DISCLAIMER: Those that ought to belong to others shall belong to their respective owners. Those that ought to belong to me, if any, shall belong to me.

AN: Hey guys. This chapter is finally here. Did you know it remembered the time wrongly and missed the deadline by god knows how long? I wagged my finger in reprimand so hopefully it would wake up its idea. Without further ado. Please enjoy.

-x-x-x-x-

Story for the Soul

Harmony once told me that if the night was a humanoid entity and I was a married man, my wife would file for divorce on the charge of adultery within the first week of our marriage. In retort, I accused her of being poetic. Harmony laughed at my biting riposte and shrugged it off indifferently, knowing the truth of her words. I always felt more alive when the shattered moon was lighting the sky.

Of course, ever since I've gotten to the academy, I wasn't able to indulge in any late night goings. The lessons were, most regrettably, scheduled in accordance to the rising of the sun and that left me with only the night time for sleeping.

Tonight though, tonight was different. The night was not at all young, in its most appealing stage of growth. Each night, there was a niche timing when even the rowdiest of the party-goers were mostly slumbering and yet the earliest of the workers still had a leeway before waking. This was when night was at its most seductive.

It felt wondrous to be doing this again. Oh, I know, I know. I always claimed to be retired. I mean, technically, I wasn't stealing anything so I guess I could insist I wasn't being a thief. The thrill of sneaking around though? Absolutely intoxicating.

What a pity I couldn't be doing this in a happier circumstance.

-x-x-x-x-

Six hours earlier,

'Melanis! If you intend to kill me, get it fucking done and end my misery!' I screamed as shrilly as my vocal cords could manage as I dodged the bullet storm the combat drones sent my way. I brandished the penultimate EMP grenade in my arsenal and tossed it at the largest fustercluck of drones I could see.

'Oh no, Balthazar. You got it all wrong. It's not about killing you. It's about sending a message,' the Professor of Combat Tactics muttered gleefully.

'And what the fuck does that mean?' The surviving drones ramped up their rate of fire, as if taking revenge for their fallen comrades. My voice barely traveled above the racket produced by the gunfire.

Be-beep. Aw fuck. A drone had a lock on me. This was bad. I needed to lose the tracking or it was a matter of time before they got me. At least it was just one drone. Fortune forbid this mechanical horde got hold of my signatu...

Be-beep. Be-beep. Be-beep. Be-beep. Be-beep. Be-beep... Before long, every discernible drone in my vicinity blurted out the mechanical alert.

I hate my life.

'Fine, you got me. What do you want from me?' I yelled out to the madman in defeat.

Melanis stepped out of the darkness and approached me threateningly. 'I want nothing from you, Balthazar, except your understanding. You will NEVER AGAIN pull down a lockdown on a ship and direct the flight crew to my doorstep. Do you understand?' He looked genuinely miffed as he said that.

Hehehe. Oops, I had forgotten about that incident. I guess the airship personnel finally took bait of the false evidences I had planted and had not been nice about handling their presumed delinquent.

It was not easy, I assure you. In fact, it was brilliant – although I had a sneaking suspicion Melanis did not see it that way. However, Melanis was infuriated to the point I decided that it was safer not to poke at his temper further. 'Yes, Melanis. I got your message.'

'Good. Then this lesson is over. Get out.' I obeyed, vowing not to be in the professor's sight until this whole thing blew over.

When I returned to the dormitory room, I was beat. I pushed the door open, forced myself to trudge the few steps to my bed and collapsed face first.

'Sup.' Alex greeted, steering away from his – one-sided – conversation with Circe. I lifted my hand to acknowledge but he was already back to poking her side to interrupt her reading. Alex was a much braver man than I.

It was good to see them relaxed. Lately, with all the hype about the upcoming tournament for the Vytal Festival, the rest of my team were fixated on training. Myself? Well, I tried, but I simply could not bring myself to be enthusiastic about an extra opportunity to get beaten to a pulp by huntsmen and huntresses much stronger than me. I was not very big on unnecessary fighting. Good thing the tournament was not compulsory. I probably wouldn't qualify even if I tried.

Anyway, back to the topic of my team members and their training.

Alex was hitting the training grounds with tyrannical disposition, leaving behind a trail of broken cadets in his wake who were unlucky enough to be in the same area as he was. You would figure by now it would be a bad idea to challenge or accept a challenge from one of the strongest cadets in the year. I guess that's why life expectancy of an average huntsmen was so low.

