Weiss found Blake sitting at a table in the great hall, alone. The only other students in the great hall were still walking through the fortress to their remaining tests. "Are we the first ones done?" Weiss asked, sitting down opposite of Blake.

"I believe so. You get stabbed too?" Blake asked.

"Yeah. I think I'm bruised now." Weiss complained, rubbing her side.

"I think that last test may have been a little unfair in my favor. I knew it was a trick almost right away because I couldn't smell any blood." Blake said, leaning one elbow on the table and resting her head on her hand. The girls traded stories about their tests, comparing scores and discussing the veterans who tested them.

As they spoke, Weiss brought up a question that she had been pondering ever since she had finished their tests. "So is it just me, or are these instructors of ours a few steps above the hunters we normally meet in the city? Don't get me wrong, some of the huntsman and huntresses we meet in the city are plenty strong, but we're about the same as them now. And even after all our training, I get the feeling the ones here could fight circles around us while they're sleeping."

Blake scratched her cheek absently with her free hand. "Maybe it's because they live out here in the wilds, fighting Grimm all the time." She gestured to the fortress around them. "And this isn't the most luxurious of places, even though it's big, so they don't get soft. And let's be honest, a lot of the hunters in the city take jobs that aren't very demanding. We've seen peacekeepers with the police, guards at the city edges, and private security by the wealthy and by companies. Jobs that involve mostly standing around trying to look intimidating, and not necessarily fighting."

"That makes sense." Weiss agreed. "And these guys are fighting Grimm almost every day. We'll definitely learn a lot by being here."

"I hope so." Blake said. "I can't get into the fight soon enough."

"How do you think everyone else is doing?" Weiss asked, looking at the stairway towards Tamamo's office.

"I dunno. Some of these tests were definitely different. I scored well, but the only test I feel like I successfully completed was Kani's." Blake admitted.

"She told me about that," Weiss said, remembering her conversation with the warrior woman, "she told me you beat her by quickly closing the distance when she raised her weapon. I tried to do the same thing but she countered it because she said you did it, and remembered it." Weiss finished with a grumpy pout.

Blake could only chuckle. "Sorry for spoiling your victory."

Further conversation was paused thanks to the noisy arrival of Nora, and her shouting "I did it!" before leaping over the table to sit down with Weiss and Blake. "You both passed too?" Both Weiss and lake nodded their confirmations. "Yay!"

The girls sat and continued their idle chat as the rest of the students dribbled in after completing their tests, until eventually the rest of students had gathered and were waiting for their next orders. Eventually even the veteran hunters had finished testing the students and were waiting in the hall for Tamamo to come down to issue orders. Their wait was a short one, and as evening approached Tamamo strode into the hall.

"Evening everyone! I have some words for you all." Tamamo announced. She paused for dramatic effect, looking at all the students anxiously staring back at her. "Everyone passed!" Everyone continued staring back blankly. "Well, this wasn't exactly a test. I just said that so you would try your hardest. We just needed to observe and judge what your strengths and weaknesses were so we knew how to train you. This," she held up a piece of paper, "is a list of who will be your trainer while you're here."

Tamamo slapped the paper onto a table at her side. "Ozzy told me you need to be done training fast. This means I don't have time to give you all a full training regimen. If you're 'okay' at something, I'm ignoring it- you can work on it at your own time. If you're bad at something, we'll try to make it passable. And whatever you're best at, we're working on that the most." She ticked off her fingers as she listed her points. "We'll be making you specialists. If you survive the war and feel like you want more training like us, feel free to come back." She giggled.

"But today was probably a bit stressful for you, so you're free to do what you want until tomorrow morning. The assignments will let you know where and what times you meet tomorrow. I recommend using some of your time today learning your way around the fortress. I also recommend not leaving the fortress and going into the forest. It's a bit dangerous out there, and I'd rather you didn't die while I'm teaching you.

"There are beds everywhere. Sleeping arrangements are up to you. You can move beds between rooms, you can share beds, whatever. You could probably sleep one person to a room and still not fill up all the rooms here. The key to a room is hanging on the door. If there's no key, room's taken. Don't ask us about it. If you want more keys cause you're sharing a room, go talk to Kani in the foundry. Any questions? No? Excellent. Go do your thing." She made a shooing motion at everyone, then waved her instructors over to talk to them privately.

