Intermittent birdsong filled the Emerald Forest as JNPR pursued Opher. Pyrrha and Jaune, having the largest bladed weapons, were up front to cut through the undergrowth. Ren held the latter's Scroll to keep tabs on Opher's position while Nora protected their rear. "Straight ahead. Long way, though," Ren advised. "Keep going."

"Where do you think he ended up?" a breathless Jaune asked between slashes. "I have never hated vines so much in my life."

"Perhaps he saw the temple from the air?" Pyrrha replied. "It's just about the only landmark in this valley besides the ruins."

Jaune squinted with disdain. "Oh, sure. He finds the thing in five minutes and it took us like, three hours. I'm not leaving until he teaches us how to fly."

Nora did a cheerful little dance as she walked. "I already know how to fly! Kinda. Close enough. That guy doesn't even blow up anything when he does it. Soooo boring."

"His name is Opher." Pyrrha rolled her eyes despite expecting Nora's giggle. "Ren, is he still on the move?"

"No." There remained a considerable distance between them and Opher, however. Ren moved up to show Jaune and Pyrrha. "About a mile ahead now."

"Great. Oh well, at least we haven't seen any-" Jaune stopped short of finishing his sentence as they pushed through a large row of bushes and stumbled upon three Ursa Major wandering through the trees. Instead of saying anything else, he firmly shoved Pyrrha back through the shrubbery and followed right behind her. She bumped into Ren and Nora; thankfully, both managed to remain quiet.

"Well," the redhead muttered, "That's a problem."

"Problem? More like fun," Nora whispered enthusiastically.

"We need a plan." Jaune peeked over the hedges. All three Ursae were heading away through the forest. "Wait. I think they're headed in the same direction we are."

Pyrrha had her eye on the Grimm as well. "Toward Opher? Shouldn't we stop them?"

"Probably…" Jaune glanced over at Ren and Nora with a thoughtful frown. "Me and Pyrrha-"

"Pyrrha and I," she corrected him.

He peered at her for an instant. "Not now. We can probably take two of 'em without too much trouble. Ren, get high and sneaky. Nora… kill whichever one we're not fighting. Or, you know, all of them. But don't drop in until we have their attention, okay?"

Nora folded Magnhild into its grenade launcher form and winked. "Got it. We'll be right back!" She and Ren scrambled up into the trees while Jaune allowed his shield to expand.

"Ready?" he asked with an anxious grin.

Her smile back at him was far more confident. "We'll be fine. Your strategy is sound."

"I'm glad one of us thinks so." Jaune sucked in a lungful of air and let it all out with a fierce yell as he burst through the shrubs. The Grimm turned on him immediately. "Pyrrha! The one on the right!" he shouted, bracing himself behind his shield for the incoming blow.

Pyrrha was in much the same stance. "Yes!" While she used Akoúo̱ to bounce the Ursa's vicious strike without too much effort, it was clear from Jaune's unhappy yelling that he wasn't having the same success. "Jaune?" she called, barely able to look over her shoulder as her opponent kept striking.

"Reeeeen! Noraaaaaaaaa!" he shrieked, using his shield more like an umbrella than anything else. The Ursa continued to get in his face with claws flying, forcing him to retreat. Even worse, he noticed the third Grimm was headed his way. "Do something! Nora! Smashies! Smashies right now!"

Ren dropped from almost directly above, sinking StormFlower's blades into the Ursa's back. As it raised up, roaring in pain, Jaune charged and sank his blade into its throat. It didn't even have time to hit the ground before both disengaged and picked up new targets. While Ren sprayed the unoccupied Ursa with bullets, Nora pelted it from the trees with grenades.

Jaune's arrival gave Pyrrha a welcome breather; while he got low and braced with his shield against the Ursa's charge, she spun Miló into its shortsword form and struck several blows against its unprotected side. When it turned on her, Jaune took over the stabbing while Pyrrha used Akoúo̱ for cover. After two cycles of this, he finished it off with a sword to the eye. "Well done!" Pyrrha said, turning to the final Ursa. "Let's wrap this up."

This one focused its rage on Ren, who proved too fast to hit. He darted effortlessly from side to side, ducking under its swipes, until Nora dropped from the trees to deliver a mighty blow to the back of its neck with Magnhild. Even Pyrrha had to wince at the sharp crack.

Nora examined her handiwork as the dust settled. "I don't think I've ever heard one make a sound like that before," she said with a grin.

