Vale was a city known for its thriving merchant community. As soon as you arrived in downtown, you couldn't take two steps without stumbling into small businesses, like mom and pop shops and street vendors. There were cafes, restaurants, bookstores, all of which were clean and legal transactions. And then there were the shadier, less rule-abiding businesses. Yes, there was little you couldn't find if you knew where to look for, and who you asked. Big corporations like Leo Corps and the Schnee Dust Company had one, maybe two branches, and being heavily regulated by the law and in turn their influence limited as well despite Vale's vicinity with Atlas.

Reiji would lie if he said it didn't play a small part on his choosing of a hunter's Academy.

Bringing him back to his mother being in the city, which in turn brought him the unavoidable question of what could possibly be so important for Himika Akaba to be here in person? If he remembered correctly, the last time she bothered to do so was when the LDS faculty held a press conference for the inauguration of the first Vale school branch.

And yet here she was, seated across him in restaurant of her choosing after she refused his suggestion of a nearby café.

"So tell me Reiji, how you have been during these weeks?" asked his mother after ordering for the two of them.

"Quite well mother," he answered, focusing on his cup of coffee. "How is everything back in Atlas?" he asked back.

"It has been quite a ruckus lately. You know how these animals like to cause problems," she said disdainfully.

"Another raid?" he asked, more out of obligation than real curiosity. What had they taken this time? Weapons? Dust? Machinery? Maybe the protesters were back? But the hesitant look on his mother's face, a rare sight made him pay attention again.

"If only. This time, they dared to attack the LDS faculty," she added with a sharp tone.

That was new. Incidents between the White Fang and companies of…questionable work ethics were hardly unheard of, but even after they radically changed their stand point in their fight for equality, they'd never attacked schools. In fact, as long as you weren't closely related or affiliated to Faunus exploiting organizations or agendas, you were on the safe side of the road.

"What types of attacks are we talking about?" he wondered. After all, his mother had the habit of exaggerating anything related to Faunus.

"This was not a business trip, Reiji. I came over to resolve some legal matters over the disappearance of a teacher from LDS," she said gravely.

That explained her choice of location then. You could never be sure of who was listening on the streets.

"Is he-" he tried to ask carefully. Abductions and executions were…not unheard of either, but the question remained: what could a simple professor done to deserve such fate?

"Nobody knows. Not a single trace left at his apartment. No signs of a struggle. Nothing was stolen. One day he didn't show up at the faculty and… I was strongly suggested by the Vale Police not to divulge any details but he's been missing for months and no corpse has been found either," she added, tightening her knuckles on the table. Reiji wasn't sure if it was out of sympathy or indignation at having been left out of the loop on such a serious matter.

"How come we are only hearing of this now?" He didn't remember anything being shown on the news either. Something like that would have made it to the headlines no doubt.

"That's why I came over here, but I was only given scarce details and flimsy promises of following up on the case," she said.

"If clues were so scarce, why are they sure the White Fang is involved?" he asked. No matter how much he considered it, there was no possible benefit from such crime.

"Who else could be capable of such a heinous acts? It was only a matter of time before they'd stoop so low. After all, they've been on our backs since I can remember," she responded, disappointing Reiji "Which brings me back to my question, Reiji, are you doing well?" Ah, so that what she meant by 'well'.

"Mother, with all due respect, in all of Remnant, there are little places safer than Beacon," he replied, borrowing his father's preferred position with his hands hiding the lower side of his face.

"I respect your opinion, Reiji, but neither I nor your father think Ozpin can be trusted with the security of a whole Kingdom during the Festival. He's always stricken us as an old-fashioned man with a careless, hands off approach," she finished, clearly dissatisfied with his answer.

Of course they would think that. In Atlas, the walls have ears and the streets have eyes, all in the name of security and progress.

But at least it made her withdraw any intentions of requesting his return to Atlas. It was obvious that she considered the conversation over when she started to attend matters on her scroll. He didn't mind. He had already made sure to slip Reira's package into Nakajima's hands before, so he copied his mother and started planning for next week's field trip.

Yes, nothing had changed.

...

"Please, students, the Emerald Forest is indeed beautiful, but we are not here to sight-see," said Glynda, scolding Mieru for taking a selfie with her scroll. "Professor Peach has asked you all to collect very special samples from very special trees deep in the forest. Professor Hogan and I are here to…"

*CLICK*

Professor Glynda stopped talking, her eyes searching for the guilty scroll. Yuzu could only guess that she was fighting the impulse of face palming when her sight landed on her comrade Professor taking a group photo of another team.