Weiss was the first one to the assignment sheet, searching for her name on the list. Her search was brief; her name was second on the list, under Blake's.

Weiss Schnee: Denarii Latium, Tamamo Mae- Map Room; Floor 3; 0700 hours.

Weiss couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as she saw that she wouldn't have to work with Cheshire Fry. She was sure that spending more time with him than she already had would be the death of her. She sat down at her seat again and programmed her meeting tomorrow into her scroll while she waited for her friends to finish checking their assignments.

They soon rejoined her, all of them discussing their assignments. "Who are you working with, Weiss?" Blake asked. Weiss answered, and asked Blake in return. "I'm working with Tamamo and Cheshire."

Weiss' eye twitched involuntarily. "Cheshire Fry?" Weiss hugged Blake. "I'm so sorry."

Blake just stared at Weiss, confused. "You don't like him?"

"He's insane!"

"Really? He seemed like a perfect gentleman to me." Blake replied, looking over at Cheshire Fry. He was sitting with the other Tamamo and the others, cross logged on the top of a table while elegantly sipping a cup of tea, his top hat on his head once more.

Weiss stared at the purple haired maniac, who now seemed to have adopted the mannerisms and behavior of a wealthy, prim, and proper nobleman, with the exception being that he was sitting on a table. "I'm beginning to think we may have had entirely different encounters with him."

"Got that right." Velvet answered as she sat next to Blake. "He asked me to play a game where we leaped from pole to pole for ten minutes. He was singing the whole time. And Nora said that all she did was talk to him and he was very gentlemanly, and very witty."

Jaune and Pyrrha, who had rejoined them and sat next to Weiss, stared at Velvet. "He only spoke to Nora?" Jaune said, his face incredulous. "He told me to fight him and ended up teleporting circles around me until I got sick."

"He didn't even say anything to me. He just kept teleporting around me and tripping me until I managed to grab him and stop him." Pyrrha added. Everyone looked at the strange cat faunus.

"We shall never know his mind." Jaune said sagely. Everyone agreed.

They saw all the instructors separating, and Tamamo, in her preferred form of movement, skipped towards their table animatedly. "Bunny dear!" She joyfully exclaimed as she approached. "Velvet, right?" Velvet nodded nervously. "How's the ear?"

Velvet reached up and touched her injured ear. "It doesn't hurt anymore, actually." She responded with surprise. "I hadn't thought about it until just now. Thank you!"

"Hee hee, anytime. You have other burns, right? I see those bandages. Come with me, I shall apply more lotion!" Tamamo extended a hand towards Velvet, as if inviting her to a dance.

"Um, uh," Velvet began, clearly uncomfortable with letting Tamamo rub lotion onto her body.

"Oh wait, I'm not sure how much more I have." She turned around. "Cheshire! Where's the thief? Go get him!"

And in a voice Weiss was positive couldn't be coming from the same Cheshire Fry she met earlier, Cheshire responded, "Of course, milady." Setting down his cup and bowing from his seated position, he disappeared.

"A thief?" Pyrrha asked. "You have a dungeon here? I didn't think anyone would try to steal from a fortress."

"Hmm? Oh, no he didn't try to steal from the fortress. He steals for the fortress." Tamamo corrected.

Tamamo had someone who stole for them? It wasn't like hunters lacked resources, why need a thief? Her pondering was interrupted as Cheshire returned, leading a tanned, blond man wearing a white button down shirt and blue jeans. "Is that Sun?" Blake whispered to Weiss. Sun Wukong was a good friend of Blake's, following their encounter during their first year at Beacon. He had fast become good friends with RWBY and JNPR as well, and often met up with them when he was in town for whatever reason that a thief was in town.

"Whoa, who're all these people?" Sun exclaimed as he approached Tamamo.

"My new trainees! Isn't this exciting?" Tamamo quipped.

"Does this mean I'm not the lowest rung on the totem pole anymore?" Sun asked hopefully, clasping his hands together in front of him.

"No, you're still mine." Tamamo replied with a smile.

"Dammit."

"Sun, what're you doing here? We haven't seen you in almost a year." Blake asked, drawing his attention to the table.

"Blake! I could ask the same about you. I work here." Sun quickly overcame his surprise and walked over to give a now standing Blake a quick hug.

"I'm training here, for the war." Blake responded.

