In Memorial of the Fallen: a RWBY RP [IC Thread]

[Occupied Deutschland]

*snip*

Umber glanced back at the Faunus, and caught a distinct annoyance on Jolana’s face as she passed the same scene. Which was fair, she supposed. Even if it was just a Faunus getting ribbed on a little, it was a rather petty joke. Something one would hope any Hunter-in-training would be above. Sure, it was funny. The Faunus probably even deserved it for one reason or another. But it was a matter of proper discipline. It didn’t matter if the target deserved what was coming to it, there should be enough respect for the rules not to do anything in the first place.

She wasn’t the one to teach that respect, though. It wasn’t her job, or her responsibility. Beyond that, she didn’t have any real desire to intervene in the case of one Faunus who’d probably brought the treatment on themselves! It wasn’t like—

Umber stopped, both the thought and her movement. She probably—No, not ‘probably’ she wasn’t thinking clearly on the topic. Which made it a good time to seek advice, as she had learned with quite enough difficulty over the last year. It just happened she had a close-by source of potential advice as well that might not be as ra—biased as herself.

Umber pointed at Jolana and mouthed the words ‘Professor Lewiston’. Emphasizing the finger at Jolana again, Umber brought it around to point at herself and then jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the Faunus and its—his—trio of annoyers. Umber rounded out the movement by shrugging slightly.

Do you want to get Professor Lewiston or should we do something? I don’t know…

It would make things much simpler if the Faunus just had their own school or something. Umber recognized the thought as unfair but wasn't quite able to silence it as much as she wished she could. Just because it was unfair didn't make it true after all.

[Rupudska]

Do you want to get Professor Lewiston or should we do something? I don’t know…

It would make things much simpler if the Faunus just had their own school or something. Umber recognized the thought as unfair but wasn't quite able to silence it as much as she wished she could. Just because it was unfair didn't make it true after all.

Jolana nodded. It was more a barely detectable move of her head than a nod, but a nod nonetheless, and one Umber could tell was a nod.

Code: Select all

I will contact Professor Lewiston.

she typed out.

Code: Select all

I needed to do so anyway.

Attaching her Scroll to Tyrian Kwanon, she again began typing, taking care that neither the bullies nor any potential hall monitors noticed her doing so - it wasn't exactly banned to text while in school, but it was generally frowned upon except in 'emergencies.'

Which this certainly qualifies as, she thought as she wrote out her text to Lewiston.

Code: Select all

Faunus being cornered/picked on by 3-4 students, appear to be third years. Can you come over and intercede? Oh, and I finished that analysis.

[Aidannadia]

"You're an ass," the woman shouted, slapping him across the face. What a creep. She thought. I swear, I get a guy like him every other week. Her hands gripped tightly with frustration while her stomach growled with even more anger. Oh well. It'll take a lot more than some creep to do me in. The thought consoled her, but the few lien in her pocket proved more worrisome.

She turned into an alley to get home quicker, silently calculating how to pay both rent and her food without going into debt. It didn't pan out, much like this poorly thought out path home.

Men in suits came from each direction of an intersection of an alley. Each had short black hair and familiar sunglasses- In fact, they resembled the workers at a night club across town. What might they be doing in this part of town at this time of night. Well, that was just what Sapphire was wondering.

"Get out of here!" The waitress shouted angrily at the group of men. They were all silent as those close in on their prey, eye her like a group of hyena's circling a slab of meat. One opened his mouth to say something, obviously anxious to tell the woman the preprepared list of threats.

Bang. A gunshot sounded, and the force slammed the gangster into the cobbled ground. The group of men all looked, half expecting a golden-haired streetfighter whose rage burned like a molten ball of fire to appear from the night, but instead were greeted by a teen of almost the opposite persuasion. Purple seemed to dominate his color scheme, and his glasses glowed violet like the barrel at the end of his rifle shined red.

"Hmph" A single, cocky chuckled bounced off the walls of the alleyway as the figure leaped forward, shooting two more foes down with his rifle. Three of the men took out batons while the other two grabbed the waitress; One held a gun to her head while another stood beside him with his hand concealed in his vest. Cries of fright came not from the woman despite her dangerous situation. Years in this city had hardened her and granted in her immunity from the fearful sensitivities that accompanied most citizens these days.

The figure, now clearly shown as the 'creep' from before in the light of the moon, bent down as he landed among the three baton armed assailants. Each one raised their weapon to strike, but before they could even swing their shoulders into motion, the teen swiped their feet out from under them.

"Stop, or I'll shoot!" The man holding the woman said, pointing the gun instead at the meddlesome brat.

"Big mistake." The waitress said before flipping him over her shoulder and beginning to run off.

"Not so fast!" Said the final gangster, revealing from his vest a ball and chain weapon that wrapped around the woman's leg and pulled her towards him. The weapon was swung violently with the woman still attaching, sending her flying at her savior, who took the full force of the collision. Before he could even begin to be prepared once more, the heir was rushed by the gangster. The man delivered blow after blow, only for each one to be blocked by a small violet forcefield or the side of the teen's axe.

Finally, the gang leader pointed the ball and chain at his enemy, and fired the blunt projectile straight towards the teen. A chuckle was heard, and as the dust cleared, the heir was nowhere to be found. "Huh?" The gangster said with confusion before a clanging sounded and his large body hit the ground with a thud.

"You never stood a chance." He said, spitting on the groaning man's cheek with superiority.

He left without another word. The police soon arrived and took the woman in for questioning, but found nothing suspicious save for a wad of several hundred Lien that was baffling on her salary.

---

Togami checked his scroll one more time before entering From Dust 'til Dawn. He took a position towards the back of the store and turned up his music loud enough to try to ignore the Oum-awfully overpriced stock.

[Neo ORB]

Yuki in her frantic state struggled, struggled to reach the side of the bed and watched as her arm creep'd closer and closer to the bedside. As her inhuman screams continued she was closer with every passing nanosecond to being able to reclaim her "Tundra". To fight off the ghosts of Grimm that was advancing on her within her vision, to fight her enemy until either they or her were destroyed and were returned to nothing. The fact was Yuki was cold, dead, a living corpse to the external world... She couldn't feel the attempts of the Nurse who had rushed to her side and attempted to calm her. But what she could feel was a sudden slamming force pushing her into the bed frame.

It wasn't violent of course, but the pressure that as excluded was placed on every part of her body. It was a force that in her mindless raging state she had no chance of fighting against, as her body was gently pushed into the frame she was forced to lay upon.
Of course this effect of being unable to move only heightened her fears as her mind was forced to make connections to the day her mother perished on top of her while taking the fatal blow. Yuki was forced to recall the weight of that "person" or of her mother who laid dying on top of her. Such an action made her even further desperate as she tried to fight against the barrier that held her. But try as she might to raise her body it was futile and slowly her head was forced to face something... someone.

In front of Yuki's vacant emotionless purple eyes, the refection of Avena looked back, her face caked with worry. however it was not Avena's face that suddenly made Yuki's scream slowly die out, it was of her own reflection that Yuki watched in Avena's eyes. It was a face, a tiny face with pale skin and purple eyes made like glass which wore an expression of pain, of terror, of crippling fright. But to Yuki it might as well been blown up and in front of her starring like how she thought Avena was, was her own ugly appearance was reflected back at her.

It was enough of a shock that Yuki forgot about the fact she was screaming and felt herself calm down while her stare became hollow and empty, void of any former tinge of emotional outburst. Her face once again slowly took on its emotionless mask becoming cold and neutral, the slight tears that had streaked her face ceased. Yuki was once again calm, collected and cold.
So unbearably cold it was like the room was slowly freezing in order to keep her chilled and she was but a statue made from chiseled ice. Yuki was cold and yet so remarkably fragile. But as she spoke her next words it one more reinforced the fact that Yuki was anything but normal as if her prior episode had been nothing but a dream, or a small trip.

"Oh Avena... ?"

It was then Yuki noticed that bandages, for a moment her eyes widened as she rapidly gained all the information she could and then like a cold splash of water to the face, Yuki recalled everything once more as her eyes then settled. The growth of a arm from ice, the feeling of her claws slashing through Avena. the voice of anger that Carmina roared, the dealings of two duels to be... information processed frighteningly quick and then like a one of the hopeless, Yuki spoke once more in an monotone pitch.

"It's seems I've hurt you... would you like to kill me in the duel?"

[Stormwrath]

Jackson and Leif

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Jackson had heard the piercing shriek from the infirmary as well. "Agh," he quickly covered his ears due to the pain. He asked Malidia, "What was—"

Heamet had exited the infirmary, possibly to get some air, but then he noticed that she and Jackson were outside. With a distrustful squint he stared at her and said, "Leave the girl, right now. You are obviously a hindrance to her mental health."

Mental health? Was Yuki really that psychologically unstable? Wait, she's in the infirmary!? But—but how!? What else happened back in the library while he and Leif brought Avena here? Did Malidia have something to do with it, or did she bring her here? "What?," he asked the other two, "What happened?"

Oh, thank god she calmed down. For a second there he thought winter was about to begin in whatever was the equivalent of July. Yuki was staring intently into Avena's eyes for some reason, and seemed to be muttering something to her. Something about a duel where she ends Yuki's misery or something like that.

What? But… But… There was no way Avena would want to kill her! Why would she even think of doing that to her? She has no qualms about killing Grimm, but killing another human must be another thing entirely—Yuki should know that. Leif was nothing but stunned, as if he was already frozen by Yuki's power. No no no, he closed his eyes and wished, no murders or fights should happen today—there had been way too much drama today for him to bear. He attempted to stop things from escalating by saying, "Yuki, I know you're upset and all, but don't ask Avena to kill you—i—it's too soon for that! I don't want anyone dying today!"

[Sonitusia]

Mentari pulled Charlotte up, and they exited the restaurant, the door opened by the same fellow they had seen earlier, who had apparently calmed down. They made their way down the streets, the afternoon sun already reaching the end of the horizon, but the stay still shone brightly. Mentari pulled the strap of her backpack, looking for the store that she was to go into. Checking her watch, she waited another five minutes until it was exactly thirty minutes after she sent the message before opening the shop door. There had been awhile ago she'd heard, but it looked like everything was still okay.

