamber.

Mercury Black looked to the rest of the world as a student from Haven out for a stroll before curfew with his black and white uniform as he wandered the grounds of Beacon. In some ways he was, in his files anyway. But he had a job to do tonight.

He looked around the arranged meeting spot, it was carefully chosen due to no known security cameras being in the area. There was one that faced in this direction but it was too far away to be the focus of the machines ever watching gaze. Not only that but this area was rarely traveled by anyone. Still, it was best that he keeps up his appearance and keep his time on the cameras looking as casual as possible.

He braced his foot on a stone bench by some thick bushes and began to retie his shoe slowly when he heard a voice whisper. “Silver foot?”

That was what Mercury wanted to hear. And the contact was on time. “That’s me.” He responds quietly but no less confidently than normal.

“Good, good. But security is too tight for me to retrieve the canisters. Same goes for my brothers at the other academies.”

“We figured something like that would happen eventually. It took them long enough to notice in the first place.” Mercury laughs, purposely messing up the knot and restarting.

“We could place what is left in the other combat schools, Signal or Sanctum?”

“Nah, bosses orders were clear. She wants you to disappear.” The shoe was finally tied correctly and switched to the other.

“So, our job is done?”

“Yep.” The laces were retied quickly this time. Mercury stood upright and stretched in the moonlight before reaching in his pocket and withdrawing his scroll, seemingly ignoring the small package that fell to the ground. “Here’s your pay. I’m sure that you’d want to celebrate to a job well done with your brothers, wouldn’t you?”

The bundle was pulled from the grass in a flash. “We always get together for a few drinks and split our profits. It’s been a pleasure working with you.” The voice whispers from the shadows before those shadows glowed a deep purple briefly before fading to normal.

Mercury smirks as he starts to walk back to his dorm. “Been nice working with you too.”

The next morning in a seedy area of Mistal’s lower levels, four weasel faunus were found dead in a rundown shack. All of them had died clutching at their necks, a few glasses lay broken around the table from which they’d fallen from, a bottle of wine sat open and mostly empty right next to a small box that could hold plenty of Lien cards. Yet there was no money except whatever was in their pockets and that wasn’t much even together. The inside of the box held a small bit of quickly evaporating residue.

Description

Big Issues

Fat Floats

The pool at Beacon Academy, large enough to hold a hundred people comfortably, was currently empty. Part of that was due to not many of the students had seen that it had been reopened after a very thorough cleaning and refilling. The floors around the water were spotless, the water is crystal clear and warm enough for comfort but cool enough to not make any occupants overheat. That fell to the hot tub in the corner, steam wafting into the air only to be disturbed by the handful of large fans on the ceiling that circulated the warm chlorine-scented air. The water barely rippled, only moving thanks to the filtration system.

“Cannonball!” The scream of joy pierced the air of the once nearly silent room, followed by a large splash. Nora Valkyrie had made her entrance, the perky redhead taking advantage of her expanding backside for a bigger splash. The rest of her friends following at a more sedate pace, if Ruby using her semblance to reach the middle or Yang diving headfirst.

Pyrrha slipped into the water wearing a red one-piece suit that was essentially a bikini with a pair of thick straps that connected the top and bottom on the side. Her thicker form easily sank into the water and the fluid smoothly flowed around her soft curves as she moved through the water. Her grace in the pool made Jaune stop and stare as she began a simple backstroke to watch the others coming into the water.

Ren silently entered the water next to him, the movement knocking Jaune out of his stunned state. Not that he could be blamed too much as he’d never seen Pyrrha with so little on her. The male half of JNPR wore simple trunks, Jaune in white and Ren in green, though they did pause to get used to the water once it hit a little below waist level.

Ruby surfaced for air and waved for Weiss and Blake to join her in the pool with a wide smile. The suit she’d found that morning is a black one-piece with small rose patterns in red. She was thankful that it covered her well, even with her round tummy. Weiss deposited hers and Ruby’s towels on a chair before moving to the water, her suit is also a one-piece that started white at the shoulder and gradually turned blue at the bottom, complete with a small ruffled skirt that helped to disguise just how wide her hips had gotten.