"Yeah," Jaune gasped between breaths. "Good-" He paused and hunched over with his hands on his knees. "Just a sec. Lungs… not working."

While she was sympathetic to his plight, Pyrrha urged Jaune up with a hand. "We just made a lot of noise. It's time to move."

"I know. Scroll please," Jaune said with a gesture toward Ren. Once he had it, he turned it round and round until he could figure out which way was west. "Okay, so…" he trailed off, looking toward an area where the trees thinned out, "...that way. JNPR, charge!"

"Wheeee!" Nora yelled, shedding all pretense of stealth and blasting herself ahead on shots from Magnhild.

"Just because we made some noise doesn't mean you can make all of the noise!" Jaune yelled as he sprinted after her.

"Nora, wait!" Ren added with an outstretched hand.

They pursued Nora through the meadow toward another sizable clump of trees. While she'd stopped using Magnhild as propulsion, her considerable head start lengthened the pursuit. Pyrrha was the first to catch her, but only because Nora pulled up in a small stand of pines. Something in another clearing beyond had her attention. "Please don't run off," Pyrrha requested breathlessly on arrival. "There could be Grimm everywhere, we have to-" Nora suddenly pointed ahead, robbing her ability to finish the sentence. "What?"

Jaune and Ren arrived just as Pyrrha saw what brought Nora to a halt. Scattered through the clearing were several Grimm, mostly Beowolves of varying sizes, and one Death Stalker. Oddly, none of them appeared to be moving. Even stranger, all of the creatures appeared to be facing in roughly the same direction. The whole horde stood like statues in a park, motionless. "What are they doing?" Jaune asked quietly.

Pyrrha stood rigidly, so afraid of making noise she manually regulated her breaths. "As long as they're not noticing us, I'm not sure I care."

"Good poi-oh. Crap," Jaune cursed lowly, noting the position of Opher's signal on his Scroll. "Guys, he's over there with them." An abrupt breeze startled him into retreating. "Back into the trees. We need a plan."

Horror creeped into Pyrrha's eyes. "A plan? We need a professor."

Ren took a look at Jaune's Scroll as they carefully made their way back into cover. "Opher hasn't moved in a while," he noted grimly.

Nora's grip on Magnhild was so firm it turned her knuckles white. "A-are we in trouble?" she asked, taking up a lookout position while her team huddled near a tree trunk.

"What are we supposed to do?" Jaune looked to Pyrrha for guidance and found only barely-restrained panic on her face. Her distress made up his mind for him. "Forget it. We gotta bug out. I mean… there's nothing we can do with that many Grimm around."

"This is all my fault," the redhead whispered to herself. Jaune's order didn't register for two or three seconds; she looked over at him with hopeless resignation. "We're going to abandon him?"

Ren gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Jaune is right. There's nothing we can do now."

"Oh, hey, there he is."

Jaune looked up at Nora after she spoke. "Uh, what?" Nora simply pointed again; he stood and joined her to figure out what was going on. The sight of an unharmed Opher, strolling along on the outer edge of the cluster of Grimm, left him utterly speechless. Pyrrha and Ren joined him a moment later, though neither had any luck finding words for the sight either.

Nora, as she often did, broke the silence. "He looks pretty good for a dead guy."

"W-why aren't they attacking?" Pyrrha noticed on closer inspection that the some of the Grimm appeared to be slumped oddly, as if something unseen held them upright. Little wisps of black vapor left their bodies and faded in the breeze. "Hold on…"

Opher noticed them and waved over with a smirk. "You don't have to hide," he called. "They're all dead."

Jaune found his voice again as he started moving. "How!?" The answer became apparent the closer he and his team got. Hidden by the shadows of their corpses were pillars of ice. Each of the creatures was impaled upon at least one. The larger Grimm had two or three jutting into their undersides. "You… but…" Jaune found it impossible to resolve the sheer number of Grimm with the outcome in front of his eyes. "H-how?"

"Trust me, it was a lot easier than it looks." Opher glanced over his shoulder at the forest behind him. "I found some cameras back there. Ozpin must be watching us." He regarded JNPR's varying levels of amazement with another smirk. "What? Never seen dead Grimm before?"

Pyrrha was at just as much of a loss as Jaune. "I don't… I don't understand," she said, unable to tear her gaze away from the scene.

"Let's just say I wasn't as rusty as I thought." Opher stretched his arms above his head and walked off in direction of the cliffs. "I guess you were the ones making all that noise a few minutes ago, huh?"