Togami checked his scroll one more time before entering From Dust 'til Dawn. He took a position towards the back of the store and turned up his music loud enough to try to ignore the Oum-awfully overpriced stock.

Looking through the wares, she found him, listening to music through a pair of headphones. A slight feeling of deja vu overcame the writer, and it only increased as she tapped the boy's shoulder, pulling one of the headphone cans to the side slightly. "Care to buy a backpack?"

[Nachfolgia]

Yuki in her frantic state struggled, struggled to reach the side of the bed and watched as her arm creep'd closer and closer to the bedside. As her inhuman screams continued she was closer with every passing nanosecond to being able to reclaim her "Tundra". To fight off the ghosts of Grimm that was advancing on her within her vision, to fight her enemy until either they or her were destroyed and were returned to nothing. The fact was Yuki was cold, dead, a living corpse to the external world... She couldn't feel the attempts of the Nurse who had rushed to her side and attempted to calm her. But what she could feel was a sudden slamming force pushing her into the bed frame.

It wasn't violent of course, but the pressure that as excluded was placed on every part of her body. It was a force that in her mindless raging state she had no chance of fighting against, as her body was gently pushed into the frame she was forced to lay upon.
Of course this effect of being unable to move only heightened her fears as her mind was forced to make connections to the day her mother perished on top of her while taking the fatal blow. Yuki was forced to recall the weight of that "person" or of her mother who laid dying on top of her. Such an action made her even further desperate as she tried to fight against the barrier that held her. But try as she might to raise her body it was futile and slowly her head was forced to face something... someone.

In front of Yuki's vacant emotionless purple eyes, the refection of Avena looked back, her face caked with worry. however it was not Avena's face that suddenly made Yuki's scream slowly die out, it was of her own reflection that Yuki watched in Avena's eyes. It was a face, a tiny face with pale skin and purple eyes made like glass which wore an expression of pain, of terror, of crippling fright. But to Yuki it might as well been blown up and in front of her starring like how she thought Avena was, was her own ugly appearance was reflected back at her.

It was enough of a shock that Yuki forgot about the fact she was screaming and felt herself calm down while her stare became hollow and empty, void of any former tinge of emotional outburst. Her face once again slowly took on its emotionless mask becoming cold and neutral, the slight tears that had streaked her face ceased. Yuki was once again calm, collected and cold.
So unbearably cold it was like the room was slowly freezing in order to keep her chilled and she was but a statue made from chiseled ice. Yuki was cold and yet so remarkably fragile. But as she spoke her next words it one more reinforced the fact that Yuki was anything but normal as if her prior episode had been nothing but a dream, or a small trip.

"Oh Avena... ?"

It was then Yuki noticed that bandages, for a moment her eyes widened as she rapidly gained all the information she could and then like a cold splash of water to the face, Yuki recalled everything once more as her eyes then settled. The growth of a arm from ice, the feeling of her claws slashing through Avena. the voice of anger that Carmina roared, the dealings of two duels to be... information processed frighteningly quick and then like a one of the hopeless, Yuki spoke once more in an monotone pitch.

"It's seems I've hurt you... would you like to kill me in the duel?"

Avena looked at Yuki in confusion. She wasn't sure why Yuki insisted for them to fight, especially after just waking up from unconsciousness. To be frank, she didn't know a lot about what was going on in this situation. Much of her confusion came from Yuki's strange behavior and what was going through her mind. She hated the fight that she was blind to these kind of things. Her daft behavior cost her someone special and she didn't want to go through that again.

Avena glanced at Jackson and Leif as barged in. Jackson began begging Yuki not to duel, saying that it was unnecessary to do and risk getting killed. " It's alright, Jackson." Avena said, quieting Jackson and Leif. " If you intend on fighting me, meet me at the cliffs in the Emerald Forest. We'll settle things there." Avena said before standing up and walking out of the infirmary.

[Aidannadia]

He considered his fellow store-goer, looking her up and down. "Ha. I thought you were robbing me for a moment there." Togami said, taking his headphones off of his head and having them bend and slid into his coat pocket. "Requiem in D-minor. Do you know it?" A slight chuckle came from his closed lips as if he had just told a joke, but it was quickly taken over by a frown.

It was not long before Togami took the backpack gingerly, and then handed her the cylinder. His nose scrunched at the sight of the package, "You couldn't have picked something more my color? Shame." His joking was dry this time, but his eyes lit up when he took from the confines of the backpack a small, ornate scroll that seemed to shine with a halo in the store's artificial lights. A tear streamed down the heir's cheek, and he acted in a manner so very uncharacteristic that the folly would be remembered for the rest of his life; he embraced Mentari abruptly and whispered a quiet, "Thank you."

As soon as he realized what he was doing, the nobleman half-pushed Mentari away and half-took a step back, straightening the front of his attire before coughing and turning to face the shelves once more. "I can't help but think I took advantage of the worst parts of you." He said frankly.

"I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about... life and how it relates to music. You have low notes, and high notes. You have long notes and short notes. Ultimately, though..." He paused, considering the scroll once more in his hand as if he were seeing it for the first time.

"Songs always come to an end. In my hand, I hold the culmination of years of efforts, toils, and plans. Every trill, every chord of my being, every note of my life has led to this moment. This device is my revenge, my retribution, my savior, but most importantly of all... This scroll is my destiny."

"Do you believe in destiny?" He asked, turning to face his unlikely partner.

[Serah]

After all this commotion, Heamet had left to get fresh air.
Making some connections in his mind about various thing that had happened, he stood in a clearing of the forest, ironically, the one he was wounded in during the initiation, some traces, albeit vague of his blood still remained against the tree where he almost got slaughtered.
Pulling up his shirt, he looked at the three marks the bear had left him with.

"Tch. I was careless at that time, the blow was obvious, sloppy, easily avoidable, and I still managed to get hit because I wanted to show off to literally no one how awesome I was.
If only I could meet myself, I'd punch my past self in the face." His smile had, for once completely disappeared, he was sitting under a barrier of about fifteen meters in radius, no Grimm could ever hope to even pass it.

'Except maybe a Nevermore, or any of those big ones really.' He finished.
'Gee Mr. narrator, you just have to break the immersion with your description at times, then again, being the new hero of your story, I guess I'll have to put up with it until the lead role switches.' He thought, addressing an outer presence only he seemed to know about.

He thought about what his team had accomplished in total, what he did as a leader, and what happened in general.

"Barely nothing happened for us actually, it's kind of sad. We're possibly one of the most efficient students in this place, having entered Beacon with more than simply our arms and our fantasy filled minds.
However, as a leader... I didn't do jack shit, kinda pisses me off now that I think about it.
Then again, everyone is always off working themselves out but barely working with each other, and when they do work with each other they rule at what they do.
I became a loner, I, who at first couldn't even do anything on my own besides hit really hard, became a loner and someone possibly more efficient than I ever could be.
But the thing is... Besides vaguely being able to counsel people, making puns and fighting obviously weak people...
My life is void of anything, there's nothing to do, nothing to strive for.
I'm just... Asking myself why, I guess.
Why did I want to do this? Why did I want to progress that fast?
Right now, even the weakest student in the academy could beat me because I'm just not made for winning, I have no resolve, nothing to accomplish, no regrets." As he sighed, his eyes became void of anything, just like he said, his life was empty now.

He had no pride, no shame, no resolve.
He had no need to defeat anything or anyone, he didn't lose his parents, he never lost a friend, a brother, a sister.
He was simply done, he had nothing else to do.
As the barrier broke due to his own negativity having served as a signal for the Grimm of the forest to come rushing towards him.

There were dozens of Grimm surrounding him, blocking him from any hope of escape.
Closing in on him, his fate would've been sealed at that very moment.


However...

"Yeah, that's bullshit." His smile returned as he punched off several Grimm in one hit.

"While it's true that I'm bored..." Summoning a blade from his barriers, he didn't even grab it, he just felt like flailing it around at a distance to skewer several beowolves standing in the way.

"There is still one thing I haven't done..." Pulling out his blade, he concentrated his semblance into a remote slash that cut several Boarbatusks that were on the verge of spin roll their way up to him.

"And that thing is..." As he was preparing an attack, two Ursa closed in on him and hit him at full force, only to realize that the thing they had hit was simply two very precise barriers, and as others closed in on him, he liberated a barrier of spikes around him, killing off the ones going for him.

He looked skyward and saw a Nevermore fly over him.
"Make the worst pun imaginable at the face of the big bad!" Smiling brighter than usual, he jumped off using a springboard barrier under him.

"Surprise! Turns out humans can fly!" Making a platform under him, he ran for it and went on the bird.
"Hé! Tu sais que mes lames ont du plomb?" Cutting off one of the wings with a remote slash, effectively making the Grimm crash land on the ground.

Stepping off of it at the right time, he moved up to its head and threw a breath pill into its maw.
"Parceque j'tais mis du plomb dans l'aile." He finished and cut the head in two with a guillotine barrier.

"Long live the king."

Then he fell.
Not only because the battle was rough, but because it was extremely tiring to create dozens of barriers of various types in such a short time.
However, he was safe for now.
Nothing was standing anymore, not even him, but he simply laughed it off.

"His breath was stinky as hell, seriously it's a wonder how they can live without flavored pills for bad breath.
Bloody hell.
But that was probably the most awesome thing I've done yet!"

[Neo ORB]

Yuki couldn't entirely understand what was the big deal?, after all, all she had asked Avena was that if she hated her enough that she would want to kill her in there duel? its not like she wanted to die or anything. As she looked blankly at Liefs expression she only grew more confused as she heard and thought on his words.
"Yuki, I know you're upset and all, but don't ask Avena to kill you—i—it's too soon for that! I don't want anyone dying today!"

However as Yuki only grew more bewilthered she lightly tilted her head and watched as Avena spoke and then walked out of the infirmary. however her words still slightly made Yuki draw various dots as she continued to think while slowly getting off of the bed after feeling the pressure of the barriers fade.
"If you intend on fighting me, meet me at the cliffs in the Emerald Forest. We'll settle things there."

slowly Yuki who had watched Avena walk away tried to raise her hand to stop her but was far too late and then lightly sighed inside and then looked at Leif and Jackson who had worrying expressions plastered on them...
"You've misinterpreted... I said that "It's seems i've hurt you... when I... rampaged, are you angry at me for this? If so would you like to not kill me in the duel... It seems that some of it didn't come out when I spoke..."

