Summary: The Gang heads into Beacon, and run into Tai with Ozpin. Qrow still can't deal with them. Oscar feels bad. I did say it gets worse from there. Right? Yang drops the "boyfriend" word in front of her family. Has drastic effects on both of them. Grimm fights are a thing. Decisions are made to head into Beacon.
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A/N: Please make sure to read ch. 20 first, it was put up here a few hours previous instead of last week!
I'm 94.5% sure this chapter took the longest because I wasn't sure how to have Oscar and Tai meet, with neither of them dying as a result.
For reasons, neither could harm the other XD (Yang this is all your fault).
On that note, Blooming for your (not really) peace of mind: click, click, click.
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I used to cry when you turned my lights off. I used to fight for what's burned and long lost. I used to hide from the world but, no, not anymore, not anymore! I never knew there was a backdoor: Out of the agony and pain that I would live for. No, I won't hold my breath any longer I will rise, come back even stronger! 'Cause I'm a fighter, raging fire: Burning higher and you can't bring me down! Fighter, raging fire: Burning brighter and you can't put me out! You used to say things that I couldn't understand, I used to make all the same old mistakes again. You used to break me inside but, no, not anymore, not anymore! You never thought that I would make it. You never thought that I would look down on your hatred. No, I won't hold my breath any longer: I will rise, and I will conquer!
— Juby
Other Music:
Rachel Plattern — Fight Song
X-Ray Dog — Conquest
Part 4 – Chapter 21
They weren't exactly sure, as they walked through the tents and make-shift homes, that there would be enough to house them again, as they weren't exactly sure if they had any refugees pour while they were gone.
"Do you think there's enough room?" Weiss asked as they walked through towards the many halls built to hold communion since most tents were too small for such things.
Yang shrugged. "If there isn't we can always camp out on the training grounds?" She questioned.
Ruby laughed. "Not exactly any different from what we've been doing lately." She said.
"Just a little bit closer to civilisation." Oscar shrugged.
Nora snickered. "Like that sometimes makes it worse." She said.
Oscar continued to shrug, but something made him stall, and look back towards the training grounds.
"…Oscar?" Ruby called, turning around to stop when he did, making everyone from Nora to Qrow to stop and regard their youngest. "Are you okay?" She asked, walking back to him.
Oscar blinked, and looked back to her. "Go on without me, yeah? I'll be a second." Oscar told her.
At that Ruby looked alarmed at letting him go off by himself.
Yang came up and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Will you be long?" She asked.
Oscar shook his head. "Just want to check something, won't be long." Oscar told her.
Qrow made a shooing motion, with it Oscar took off back towards the open field they were using for training.
"He'll be fine, Ruby." Qrow told her. "We need to go meet Ozpin." He told her.
Ruby looked wary but nodded and continued along with Qrow.
./.
Oscar came up on the field, feeling something different in the air, the others hadn't since none of them had reacted, knowing Ozpin there would be sentries near the edge of the dense forest they were backed onto, since what happened last time, and probably numerous times since. The refugees were most likely exhibited a large amount of negative emotions, and Grimm knew where they were.
Oscar cursed the fact the forest was dense and made his way to the nearest hall to climb up onto its roof to see if he could look over the forest. He couldn't see anything, but that didn't calm him.
./.
"Dad!" Yang and Ruby called out, seeing Tai next to Ozpin, seemingly deep in conversation.
"Oh, this isn't going to end well…" Qrow muttered, causing Nora to snicker at him, but Pyrrha to look at him in worry as the two girls ran over to their father.
"When did you get here?" Yang asked, while Ruby grinned at Ozpin in greeting as he moved out the way to make room for the two girls to greet their father.
"Well, apparently not too long after you all left for Mistral." Tai said, dishevelling Yang's hair, who groaned and tried to get her father to stop.
"Whoops." Ruby told him, making one of his eyebrows raise at her comment.