"Yeah, that was us. Had a little fight ourselves. No big deal. You know how it goes." Jaune's bravado fell by the wayside when he remembered the effort spent on killing three Ursae, then compared it to the apparent lack of Opher had needed to win his own fight. It forced a weak chuckle from his lips. "Hunter problems, right?"

"He's not even sweaty," Nora pointed out.

Jaune's face went blank. "I know, Nora."

"Or breathing hard," Ren added.

Now his brow was furrowed. "I know, Ren."

Nora just couldn't let it go, however. "He even did it barehanded! That's like-"

"Nora, if you still like stuffing your face full of pancakes, I suggest you shut it now," Jaune warned, fists clenched with disdain.

She leaned on Magnhild with a grumpy sigh. "Geez. I'm just saying."

Pyrrha, too bewildered for words, watched Opher wander away in silence. Even if she knew what to say, the sudden, brief shadow that covered their little section of the forest wouldn't have given her a chance say it. Opher not only noticed the shadow, but turned around before JNPR could even agree on which direction to look. His gaze was aimed skyward, where it met the glowing crimson eyes of an oncoming juvenile Nevermore. Its talons were already extended for an attack.

"Nevermore!" was all Jaune could scream before a mighty gust of wind blew him and the rest of his team off to the side and into the trees.

Opher, his right arm extended, was responsible for their abrupt trip. The Nevermore shook the ground with its landing, but didn't move to attack. It only hopped around in search of something. He moved toward it on calm strides. Creature and Hunter locked eyes again briefly, but the Nevermore ignored Opher while looking for the prey it had lost.

Pyrrha was the first of her team to stand up; almost too confused to be fearful, she tried subtly gesturing at Opher to get his attention. He paid her no mind and approached the Grimm, eventually drawing so close to the Nevermore that he was able to put his right hand on its beak. That made it stop looking anywhere else but at him. Still, it did not peck or claw. It only gazed blankly. Opher lit a blue flame around his left hand and brought it up. A similar fire engulfed his other fingers. The Nevermore recoiled in response to the heat; it managed one flap of its broad wings before Opher drove his fiery fists into its eye sockets. Those thrusts went elbow-deep before spastic jerks from the monster forced him to extract his hands and step back.

As the dying Grimm flopped around, he spun on his heel and walked toward his escort, who were all standing up by now. "I think we're good," he advised. "Can we go now? I'd like to get out of here and grab dinner." Their slack-jawed stares made him roll his eyes. "What? I know you've seen blood by now."

Their continued silence forced Opher to look viscera-covered arms and realize how grotesque he looked. "Oh. Right." As Jaune and his team tried to collect themselves, he unleashed a stream of water from his hands, as well as a spiraling wind to force the liquid up and down his forearms. The sticky mess detached from his skin with a series of sickening plops.

Then Opher walked away without a word. Pyrrha, after a few seconds, managed to stammer out what the rest of her team was thinking. "W-what just happened?"

Opher had been correct about the existence of other witnesses, though it wasn't just Ozpin who had been monitoring his progress. A dumbstruck Glynda set her open Scroll down on Ozpin's desk and walked away. Like Pyrrha, she had been rendered speechless.

"This is a problem," the headmaster stated, not too amazed to keep an eye on the bigger picture. "His Aura is so compressed that the Grimm don't even recognize him as human."

His assessment gave Glynda something to think, and speak, about. "It certainly appears that way," she said. "Not a claw, paw, or stinger lifted in anger."

Ozpin, hands clasped, lounged back in his chair. "Indeed. Opher may have been a Huntsman once, but clearly something else has happened to him."

Glynda had to nod in agreement. "That's an understatement. Who on Remnant has the ability to do this?"

He looked at her over the rims of his glasses. "Besides Atlas?"

Unable to stand his gaze for long, Glynda peered through the windows. "They signed the treaty. All of the kingdoms signed it."

"Eighty years is a long time to resist the call of that sort of power," he countered quietly. "I trust James absolutely, but there are a few radical thinkers under his command."

Glynda dismissed this with a frown as she retrieved her Scroll. "Granted, but as tight a grip as he maintains on his troops? If something were going on, he'd know." Her eyes suddenly widened in thought. "Besides, he was just as surprised as we were about Riese's Aura. The man isn't a terribly good actor."

