Ozpin's POV

With Parents' Day coming to a close, Ozpin doesn't have much to worry about. According to Glynda, Ichigo performed marvelously as a professional. Mr. Winchester's mother caused a bit of trouble with him, but he handled that situation rather well. On Ichigo's recommendation, Mr. Winchester, when he is discharged from the hospital, shall return here to be straightened out by Ichigo personally.

Ozpin: "All in all, I'd say today was a success. The students' families were able to see how they've improved under our care and we were able to learn a thing or two in the process."

Ironwood: "I agree. If Salem has any spies within the school, even those posing as students, they couldn't act with so many eyes watching everyone."

Qrow: "We can also rule out anyone who seems to have significant family ties and whose records match what we learned today."

The three of them are discussing a few orders of business that need to be discussed before the upcoming Vytal Festival Tournament.

Ozpin: "Indeed. Now then, our next order of business."

Qrow: "Amber..." he solemnly states.

Ozpin: "Qrow, it wasn't your fault. We're lucky you saved her when you did, or else Salem would have all of the Fall Maiden's power."

Amber, the Fall Maiden, was attacked by unknown assailants sometime before the school year started. When Qrow got there, he was able to stop one of them from stealing all her power, but they were still able to take about half. He couldn't see them. His vision was blurry, and not from drinking. Atlas's technology has kept her alive since then, but she's running on borrowed time now.

Ironwood: "My machines have prevented her death and thus the halted the transfer over her remaining power, but we're running out of time. We need to find a replacement for her."

Ozpin: "I think I may have found someone who qualifies."

Ironwood: "Ah yes, Miss Nikos..."

Pyrrha's one of, if not the strongest student in the school and she still has plenty of room to grow. As the four-time winner of the Mistral Tournament, her skills outshine her peers, being only rivaled by a few. Well, not including Ichigo's teams, but they're special exceptions.

Qrow: "I agree that she's a strong girl and she has the qualifications, but are we sure she's the best?"

Ironwood: "What do you mean, Qrow?"

Qrow: "What I mean is that we have eleven new girls who are even stronger than the kid. We should at least consider one of them to be the next Maiden."

Ironwood: "We aren't even sure if their story checks out. We need to be able to trust them before we consider them for this. For all we know, they could be working for Salem. If that's the case, we'd be just handing her the Maiden's power on a silver platter."

Qrow: "Heh, trust. Big words coming from you, Jimmy. While you've been sitting behind your cushy desk in Atlas, I've been out there, and I know that we're going to need someone strong in order to face Salem."

Ironwood: "Qrow, I-"

Ozpin takes a sip from his mug before putting it down on his desk.

Ozpin: "Gentlemen, please. James, while I agree with you, Qrow's also right. So why don't we compromise? I know we're short on time as it is, but let us wait a little while longer and see if they can indeed be trusted. If they can, they we can ask one of them to be our Maiden. If not, if Miss Nikos is made into the next Fall Maiden, she may be able to stand up to them."

Pondering Ozpin's suggestion, Ironwood starts pacing.

Ironwood: "That would be the best scenario... If we give the powerful, but trustworthy, even more power, they might give us the edge we need."

There's two approaches: give the powerful more power and hope it's enough or give the weak more powerful to work with the already powerful. Ozpin originally suggested the latter while Qrow suggested the former.

Qrow: "What about that girl, Orihime, was it?"

Ironwood stops his pacing and thought process.

Ironwood: "What about her?"

Qrow: "That Semblance of hers. Like she did the others, she might be able to heal Amber. That way, we wouldn't even have to pick a new one. If she can't, then hey, we tried."

Ironwood: "And if she can't, then given the circumstances of her knowing the situation, we could make her the next Maiden..."

For once, Ironwood and Qrow agree about something. Hell must be freezing over.

Ozpin: "A possible route for us to take going forward." He drinks more hot chocolate. "On the subject, Qrow, how's your progress with Ichigo?"

Qrow takes a drink from his flask, indicating that whatever news he has isn't good.

Qrow: "Well... There's hasn't exactly been very much. I've been observing him. Watching his teaching habits, his interactions with others. So far, he hasn't shown any signs of being a spy."

Ozpin: "While that's well and good, I meant your progress about forming a father-son bond with him."