As Yuki slowly then stood from off the bed she quickly patted her skirt and then sighed inwardly since even before fighting she was going to have to change into her spare uniform... what a waste of the day already. But as she looked at Jackson and Leif she then quietly spoke.
"Please be prepared to have a medical kit and wait at the cliff... I feel that it would be... unwise to hold back on her... Make sure you have some blankets... as thick as possible..."

And then with that Yuki started to make for the door, of course if Jackson and Leif wanted to stop her from heading to her room she would let them. But since Yuki still had accepted this challenge... she was at least prepared to go through with both of them, the first being with Avena and then the next with Carmina. As Yuki quickly then made a while uneasy but confident step forward , she with full intent had started to leave moving through the two of them. But Yuki she carefully placed her hand on what she thought was the door frame, she quickly found herself suddenly dizzy from vertigo and then felt herself falling as the ground rushed to meet her with a loud smack. She had been affected by Vertigo, dizziness, an unbalanced body and tripping suddenly over an layabout object(The briefcase), Yuki could only suddenly look pitiful as she suddenly laid on the ground sprawled with a blank expression as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she was sent back into dreamland.

---

Erde had been about to take Jackson's hand to seal the deal when a scream resounded from inside the infirmary. As she watched Jackson quickly cover his ears Erde lightly twitched them in hidden but minuscule annoyance. The scream to her was no more loud then a passing vehicle at close range, after all in Erde's case when she fired her weapon at full intent it would make a sonic boom at point blank which would rob her of her hearing for weeks on end.
As Erde watched another come out of the infirmary, a young man who in passing gave quite the stare in her direction, it was a stare that was defient, annoyed even perhaps knowing... but as Erde lightly sniffed his scent as he passed by, she knew exactly who his "Friends" were. Of course she couldn't help but be lightly ticked as in passing he spoke his comment and ran with his tail between his legs.

"Leave the girl, right now. You are obviously a hindrance to her mental health."

But while slightly ticked Erde watched Jackson move into the room and quickly Erde reached into her pocket and pulled out a small notepad and a pen from her internal suit pocket and then quickly wrote a note for Jackson and placed it on the briefcase. It's message was simple but if he had any observant capability he should notice and take the briefcase with him once everything settled down.

Mr. J. Silver, i'll be leaving this in your care, the case is unlocked for your convenience; Inside are the issue's I want you to sell, thirty five autographed in total, I'll come back in a week to check your progress. If you want feel free to hand the surveys out inside the briefcase as well to other students, depending on if they are handed out or not I'll be implementing a bonus to your pay.
See you in a week, Ms. Malidia Watraridge

As Erde turned to leave she internally sighed and then started walking back down the halls "following" after the rude little bird who had chirped so annoyingly towards her. Oh of course to say she exactly followed him wasn't entirely true as she simply followed his scent from a few hundred meters behind, she watched him walk through the halls, head outside and into the forest. Once Erde entered she quickly moved into the trees and then silently continued to follow jumping and running easily along from branch to branch in pursuit. As she reached the clearing herself she could see the bird encased within a barrier of sorts. As Erde then silently plucked herself down on the branch with her legs dangling and her tail lightly swaying, she watched from the shadows of the foliage.

However as Erde watched him, she could only and utterly sigh... how boring... he not doing anything, hes just sitting there all sulky.
but it that wasn't enough Erde then slowly looked down below and saw dozens of grim below her, Some starring at the Bird in the clearing, others stared for a moment at her as if thinking about what would happen if they chose to try and make a meal out of her and then deciding against it and focused on the "bird" like the rest. As Erde placed her vision lie the Grimm on the Bird, she watched as his shielding broke and then watched with a sudden entertained smile as dozens of Grimm rushed towards him.

Of course the ensuing "Slaughter" as Erde watched the bird punch, slash and loudly speak about making the big pun in front of the big bad.
She found herself smiling like the boy, of course her smile was in admiration for the "bird" who gave such a "innocent" smile, she then watched him use his barrier as a springboard. As Erde felt herself get slightly lost in the flashiness of his fight and watched him run on his barriers as he brought the Nevermore out from the sky to the ground and then finished it off and then fell.
So as Erde listened to his innocent laughter she couldn't help but lightly twitch her ears as she listened to his words.

"His breath was stinky as hell, seriously it's a wonder how they can live without flavored pills for bad breath.
Bloody hell.
But that was probably the most awesome thing I've done yet!"

Of all the things to say... that was his closing remark? Erde sighed as she placed her hand on her head and lightly shook it. However with a small genuine smile as she stared at the "Bird" she lightly, silently slipped off the branch and then landed with a small four limbed landing similar to like a cat. As her tail lightly swayed back and forth, Erde gracefully then got out from her quadraphonic position and then lightly moved toward the clearing leaving the forest behind her while placing her hands into her pockets. As she approached the bird who was laying down her ears could pick of the sounds of further approaching Grimm.

In fact there was likely hundreds of them who had seen the "bird" take down the Nevermore and were now rushing in waves to their position
But the fact was there was simply too many Grimm in this world, even Erde thought so. However even a monster like she was, held a few principles gained from her cover as Malidia, and as a Instructor she couldn't let such a talented piece of entertainment perish just yet.
So Erde smiled, smiled as she stared and continued to walk towards the bird without a single care and acted on one of her principles.
As she let her semblance ripple outwards as she lightly took her left hand from her pocket and then lightly held it up open faced to the sky.
From a visual it looked like Erde was waving as she approached, but when one looked to her open left hand as she closed her fingers into a fist.

The story became all too different as high above them various great swords twisted and phased into existence with lengths of the blades that were stretched into two meters long and were unlikely unwieldable by normal standards which then fell with the help of gravity towards the ground. As the sky began to rain steel into the forest, the sounds of grim screaming and landing with heavy dull thud's was resounding around them and could even be slightly felt.
Erde smiled, towards the bird, towards herself, towards her far off Master who planned in the unseen distance. And with a confident gant she finally pressed her shadow onto the bird and stared down at him and spoke with a voice thick with admiration and mocking.

"Well look at you all tired and sweaty... and you said, that the Grimm smell bad, when was the last time you showered?
I could pick you up all the way back from Beacon...
So?, do you feel good having your workout? did it make your muscles burn? I could give you a shower if you like... or a bath...

What do you say? little Heamet... I'll even make the water feel good. All you have to do is ask, its not like anyone is watching.
Come on what do you say? I'll even wash your back for you... A little "skinship" hurts nobody... well nobody but you that is.
Or is it your afraid that i'll hurt "Your" mental health like I did that girls? oh wait, your already "Insane" I cant hurt what you don't have now can I little Heamet..."

[Serah]

Erde had been about to take Jackson's hand to seal the deal when a scream resounded from inside the infirmary. As she watched Jackson quickly cover his ears Erde lightly twitched them in hidden but minuscule annoyance. The scream to her was no more loud then a passing vehicle at close range, after all in Erde's case when she fired her weapon at full intent it would make a sonic boom at point blank which would rob her of her hearing for weeks on end.
As Erde watched another come out of the infirmary, a young man who in passing gave quite the stare in her direction, it was a stare that was defient, annoyed even perhaps knowing... but as Erde lightly sniffed his scent as he passed by, she knew exactly who his "Friends" were. Of course she couldn't help but be lightly ticked as in passing he spoke his comment and ran with his tail between his legs.

"Leave the girl, right now. You are obviously a hindrance to her mental health."

But while slightly ticked Erde watched Jackson move into the room and quickly Erde reached into her pocket and pulled out a small notepad and a pen from her internal suit pocket and then quickly wrote a note for Jackson and placed it on the briefcase. It's message was simple but if he had any observant capability he should notice and take the briefcase with him once everything settled down.

Mr. J. Silver, i'll be leaving this in your care, the case is unlocked for your convenience; Inside are the issue's I want you to sell, thirty five autographed in total, I'll come back in a week to check your progress. If you want feel free to hand the surveys out inside the briefcase as well to other students, depending on if they are handed out or not I'll be implementing a bonus to your pay.
See you in a week, Ms. Malidia Watraridge

As Erde turned to leave she internally sighed and then started walking back down the halls "following" after the rude little bird who had chirped so annoyingly towards her. Oh of course to say she exactly followed him wasn't entirely true as she simply followed his scent from a few hundred meters behind, she watched him walk through the halls, head outside and into the forest. Once Erde entered she quickly moved into the trees and then silently continued to follow jumping and running easily along from branch to branch in pursuit. As she reached the clearing herself she could see the bird encased within a barrier of sorts. As Erde then silently plucked herself down on the branch with her legs dangling and her tail lightly swaying, she watched from the shadows of the foliage.

However as Erde watched him, she could only and utterly sigh... how boring... he not doing anything, hes just sitting there all sulky.
but it that wasn't enough Erde then slowly looked down below and saw dozens of grim below her, Some starring at the Bird in the clearing, others stared for a moment at her as if thinking about what would happen if they chose to try and make a meal out of her and then deciding against it and focused on the "bird" like the rest. As Erde placed her vision lie the Grimm on the Bird, she watched as his shielding broke and then watched with a sudden entertained smile as dozens of Grimm rushed towards him.

Of course the ensuing "Slaughter" as Erde watched the bird punch, slash and loudly speak about making the big pun in front of the big bad.
She found herself smiling like the boy, of course her smile was in admiration for the "bird" who gave such a "innocent" smile, she then watched him use his barrier as a springboard. As Erde felt herself get slightly lost in the flashiness of his fight and watched him run on his barriers as he brought the Nevermore out from the sky to the ground and then finished it off and then fell.
So as Erde listened to his innocent laughter she couldn't help but lightly twitch her ears as she listened to his words.

"His breath was stinky as hell, seriously it's a wonder how they can live without flavored pills for bad breath.
Bloody hell.
But that was probably the most awesome thing I've done yet!"

