Oh, it is good to be back.

"I'd give you pretty much the exact same advice as last time."

"Ask her out?"

"Be honest, and be open. That part. Okay, maybe not the exact same advice, but it's the same principle, right?" Artorias shrugged.

That had been Ren's recommendation as well, more-or-less, when he'd confided in him on their way back from the dance. Honest and open, huh? Jaune didn't know how he felt in the first place, much less how to put it into words.

Nora's advice, on the other hand, had been to ask Pyrrha out – her justification being that they could then go on double-dates (but not actually dates, she was quick to point out, because she and Ren weren't actually dating or anything).

Sometimes he wondered about those two…

"Jaune?"

"Huh?"

"Think you forgot how to use your feet."

Jaune looked down – indeed, he'd stopped walking. "Right. Sorry. I was thinking." He cleared his mind as best he could and set off again towards Ozpin's office. It'd been lucky, really, that he'd had to get out of the dorm so early. It meant he could avoid Pyrrha for just a little bit longer, and god knew he needed the time to think.

"So – what'd she say? Exact words, I mean."

"I think I'm in love with you," Jaune recited. The words were practically engrained in his mind.

The dress had been something of a last resort – he'd thought it'd be a way to express sympathy that she'd been dateless that night (including the option of himself as a date), but also a way to say that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

Because that was the truth. No idea. Zip. Nothing at all.

Artorias rubbed his chin. "No lead-up or anything? Just straight into it, huh?"

"Just… straight into it."

"Damn. And then you said…?"

"I think I said I'd take her word for it," Jaune admitted. Not his best, he'd freely admit – but it had taken another minute or so for him to realise what it was she was saying.

Artorias snorted. "Nice. Then what'd she say?"

"She kinda went full confession mode. She said she felt normal when she was around me."

"Ouch."

"No – not like that. She's just – you know, she's kind of a celebrity?"

Artorias looked at him sidelong, one eyebrow raised. "I think I missed something here."

"She won some big tournament in Mistral a bunch of times, I dunno. Oh, she's also the girl on the Pumpkin Pete's box," Jaune explained.

Artorias pursed his lips, his brow furrowing in thought. "Mistral Regional?"

"Sounds right, I think. Wait, do you not have Pumpkin Pete's in Vacuo?"

"I grew up in Vale," Artorias reminded him offhandedly. "I mean, no, we don't really have anything big-brand. Well, aside from Schnee Dust, but even that's not particularly high profile. Hey – did you hear about the time they tried to sell their stupid toothpaste in Vacuo?"

Jaune hummed in thought. "At the last Vytal Festival, right?" Unless he was mistaken, there had been a massive advertising campaign for Shi-nee toothpaste. Billboards, posters, commercials – if they could stick their logo on it, they did.

It seemed like a bit too much effort just to sell toothpaste, especially seeing how poorly it had worked for them.

"Yup," Artorias said.

"Didn't people deface the billboards?"

"Defaced?" He shook his head. "Sun and I improved those billboards, thank you very much," Artorias said proudly.

"No way. That was you?"

"Most of them. Obviously, some other people had the same idea, but there were plenty to go around, so it didn't matter much."

"Did you ever get caught?"

"Give me some credit, man. Okay, actually, yeah, I got caught once. But I got off pretty light."

They stepped into the elevator and tapped the button for Ozpin's office. "So…"

"So?" Artorias raised an eyebrow.

"I still need to work out what to say to Pyrrha."

"You'll figure it out," Artorias shrugged.

"I don't want to figure it out, though," Jaune confessed. "I don't want to have to say no or say yes or say anything at all. I just want to – I don't know, I just want things to go back to normal."

"Why can't they?"

Jaune's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"You could tell her exactly that, you know. I think she'd understand."

"But things wouldn't be 'normal'. I'd know," he said, wringing his hands. "You know, I don't know a lot of stuff. I'm not the most perceptive guy. I always thought that sucked but…" he struggled for words. "Now I know, I want to go back. And I can't."

"Look, just because I gave some half-decent advice that one time doesn't mean I have all the answers," shrugged Artorias. "I can't make up your mind for you."

The elevator dinged, a faint "come in" was heard from the office, and the doors opened.

"Good morning. Thank you both for coming," said Ironwood.

"I've certainly had worse mornings," Artorias shrugged, earning him some quizzical looks from Ironwood and Glynda. Jaune assumed there was some sort of humour in the statement that only the wolf would quite understand.