That earned her a subtle nod. "Which is why I wonder if someone is hiding something from all of us. I suppose I have no choice but to let James know what's happened." Ozpin glanced down at his own Scroll to check the video feed. JNPR and Opher were just arriving at the top of the cliffs. "They're on their way. Meet them when they return to campus, would you? I suspect JNPR has… questions."

Glynda pursed her lips and made for the elevator. "They're not the only ones."

Opher saw no need to hang around; in fact, he had barely gotten back to Beacon's campus when he broke away from JNPR without a goodbye. All he wanted to do was give back the tracking bracelet and leave. He knew there was no chance it would be that simple, of course. The look on Glynda's face when she noticed him in the courtyard reinforced that reality.

"If you're looking for the kids, they went back to their dorm," he advised as Glynda drew near. The bracelet was already off and in his other hand. "You want this back, right?"

"Yes, thank you." She took it and tapped the blinking light to turn it off. "As you can imagine, we are..." The presence of students walking by silenced her briefly. "...a bit perplexed about what we've seen."

Opher adjusted his hat with a wry smile. "I'm not surprised. I've got a question myself, though."

She glanced down at him as they started walking. "What would that be?"

His smile suddenly vanished into thin air. "The way I figure it, Ozpin sent JNPR with me because he thought I'd show off for an audience, or he figured they'd be just incompetent enough to need saving. Which was it? Was it both?"

Glynda was so taken aback by his words that she came to a halt. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"Why else would he send them? I mean, I heard Jaune screaming for miles," he stated evenly. "Even Yang's team has to be more combat ready than they are."

Instead of grappling for an answer, Glynda deflected his concerns. "You will have to bring the Professor's reasoning up with him."

"Heh. I already know why." Opher tugged at his hat once more and turned away. "It was a trust-building exercise. Anyway, we're done, right? I'm hungry."

"You are welcome to eat here." Glynda indicated the dining hall to their right with a nod. "No special ID is necessary."

He only regarded the building for a second. "I feel like you're trying to keep me around." That Glynda was tapping on her Scroll when he glanced back made him a bit suspicious. His stomach emitted an obnoxious grumble. "Then again… fine," he decided after checking his own device for the time. "It is the closest place, I guess."

Glynda moved quickly now that she'd bought some time. "Very well. I'd better go speak with Team JNPR."

"Yeah," Opher said with a wave as he turned away, "Good luck with that."

The interior of the hall bustled with students as he walked in; no surprise, given the hour. Students from every Academy were present, though Beacon uniforms dominated the crowd. Some weren't in any uniform at all. Amongst this crowd was the impossible to miss Ruby Rose and her team. Her red cloak stood out like a lighthouse. She wasn't the first to notice him walking nearer, however. "Hey, Gopher!" Yang shouted with a friendly wave. Then she winced. "Oops."

Against his better judgment, Opher decided to wander over toward their table. "Are you ever going to stop calling me that?" he asked sourly.

She offered him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. I wasn't kidding about the reflex thing. It just happens."

"So I've noticed." Opher's eyes went to Blake for a moment. She regarded his presence with an uncertain glance, but said nothing. Then he looked at the trays of food as he tried to figure out what he might want for dinner. "Huh. They've got tilapia?" he remarked, noting the fish on Blake's tray. "Fancy."

"Sometimes," she replied cooly. "What are you doing here?"

Before answering this, Opher checked the crowd for Emerald's pale green hair. "Ozpin wanted to see me," he explained, once he was certain the thief was elsewhere.

"Oh, yeah," Yang blurted out around a mouthful of chicken. "What's going on with that stuff?"

His green eyes rolled a few times while he chose how much information to mete out. "Oh, just a little hunting in the Emerald Forest. Pyrrha and company tagged along."

Ruby perked up a bit and looked over. "Oh, how did they do?" Her face went blank. "Are they okay?"

Opher cracked a grin. "They're fine. I didn't need their help." His brow furrowed a bit. "Jaune… is a real screamer."

Ruby, Yang and Weiss all nodded in agreement; Blake, however, had nodded off with her chin in her hand. "World's out here, sleepyhead," Yang said, elbowing Blake's arm gently.

Her partner didn't appreciate the wake-up call. "Stop that," she groaned, rubbing at her sunken eyes.

Yang's smile only brightened. "Don't you get grumpy with me, young lady."

