Title: Urchin: Toujin

Notes: Considering that I do have some mental issues, I'm going to start to bring them into this story. So Neon is going to start showing a bit more of their Autistic traits from now on. Since I do have an Autism Spectrum Disorder in reality.

Also, please, please, please respect the choice of pronouns. They identify as Agender and use Gender Neutral pronouns: they/their/theirs/them/themself. So please use their proper pronouns in the reviews.


It still takes me another month or so to actually get my tail into gear and figure out where to begin when it comes to robbing the police station. Which means that I set the date for my planned heist for my fifth birthday. The exact day of my birthday in fact. Which makes it interesting. I wait until everyone is gone before walking inside. I can't feel anyone else in the building. Another note about how useless the police on Remnant are... Honestly this whole system is screwed.

It's painful. The police are useless except when it comes to judging people who need to be given a break. Then again, some criminals certainly do seem to operate in broad daylight, and an elderly man runs the dust shop. Also, the issue with Huntsmen and Huntresses being the highest authority... So I'm not that surprised that they more or less left the place completely unguarded. Well... not exactly, there are cameras. I keep to the shadows and down low. Low closer to the ground, hidden in the shadows to avoid the cameras. It's easy enough, probably because I'm so small.

Small and tiny, and who really expects a five year old who's just barely 98cm to be sneaking into the empty station. No one.

I find myself grinning as I wander through the shadows tail swishing out behind me as I walk. It's so quiet honestly, even my footfalls against the tile. Almost too quiet and it's enough to send prickles faintly over my body. Between overstimulation and understimulation I prefer the former. At least then I know that stuff is happening. The latter makes me all the more twitchy, and sure that something is going to go wrong.

An empty police station with no noise coming in from outside is more than enough to cause at least some understimulation. I appreciate at least a little bit of noise. A little bit of something to let me know that I'm not entirely alone...

I take a deep breath and up my speed racing down empty halls and noticing that most of the cameras are missing that little red light that I had observed during the days leading up to this. Something is wrong. Something is wrong, and I don't know what it is as I slow down approaching the armory. I tug my fluffy(stolen) jacket a little bit closer around me and then pull up the hood. It's time to do this. Although... there's a hole in this plan.

I glare up at the handle on the door, and the lock annoyed by how much higher than me they are. I forgot the pain of been so small honestly.

I puff up my cheeks and my tail fluffs up with my annoyance before I stop. There's a clatter from somewhere behind me back down the hall. Instantly I spin around and tune back in to my other senses. Quiet, no breeze, faint vibrations that echo across the tile, lavender? But also, a gaping feeling of nothing. Emptiness that gnaws at the edges of reality.

A Grimm? Here? In the station, what the hell were the idiot police thinking?

They probably weren't thinking. More than likely they wanted... Wait a minute. I feel a grin light across my face and race down the hall until I can hear growling. I slow and drop down peering around the corner just enough to spot my target.

Now here's the thing, all I've got in the way of a weapon is a hastily constructed slingshot. A Y shaped stick combined with a rubber band. Like what I used to make all the time as a child in my previous life. Pretty simple and basic and all too easy to load up with a pebble and tug back taking careful aim. The Boarbatusk howls when the pebble strikes true and then I stand there tugging one eye down, poking my tongue at it, and swishing my tail. More than enough to capture it's attention. I drop the antics as soon as it seems mad enough and then scramble back around the corner racing down and back towards the armory door.

It keeps sliding into the war and comparatively I have more balance. I spin around stopping in front of the door and once more stick out my tongue at it.

And now I jump up and over it, as it spins and drills right into the door. Okay, so it didn't quite end up busting the door open like I expected... But. I scramble up onto it's armored back and to the lock. It's easy enough to pick, though there's a fair bit of jiggling the picks around to get it to actually open. Then it's the simple matter of opening the door. Which luckily opens inwards. The Boarbatusk is thankfully still stuck as I begin to peruse the various firearms and blunt weapons within the room.

Half of them look like they were taken from random academy dropouts turned average street thug. I mean seriously, what use would a normal person have for a toaster that's also a gun? Or even a badminton racket gun. Or maybe these are the discarded weapons that students have made but then found unsuitable.

Eh, six of one half a dozen of the other.

But seriously... where are the regular weapons? I can't even find a regular staff... Oh, Scythe! I am suitably distracted by the three different scythes laying against the wall. Two of them are partially broken. But they might be good for practicing with... and the final one. It's the most in tact, but way too big for my small size. Luckily, all three fold up. So they're compact for transport. I can shove them into the backpack that I swiped from some school kid...

Also that kids lunch was yum as well. That day was worth it for stealing. Though the kids scroll and other personal items were tossed into the river. I didn't need them.

I needed the bag, which now has three scythes stashed within it.

Now to find an actual gun. Quickly, since the Boarbatusk is starting to get loose. Which is really not that easy, although I do trip over a weighted staff that can split into two. Both ends with guns... seems pretty simple to use. Shrinks down to a nice size as well. Oh goggles! I drop the staff and scramble over the discarded weapons to reach the plain looking goggles. In fact they are just goggles.

Orange tinted lenses and green rims. They're perfect. Absolutely. A thundering tearing sound echoes from behind me and I jolt before staring back down. At the almost forgotten Boarbatusk. Right, I'm in here with a Grimm. I should probably remember that. I jump down tucking the goggles into a pocket and rolling a bit scooping up the staff. And boom...

Well I didn't intend to fire it straight away but that works. Also one dead Boarbatusk added to my resume... Yay?