"Ah, yeah. I heard about that this morning. That was unexpected." He looked across the table at Weiss. "Hey there, Snow Angel."

"Don't call me that, you brute." Weiss responded.

"I thought you were over that whole 'I don't like faunus' thing." Sun said, putting his hands up defensively.

"I am. I just don't like you." Weiss glared.

"Look, I flirted with you ONE TIME. It'll never happen again." Sun shuddered at the memory.

"Well. I see you already are familiar with each other." Tamamo interjected, grinning.

"We met years ago." Sun responded. "I told you about them, remember?"

Tamamo tapped her chin with a folded up fan she had pulled out of her sleeve. "Oh, the kitty cat you had a thing for who rejected you?"

"You didn't quite have to put it like that." Sun mumbled. The others at the table stared bemusedly at the suddenly shy monkey faunus.

"Ah, well. If you bat for different teams, then you can't play together, you know?" Tamamo spoke as if imparting wisdom of the ages.

"I'd really rather not talk about that." Sun said. He looked around the table at the others. "I don't see blond and busty. I thought she'd leap at the chance to fight in something as big as a war. Your girlfriend not here?" Sun asked.

Blake stiffened in shock. "Yang died at Beacon." She stated simply, unprepared for the abrupt change in subject to Yang. "And Ren too. And Ruby's missing."

Sun just stared blankly, processing the information. "Crap. I'm so sorry." His shoulders slumped as he sighed. "Man, I'm an asshole."

Tamamo slapped him on the back of the head with her fan. "Yes, you are."

At the same time, Blake waved her hands in front of her to calm Sun. "No, no, it's okay. You couldn't have known."

"Still, I shouldn't have… the way I…" Sun could only sigh again. "Well, sorry again." He repeated his apology to the rest of the table.

"No worries." Blake replied.

"He works here for you?" Weiss asked Tamamo in an attempt to change the subject as Sun stood there awkwardly.

"Yup!"

"Would you mind tell me how that happened? He doesn't really seem like the 'work' type." Weiss inquired.

"Please don't." Sun tried to object, but was overruled.

Tamamo laughed. "He isn't. Last year I was in the city, doing some shopping, meeting some contacts. The little monkey boy tried to pickpocket me." Tamamo grinned at the memory. "I guess he didn't expect me to be a huntress. I chased him down and caught him and tied him up in an alley. I made him a deal: Work for me, or go to prison. I think it was an easy choice." Tamamo finished, ruffling Sun's hair.

The others could only stare. "And that's true?" Velvet asked.

"Yes." Sun replied as he held his hand over his face.

"I liked his skills. They were good, but unrefined. So now I pay him to steal things I want to get my hands on, and he works here doing whatever I want. Cleaning, fighting, sex, shopping, driving-"

"I'm sorry, did you say sex?" Nora interrupted. Sun's face grimaced, clearly hoping his friends either hadn't heard that, or would overlook it.

"Yeah. He's not bad." Tamamo answered, patting Sun on the shoulder.

"Please stop treating me like a toy." Sun complained.

"Hey, you agreed to it." This only caused Sun to redden further.

"You-" Sun began.

"Anyways!" Tamamo changed the subject, having decided she had teased her servant boy enough. "I need you to go get some more of my lotion from the cellar. Take it up to my room. One case should be more than enough." Tamamo ordered cheerfully.

"Yes ma'am." He said with a defeated, half hearted salute. "I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?" Sun said as he ran off.

"Well seeing him here was unexpected." Weiss commented.

"Definitely. I thought he had gotten arrested or was out of the country." Blake admitted, drawing laughter out of the others.

"You think so poorly of my young toy. He would never get caught. By police." Tamamo laughed. "Anyway, Velvet. Why don't you meet me in my quarters after you get yourself a room?"

"Um, uh," Velvet once again articulated so elegantly.

"Tamamo, I think Velvet is concerned you may treat her like you treat Sun." Pyrrha commented.

"Oh, I would never do that. Not unless you agreed." Tamamo laughed. "No worries dear. I'll even carry you back to your room if you fall asleep." Tamamo said with a wink.

Velvet looked nervously to Blake. "I'm sure she'll be very courteous and polite." Blake assured her. Velvet looked between Blake and Tamamo, before finally nodding her head in agreement.