Circe was delving into a more customized training. Circe was stronger than a lot of people but also had more weaknesses in her defence. From what I could tell, most of her time was spent fortifying these breaches. All in all, I agreed with her sentiment. Rarely do I see her overpowered with ease. Most of her losses could be chalked up to her enemy exploiting one of her weaknesses, such as causing her shock when she was mentally strained with holding her Links in place. With each day, she chipped away at her weaknesses with precision. I looked forward to seeing how she would have improved by the time the qualifiers came around.

Now on to the ever pleasant partner of mine. She was as unpredictable with her training as she was in life. One day she would start carrying out a week-long strength training only to switch to stamina training the day after, abandoning the remaining six days. Oh well, Lestia was Lestia. She probably knew what she was doing.

An unexpected weight jumped right onto my back, jarring my spine and generating a stream of profanity from yours truly.

'Lestia. What the hell?' I asked once my vocabulary was back in my control.

'Hi Balty, do me a favor?' She leaned on my back, not in the least showing signs of moving. She was as light as she was petite so I chose to bear her weight instead of making a fuss. It wasn't as if I could have peeled her off unless she wanted to.

'You have a very unique idea of asking for favor.' The words came out slurred, muffled by the pillow I was speaking into.

'Oh Balty, me and the girls will be very pleased if you accepted, and very upset if you didn't.' Lestia retorted.

From the other side of the room, Alex blurted out, 'you've been hanging out with goldie for too long. You're starting to sound like her when you threaten people.'

'Alex, would you please hold your silence?' Circe chided her childhood friend, 'I am in the middle of a perusal. Furthermore, I believe their conversation is private.'

'Yes, ma'am.' He grinned, having accomplished drawing words out of her. He was a man of simple joys.

'Those two are so cute together,' Lestia commented. Cute wasn't exactly the word I had in my mind but I guess it fit. Kind of. I nodded in response.

'So Lestia, mind getting off?' She was still perched on top of me and I wasn't in the best of shape to deal with that right now. I just wanted to die or sleep; whichever came first.

'Well, that depends. Are you gonna do me my favor?' For Remnant's sake. She used to be so much more easier to handle before. Well, actually, not really. She was just as difficult then and now. The difference was that she was more efficient at getting what she wanted.

'Let's hear it first.'

'Nooo. Promise first,' she bawled, which was kind of adorable, although she will never hear me say it. If she was going this far, it must be one shitty job.

You can make me do many things, but walking into a bad deal willingly was not one of them. 'No deal. Tell me what you want and we'll see if I feel like it.'

Lestia grumbled softly but accepted my stance. 'We need you to sneak into Melanis's office and hand in our homework.'

I'll be honest, I was not expecting that. 'You need me to... hand in your homework.'

'Yes. Mine, Ruby's and Yang's. Ruby was supposed to hand it in but then she forgot.'

Was this something involving the field trip? That was the only reason I could think of why Lestia would have worked with another instead of me with a homework. But then again, the field trip was Professor Peach's expedition. Melanis couldn't be giving homework about it, could it?

Confounded, I asked, 'what sort of homework is this? I didn't know you were working with Ruby and Yang on anything.'

'It's just something extra he gave the class while you were in the infirmary. You and Weiss weren't given this because, well, it's about you two.' Oh, I got it. It was about Lycan. That would explain why Lestia and Ruby teamed up. Both would have been without a partner. 'Yang worked with Blake but we borrowed hers for reference.'

'So why were these not handed in on time?'

'Uhm. Ruby was supposed to hand it in. I guess she forgot.' She was biting her lips, meaning she was either lying or omitting something.

'So I need to clean up her mess?' The words came up a bit sharp, my tone grated by the exhaustion.

She turned from above me and wrapped her arms around my neck. In the eyes of a stranger, it might have looked as if she was giving me an affectionate hug; intimate, even. But everyone in the room knew she was just simply choking the life out of me. Usually, I would squirm and protest in resistance just to entertain her but today, I was really tired. When Melanis gets pissed at someone he made sure the perpetrator knew about it. I just stayed in her embrace, enjoying it a bit more than she probably intended.

Realising her usual method of persuasion wasn't working, she let me go and I returned my face to the mattress. 'You really mad?' She was on her back again.

'Not really. Just sleepy.'

'Will you help? Yang will kill us if her homework gets zero because we didn't hand it in.'

I sighed. 'You two sure like to live dangerously.'

'The life flashes past me every time I think of her,' she answered.

I laid still for a minute longer, wishing my new problem away with the will of my mind. Lestia waited patiently, defying my fervent wishing. After I had my fill on delusions of grandeur, I said, 'okay, fine. But I'm keeping tab on this one.'

She gave me a proper hug this time. 'Thank you so much!' Wow, she must have been really scared of Yang.

I pried her off. 'You're getting far too close these days.'