Of all the things to say... that was his closing remark? Erde sighed as she placed her hand on her head and lightly shook it. However with a small genuine smile as she stared at the "Bird" she lightly, silently slipped off the branch and then landed with a small four limbed landing similar to like a cat. As her tail lightly swayed back and forth, Erde gracefully then got out from her quadraphonic position and then lightly moved toward the clearing leaving the forest behind her while placing her hands into her pockets. As she approached the bird who was laying down her ears could pick of the sounds of further approaching Grimm.

In fact there was likely hundreds of them who had seen the "bird" take down the Nevermore and were now rushing in waves to their position
But the fact was there was simply too many Grimm in this world, even Erde thought so. However even a monster like she was, held a few principles gained from her cover as Malidia, and as a Instructor she couldn't let such a talented piece of entertainment perish just yet.
So Erde smiled, smiled as she stared and continued to walk towards the bird without a single care and acted on one of her principles.
As she let her semblance ripple outwards as she lightly took her left hand from her pocket and then lightly held it up open faced to the sky.
From a visual it looked like Erde was waving as she approached, but when one looked to her open left hand as she closed her fingers into a fist.

The story became all too different as high above them various great swords twisted and phased into existence with lengths of the blades that were stretched into two meters long and were unlikely unwieldable by normal standards which then fell with the help of gravity towards the ground. As the sky began to rain steel into the forest, the sounds of grim screaming and landing with heavy dull thud's was resounding around them and could even be slightly felt.
Erde smiled, towards the bird, towards herself, towards her far off Master who planned in the unseen distance. And with a confident gant she finally pressed her shadow onto the bird and stared down at him and spoke with a voice thick with admiration and mocking.

"Well look at you all tired and sweaty... and you said, that the Grimm smell bad, when was the last time you showered?
I could pick you up all the way back from Beacon...
So?, do you feel good having your workout? did it make your muscles burn? I could give you a shower if you like... or a bath...

What do you say? little Heamet... I'll even make the water feel good. All you have to do is ask, its not like anyone is watching.
Come on what do you say? I'll even wash your back for you... A little "skinship" hurts nobody... well nobody but you that is.
Or is it your afraid that i'll hurt "Your" mental health like I did that girls? oh wait, your already "Insane" I cant hurt what you don't have now can I little Heamet..."

As Heamet suddenly saw dozens of blades similar to what he had been stabbed with raining down upon the remaining Grimm, he felt his last hour arrive, but even so, he was still smiling.

"Oh well, a pun is a pun after all.
I can always tell puns to Monty up there." He chuckled a bit and sighed.
"Guess this is what you get for showing off on a non daily basis, or maybe Mr. Narrator is unhappy with me, that could be it as well.
Avena's lucky for that, she'd showed off so much it isn't considered as showing off anymore, so she lives with simple injuries.
Little bastard."

However, just like when the Grimm attacked him, death did not come for him.
Instead, he was met with the sight of a woman he had seen before.

'Oh, knockoff DIO. What a surprise. I suppose I'm Kakyoin right now, I'm feeling a good old: Let's be friends. thing from her now.
Oh joy.' He thought before having someone pressed against him.

The woman unnerved him, but he felt like acting normally for once.

"Well hello there 'Malidia'.
If you're asking yourself about when I last showered myself, I'll have you know I did just this morning, I'm not like some of my friends.
If they could even be called that anymore.
But you're not here to see me get depressed are you?
I suppose you watched the show I just put on.
Sloppy wasn't it? I'd say given your semblance is basically pulled from Fate/Stay Night, your Unlimited Blade works surprises me only barely, then again, I wasn't expecting you to follow me." He smiled still and looked up to the woman.

"However... It doesn't surprise me nearly as much that you know my name.
But I think you've started to get a liking to me, not because I'm nice though, both our first impressions were part of the rude parts of me.
Nah, I think you like me because of the show I just put on, it entertained you in some way, yet it's a wonder why anyone would like a sloppy show.
But I guess a bath or a shower couldn't hurt, as you can see, I'm not necessarily afraid of you, your power doesn't make me fear you, and to be honest, I could care less about what you did, do and will do.
I just now that once my narrator feels like it, he'll have me fight you.
But it's not like he can do it right now, I'm tired and I can barely move my muscles from using my semblance for so damn long in such varying quantities and types.
By the way, how do you feel about giving me Tetanus? The whole thing hurt like hell you know, at least it only stabbed my arm.
Then again could a really painful coughing session be called Tetanus? 'Cause that's what happened." He continued, with still the same smile, sarcasm and complete carefree attitude.

"After all, even if you broke me, what would it bring you? I'm a main character with no goals, shame, aspirations or anything.
I'm just a joker.
Then again... No one really knows what the Joker holds."

[Stormwrath]

Infirmary

Looks like Avena had made her mind up. She was going to fight Yuki at the cliffs. She stood up and walked out of the infirmary, ignoring the fact that she had an injury on her chest. Leif was growing more and more worried for his teammate—what if Yuki unveils that ice claw again and goes all-out on Avena? How would she survive the shock of that? "You're—you're not going to let them do it, are you?" he stared at Jackson.

The faunus sighed and glanced at the doorway. Honestly, this was stupid. Seeing that Yuki tripped on something and fell to the ground with an unceremonious knockout, he asked her, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

The ice princess didn't respond at all. She was lying there on the floor, unconscious, out of energy. No way was she in any good condition to go through with this, Jackson concluded—she was exerting herself too much. He exhaled deeply and crouched, picking her up. Good Monty was she cold to the touch. He straightened up and returned the sleeping Yuki back on her bed. She needed some rest, lest she collapse again in front of Avena. He asked the nurse if he can borrow one of the medical kits here—saying that she had also heard everything.

"I don't think the two ladies should settle this through violence," the nurse replied, covering Yuki's body with a blanket.

"Yeah, but it's not like Avena's going to listen to you," he took the first aid kit from the cabinet. "Or Yuki." Turning to Leif he said, "Let's go."

"Oh um, sure."

Jackson stopped in front of the briefcase and noticed that there was a note near it. Crouching down to pick it up, the note read, "Mr. J. Silver, I'll be leaving this in your care, the case is unlocked for your convenience. Inside are the issues I want you to sell, thirty-five autographed in total. I'll come back in a week to check your progress. If you want feel free to hand the surveys out inside the briefcase as well to other students—depending on if they are handed out or not—I'll be implementing a bonus to your pay. See you in a week, Ms. Malidia Watraridge."

Okay then. He stuffed the note into his pocket and picked up the briefcase, heading out of the infirmary. Leif followed close behind, opening his scroll and dialing a certain someone who might wanna be informed about what happened. Holding up the scroll to his ear, he waited for the other person to pick up.


Library

Book after book, Carmina was skimming over them—the pages fluttering as she went through the chapter like lightning. It wasn't because she was a good reader or anything, it was because she was looking for the diagrams. After all, what better way to understand than through pictures? In spite of this seemingly active reading habit, she was actually bored, and the only one that seemed to be keeping her teetering on the brink of lethargy was the quirky and cheerful Arrietty—who Carmina was happy to answer questions about weapons and forging—and Artol, who was enjoying some kind of conversation with Theriam.

Something vibrated in her pocket out of nowhere, and she placed the book down and pulled her scroll out. Oh, it was Leif. She stood up and took a few steps away from the table and answered it. "Leif?" she cupped her hands so the noise wouldn't disturb the others in the library. "How's Avena?"

"She—" he stuttered, "she's fine. She just got patched up by the nurse. Anyways, I have some bad news, she's going to fight Yuki at the cliffs."

"What!?" her tone was raised slightly. Avena just had to go and fight this crazed bitch, didn't she? "W—why didn't you stop her?"

"I did, she didn't listen. Yuki was the one who threw down the gauntlet after all, and so Avena had to settle things with her."

"Where is she now?"

"S—she's on her way."

"And you and Jackson?" she asked.

"Also heading there right now. We brought a medical kit in case one of them gets really hurt. You should get there too."

"A—alright, I'll be right there." She folded back the scroll and slipped it into her pocket. She returned to the table and returned her notebook inside her backpack. "I gotta go guys," she told Arrietty, Theriam and Artol. "I have somewhere to be."

She headed out of the library and ran through the corridors of the school to get to the locker room. Once there, she switched out of her school uniform and into her battle gear. No time for tying her hair back into a ponytail, Avena's not going to fight for herself today. The redhead quickly grabbed her Helfarch and rushed to the cliffs to meet with Jackson and Leif.


Cross-Continental Transit Tower

The group entered the elevator, and began to head down to ground level. "It's okay," Ozpin smiled at Jack and Lilith. "There have been a lot of interesting characters that enrolled at Beacon this year—each of them bringing their years of training to get where they were now. I believe there have been some students who stood out from mediocrity, such as Pyrrha Nikos of Team JNPR and Ruby Rose of Team RWBY, but I cannot say for sure if they are indeed the best of the best. They still have a long way to go, after all."

The lift stopped and opened its doors, revealing a semi-crowded lobby. Looks like there were lots who wished to hang out here today, probably to talk with loved ones, friends in other places, and even some acquaintances.

[Mirakai]

"It's your body, not hers, and only you get to decide what you do with it." [/i]

"Mmm, but I want her to be happy too," Mentari thought out loud, looking towards the ceiling in wonder, "Don't you think it'd be nice if she could feel what I feel?" Purnama was visibly touched inside, though it somewhat looked like mock surprise. That's actually rather nice of you, Mentari.~ The girl just smirked and continued digging into her food gracefully.

Moments later, she felt something vibrating in her pocket. Pulling out her scroll, the words haunted her slightly as her eyebrows furrowed.

Code: Select all

In Vale. Text me when free.

Togami eh... Purnama poked the sides of her mental confinement, asking, "Do you want me to take over?"

Staring at the words, Mentari replied with quick precision before shaking her head. "No, I'll handle it." Purnama shrugged as she sat back down. Suit yourself.

Code: Select all

30 min. From dusk till dawn.

---

Clover had lost track of where Mr. Murasaki had headed off to. It saddened him really, but there was nothing he could do about. Thus, he decided to find his teammates, of whom he would lead in upcoming missions. Who's idea was that anyways? Since when did a servant lead others?