The other children settled around the hall, Nora and Jaune set up to figure out if the cooks would be serving food yet based on the time, while the rest found places to sit.
Ozpin was the one who noted the missing child. "Where's Oscar?" He asked Qrow curiously.
Qrow shrugged. "That kid is jumpier then you, I swear." He grumbled, as he crossed his arms.
Ozpin looked neutrally amused at that, since they both knew why. "That doesn't answer my question." Ozpin told.
"He ran off towards the training field, for some reason." Qrow told him.
Ozpin collected his cane from where he was leaning it against a nearby table. "Perhaps we best find him." He said.
Qrow shrugged, then looked to where most of the children went. "Hey! Don't get comfortable!" He yelled.
Nora groaned at him. "Slave driver." She muttered, much to Jaune's amusement.
"We are one down." Blake told her.
"Of his own accord!" Nora pointed out heatedly.
Ruby bounded over to Ozpin and Qrow. "Are we setting out?" She asked.
Both men blinked and nodded, stalling when she beamed. "Awesome!" She chittered, then rushed to get her bag.
"Is she still…?" Ozpin questioned, looking to Qrow, who was now looking sour, while trying to avoid Tai, who was still listening to Yang rattle off a mile a minute.
"Infatuated with Oscar? Yes. Does she know it? Probably not. You deal with her." Qrow muttered out.
Ozpin looked to him. "I'd rather not." He told him amusement.
Qrow just groaned.
"We're moving?" Tai asked Ozpin, when Yang needed to breathe.
Ozpin nodded. "This hall is a little small for nine children." He told him.
Tai was frowning at that point, since he could only count eight, two teams. Where'd the extra come from? Tai doubted Ozpin was counting Qrow as a child.
Seeing the man, Tai glared, and Qrow offered surrender.
Ruby bounded over to Tai and started to yank on his arm. "Come on! Let's go!" She said hurriedly.
Both of her teams were already ready to leave.
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Tai looked to his youngest daughter in confusion as she bounded, leading the way to the open field. He had noted the difference in her, not that he could pin exactly what was different down.
No one else seemed to notice the difference, as all the children were following her lead, but often needed to spread out amongst the tents, and both Qrow and Ozpin seemed fine to let her lead.
They came in onto the training field and noted that Oscar wasn't there.
Tai turned to regard Qrow and Ozpin. "So, you said there were nine children, when I only count eight." Tai asked.
Yang bounded up to her father and laughed. "Oh, yeah, you mean Oscar! You totally mean Ruby's boyfriend!" Yang cajoled evilly noting the suddenly expression change on her father's face, laughably.
Ruby yelled at her indignantly. "He is not!" She yelled, pile-driving into Yang, causing the nearby other children to rush out the way, knowing it was coming, with her scream.
"He might as well be." Yang muttered.
Tai rounded on Qrow and Ozpin. "Who?" He demanded.
Whether it be due to Qrow's luck or otherwise, Oscar suddenly jumped down from a near hall's roof, once he heard Ruby screaming indignantly, and was able to locate them all because of it.
He was looking to the sisters in confusion as to why Ruby looked furious, and why Yang was laughing merrily.
"Uh, guys, I was only gone five minutes." Oscar told them, noting warily the now three adults next to him.
"Oscar!" Ruby yelled and raced over to him, suddenly over whatever quarrel she had with her sister.
Oscar automatically looked to his left when he felt her weight settle there, she unknowingly put too much speed into getting to him and made him move a few steps forward to compensate.
He ignored Yang's laughter.
"So, this, I'm guessing is Oscar." Tai started.
Qrow and Ozpin heard the danger in his tone, as did Oscar who flinched as he looked to him, and automatically pointed. "Xiao Long!" Before his nose scrunched up, he gave Ozpin an annoyed glare. "Sorry. Hello, sir." He amended civilly. Meeting Glynda was weird, seeing Tai was even worse.
Ruby giggled at him. "You're not helping." He told her.