'Don't be a stranger, Balty,' she said cheerfully, not fazed by my rebuke.

'Yeah, Balty, quit being a stranger already.' Alex piped up again, taking a momentarily break from whatever he was doing.

I shot back, 'if I wanted your opinion, Alex, you would have received a written invitation.'

He chuckled. 'Such a stranger.' I just growled softly, audible only to my partner and me.

A question popped to my head. 'What made you think of asking me?' There was no doubt I could do it. However, Lestia didn't know of my previous occupation. What could have prompted her to ask of my service? Had she figured out? A bead of cold sweat broke on my back.

'Blake suggested you.'

'Blake?'

'Yeah. She was the one who reminded Ruby to hand the homework in. When we started panicking, she advised us to seek your help.'

So this meant Lestia was still oblivious. On the other hand, though. It suggested a possibility that Blake had an inkling what I was.

People who were professionally on the wrong side of law tended to be able to sense each other to some degree. I was a shady bastard by nature. Although I managed to hide this fact well enough to con a few marketmen in the past, the astute ones had always sniffed out my dearth of innocence just by glance.

Blake was definitely astute.

Well, I wasn't half bad finding law-benders either. I was fairly sure Melanis was one. Among the students, there were a few like that too. Blake was one of those I had been on the fence with; just the right mix of nice and mean in the bundle. Well, not any more. This action of hers all but confirmed my suspicions about her.

But she was an anomaly I would have to address later. For now, I had a professor's office to break into.

-x-x-x-x-

Present hour,

Melanis was as paranoid as he was eccentric. Why does anyone buy motion sensors and sound detectors for his academy office? I had broken into corporate offices less guarded than this. What could he possibly have that would warrant such security?

And the jewel of his security was the auto-turret sitting on the ceiling. The various aforementioned sensors served as its eye for it to lock onto any friendly interlopers that happened to be visiting. The turret was armed with nonlethal pellets affectionately named as "lightning pills". To explain them concisely, they were taser stuns in bite sizes. Theoretically, they were nonlethal; that's how they were advertised commercially, anyway. But that was if you looked at its effects in short term – as in, I won't immediately die after being shot – but I would appreciate a medic nearby to take a look at me if I got hit by one.

Twice it had fired upon me. Luckily, I dodged. You know what they say about third times; I wasn't going to tempt it.

Ugh. I just needed to get out of the room. I had already planted the three girls' homework into the appropriate stack by his table. If only I had not accidentally knocked into a furniture after that while eyeing a more expensive piece of furniture. Then the turret would not be operating in full alert.

I could wait until it returned to standby but I was freaking tired. There were still lessons tomorrow and I didn't really function as a homo sapien with less than four hours of sleep. That left me with only twenty minutes to get out of here. No way the alert would subside in that amount of time.

I would really have loved to solve my problems the traditional way – meaning grenades – but that would have left a telltale trace. If a breaking and entering was done with a grenade left behind, everyone with half a brain and quarter a sense who knew me would place his bets on me; though for Melanis's case, it was more likely his gauntlets.

Still, it was just one turret. It couldn't shoot two things at once. And there were many objects in this room that could be persuaded to create motion and noise.

I grinned. I hope Melanis did his own room cleaning.

-x-x-x-x-

I was never doing this again, I thought as I traveled through the air vent I had previously used to enter.

The plan was a success, but it was pyrrhic as all hell. Not only was my duster scorched – so turned out there actually was a second turret, and that one didn't bother too much with the nonlethal bullet nonsense – but the stress on my heart would have been fatal had I been older. Considering I was getting paid jack, this venture was so not worth my time at all.

All these thoughts of self-pity and complaints flooded my mind as I climbed out of the vent. At least it was a success. I should think about how to capitalize on the favor Lestia now owed me. I was going to make her pay.

'Good evening, Balthazar.' Aw, crap.

I turned around slowly to face my new company. It wasn't Melanis, thankfully. However, I couldn't decide whether this man was better or worse. 'Good evening, Professor Ozpin.'

The man seemed too fresh for a man up at 4 AM in the morning. I eyed the mug in his hand enviously, wondering for the umpteenth time what magical elixir the headmaster subsisted on. 'Wonderful evening to be staying awake, isn't it?'

'I... I guess so.'

He took a moment to sip his drink, giving me time stabilize my nervousness. 'It is nice to see you getting familiar with the academy complex,' he said, 'however, it seems that your old habits are still quite prevalent.' The second part was said with noticeable lack of mirth. He wasn't angry, but he wasn't amused either.

It was all I could do to stifle my nervous laugh. 'Professor, I swear this isn't what it looks like.'

'There are only two reasons I can think of why anybody would crawl through the air ventilation system. Sadly, I doubt you were there to do some maintenance work.'

