Yo, long time no see. Well, it took longer than I had expected to figure out a roadmap for getting out of the fallout of the last chapter in a good way, but I should have it mostly covered by now.


The rift

Yonsa
Yonsa sighed annoyed. It was proving more difficult to obtain information about how the courier and trader business operated in Sanus than he would have liked. He had expected there to be some obstacles to cross when searching for information, but the utter lack of results so far was not expected.

Back in Anima, the big cities had never publically acknowledged the existence of the sprawling networks, child labour laws and all that, but it had always been an unspoken fact hidden just beneath the surface of every town he had ever entered.

The villagers in Haulton had strengthened his belief that there was something similar in place in Sanus, but he had not been able to find any information about it on his Scroll so far.

With another tired sigh, he threw the Scroll on his nightstand and plopped down on his bed. There was no one but him in their room at the moment. If there had been, he would not have been openly investigating the market, or acted so carefree.

While Lafiel had kept silent about the incident for the last few weeks, she had not returned their relationship to normal. A rift had formed between the two of them, and worse, the others had taken notice and were already eying him suspiciously.

And so, he had had to make sure that they continued to perceive him as useful to the team.

It was annoying. They had completed their first mission with flair, even upped the ante by taking on some bandits, and no one had lost limbs or lives, so why couldn't they just be happy about that and move on? Why did Lafiel have to make a big deal out of how it had ended?

Even their fellow students had considered them heroes after the stories spread upon their return. For a time at least. Then the fad had faded when too many conflicting stories had emerged about what had happened.

In some of them, it was 50 bandits, and half of them had been taken out by Pandora alone. Both Team LPYS and the Beacon faculty had remained tight-lipped about the incident, so there had been no one to correct those assumptions. Yonsa still chuckled at the thought of Pandora taking out 25 bandits.

He sort of understood why the school had mandated some therapy sessions for them when they got back. Having a bunch of unstable and highly trained Huntsmen was never a good thing. He could also understand why Pandora had chosen to extend her sessions.

She was no Huntress. Never had been and likely never would be. Yonsa had recognized that early on. In his opinion, she was here because she thought of it as a sport. A nice exhilarating way to get the blood pumping and stave off the boredom of whatever the high classes of Mistral did. To be honest, he was a little surprised that she had not dropped out already.

He had passed his therapy sessions with what he considered to be flying colours, and hadn't requested anymore. Playing up the 'necessity of choosing between his team and shooting' angle had seemed to convince the therapist well enough that he was fit to continue on without further supervision. As long as Lafiel didn't reveal anything incriminating in her sessions, that is.

It still irked him that he had let her find out. Not to mention that he had had to use her life debt to him to shut her up. Despite how useful debts and blackmail could be in the moment, they always turned relationships sour sooner or later.

Still, they were useful on occasion. It reminded him that he had to find something on Seishin. Something more incriminating on Pandora would be nice too. He wasn't sure how far threatening to tell her parents that she had lied about her team and their sleeping arrangements would be, but it should be enough to get him out of minor squabbles. Plus, the mere fact that she hadn't told them meant that he wouldn't have to worry about what she told them about him.

The fact that he had to work this hard just to ensure his future at Beacon, not to mention the incessant insistence of pre-mission Lafiel to "include" him, was another thing that irked Yonsa greatly. They were supposed to work together, not sleep together.

Yonsa closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths as he rolled his neck. All the stress that he had been able to let out during their mission had come back quicker than it had last time. Perhaps he should go train his Semblance. Getting out a bit might help alleviate his dark mood.

Abruptly, he sprang from the bed and gathered up his cloak and spear. He also checked his backpack once more. It was packed and ready to go, just like it had been when he had checked it that morning. He threw a hesitant look towards the nightstand, where his Scroll still lay.

He was tempted to leave it, it would only get in the way, but…he had made a promise…

Nodding to himself, he grabbed the Scroll and the headset that had been given to them. You had to keep your word when travelling outside the kingdoms, or else you would quickly find yourself without a job. With the Scroll pocketed in his cloak, he set out.