Ruby just looked at him in amusement, causing him to sigh.
./.
Before Tai had the chance to speak, Oscar's head flipped back to the forest, a second before everyone else did.
Several froze in amazement as a lone, probably insane, Alpha Grimm launched itself from the woods, racing straight at them.
Oscar reacted, grasping Ventus Silvis, twirling it around to strike the ground, lighting the grass up darkly, before raising one hand to freeze the lone Grimm in the air.
"Ruby!" He growled out as the Grimm fought back at him.
Ruby blinked. "Right!" She rounded on him, as if remembering he held her ammo, before taking out her scythe to load it quickly.
While she did that Jaune noted the ground shaking and noted the Grimm frozen was just the scout.
"There's more!" Jaune warned, and the others readied themselves as Oscar dug his heels in the dirt to keep the Grimm where it was.
"Launch it back!" Ruby yelled as she flipped her weapon around her.
Oscar nodded before stepping forward and sending the Grimm flying.
"Ice Flower!" Ruby yelled as he did.
Weiss nodded, and her glyphs glittered into life. Ruby's first shot missed, and she grumbled noting that her uncle was close, and adjusted accordingly. She shifted her snipe off to compensate and shot, landing a kill shot.
Seeing so, she took in the field, and the incoming load of Grimm, and looked back to Ozpin, ignoring her father's surprised look. "Does this happen often?" She asked.
Ozpin nodded. "They are attracted to the dragon." He told her.
Ruby's nose scrunched up in annoyance, before she shoved Crescent Rose at Oscar, then she raced over towards the forest trees.
Oscar immediately shouldered Silvis and expertly reloaded the weapon, much to Tai's surprise.
Seeing the larger Ursa, with its spines to match, he quickly took the loaded the cartridge out, and went for a thunder-based ammo cartridge.
"Thunder Cloud!" Ruby was yelling from wherever she was.
Oscar didn't even blink before taking a shot at Nora and reloading the scythe out to take out others. Nora immediately slammed her now extremely charged hammer into the Ursa, breaking it into its shadow.
Ruby appeared after giving orders to all of RWBY and coordinating with JNPR, in an attempt to keep the Grimm from crossing the field.
Seeing her return, Oscar gave her weapon back. Once she took it back, Oscar took hold of his own.
Ruby looked back to the adults, who were almost acting as if they were to be the last line of defence in case Grimm broke rank, which Ruby didn't mind, she did notice that Qrow had made himself scarce, and her father was still surprised.
Sparing the adults for now, she looked back to Oscar.
"How many are there?" He asked curiously, noting the many gun fire he could hear from both RWBY and JNPR further out.
"Not enough for me to light them up. But there are more coming." Ruby told him.
Oscar nodded. "But…?" He asked her.
Ruby cocked her head. "Think you could hold up more than one?" She asked.
Oscar blinked at her. "Sure, just as long as they're airborne, and it's not for long." Oscar told her.
Seeing her nod, he rearranged his weapon across his back and under his arms and stepped nearer to her.
"Which are we going after?" Oscar questioned.
Ruby eyed the several that had broken off from both Jaune and Pyrrha and formed from those who broke off from Yang and Weiss.
"Those." Ruby said, she then hauled Oscar up, and exploded into rose petals that raced over to them, lifting the group off the ground then everything caught in the sudden materialising red whirlpool seemed to freeze.
./.
Suddenly Ruby reappeared at Ozpin's side, making both him and Tai jump at her sudden appearance. "Yo!" She greeted, making the adults stare at her. "Mind if Oscar uses your cane for a sec? The Grimm won't get passed it." She asked.
Ozpin immediately gave the weapon to her, and Ruby was gone.
The whirlpool was still frozen, before a smaller amount of rose petals regained their faster pace and launched themselves at several Grimm held up in the air.
