This chapter leans toward the latter, and the next one probably will, too. After that, it'll swing the other way. Maybe.
The current chapter titling theme doesn't really work that well, but I'm sticking with it for the time being.
Episode 3: A Major Hiccup
Jaune Arc rolled his pencil between his fingers. Professor Port was rambling on about some adventure or other, but the blonde student's thoughts were anywhere but on the class.
His crush on the now deceased (missing, he told himself, missing) heiress was hardly a secret. Ever since they'd met, he'd tried to court her, much to the girl's displeasure. Even after being all but rejected, he continued, thinking that if he kept trying, eventually he'd score a date. And then the white-haired girl would see how great he was, and they'd... well, actually, he hadn't give it much thought beyond the date.
Was that all it was, though? He'd told himself that this was love, but was it really? Was it true love, was it a stupid schoolboy crush, was it adolescent lust, was it something else? He couldn't answer that. The only thing he felt now was a cold emptiness where Weiss Schnee used to be.
Had he made a mistake? Maybe he never should have tried to go after her in the first place. Confidence wasn't enough. He just wasn't good enough. He'd thought the heiress was pretty normal, if pretty, and definitely possible, before finding out who she was. Should he have just given up-
His scroll beeped. Grateful for the distraction, he stealthily checked it. The message confused him more than anything. It was from someone named Glacias, which he saw as odd. He didn't know any Glacias.
There's something going on. Can't say more yet.
The mood in the JNPR dorm was different than it usually was- or as it usually had been. None of them had been feeling particularly good after the tragedy and chaos, and Jaune's strange order to lock the door and shut the windows only ratcheted up the tension further.
"We start today," Jaune announced boldly. "We start our investigation today."
"It's exciting!" Nora exclaimed. "It's like we're in a cop show and we're doing a super-secret investigation on a super-bad criminal."
"That is what we're doing, Nora," Ren told her, tone exasperated as usual.
Jaune unceremoniously tacked a large piece of paper to the wall and uncapped a marker. "What do we know?"
"Oh, I know this one!" Nora said loudly. "It started with the fight at the docks! Blake ran away, so they tried to find her, and then they found out that Torchwhatever guy was stealing Dust with the White Fang."
"Actually, they suspected that the White Fang was stealing Dust," Ren corrected. "They only confirmed that Torchwick was working with them and that they were stealing Dust once they were at the docks. And the monkey faunus, Sun, seemed to imply that he was with Blake and her team did not arrive until after."
Pyrrha added, "Blake suspected the White Fang was stealing Dust. She may have wanted to prove they weren't. But that would only make sense if..."
Jaune paused his scribbling. "You're not saying that she was part of the White Fang, are you?"
"We may never know," Ren said, voice neutral. "But we can deduce that she had some association with the group, and some interest in proving they were not stealing Dust."
"Damn." Jaune swore as he scribbled it all down in point form. "What about that weird girl they both mentioned?"
"Penny?" Nora asked rhetorically. "Well, she pulled airships out of the sky!"
"I think he was exaggerating," Ren told her.
"Something made those Bullheads crash," Nora reminded him. "Maybe she didn't really pull them out, maybe she shot them out!"
Jaune tapped his marker against the paper, leaving blue marks on it. "If we could talk to her, maybe she could tell us something."
"We don't even know her last name," Pyrrha reminded him. "How are we going to find her?"
"Well, we can be on the lookout, and we can ask around, but yeah, unless somebody knows her..." Jaune trailed off. "So, what are our leads?"
He remembered the message that he had received at the end of class. "Oh, right! I got a weird message on my scroll."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "A message?"
"Yeah, it's from someone named Glacias. They said that there's something going on, but they can't say more yet. Weird, huh? I don't think it's a coincidence."
"No," Ren agreed. "I doubt that is their real name. Did you try messaging back?"
He shook his head. "There's no number."
"It's not of much use to us, then," Ren concluded. "But keep watching for more messages."
"I will."
"The owner of the bookstore told us to look for Blake Belladonna," Pyrrha interrupted. "We cannot do that, but-"
"The address!" Jaune remembered. "Uh, he said a warehouse on seventh and ninth... no that's not right-"
"Eighth and H," Ren corrected.
"What would we do without you, Ren?" Jaune said lightly.
"We'd be JNP, hmm, what would that be?" Nora replied unnecessarily. "Junpy? Jump? No, that doesn't work. Ren? Oh, right, we can't ask Ren because there wouldn't be-"
"Nora?"
"Yes, Ren-Ren?"
"Focus, please."
"Sorry," she apologized before adding, "Oh! We could visit Junior!"
"Who's Junior?"
"He's this guy that owns this club in the bad part of town. He looks like a regular bar owner but he actually has informations on everyone."
"How do you know about that, Nora?" the blonde asked.
"Ehehehe... maybe you and Pyr-Pyr should visit Junior," Nora said nervously.
"Wait, why?"
"She's banned," Ren explained. "For life."
"It wasn't my fault!"
"I've heard of him," Pyrrha interrupted. "He's the youngest member of the Xiong crime family. I suppose it would make sense that he would still have connections."
"Great!" Jaune said. By that point, he'd abandoned the paper completely. "So, I guess I'll go to the club with Pyrrha, and you two are going to investigate the White Fang warehouse."
Nora snapped off a salute. "Sounds like a plan!"
"I have no objections," Pyrrha replied.
Ren simply nodded.