The hallways were less crowded today than they usually were. It was probably because many of the students had already gone home for the two week Winter Break, despite school technically still being in session for today. However, since everyone had been given self-study for the entire day, no teachers would mind the absences.

As he wandered out of the dorm and across the snow-covered front yard, he thought about the Winter Break. On the one hand, it would be nice to not be crowded by so many people all the time, but on the other hand, it also meant that there was less opportunity to hide in the crowd from those that remained.

Yonsa didn't know which option was worse. The former meant that in their loneliness, more might try to strike up conversations and develop bonds that he would not reciprocate, and the latter had him on a near constant edge.

He supposed that with the other two out for the duration of the break, he could use the time to try and mend the rift between him and Lafiel. It would likely never become what it had been, but if it could improve his situation in the team, then it might be worth doing.

Besides, Yonsa was still not sure whether he actually wanted it to return to how it had been.

The snow crunched under his soles as he trekked across the empty fields. The air was crisp today, with a slight sting to it. Good. It should keep the other students inside with their soft blankets and warm beverages.

Yonsa didn't begrudge them that. When winter had arrived in Anima, he had always tried migrating towards the southern villages for work. While it was true that people usually paid more in the snow-covered villages, the winter also made it far more dangerous to trek from one to another.

Little food could be foraged during winter, and the blizzards could easily waylay you for days on end. Add to that that the snow made it far easier for starving bandits to track lone travellers, and it simply didn't seem worth it to him.

The edge of a cliff soon appeared before him. Beside him, the platforms used to catapult new students off the cliff were hidden beneath a layer of snow. Yonsa knelt at the edge and studied the way down. The snow and ice would make it more difficult than it had been before.

Still, no use in grumbling about it. He removed the protective red sash and held out his spear in one hand with the tip pointed towards the ground below. Fate's Edge, Pandora had dubbed it. Then he dropped itand watched it plummet towards the ground and buried itself deep into the snow below.

A moment later, and he too had vaulted over the edge. Unlike the spear however, he descended down the cliff at a controlled pace. There were once or twice when his grip almost slipped, but eventually, he made it to where the spear had landed.

He was now officially outside Beacon's borders and inside Forever Fall.

Eyes searching for signs of Grimm, he quickly pulled his spear out of the ground and headed away from the cliffs. Once he was sufficiently inside the forest and had found and secured a good clearing, he took off his cloak and hung it on a branch.

The cold air made him shiver slightly, but it would not do so for long. Yonsa picked out the Scroll and its headset from his cloak's pocket and paired the headset with the Scroll, before dumbing the Scroll into the hood of the cloak, so that he could see its display.

Four aura bars were visible on the screen, with his own being the largest of them. Two were in motion, Lafiel' and Pandora's. They had to be training together then. Yonsa slowly backed away from the Scroll until his own aura bar blinked out. At this point, he used the end of his spear to make a line in the snow indicating the distance. He continued this process until he had drawn a full circle around his cloak.

Satisfied with his work, he moved a little further away from the cloak and sat down on the snowy field. Once down, he quickly made two dozen and one small identical snowballs and placed them around him. He took the first one and slowly, but surely pressured it with his fingers until it broke.

Nodding to himself, he then picked up another snowball and activated his Semblance to boost his strength by 100%. He repeated the procedure of slowly but surely applying pressure to the snowballs until they broke.

Each time that one broke, he would deactivate his Semblance to conserve aura. Eventually, he was able to get a good grip on exactly how much force he should lay into his grip to achieve the same results as he normally would.

Yonsa's Semblance was Aura Manipulation, and it allowed him to use his aura as a fuel to boost the strength, speed and/or shield of himself or others. While highly useful, there were some severe limitations that came with it.

It took a while for your brain to work out that it suddenly had more power or speed at its disposal than it was used to. This meant that until you got used to it, you were basically a toddler with only limited fine motor control. This was especially confusing since it would only be for a limited time period before you went back to normal.

Increasing the strength was usually the easier of the two aspects to deal with in Yonsa's opinion. Mastering it was just a matter of getting a feel for how much force you needed to put into things compared to normal. Increasing your speed was trickier.