Blake had to drop Yang’s towel on another chair since the blonde had thrown it at her to join the two more excitable friends. The cat girl couldn’t wear her usual bow to the pool but refused to let her ears be free for everyone to see, and so she had put her hair up in a swim cap. Her choice of swimwear is a black sports bikini, one that had thick straps all around the chest and tight shorts for the bottom. She was thankful that the bottoms fit as her buns had taken the brunt of her gains.

Still the girls took the stairs into the pool where they sat on the steps so the water covered their shoulders. Just as they began to really relax there was a loud commotion from the changing rooms, resulting in a door being slammed open. Anya stomped out, wearing a full bodysuit that left only her head, hands, and feet exposed from the deep red material. The angry older student dropped herself into a chair in a far corner with a huff, ignoring the laughter from her female teammates.

Talon is dressed in a dark blue bikini that allowed for her curves to be seen, with no sense of embarrassment of being chubby at all. Itazura had found an orange one-piece that had a white sash around her waist that trailed behind a bit with her tail. She did look a bit different than how the others remembered her thanks to her prosthetic ears being replaced by small hemispheres that sat over her ears. Obviously, she had a selection to choose from.

Denko walked out of the men’s room donned in black trunks with a green stripe down the legs, followed by Sun in blue trunks. The latter all but dragging his buddy Neptune by the leg, only letting him go once they were near the chairs. The blue-haired boy quickly finding a seat where he determined that he was out of the splash zone.

“Is this everyone?” Yang asks as she drifts towards the wall in front of Denko who was looking around.

“I guess so, wasn’t anyone else with us on our side.” He responds before looking down at the blonde woman who had pulled herself out of the water enough to rest her elbows on the wall and hold herself up. That also meant that the busty young woman had her girls resting on her arms. Thankfully her choice of attire was better than what she had teased him with back at the store, the bronze-colored bikini top held her in place without being anywhere as restrictive as the earlier one. From his angle from looking from above, he could see the matching bottoms covering her bottom… mostly.

“Well? Come on in!” She encourages before pushing off of the wall with a splash to drift on her back.

Denko couldn’t help but laugh a little at her antics, she hadn’t changed that much since he had left for Vacuo. That didn’t mean that he was going to jump in as she did, he had his reasons but descended the stairs quickly enough and waded his way out to deeper waters.

“Look out below!” A shout came from the ceiling, causing everyone to look up to see that Sun had climbed up to the rafters and jumped. The resulting splash was likely the largest the pool had ever seen. Unseen by all, Neptune had freaked at the sight of so much water being sent airborne but calmed after he found that he had indeed chosen a seat outside of the splash zone.

Over the next few minutes, Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha swam a few laps, Ruby, Itazura, and Nora had a race across the pool with Jaune and Sun playing the judges. The hot tub in the corner found itself occupied by Anya and Ren. At some point, Denko and Talon had disappeared and not even Neptune had seen them leave, though that may be explained by the fact that he was reading a book to ignore the water as much as possible.

“Spike!” A volleyball shot out of a supply closet and into the water where it skipped at high speeds only to catch Jaune in the back of the head.

“Gah! Oh, come on!”

Pyrrha stopped her laps and swam the few feet over to the blonde who was busy rubbing where he’d been struck. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just glad it wasn’t my face this time.” Jaune faced his partner with a dopey grin as he said that.

“Return to sender!” Nora screams as she smacks the white ball as Talon and Denko emerge from the closet. Fortunately for them, Nora’s aim with a volleyball was poor and the ball hit the wall of the pool and arced back towards its origin. Unfortunately, that arc led it onto an Arc, and it pinged off the top of his head. The shock and force combined were enough to dunk the blonde.

“Nora!” Pyrrha had no weapons and no easy way to catch her teammate while she was on solid ground and so did the only thing she could at the moment, splash.