Qrow: "Oh yeah. That." He rolls his eyes. "Truth be told, ever since the night I met him, I haven't even tried telling him that he's my kid. Never could find the right time, especially due to the way he reacted the first time."

When they first met, Qrow thought the direct approach was best and told Ichigo straight up that he was his father. However, Ichigo's cold response of "No you're not" meant that he utterly failed.

Qrow: "He never lets his guard down. Well, except when he's surrounded by lovely ladies."

A trait Ichigo must have inherited from him.

Ironwood: "I suggest that you-"

Qrow: "Shh, shh, shh, I don't wanna hear it. Get some kids of your own, then we'll talk."

Ironwood: "You didn't even know he existed until he showed up here!" he rebukes.

Qrow: "Still, that's better than you." He drinks from his flask.

Ozpin: "*chuckle* Qrow's got a point, James. Regardless, I think Ichigo may still be hiding something, whether it's his goals or his abilities."

Ironwood: "How do you plan on finding out?"

Ozpin: "I'll put him on a reconnaissance mission soon, see how and what he does. While the girls he's presented have proven their abilities, they seem to defer to him somewhat, meaning it's more useful finding out his secrets than theirs."

Qrow: "If only I had been there..."

He grips his flask at not being there for Ichigo or his mother, of whom he still doesn't remember.

Ozpin: "Qrow, I know you regret it, but the past is in the past. Make it up to him now, while you can."

Qrow: "...yeah, sure Oz."

Ozpin: "While it's unlikely, he may be a bigger key for defeating Salem than the Maidens are. His power and determination may be unchallenged by anyone we know about, even her."

Ichigo Kurosaki is truly a mystery, but so far, he has shown himself trustworthy.

Ichigo's POV

Ichigo: "...oh boy."

'Oh boy' is right. Ichigo's in his room, literally surrounded by the panties of nine different women, all of whom are also in his dorm. Whoever's dog that is, he's way too smart for his own good. But the dog isn't the hurdle that he needs to overcome, it's explaining why he brought these things to Ichigo's room of all places, and Ichigo doesn't even know why!

Ichigo: "L-Look, I-"

SNAP!

Glynda takes her riding crop out and hits it on the dresser next to her, creating a loud snap that cuts him off.

Ichigo (thoughts): 'Keep calm.'

The others aren't speaking, instead looking at him with contempt, dolor, and/or confusion. They seem to want to leave the talking up to their disciplinarian teacher, at least, to start with.

Glynda: "Mr. Kurosaki. You have all these women living in here and you go and all our underwear!? Have you no shame!?"

Ichigo: "I didn't!" he denies. "That dog just came in here and spread them all over the place and I don't know why!"

Why did that dog force this situation!? It's not like he asked for this!

Ruby: "A likely story!" she responds sarcastically. "Zwei wouldn't do that on his own, so somebody must have put him up to it!"

Ichigo: "Well it wasn't me!"

Yang: "Then why did he drop them at your feet and then go on his way!?"

Yoruichi's POV

Yoruichi: "Ah, now this is relaxing..." she proclaims as she's lying down on a tree branch. "Huh?"

At the bottom of the tree she's on, a dog's barking happily. She's met this dog before and knows why he's here, so she gets up and jumps down to meet him.

Yoruichi: "Did you do it?"

Zwei: "Bark!"

That's a yes.

Yoruichi: "Good boy." She tosses him a steak, which he begins to devour. "Were you caught?"

He hesitates for a moment, stopping his chewing.

Zwei: "Woof!"

Yoruichi: "What!? You were!? You got them to his room without them knowing, right?"

Zwei: "*whimper*"

This could become very bad. For Ichigo. Well, as long as he's not there, things should work out.

Yoruichi: "Good job anyway. I asked you to be discreet about it but provided they can reclaim what you took without incident, everything should be fine."

She pets him on the head while he continues to eat the steak he earned for a job mostly well done.

Ichigo's POV

Why!? What has he done to deserve this!?

Ichigo: "I DON'T KNOW!"

He just needs to keep calm and explain what happened. They'll believe him... right?

Ichigo: "Let me explain what happened. I just came back to my room after teaching. I heard Ruby scream after the dog. The dog came in here, spread the... things everywhere, and then jumped out the window! I didn't even know what they were until just before you came in!"