Especially Ms. Valenhart. I hope she's not angry at me for being in a higher position than her. Clover shuddered, but his aimless walking had proven to be a stroke of luck, as he found one of his friends, Elizabeth. The only other person he'd met so far who was also actually a boy but dressed like a girl. It made him feel a bit warm in his heart that someone took an interest to such activities, though it did seem odd that Leo preferred female pronouns...

Shaking the thought aside, he greeted her. "Ms. Redwooood, what're you up to now?"

Liz was a bit dumbfounded by the sudden appearance of Varus's entire team. She didn't really know what to say in this situation. As he stood there confused, he suddenly heard a voice behind him.

"Ms. Redwooood, what're you up to now?"

Turning around, Liz noticed Clover, her team leader and fellow crossdresser. He looked so cute in the maid outfit!

"Hey Clover, just talking to this handsome hunk over here," said Liz, purposely choosing those words as she knew Varus was in earshot

[Sonitusia]

"Do you believe in destiny?" He asked, turning to face his unlikely partner.

Mentari barely reacted when she was hugged. Her entire attention was focused on the cylinder in her hand, slightly cracked, most likely having been used in the past. But it didn't matter, at least she didn't have to go through the process of ordering or creating one in shop. All it would take was a few quick fixes and she'd be done. All of this thought made Togami's voice seem to drone in the background, but when he stopped she finally took notice.

"Quite," she replied simply, pocketing the small device inside her jacket pocket, "the fate that we will eventually meet someone or something that will change our lives, yes. But the thing that I'd put my focus on would be how we can change that destiny into something better."

She stuck out her hand. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

---

"Hey Clover, just talking to this handsome hunk over here," said Liz, purposely choosing those words as she knew Varus was in earshot

Looking Varus over, Clover could only nod in agreement. "Indeed, he's quite the looker, miss..." he started, giggling a little, "Though I'd prefer Mr. Murasaki...~"

He then bowed before Varus gracefully, hands held together like a typical maid. "Clover Nocciola, servant of the Marseille household," he said softly, "Pleased to make your acquaintence.~"

[Luzshy]

Asher stared at the others of his team, and this Redwood character. His eyes flicked between them, the clear nervousness and desperation of this action offset by the oddity of his comment. Then again, that was his role, wasn’t it? To provide comic relief. At least, that was one of his roles. The other was to keep the bindings tight. After all, if they loosened it would happen again. Asher didn’t want to run again, despite the fact that it would be inevitably revealed that Asher was not Asher, merely a faunus.

Maybe if Asher was brave, like the Stalwart Mouse or if Asher was cold and logical, like the Copper Girl from the Witch of Zo he would tell his team. But alas, he was more like a certain other character from the novel-- the Knave. He was cowardly, incompetent, foolish, afraid-- and ultimately alone. He swung his finger out, the pale appendage which pointed towards the girl--Silvia-- and stuttered out some words despite his . “Y-you’re just like the Copper Girl from the book,” the finger shifted, this time pointing at Varus, “You a-are the Stalwart Mouse,” it flicked to the next member of SAVR, Russet, “You’re Theodore,” finally, Asher pointed to himself, “and I’m the Knave.”

[Rupudska]

*snip*

Alas. Professor Lewiston was taking too long to respond for Jolana's comfort. Placing her hands in a position where they would not be easily noticed by the group of bullies before her, she signed to Umber that she would do something.

That 'something' as it turned out was switching Kwanon into its primary weapon mode. That is, a big wavy zweihander.

"Hem-hem" she annunciated, rather loudly.

[Cybraxia]

Jack and Lilith
CCTT

"Pyrrha Nikos you say?" Jack asked.

"I've heard of her, she's the Mistral Regional Tournie winner, four years in a row." This caused Jack to look at her with some amount of awe. "What? I get bored sometimes. And no, I didn't get that from that stupid breakfast cereal."

"Right. In any case, she'd most likely be too high-profile. This Ruby Rose though... Hmm..." Jack scratched his beard. While he could secretly install surveillance devices to monitor for students of interest, he'd need something a bit more... close... to truly look at them for who they are. Besides, he'd rather not infringe on Ozpin's good-nature. While rumors of his abilities didn't scare him, he still thought better than to tangle with Ozpin.

So that only left one angle.

But those thoughts were for later. Jack looked back to Ozpin. "So, any occurrences of note that have intrigued you as of late?"

[Occupied Deutschland]

“Do you know why we wear masks, young lady?”

His voice almost echoed in the warehouse, and there was a very dark twist in the way he said ‘young lady’ that told Umber it would be a bad idea to respond. He’d used the same tone of voice before. The questions he asked in that tone of voice always ended in him hitting her no matter how she responded.

Opening the eye that wasn’t bruised shut, Umber raised her head and stared at the mask of ‘Nasty Faunus’. Two of his friends were at the door, ‘Quiet Faunus’ and ‘Dumb Faunus’. Dumb Faunus was clearly not pleased to see Nasty Faunus talking to her. Unfortunately, his discomfort didn’t help her very much at the moment. The only thing that could help her was being silent and hoping, somehow, their demands had been met. Though even then she doubted they’d let her live. The White Fang wasn’t exactly known for keeping its words with humans.

“You want to hide bad breath and the gum disease known as gingivitis?” Umber said, speaking carefully so the words wouldn’t be slurred from her fat lip. She wasn’t entirely successful, but from the way her captor’s hand was coming towards her—

Crack

—Successful enough to be understood.

Umber's chair tipped and slammed her onto her side. The impact knocked her breath away and forced her to bite down on the side of her tongue so hard she tasted blood. It was more of a blessing in disguise than anything since it kept her from giggling at the way she’d annoyed him. Giggling made him even more unpleasant than just mouthing off. But either was a better alternative than what she really wanted to do. It was a little thing, but she didn’t want him to know how helplessly afraid she was. Crying would make that rather obvious. But she could hide the fear and the pain and the desperate ache to just be home with her family behind the façade of humor and quiet she had created over the last days. As long as she did that, he at least wouldn’t have the satisfaction of hearing her whimper and beg like he clearly wanted her to.

Like she, if she was honest, desperately wanted to. As she would have been doing if there was even the smallest chance it would have helped.

‘Nasty Faunus’, as she’d come to mentally refer to the smallest (and meanest) of her three captors, had taken a bit too much pleasure in hitting her for any of his claims about noble intentions to be very convincing. For him this wasn’t part of some silly crusade to fight ‘Faunus discrimination’ like it was for Dumb Faunus. To Nasty Faunus it seemed like a very personal excuse just to hurt someone. So much the better if they were human, no doubt, but he wasn’t exactly compassionate even with the other Faunus. Judging from that alone she probably wouldn’t have gotten any sympathy or mercy from him no matter what she did. Combined with the way he always attempted to force a reaction from her, it was just plain obvious he wanted her to ask for them just so he could deny her.

So Umber had taken to hiding behind either flamboyant humor or, on the all-too often occasions when she couldn’t manage such a thing, total silence. The silence was easier most of the time. It tended to take Nasty Faunus a lot longer to start really hurting her if she was just silent, but it went on longer. Likewise it was usually over with quicker if she mocked him, but it hurt a lot throughout the whole thing. Right now, she was hoping to make it quicker. There wasn’t a lot more he could do to her until the next day when their ‘deadline’ was reached, so she’d rather he get it over with rather than drag it out.

Umber’s chair was dragged upright. The room spun for a long moment even after the chair stopped moving, and Umber closed her eyes for a moment of relief. Hopefully it would settle down eventually.

“You think you’re very smart, don’t you?”

Umber shrugged as much as the ropes around her arms would let her. “I endeavor to be as astute in the pursuits of the intellect as I can be. Oh, my apologies. A dust-mining Faunus peon with no education like yourself probably doesn’t—“

He punched her in the stomach this time. As she sucked down air from the hit a broken rib reminded her of its presence with its own sharp, stabbing contribution. But it was almost like an afterthought. The punch alone had been bad enough that the throbbing ache from her side was almost ignorable. Nasty Faunus followed up the punch with a very firm boxing of her ears. Umber’s vision misted over as the warehouse descended into a tunnel-like darkness for a moment, and she hung her head forward to hide the tears that were beginning to form.

"Be careful. We might need to give her back yet after all."

Umber couldn’t tell where the words came from, though she knew who must have said it. She wasn’t entirely convinced for the first few moments that the words hadn’t been entirely of her own imagination’s making. But the way Nasty Faunus crouched right in front of her instead of knocking her over again told her it had actually been said. It had to have been Dumb Faunus, but in that moment she couldn’t possibly have thanked him enough, kidnap-committing ideologically-blinded nutjob or not. She’d been on the verge of crying for her mother, or her father, or both, when the words came and kept Nasty Faunus from drawing that cry out of her.

“You’re very lucky we still want you alive, young lady.” Nasty Faunus said in a voice that could have melted steel. “Because I can tell you this, when we don’t, I will be as merciless killing you as a Grimm would be. And unlike a Grimm, I wouldn’t listen if you told me to stop.”

Umber got the distinct impression Nasty Faunus was smiling behind his mask at the sudden revelation that, somehow, he knew her. None of the Faunus had hidden the fact she’d been taken because of who her parents were, but he was the first to suggest he had any idea who she was. The first to show he knew her semblance, somehow. He’d included that as a clear message, because the only people who might know about that were part of the Academy. Yet somehow he’d found out.

Umber managed not to visibly move despite the arrow of acid-like cold that passed down her spine. She dared not even breathe for a few heartbeats so an accidental sob didn’t expose her lies. How was she supposed to respond to that without fear?

Umber raised her head, made a slightly disgusted face, and prepared herself for what was about to happen. “I was right. About the masks, I mean. You’re covering up some extreme halitosis.”

Nasty Faunus’s hand came back again. It balled into a fist. He was going to go for her cheek again. Umber brought her teeth together so she wouldn’t accidentally bite her tongue this time. She waited.

His hand stopped halfway to her, the fist held in the palm of Dumb Faunus.

"We might need to give her back yet. That means she needs to be in good enough condition to go back. Understand?”

Nasty Faunus didn’t seem happy to hear that. He mumbled something under his breath Umber couldn’t quite make out, and then stormed off towards the door.

Umber spat out the blood that had accumulated in her mouth at the feet of Dumb Faunus. “I hope you aren’t expecting gratitude from the girl you kidnapped.”