Needless to say, that it didn’t take long for most of the group of friends to join in the splash fight, for those who had experienced it, it was oddly reminiscent of the food fight over a month before. Neptune spent his time during the fight constructing a wall of stackable chairs.

“Come now, think of it as a disguise. If we didn’t do this, more eyes would be on us for standing out so much.” A silky, confident voice addresses her partner.

“I know Cinder, it’s… just so humiliating to blimp up so much.” The girl with a far darker skin and green hair complains.

“I thought something like this would have been a dream of yours Emerald. Something about living on the streets and starving? Not knowing when or where your next meal might come from?” The silver-haired boy laughs from next to her.

Emerald was quick to punch him in the ribs for the comment but had made no denial. Why wouldn’t someone from the slums and streets wish for the opportunity to have enough to eat that they could get fat? It didn’t exactly help that she actually liked the hips and butt that it gave her, though there were limits of what she’d be accepting of and she was getting close to that limit. She was a thief and proud of it but she still needed to get into places and a big ass would only become a hinderance for those aspects of her job.

On the other hand, Cinder, filled her red dress as if she had been poured into it, being blessed in some way that her newly added weight simply added to her natural curves evenly and smoothly. Her face had yet to be touched by the fat and she was fine with that. Plus, she found great amusement as she walked as the sway of her round buttocks and wider hips caused many a young man and plenty of women to be distracted, a few of them have accidents of sort or another. If she felt that she was the envy of many young women before, she felt that her old self might actually envious of her present self.

Her partner Mercury, hadn’t changed all that much but that was to be expected as the serum that was meant to be fare more potent to women. It was a brilliant idea to introduce this weight gain serum into the water system, the doctor that had created it thought that there would be little use for her invention, but Watts had stumbled upon it when peeking through her computer systems. Then it was apparently Tyrian’s demented mind who thought it would be interesting to see how much chaos could be unleashed if the latest generation of Huntsmen being hindered by their own weight and the public perception of their girth interfering with their duties.

Their Mistress actually thought that it would be a new twist to her plans to undermine Ozpin, an avenue that neither of them had ever anticipated could or would ever happen. And so, the administration of the formula to the Huntsmen Academies had fallen to Cinder, who was still working out the details of her own plan to infiltrate the Academies and destroy them from the inside, using the Vytal Tournament that was to begin in two months, to amplify the message world-wide. And with the use of the serum, she had so much of all of the Kingdom’s security looking in at themselves, wasting manpower and time guarding things that she had no interest in and drawing the security of her goals thin.

Cinder smiled as everything was going as planned, just as she desired and her desires were all that mattered.

Denko held onto a beachball as he floated towards the deep end of the pool, most of the others had started a three-on-three volleyball game in the shallows and it wasn’t his turn to play. Yang popped up from under the water as the result of the dive that she’d performed. After shaking her hair out of her eyes, she smiled at her fellow blonde.

“What’s up with the ball, big guy?” Her tone was light and teasing as she treaded water, the teasing was something he was long used to.

“Don’t float.” Was his simple answer.

“C’mon, everyone floats.”

“All right, I float about two feet under the surface.”

“Um…” She didn’t know what to say to that.

He sighs as he glances at the girl floating on her back. Her face was obviously above the water, her ponytail that kept most of her mane out of her face drifting under her like jellyfish tentacles. Her arms rested just under the surface while her breasts and belly rose high over the water as if they were floating balls themselves. Her legs floated like her arms, just under but her toes were exposed to the air.

Taking a deep breath, he let go of the ball that suspended him. Immediately Yang saw him sink like a rock until he reached the level he claimed was where he floated. Denko held the position for a few seconds before kicking his way to the surface for fresh air and began treading water.

“Oh!” Was all Yang could say as he shook some water from his hair and pushed it back. “You seem to be floating fine now.” She points out.

“Swimming and floating are different.” The boy states as he looks for the ball only to find that it had drifted to the other side already in the light breeze. Looking back at his friend, he sees her expression asking for an elaboration.