"Here you go guys, now be careful not to split and watch your step!" he said, throwing them back the device, and going back to stand next to Glynda. "And remember to listen to everything Miss Glynda tells you! Go on Glyn," he said.

She just stared at him, sighed at his clueless face, and continued:

"As I was saying, Professor Crow and I are merely here to ensure none of you die," she finished.

As Yuzu, and pretty much the entire class just stood there waiting for further instructions, she had to muffle a laugh when they all saw Glynda using her shoulder to push him to the front.

"Wh-Oh right! You all heard Glyn, we're gonna watch over you while you collect some Golden Peaches from some rare trees on the west side of the Forest. You all got your assignment sheets right? The differing traits of the fruits are written down there. Now each one of you will gather four peaches; that makes a dozen per team, and not a single one more. It might be harvest time, but don't be abusive," he said signaling the direction to take. "Oh, I don't think I need to tell you this, but remember to watch out for Grimms. The forest is full of them."

As the class split into their respective teams, Yuzu was able to hear the Professors' light squabble:

"This is why it's important to have schedule meetings before classes," Glynda was saying.

"Come on, that came out great!" Yuzu heard before taking off with the class.

...

They found peach trees easily enough, while they were the only ones with any fruits in them none of them looked like anything but regular pink hued peaches, until they went deeper in the forest and found massive trees three times the size of the regular ones. They could barely see the top of them.

"These must be the ones! They smell different, so sweet and ripe!" said Yuzu with another sniff of the air.

"Are you sure they? Don't look 'golden' or anything," said Yuya, squinting at them. It was true; they sported a combination of yellow, orange and red soft hues.

"The name comes from an old travel journal," said Reiji, looking at the sheet. "The author must have been trying to be poetic," he commented.

"That could be. I can see how in a different light they could look golden though," said Yuzu.

"Fine, fine. I'll go pick them up, and you can catch them from here, right?" said Yuya, already half-way through the trunk.

"Is he crazy? These are easily spoiled if they fall on the ground if you throw them too hard. I'll go with him. Give me your bags," Yuzu said, jumping on the lowest branch.

"You don't have to do this, Yuzu. He can make more than one trip," countered Gongenzaka.

"She has a point though. He could do that but he won't," said Reiji, throwing them the bags. Almost like a prediction, something fell in between their feet: a half smashed peach.

"Yuya stop! I'm coming for them," said Yuzu in between jumps.

Once they were both left alone, Gongenzaka noticed that Yuzu's bag had been left behind. When he picked it up, a bunch of papers, notebooks and stuff fell down, which Reiji was quick to start gathering.

"I didn't know Yuzu was that interested in weaponry?" said Reiji, picking up a couple of gun handling books.

"It must be for the Mechanics course. She's been trying to make her weapon more compact and easier to transport," he said, remembering the makeshift toolbox she had converted one of her drawers into. "When did she buy these?" he asked, holding a bunch of fabrics and a sewing kit. What could she need that for?

"This is a special thread and needle used for hunter's supplies and Dust infused fabrics," said Reiji, holding a bobbin to his eye and that's when Gongenzaka noticed the Leo Corps logo on its container.

"Oh, must be for the Dust course then. She's also asked me how to make clothes sturdier after her shirt almost got ripped in a match, now that I remember," he said, trying to organize the bag so they wouldn't spill its content again.

"I thought you said she took the Ancient History course?" questioned Reiji, handing him the last papers.

"She does, every Tuesday and Thursday. Mondays and Wednesdays are for the Dust course," he said absentmindedly, until he caught Reiji's staring at the bag and then at him…wait, Mechanics was a heavy course that took three hours of Saturday.

And just yesterday he had heard Yaiba and Hokuto asking about the assignments for the Culture's and Crisis Evacuation course, just what was she-

"Hey guys, we got them," said Yuya, landing in front of them, carrying a bag full of peaches with Yuzu on tail with the other one. Looking at them up close now, he understood why Yuzu had been adamant to keep them safe. They all had a strong sweet smell and although he hated to admit it, he felt his mouth water at the sight. He briefly wondered if they would be allowed to eat some of the samples.

"Yuya, we were told to pick up four peaches per person, no more and no less," reminded Gongenzaka, catching his hand just as he was about to bite into one.

"Relax, we took a few extra ones. They just look so good and…" he stopped talking when Reiji held out his hand for the bags.

"These trees only flourish and give fruits every once in a blue moon. That's why we shouldn't take that many," said Reiji.

"I already picked them, didn't I? Are we just gonna let them rot or something?" said Yuya, refusing to give the bag to him.

"We are still giving the surplus to Professor Peach. I'm just going to let the teachers know about this so it they put it on the report."