"Not gratitude. Just recognition.” Dumb Faunus said slowly.

“Well aren’t you in luck, it just so happens I recognize that the reason I’ve been getting used as short, dark and nasty’s punching bag is because you kidnapped me. No gratitude here, just recognition. So…Mission accomplished. The human oppressor has been taught her place and given you what you wanted. High fives all-around! Yay. You can let me go now.” Umber said, relieved to be able to say something and distract herself from the gut-wrenching fear.

Dumb Faunus looked at her. He stared at her, really. Even with the mask Umber got the feeling he was actually holding back a laugh. Though whether that was a good sign or a bad one she couldn’t tell. The masks really were creepy.

"I meant a different kind of recognition, from different people.” Dumb Faunus deadpanned in that same annoyingly precise voice.

“Oh. Well thanks so much for involving me in this spat you have with entirely different people. Very nice of you.” Umber glared as best she could with her single open eye. It must have been pretty good, as Dumb Faunus seemed to flinch and look away.

“It’s nothing personal.”

Umber began to laugh, and quickly realized how uncomfortable laughing with a broken rib could be. “I bet you say that to all the girls you kidnap and tie up in your secret club’s warehouse. Speaking as the abductee and target of all your friend’s pent-up anger issues, I have to say it feels a little personal to me.”

“He isn’t my friend.” Dumb Faunus said quietly, the whisper almost cracking.

“Could have f-fooled me.” Umber snapped back, cursing the break in her voice but unable to contain it any longer. She just wanted to go home!

Dumb Faunus didn’t seem to have a response. Standing awkwardly for a moment, he pivoted and began to walk away.

“It’s not going to work, you know. They aren’t going to pay my ransom or do what you’re demanding them to. My parents can’t afford to and the Schnee’s don’t want to.” Umber said, desperate for something that would make the Faunus see reason.

“It might not work this time.” He said, suddenly sounding much less uncomfortable.

Umber hadn’t thought she’d be able to feel any more frightened. She was wrong.

---

“—Authorities! Lay down your arms immediately!”

Umber snapped awake in her chair at the screeching, amplified voice and the sharp popping sounds that accompanied it. The warehouse was almost completely dark, but she could feel the air itself moving as someone, or multiple someones, entered. She yelled a wordless noise of thanks to the universe itself. She was going home! Wriggling as much as the ropes around her allowed, Umber tried to scoot towards her saviors.

Umber didn't bother fighting the tears when they came this time. She didn’t care who saw her weakness now that she was so close to safety. She didn’t need to do it anymore. She couldn’t have done it even if she wanted to. It was like the days of walled-off feelings bubbled to the surface in the same instant. So she cried, and sobbed, and screamed in desperate sadness as she heard the Atlesian Knights stomp through the warehouse. If they would just get to her she’d be safe and it would be over! She could go home to Momma and Daddy!

"—You—Stop—“ One of the Atlesian Knights ‘said’ in its flat, robotic voice. She could hear it shifting position somehow.

The sudden presence of someone behind her killed Umber’s spirits just as they’d begun to lift. Something cold, sharp, and reeking of oil pressing up against her throat buried those spirits completely. The hand that clamped over her mouth in the next instant just poured cement over them. Why couldn’t they just let her go! It was over!

"Please, just let me go.“ Umber knew she was whining. She didn’t care.

"Nothing personal." Umber’s eyes went wide. She hadn’t been expecting Dumb Faunus to be the one behind her. She didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The answer became clear immediately.

It was almost surreal how much she noticed. Umber felt the cold edge of metal slide to the side, smelled the honing fluid that had been used on the blade in the soft wave of air that the blade’s movement sent against her face, and heard the difference between when the sword was cutting skin and when it was just passing through empty air. As it moved, the coolness of the blade was replaced by a warm, thick and running wetness. In moments that wetness had covered practically her entire chest and was pooling in the seat of the chair. It just kept coming.

The one thing it didn’t do was hurt, which seemed strange. Umber had felt more pain from scratches and cuts on her arms and legs. She’d assumed getting sliced across the throat would hurt more than that, not less. But apparently she had been wrong. In fact, the only thing that really hurt was the chill that seemed to penetrate through the cut into the inside of her neck. The cold felt wrong inside her throat like that.

Umber tried to take a breath, and found a little of the missing pain as something much too thick to be air dropped into her lungs. Jerking against the ropes, she tried to swallow quickly enough to clear her throat. She couldn’t.

There was gunfire. It seemed to be oddly quiet gunfire, though. It ended just as quickly as it had begun and there were more of those mechanical pitter-pattering sounds. Footsteps? There were more footsteps.

The warehouse was getting darker. Umber wasn’t quite sure how that was possible. It had been pitch-black to begin with. As if it was accompanying the dark, the cold had spread outwards from her neck and to the rest of her body very quickly. There still wasn’t a lot of pain, though she was a little short of breath. What little air she could get had to fight past a seemingly frozen lump in her throat that was expanding with every swallow rather than getting smaller. It was very hard to keep her eyes open, but for some reason it seemed important she did.

Something with a humanoid outline was in front of her. Something with fuzzy, red goggles instead of eyes. It disappeared into darkness a moment later.

“—Knight—Seven-two-eight—Request—Help—“

Umber was falling again. She found that strangely relaxing this time. Of course, now she had something to distract her from slamming into concrete. The warmth that had pooled on the seat below her spilled onto the floor and she landed in some of it. That wasn’t so bad, though. At least it helped insulate her side from the freezing cold spreading through her body.

A very strong, very metallic, hand pressed against her neck. It squeezed. What little air Umber had been able to get was almost entirely cut off. Umber was hopelessly confused at why the Knight would want to strangle her. Wasn’t he supposed to be rescuing her? His hand did keep the chilly air of the warehouse from getting into her throat though, so it wasn’t entirely bad. She couldn’t breathe, but at least it wasn’t quite as cold.

"—You—Hurt—Understand—“ the voice boomed, and Umber opened eyes she hadn’t realized were squeezed closed. Was he asking her a question? He was hovering inches from her face, still almost crushing her neck underneath one hand and the red visor on his face incredibly painful to look at. Umber wasn’t sure how she was supposed to answer. How did he expect her to answer a question in the state she was in?

"—No—Move—Help—Inbound—“

Umber couldn’t nod. Instead, she experimentally tried to cough. It didn’t help. The pain, which had been strangely subdued up until that moment, decided it was time to return in full force.

Her attempts at screaming only produced a faint gurgle from her own throat and what she could only call a disapproving look from the Knight. Though how a machine without a face accomplished that kind of expression she wasn’t sure.

Umber forced herself not to laugh. She was already hallucinating? That didn’t say much for her chances of survival, did it?

More outlines showed up, some of them with the red goggles and others without them. A string of long words were spoken very quickly by an irate-sounding woman. Something about ‘shock’—as if she’d been electrocuted, how silly!—and ‘occlusive dressing’—which was not what Umber had thought her admittedly poor fashion style was labeled. The words didn’t seem important though, because she was very cold and her eyes were very heavy and if she slept she might be able to escape the pounding horror assaulting her with every heartbeat, and she was moving through the air and someone was putting a blanket over her, and oh crap her entire front was wet and people had probably seen the next best thing to her naked with the blouse she’d been wearing clinging to her with all that blood spilled on it but at least she was more well-covered now and the blanket was very warm, the bitch kept telling her to stay awake and wouldn’t let her just sleep for some unfathomable reason, if it had been her putting up with the Faunus’ bullshit for the last days and if she had gotten her throat cut she’d probably feel different wouldn’t she, and if she didn’t like Umber breaking down after all that she could shove it where the sun didn’t shine!

Umber opened her mouth to make her feelings clear on the matter, but found herself only pushing wetness out of the sides of her lips. She coughed again, and immediately knew she never wanted to cough again in her life. Knew she didn’t want to even try and breathe anymore if she could avoid it. Flecks of blood misted out and stained the fair complexion of the woman leaning over her. It made her look like she had freckles.

Umber discovered that if she didn’t stop herself from laughing it only inspired more coughing.

“Don’t try to talk! You, get that dressing on her before she loses all her blood! Knight Seven-two-eight, more pressure on the side!”

“—Yes—Understand—“

“Miss Cleedna! Miss Cleedna, we need you to stay awake.”

If she’d had the energy, Umber would have rolled her eyes. Since she didn’t have that much energy, she settled on fiercely staring out of the upper corner of her eyes at the woman’s blood-specked face. She didn’t have to stay awake, she had to stay alive.

It wouldn’t work this time. She wouldn’t let it. She was going to stay awake. She was going to stay alive. Umber let her eyes drop slightly, and was surprised at how comforting the glowing red visor of the Atlesian Knight at her side was.

---

“Are you certain?”

Umber cocked her head to the side and stared at the man through the tops of her half-closed eyes. “—Yes—“

“Right. Of course you are. You’re always certain.” There was a trace of humorous exasperation in the Sterling’s voice.

Umber shrugged, and raised the hand that wasn’t at her neck controlling the voice-machine to a palm-upwards position near her shoulder. “—Yes—“

Umber fidgeted slightly where she stood and looked out the large bay window at the skyline of Atlas. A half-dozen months before she wouldn’t have dreamed of such a comfortable exchange with the counselor whose home-office she was in. She probably wouldn’t have told him anything whatsoever and just stared out the window.

Working had probably helped. Her parents hadn’t been willing to let her sit around the house and do nothing all day while they left. They knew her too well. Even if it had just been scut-work janitorial duty, it had given her a responsibility to live up to. It had given her a chance to use her new ‘voice’ as well, and Umber had been surprised to find how much she liked to. It was embarrassing, sure. But it was a reminder that, in the end, the monsters hadn’t won. It probably helped that it sounded so much like the Atlesian Knight who had saved her. It was…A good example.

“Well, while the goal surprises me a bit, it is a healthy one. Though I feel like I should ask why you chose Beacon instead of Atlas?”

Umber winced slightly. She’d expected the question, and knew the answer with very exact accuracy. It was even understandable, though still a bit insulting. That accidental insult was only further incentive to prove them wrong, of course. Umber tapped out the answer on her scroll.

