Translator's Notes (T/N):
I'm back.
Do you like the story? Then please leave lots of comments and give this fanfic lots of ratings! It's your comments and honest feedback that motivate me to keep translating this work!
***
The first-year dormitory was empty; right now, all its residents were on field practice far from Beacon. The only current inhabitants of this place were the long-suffering Team MJEI, but they too were now far from the scene of the crime.
Egrer looked around and began hacking the electronic lock, while Sun kept watch without being told. You could immediately tell he had experience of this nature. Egrer had never been a victim of stereotypes, but he had begun to notice a trend - if someone was from Vacuo, they were most likely not the most law-abiding individual.
Breaking into Team RWBY's room felt a bit shameful and even scary - if the girls found out about it, simple bruises wouldn't be the end of it. However, catching the Puppeteer was far too grandiose a task, and neither Sun nor Egrer had any idea how to approach it. Being not the smartest members of Prosperity, their brainstorming session hadn't produced an idea better than reading the notes of the person who far surpassed them in intellect - Blake. She often scribbled in a notebook and printed photos of foreigners right before their eyes, so arming themselves with her notes could lead to truly genius decisions.
At least they hoped so. Since relying on themselves was an extremely reckless and naive idea.
The lock beeped, and Sun and Egrer, with the professionalism of petty thieves, quickly slipped inside and closed the door behind them. The room's main attraction immediately caught their eyes - two makeshift bunk beds. One hung suspended, tied to pins driven into the ceiling, while the other wobbled on stacks of books. It didn't inspire confidence.
Like any team room in Beacon, this one radiated an atmosphere of distinct eccentricity, reflecting the individuality of its inhabitants. Every corner possessed a special character, fully reflecting its owner's preferences. So Blake's sleeping spot was found easily and quickly. The number of various tomes under her bed was so massive that if you removed the bedposts, it would continue standing as if nothing had happened. Furthermore, four tall stacks of hardcover books supported the upper bed, resting on wooden beams in the corners.
And as if the existing literature wasn't enough, a long bookshelf hung on the wall nearby. It was tightly packed with a wide variety of works: historical memoirs, philosophical volumes, dramatic novels, and bold sci-fi. Books spilled over from the shelf onto the bed itself, forming small piles under the desk and the window. These few square meters of the room testified to their owner's incredible love for the printed word.
"Go on, look," Egrer said, jerking his head toward the book lover's paradise.
Sun froze in indecision. It immediately became clear that he had agreed to this venture for one simple reason - he wasn't alone. And now he was being so crudely shoved forward.
"What about you?"
"I'm allergic, in case you forgot. You can feel the cat spirit with your skin in here." Egrer theatrically pinched his nose and waved a hand in front of his face. "So you check her personal stuff, and I'll rummage through the shared ones."
While Sun dug through the book avalanche, Egrer approached the desk. Sketchbooks, pens, and notebooks lay scattered in disarray on it. Chaotic sketches of yet another upgrade for a high-caliber sniper scythe alternated with lecture notes, and the handwriting varied from Ruby's completely illegible scribbles to Weiss's typed cursive. He pulled out all the desk drawers, sifting through papers, textbooks, and stationery, but found no signs of a secret compartment. The desk guarded its secrets with the tenacity of a guerrilla fighter.
Next, Egrer fastidiously inspected the room: tapped on the floorboards, looking for hollows in the floor; poked around in the soil of the flowerpots with a stick; thoroughly combed through the clothes in two wardrobes. Sifting through the garments, only one thing drew his attention: an entire section of the wardrobe was occupied by neatly folded bows. And they were all, oddly enough, completely identical: black as coal, the same shape, and soft to the touch.
'And I thought she wore the same one the whole time,' flashed through Egrer's head.