"How many Grimm did you find?" Ruby asked, seizing on the part of the conversation that held her interest. "Did Nora do that thing with Magnhild where she shoots grenades and rides it around? She does it all the time. Makes me so mad."

Her jealous pouting made Opher smirk. "I wouldn't know. Didn't see them until just before we came back. And, yeah, I found a few Grimm to slay."

Yang continued to talk with her mouth full, ignoring Weiss' silent disgust at her lack of decorum. "Cool. How many?"

The conversation was beginning to grow dull for him. "A lot," he said, already starting to walk away.

"Aw, come on," Yang countered with a grin. "Don't leave us hanging."

Opher denied her without even glancing back. "I don't want to bruise anyone's ego." A buffet table lay ahead; he barely heard Yang speak again as he examined it contents. "Hmm…"

Just as he reached the spread, however, a quick-moving Glynda caught his eye. She was heading his way. "Mister Riese," she called over the general din of the students. "Would you come with me, please?"

"Damn it," he muttered, a hand on his unhappy stomach. Despite his hunger, he reluctantly followed her out the nearest set of doors. "What now?" It didn't take long before Opher noticed they were moving back toward the administration building. His expression grew dark. "Not this again."

Glynda flipped a few errant strands of hair back over her shoulder. "I apologize, but Professor Ozpin couldn't stifle General Ironwood's curiosity any longer."

The annoyance in Opher's eyes became anger. "And it keeps getting better. Ozpin told him, didn't he?"

"After what we saw? He had no choice."

"And he couldn't wait like, ten minutes? I'm fucking hungry," Opher growled with a longing gaze back at the dining hall.

Glynda sneaked a peek at him. "Actually, the the Professor already thought of that."

Opher only found out what she meant after the elevator ride up to Ozpin's office. Both General and headmaster were in the middle of eating. "Oh, there you are," Ironwood said as he waved them over. "Ozpin had the kitchen bring up a few things. Take your pick."

On one hand, it was nice to see Ironwood acting tactfully. On the other, it still made Opher deeply suspicious. "Oh, I am. I'm sure as hell not gonna deal with you on an empty stomach." He grabbed a sandwich, not really caring what sort it was, and took a bite.

Ozpin, keen to avoid a display like last time, took charge of the meeting. "Mister Riese, have you ever heard of the term 'Aura compression'?"

Opher smiled to himself with the one emotion no one expected, nor could explain: relief. Noticing he'd been caught, he quickly issued a cough, then a lie. "Nah. Sounds painful." He hastily crammed the rest of his sandwich into his mouth.

Ironwood clearly wasn't buying his denial, but he watched Opher pluck another sandwich from the platter in silence.

Ozpin noticed too, but opted to file it away and proceed with an explanation. "Bombard a soul with enough Dust and it will collapse upon itself. Assuming you don't kill the person first, they receive a significant power boost when new Aura forms to fill the gap."

"Would you mind showing your Aura to us again? Or is it tied to your emotional state?" Ironwood asked after a moment.

Before the disdain on Opher's face could become anger, Ozpin intervened. "We simply wish to see it, Mister Riese. Nothing more."

"Do anything funny and I swear to god I'll throw myself out of this tower." Opher held his sandwich out in front of him, only to let it go. It did not fall.

"Telekinesis?" Glynda wondered out loud. The word was hardly out of her mouth before Opher's ashen Aura flared up into view. That essence, via a twisted, spiraling arm, was what suspended his food. The rest clung to his body in a soupy fog. "Apparently not."

"Yeah, it's dense enough to hold stuff." He took the sandwich away from himself to continue eating. As he took a bite, his Aura went through several iterations of shape before settling on the double shadow Pyrrha had seen that night on his apartment rooftop. He made a face when Glynda tapped it curiously with an unseen force Opher could only feel. His Aura literally pointed it out as he looked for the source. "Oh. Stop poking me with your brain."

"It's… solid?" she breathed in confusion.

Ironwood examined it as well, though he remained seated. The way Opher's Aura twitched made his eyebrows raise. "I don't believe I've ever seen an Aura that squirms so much."

"Are we not all restless on occasion?" Things were calm enough for Ozpin to try and cut to the heart of the matter. He took a sip of coffee first. "Let me get to the point: that is not what a natural Aura should look like for someone your age. We are very keen to learn how you became this way."

The headmaster received a dour look for his initiative. "Oh, I bet you are." Opher cast another glance at the sunset outside. "But you have a point. I'm not exactly normal."