Code: Select all

Beacon accepted me. Atlas didn’t. They were concerned about my capability to effectively communicate. Which is fair. It could pose a risk to others in a combat environment. Of course, I won’t know for sure unless I try. Also, I might just be more comfortable going to Beacon instead of Atlas considering what happened.

Umber’s face fell slightly as she wrote out the last sentence. A pair of Faunus a year behind her at Atlas had known ‘Nasty Faunus’. They hadn’t known he was White Fang, supposedly, but they had mentioned her, and her semblance, to him. It had made the Academy seem like a much less safe place. Which was saying something, considering how unsafe the Academy’s training could be.

Umber held up a finger when Sterling quit reading to let him know there was more, and took the scroll back from him.

Code: Select all

Beacon also has a larger percentage of Faunus in the student body and the faculty.

She left the connection that had to herself unstated, but knew Sterling would recognize it just as much as she did. She’d already admitted it to him. Told him about it several times. The fear every time a Faunus walked near her in public. The way she caught herself referring to them as animals. As things. As monsters like Grimm. She wasn’t going to fix that by insulating herself from the Faunus of the world. That would turn her into her parents. Umber refused to turn into her parents on that topic, no matter how comforting their attitude was sometimes.

Beacon would give her the chance to confront that unfairness in herself. She had to try and fix it, especially if she was going to become a Huntress. Beacon would give her the chance to try and do both at the same time. Of course, it still scared her. Though Umber wasn't sure if that was because she was scared she wouldn't be able to do it, or scared of Faunus.

Sterling smiled as he handed back the scroll, “I suppose the only thing I can really say in this situation is ‘good luck’, then. If what we discussed are the only concerns you have, I think you’ll be in pretty good shape when you reach Vale. I can refer you to someone down there if you like, just give me a few hours to find my contact book.” Sterling snorted slightly. His inability to keep track of things in his otherwise clean and organized office was a long-running phenomenon Umber was more than used to by now.

“It was nice to meet you, Umber.”

Umber felt her cheeks heat slightly at the sincerity in Sterling’s voice as he rose and crossed to stand beside her at the window. Had she been able to speak any, words would have failed her. She settled for shaking the man’s hand and giving him a slight bow that seemed horribly incapable of expressing the depth of her gratitude. She might not be completely healthy but she was functional, and she owed much of that to Sterling.

---

---

Umber bit a lip at Jolana’s message, but accepted it as it was. Responsibility taken off her shoulders, she was free and clear to get on with her day without any more delay. She could finally go get lunch.

Umber tried to ignore the entire incident still going on behind her. She’d done what she could, so it was entirely out of her hands now. Jolana had contacted an authority figure and they could come swooping in to save the day for the beast, and Umber would be partially responsible for that. Yay! It wasn’t her job to do anything more.

Except it was her responsibility to do more than that, and she knew it. She just didn’t want to do it because of what—who—it would be for. That was rather pathetic, wasn’t it?

"Hem-hem" she annunciated, rather loudly.

Unsure whether she was more angry with Jolana, the three idiots, the Faunus, or herself, Umber stepped up beside the short, mousy girl. Tucking both hands into her pockets, she tilted her head towards Jolana when the three looked up from what they were doing at her noise. What would she have done if Jolana hadn’t gone forward? Probably nothing, and it wouldn’t have even bothered her while she ate lunch.

Umber settled on focusing her anger on the three idiots and herself. The proper targets.

“Can we help you?” One of the three idiots said, looking Jolana up and down and quite obviously coming to the conclusion she wasn't a concern. Umber shrugged when his eyes bounced to her, as if she was just getting dragged into something by Jolana that she didn't really want a part of. Which, to be fair, wasn't entirely untrue.

[The Grey Wolf]

"What a wonderful day!" Prim exclaimed, smiling ecstatically as she walked down the hall, holding a parasol in hand while she did, and ignoring confused expressions from other students as to why she was carrying an umbrella indoors. She stood on her toes and breathed in the air, her pink dress fresh and tidy from yesterday cleaning. "Isn't it wonderful, Chokorēto?"

Shiroi stiffened and turned around to see the fellow student pointing her umbrella at her and giggling innocently. "What are you doing here?" she almost barked, for the first time throughout school revealing a concerned and even worried attitude. Her hand went for the whip at her hip, but Prim merely giggled.

"Silly, you wouldn't want to draw on me in public, would you?" she asked, hand over mouth to suppress more giggling. "I think you and I both know that wouldn't end well. You wouldn't want to release her, would you?" Shiroi resembled a cat with it's muscles stiff and wary of what might happen next. She raised her hand slightly before positioning it back to where it had been before.

"You didn't answer my question...." she gritted her teeth, still worried about releasing her. "What are you doing here?"

"Well my old academy is rather boring. No one interesting to be around." Prim smiled as though they were having a friendly conversation. "I thought I might come by Beacon and see what it was like here. Besides, it's not like I could resist meeting you again, cutie." she pinched Shiroi's cheek, and the dark haired girl simply averted her gaze, worried about protesting too violently.

[Cerrania]

Varus was, in all respects, quite surprised by the sudden appearance of his team plus some. He was still trying to process all the information when he was, twice in several seconds, called a handsome figure by two very pretty girls. Did he like where this was leading? Probably.

"Varus d'Constantine." He said, returning the bow to Clover and then looking to Liz. He smiled at the girl, offering an ever-so-sly wink before Asher began speaking. Varus had always felt endearment for the boy. He was bookish, sure, but also incredibly intelligent and talented in combat. Giving the boy a nod, Varus continued, "Don't skate yourself. You've got qualities of all of them. A mixed bag is the best type of character."

Hefting both components of Dawnbreaker, Varus held his hands open and looked around the room, as if to challenge anyone willing to a duel.

[Nachfolgia]

Avena walked into her dorm room and shut the door. She leaned against the white, wood door and took a deep breath, clutching her chest. She was still in a lot of pain, but she couldn't rest now. She had to face Yuki and put a stop to this, for Yuki's sake. Avena wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't help the poor girl.

Avena walked over to her dresser and pulled out her combat uniform. She threw the unfolded clothes on her messy bed and began to change out of her school clothes. Since, her shirt was destroyed all she had to change was her skirt and socks. She unbuttoned her plaid skirt and slid it down to the floor. She plopped down on her bed and started taking off her red, knee high socks.

Once undressed, Avena began dressing in her combat uniform. She slipped on her cargo pants with the patches on the knees. Seeing no need to put a bra on with her injuries, she put on her tank top that showed off her midriff. Avean then donned her leather jacket, combat boots, and finally her tattered hood and cape. Avena walked back to her dresser and opened it. Instead of pulling out an article of clothing, Avena held up a small photograph. The picture showed two young girls hugging and smiling. The pink haired girl was obviously Avena with short hair and the other was a young girl with rainbow hair.. Avena looked at the photo for a few moments with a faint smile on her face. " I'll do things right this time...I promise." Avena said softly before putting her picture in her pocket. She turned around and walked out of the room, heading to the cliffs.

Cliffs outside the Emerald Forest

Avena made it to the cliffs without a any interference. The sun was shining bright and the wind was blowing in a nice, steady breeze. The day was just a beautiful as the day of the Entrance exam. She brushed the hair out of her face and looked around, seeing that no one was here yet. " Wow...I'm actually early for a change." Avena said with a smirk. She walked over to the edge of the cliff and sat down with her feet dangling. To pass the time waiting for the others to get there, Avena began to throw rocks off the edge.

[Rupudska]

Unsure whether she was more angry with Jolana, the three idiots, the Faunus, or herself, Umber stepped up beside the short, mousy girl. Tucking both hands into her pockets, she tilted her head towards Jolana when the three looked up from what they were doing at her noise. What would she have done if Jolana hadn’t gone forward? Probably nothing, and it wouldn’t have even bothered her while she ate lunch.

Umber settled on focusing her anger on the three idiots and herself. The proper targets.

“Can we help you?” One of the three idiots said, looking Jolana up and down and quite obviously coming to the conclusion she wasn't a concern. Umber shrugged when his eyes bounced to her, as if she was just getting dragged into something by Jolana that she didn't really want a part of. Which, to be fair, wasn't entirely untrue.

"Y-yes" Jolana stuttered out, trying hard not to squeak it out.

She made a flicking motion with Kwanon, taking care not to actually touch the idiots with the blade - as long as she did not make contact, it would not be ruled a fight by Beacon Academy's rules, and thus she would not get in trouble.

"F-f-fuck off. P-pick on sssomeone w-with y-your own brain size.... l-like th-the White Fang."

[Aidannadia]

Mentari barely reacted when she was hugged. Her entire attention was focused on the cylinder in her hand, slightly cracked, most likely having been used in the past. But it didn't matter, at least she didn't have to go through the process of ordering or creating one in shop. All it would take was a few quick fixes and she'd be done. All of this thought made Togami's voice seem to drone in the background, but when he stopped she finally took notice.

"Quite," she replied simply, pocketing the small device inside her jacket pocket, "the fate that we will eventually meet someone or something that will change our lives, yes. But the thing that I'd put my focus on would be how we can change that destiny into something better."

She stuck out her hand. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

"Hrm. Intriguing perspective." Togami considered her hand for a moment before taking it. "I can't help but feel you've been forced into this, even if some part of you may have wanted it." He said, pulling away. "Pleasure doing business with you." The heir began to exit, but stopped in front of a familiar face, Charlotte Noble. Serenity seemed to exude from every single on of his pores.

"Ms. Noble. I would like to issue a formal apology." Togami nodded to her formally before exiting the store. He leaped into the air and disappeared into the evening air, eventually stopping in front of the CCT tower. He took the stairs one step at a time, each one filling him with a vigor to move faster, bolder, and more purposeful. Each short incline was another carefully planned ascent towards his destiny. Togami felt the cool air at his back; he felt the sails head towards the shore for a moment, questioning whether he should turn back and head into port before being caught up in the currents of indignance once more.

A click and two more. That was all it took.

---

A computer screen lit the defined features of a phantom, a ghoul, by the name of Hedera Murasaki. He was a man of composure, a man of dignity, a man of power. His very name was said to summon the wrath of Remnant to your doorstep and he was determined to keep his record clean. Someone had crossed him: his heir.