Of the places left to check, only the beds and nightstands of the other girls remained. And while the nightstands of Ruby and Yang, who slept on the top bunk, could hardly be called bedside, that small fact wouldn't make rummaging through someone else's things any less awkward. Here, there was no longer a valid excuse as in Blake's case, so Egrer stopped at what he had achieved. It was unlikely Blake would hide her notes under someone else's underwear. Such things are kept close to oneself.
Casting a piercing glance over the room one last time, Egrer noticed the corner of what seemed to be a book or notebook sticking out from under a pillow. The bed beneath it was neatly made with a snow-white bedspread, and on the nightstand next to it sat, surprisingly, a silver tea set. Weiss had always valued organization and cleanliness, preferring to be in a clutter-free space. That this place belonged to her didn't raise the slightest doubt in his mind.
'A diary, maybe?'
He involuntarily looked back - Sun was halfway under the mattress, so he wouldn't notice anything. A moment of weakness and a burst of acute curiosity made Egrer pull out the little book, despite understanding the impropriety of the act. From the very first lines, he confirmed his suspicions.
'Just one quick peek...'
Curiosity tempted him to uncover the secrets hidden on these pages. He was curious if anything was written about him. And he wanted to know more about Weiss herself. The worn cover made it clear that intimate thoughts and experiences had been recorded here for many years.
For instance, about how the chef, instead of some "Pan-seared Filet Mignon on a high bed of Duchesse potatoes," served her "Pan-seared Filet Mignon on a low bed of Duchesse potatoes." Apparently, this episode had hurt Weiss deeply, considering she honored it with a place in her diary. She even wrote down the chef's name - Vulpes.
Egrer couldn't hold back a smile; he never would have thought Weiss used to be so fastidious. There were plenty of such charming moments in the diary, as if she just needed an excuse to grumble. The faint voice of conscience whispered that it was time to stop prying into Weiss's personal life and put the diary back, but another voice insisted that he wasn't doing anything terrible - just reading amusing incidents from someone else's past.
However, the smile vanished from Egrer's face when he stumbled upon the next entry: "I heard Father tell Mother that he only married her for money. She locked herself in her room and seems to be drinking. My sister said she wasn't surprised, and even Whitley acts as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. Was I the only one who thought we were a happy family?"
At this point, Egrer closed the diary, afraid to intrude into such profound thoughts. While he was reading about harmless things, he merely felt like a petty jerk, but here, the voice of conscience became indecently loud.
Her diary was a sacred place where Weiss poured her heart and soul onto the pages. It wasn't just an archive of petty troubles in her life, but a glimpse of her deepest fears, dreams, and vulnerabilities. Although Egrer sought a deeper understanding of her inner world, he recognized that being invited into that realm was a privilege that had to be earned. After all, it was precisely his intrusiveness that often led him into arguments with friends. He had never hesitated to burst into their personal space with unsolicited advice and attempts to help where it wasn't needed.
So Egrer put the diary back under the pillow. Personal boundaries had to be respected, but this banal and obvious thought arrived with a delay. To distract himself from the creeping sense of shame, Egrer decided to return to what they had come here for.
"Sun, how's it going?"
"Not great."
Sun had never treated books respectfully, so he shook all their secrets out using the roughest methods. He grabbed them by the edges, opened them a hundred and eighty degrees, and shook them up and down. Unsurprisingly, the soft spine of one of the books eventually tore off.
"Oops," the latter simply uttered. Egrer, however, was much less restrained in his expressions.
"Grimm! You do realize that if the girls find out we were rummaging through their stuff, they'll castrate us with an angle grinder? Fix it now!"
"Wait, it's not even torn..."
As it turned out, it was just a fake dust jacket, and a hardcore romance novel hid beneath it.
"Ninjas of Love?" Sun was surprised, looking at the synopsis on the back of the cover. "'In the treacherous world of ancient Mistral, Yuki, a skilled kunoichi, finds herself embroiled in a forbidden romance with Kuro, a charming youth from a rival clan. Daily facing the ruthless pursuit of their enemies, their love becomes both their greatest strength and their ultimate vulnerability. It is a gripping tale of loyalty, cruelty, and the power of love amid the shadows, where blades clash and the desires of the flesh burn brightly.'"