"So basically, you're gonna snitch on me over some fruit?" said Yuya, almost dropping the bag before he caught it.

"Thank you, Gongenzaka. Now could you go to tell the teachers we completed the assignment and about the extra ones too?"

"Wait, I'll go with you Gongenzaka. I don't like the current company," he said, catching up to him. "Coming Yuzu?" he asked turning his head to her, and Gongenzaka noticed the suddenly sunken shoulders and tired eyes as she sighed before responding:

"Um its ok, Yuya. I'll catch up to you guys later," she answered, leaving Gongenzaka to deal with an even more grumpy and sour-faced Yuya than moments ago.

...

"Why are these peaches so special anyway?" asked Yaiba to Masumi as he smelled one of them. It was sweet and seemed delicious. Too bad he didn't really enjoy sweet flavors; he preferred the regular, slightly sour peaches.

"It's an old tale about a forest with peaches that were supposed to grant immortality, guarded by a witch I think?" she said in a worked up voice. They were all perched up in the huge tree, and she was trying to get ahold of a particularly big and ripe peach.

"Forest? I thought it was a tree that only gave mature peaches once every hundreds of years or something," said Hokuto, working his way through the branches.

"Uh, something like that. Either way, it was supposed to be tended by the witch... or was it a goddess? It's a popular belief, or a religion? I mean there are temples and worshippers…" Masumi said obviously struggling to remember all the details.

"Yeah I remember too. She commanded the cosmic forces, overseer of life and death, creation and destruction…she controlled the stars and all that," added Hokuto.

Both he and Masumi exchanged a look.

"You know an awful lot about the subject, and now that you mentioned it, I remember that a certain heap of seven stars is connected to the said goddess," teased Masumi, and the moment Yaiba saw his embarrassed face, he took the lead.

"Now, doesn't that make you a momma's boy on a totally new and divine level?" he said but before he could laugh something sweet and juicy was stuck into his mouth.

"Shut up! It's not my fault my grandma still prays to her!" Hokuto said, pressing the peach to his mouth even more until he realized Yaiba was about to choke on it.

As his mouth was free, Yaiba spat all the juice he could. It really was way too sweet, more than syrup.

"Wait a minute, talking about spoiled boys, where's Sawatari?" asked Masumi out of nowhere.

"He was right behind us and then…" started Hokuto and suddenly distant rumbles were heard.

"Relax, he was supposed to be waiting for us down …there," said Yaiba, losing his breath when he pointed to the empty place under the tree.

...

"You didn't have to come here with me," said Yuzu once they reached a clearing with what appeared to be an ancient altar, pillars falling down and platforms with some unreadable inscriptions. A little farther all the cliffs and mountains seemed to be connected by arc structures, some of them still holding, others had fallen down a long while ago.

"It's not a problem. It seems most teams are taking their time too," Reiji said from behind her. He didn't sound interested in the place, but again, he hardly seemed to express any of it.

"It's just from the moment Professor Peach mentioned this trip, I wanted to see this place with my own eyes, and feel it too, we've read a lot about it," she said sitting a little on the highest point of the cliff.

"I've heard it is full of interconnected caverns and tunnels," said Reiji again.

Yes, it was, and she was currently drawing a map in her head about them. Yuya and Gongenzaka never quite got it, but the process always helped her relax, and, as corny as it sounded, to feel connected to the place. It was an amazing feeling; no wonder people used to believe that these mountains hid the place where the earth and heaven connected. If she could just shut her body down for a couple minutes, just disconnect and feel nothing, not even her mind nagging with pending homework, classes, chores, ridiculous discussions over an open window or food leftovers, or how much she just wanted to crawl into the bed and sleep all day long…

"-ten Yuzu," she jolted when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and remembered she wasn't alone. "Did you hear that?" Reiji asked with a slight edge to his voice, which was code for: time to freak out and, a lot.

*STOMP*

"It coming here from the south path," she said, preparing her shield and sword, knowing Reiji took his position too hidden between the bushes.

And then it stomped: right in between the trees falling down, a Death Stalker appeared. It doubled the size of a car, maybe even more. Yuzu felt herself hesitate a little when she noticed the extensive white armored plates and the humongous stinger, but when she saw what – or rather whom – was grabbed to the tail for dear life she got over it.

"Sawatari! What in heaven's sake are you doing there?" she yelled, abandoning plan A and starting to close in on the insect.

The moment its five pairs of eyes fixated on her with its claws aiming at her. She rolled on the ground and fired her gun at its visage, then jumping on top of the disoriented thing and ran to Sawatari.

Of course the Death Stalker didn't remain still and she saw the sting aiming at her.