If I'm lucky no one will notice. I push myself to my feet and look around before shrinking the staff gun and tucking it away. My tail twitches and I casually walk out, and then race down the hall. I only stop for a small detour where I swipe a handgun on a desk, along with a couple of vials of dust.

The building is still empty, so it's easy enough to leave unseen but still. I would count that as an almost success... Though it will probably be on the news later as reports of a thief. But hey, I sort of got what I wanted. Sort of. Hopefully there's no one who really takes inventory because otherwise people will notice that some of the stuff is missing. Three scythes, a staff, a handgun, a set of goggles and a couple of vials of dust.

I honestly haven't got a clue what to do with any of this.

Oh well, I'll figure something out... Besides I swiped the scythes because foxes do have associated legends with the afterlife as messengers and guides... For those who've died. Adaptability and quick thinking, cunning, loyalty and honor... Huh. Scythes have some of those traits as well.

At least in regards to death. Staffs are reliable on the other hand... hmm, if I manage to work in a chain somewhere I could probably repurpose them to also have a kusarigama mode, and maybe just a kusari-fundo mode as well... That would reflect my parents a bit... Though I don't really have any fondness for considering a shovel as a weapon. Also at this point that's a bit far off in the future. I should just get used to using them separately first and then figure out the details of the combine and morph later on.

I really should not be standing in the middle of the street contemplating this stuff. So I look around and pull the backpack straps up a bit and then walk down the street. Looking for all the world like someone on their way to school. Well, if you forget the fact that it's the middle of the day and most kids would already be at school. Already taking their classes and learning, and also the fact that most faunus have problems even getting enrolled in most schools since the bias against us means most people don't care that much to let us join them. Most schools just don't let us in.

Except for those that specifically prepare you for the Academies, like Signal.

And I probably wouldn't be able to get in there yet, because that's kind of impossible at this point... Especially since I'm only now five, those schools start at the age of ten anyway. So that you're ready for Beacon, Shade, Haven and Atlas...

Of course, to even get into one of those battle schools you still need to go to a normal school. Which I can't. Not as a street kid. Not without anyone to serve as my guardian. Of course, if I pick a school carefully I could probably figure out a schedule to sneak into classes and put myself on someone's roll. Or I could forge my records, or eventually bypass that entirely and instead take a formal test elsewhere since I already know the important stuff.

Or just wing it and hope that I can bullshit my way into one of the Academies once I reach the age of fifteen.

Yeah bullshitting it sounds best. That way I can continue my regularly scheduled plan of avoiding everyone from canon until canon actually starts... Well aside from Blake, and maybe Adam as long as he's not being a complete control freak. I can deal with that, I think. As long as neither of them try to-

My train of thought slams to a stand-still right there as a loud bang goes off and I wind up covering my eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut and drop down in the middle of the path tail twitching sporadically before finally curling defensively around me. The booming is still going off, now with added sirens and I CAN'T BLOCK IT OUT.

I can't, can't make it stop and I can hear small whimpers breaking past my lips as my hands curl even further into the sides of my head. Turn of the sound, turn it off. I start screaming, trying to be louder, because maybe then it would stop and I could go back to walking.

Go back to finding a place where I can properly look over what I've stolen. Also, I'm in the middle of the street curled into myself and screaming with my hands over my ears trying to block out the noise. Why hasn't anyone stopped to find out what's going on... Oh wait, my tail answers that for me as it twitches again. Eventually I force myself up and just run, maybe I can outrun the sound.

Instead I slam into someone.

The sixteen year old hisses and her leg lances out, possibly automatically sending me crashing back into a wall. I scream even louder in response and curl up trying to ignore the sharp, sharp knifing pain that caused. I glare with narrowed eyes at the teenager, she has dark black hair and sharp dismissive orange eyes... Also red clothing and. I blink confusion taking the place of pain. She looks familiar.

In a very dangerous way.

Cinder? Cinder Fucking Fall?

What the actual fuck? Why, how? This can't be right? Can it? I mean, wasn't she supposed to be from Mistral or something? So what's she doing here, in Vale? Then again I could be completely off with my judgment... I mean I was just kicked into the wall. That kind of messes with your processing skills a fair bit. Yet I still push myself back to my feet and unsteadily sway half glaring at the teenager in front of me. Which is another go figure moment. Of course she's not an adult yet.

Just like Adam, who's only thirteen... Also is it any wonder he became a little bit possessive over Blake in canon when you consider that kind of responsibility over a child like that. A bit too controlling for my tastes but it's somewhat understandable.

"That... That wasn't very amiable" I'm whining. Mainly because my head is still pounding with the echoes of that noise, and being kicked into a wall did not help. Also Cinder's tall, very tall. Though that could be due to my own small stature. Of course that really doesn't matter right now, because here I have a chance to change something. Although, what exactly I'll be changing is yet to be seen.

"I wasn't trying to be amiable." she says and I narrow my eyes just that little bit further at her. My tail twitches and I hiss when more banging and clattering noises filter in from the street. My hands almost come and clap up to cover my ears... but... showing any weakness in front of Cinder would be horrible.

It would be giving her what she's expecting from me at this point. I can feel her smirk, and expectation and I refuse to let her receive the satisfaction of seeing me break down due to sensory overload a second time. Not when she's already kicked me, and when she wants to be feared.

"I'm not scared of you!" I hiss tail stiffening. Hands curling and head pounding due to the noise pollution. "And I'll never be scared of you." She looks perplexed. And I don't care. I just race away, leaving her with what probably seems like a random non-sequitur. Or who knows... I just need to get away and find somewhere to curl up and clear my head.

AND WILL SOMEONE SHUT OFF THAT BANGING PLEASE!