"Now Blake will definitely castrate us if she finds out," Egrer said with utter certainty.
He had the misfortune of knowing the contents of this book, as Neo was a fan of this novel, and a fan so ardent that she had once planned to kidnap the author and handcuff him to his desk because he was taking too long to release the promised sequel. Once, Egrer peeked inside out of curiosity and earned himself childhood trauma. Nobody talks about reading literature like this out loud.
"What's the big deal?" Sun, however, resided in blissful ignorance.
"Open any page and you'll see."
And Sun opened it somewhere around the middle. A minute later, in the exact same confident voice Egrer had used, he said:
"Now Blake will definitely castrate us if she finds out."
Further searches proved fruitless. No secret diary was found, and the day's second brainstorming session led to the thought that she'd hardly hide such valuable things in mundane places.
Egrer tapped a finger against his chin.
"Sun, you know Blake best. Where would she hide her notes?"
"Hmm... I'd say in books, but there's nothing there. Too simple a solution. She'd definitely get tricky and do the exact opposite."
"Maybe she keeps everything on her Scroll?"
"Naaah," Sun replied confidently. "She likes touching paper. Plus, she thinks the government monitors all the info on Scrolls."
"Classic her. Maybe she took it all with her on field practice?"
"Dude, she's got like a whole box of notes. She's not gonna haul all that with her."
"Dead end..."
Suddenly, Sun tensed up. He clenched his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, squatted slightly, balled his fists, and grimaced as if chewing on a lemon right now.
"What, you about to give birth?"
"I'm thinking," he snapped, pressing his index fingers to his temples. No doubt to amplify his cognitive abilities. "Gotta think like Blake, gotta become Blake. I'm going far away for a long time, and I need to hide a bunch of notes that the Puppeteer might try to steal while I'm gone..."
Sun strained even harder, a vein bulging on his forehead. You could practically see the neural impulses firing in his head.
"...Without them, tons of clues and leads will be lost, setting us back. This is a critical mission... The Puppeteer has been watching us for a long time and can anticipate our moves. Which means I gotta act unexpectedly. So how would a paranoid person like Blake hide her stuff?" Sun snapped his fingers, and his face relaxed. He had arrived at a conclusion. "Give them to someone else."
"To who, though?" Egrer hadn't figured it out yet.
"Someone she knows well, but who isn't involved in our schemes. Team JNPR. Blake probably asked Pyrrha or Ren to hide her stuff in their room. They definitely wouldn't stick their noses where they don't belong."
It was an idea so brilliant that Egrer physically felt all-pervading waves of unadulterated intellect radiating straight from Sun's forehead. He grabbed his hair, stunned by such an ingenious solution to the puzzle.
"Holy shit, you're smart!"
"Shocked myself, honestly."
Before leaving, they restored the room to its pristine state, with even greater diligence than they had shown searching for Blake's secret notes. For here, the cost of failure was far more terrible and irreversible. And when the door clicked shut, a stifled chuckle echoed. Mercury Black jumped down from the top bunk, and four stacks of books wobbled dangerously back and forth.
"Finally, they cleared out. I was getting bored."
Emerald slid down slowly after him. With one hand she held her reddened eyes, and with the other, she rubbed her aching head.
"Em, confirm it: if not for sheer luck, we would've never found out jack shit. Is Lady Luck smiling on us again?"
"Shut up," Emerald grumbled. "I burned through way too much Aura. And if you'd shut your trap for even a second, I wouldn't have had to fake their hearing too."
"Minor hiccups on the eve of a major victory," Mercury brushed it off. "Let those two look for their little scribbles, and we'll just show up when everything's served on a silver platter. Why work when you can not work?"
Emerald blinked stupidly. Her exhausted mind couldn't keep up with her partner's chipper speech.