'Uhh. You gotta trust me, I really wasn't doi...' He raised his hand, cutting me off mid-sentence.

'Why are you in this academy, Balthazar?'

'Excuse me?' Did he hit his head somewhere? How could he forget that he was the reason I got dragged to this crazy school in the first place?

Sensing my confusion, he amended, 'let me rephrase; why do you still stay in Beacon?'

I stared at him blankly, pondering hard on the question.

Ozpin continued, 'yes, we both knowe how your admission into Beacon came to be. However, your continued stay here is entirely of your free will. What entices you to remain?'

Hmm. What he was saying was true. I could have left anytime if I wanted. But what made me stay? An answer did not jump to me. 'I'm not sure.'

'Well, I hope you discover it soon then because you will be required to write a reflection on the matter.'

'I... what?'

'The essay is to be submitted to my office in three days time.'

I sputtered in disbelief. 'Professor?' Was he for real?

He gave me a minute smile. 'The topic is: Why am I studying in Beacon? I expect a good read out of you.' He didn't even give me a chance to properly protest. 'Good day to you then, gentleman' Without another word, he left the rooftop.

This day could not have ended any better.

-x-x-x-x-

The huntress let out a flurry of stabs, each one faster than the one before. There was no way I could have evaded each of those individually, and I would have had to pull out of her range to avoid the strikes.

However, Alex was not me. He just brought up Foundation and took all the incoming jabs with it. The shield barely shook from the impact.

What didn't barely shake from impact was the huntress when Alex's retaliatory attack struck her square in the abdomen. I flinched as the Pillar walloped into her painfully. With an agonized squeal, she flew to the edge of the training ground, only breaking the fall properly with sheer force of her will. She brought her spear up as she regained her footings.

It was a good thing she did because Alex was already launching his set of attacks. One thing Alex picked up from training with Lestia was to deny his opponents breathing rooms. In Lestia, the tendency was exhausting one to withstand. In Alex, it was a whole new brand of trepidation in itself.

The poor huntress – another of many victims who sought the glory of defeating Alex, I presume – tossed her spear – which is called kuda yari, I later learned – at the charging knight. The weapon barely managed to break his momentum. However, the little it did was enough for her to escape the rampaging juggernaut bearing down on her.

She leapt to safely while motioning her hand towards the kuda yari lying on the ground. The shaft flew to her and reentered the tube that awaited it. Then, with impossible speed, the huntress returned to her previous spot before the leap, catching my teammate still recovering from the charge in her range.

She can jab the spearhead at a crazy speed, let me tell you. If Alex wasn't such a specialist at defence, I doubt he could have gotten off unscathed. As it were, Alex had to detonate the dust in his mace to peel her off, meaning he was quite frustrated and the girl was a decent opponent.

He smirked at her way, looking predatory as a shark. 'So we using semblances now?' Immediately, his auric armor came to life, encasing him in gold. The girl looked awestruck for a second or two at the phantasm. I did too. It really looks cool. The fact that Alex rarely felt the need to use it meant I was not overexposed to it yet.

The behemoth rose its golden mace ready to smite the insolent mortal beneath. That brought her out of reverie. She recognized the danger, backpedaled as fast as her feet could take her and formulated a counter strategy to keep her safe.

'I yield!' she yelled.

And that was that, the joust was over with Alex victorious once more. The girl collapsed tiredly. Alex fared slightly better but his shirt beneath the armor was soaked in perspiration as well. They had been training for the better part of an hour. I came forth with their salvation: a bottle of water. Being the kindhearted man that I am, I ignored my teammate and helped the girl up to a sitting position so that she could drink. Alex shot me daggers.

'Thanks,' she said gratefully.

'Can I please have that bottle, oh generous leader of mine, if you are done impressing my sparring partner?' Alex quipped, irritated.

'Oh hush, peasant. Thou shalt not speak to thy betters in such a tone,' I chided.

'You know, I still have my mace.'

'Good point.' I tossed him the water, which he gulped all in a matter of seconds. 'So who do you happen to be?' I asked the girl, having met her for the first time.

'The name's Yeon. Hwa Yeon. I'm from Team IVRY.' My thief eyes examined her as she made her introductions. Well, she wasn't anything special to look at, not bad on the eyes but not enough to stick around the head after a farewell – the sort of look I had, if Harmony was correct. The huntress's general sense of style, with both clothes and physical appearance, said she knew how to dress herself. She looked like a typical teenager, albeit on the smarter side of the spectrum. The curious thing though, was her posture. The barest habit of being constantly on guard – just as Pyrrha Nikos sported – gently oozed off of her. I had an impression she was trying to deliberately let her guard down, to relax around others, but was failing. Here was a girl who was taught to be a warrior since birth but hated the idea of simply being a warrior.