So she jumped and when Sawatari's terrified face almost crashed with hers, she grabbed him by the waist and landed harshly on the ground.

Before the Grimm could turn around and continue the assault, dozens of blue flashes pierced its lower body, finally freezing it in place.

Rather than trashing around trying to break its trap, the insect stayed put as if looking for the source of the attack.

Once Reiji finally appeared next to them, they both looked questioningly at Sawatari, waiting for an explanation.

"What? I was just exploring the forest a little and there was this cave that seemed to be housing something shiny and golden. I thought that maybe it could be the famous peaches and obviously I, the great Sawatari, had to investigate…" he started saying with a smug voice until he noticed the looks both of them were giving him.

He just hung his head and sighed before adding:

"You could at least say something before letting me make a fool of myself," he complained, cradling his head in his hands.

"We can't go back with the class before taking care of it, or else we risk that it will follow us for more preys," said Reiji, apparently deciding to ignore the whole deal.

"What? Why can't we just call one of the teachers? They would be more than capable of taking care of …that, right?" asked Sawatari.

Then the three of them heard how the ice holding it down started to crack.

"They won't reach us in time… and there's no signal" said Yuzu, and in perfect timing, when she closed the scroll bits of ice and frost were flying in her eyes. It would have been beautiful in any other moment, but right now, she could only concentrate on the red eyes looking at them.

"Yuzu, we're doing the Second Triad formation, but you'll take Yuya's place in it. Sawatari, this is what I need you to do," he said, filling him in on the details, which surprisingly Sawatari seemed all too happy to follow without protest.

"Roger," both of them said and watched him disappear.

From below the earth, Reiji waited until Sawatari had the Death Stalker on his wire's grasp and, as expected, they didn't slice the bone plates nor the exoskeleton, but once he infused them with all his available Dust, he tightened the hold and made a wave slam.

The added impulse of the Dust made the move powerful enough to lift the creature into the air, which was his cue.

He fired an arrow right into the middle of the lower side of its body, rather than expel the energy tendrils it was stuck to the half. Now it was Yuzu's turn.

She wasn't as fast as Yuya, but she managed to make it to the top of the Grimm and cracked the plates with a clean pierce of her sword right across the point where the arrow was stuck.

It resulted in a chain reaction that activated the arrow and enveloped both the insect and Yuzu into the attack, but right before it exploded mid-air, Sawatari's wires circled her by the waist and safely into the ground.

The three of them watched at how the explosion fired little pieces of black and white chunks all around the place, and the rumbling had scared the birds (Nevermores?) from the trees around and flied far away into a flock.

"Phew. So much for an uneventful field trip," said Yuzu with relief.

"That was awesome!" screamed Sawatari once the attack wave died down, only to bend over and shudder, holding his stomach where he was apparently hurt.

Reiji couldn't personally share either of their sentiments. He could only be glad of coming out of this unscathed. He pulled out his scroll and noticed that it still didn't have signal and less than 5% of battery left. They were really lucky to have made it out alive from this.

Once the signal came back, he only had time to send an unfinished text before it died.

...

When MSST minus Sawatari had appeared in the clearing looking frantically around as if looking for someone, they eventually admitted they lost track of Sawatari to both teachers who had declared no one was allowed to leave the clearing. Yuya got a bad feeling: where was Yuzu? She was fine right? She would have called if she ran into trouble.

Then again, the entire class had unsuccessfully tried to reach Sawatari via scroll to no avail. Gongenzaka looked worried beyond anything as well. They had tried to sneak off before, but out of nowhere, the Faunus Professor stopped them and they had finally come clean to them, saying that they couldn't contact two of their teammates either. Luckily, while explaining an explosion was seen not too far ago, which to their immense relief both he and Gongenzaka recognized as Yuzu's and Reiji's weapons, and shortly after got a message from them, claiming to be on their way.

Sadly, no mention was made of Sawatari, and people were becoming restless.

"For the last time, Miss Koutsu, where did you last see your partner? If we are to make a search party we need some leads." Everyone heard Glynda chewing out on Masumi, who looked on the border of having a breakdown.

"In all fairness, Glyn, it's better if we start now before it gets darker. Besides, all this stress isn't making the forest any safer. As soon as the other ones return we should send the kids back," said Crow with his arms crossed.

"What? No! We can't leave without him!" protested Hokuto of all people and Yuya guessed he had been the one responsible for keeping an eye on him.

"I'm afraid we don't have a better choice," said Glynda, starting to type on her scroll. She never looked all that happy to begin with, but Yuya could tell she was simmering below the surface.