"Okay. Let's do this."
"So, uh, how are we actually going to get information out of this guy?" Jaune asked his partner as they strode toward the club. Their destination was obvious- it could be heard from a block away.
"We'll ask nicely," Pyrrha replied. "Tell him that we're looking for information on some departed friends."
"No good cop bad cop or anything like that?"
"It is a legitimate technique," Pyrrha replied. "But not the one we should use."
"No, you're right, we probably couldn't pull it off." He laughed. "I guess I just watch too many movies."
They turned silent as they got closer to the building, strolling casually toward it as if they were out to enjoy the evening. Or trying to, anyway. Pyrrha was used to putting on a calm facade, but Jaune couldn't hide his inner tension.
A lone bouncer stood in front of the entrance. He was dressed like all the others- black suit with matching hat and gloves, red glasses and red tie. He moved in front of the open entry as the teenagers approached. "You're not on the list."
"Uh, sorry, I guess we'll just go," Jaune replied nervously. They couldn't give up this easily! He wracked his brains for another plan.
"Yeah, that's, wait, you're Pyrrha Nikos!" His eyes went wide behind his glasses and he stepped aside. "Go right on in, Miss Nikos."
She smiled sweetly, "Thank you."
They walked past the bouncer and into the club. As soon as he saw it, Jaune was blown away. The room appeared huge, with an infinite black pit below transparent platforms linked by staircases. A bar sat to one side, with a DJ booth at the far end. Of course, much of the effect was clever architectural and lighting tricks, but it worked. It was impressive.
"Whoa..." Jaune breathed.
"I suppose fame does have its advantages," Pyrrha muttered.
"I don't really see how it has any disadvantages," Jaune said lightly.
A rare frown crossed his partner's face. "You have no idea."
"Uh..."
"Let's just get this done and over with," Pyrrha requested, voice professional. She looked around and noticed that the club was almost empty. A few identically-dressed bouncers milled around. The only possible customers in view were a pair of girls dressed in white and red glaring at them.
A tall man, dressed similarly to the bouncers but wearing a vest instead of a jacket, strode toward them. He greeted harshly, "So, what is the Mistralian tournament champion- and some blonde idiot- doing here?"
"Hey!" Jaune blurted out.
The big man ignored him. "Somehow I doubt you came here for fun."
The blonde managed to regain his composure somewhat. "We, uh, are you Junior?"
"That depends." He turned to Pyrrha and growled, "I know the idiots at the door let you in because you're the Pyrrha Nikos, but that doesn't mean you're welcome here. What do you want?"
"Some of our friends went missing recently," she answered. "We were hoping you would know something about what happened."
Junior narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Which friends?"
Jaune beat Pyrrha to the answer. "Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long."
"Blondie? Aw, shit." The big man sighed, then waved toward the bar. "Take a seat."
"You knew Yang Xiao Long?" Jaune asked, taking a seat beside his partner at the bar.
"Yeah," he grumbled from the other side of the bar. "She came in a few months ago, asked if I'd seen some lady, then trashed the place. Caused thousands of lien worth of damage."
Pyrrha covered her mouth in shock. "Oh."
"So, if she did that, and we're asking about her, why would you tell us anything?" Jaune asked, confused.
Junior was evasive. "I owe her, okay? It's a long story."
"What do you know?" the red-haired champion asked.
"They poked around where they shouldn't have and paid for it," he answered, pouring himself a glass of Scotch whiskey. "That's the official story, and as far as I know, that's what happened."
"Did they find anything?"
He shrugged. "You tell me. If they didn't, would they be dead? No, don't answer that."
"Are they really dead?" Jaune asked quietly.
"Probably?" He sighed. "Kid, I have an ear to the ground, but I don't know every secret in the city. And these guys are really good at keeping secrets."
"Where are they?" Jaune asked.
"They?" He laughed. "I can't even tell you where they were, let along where they are now."
"Why are you telling us this?"
The big man took a moment to think about it. "Not too long after Blondie blew up the place, Torchwick came to hire some of my men. I couldn't say know- he offered too much for that. But they never came back."
He paused, contemplating his glass. "The thing is, I don't think he's the one calling the shots anymore. But that's just a hunch. Like I said, I haven't heard anything. These guys are really good at keeping secrets."
"The White Fang?"
"They're part of it, but it's not the same Fang from our parents' days," he replied, swirling his liquor. "Somehow I don't think this is about ideology. But then again, it never is, is it."
Jaune tried to sound intelligent. "I guess not?"
"Now," Junior finished, motioning to the door. "I'd appreciate it if you were never here. Understand?"
"Uh, not really-"
Pyrrha cut her partner off, grabbing him and pulling him toward the exit. "We understand. Thank you, Mister Xiong."
"Don't mention it," he called as the walked away. "Seriously. Don't."
He turned to his bouncers. "That goes double for you morons."
The pair walked away confidently, armed with new information. They didn't look back after the doors closed behind them.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked quietly.
"What is it, Pyrrha?" Jaune was oblivious, but even he could detect the worried tone in her voice.
"I've been thinking... is this about finding answers and stopping something terrible, or are we only doing this to get some kind of vengeance?"
He chewed his lip. "I can't answer that, Pyrrha."
Before either of them could say anything more, Jaune's scroll began to ring. He almost dropped it before picking up the call. "Yeah?"
Ren's voice, unusually panicked, chirped, "Jaune, they're on to us. Get here as fast as you can."