"Excellent. I'm at the top floor of those stairs. Can't miss it." Tamamo pointed to the door that led to her office. "Just keep going up. See you in a bit!" Tamamo skipped away up the stairs.

"Let's go pick our rooms, shall we?" Weiss said after the whirlwind of happiness disappeared.

Qrow crouched on the forest ground and touched his fingers to the dried blood that had been splashed on the tree trunk. In his other hand he held the shredded remains of a red, hooded cloak, also stiff with blood. In fact, the area around him was covered in the stuff. The grass, the shattered wooden logs and branches, the fallen leaves, the dirt. Everything was covered in a layer of dried blood that resembled rust. Scattered around the clearing were scraps of cloth and torn clothing, recognizable as belonging to Ruby.

"Maybe a day old." Qrow said to himself. The blood was everywhere, soaked into the ground in places, splattered. "Or just about." He stood up, holding the ruined cloak out in front of him. He had been tracking Ruby's trail all day, getting the feeling he was getting closer. When Qrow had followed the trail to this clearing, he felt a flash of fear as he smelled the blood.

Now, as evening fell, Qrow examined the area more closely. There were cuts in the ground and trees nearby, cuts he recognized were a result of his niece's scythe. Likely from a battle. With a beowolf pack, judging by the tracks. And a large one at that. The direction and numbers of prints told Qrow that the number of beowolves leaving was much smaller than the number of beowolves that arrived, which meant that Ruby had put up a fight, even as terribly wounded as she most likely was to have lost this much blood.

There were many spots where the grass and leaves were crushed and disturbed, as if a large body had lain on top of them, again most likely where the slain beowolves had fallen before fading away into nothing. After searching the area for many hours, what was most disconcerting for Qrow was that no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find any traces of Ruby leaving the area.

All he could piece together with the information he had was that Ruby had been lying down, possibly sleeping. Then beowolves attacked, catching her unawares, resulting in some grievous injury, but Ruby fought back, slaying many of her attackers. But after that, all Qrow could find were beowolf tracks leaving. He even checked the trees, in the hope that Ruby had fled up the boughs above to escape and run, but nothing but birds and insects had been up there as far has he could tell.

As much as it pained him, he was beginning to believe that Ruby had fallen to the Grimm, but he held hope that somehow he was wrong. Qrow pulled out his scroll, calling Ozpin. Ozpin answered quickly, his image popping into existence on the screen. "Yes?"

"I found the end of Ruby's trail." Qrow informed the tired looking headmaster. He pointed his scroll's camera at the disturbed area around him. "There's blood everywhere, and signs of beowolves that attacked her in the night." He paused to swallow the lump in his throat. "There are no signs of Ruby leaving."

Ozpin stayed silent for a few moments. "I'm sorry, old friend. There's no body?"

Qrow shook his head. "Just the occasional little bits of flesh." His eyes searched around himself. "I'm going to keep looking. Maybe I'm missing something, or her trail starts up again somewhere else farther along."

Both Qrow and Ozpin thought it was a long shot, but Ozpin nodded anyways. "Good luck. I hope you find something." Ozpin said. Qrow closed his scroll, and began searching the woods with what little light remained, trying to find something, anything that indicated his niece was still alive.

Weiss was leading the way as they walked through the halls of the fortress, looking for rooms to claim as their own. Everyone agreed that being too far away from the main building was out of the question in case they needed to be ready quickly, so they were searching the second floor of the main building for rooms. Within minutes they came across a hallway that looked like the other students hadn't found yet, as nearly all the doors appeared to still have their keys hanging from the doors.

A quick examination proved that the rooms were nearly all identical. They had stone floors covered with thick, patterned rugs, and the stone walls were mostly bare. A single queen sized bed sat in the corner of each room, with white sheets and a thick red blanket. There was one large closet and one large dresser, and a nightstand with a lamp. There was an electric fan in the room as well, next to a full body mirror. A small desk, two simple wooden chairs, and a bookshelf were also present in each room. There was even a miniature refrigerator for storing things that they didn't want kept in the kitchen or dining hall. While each room had the necessities, and even a luxury or two, it also left plenty of room for personalization.

Weiss claimed the room closest to the stairway, so she could get to the great hall for any meeting quickly. "So I can get to the great hall more quickly if we get called out." She explained.

Blake could only laugh at Weiss' insistence on being the perfect student. "I'll take the room next to yours then."