"Did you speak with Mr Ornstein?" Ozpin asked.

"He said he'd go to the bottom of the tower and come up when we were done," explained Artorias.

"I'm glad you reconciled your differences," said Ozpin.

"Heh, not quite."

"Unfortunately, I'm rather short on time today. If, once we're done, you could ask him to wait for me, I'd appreciate it."

"Sure thing."

Ozpin nodded, then addressed Jaune. "Thank you for coming. How are you feeling?"

Jaune shrugged. "Eh…" He wasn't sure if the headmaster was asking just in general, or about the incident at the CCT. Either way – he certainly wasn't feeling particularly good.

Or particularly bad, for that matter. Just… uneasy.

General Ironwood stepped forwards, perhaps sensing his discomfort, and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I think you should know that you performed well last night, Mr Arc. You recognised a threat. You recognised your own capabilities – and you did the very best you could."

"I helped too."

"Although if you were to take the time to call for backup, you certainly could have picked someone a little more sober," finished Ironwood.

"Uh…" Jaune looked between Ironwood and Artorias.

"In my defense, I think I did quite well considering I was tipsy," Artorias protested. "But he's not wrong. Do you have any of the teachers' numbers?"

"Being a teacher and being drunk are not mutually exclusive traits," muttered Professor Goodwitch, glancing sidelong at Ozpin.

Ozpin cleared his throat.

"We'll ensure that our contact details are available to every student before they depart on missions," said the general, giving Ozpin a pointed look as he returned to stand next to Professor Goodwitch.

"Now – the general here has already informed us of the events that… transpired last night," said Ozpin, "but now that you've rested, we were wondering if you had anything to add."

"Was anyone else with her? Did she look familiar to you at all?" Goodwitch asked.

Jaune glanced to Artorias, who shrugged. "You caught on first," he said.

Jaune sighed. "It's just like I told General Ironwood." He repeated more-or-less what he'd told the general that night – he'd seen some unconscious guards, called for backup, then gone to confront the intruder. It had been a woman, masked, dressed in black, with dark hair and amber eyes.

"And you said her clothes were embedded with dust?" Goodwitch prompted.

"Uh, yeah. I think so."

"Embedding clothes into dust is an age-old technique. It could have been anyone."

"She does match the description of the woman who helped Torchwick, however," said Goodwitch, "as little as we know about her."

"You said you didn't see her face," Ironwood said. "We can't be sure."

"It's certainly worth considering," Ozpin mused. "And you didn't see which way she went from the tower?"

Artorias shook his head. "She pushed me away from the window before she jumped. By the time I recovered, she'd disappeared."

"Did she seem Hunter-trained? We might be able to cross-reference her weaponry with the academies' records," Ironwood put forth.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not," Artorias shrugged. "It's not like people growing up outside the kingdoms don't learn anything either. And her weaponry was basic enough to be obtainable outside of an academy's forge – aside from the dust, of course."

"And it's not as though she would have any shortage of dust, if she were working with Torchwick," Ozpin said. "I'm afraid we don't yet know enough to narrow anything down, but it's a start."

"Do you know what she was here for?" Jaune asked.

Ironwood paused and stroked his chin. "No. We don't. We've looked at each terminal's access history, and there was no recorded activity that night – but then, it's possible she wiped it. And, as far as we know, there was no physical property taken from the communications room. Either she did something we can't trace, or you interrupted her before she could achieve her goal."

"Fingers crossed then," said Artorias.

"Fingers crossed indeed," Ironwood muttered, though he made a sour face at the expression.

Ozpin cleared his throat. "I'm sure you both have missions to prepare for. Thank you for your time," he said.

"Sure thing." Artorias started walking towards the elevator. Jaune bowed his head in what he hoped as a dignified and respectful manner, then turned to follow Artorias.

Glynda called after them. "You'll be serving detention with me when you return from your mission, Mr Nym, for-"

"Drinking at a school event, sure, fine," he said, waving one hand at Ironwood without even turning around.

Jaune couldn't even imagine daring to show the combat teacher that kind of disrespect.

"Mr Nym? Mr Arc?"

But Artorias would stop for Ozpin, it seemed, for at the older man's voice he paused. The two students looked back towards the three teachers, who, with the light streaming in from the window behind them, suddenly seemed grander than they had before – wiser perhaps, older, each carrying a great weight on their shoulders.