"You trying to slack off again?"
"In a nutshell. Aw, don't be so mad, it's the first time you agreed to take some initiative, gotta lighten up. Things get done better with a good mood. Just picture how thrilled Cinder's gonna be when we drop a surprise like this on her." Suddenly, with a deliberately clumsy motion, Mercury bumped his hip against the desk. A couple of pens fell to the floor, and a sheet of paper glided softly toward the wardrobe. "Oops, so clumsy of me."
"What was that for?" Emerald asked wearily.
"To add a few extra problems for those two in the future."
His lips stretched into a cheerful grin, and he casually plopped down onto the snow-white bed and pulled the diary hidden under the pillow. He had just stopped at the most interesting part when the uninvited guests showed up. Any personal information on their enemies would be useful.
***
Egrer looked at Sun with reverent awe. If you ranked Prosperity by intellect, Sun would take an honorable third place, trailing only such behemoths of logical reasoning as Weiss and Blake. Incredible progress, considering he used to be at the very bottom, barely ahead of Egrer himself.
Just as their top-three brain had said, a whole box of various notes sat in Ren's nightstand. But upon closer inspection, it turned out these weren't disjointed notes and photos at all; something held them together. Some kind of black fabric.
"Let's unfold it."
Sun took one edge of the canvas, and Egrer took the other. A moment later, a five-by-five-foot hell unfolded before them.
Dozens of photos, multicolored strings, paper scraps with notes, symbols known only to Blake, and the handwriting... Blake's handwriting wasn't the easiest to read, especially when sleep-deprived. Out of this entire nightmare, only the dates were clear - the arrival times at Beacon of the suspects, whose photos were carefully pinned nearby.
Egrer sneezed and involuntarily stepped back from this... thing. However, he still had to draw closer to the canvas.
Together with Sun, he tried to decipher the intricate web of connections. They traced the lines with their fingers, highlighted keywords, but the puzzle only seemed to grow more convoluted. Lines and arrows connected unrelated names, dates, and locations, forming a meaningless spiderweb. The more they tried to make sense of it all, the deeper they sank into despondency.
"This is impossible!" Egrer exclaimed after a solid hour of racking his brains. "How can someone's thoughts be this tangled?"
"Maybe it's some kind of cipher?" Sun suggested thoughtfully. Egrer quieted down immediately, listening to what their underrated genius would say next. "She could've easily encrypted her notes so no one besides her would understand a thing. Like protection against unwanted eyes."
"Well, y'know, even without understanding the context, it's clear this reeks of something creepy. An outsider would think this is the work of a serial killer or a stalker."
Attempts to review the board again didn't lead to any sudden epiphanies. Even the newly brilliant Sun grew quiet. After some time, they realized that if they wanted results, they couldn't perpetually rely on someone else's guidance. It was time to trust their own instincts, to achieve results through their own minds.
That prospect scared the living daylights out of both of them. They even toyed with the thought of ditching the whole thing, but they had already come so far! If breaking into Team RWBY's and Team JNPR's rooms was in vain, they wouldn't even have the moral right to believe they ever had a reason to start all this.
Filled with determination to unravel the Puppeteer's identity on their own, Sun and Egrer walked out into the corridor and resorted to the stealthy art of tailing. But before doing so, Egrer shoved the canvas into his bag and took it along, just in case enlightenment struck them out of nowhere.
They knew there were three girls in the Puppeteer's crew: one dark-skinned, the Puppeteer Herself whose appearance was unknown, another short and mute, and nothing on the fourth member at all. Armed with this information, they set off to wander Beacon, keeping an eye out for suspicious individuals fitting this meager description.
"Tailing is tricky business," Sun stated importantly. "Blake and I used to trail people a lot. Well, technically she tailed them, and I made her look less suspicious, like we were just out on a walk."
"And here I was wondering why she kept you around at all... Well, since you guys already checked people, tell me who you cleared of suspicion. So we don't waste time on them twice."