Once again, he sighs, the expulsion of air led to him dropping a few inches before he refilled his lungs and kicked his way back to the surface. “Swimming is about pushing against the water around out to move in a certain direction. Floating is simply the point at which the body finds equilibrium with the pressures above and below and becomes suspended in the fluid.”

“You can’t be that heavy.” Yang scoffs.

“Yeah? How much do you weigh now?” Denko challenges.

The girl blushes and turns her head away for a moment. Looking back at him, “Just under two hundred now…” She glares at him for making her admit that before turning that glare to the three lumps in front of her, focusing on the largest.

Denko laughs a bit. “Really? Got a bit to catch up to me then.”

“There’s no way you’re that heavy!” Yang sits up, or at least goes through the motion so she can start treading water in front of her old friend and look him square in the eyes.

Watching her reaction was enough to keep the laughs coming, “Get me a scale if you want to check yourself. I’m just that physically dense that I don’t float like most people.”

“I dunno if that makes me feel better about having the bigger waistline.” She grumbles, blowing bubbles in the water at the end.

“Hey, at least you float. I need help to stay where I can breathe.” He looks away to see how the game is going but given that the players are all aspiring Huntsmen and Huntresses, skill and athleticism has been keeping the game longer than most would expect. Jaune’s boasts about being a volleyball champ were certainly not empty as he probably had the most scores and saves of anyone playing today so far. Sun and Blake were putting him to the test though, the Faunus were both highly agile- even when compared to their peers- and seemed to be in sync as they played. Their teamwork was better than that of Jaune and Pyrrha, while Jaune certainly had the skills, Pyrrha… was on a steep learning curve with the game and often found herself misjudging her timing due to not being used to this kind of activity in the water or the drag it produced when she tried to move quickly. Her expanding measurements were another factor that she trained hard to limit any restraint that they would have on her.

Nora cheered from the pools edge for her teammates, Ren sitting next to her silently but providing his own form of support, a thumbs up. From behind his wall, Neptune encouraged his best friend and Itazura rooted for her fellow faunus to win the game, at some point she’d gotten her scroll and was recording the whole thing. Anya sat in her corner, somehow combining the acts of brooding with enjoying the game. Ruby was rather… vocal in her support of Blake to do well, Weiss had been joined by Talon in the hot tub where they watched the game.

“I never knew Jaune had those kinds of moves.” Weiss comments as she rests her chin on her arms, something that she noticed was slightly more comfortable than it used to be since her arms had a bit more padding and even her face had gotten slightly rounder.

“What do you mean?” Talon was curious. In her experience so far with the teams, Weiss has always been giving the young man the cold shoulder. It may have been that in the two weeks that she’d been at Beacon now, she’d seen the blonde try to ask the heiress out onto dates no less than three times.

Weiss sighs as she stares at the floor tiles for a bit. “Have you seen him do anything that could even be considered skillful? In sparring class he’s ranked dead last and will trip over his own feet walking down the corridors.” Ice blue eyes turned to lock onto sky blue. “Not to mention how often he tries awful pickup lines. It’s almost as bad as Yang with her puns.”

“I guess I can see your point. But at least you know one set of skills he does have.” The proud chubby comments as the subject in question jumps surprisingly high in the water to spike the ball down for the game point. Sun was a good sport about the loss, giving the winner a fist bump with a smile and the promise of a rematch.

“That may be true but that hasn’t stopped him from being a pest to me.” The Atlesian girl turns her nose up as she turns around to sit normally in the hot bubbling water.

‘Stick in the mud.’ Talon says to herself as she relaxes once more with a jet hitting just the right spot on her back.

Itazura was about to jump back in the pool while the others had giving their own retellings of the best parts of the game, when she saw something unusual. Notably her brother managing to float nearby, but it was how that made her grin and start taking pictures, ‘This will be some great material to bargain with him for!’.

Apparently, Yang was helping her friend to float by being the floatation that he so badly needed. His head rested on her soft stomach while her legs were under his shoulders, his hands holding onto her ankles to help keep them together as Yang used her arms to steer them as Denko kicked gently to provide them some locomotion.