Velvet grabbed Blake's hand as she lifted the keys off the door handle. "Um, is it okay with you if we share a room?" Velvet asked timidly.

"Of course." Blake answered with a soft smile. "Why don't I go get another key for you while you go see Tamamo?"

"Thank you Blake!" Velvet was delighted that Blake agreed to share a room with her, especially since Velvet didn't want to be alone. Velvet waved as she strode off to wear Tamamo's quarters were.

Nora claimed the room just across the hall from Weiss', while Jaune and Pyrrha took one together farther down the hall. As Blake was about to head to the foundry in search of a second key, Nora stopped to ask the group, "Does anyone have a bathroom in their room?" Everyone stopped, not having given it any thought. Weiss glanced back into her room as Blake stuck her head into hers.

"Nope." Both girls replied.

"They're down here!" Jaune called from down the hall. The three girls walked over to where Jaune and Pyrrha were standing to find the bathrooms. On one side of the hall was the men's bathroom, and across from it were the women's bathrooms.

The girls entered, leaving Jaune behind, to inspect the facilities. After going down a short hallway and around a corner, they entered the bathroom. "It resembles a community bath, if anything." Pyrrha commented. Showers lined the two side walls of the spacious room, with a large bath in the center. The wall in which the door was situated was lined with faucets and mirrors, and the back was had private stalls for those who didn't want to shower in the open. A quick inspection of a second door to the side revealed another hallway with spacious toilet stalls.

"This is a really nice bathroom for such an old castle." Weiss commented. "They must really take care of the place."

"Yeah. At least we'll have nice soaks." Blake agreed.

They left the bathrooms to find Jaune still standing in the hallway where Pyrrha had left him. "Heyo. I'm gonna go get another key with Blake while you set up the room, okay?" Jaune gave Pyrrha a quick peck on the cheek before leaving with Blake.

"Well then." Weiss began. "Shall we tour the place before we go to bed?"

"I'd rather tour with everyone. Shall we eat dinner first once Blake and Jaune return?" Pyrrha suggested.

"Yes! I'm starving!" A famished Nora responded.

"Let's all meet back out here once those two return then." Weiss said. "And Velvet too, I guess." Weiss pulled out her scroll. "I'll message her to meet us in the kitchen or great hall when she's done."

In her quarters, Tamamo Mae was lying on her fluffy, king size bed and examining her scroll as Denarii Latium stood just inside her door, hands clasped behind his back.

"What do you think of the new prospects?" Denarii asked.

"Promising." Tamamo replied. "Some of them at least." She was reading the instructors' analysis of the students. "Most are disappointingly standard." Tamamo continued dismissively. She was unimpressed with the tests of most of the students. They had heart, sure, but not very many of them were of the caliber she would have liked. "Only a few show great potential. Weiss Schnee, here."

"Schnee?" Denarii asked. "Of the dust company?" he thought back to the students he tested. "The one with a talent for tactics and strategy." He recalled.

"Yes. She shows great promise in that field. And in single combat." Tamamo looked up at Denarii. "You will need to train her hard. With her mind, she will be a leader of men, a commander of soldiers." Denarii nodded. Tamamo looked back at her scroll. "Belladonna has a great head for combat, it seems. She beat Kani today."

Denarii's eyes widened. "One of those children beat Kani?" He knew that was no easy feat, and was quite impressed. He himself only won about two or three matches out of ten with Kani.

"Two, actually." Tamamo continued. "Nora Valkyrie nearly smashed Kani into the ground, apparently." She laughed.

"Valkyrie… ah. The one who was terrible with strategy. She will definitely not be leading soldiers in the future." Denarii remembered the Valkyrie girl took unnecessary risks, and was wild with her tactics. "Or at least, not large groups. She may do well with a smaller squad."

"I concur." Tamamo's eyes darted back and forth on her scroll. "Nikos and Arc. They appear to be well versed in tactics as well." She continued reading. "And it appears they are dating."

"A relationship could get in the way." Denarii was a strong believer in maintaining no emotional attachments that could compromise rational thought in battle.

"Or it could strengthen them." Tamamo suggested. "Keep them together. Make them learn to think like each other. If we could have a pair of commanders that could think like each other, imagine how powerful they would be on the battlefield."

"I see your point." Denarii pulled out his own scroll and made a note to do so.