Ruby flung herself out of it, before launching Oscar off her back down towards it, cane in hand. Several of the petals seemed to duplicate as Ruby vanished again, striking more of the Grimm still caught before they seemed to rewind on themselves, before repeating the process in damaging the Grimm. Those Grimm caught in the red haze had no chance of leaving it alive.
JNPR and RWBY, having seen the whirlpool acted accordingly, and with an array of attacks, launched their Grimm into the onslaught, several times they would see Ruby reappear at the base to kick up an incoming Grimm with Ventus Silvis before she and the Grimm vanished into the time affected red haze.
There were now more Grimm in the red haze then outside of it, having lessened the force coming into Beacon, that left most of JNPR and RWBY without opponents but ready in case the vortex stopped spinning suddenly.
Qrow reappeared behind Tai and Ozpin, at a distance that wouldn't affect them.
"Are you going to explain?" Ozpin asked curiously.
"Told you, you could deal with them." Qrow grumbled as he crossed his arms.
./.
Ruby appeared at the ground of the vortex, her feet not exactly touching the black glittering ground, it made her look as if she were floating.
"Ruby!" Oscar yelled, suddenly, as she hadn't seen the new set of claws coming up behind her.
Oscar pushed her out the way protectively before he slammed the cane into the creature several times, the cane making several gear-like clicking noises with each strike, before kicking it back up in the air. Once he did, he looked back to Ruby in fond concern. "You okay?" He asked.
Ruby nodded as she grinned, before she launched herself at him and rounded back up the vortex.
To anyone watching, they knew immediately that Oscar had saved the girl from a nasty injury, and he very well put himself in harm's way to do so.
The haze dissipated in density as the Grimm were less and less, until with the last one vanquished, the haze dissipated altogether, leaving behind Ruby and Oscar.
Who both looked to each other in triumph.
"We did it!" Ruby yelled excitedly jumping up and down, before lunging at Oscar to hug him happily.
He laughed at her, but he brought his arms up to encase her fondly.
"Yeah. You can totally deal with them." Qrow muttered.
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Fighting had made them hungry, so it was a unanimous vote from the children to go to the dining hall, the only hall currently big enough to fit them all.
Oscar blinked as he walked. "Oh, right, Ozpin!" He called, causing the man to turn to him neutrally. Oscar tossed the furled-up cane back to him. "That was all Miss Ruby's idea, just so you know." He told as Ozpin caught it.
Ruby grumbled. "Saboteur." She muttered, making him laugh at her fondly.
"Well, it was!" He said to her.
"Yeah, but you weren't meant to tell Ozpin that." She grumbled.
Oscar grinned at her. "What happened to not telling lies?" He asked.
Ruby stared at him, before yelping out indignantly. "Nope. Nope. Nope. How." Ruby muttered as she walked faster, causing Oscar to laugh harder, then try to catch up to her.
Most knew that Ruby and Oscar personally had never had that conversation.
Ruby knew that Tai was watching her, but looking to her father, he looked as if he hadn't come up with whatever he wanted to say properly. His mouth had opened several times before he looked annoyed at himself.
As usual, the children filled up one bench along the hall, and the adults on the other side of the hall.
"Have you decided what you will be doing while here?" Ozpin asked.
Ruby was the who stalled from getting her food like the rest, feeling the question was aimed at her.
"Well, uh, we kinda wanna continue to hunt down more Grimm? And Beacon is the better place for it, because of the dragon." Ruby answered.
"You won't go back to school?" Tai jumped in, looking between his daughters and a neutral Ozpin.
Yang had sat down with her meal. "We kinda feel like we'd be better spent weakening the Grimm forces." She said.
Tai looked to Qrow, glaring as if he thought Qrow was at fault.
"I had nothing to do with this!" Qrow insisted.
"We have made our own choices." Oscar insisted, giving over a plate to Ruby, for her meal.
Ruby grinned seeing him return and nodded in gratitude he had fetched her food as he sat down with his own meal.
"How so?" Ozpin asked, curiously.