"…Sawatari, I told you to keep pressure on your wound, or you're gonna make it worse!" Everyone went still when the voice was heard along with the rustle of bushes and branches.

"But it hurts!" and of course, there was Sawatari's whiny voice.

From the bushes appeared, Yuzu aiding Sawatari came into the clearing. Behind them was Reiji with his bow spread out, keeping guard.

Before either he or Gongenzaka hurried to their side, Masumi had dashed past him and grabbed her partner by the collar.

"Where in heaven's sake have you been?! Damn it, what part of stay behind us didn't you understand?!" she ranted while shaking him.

"Masumi, be reasonable. He's injured," said Reiji, separating them and putting himself between them. He allowed the teachers to take Sawatari apart to check his wound.

"You don't say? And what idiocy did he get into this time? And let me guess, you had to save his ass from it too!" she exclaimed.

Watching Yuzu hesitate was enough telling of Sawatari being the guilty party.

"Actually it was our fault," protested Yuzu. "I-"

"We wanted to see the ruins of an old temple and we didn't notice a Grimm tailing us. Sawatari was only caught in the fire by chance," Reiji finished, adjusting his glasses and putting his weapon away. His words made Masumi relax, but she wasn't entirely convinced. She opened her mouth, prepared to argue with him, but a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Very well, everyone luckily your classmate is er… mostly unharmed, but he still needs some medical attention, so we're taking off now," said Crow.

...

"Did you lock yourself out again?" he heard Yuzu ask.

"Not exactly…" he answered. Nobody was in the room. His scroll had been rendered useless and while the school had issued him a new one, they needed his parent's written consent to program his personal data into it.

But so far, they still hadn't answered. Figures since once again they were busy campaigning. They usually arrived home past midnight.

"Uh, I'm going to the library to return some books. Wanna come?" she offered.

"Well, it's not like I have anything better to do right now," he said, huffing.

"Eh, I'll take that as a yes," she deadpanned.

They didn't chat on the way there. He was not in the mood and Yuzu seemed to realize this, not trying any lame attempts at chit chat. Once she had returned her books (way too many for classes he noticed) he was looking at the intercommunications section. Maybe if he called he would be lucky and his dad would have returned already?

"Go ahead. I was going to check out some stuff too, anyway," said Yuzu with a knowing smile.

Once he was seated, the call miraculously made it through and his father's round face and mustache visualized on the screen, and he felt his spirits lift.

"Papa! Hi it's been quite a while hasn't it? Listen, remember when I told you about the trip to the forest?" he hurried to say, before getting sidetracked.

"My beloved son, you know it's my secretary who checks those emails. Either way, we are holding a reunion with the ambassador from Mistral, maybe you've heard of him in the news…?"

He let his dad finish doing the appropriate 'oh' and 'yes' answers every time but finally managed to get back on topic.

"Papa, I need you to authorize a permission for a new scroll. Mine got busted and I can't even enter my room without it," he said in his best pleading voice that always managed to get him candy and videogames.

"Uh? Oh right, of course. I can't let my beloved son and team leader – a born leader, just like his dad - go without his precious scroll can I? I'll send it back at the end of the week," he answered, signaling to end the call.

"No Papa wait I can't wait that …long" he said to the now empty screen, feeling like hitting his head on the desk.

Until he heard some rustling behind him.

"Ugh, just because you and your teammates don't have a sense of privacy or personal space, doesn't mean you can go around listening to other people's calls," he complained.

"Um, sorry I was just wondering why were you taking so long, hehe," she said scratching the back of her head, and going by the sheepish smile, there was no way she hadn't heard the exchange.

"So will you be ok? Without the scroll I mean," she questioned, but he didn't answer and just stood up and with his best condescending look he told her:

"Will you stop meddling in my business? First in the Forest – which I totally had under control by the way – and now this? Why don't use that energy to fix yourself? You look awful," he said looking at her and realized her hair was a nestled mess, she still had some dirt on her face and arms, not to mention the bags under her eyes and judging by how her skirt hanged slightly loose around her waist, it was obvious she wasn't taking care of herself. When was the last time she had a proper night of sleep and meal anyway?

'...Wait.' He did a double take at her – really looking at her in weeks – and her now shaking shoulders.

"Jeez you're right, don't you? I do look awful, I feel awful …" she said faltering, almost dropping the books she held.

Once the tears started to flow, there was only one coherent thought in his head:

'...Crap.'

Hello people! Hope you enjoyed this chap, which was one of the hardest to write (barring the conclusion of the volume) but I was quite satisfied with how it turned out.

Brace yourselves since we're heading into some really plot-heavy and emotional struggles stuff.