Still… the little fox knew that there was something that could be interesting. After a few moments of thought, she had the perfect pool activity planned. Now she just had to rope a few volunteers into it. With that in mind she began making her way around the pool and whispering into certain ears.

“Have your scientists managed to find anything to help yet, James?” Ozpin asks the Atlas General and Headmaster.

The aging soldier let out a long breath, finding it difficult to stay at military perfection around the man who puts on such a relaxed act. “Unfortunately, not yet. From the briefings I’ve received thus far, these chemicals have a long life within us. Even somehow creating a feedback loop when they are metabolized to recreate themselves. It’s not going to be easy to get rid of.”

Ozpin steeples his hands, not recalling any reports that have gone into that particular detail as of yet. “Do they know how long it will persist? I can’t imagine that it will last forever.”

“No, it won’t. As far as I have been able to understand, biology is far from my field of expertise, if left as it is now… the chemicals will work themselves out naturally in roughly five years so long as more is not introduced into the victims’ system.”

“Hmm… that is disconcerting.”

“I do believe that there was a small breakthrough from one of Theodore’s people looking into this. The possibility of a neutralizing agent to prevent the reactions that cause us to gain weight so quickly.”

“Now that is good news.” Oz sips from his mug of hot chocolate. He’d been limiting himself since the Issue began and when they figured out how it was being transmitted. Not that he was happy about having to cut back on his preferred beverage but he was willing to make a small sacrifice now and then. It still didn’t sit well with him that some of his female students and employees may have nearly doubled their weights by the end of the month. He had to wonder just how bad the problem might become for all four schools by the time that the Vytal Tournament begins in just over a month.

“Yes, it is. From what I’ve seen, a few researchers in all of the kingdoms are adopting that possibility and trying to make it reality. Most are exploring other avenues of mitigation, however.” James explains, his own flask being drawn from inside his coat and added some to his cup of tea. As much as he berated Qrow for drinking often, he couldn’t help but adding a little alcohol to many of his drinks when he wasn’t in front of his troops and students.

It took a few minutes to talk to her ‘assistants’ without others overhearing and spoiling her plan for fun. But it was done and she was watching the clock, in a way. She’d already set her scroll to key into the pools speaker systems and it was ready to play some music that was to be the cue.

All of her partners in crime were sticking near their targets, playing the part well of having fun normally with everyone. A water balloon sat nearby… she’d seen Neptune hiding in the corner behind the little fort he’d constructed to avoid even seeing the water. That and she’d noticed how often he’d flinch whenever any large splash came his way, Nora was very effective with her cannonballs, that was why he’d built the fort in the first place.

Then the fun started as the speakers projected a drumroll that echoed in the large room. Several of the boys suddenly dropped below the waters surface, much to the girls’ confusion, while Nora had jumped out of the pool altogether.

“What!” Blake yells as she’s lifted out of the pool. Looking down to find the source, she spots a familial mop of blonde hair and tanned hands holding her legs. “Sun! What are you-! “The cat girl stopped herself as the answer made itself known by the others being in the same predicament. Blake was sitting on Sun’s shoulders, her plump thighs holding his head tightly even with his hands on her knees.

Pyrrha flushed as red as her hair as she found herself in the same position as Blake, except she was on Jaune’s shoulders. The boy’s face was just as red, though it was obvious that it was embarrassment far exceeding the effort it was taking him to lift the curvaceous champion.

Ren’s eyes went wide once Nora had pounced on him; any expressions he was making were hidden by the water as his oldest friends’ sudden weight had forced him under. But he was an aspiring Huntsman and adapted, helped by the buoyancy of the water to lift the thunder thighs out of the water. That was as far as he could go as Nora had his head in a vice, a soft and fleshy vice, but a vice nonetheless that refused to let go.

Yang squeaked in surprise as she rose up on Denko’s broad shoulders only for the girl to begin laughing as she realized what was going on, the music on the speakers taking on a catchy melody.

“Chicken fight!” Itazura yells as she hops onto Talon’s shoulders to join in the fun melee of water sports. Talon waded towards the other pairs, charging at her teammate as he had some difficulty looking up since Yang had the largest belly of the girls and her laughing only rattled her mounts head as it jiggled.