Or maybe Jaune was just stressed.

"Keep this discrete," said Ozpin.

/-/

"We're right back where we started," said Ironwood.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. We're no closer to our goals, but it seems neither are our enemies."

"We don't know that the students stopped her. Not for sure."

"We know for certain that they're here now, and that they're hunting Amber," Ozpin mused.

"It's possible that they're not connected," Glynda said.

"Is it? For what other reason would someone want to infiltrate the school? To cause an international incident? If so, I certainly hope that nothing they could do could put us at each other's throats, James."

Ironwood shook his head. "You have my trust."

"And you have mine. And the council of Vale seems to like you well enough. Cultural enrichment, was it?"

"It took a little compromise, but they were more than happy. Do you object?"

"Not at all." Ozpin sighed and stood. "Could you call the first-years to the amphitheatre, Glynda?"

"I think this is a little more important."

"Normalcy is important. We cannot be seen to be scheming behind closed doors at the expense of our students."

She hesitated, then nodded. "Of course." She moved towards the elevator, and the doors hid her from view.

"Normalcy is one thing," said Ironwood, "but we need a plan."

"What do you propose? We can hardly round up every dark-haired amber-eyed girl in Vale and ask Jaune and Artorias to identify them. Nor can we round up every woman to own a red dress and ask Ruby to do the same. For now, all we can do is hold the line and wait. Amber is safe, and stable. Well – stable enough."

"We wait for our enemies to make a mistake? We cannot rely on that, Oz."

"Not a mistake." Ozpin walked towards the elevator. "But they will have to show their hand sooner or later."

/-/

"Strange choice of reading material."

It's your turn.

Mercury could almost hear the little green-haired minx in his head – in fact, he might be. He still wasn't sure if she could do auditory illusions too.

Since when had it been about turns? He was just the muscle. Admittedly charismatic muscle, and he was hardly out of his depth – but muscle nonetheless. That wasn't something he wanted to change. Hell – if this team was anything like the first-years Emerald was supposed to be cozying up with, he'd be in a psych ward by the end of the week.

Now – Merc wasn't big on reading. But he certainly could read. And even if he couldn't, he'd be able to tell with reasonable surety that the redheaded man he'd sat himself beside was learning how to paint nails. The pictures gave it away.

"Promised a friend I'd paint their nails," he explained. "I intend to do a good job of it."

"Huh." Mercury nodded, not quite understanding the appeal. If Emerald ever asked him to do her nails – not that they were friends, per se – he definitely wouldn't agree to it. And even if he did, it'd be a very rushed job indeed, and she'd have hell to pay for his humiliation.

The redheaded man closed his scroll and offered a handshake. "Gilderoy Ornstein of Team GWIN. Shade. Third year."

"Mercury Black, Haven," Mercury said, glad that his target had taken the initiative to introduce himself. But Gilderoy narrowed his eyes, and they locked on Mercury's own as they shook hands, and for a brief second he was worried that Cinder's escapade at the CCT had managed to blow their cover. But then Gilderoy gave him a sharp nod, and the moment passed. "Third year, huh? I'm only a first year – been wondering for a while what you old folks do."

"Old folks?" Gilderoy raised an eyebrow.

"Older. It's a relative term," Mercury corrected himself, noting for future reference that the redhead had a rather dour sense of humour.

"Hmph." He didn't seem particularly impressed by that. Although, Mercury thought, Gilderoy couldn't be older than twenty, perhaps twenty-one. That was a little young to be self-conscious about one's age. "It's mostly more of the same," said Gilderoy. "It might be different at Haven, but at Shade we also picked up an aura manipulation class in second year and we have electives for applied dust sciences, advanced engineering, piloting, or field surgery in third year."

Mercury could already feel himself falling asleep. Well, at least it wasn't as bad as Port.

Of all the ways they could have infiltrated Beacon, Cinder just had to pick the one with classes.

"Sounds interesting," Mercury lied. "So – what're you doing out here on a day like this? Shouldn't you be talking about – I don't know – the kind of mission you want with your team?" He'd seen the wolf faunus come out of the CCT tower and exchange a few words with Gilderoy – the blond kid too – but ignorance was the best defense.

"A little hypocritical. First-years choose missions first, do they not?"

"Good point. But we've done all that talking stuff already," he said. It wasn't quite a lie – Cinder told them she had something in mind, though she hadn't given any specifics.

"Yeah? What kind of mission are you looking for?"