"Uh... I don't remember." Egrer gave Sun a judgmental look, as if to say, 'Why the hell did you even bring it up then?' "I was busy making sure Blake didn't look suspicious. I was mostly looking at her."
"Okaaay. Let's just take a walk for starters then."
Fortune smiled on them, because after a while of pointless wandering, they found a pair of students who fit the description quite well. A red-haired girl with freckles and her friend - a dark-haired, olive-skinned girl in a blue beret. Specifically, the presence of the dark-skinned girl made them tense up, and their Atlas uniforms only solidified their suspicions.
After all, it was right after the arrival of the local students from there that the Puppeteer broke into the Headmaster's tower. As Blake had once noted, She had no reason to wait until soldiers started marching around Beacon to do her business, and since She hadn't gone in earlier, it meant She hadn't been in Beacon earlier either.
From a safe distance, Sun and Egrer began observing the one who called herself Penny and the one who called herself Ciel go about their daily routines, oblivious to their clandestine presence. The suspects simply walked around Beacon, had innocent chats with other students (each of whom was jotted down in a notebook as a possible Puppeteer minion), and were completely normal.
However, Prosperity wasn't so easily fooled. So the longer the surveillance dragged on, the more elaborate it became, just to get closer and unearth more of their secrets. Egrer darted behind lampposts, moving from one to another in short sprints, while Sun hid behind bushes and trees.
Yet, to their horror, the suspects' actions seemed completely mundane. The one who called herself Penny was practically a saint, volunteering for community service projects: cleaning up after the rally, watering garden flowers, and feeding fish in the pond. The one who called herself Ciel mostly just stood nearby and checked her wristwatch every few minutes. It gave the impression she had zero interest and was keeping the redhead company against her will.
Despite the total lack of incriminating evidence, the proud members of the proud organization remained undaunted. They were convinced that behind this innocent facade lurked a criminal mastermind and Her loyal minion. They scrupulously memorized every seemingly harmless detail, convinced that hidden meanings and secret codes lay within them.
However, while trailing them, Egrer made a mistake - he got too engrossed in the tail. His gaze was glued to the suspects' backs, and he noticed nothing else - neither what was right in front of him nor what was behind him.
The blow to his back was sudden, and the trash can appeared as if from nowhere. Egrer almost ate asphalt, and the toppled can rolled along the ground, clattering and banging loudly. The redhead and the dark-skinned girl turned around in unison and saw their hunched, thief-like stalker, who broke into a sweat in an instant. He tried to say something, but the thought that he might fall asleep forever tonight kept his vocal cords from functioning properly.
"Are you alright?" asked the one who called herself Penny.
Egrer, his cover blown to smithereens, brushed invisible dust off his jacket, smoothed back his slicked-back hair, and used every delaying tactic to postpone the dialogue. He turned to look for the culprit behind his predicament, but saw only a large rock that had been hurled at him. Slowly, dragging out his vowels on purpose, he said:
"I'm just... sorting the trash," he mumbled, pulling himself together. "Oh, Twins! What scoundrel threw plastic into the blue container? It's for paper!"
"That's a general waste bin," noted the one who called herself Ciel. "And I doubt the Executioner of Atlas cares about recycling."
The redhead suddenly flinched and pointed an accusatory finger at Egrer.
"You're that villain!"
"I beg your pardon," he protested quietly, slowly backing away. Something felt wrong about her; just being around her made goosebumps run down his spine. Even his Semblance warned Egrer that something wasn't right with her. "Not a villain, but a victim of circumstance. Go on your way, I'm doing trash duty here. Socially useful work, by the way!"
The girls did just that, not because of his request, but because talking to a war criminal wouldn't do their reputations any favors. Once their backs were far enough away, Sun emerged from the bushes.
"Epic fail, bro."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious, like I didn't know. Better tell me, did you see where that rock flew from?"