Five pairs begin.

The distraction did little for the fox as Yang was far stronger and too heavy to push over, Denko making a solid base for the buxom blonde to push with. Not to mention that the Faunus had made herself an open target for the others who wanted some form of revenge for their present situation. And so, the instigator was the first to be out of the game when four pairs of hands pushed her and her short mount onto their backs.

“Too bad sis!” Denko boasts as she goes under.

Four left.

Sun was quick to leap back as best he could with his chubby kitty in the pool as Jaune lunged forward, trying to help Pyrrha push Blake into the water. The champion missed the charge and found herself flanked by the faunus duo, being pushed towards the clashing powerhouses of Yang and Nora. The two noticed the long red hair moving their way and reacted, Yang trying to take advantage and unseat the spartan warrior, while Nora tried to keep her teammate upright.

“Oh jeez, oh jeez, oh jeez.” Jaune mutters as he tries to stay upright.

Pyrrha was caught in a three-way tangle of limbs, doing her best to bob and weave around the pushes and grabs for her arms but there were too many, too much. Blake’s speedy strikes catching her where her guard was low combined with Yang’s raw power were too much for Jaune to handle his ever-shifting load and he fell face first into the water, taking Pyrrha along with him.

“Got ya, P-Money!” Yang jeers.

Three remaining.

Ren stumbled behind his team leader, Nora had tried to brace her friend but missed when she fell, leaving the pair off balance and open. Something that was taken advantage of by Denko as he tripped Ren as he tried to get his feet under himself. Blake managed to push down on Nora at the same time to send the chunky hammer girl into the water.

“Sorry Nora.” Blake didn’t sound very sorry.

Final round.

Yang and Blake directed their mounts to square off as they kept their hands up and ready. The boys under them giving each other a grin of challenge. On an unknown signal they clashed. The faunus proved themselves to be agile, able to avoid the force of the blondes’ attacks for the most part. But they had trouble pushing back the heavier pair and Denko proved to be able to stay stable despite the forces pushing against him from above.

Something had to give.

Yang managed to get a lucky shot and pushed Blake back towards the water. How she managed to stay up was a surprise to all involved. Sun had managed to hook Denko behind the knee with his tail, providing an anchor point to assist him in keeping his charge up and relatively dry. Blake found in the process of bending backwards so much, found that her bubble butt was apparently large enough to create a solid enough base against Sun’s back to help her sit back up as she squeezed his head in the process with her thighs as she clenched her hidden abs.

Yang was caught with her arms in the air, thinking she had won the chicken fight, when Blake sat up and immediately pushed the blonde. Denko tried to adjust but Sun’s tail was still hooked around his leg and tripped, falling backwards with Yang into the water.

The winners are Blake and Sun!

“Yeah! All right Blake!” Sun cheers, taking Blake for a victory lap around their friends, causing the girl to laugh. Her laughter was infectious as nearly everyone else laughed at the duo’s antics.

The song was still playing… or it had been restarted, but it was Ruby who found a devious side. “Reverse positions!” She shouts. There was a moments hesitation as everyone processed what she had said but it was Yang who acted first, grabbing Denko by the waist and tossing him over her shoulders… after making sure that her hair wasn’t going to be sat on of course. Her soaked golden locks wound up laying across his right leg looking like a snake crawling on him. The blondes laughed as Yang made sure to have a good hold on his knees and grinned a challenge to the rest of her friends.

“We’re not gonna win by default, are we?”

“Heck no!” The Valkyrie responds before flinging Ren over her own shoulders. Though by the look on his face, she may have done so a bit too forcefully and the other boys winced in sympathy.

Itazura grumbled into the water as Talon hopped up onto her friend, most likely complaining about the heavy Huntress she had to carry now. Sun had finally let Blake down to wade in the pool on her own, but now found herself under fire by expectant looks from three separate blondes.