"Uh, something nice and calm," Mercury bluffed. "In the city, hopefully. We haven't really had a chance to… see the sights."

"I see."

"Forever Fall's another option, if there's a search or destroy mission there maybe. I mean, that wouldn't be very calm, but none of us have had a chance to see the forest yet, so…" God – it was so hard to carry a conversation with this guy. He was too polite. And too quiet in the first place.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up, if I were you," Gilderoy mused. "Chances are good that Forever Fall's going to be a popular choice."

"Fingers crossed, then."

"Would all first year students please report to the amphitheatre?" Professor Goodwitch's voice crackled out over speakers nearby.

"Well, I guess that's me," said Merc, standing up. He sighed – hardly believing that he was tasked with making friends with people, and said, "You could come down with me and get an early look at the mission boards, maybe?"

On a hunch, he glanced around, hoping that Emerald wasn't hiding somewhere filming him.

"That's alright," said Gilderoy, all formal-like. Absolutely no fun. And it wasn't even Emerald's kind of no-fun, where it was still fun to push her buttons. Mercury just found Gilderoy… boring. "I'm waiting for someone."

"Oh, cool. Well, I'll see you around."

Another short nod, and Mercury slinked away to observe from afar again. He still had time to get to the amphitheatre anyway.

He took into account the man's weaponry – of course, his main weapon (whatever that was) was probably in his locker. But Mercury, having spent so much time around Cinder, knew what dust embroidery looked like. But, where Cinder's dress was embroidered in a manner that kept aesthetic in mind, Gilderoy's coat was clearly made with purpose, and purpose alone. Symmetry went right out the window, for one – and it clearly wasn't a stylistic choice either. It was just disconcerting, each pattern starting and stopping at irregular intervals to make the coat a fashion disaster.

Honestly, if he'd spent so much lien on such a garment, Mercury thought, he could at least make it look nice. Perhaps there was more to it, then. Some meaning behind the pattern that Mercury was unaware of. Cinder might know.

Mercury was about to turn away and head over to the amphitheatre when he saw Gilderoy rise and greet someone – it was Professor Ozpin.

Well then – Cinder would want to know about that too.

/-/

"Terribly sorry about the delay. There was a matter I had to take care of – I'm sure you're aware."

"More or less," said Gilderoy.

Ozpin nodded. "Walk with me."

Gilderoy acquiesced, and they set off down the path towards the amphitheatre.

"What do you know about the Great War?" Ozpin asked.

Tilting his head in confusion, Gilderoy asked, "Excuse me?"

"The Great War. I'm sure you're familiar."

"Naturally," Gilderoy said, hurrying to catch up with the conversation. "What about it?"

"I was curious as to your knowledge about the minute details. The intricacies of each kingdom's armies, their strategies, their tactics. Indulge me, if you would."

Gilderoy peered at the old headmaster closely. "Why me?"

"I'm a teacher, am I not?" Gilderoy hadn't even noticed until now, but Ozpin had a mug of coffee in one hand. He took a sip from it.

After a moment, he nodded, though it was clear Ozpin wasn't being entirely honest. "I don't know much beyond the broad strokes, I'm afraid," said Gilderoy. "I know that Vacuo's army was more of a volunteer militia force. They provided resources to Vale more than troops. And Vale…" he tapped his chin in thought. "Vale had levies, right? Mostly untrained forces, at first volunteers…"

"But then conscripts." Ozpin nodded. "Not a particularly proud moment in our history, but desperate times, as they say, call for desperate measures. But we also mustered forces from our nobility – you are aware, I'm sure, that classes and castes were far more rigid in those days, especially in Vale and Mistral."

"Right."

"Vale had her knights," he continued. "Many with delusions of grandeur, of course, but at the very least they had training." He shook his head. "And how about tactics? Strategies… how did the army of Vale fight?"

"What about Mantle and Mistral?"

"I'm afraid I won't have time for that," Ozpin said, smiling lightly and gesturing towards their fast-approaching destination. "I have a considerable number of students who'll be waiting for me shortly."

"Right. I don't really know a great deal about it. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. After all – I'm a teacher." Ozpin sipped at his coffee. "The bulk of the army would form battle lines three men deep – fresh recruits in the front, veterans in the middle and knights in the back, with cavalry to flank as necessary. But they also had a unit to cover the army's rear in the event of a Grimm incursion. Some say they were chosen for this role because they were expendable. Others think that it was a duty given only to the elite." Ozpin shrugged. "Either way, it was a tactic that worked quite well for them, especially in the campaigns before Mantle and Mistral adopted similar methods to combat the Grimm."