Sure, your arm or leg would move faster, but unless you were used to it, your other body parts wouldn't have even been told to move by the time that they were supposed to have moved already. Mastering each speed setting took training and effort, much like a toddler learning to walk for the first time.

Yonsa already had 25% and 50% increases in speed and strength locked down before arriving at Beacon, but the Beowolf fight had shown him that he needed to improve if he was to make it as a Huntsman. While the job had paid well, Yonsa was unsure of whether he could complete it on his own at his current state.

He was fairly sure that he could deal with the Beowolves on his own. Opening with some sniping and then kiting them around for a while would enable him to limit their numerical superiority. No, it was the accompanying alphas that worried him.

Their hides were too resistant for sniping them from anything but extreme close range, and their smaller brethren would keep him from being able to focus on just one. He supposed that he might be able to take one down by sniping it through its open maw, but it would be a risky move.

And so, he had to use whatever time he had left at Beacon to get stronger as quickly as possible.

That being said, he was simultaneously in another conundrum regarding how much time he would have left at Beacon. If he spent too long here without getting strong enough to become a Huntsman on his own, then he would not have enough Lien to return to Anima and continue his courier job.

On the other hand, if he was kicked out too soon, then he would not have gained enough skills to even claim to be a third tier Huntsman, and then this entire endeavour would just have been a waste of resources that would take years to build up again.

It would have been more comforting if he had been able to find something about Sanus' courier network, so that he could fall back on that until he saved up enough Lien to make the journey back. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be that easy.

Before he knew it, all of the snowballs had been crushed. Satisfied with this, he stood up, activated his Semblance again and jumped into the air as high as he could. He repeated this for a while, before moving on to other simple activities.

Before long however, he could feel his aura reaching a low level and decided to rest for a while to let it recharge. Yonsa sat up against the trunk of a tree and closed his eyes for a moment, clearing his head of any thoughts, before he opened them again.

This time, they were scanning for movement, just as his ears were listening for the crunching of snow to indicate nearby Grimm. He hoped that his clear mind would be enough to not let any Grimm notice him unless they literally stumbled into the clearing.

The air was cold around him, and his body shivered from it, but he would not go get his cloak with the Scroll still in it. Instinctively, he drew his legs up to his chest and put his arms around them.

Once he was sufficiently recharged, he decided that it would be enough strength training for today, and moved over to speed training instead. Again, he would be trying to get used to the 100% increase, as he had been trying to since they got back.

Standing up, he activated his Semblance and immediately felt the aura pouring out of him. Even fully rested, he doubted that he would have more than 100 seconds before it was gone completely. Two minutes, tops.

Not wanting to waste it, he took a step forward, and then another and another after that. Always walk before you run, he reminded himself as he took another step forward. Soon though, he felt confident enough to try running, and immediately fell head first into the snow.

His left leg had been a tad bit too slow, and that had made him stumble, which in turn had quickly escalated uncontrollably due to him not being used to this speed yet. It was a mistake that could have cost him dearly in a fight.

Not that he used his Semblance in fights that often anymore. It was too noticeable for the watchful eye. His ace up the sleeve had to remain a surprise if he was to stand a chance against the likes of Pandora. As he thought of her, he wondered how long he would be able to up her speed by 100%. 40 seconds? 60?

Not that it really mattered. He usually only used his Semblance on opponents momentarily to confuse them or make them hit too hard or too fast, and even that practice had now been restricted to the times when he had been under great pressure and had acted on instinct.

Grunting into the snow, he got up again and decided to quit the run training for now. Instead, he produced a set of balls and began juggling them, trying to keep them in the air as long as possible. It was frustrating work, and it was made no better by the limited timeframe he had to work with. At least the strength exercises didn't drain his aura as quickly.

As he rested against the tree yet again, he began to think of how much longer this training was taking than his previous settings had. Granted, the 25% setting had been far less structured, but it had still proceeded quite a bit faster than this.

He partly blamed the much larger jump that he was taking this time, which resulted in far more drastic readjustments than earlier, and partly blamed the fact that the increased aura drain and limited time away from prying eyes severely limited the amount of time that he had to train.