Coco: "If that were the case, then why wear you holding two separate pairs? Looks to me that you were admiring your new treasures."

Coco's pretty straightforward, but she's right in that everything does look suspicious. Ichigo doesn't know the way to resolve this mess. He's already told them the truth of what happened and it's not like A DOG could explain!

Glynda: "Miss Adel is correct, Ichigo. I'm afraid I have no choice but to report this to Headmaster Ozpin."

No. Just no.

Ichigo: "...just take them and go. Fuck this."

Not being believed even after explaining what happened, Ichigo Flash Steps out of the room, leaving the group of women to pick up their underwear. It's just one of those things a guy can't win.

3rd Person POV

Ichigo disappears from his dorm room, probably having used his Semblance to teleport out. At first, they're stunned that he ran away, but it's understandable. He was caught in the act. Still though, some of them were having conflicted feelings regarding the situation. Everyone starts thinking about it while finding and picking up their respective pairs of panties.

Weiss (thoughts): 'Could I... Could I have been wrong about him?'

She's mortified that Ichigo saw her panties, but she's also hurt that he's such a pervert that he not only had hers stolen, but the others as well. She thought she knew him. Then again, being on the road all those years could have given him an unhealthy obsession... What should she do?

Coco: "I am going to kill him for taking them, you with me Vel?"

Velvet: "N-No, it's fine. Coco, don't."

Coco: "I'll get him one way or another, I swear it!" she declares, not even listening to her teammate/best friend.

Blake doesn't even speak, instead choosing to pick up her own pair without a word.

Pyrrha: "Ichigo's not really the type of person to do this. That's what I get from him. He's honest."

Nora opens one of the dresser drawers away from where Ichigo's bed is, seeing a few pairs of underwear in there. Not surprising given that only 1/12 of the people who live in here are male.

Nora: "You know, if he wanted to see panties so bad, he could've just opened up any of these. There was no one here but him, so no one would be the wiser!" she happily concludes.

The others look at her. She's completely right, although their looks of shock are more due to the fact that the meathead Nora would have such a savant moment. Regardless, they're still pissed at Ichigo for stealing their underwear.

Yang (thoughts): 'If he really wanted to see my panties, I would've-" She stops herself from thinking that. "No! Bad Yang!"

Then again, her dad's advice on how to deal with her intense feelings for Ichigo have helped with her conflicting feeling that it's wrong. Either way, if Ichigo's like this...

Yang/Ruby (thoughts): 'He's more like Uncle Qrow than we thought...' the sisters think simultaneously while picking up their panties.

Ruby: "Doing this... What was Zwei thinking, listening to him?"

As the last of them finds and collects her panties, the students quickly rush out of the dorm to return to their own. Glynda, however, is left with a choice.

Glynda: "Should I tell Headmaster Ozpin about this? Or..."

She has the decision to tell Ozpin about this incident. On one hand, she's duty bound to tell him about this theft, especially given its sexual nature. Stealing panties is one thing, but while she wouldn't dare dream of it, Ichigo's perversion could lead him to committing another, more violent, act. On the other, however, Ichigo isn't the type of person to do that. She thinks she knows him well enough that, even with something like this, he wouldn't do that. Then again, she didn't think him capable of doing something like this, either.

Glynda: "*sigh* I'll sleep on it and decide in the morning."

She leaves Ichigo's dorm to return to her own.

Ichigo's POV

Ichigo: "What the hell!? Why didn't any of them believe me!?" he gripes as he's walking through the streets of Vale in the setting sun. "I told them what happened!" He stops at a street corner. "*sigh* I'll have to clear this up with them some other time. If Glynda was serious about reporting this to Ozpin, I could be in deep shit. I wish I could punch a wall just to get some of this out, but-"

He looks over across the street, where there's a street vendor serving ice cream. Didn't even know they had those types of people in this world too. He reminds Ichigo of the type of vendors you'd see at cultural festivals, like those serving takoyaki or chocolate covered bananas.

Ichigo: "While I'm here, I might as well..."

He walks over to the ice cream guy, orders a single scoop of ice cream, which is much bigger than any scoop he's had before, and sits down at some nearby seating. It looks like this place used to be some sort of building that got demolished and this guy's taken up residence with his stand, turning the empty lot into something useful.