Togami left his custody, and insultingly so. He had stolen from him. Hedera felt rage rise in his chest for a moment, but he was able to quell the flames of his anger for the time being. For now, he considered his options with a crystallized goal in mind: make Togami pay before his heir was able to get the best of him.

A small notification lit up in the corner of his screen with its infuriating ding to notify the man.

"Hrm?" Hedera clicked the pop-up curiously. It linked to a chatroom.

T: Hello.
T: It's been a while.
There was a pause.
H: So it has.
H: I'd appreciate if you were to stay on the line a little longer while I trace your location?
T: We both know that will prove fruitless.
H: Not yet we don't.
T: Then you're behind the curve
Hedera knuckles turned white against the edge of the table.
H: Very well.
H: What do you want?
T: Justice.
Another pop-up dinged on the man's computer with large warning letters.
T: How the mighty have fallen.

Hedera closed the chatroom and stared in awestruck disbelief.

Numbers with at least twelve zeros across all across the screen were disappearing. Assets blipped out of existence one by one. News stories suddenly appeared across his screen, talking of the fall of a colossal figure: Hedera Murasaki. Some said he had died, and they may have well been right. Everything, all of Hedera's life, had been centered around success and propping his family up, raising them from the humble existence of banishment and denunciation. He was a giant, and the boom when he hit the ground was grand.

---

Togami did not smile. He did not relish this victory. It was a peaceful calm that overtook him. He had for the first time in his life not been handed a victory, but made it a reality. His chest rose with the scroll in his hand, numbers rising exponentially by the second.

"The money is untraceable now. Not only that..." Togami said, clicking once and twice more, "... but there isn't a single person whom would even want to find who did this." Well, only one. With that thought, the money disappeared once more, and numbers across the kingdom of Vale rose out of the blue.

Granted, some saw more liberal increases in their savings: Mentari saw a number much higher than was agreed upon. Charlotte found money like she had never known. Ning's family, every single one even Togami's teammate included, saw their bank accounts expand. Others, like Sirina, Octavia, Clover, and generally those that Togami had ever interacted with saw their bank accounts double at least.

More importantly, every bank account saw some gift, untraceable by nature, supposedly sent from the Cross-Continental Transmit System. Crack! Togami glowed purple for a moment. Crack! The royal haze seemed to light up the nearby streets. Crack! Togami looked down to the Scroll. Shatter. Its pieces lay around him, and the haze slowly faded into black

Togami had done it. He walked back to Beacon that night, silent in every movement as he seemingly glided with each step towards the courtyard. His fate had arrived; He waited now for Erde Blitz.

[Charlia]

Mentari barely reacted when she was hugged. Her entire attention was focused on the cylinder in her hand, slightly cracked, most likely having been used in the past. But it didn't matter, at least she didn't have to go through the process of ordering or creating one in shop. All it would take was a few quick fixes and she'd be done. All of this thought made Togami's voice seem to drone in the background, but when he stopped she finally took notice.

"Quite," she replied simply, pocketing the small device inside her jacket pocket, "the fate that we will eventually meet someone or something that will change our lives, yes. But the thing that I'd put my focus on would be how we can change that destiny into something better."

She stuck out her hand. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

"Hrm. Intriguing perspective." Togami considered her hand for a moment before taking it. "I can't help but feel you've been forced into this, even if some part of you may have wanted it." He said, pulling away. "Pleasure doing business with you." The heir began to exit, but stopped in front of a familiar face, Charlotte Noble. Serenity seemed to exude from every single on of his pores.

"Ms. Noble. I would like to issue a formal apology." Togami nodded to her formally before exiting the store. He leaped into the air and disappeared into the evening air, eventually stopping in front of the CCT tower. He took the stairs one step at a time, each one filling him with a vigor to move faster, bolder, and more purposeful. Each short incline was another carefully planned ascent towards his destiny. Togami felt the cool air at his back; he felt the sails head towards the shore for a moment, questioning whether he should turn back and head into port before being caught up in the currents of indignance once more.

A click and two more. That was all it took.

---

A computer screen lit the defined features of a phantom, a ghoul, by the name of Hedera Murasaki. He was a man of composure, a man of dignity, a man of power. His very name was said to summon the wrath of Remnant to your doorstep and he was determined to keep his record clean. Someone had crossed him: his heir.

Togami left his custody, and insultingly so. He had stolen from him. Hedera felt rage rise in his chest for a moment, but he was able to quell the flames of his anger for the time being. For now, he considered his options with a crystallized goal in mind: make Togami pay before his heir was able to get the best of him.

A small notification lit up in the corner of his screen with its infuriating ding to notify the man.

"Hrm?" Hedera clicked the pop-up curiously. It linked to a chatroom.

T: Hello.
T: It's been a while.
There was a pause.
H: So it has.
H: I'd appreciate if you were to stay on the line a little longer while I trace your location?
T: We both know that will prove fruitless.
H: Not yet we don't.
T: Then you're behind the curve
Hedera knuckles turned white against the edge of the table.
H: Very well.
H: What do you want?
T: Justice.
Another pop-up dinged on the man's computer with large warning letters.
T: How the mighty have fallen.

Hedera closed the chatroom and stared in awestruck disbelief.

Numbers with at least twelve zeros across all across the screen were disappearing. Assets blipped out of existence one by one. News stories suddenly appeared across his screen, talking of the fall of a colossal figure: Hedera Murasaki. Some said he had died, and they may have well been right. Everything, all of Hedera's life, had been centered around success and propping his family up, raising them from the humble existence of banishment and denunciation. He was a giant, and the boom when he hit the ground was grand.

---

Togami did not smile. He did not relish this victory. It was a peaceful calm that overtook him. He had for the first time in his life not been handed a victory, but made it a reality. His chest rose with the scroll in his hand, numbers rising exponentially by the second.

"The money is untraceable now. Not only that..." Togami said, clicking once and twice more, "... but there isn't a single person whom would even want to find who did this." Well, only one. With that thought, the money disappeared once more, and numbers across the kingdom of Vale rose out of the blue.

Granted, some saw more liberal increases in their savings: Mentari saw a number much higher than was agreed upon. Charlotte found money like she had never known. Ning's family, every single one even Togami's teammate included, saw their bank accounts expand. Others, like Sirina, Octavia, Clover, and generally those that Togami had ever interacted with saw their bank accounts double at least.

More importantly, every bank account saw some gift, untraceable by nature, supposedly sent from the Cross-Continental Transmit System.

Togami had done it. He walked back to Beacon that night, silent in every movement as he seemingly glided with each step towards the courtyard. His fate had arrived; He waited now for Erde Blitz.

Charlotte was surprised by his apology, to say the least. She wasn't used to people apologizing to her. Especially not... No! I won't think about it. He'd said some very cruel things to her, the sort of words she hadn't heard since... since I finally ran.

But apparently that wasn't the end of the surprises he'd had in store for her, because unless she was sorely deceived, her net worth had just increased, by a lot.

She wanted to laugh. It was funny, to her. Some sick, cruel, twisted joke. I could be the richest girl in existence... it wouldn't change anything. Monetary value. Hah. Isn't it funny? As if it could actually make me worth something. I'm glad you're not trying to kid yourself anymore. Remember how desperate you used to be? I got used to it, as you do. Oh, I know that. You'll notice you're not actually bothering me...

Hmm... You're right. That means something is going to have to change, and soon.

[Sonitusia]

Walking outside of the shop, Mentari felt a wave of both freedom and unease come upon her. Like a fresh wind in a turbulent storm, it hit her and she stood tall. In her pocket lied the final piece, and not only that, she would have enough funding to research independent projects on her own for a very, very, long time. "I'm sorry Charlotte," she said, stopping to face her team captain for a moment, a small smile still plastered on her face, "It would seem I have something I need to take care of now. It was fun today, even if it was cut short."

With a faint whistle, she disappeared in a flash of light.

---

Click

"Cheeky bastard."

It seemed a great amount of the Murasaki's assets had found its way into Mentari's account. Well, you never knew how much the rich owned, but for sure it was way more than what was agreed on. Nevertheless, she couldn't do anything about it. As long as she didn't go overboard, things would be fine.

The Nachtmann factory was quiet during this time of day, the machines were off and the workers would be out on a long break. If that was the factory, then the silence inside Mentari's personal workshop was ten times greater. The pumping of her heart, every single movement of her hands, it all echoed inside the room. Every time a computer calculated, she could hear the faint whirring of the circuits traveling all across the board, giving her the probabilities that might happen.

All of this was focused on the repairs of the stabilizer. Within an hour, it had finally become a gleaming replica of what it once was. Likewise, a hole existed inside of a project nearby. Built from metal as flexible as bones, it was an amazing feat to come from a child still going through school. Everything was already set, save for the processing equipment. Where was it? Didn't robots generally need that?

Nay, Mentari thought, carrying the body over to a large tube-structure, placing it inside and carefully linking the aura stabilizer inside. She herself walked into the tube parallel, and a transparent door shut before her, and would also shut the hollow shell beside her.

The girl looked through the glass, wondering what would happen should she succeed. She noticed that there were no words for her from Purnama, and wondered what the other was thinking about. A virtual screen appeared before her view, prompting if she wanted to start or not. Hand shaking in excitement and curiosity, she pressed GO, and the machines whirled to life. Light and darkness swirled like entities inside the tube, the two semblances danced with each other, neither more or less, before the darkness began getting sucked out of the tube, and placed into the other.

Memories forced their way into her vision. Thoughts of anger, thoughts of loneliness and despair. It was a living hell for her, unable to express anything, not even with those she loved. Nobody wanted anything to do with her, and it became a burden she had to live with,,, And yet... These other thoughts...

Love...

Friendship...

Accomplishment...

Happiness...

They filled her soul with something she couldn't understand. These heartwarming memories seemed to push the darker ones away, but she reached out anyways. She didn't want to lose them. Those wretched thoughts gave her the ability to reach the good. But they disappeared anyways, leaving only light behind...

Mentari felt weariness flood her, and she slumped onto the ground, eyes barely open. As she succumbed to her slumber, a tear poured down her cheek, and a single word was left in her conscience.

Thanks.