As he mused over these things, the call came.

Pandora
Pandora struck high, forcing Lafiel to parry and expose her midsection to a strike with her elbow. The strike didn't blow the air out of her, as she still had her aura, but it did chip away at it a little.

Lafiel retreated and tried to hold her off with slashing attacks, but Pandora was quicker and managed to trip her opponent. Lafiel fell with her back hitting the softened mats of the training room. Seizing the opportunity, Pandora rushed in and prepared to deliver the final blow.

Her Semblance lighted up in her right hand as she swiped away Lafiel's attempt to block her with her left. She then brought her right hand down directly to her opponent's chest. A scream of pain followed by images of blood splattering flashed before her.

Her Semblance died out, and she was motionless as she stood atop Lafiel with one hand hovering just above her chest.

Not again!, Pandora cursed as she struggled to get her Semblance to work again.

Below her, Lafiel recognized the signs and a sympathetic look spread across the girl's face. Pandora didn't like that one bit.

"It's alright, we can try again", Lafiel said as Pandora helped her up.

"I don't want to try!", Pandora exclaimed, ashamed at her own weakness, "I want to do it!"

Ever since the mission, she had been unable to use her Semblance to deliver a final blow. It was the reason why she had stopped participating in public duels during training, and why she was still attending therapy, despite all of the others already having completed theirs.

"It will come back", the other girl encouraged, "no one is judging you for taking a while to get over this. It is only natural."

"Not for you guys", Pandora snapped, "none of you have problems wielding your weapons."

It wasn't really fair of her to say that. She had seen how Seishin and Lafiel occasionally glanced at their weapons whenever something happened that reminded them of what their weapons had done during the mission. Not to mention that Lafiel had asked her to take her armour-shopping after the Winter Break.

"Not everyone reacts similarly to stuff like this", the other girl said to soothe her.

Instead of soothing her, it just made her more frustrated. It wasn't fair that she was the only one weak enough to be affected like this. Unlike the others, she hadn't even hurt anyone. She had nothing to feel guilty over, so why had it turned out like this?

"I wish I would react like you guys", she said, "Yonsa is hardly affected at all. I wish I had just some of that strength."

"No!", Lafiel exclaimed loudly, "you shouldn't want strength like that. You don't need it."

Pandora was taken completely aback at the sudden outburst, and was not for the first time happy that they were alone in the training room. She knew that something had come between the two partners, but had so far not wanted to put Lafiel on the spot by asking her directly.

"…Lafiel", she hesitantly began to say.

"I can't tell you about it", Lafiel interrupted her in a conflicted voice, "just…don't…"

Don't what? Ask any more questions or wish that her abilities had not been crippled like this? Pandora wanted to ask more, but it was clear that the other girl would not like it if she did.

"Again", she said with nod and got into position again.

"Again"´, Lafiel repeated relieved and mirrored her.

Their match resumed once more. Lafiel was a good fighter, but not as good as Pandora was. Or at least had been. They traded blow for blow, no one getting the edge over the other yet. Pandora had not yet gotten a chance to use her Semblance effectively yet, so she stuck to normal kicks and punches.

The match continued like this for a while, until Lafiel suddenly stopped altogether. Confused at what her opponent was doing, Pandora looked at her with a questioning look without getting out of her fighting stance.

"We might as well stop this if you are going about it this way", Lafiel said sadly.

"What do you mean? I am trying as hard as I can", Pandora said annoyed at the accusation.

"Don't give me that", Lafiel exclaimed, "you had several openings that you could have tried to use your Semblance to finish the match, but you let all of them pass."

As she said it, Pandora knew it to be true, but was ashamed to admit it, even to herself. There had been chances that she had opted out of in place of a kick or a punch, but she had been able to convince herself that they were not good enough every time.

"I am trying", she defended, "it's just….difficult."

"I know it is", Lafiel said softly, "but I also know that you can do it."

Not this again, Pandora lamented, "perhaps we should stop for today. I have yet to pack, after all."

"It will be strange not having you or Seishin here over the break", Lafiel admitted.