Either that or I was totally off mark and she just had her guard up because she was wary around me. I preferred to think of myself positively though.

'Nice to meet you, Yeon. I'm Balthazar Venarius, team leader of BLAC.' Hmm, she said Team IVRY, didn't she? That sounded familiar; where have I heard that name?

'You were the one who took Raynee to town!' Oh right. That team. 'She kept us awake for three nights retelling the events.' She shot me with a look that was half gratitude and half frustration.

'Nice to hear she enjoyed the outing.'

Alex cut in then, bored being left out in the conversation. 'Great! Looks like I wasn't the only one to pick up a new friend while going on the field trip. Now, you said you wanted to talk to me about something. Spill.'

Oh right. I didn't come here just to watch Alex duel. 'Right. Uhmm. I need you to tell me something. Why do you study in Beacon?'

That's right, people. I came all the way here because I had no idea how to go about with the freaking essay. Oh, don't judge me. I gave myself full thirty-six hours before I decided to consult external sources. It just didn't come to me. How did anyone accomplish self-reflections? Such people were greater men – or women; let it not be said I am a sexist – than I.

The two hunters looked at me with bewildered expressions, wondering just what the hell I was sprouting now. Yeon looked at me worriedly. Alex, on the other hand, wore an expression one might reserve for a patient carrying a highly contagious and infectious disease. If I had a lien every time I wanted to beat the ever living crap out of Alex, I wouldn't need to stea... ahem... I mean, earn my own money ever again. Such was the sorrow of being the weaker one.

'Look, either you help, or I just go. Don't tax your tongue on my accounts,' I told him.

'How utterly persuasive of you,' he commented dryly.

'You couldn't persuade a dying man to seek medical help.'

'Well, if he needs persuasion for that, I say let him die.'

'Aw, sod off. I don't even know why I thought this was a good idea.'

'You know what's the best part about that sentence? You claiming to be capable of thought.'

Yeon gave an exasperated sigh, likely tired of having to cope with Alex's infantile behavior. Playing the mediator, she said, 'look, I'll tell you mine. How about that?'

I beamed at her offer. 'I would be totally grateful.' I was pleasantly surprised she offered, actually. We were virtually strangers, having only just met.

'Alright, as long as it stops the bickering.' She closed her eyes, her brows creased in thought.

'Why am I in Beacon... Well, I guess I didn't have any other choice. My family had been huntsmen for generations. Who was I to suggest being anything else? My father is a huntsmen. My aunt was a huntress. Their mother was a huntress too. My brother is training to be a huntsmen in Beacon as well. Everyone in the family must become a hunter to protect the weak from the Grimm. I don't see what else I could have been.' Her last sentence was through gritted teeth.

Her revelation was more personal than I expected it to be. It was clear she felt strongly against the duty forced on her. I just sat there, twiddling with my fingers, not knowing what to say. It wasn't something a stranger should opine in.

Alex, on the other hand, obviously did not consider himself a stranger at all. 'Damn, thorn. I didn't know having a family could weigh down that much.' I cringed at his tact, or the lack of it. Who gives a girl a nickname "Thorn"? So distracted was I at his graceful manner of speech that the second part of what he said did not register until much later.

Yeon was faster on the uptake. 'What do mean by that?'

'By what?' Alex asked back.

I picked up the conversation. 'You said you didn't know how having family was like. Does that mean...' I could have just said out loud whether he was an orphan. However, ever since being discovered by Blake, I've been trying to curb my tongue a bit more.

Alex understood. 'Ah. You mean whether I don't have a family?' We just nodded in affirmation. He chuckled. 'Yeah. I'm a poor little orphan. Been with Circe ever since I could remember.'

I didn't know that. I guess in some part of my mind, I had always assumed the rest of my team had come from normal families. You know, parents and all that. Just goes to show how world ain't easy on all of us. Shame burned from within me as I realised just how little I knew about my team members. I vowed to learn about them better.

Oblivious to my mental shame, Alex carried on. 'You asked why I've come to Beacon, right?' The quality to his voice had changed. There was a grim property to it, a determination that spoke of darkness I never thought I would see in a student, much less in a friend of mine. It was the sort of aura assassins exuded.

Unaware of my unease, he resumed. 'To be honest, I'm not here because I have a burning desire to save the world or protect the humankind. In fact, if it wasn't the fact that Circe chose to attend here, I would never have even considered.'

'So you came because Circe did?' I asked.