"Scarlatina… high dexterity and speed. Fairly average elsewhere. Infiltration, recon, scouting... what do you think?"

"I can't see why not." Denarii shrugged. "Though her tests may be skewed due to her injuries."

"True. I'll test her again a different way after she's healed." Tamamo consented. They spent a few more minutes discussing other promising students before they were interrupted by footsteps approaching the door.

The footsteps stopped outside Tamamo's door, and were followed by a knock. Denarii looked to Tamamo, who nodded. Denarii turned to open the door to find a young faunus standing there nervously, wringing her hands nervously. "Can I help you, trainee?"

"Hi, um, I was told to come here…" Velvet answered quietly.

"Oh, there you are dear. Come on in, We were just finishing up." Tamamo said cheerily, hopping up off of her bed. "Come sit here." She said, patting her hand on her bed. "Dani, why don't you give the others our notes about the students," She handed him her scroll, "so we can divvy up locations and schedule our training sessions after tomorrow."

"Yes, Commander." Denarii bowed before leaving and closing the door silently behind him.

"Well then," Tamamo began, turning back to Velvet. "Why don't you disrobe?"

"W- What?"

"I can't really put on the lotion if you're still dressed, can I?" Tamamo giggled.

"O- oh. I guess." Velvet stuttered.

"Do I actually frighten you, or are you just embarrassed?" Tamamo asked in a more serious tone.

"…A little bit of both?" Velvet admitted.

Tamamo could only laugh. "I'll tell you what. If you really don't want me to do it, I'll have Sun take the lotion to your room and you can have your girlfriend put it on you. How's that sound?"

"Girlfriend?" Velvet asked confusedly.

"The cat. Belladonna, I believe?"

Velvet blushed furiously, waving her hands in front of her. "Oh, no no no, she isn't my girlfriend."

"Oh? My bad. You were looking to her so much I thought that was the case." Tamamo apologized.

"She's… just a good friend." Velvet said, drawing circles on the ground with her toe.

"Just a good friend, huh?" Tamamo asked. "Unrequited love, then?"

"No! Well, um... no. I don't know. It's just…" Velvet took a deep breath. "Her lover and girlfriend died just a couple days ago. Yang was amazing, and I don't think I could ever take her place. I've liked them both for forever, but I never thought a relationship would ever be a thing since they were together. They were always so nice to me, and…" Velvet trailed off, realizing what she had just told someone who was basically a complete stranger. "Oh my gosh, please forget I said anything!" Velvet began tearing up.

Tamamo just gave a soft laugh before putting her hands on Velvet's shoulders. "You loved both of them, and now that one is gone suddenly your feelings are out of balance. I get it." Tamamo ruffled Velvet's hair affectionately. "I'm sure she's looking to you for comfort as much as you're looking to her."

Velvet wiped the tear that had begun falling from her eye. "I'm just scared of losing her."

"And I'm sure she's scared of losing you too." Tamamo patted her cheek. "In the meantime, I'm sure your burns have been paining you. Do you want me to give you the lotion so you can ask your friend?"

"No, it's okay. I don't mind if you do it." Velvet sniffed.

"Excellent. Go ahead and get undressed then, and lay down on the bed. Face up first." Tamamo walked over to the small wooden chest while Velvet began removing her clothes. Opening the chest, Tamamo began looking at the different bottles of various lotions she had concocted, searching for the one she wanted. Finally finding it, Tamamo turned around to see Velvet lying down on her bed, nude. "Oh my. That's quite a bit of burn damage, isn't it?" Tamamo walked over and began loosening and removing the bandages that covered a significant portion of Velvet's body. "This must hurt something fierce."

"I can manage." Velvet replied with a grin.

"You don't have to manage it anymore, this stuff will make you feel better." Tamamo waggled the bottle of lotion. The bottle was clear, and looked like it contained the same stuff that she had used on Velvet earlier. Tamamo finished removing all the bandages and threw them away. "I have more." Tamamo assured Velvet. "Now just close your eyes and relax."

Weiss and the others were in the giant kitchen of the fortress, cooking their own meals. Well, more precisely, Blake was cooking all their food. The rest of them knew that they couldn't cook as well as Blake, so they assisted with the manual labor side of things- chopping, fetching water and ingredients, measuring, mixing. Blake did the rest of the more complicated tasks.

"Where did you ever learn to cook this good?" Jaune asked, lugging in two enormous fish, one over each shoulder.