"I saw," a familiar voice chimed in. Mercury strolled casually down the path, carrying a few cans of soda in his hands. His gaze flicked for a second to the bag in Egrer's hands, after which he smiled. "It was that prick with the mace. Chucked it and bolted right away."
"Cardin at it again. Just wait till I catch him and... and I'll sick Yort on him."
"Or maybe he was defending the ladies' honor?" Mercury said with a sly grin. "Why were you sneaking behind them anyway? You looked like total stalkers."
"We're not stalkers, and we weren't trailing anyone!" Egrer answered with a goofy smile. "And besides, that redhead gives me the creeps. There's something... something horribly wrong about her. Y'know, she reminds me of Madge or Nora. Why are all bright-haired girls crazy?"
"I don't really give a shit about other people's problems, I gotta deal with my own first," Mercury gestured to the soda cans in his hands. "Won 'em in a bet against some dork, but I can't finish 'em, I'm stuffed. Help a brother out, guys."
Sun rejoiced at the freebies, and Egrer was no better. Any food must be consumed, especially if it's free, and doubly so if it's tasty. This creed had guided him through life since his early years. But while Sun drank his slowly, Egrer chugged two cans in one breath, despite the intense tickling in his throat. Mercury stared at him with saucer eyes.
"Whoa, dude... pace yourself."
"Wanna save it for your team?" Egrer asked belatedly, freezing his hand reaching for the last can at the last moment. He tilted his head ingratiatingly and braced himself, waiting for Mercury to wave it off and say he didn't mind sharing. Which is exactly what happened.
"Nah, go ahead and drink it, rather it be you. I'm on the outs with my crew."
The last can of soda went down just as fast as the first ones - in one gulp, carbonation be damned. Sun warily hid the hand holding his can behind his back.
"Mind if I stroll with you guys?" Mercury asked. "Got nothing to do, dying of boredom."
Egrer and Sun exchanged glances. For several seconds, they pretended to communicate telepathically, after which they concluded that since their tail had blown up, it was best not to get caught doing anything incriminating today. They decided to just take a walk around Beacon and make mental notes of other foreigners fitting the description for the future.
Granted, they didn't walk for long; ten minutes later, Sun's stomach began to rumble loudly. He froze, his eyes widening in terror as his hands clutched his bare abs. Judging by his face, something catastrophic was about to happen.
"Uh-oh!" With those words, Sun bolted toward the nearest public restroom and locked himself in a stall. The others barely caught up and stayed waiting near the entrance.
"Eg, you feeling alright?" Mercury asked, looking somewhat surprised. "Stomach doesn't hurt?"
"Nope. You think Sun got food poisoning from your soda? We're both fine, though."
"Yeah... right."
Silence fell, uneasy and even a little dangerous. Instincts told Egrer that something was off, but he couldn't find a single reason why he felt that way. Except maybe Mercury boring holes into him with his gaze, but the second Egrer turned around, Mercury was just kicking the pavement with his toe.
Except what Egrer saw and heard was far from the truth. In reality, right at that moment, Mercury was loudly chatting on his Scroll with his accomplice, who sat on a distant roof with binoculars. And if Egrer had heard their conversation, he would've pieced it together instantly.
"No violence, Merc," Emerald said calmly. "If you take the bag by force, you blow our cover completely. You have to be gentle, come up with something else. Use the fact that you got into his good graces."
"My old man didn't teach me how to talk, he taught me how to kill!"
"Which makes it all the more surprising you managed to hit it off with the raspy guy. Get to it, I'm not wasting the rest of my Aura just so you can shoot the breeze with me. Just don't hang up, I wanna hear what you're talking about!"
Mercury sighed heavily and slipped his Scroll into the chest pocket of his leather jacket. Judging by Egrer turning around, he was no longer under the influence of the illusion. Both forced tight smiles at each other, and the silence resumed.