Blake rolls her eyes, “Fine.” And lowers herself in the water to make it easier for Sun to get up. What she didn’t expect was, once the boy sat on her shoulders and thankful that her hair was tucked up under the swimming cap, for his tail to wrap itself around her, just under her suits top. That made her straighten up fast enough to nearly throw the monkey off her back, but the act had caused the tail to hold her tighter.

“Sorry Blake. It has a habit of holding onto whatever I’m climbing.” Sun apologizes while scratching the back of his head.

“Is your tail going to stay there the whole time?” She had a slight glare that he couldn’t see but he heard the warning in her tone.

“Probably…” He laughs nervously. “It moves on instinct most of the time.” He consciously loosens his grip on her ribs.

Blake sighs as she takes a hand from his knee to grab hold of the furry appendage before it could move too far. “It can stay, but it better stay where it is.” She warns.

“Yes madam!” The Haven student salutes sharply in a way that General Ironwood would approve of. During their exchange Jaune had climbed up on Pyrrha, both teens looking more than a little flushed from their position.

“Alright! Everybody ready!” Ruby looks around at the assembled pairs with a happy smile and her own scroll in hand to continue recording. “Let round two of the chicken fight begin!”

Itazura waded her way over towards Pyrrha, hoping that their combined smaller stature would give them the advantage and get at least one victory. The spartan took the challenge readily and their mounted warriors clashed. Jaune had an easy advantage in reach and with both him and Pyrrha being among the tallest in the room, he was easily able to use it. Itazura proved to be agile in the water, capable of rebalancing herself and her load quickly as Talon kept shifting to try to avoid the blondes’ attacks as she couldn’t reach him on her own, possibly in part from her tail pushing against the water. Trying to pull on his arms did little as the taller pair had more strength and bulk to resist.

Finally, the girl went all in on a pull on Jaunes arm only for her to slip on his wet limb and fall backwards into the pool.

“I won?” Jaune questions the relatively new experience at the Huntsmen Academy, especially when it was against a third-year student. “Ha-ha! I won!” He cheers, Pyrrha sharing in his joy with a bright smile.

Four to go.

“Sorry Jaune.” Came a calm voice from behind the blonde along with a pair of hands on his shoulders, causing the team leader to gulp nervously.

Ren never gave his friend a chance to pull away as he maintained his grip while Nora waded backwards with her immense strength and toppling the taller pair with a splash. The quiet boy said nothing but that didn’t mean Nora was.

“We should have gotten them from the front Ren! That way we could have seen their faces when they fell! Ha-ha! That would have been great!” The short redhead turns to face the blondes who were locked in an intense grapple while Yang was able to push Blake backwards slowly whenever she had to adjust her stance.

Three left.

Blake couldn’t move without Yang forcing her to retreat, even when she wasn’t trying to move her feet were sliding in the tiles that lined the pool. The boys above her were in a stalemate, always breaking even whenever they engaged, even when they tried to throw the other to the side, they were able to react quick enough that the other blonde couldn’t capitalize on it. It didn’t help her any as she knew that Yang was far stronger than she is and she is heavier… not that the girl liked to admit it but it was hard to argue with the scales and measuring tapes.

“What’s wrong Blake? Got a monkey on your back?” Yang taunts with her near characteristic cocky grin whenever she’s enjoying herself in a fight. Blake refused to say anything or give her the satisfaction of getting under her skin, even if she knew Yang meant no harm with her words. “Cat got your tongue?” That one had her hidden ears twitching… and some of her bundled hair to tickle their sensitive insides.

That was when Ren ran into the boys and breaking their grapple while Nora hit the girls below, a knee catching Yang in the stomach and hip checking Blake to the side. On one hand, it broke up the stalemate. On the other, it made sure that the blonde and faunus pairs had a common enemy and target.

Yang and Blake locked eyes and nodded before moving to flank, the boys on top having no desire to counter the girls’ actions. At the same time, Nora wore a wild grin at the chance to fight two at once. Ren on the other hand, was regretting getting involved in this insanity. It didn’t mean that he was going down without a fight.