'Yup. Can't leave that girl alone. She's not very good at knowing her limits. Not to mention the fact that she considers herself the champion of the weak. Can't go past a person in need without trying to fix all his problems. And there's nothing more infuriating than that girl finding something she wants to read. I swear, if it wasn't for me, she would never have made it to Beacon.' The harshness in his voice had faded, making way for the badly hidden fondness he was feeling. My anxiety lessened as the old Alex returned.

Yeon also relaxed as the air around the knight lightened. 'Geez, Alex. You scared me for a second. So intense.'

Alex grinned. 'Oh? Stick around and I'll show you intense.' Yeon slammed the butt of her spear into his guts in retort. All air escaped from his lungs, taking his smirk along with it. Considering the fact that he was armored for combat, the blow must have been especially vicious.

He was on all fours, not able to get his feet up. I observed the fallen comrade and came to the conclusion that he was fine. Yeon apparently came to the conclusion he needed more beating and proceeded to remedy that flaw.

I left the two of them to tear each other's throat. I still had a report to write, after all.

-x-x-x-x-

The next one I wanted to find was Circe. She was a daughter of a family who owned a powerful corporation. After having heard from Alex she was the cause of his enrollment, my curiosity was piqued. What could have enticed her to leave that aside and spend her time here? What did she hope to get out of this place? How does her family feel about her studying in the same place Schnee heiress was studying? How did she feel about Alex hitting on just about every girl that wasn't her or Yang? How does her hair never get tangled in the morning?

I frowned as I reread my list then crossed out the last two sentences. They seemed a bit off topic.

As it turned out, the list was useless because Circe was nowhere to be found. Opinions on her whereabouts seemed conflicted, some claiming to have seen her in the laboratories while others stating she was exercising her authority within the library, executing all noisy trespassers without mercy. One student even informed me that she was feeding on the blood of the innocent somewhere – I'll admit the guy wasn't the most reliable source of information.

One common trait my informers seemed to share was that they were all wrong. I went to all the places they mentioned, plus a few of my own guesses, but she was at none of these areas.

Hmm. Nothing I could do about.

So instead, I decided to settle for the next best thing. Lestia.

-x-x-x-x-

Finding Lestia was significantly easier than finding the dustcaster. Being the social chatterbox that she was, she usually spent her free time mingling with other people, be that friends or strangers. For some reason, those who knew her also seemed to know me, calling me by my name even before I made my introductions. Not only that, they seemed to be quite up to date with my current affairs. Grrrrr. Lestia. My private life was not meant to be your ice breaker. She and I was going to have a word regarding the issue.

With the help of these kind busybodies, I located Lestia.

She was, for once, alone. Meandering through the dense forest known as the school garden, she spotted my approach and entered deeper into the foliage, in the opposite direction. So happened a game of tag, each of us trying to get the drop on the other. We were both the hunter and the hunted, whoever managing to catch the other off guard the victor.

I was quite apt at the art of stealth, of course. One did not stay as a thief long if he did not know how to sneak around. My footsteps were light, my movements were economic. My knowledge on espionage in the woods, however, was complete garbage.

The rules were completely different. The thicket provides fanfare to announce the presence of anybody that step on them. The shadows betray you, lured by the motions of branches overhead, as silver of unpredictable sunlight highlight your location at the most inopportune timings. And worst of all, the thorns and the bristles clung to your outfit like debt collectors after a loan. I could not be swift, I could not be fluid.

I was absolutely at the mercy of my partner.

She showed no mercy – she never does. Right at the moment I made a blunder, she pounced. All the obstructions I was facing did not impede her in the slightest. It was as if the forest yielded to let her pass. Did her semblance grant her easier passage through the trees? I could not see how it could have. Then again, walking on air could be advantageous in rural settings. Something to ponder on later.

Curious and idle thoughts do not help a person in an emergency situation, no matter how good the question. Before I could muster a proper response, she had me pinned to the ground, my flailing limbs in a lock.

'Got ya, Balty,' she declared cheerfully.

'Great. Yay. Now let me go please.' I purposely made my tone a deadpan, to strip her the satisfaction of her victory.

She did not go easy with her lock either. Her voice came from beside my ear, full of mirth. 'Drab as usual-,' I growled in response-, 'so, what do you need?' She skipped off me. I dusted the leaves as I stood up, cursing the vegetation that clung to the clothes.

I relayed to her my current predicament, making sure she realised it was because of her favor that I got into this mess. To my irritation, I found not a shred of guilt on her when I finished my story.

'So you want to hear why I came to Beacon?' she asked, ignoring the rest of my comments. 'Does this mean I pay back the favor owed?'

'Not in the least.' I thought she might try something like that. She pouted at my refusal but did not push.