Gilderoy nodded slowly. "Thanks for teaching me, I suppose. Though I'm sure I'm missing the point."

"You can make whatever point of it you choose," said Ozpin, regarding him with keen eyes. "There may be no point at all."

"Did any of these… elite – or expendables, whatever you want to call them – did they go on to be the first Hunters?"

"Some."

They came to the door to the amphitheatre, and Ozpin turned to him. "Think on it. And if a point comes to you – you know where to find me." And again, Gilderoy felt as though Ozpin was looking for something specific, something very specific from him – and something that he himself didn't know he had. Or maybe he just didn't have it. Maybe Ozpin was mistaken.

Or maybe Ozpin was slowly working his way through every one of his students, having the exact same discussion.

Gilderoy cleared his thoughts. "Of course," he said with a sharp nod. Then he turned sharply on his heel and set off, his mind whirling.

"Oh – Mr Ornstein?"

Gilderoy turned around. Ozpin had yet to enter the amphitheatre. He was looking at Gilderoy intently – no, he was looking past Gilderoy. He checked behind him; nobody was there.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever heard of Operation Mirror?"

Gilderoy shook his head.

Ozpin nodded, a frown setting in on his face. "Nevermind, then," he said. His eyes flickered again to a point somewhere behind Gilderoy, then he turned away and disappeared into the building.

/-/

"This is perfect! All we have to do is shadow a huntsman working in the southeast," Ruby cheered. The crowd of first-years was beginning to disperse to the mission boards following Ozpin's speech.

"We can follow them around by day and give them the slip at night."

Weiss was about to suggest that they check search and destroy, when Blake spoke up. "Did… Ozpin seem alright to you?"

"He seemed fine," Weiss said. "We could check search and destroy?" The team nodded in acceptance, and they pushed through the crowd towards the mission board.

"I can't say I've ever thought of Ozpin as fine," Yang leered.

"Spare me the thought," Weiss drawled.

"Spare me the thought," she teased.

"I think I preferred the puns," Blake muttered.

"There's punty of time for those too," Yang said, her horrid grin growing ever-wider. Weiss closed her eyes for a few seconds, putting Yang's antics out of her mind as best she could.

"Hey, here's one in quadrant five. Grimm to be cleared out," Ruby said, ushering them closer.

"It's certainly in the southeast," Blake said.

"Sounds perfect."

Ruby pressed the screen, bringing up the keyboard, and entered in RWBY. Weiss felt her stomach drop a little as the words "MISSION UNAVAILABLE TO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS"came up on the screen.

"Wonderful," she said sardonically.

"Any other ideas?"

"We mail ourselves there," Ruby said. Weiss wasn't entirely sure she was kidding.

Weiss glanced around briefly at other mission boards, hoping that there would be another mission in the area available to first years. Ozpin caught her eye – pacing amongst the students, occasionally offering a word or two, of advice or encouragement probably. "He's always been distant," she murmured.

"What was that?" Ruby asked.

"Ozpin," she clarified. "He's always been a little distant, especially at addresses like these. Do you remember orientation?"

"I remember," Blake said. "But did you see how he gripped his cane?"

"I can't say I ever paid any attention to it before," said Weiss, "so I don't have anything to compare it to."

"Gonna have to go with Weiss on this one," Yang said, and for a second Weiss thought that the blonde would be helpful. "Unlike Blake, I've never been interested in how my teachers grip their… canes." She was clearly doing her best to suppress it, but her shit-eating grin spread across her face once again.

"Yang, please," said Blake, maintaining a deadpan. "Your little sister is right there."

"I drink milk!"

"Then don't be explicit," Yang shrugged. "She drinks milk."

Weiss let out a little noise of annoyance and turned back to the mission board. "We could just sit here and make sure nobody gets it before Team SSSN?" she suggested.

"Yeah, but we need a mission too," said Ruby.

"We could get one in the city," suggested Yang. "Chase down the Yarrow lead."

Ruby nodded. Over the intercom, Professor Goodwitch was calling the second-years to the amphitheatre. "Stay here. I'll get us a mission," she said.

/-/

"So he just asked you about the Great War and that was it?" Artorias asked.

"He seemed pretty out of it," said Gilderoy.