Unfortunately, Ren focused on fast, precise strikes over strength. His opponents had both speed and power and the ninja was immediately on the defensive. And losing fast. Nora jumping around and trying to stomp on the feet of Yang and Blake didn’t help him keep his balance at all. Especially when Sun and Denko shoved him simultaneously, he may have gotten his arms up to take the hit but the force nearly ripped him out of Nora’s grip on his legs. Yet he was unseated from Nora and fell into the water.

“Yeah!” Denko and Sun cheer, giving each other a high five.

Final round!

The blondes all grinned at each other, Blake settled for a smirk.

“I hope you’re ready to swim, monkey boy!” Yang taunts.

“Better hold onto that anchor Yang, or he might not come back out of the water.” Sun responds.

“You really think you can back that up?” Denko waves for them to come to him.

“That’s it! Let’s get them Blake!” With that the faunus charged the blonde duo who surged to meet them.

This time when they clashed there was no stalemate, Blake realized to late that Yang wasn’t going to stop and Denko had shifted to plow through Sun. Then they collided, Sun had the wind knocked out of him by Denko’s palms in his chest and pushed back hard. Blake found herself smacked by a soft wall as the plump blonde used her belly as a battering ram to push her over.

This time it was the previous rounds winners in the pool. This round goes to Yang and Denko!

“Ha! We won this time!” Yang shouts as she tosses her friend off her shoulders where he lands with a splash next to her, landing on his feet since she had launched him high enough.

“That we did!” Denko couldn’t wipe the smile off his face as he lifted Yang’s hand into the air for their victory. Those who were simply watched applauded, except for Ruby who tackled her sister with a burst of her semblance, creating a large splash and nearly pulling Denko’s arm from its socket.

The pool was filled with more than just water for the next few hours, for the first time in two months it was filled with laughter of the students that echoed within the large chamber.

Mercury Black looked to the rest of the world as a student from Haven out for a stroll before curfew with his black and white uniform as he wandered the grounds of Beacon. In some ways he was, in his files anyway. But he had a job to do tonight.

He looked around the arranged meeting spot, it was carefully chosen due to no known security cameras being in the area. There was one that faced in this direction but it was too far away to be the focus of the machines ever watching gaze. Not only that but this area was rarely traveled by anyone. Still, it was best that he keeps up his appearance and keep his time on the cameras looking as casual as possible.

He braced his foot on a stone bench by some thick bushes and began to retie his shoe slowly when he heard a voice whisper. “Silver foot?”

That was what Mercury wanted to hear. And the contact was on time. “That’s me.” He responds quietly but no less confidently than normal.

“Good, good. But security is too tight for me to retrieve the canisters. Same goes for my brothers at the other academies.”

“We figured something like that would happen eventually. It took them long enough to notice in the first place.” Mercury laughs, purposely messing up the knot and restarting.

“We could place what is left in the other combat schools, Signal or Sanctum?”

“Nah, bosses orders were clear. She wants you to disappear.” The shoe was finally tied correctly and switched to the other.

“So, our job is done?”

“Yep.” The laces were retied quickly this time. Mercury stood upright and stretched in the moonlight before reaching in his pocket and withdrawing his scroll, seemingly ignoring the small package that fell to the ground. “Here’s your pay. I’m sure that you’d want to celebrate to a job well done with your brothers, wouldn’t you?”

The bundle was pulled from the grass in a flash. “We always get together for a few drinks and split our profits. It’s been a pleasure working with you.” The voice whispers from the shadows before those shadows glowed a deep purple briefly before fading to normal.

Mercury smirks as he starts to walk back to his dorm. “Been nice working with you too.”

The next morning in a seedy area of Mistal’s lower levels, four weasel faunus were found dead in a rundown shack. All of them had died clutching at their necks, a few glasses lay broken around the table from which they’d fallen from, a bottle of wine sat open and mostly empty right next to a small box that could hold plenty of Lien cards. Yet there was no money except whatever was in their pockets and that wasn’t much even together. The inside of the box held a small bit of quickly evaporating residue.