Ichigo takes a bite of his ice cream, enjoying it, but seemingly not as much as a short, black-haired girl eating what seems to be a tub of ice cream. That's right. She's eating at least five times as much as he is, even with his super-sized scoop.

Ichigo (thoughts): 'People here are weird...'

He continues eating while contemplating what he's going to do. He looks over and sees a guy in a suit stumbling through the lot with a bottle of whiskey in his hand. He walks past the girl, bumping her and making her drop her frozen treat in the process, getting on his pants.

Drunk: "You damn bitch! You dropped your ice cream all over my suit!" She doesn't say anything. "Well!? What do you have to say for yourself!?"

She still doesn't say anything, instead trying to write something. He knocks the notepad out of her hand, continuing to yell at her.

Drunk: "SAY SOMETHING YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

However, in the sour mood he's in, Ichigo doesn't want to listen to this blowhard's obnoxious voice assaulting his ears, nor his assault on this innocent girl. Ichigo gets up, calmly walks over, and puts his hand on the drunk's shoulder.

Drunk: "Huh?" He cocks his head to look at the person whose hand is on his shoulder. "What the hell do you want!?"

Ichigo: "Apologize." he demands.

Drunk: "Apologize? Kid, she's the one who got her fucking shit all over me! You saw!" He looks back at the girl. "Heh, if shorty here wants something white and creamy, I can-"

Ichigo replaces his hold on the drunk's shoulder and instead places his hand on his head, gripping it forcefully.

Ichigo: "I'M ABOUT TO PLANT ME A DUMBASS TREE!"

He slams the drunk's head into the ground, displacing the dirt of the formerly empty lot. The guy's bleeding, but still looks alive. Probably. Ichigo dusts his hands off, partially satisfied.

Ichigo: "There we go. Glad I was able to blow off some steam the-"

???: "What's going on around here!?"

Two police officers show up and point what look like tasers at Ichigo, who isn't intimidated in the slightest. He looks to the officers, then to the drunk whose head he just smashed it, then to the black-haired girl who still hasn't said a word this entire time, and back to the officers. However, the owner of the ice-cream stand runs up.

Ice Cream Vendor: "Officers, stop! This boy did nothing wrong except maybe go a little overboard... That drunkard was harassing the girl after he made her drop her ice cream on him. He saved her from him."

The officers look at each other before putting away their weapons.

Officer 1: "I see... Is that true, kids?"

Ichigo: "Yeah, it is." He looks back to the drunk. "Shit, I guess I did overdo it. Again..."

He thinks back to the time where he did something similar to Winter. Then again, in both circumstances, they were asking for it.

The girl nods to them, after which, one of them calls for an ambulance.

Officer 2: "We won't charge you, so just keep your hands clean. Vale's got a lot of idiots these days."

Officer 1: "Not just here. Mistral's also become full of weirdos and crooks. Atlas, with its military, seems alright and Vacuo's, well, Vacuo."

This sounds like some generic RPG-type dialogue, discussing how the events of the game came to be. That doesn't really bother Ichigo though. Instead, he turns his attention to the girl while the ambulance arrives to transport the drunk to the hospital.

Ichigo: "You alright? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

She shakes her head, but casts her eyes down away from him, looking to her melting treat that's sitting on the ground. Ichigo chuckles a bit.

Ichigo: "*chuckle* How's this? I'll buy you another one."

Her eyes practically shoot out of her head as she smiles, suggesting that he made the right call.

Ice Cream Vendor: "It's on the house. You did a good thing, so I'm feeling generous."

Ichigo carries a bowl with five giant ice cream scoops in it over to her, making sure not to drop it. Something about her reminds him of Kenpachi's lieutenant Yachiru in a weird way. While she's definitely not as loud as her, this girl seems just as happy to receive sweets.

Ichigo: "Wonder how Kenpachi's doin'..." he says to himself.

He goes back to remembering that he's pissed over not being believed by the others. However, he's snapped out of his thoughts once again by the girl, who's already finished a third of the ice cream he got her.

Ichigo: "Jesus..." he expresses in response to the missing ice cream. "Yeah?" he asks her.

She takes a notepad from her back pocket, writing on it, and showing it to him.