Oscar looked up from his food. "We agreed that going back to school while Salem is still about," Oscar stalled when Tai flinched, and looked to Ruby for help.
"We know that if we hunt more Grimm, Salem will get weaker." Ruby insisted.
Tai looked to Ozpin and Qrow. "Just how much do these children know?" He asked.
Ruby huffed. "We're not exactly children…" She grumbled, as Yang crossed her arms in the same emotions expressed.
"They have been made aware, Taiyang." Ozpin told him, startling the man.
"Yeah, totally not like we fought against Hazel, and Cinder while protecting the Maiden statue, or nothing." Yang grumbled loudly.
Both Ozpin and Tai stared at her, then glared at Qrow.
"You did not tell me this." Ozpin told him, faster than Tai.
Qrow looked offended. "Like there was time last time!" He insisted. "I knew we were coming back, and I could tell you then!" Qrow continued.
Oscar shivered. "Hazel still scares me," Oscar muttered.
Ruby blinked at him incredulously. "And Salem doesn't?" She asked.
Oscar looked to her. "I know how to deal with Salem. Hazel on the other hand, hates me." Oscar told her.
Ruby cocked her head. "Don't you mean he hates Ozpin?" She questioned, ignoring the backwards and forwards her father and Ozpin had going on between her and Oscar.
"He didn't seem to mind." Oscar told her.
"Yeah, that was probably when you mentioned his sister, though." Ruby reminded.
Oscar groaned. "Don't remind me, he makes no sense." Oscar mumbled, making her giggle at pat his head fondly.
"And we also figured Cinder might come back to Beacon, since she can open the statue here, gods know why she decided to attempt Haven's." Oscar continued, shrugging, leaning forward to grasp seasoning for his meal.
"You haven't figured out why?" Yang asked curiously.
Oscar shook his head. "She would have known she wouldn't have been able to open Spring's." Oscar reiterated.
"You do realise you're talking about Cinder, right?" Jaune interrupted. "She has, like, egomania, or something." Jaune told him, making Pyrrha giggle at the comparison.
Oscar blinked, then shrugged, and left it at that.
"Oh! Oh!" Nora said, suddenly jumping up and down, looking excitedly towards Oscar, pointing her fork at him. "Please tell me where the hidden buttons are!" She asked.
Oscar reared back. "Hell no." He immediately told her, making Ruby burst out laughing, and Nora slumped as she pouted. "I don't need you running into Beacon, just to press buttons." Oscar told her.
Nora crossed her arms. "Spoil sport." She muttered.
"But I will show you, should the occasion arise." Oscar told her.
Nora's expression was immediately back to jubilance. "YES!" She yelled happily.
Ozpin had the feeling he knew exactly what Oscar was referring to, and he dreaded whichever semester JNPR and RWBY returned to Beacon for.
./.
They all thought it best to not tell Tai that Ruby and Oscar shared the same living quarters and shared a bed together when they slept. He seemed uneasy with everything else the two did together, they thought it best to leave it as it was, and not risk an unnecessary meltdown from the man in question.
Ozpin seemed to be alright with whatever they chose to do, within reason, he did suggest they take on as much as they thought they could handle before even attempting to find Salem's operatives, and warned them against going up against Salem herself anytime soon.
Which they all agreed to since none of them had a death wish. They knew they needed more time to prepare.
They also needed to come up with a schedule for using the training field, since the nine of them crowded the area to much for practice that they wanted to do before they went out for Beacon's ruins.
That morning, it seemed to be team RWBY that was using the field, while suddenly Ruby patted down her skirt as the team readied to leave.
"Wait, where's my Scroll?" She muttered, causing Ozpin and Tai to look to her curiously, while Qrow continued eating, already knowing where this was leading.
Oscar immediately stalled eating, stood up and dove one hand into his pocket and retrieved her Scroll, and her friendly ammo blanks. "You left these," He told her.