"You can still visit Seishin. He is just staying with his family in the city", Pandora answered.

"Yeah, I know, but it still won't be the same as living with you guys", Lafiel said.

While Pandora and Seishin were both going back to their families for the Winter Break, the slower journey to Menagerie would take too long for Lafiel to make it there and back again in time for school to start up again, and Pandora was not sure if Yonsa even had someone to go home to in Anima.

Suddenly, Lafiel's face lighted up, like she had gotten a brilliant idea.

"If you have time, I want you to try something that might help you get over this", she offered.

"What?", Pandora asked equally eager and nervous that it might not work.

Instead of answering immediately, Lafiel took hold of Pandora's hand in a soft grip and gently lifted it to touch her chest.

"What are you doing?", Pandora asked nervous about the sudden contact.

"Try activating your Semblance", Lafiel said softly but with firmness to it.

"But-", Pandora started to say.

"Don't worry, I have my aura on", Lafiel interrupted her, "and you won't be breaking it if you scale it down."

"But what if it suddenly breaks and I end up hurting you?", Pandora said worried.

"I trust you", Lafiel said simply and locked eyes with her.

Pandora nodded and let her Semblance out just a little. It was only a very small blue flame, but she knew it to be chipping away slowly at her friend's aura. This wasn't so hard after all.

"Your aura is getting close to breaking", Pandora said worried after a while.

"I know", Lafiel said and tightened her grip, "continue. Trust me."

Pandora hesitated, but then she made up her mind and pushed on. She would conquer this. Her Semblance flared a little, and then Lafiel's aura broke. She quickly shut it off again to avoid hurting her friend.

"See, you can do it", Lafiel said triumphantly.

"It doesn't really count like this", Pandora pointed out.

"No, but it is a start", Lafiel countered and let go of her hand.

"You are right, it is", Pandora agreed and hesitated a little, before she continued, "since I trusted you to do this, could you trust me enough to tell me what is going on with you and Yonsa? I can see it hurting you."

Lafiel hesitated, "I'm not supposed to…"

"According to whom?", Pandora said pointedly, "someone you are fighting with?"

Lafiel still looked conflicted, "I still don't know…"

"Come on, I trusted you with this", Pandora pressed, "I want to help you."

"…Alright", Lafiel acquiesced and began to tell her story, though it jumped a bit and lacked more than a few details.

What she did manage to tell Pandora however, both shocked her and somehow didn't. On the on hand, she could imagine Yonsa being that callous about murder, but on the other hand, she didn't think he would have actually threatened Lafiel like that.

The mere thought of it made her mad. How dare he!? This was taking it way too far to be allowed to just be swept under the rug. In a second, she had her Scroll out and was dialling his number.

"What are you doing?", Lafiel asked her nervously.

"Exactly what it looks like", she growled.

"His monitor isn't on, so he has likely left it at-", she managed to say just before the call went through.

""This is Yonsa", he greeted neutrally.

"Where are you?", she demanded to know.

"Out and about", he answered vaguely, with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

"Get back to the dorm right now", she ordered him.

"What is this about?", he said suspiciously.

"Get back to the dorm, and I'll tell you", she said instead of answering directly.

"…It'll probably be a little while", he answered in the same neutral voice that he had started with.

"Just do it", she ordered and hung up.

As she turned around, she saw Lafiel being completely pale and with a very nervous expression clear on her voice. Pandora was going to kill him for making her friend this afraid of him.

"No, no, no. Why did you have to tell him I told you?", she said exasperated, as she combed a hand through her blue hair.

"I won't allow him to threaten you into silence like that", Pandora stated.

"He didn't threaten me!", she tried to defend.

"You said he scared you and made you not tell anyone", Pandora pointed out.

"Yes, but he didn't threaten me into silence!", Lafiel countered, "I owed him for saving my life."

"Oh…but he still shouldn't have done that", Pandora said, refusing to allow him off the hook.

Reluctantly, Lafiel agreed that there was no way to go back on it now, so they would just have to meet with him and have everyone put their cards on the table. Pandora fully expected to grill him about what else he had been hiding from them. If he had tried to hide this from them, then who knows what else he had hiding in the closet?