Mercury was no skilled diplomat; he possessed practically zero normal communication skills, so the right ideas bypassed him entirely. Only visions of bloody slaughter floated through his head. That was further aided by the small fact that Egrer annoyed him to the depths of his soul.
To be fair, a lot of things annoyed him, but among Mercury's acquaintances, Egrer was fourth on the irritation scale. Even so, it was better than dealing with the top three spots, which was why Mercury looked for any opportunity to stay as far and as long away from his team as possible, this scheme being one such excuse.
He was already starting to regret ever deciding to do this. He could've been chilling in his room, enduring Cinder's reckless arrogance, Emerald's insufferable snark, and Neo's unprovoked violence. Plus a bunch of girly rules, because any guy living in a confined space with several women inevitably becomes an oppressed and disenfranchised minority. Unless he's the protagonist of stupid Mistralian cartoons, of course.
Mercury was pulled from his thoughts that things weren't so bad right now by the illusory voice of his partner. She demanded immediate action, and Mercury, having failed to conjure a single decent method, decided to go full steam ahead:
"Listen, where I'm from, good friends swap bags. We're good friends, like homies, right?"
Emerald's snide comment, accompanied by a facepalm, echoed as if from inside his skull. Mercury's expression didn't change, unlike Egrer's, whom the question threw into a stupor.
"Uh... I guess? I mean, I don't mind swapping bags, but let's do it later. Tomorrow, for instance; we don't have classes for a while anyway."
"Nah, gotta be right now."
"But you don't have your bag on you."
"I'll run and grab it once I get yours."
Mercury took a step forward, forcing Egrer to back up against the wall. He tried to hide the bag behind his back, but Mercury managed to grab the handle and yanked it toward himself. However, he immediately recoiled as if scalded and clutched his head, shooting a displeased glare somewhere to the side.
Terrible suspicions began creeping into Egrer's mind. One rather disturbing theory explained all of Mercury's quirks, but he didn't want to believe it.
"Y'know, I just remembered I promised my team we'd play Remnant today, so I gotta bounce."
Before he could take a single step, Mercury pinned him, slamming a palm against the wall behind him. Egrer turned the other way, but that exit was blocked just as quickly. It resembled a scene from a stereotypical romance anime, which only reinforced Egrer's dreadful suspicions.
Mercury had fallen for him. And that explained everything, literally everything!
Mercury had been throwing weird looks his way since they met in detention; he was the one who asked to join the union (where the staring only increased); he was rude to Weiss on day one, clearly seeing her as competition. And why did he pull away so sharply when their hands touched, if not out of embarrassment? And that rock... Egrer had found that excuse fishy from the start. Cardin wasn't the stealthiest Beacon student to vanish without a trace after a throw like that. Mercury threw the rock to get his attention. Egrer never could have imagined someone would "pull his pigtails" like this!
Maybe this was all just a misunderstanding, but Mercury's next words buried that possibility:
"Another step and I'll break your knees, capiche?" Having experience with tsunderes, Egrer quickly figured out what Mercury actually meant - underneath that threat lay the desire to spend more time with him. Further words only confirmed it. "I said let's be friends, you little shit! What, you don't respect me or something?"
Egrer had nothing against same-sex relationships, of course, but only as long as they didn't involve him personally. Therefore, not wanting to give Mercury false hope, he decided to clear the air right away:
"Sorry, but I'm not gay."
A second of deafening silence.
"What?"
"I'm saying, I don't mind being friends with you, but nothing more. No hard feelings, alright? It's not you, it's me. I'm sure you'll find a nice guy."
Taking advantage of Mercury's shell-shocked state (apparently being dumped into the friendzone was a bit rough), Egrer broke free from the trap and bolted with all his might.
"Stop right there, bitch!" Mercury shouted, taking off in pursuit. However, he had zero chance of catching the running champion of the Mistral favela. "And the fuck you mean you're not gay?! What was that even about?!"
When Sun came out of the restroom, he found nobody. Offended at being abandoned, he headed off to his team.