"He seemed alright when I was up there. I mean, he's always been a little…" Artorias made a circling motion with his index finger around his ear and crossed his eyes, earning a snort from Ciaran. "But he didn't seem particularly absent to me."

The call for third years to select missions had come not too long after the second years. On the way, Gilderoy had caught them up on his little chat with Ozpin, though they were still somewhat confused by it.

"And you said he asked you about… Operation Mirror?"

"Yeah."

"Are you sure it wasn't Mirrah? Spelt with an 'a-h', I mean," Artorias suggested. After all, if they'd been talking about Vale specifically…

"Mirrah," Gilderoy tested it on his tongue. "I don't know. Maybe. Why?"

"Mirrah was a town on the east coast of Sanus," explained Artorias. "We learned about it in history class back at Flare."

"You were actually listening?" Ciaran asked.

Artorias gave her his best deadpan. "I do listen… sometimes. Mirrah was part of the kingdom of Vale, so it was brought up in class once or twice. You know how it is – schools only care about the kingdom you're in."

"Why Mirrah? What was notable about it?" Gilderoy asked.

Artorias nodded. "It was the first battle of the war that the Grimm won. Mantle laid siege to the town. Eventually, all the negativity brought on the Grimm. The besiegers died, the garrison died… the civilians died."

"What, then, was Operation Mirrah?" Gough asked.

Artorias shrugged. "I don't know. If we covered that in class, I was-"

"Sleeping?"

"Not paying attention," he corrected, giving Ciaran another pointed look. "I would never sleep in class."

"Sure, sure."

They entered the amphitheatre. Ozpin was nowhere to be seen – instead, Professor Goodwitch was on the stage. There was a brief speech about the wonders of cooperation and harmony and peace and all that good stuff – then they were directed to select missions.

"Did we ever decide what we were going for?" Artorias asked.

"Didn't you want to chase up the Yarrow thing? Or the southeast thing?" Ciaran asked.

"Hold up – I'll ask Ruby," he said. "See if they've got it covered."

He pulled out his scroll and sent a quick message. Not a moment later, she responded with a thumbs-up.

"Think that means they've got it covered?" he showed his team his scroll.

"Think they've got it covered," Ciaran said.

"Thumbs-up are kinda vague."

"They've got it covered, Artorias," said Gough.

"Just making sure – I mean, she might mean that she wants us to dislocate our thumbs, you know?"

"They've got it covered," repeated Gough.

"Or worse, chop them off."

"Artorias?" Gilderoy put a hand on his shoulder. Artorias responded with a grin.

"Yes?"

"Stop."

He let out an overdramatic sigh. "Fine," he said. "So – what are we doing?"

"Nothing too stressful, I think," said Gilderoy.

"Boring."

"I don't think we have much choice," said Gough. He was much taller, and using his height to his advantage, he peered at each mission over the heads of the other students. "There's a few for perimeter defense," he said. "A few village security… one escort-"

"Ew. No thanks," Artorias said.

"You'd probably scare away our escortee anyway," Ciaran teased.

"Rude."

"True."

"Both of you, stop. Anything else, Gough?"

"Some search and rescue. But only one search and destroy… and that just got taken."

"Escort sucks," Artorias said. "Search and rescue sucks too."

"You're good at search and rescue," Gilderoy pointed out. "I thought you liked being good at things."

"Still boring."

"The fourth-years are showing up," Gough warned. "We're gonna have to pick soon."

Gilderoy looked between his team. "Village security?"

"With high Grimm activity?"

"Sometimes, you've just gotta take the easy road, Artorias," Ciaran said. "Find one with as few Grimm as possible."

"You just want to spite me."

"That I do."

In my time off, I've had a lot of time to think about the pace of things. With that in mind, a few changes are happening. Ozpin's gonna get more focus. A certain character I thought wouldn't get a mention until Volume 4 is getting some love earlier than anticipated.

On one hand, I hate these kinds of chapters where it's just setting up for the next arc, because it feels like nothing really happens. But on the other hand, they're really quite necessary. And there's a lot to set up - Team SSSN is going to Mountain Glenn, Team RWBY is heading into Vale (they may or may not get badges, so you know it's official), Team CMEN (you can pronounce that however you like, for now) are... doing their thing. And Team GWIN is gonna get really bored with so few Grimm to kill. Or they won't.

And Ozpin is distracted. Stay tuned.

Next chapter - 9th June.