'Alright fine. Didn't expect it anyway.' She lied on the ground, inviting me to a particularly muddy patch of grass to do the same. She was not aware that I was no stranger to muck and grime. All they did to you was to force you to take a bath. Compared to the sort of filth I used to wade in in the past, a bit of garden mud was nothing.

I plopped down beside her without hesitation, extracting a surprise out of her for once. The well-fertilized soil was cold to the touch, but at least it was soft.

'The stains are never gonna come off,' she said.

'It's just stains. Focus on your story.'

'Ah, alright. Let's think. I am Lestia Glass, the gorgeous partner of Balthazar Venarius in Team BLAC. I used to attend Signal before Beacon, earning my place in this wonderful academy with ease. I am currently in this lovely patch of grass being interrogated for my childhood. Does that sum up what you wanted from me?'

'Lestia.'

'You're serious about hearing my story. Hmm.' She mulled over the prospect before saying, 'oh fine. I guess I don't mind.' She rolled over to her stomach, an option available to her because there was no mud where she was.

'I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not from Vale. In fact, I'm not from any of the human strongholds. I lived in a small town called Crystaldam, although why it was named that is beyond me, since there's not a single crystal or dam in the place.' I chuckled at that but otherwise maintained silence, listening attentively.

'So you know how outside is like. A lot of Grimm with not enough huntsmen to keep them away. When I was nine, the watchman on duty fell asleep on the job and a bunch of ursas decided to pay a social visit.' Her words were light but the tone was nowhere as such. Here fist clench as she recalled the memory.

'They never shared to the kids what the body count was. But I know it was bad. My parents died that day. Most of my friends died that day. The little baby Tina next door died that day, along with her parents. A lot of people died, Balthazar. All the people I knew. Except my older brother, for all good survival did for him.'

Her eyes seemed unfocused, as if her mind was elsewhere. I wanted to tell her to stop, to spare herself the suffering, but I was just as much a thrall to her story as she was. All I could do was to ask, 'how did you survive?'

She smiled, a reaction I wasn't expecting. 'What else would have stopped the Grimm, silly? The huntsmen arrived. Or to be precise, the huntsman. One man, singlehandedly, wiped out all those bastards that killed so many of the townsfolk. I don't think he even broke a sweat. He just took out his fan of knives and whipped them about and all the Grimm fell dead.'

'Do you know what I learned that day, Balthazar? That strength is everything. It decides whether the things trying to kill you really do or they simply become toys. I will become the strongest huntress. I will not let my life be controlled by anything else ever again.'

We didn't exchange much words after that. I concisely thanked her for her frankness and retreated. Her story was a lot to digest at once. I needed a moment to myself.

-x-x-x-x-

My scroll beeped, introducing a brief speck of light on this dark rooftop. I ignored it, leaving the message unread. Enough time for that later; it was probably just a team member wondering about my whereabouts.

I reflected on what I've learned today. I have heard personal stories from three cadets and they were all quite different from each other.

Yeon came here because it was her family's tradition and her duty. It was a way of life for her and her brother, to strive to protect the people who cannot defend themselves from the Grimm. It was a noble thing to do, no doubt. However, I couldn't shake the feeling that Yeon felt stifled by her future having been made for her. I considered this thought. Personally, between my childhood and hers, I would have gone for the latter any day of the week. If I had been given a choice to trade freedom for food during my childhood, I would have made that pact. Still, I didn't know her side of the story. Maybe she was perfectly happy with her situation and I misread the signs. Maybe there were worse things than starvation.

Alex's story was... well... nothing deeply moving. It was so typically Alex, actually. To have come here because his best friend wanted to study here. After hearing what he said, perhaps the term "childhood friend" was as literal as it could be. Anyone with eyes could tell the bond between the two was crazy strong. They were more than friends, and I did not mean that in the romantic sense; they transcended that too. They were like siblings, or husband and wife, or twins, or all of these combined. But their exact relationship status was none of my business.

Hmm. In some way, making life decisions because of somebody dear to you sounded admirable. But on the other hand, it felt like such a lazy way to live a life. To make goals based on somebody else was an unreliable method to live. What if you two went separate ways? Or somebody new came in? Nobody saw the future – I haven't heard of anybody with such a semblance so far – and future owed none of us favors. Nothing should be taken for granted; this applied to people too. Nobody lived forever.

Right. I wasn't going to go down that train of thought. It brought memories best left untouched.

I clamped the wandering thoughts by the metaphorical throat and yanked it back to the topic. Time for the conclusion. The conclusion I came was that I didn't know the first thing about deep relationships. I have said this before; thieves do not good friendships make. Before I started tossing opinions about how Alex chose to live, I should keep in mind I was a complete ignorant. Additionally, the brief switch in Alex as he thought about his past made me suspect that something did happen in the past between Circe and him, or involving them. There was no way to tell what, so for now I should just take his words at face value and not attempt to decipher them.