On their way back, Lafiel commented that he was showing back up on the team's aura monitor again, and that his aura was less than half full. Pandora suggested that he had probably been training and had left his Scroll with his stuff, but otherwise did not think further of it.

Despite them taking some time to get back to the dorm room, they still had to wait for a while for him to arrive. When he did, it was with a cautious knock to the door.

"Come in", Lafiel sounded out, and the door slightly opened to reveal Yonsa in his cloak and with Fate's Edge ready at his side.

Just from his body language alone, it was clear to Pandora that he came in ready for a fight to break out at any moment.

"You lied to us, and Birch", she accused immediately, adding Birch at the end.

Instantly, he shot a dark accusing look at Lafiel, who for her part seemed torn between looking guilty and trying to appear calm and collected. Pandora tried to signal that he should be looking at her when defending himself.

"And how many have you blabbed this to?", he asked Lafiel darkly, purposefully ignoring Pandora.

"She doesn't need to answer that!", Pandora interjected, finally catching his attention.

"Just you then, Princess", he inferred, "in that case, I will make this simple. Don't tell anyone about this or I'll tell your parents that you lied about your teammates and your housing."

Did he just try to blackmail me?, she thought furiously. No one blackmailed her!

"I could have you thrown in jail for murder", she growled threateningly.

Somewhere in the background, Lafiel was torn between trying to stop this before it got further and not wanting to be seen as opposing Pandora.

"Not unless you want your dear parents to know that their little girl lied to them for months on end", he continued his blackmail attempt, "imagine what they might think when they learn that you lied about sleeping with two guys and two Faunus. What reason could she have to hide her teammates?"

Pandora's cheeks flamed at the insinuation, but she refused to be blackmailed.

"No one will believe you in jail", she countered.

Her refusal to submit to his blackmail seemed to throw him off for a bit. Pandora noted his eyes running from his bed to the window to the both of them and to the door, before settling back on them with a furious expression in them. She now understood why Lafiel had said that he had scared her.

"I saved you", he said with an accusatory finger pointed straight at Lafiel.

"You killed someone in cold blood", Pandora protested.

"I don't want to hear that from you!", he whirled on her, "while you were sobbing uselessly in the grass, I had to make a choice to kill someone or let Lafiel die. Had I not shot him when I did, he would have killed her right then and there."

"You just lied!", Lafiel suddenly interrupted.

Yonsa was taken aback at that for a moment, before he regained himself, "all of you would have been dead had I not acted as I did."

Lafiel didn't react to that.

"You could have shot to disarm", Pandora protested weakly, still rattled by the accusation and reminder of her own ineptitude.

"You know what? I am starting to regret that I even interfered at all", he said coldly.

Slap!

Pandora had never slapped someone before. It stung her hand more than she cared to admit, and it had left a finely defined red mark on Yonsa's cheek that had to sting equally hard, if not worse.

Yonsa was surprised at having been slapped initially, but when he snapped out of it, the surprise was replaced by a murderous glare directed straight at her. His knuckles turned white as he strengthened his grip on the spear.

Pandora reflexively activated her aura and flexed her joints in preparation for a fight. If he thought she would go down that easily, he had another thing coming.

Abruptly, he broke eye contact and, still fuming, stomped towards his bed. The sudden interruption caught her completely by surprise, but she would not let her guard down near him. Not after that look.

"What are you doing?", she demanded to know as he fished out a fully ready backpack from behind his bed.

When he didn't answer, but instead just slung it over his shoulder and stomped towards the door, she blocked his way.

"Stop when I'm talking to you", she demanded and dug her heels in. As the physically weakest of their group, he would not be getting past her.

To her utter surprise, he pushed her aside with a force that he had never shown before. If not for the beds, she would have tripped and fallen to the floor.

"Where are you going?", Pandora heard Lafiel ask in a half concerned and half frightened voice.

"Does it matter?", he answered snidely, just as he slammed the door behind him.


So yeah, things are not getting any better for Team LPYS, but there is light at the end and a puropse to the journey.