Glynda's eyes lit up. She produced her Scroll and tapped away on the screen until the faint sound of speaking emanated from it. "You mentioned something to Miss Nikos in the lobby… ah, here we are. She looked like someone you knew. And then you said-"

Opher raised a hand to silence her. Carmine's tattered memory, amongst others, brought a heavy scowl to his face. "A dead friend, yeah. One of many." His gaze became distant. The more lost in those memories he became, the less visible his Aura got until it completely faded from view.

Ironwood stood and walked toward him with slow, deliberate steps. "If this was forced upon you, we will bring those responsible to justice. You have my word. Just point us in the right direction."

That platitude turned his frown into a hollow smirk. "You know, you're being awfully nice to me all of a sudden." Opher turned his back on Ironwood to stare at the evening sky. "I'm so fucked up that even the Grimm don't know what to do with me. It scares you, doesn't it?"

Glynda moved up to stand with Ironwood. "We're more concerned about the implications. Who did this to you? How?"

"How do you know it wasn't him?" Opher blurted out, nailing down Ironwood with a glare. "I've read my history books."

The General folded his arms and stood firm. "Mantle paid for its transgressions eighty years ago. Aura compression is strictly forbidden by the Treaty of Vytal. That's why it's imperative we know who did this to you."

Opher snorted at him and looked back to Ozpin. "And that treaty is exactly why I can't tell you."

"What do you mean?" Glynda asked, shifting all her weight to one hip.

A flick of his wrist and the gust of wind that accompanied it brought Opher another sandwich. If he noticed the stark surprise on their faces at that action, he didn't call them on it. "I get it now. Everyone's on edge about something and you think I'm part of it." Nobody would respond to his accusation; their silence was proof enough. He let out a little chuckle. "I was right. That explains why you brought your fleet with you."

Ironwood tried to brush that aside. "Every kingdom contributes to the security of the Vytal Festival based on their ability."

Opher snorted again and finished off his sandwich. "Whatever. I've got good news: I'm not the product of some vast conspiracy you're gonna need to lose sleep over. I mean, your plates are probably full enough."

"Mister Riese, we'd appreciate it if you'd stop being so evasive," a stern-looking Ozpin demanded. "Someone compressed your Aura. We must stop them from doing it to others."

"Oh, man," Opher muttered, stifling a chuckle, "if you think people did this to me, you're giving humans way too much credit."

"There's no other way it could have happened!" Ironwood snapped, having finally lost his patience.

All his anger did was make Opher chuckle once more. "And that's the mindset you get when you've been trapped behind city walls for too long. Your thinking gets chained down by absolutes." He adjusted his hat and started for the elevator. "I'm going home. You know where to find me if you want to chat some more." But as he reached the door, he turned to gaze at all three of them. "Don't bother me at work. That's all I ask."

Ironwood opened his mouth to speak again, but Ozpin beat him to the punch. "Very well, Mister Riese. We'll be in touch."

Once the elevator doors were shut, the General turned on Ozpin with an incredulous stare. "And we're just going to let him leave? We know nothing about what's going on!"

Another sip of coffee was in order before he replied. "I suggest we fight the enemies we know for now. There are more pressing matters."

Glynda had been giving the problem some thought even before Opher's departure. "He seemed willing to confide in Miss Nikos," she noted quietly. "Let's have her keep an eye on him while we handle… the other problems."

"Hmm. You have a point." Ozpin reached for his Scroll and tapped on it to send out an automated message over the campus public address system. "If nothing else, she'll let us know if something is amiss."

"Hey, new guy! Catch!"

"Wait, catch wh-" Opher had barely gotten the back door of Diamond Dust open when a black object flew through the air at his face. He snatched it down with his left hand and, after a breath, found it was a pistol. "Good morning to you too, Indigo," he said, turning the weapon over to examine it.

The way he held it made Indigo cringe. "Get your finger off the trigger, dumbass!" she ordered loudly. "First rule of gun safety: you don't touch the trigger unless you're about to shoot somebody!"

Opher gazed at her with surprise. "You threw a loaded gun at me?"

"Of course not! But you don't know whether a weapon is loaded or not. Put your finger on the trigger guard." She nodded approvingly as he obeyed. "Good boy. What do you think about it?"

"It's…" He looked down at the gun once more. "It's very pistol-y."

Indigo's face went blank with shock. "Oh my god. You've literally never fired a gun before, have you?"