"Yeah, it's delicious!" Nora complimented, sticking her finger into a sauce pan and licking off some sauce that Blake had finished mixing earlier.

Blake slapped the back of Nora's hand gently. "No sampling the goods." Blake gave a fond smile as she continued frying the vegetables she had in the pan in front of her. "I learned from Yang. She loved to cook, and found a new recipe to try every week. Eventually I got caught up in it too." Blake began stirring the sauce Nora had sampled in with the vegetables, the sauce browning them slightly as she turned up the heat to cook the sauce into the food.

"I wish I could cook like this." Pyrrha said longingly, skinning the potatoes Jaune had fetched earlier.

"Me too. Last time you cooked you nearly put me in the hospital." Jaune added with a grin. Pyrrha could only blush as she focused intently on skinning her potatoes, pointedly avoiding looking up at her friends, who were laughing at the memory.

"It's not like you're any better, Jaune." Nora poked Jaune in the tummy. "Remember when you tried cooking pancakes for us and they all ended up as charcoal?"

"I got distracted and forgot about them, okay?" Jaune said defensively as Weiss made a disbelieving comment about the idiocy required to mess up pancakes.

"Weiss, can you keep mixing this while I prep the fish?" Blake asked as the other three bickered about each others' cooking.

"How long?" Weiss stepped up to the stove, taking over stirring the vegetables in the pan.

"Until I say stop." Blake answered from behind her while beginning to gut and descale the fish.

"How can you tell?" Weiss looked over her shoulder to see Blake wasn't looking.

"I can smell it." Blake laughed.

"Oh yeah." Weiss had forgotten about Blake's extremely sensitive sense of smell.

Not long after that, They all sat down at a table in the great hall, setting up a table for themselves. They had two large plates, each with one of the fish, fried and sautéed with onions and the sauce Blake had mixed up. Also on the table was a plate of baked potatoes and a bowl of mashed potatoes, and a dish of gravy. A smattering of different vegetable dishes was also spread out on the table, thrown together to add variety to the dinner. A few other students looked on jealously, but Weiss figured that if they wanted to have food like this they could either pay Blake or ask for lessons. As they sat down, Weiss noticed an empty set of silverware and a plate set up next to Blake. "For Velvet?" She asked.

"Yeah. In case she comes back before we finish." Blake answered.

"Looks like you made the right call." Weiss nodded over Blake's shoulder, who turned around to find Tamamo carrying a dozing Velvet into the great hall.

"Ah, there you guys are. Excellent timing." Tamamo cheerily said as she shuffled over. "Velvet here got sleepy during the massage." She slid Velvet onto the seat next to Blake. "Velvet dear! Wake up and eat some dinner." Velvet groaned before opening her eyes groggily. "She'll be fine. And in return for my magnificent massage and use of my lotion, I demand food!" Tamamo walked into the kitchen a grabbed a plate, and returned to grab a little bit of everything. A slice of fish, a baked potato, a small pile of vegetables. She took a bite of the fish. "Mmm! So good." Tamamo moaned in appreciation. "Who made this?" Blake raised her hand slightly. "You are an excellent cook. We shall have to share recipes sometime. Thanks for the food, enjoy!" And as quickly as she had arrived, Tamamo was gone, back up the stairs.

"…What just happened?" Weiss asked.

"I think we just traded a massage for food." Blake speculated. Velvet, who was leaning on Blake shoulder, began to stir. "Velvet, wake up and eat." Blake gently shook the sleepy faunus. Velvet slowly sat up and began to rub her eyes. "Was the massage really that good?"

Velvet let out a sensual moan. "Oh, so good. It was heavenly." Velvet finally opened her eyes. She froze, and her eyes darted around the table. "Did I just say that in front of everyone?"

"Yes." Nora snickered.

"Not again." Velvet could only groan in embarrassment and she covered her face.

"Was it really that good?" Blake laughed.

"Y- yeah. The lotion works really well. I can't even feel the burns anymore." Velvet moved her arm and shoulder around for emphasis. "And she's really good at massaging the lotion in." Velvet admitted, blushing again.

Everyone just laughed. "Well anyways." Pyrrha redirected the conversation. "Before we get started." She held up her glass of water. "To our friends, who will be remembered."

Everyone held up their glasses. "To our friends." Everyone toasted.