So now came Lestia. Without doubt her story was the most intense of the three. Her reason for coming to Beacon was so personal, it made someone like me, who had no idea why he stayed here, cringe at the passion. It did explain why she spared no quarter in her offesives though. I reckoned she found it hard to grant mercy when battle rage took her.

I remembered her actions ever since we met and she had always, always been fascinated with powerful weapons. Now I knew the driving force behind the fascination.

Her story, I could sympathize, sort of. I never lost my family to a Grimm attack – or if I did, I didn't know about it – but I have experienced ruthlessness. There were some really nasty folks in undermarket who allowed no room for nice. I tried to avoid them when possible but there were times such encounters occurred. Well... let's just say I wasn't still standing because I asked them politely to leave me alone. There was a flint in one part of my heart that allowed me to harden the rest if the going got hard and nasty. But the details of these stories weren't something I wanted to publish to the general public, by any means.

Ugh. I was starting to understand the magnitude of trust in Lestia's decision to share her story with me. I appreciated her choice, of course. I needed to make sure I expressed the sentiment to her. But that was something I would go about doing later.

Objectively speaking, her goal was the most selfish of the three. Alex and Yeon were here for the sake of others, Circe for Alex and defenseless normal people for Yeon. Lestia was here for herself, to make herself stronger so that she will never lose control of her life.

Thieves understood selfishness. It was an intrinsic aspect of their life. Do I share this loot with my team? Or pocket it for myself since the others do not know about it? Do I take all of this stack of lien which is clearly this old couple's life savings? Do I reveal the truth of the matter or let that poor schmuck take the fall, leaving me blameless? Do I use this expensive grenade to save that girl's life or save if for later in case my own life was in danger? Selfishness made sense to us.

Now before you start judging me, I would like to point out that my enrollment to this academy was a result of a moment of foolish unselfishness. My thoughts took me to Weiss, and I briefly wondered how my life would be now if I had never met her on that fateful night. I would never have been caught. I would never have unlocked my aura. I would never have met Lestia, Circe and Alex. I would never have met the members of Team RWBY and JNPR – although I have still yet to meet the elusive leader of the latter team. I would never have met Melanis, which might be a blessing depending on how one looked at it.

I would also not have gotten Rebecca off the streets into Harmony's care. I would not have fought off Lycan – an identified Grimm – and put an end to it before it claimed civilian lives. I would also not have struck a deal with Hei Xiong – commonly known as Junior by those who knew him – to have his henchmen patrol the woods to protect the street kids who lived at the edge of the city.

Actually, because of that night I did a lot of things I couldn't have as a thief for the sake of the children of the streets. I never thought about the virtue of my actions before but now I recognized that quite a few of them had been altruistic, to the point Harmony would have disapproved. Even if I could have gone back in time, I would have made the same choices. Because those kids needed somebody to alleviate some of the shit their lives forced them to go through.

I didn't know if this was the reason I stayed, but it could be.

-x-x-x-x-

Professor Ozpin looked at the two piece paper I gave him. He gave the essay a look-over. 'Two pages?'

'A friend of mine believes in "quality over quantity" mindset. She passed her beliefs to me, I'm afraid.' An amused gleam shone in his eyes.

'I see.' He hoisted my homework and began to read. I stood in attention, wondering what his comments would be. His eyes journeyed down the lines for a few seconds before he glanced up to perceive my presence. 'You are dismissed.'

Disappointed no comments were forthcoming – I put a lot of effort on that paper – I was reluctant to comply. But what else could I do? I left, grumbling silently about the unfairness the weak suffered under an authoritarian rule.

Now what to do for the rest of the day? My mind automatically went to Lestia, who bared her heart because her friend asked her to, despite the anguish doing so must have brought.

Hmm. Did I have enough time to go to city and buy her favorite ice cream? I took a look at my scroll. Yeah, I had time.

-x-x-x-x-

AN: What does the Inquisition of Deadlines do to an author who forsakes his duties? They shoot the bastard for his crime against humanity.

Having said that, I hope it isn't the case because I would definitely be on the list to be executed if that was the case.

Why is is that all my chapters are becoming so long? Is it something I do? 7000+ again. If any of you feel my chapters are too long or has any other advices on my style and execution of writing please do leave a comment.

Slowly but surely, we are approaching the season 1's canon. You know, with Penny and all. I can't let that go by, can I? Any ideas would be appreciated if shared.

Right then. Ciao ppl.