"I told you that yesterday," he said, gently setting the weapon on a nearby shelf. His face screwed up when she started laughing. "What?"

"I was wrong. Huntsman or not, this is still gonna be hilarious." She waved him toward the main floor. "Come on. A lotta tournament participants are arriving in Vale today. Maybe they'll wanna spend some money here."

He followed, pausing briefly to deposit his hat on the rack. "Indigo, the people that live in Vale don't even want to spend money here." Another object flew at Opher's face: her empty coffee cup. He caught it and dropped it into the trash can. "Okay. I deserved that."

Her ochre eyes glittered with annoyance. "Yes you did. Now get behind the register."

But once he was settled in, Indigo noted an unusual distance in Opher's expression. She wasn't sure how to address it. As the morning crawled on and customers trickled in, she decided it could wait until lunch hour struck. As the time approached, however, Indigo was the one that acted increasingly awkward.

"What's the matter with you?" Opher finally had to ask, noting how much she toyed with her ponytail. "Use the wrong shampoo this morning?"

She snorted at his joke. "No. You, uh, just seem a little off today."

He blinked at this. "I do?"

"Yeah. Like something's on your mind."

"Eh." Opher avoided her eyes by pretending to do something with the register. "It's nothing." Nothing he hadn't dealt with before. Then again, he asked himself, what was the harm of letting her in on a little bit of it? "I'm just missing some people lately."

Indigo crossed her arms with a frown. Her mind immediately went to the worst possibility. "Oh. Is it a Hunter thing? I've been there. Not all of my buddies made it home either."

Opher leaned on the counter with a sigh. "It's a little more than that."

"Oh." She was willing to push no further. "Sucks, doesn't it? Uh… sorry. I'm not good at this shit."

"Don't worry about me. I'm used to it," he assured her, plopping his hand on the top of her head and chuckling when she smacked it off. "Aren't you going to lunch?"

They both looked outside at the throngs of people flooding the sidewalk. "Guess so. God, what a crowd. If I don't make it back, I'm leaving the shop to Schwarze," Indigo said with a smirk. "I better just go across the street. You got this?"

"Of course I have this. Good luck." Opher watched her depart and almost instantly lost her in the crowd. If the shop had been quiet before, it was like a tomb now. The silence made him frown. "Nngh." There wasn't even anything around to busy himself with. Out of options, Opher wandered into the back and stared at the pistol on the shelf. He searched his tattoos for a specific set of symbols and grinned. "How much fun would you have had with these things, mom? Dad would-"

A cheerful ding broke his reverie. Opher walked out to greet the customer and found Pyrrha standing in front of the counter. "Good afternoon!" she said with a broad, anxious smile. "Oh. I see you were left behind again."

"Just like every other day." By this point he'd put two and two together and was eying her with displeasure. "First, I told them not to bother me about this shit at work. Second, I can't believe they're making you be my babysitter."

"It's not like that. Professor Ozpin just decided that I would be the most appropriate person, since I'm the one who first brought it up." Pyrrha replied, her smile even more anxious than before. "I… I'm sorry. This is all my fault. A Scroll call didn't seem appropriate. That's why I came to apologize in person. And the professor wanted us to have at least one face-to-face meeting anyway, so I-"

Annoyed, Opher rapped his fingertips against the glass. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. How thoughtful of you. Is saying sorry the main reason you dropped by?"

The redhead screwed up her courage and stood straight. "It wasn't the only one, no. Why didn't that Nevermore attack you? Does it have something to do with your Aura?"

"Not talking about that here," he replied simply.

Unlike her superiors, Pyrrha actually respected this denial on the first go. "All right. I understand. Well, I'd better-" The ringing of the door chime made both of them look over.

It was a grumbling Indigo coming in. "I forgot my damn Scr-" She froze stiff upon seeing Pyrrha at the counter. "Wh… what…"

"Oh, ah, hello?" the redhead said with a tiny wave. "You must be Indigo." She then deployed her prepared excuse. "Yang told me about you. Since I was going to be in town anyway, she wanted me to ask when you'd be getting more of Ember Celica's ammunition in stock." Pyrrha watched with confusion as Indigo hid behind one of the floor shelves. "Um…?"

"You're Pyrrha Nikos!" she squeaked.

Her face went blank as Opher started laughing. "Yes. I am."

Indigo's eyes were the size of saucers. "Would you sign my rifle?"

"Oh my god," Opher gasped between chortles. "My day just got so much better."