Ruby blinked, before taking the items, looking back to him. "…Did I forget anything else?" She asked.
"I have your ammo, your dust ammo, as well as your lien." Oscar told her, not needing to think about what he had picked up after her, as he sat down.
Ruby blinked at his fond expression. "Right. I'll come find you!" She insisted, then raced out the room.
"Thank gods you didn't forget your scythe, this time." He muttered fondly.
"She still forgets her scythe?" Tai asked.
Oscar looked up to him and nodded. "You would think it would be the first thing she does remember to take with her, Miss Ruby? Nope. It's the last thing." Oscar reiterated.
It made Tai chuckle and shake his head in disbelief.
"Has leaving it behind caused her harm?" Ozpin questioned looking up from his tablet he was working on.
"Not in this lifetime, thankfully." Oscar told him.
Tai looked from one to the other confused, making Oscar beam at him. "Hi!" He called.
Tai was now frowning in puzzlement, as Oscar greeting him, hadn't made sense, or why now Ozpin was shaking his head.
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They rotated which team hunted at the ruins, and which patrolled the two Safe Zones. Both teams found they were nervous around the broken tower for the same reason: the altered memories they didn't have but knew about what happened at the top of the tower where the Dragon stood frozen drawing Grimm to it.
No matter how much Grimm they took on did it seem that there never seemed to be an end to their ranks.
They couldn't tell how the Grimm appeared in the ruins of Beacon Academy, since they would need to go through the two Safe Zones, or come in from the sea, which wasn't exactly possible based on their land features.
"Maybe we should have both teams there and search the halls, to see if we can find out how?" Oscar put forth. "They might be getting in from underneath." He said, reminding them of Mountain Glenn.
The idea unsettled them, but they nodded nonetheless.
"I'll come with you." Qrow told them over his breakfast, since he had been staying in the Safe Zone.
Ruby nodded at him. "Sure!" She answered happily.
Coming to the once lively halls of Beacon Academy was unsettling for everyone involved, from the courtyards, to the walkways, all were quiet, outside of prowling Grimm that had managed to get into the rooms that once housed their learning for their first year at Beacon.
Oscar had looked at the rooms sadly, but there was hope, seeing that not much damage had been caused overall, there was only the odd room here and there that the Grimm had broken into and messed around with. With that, he knew that if they could figure out how to vanquish the dragon, without severe damage to Ruby, Beacon would still be mostly functional.
Ruby came up to Oscar and put her hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.
Oscar looked to her and nodded. "The school didn't suffer much, only the odd room here and there, and the tower, of course." Oscar told her.
Ruby regarded him. "So, it's just because they keep coming back that's hurting the school?" She continued to ask.
Oscar nodded. "The Academies were built to be able to withstand some damage in mind, but a constant barrage of Grimm is outside of any norm." Oscar told her as they walked ahead of their teammates.
Ruby nodded in agreement. "The schools were built with the idea there would always be Huntsmen on its grounds, right?" She asked.
"Very true." He told her with a fond smile. "That was always the intention." He added.
Ruby looked to him and smiled.
"We'll figure it out, and then we'll be able to bring the Huntsmen back!" Ruby encouraged.
It caused him to smile and nod at her. "I believe you." He told her truthfully.
Ruby stalled for a second, before understanding flushed through her eyes suddenly, and she beamed at him. "Good!" She told him, squeezing his shoulder, before lifting her hand but keeping near him.
She finally understood the butterflies in her stomach, and of course she would figure something like that out when she couldn't exactly tell him.
Though, she looked to Yang who had her head in a classroom to check it, she wondered how many people knew before her. She stole a look at Oscar's fond expression, maybe he even knew before she did herself too.
She really did need to talk to him, and see where he stood, and where she stood with him with any prospects of furthering that standing.
./.
Ruby wasn't quite sure how to act now she understood her own self, how did she act previously?!
Oscar was giving her an odd look, maybe she was acting different.
"Sorry?" She questioned in a whisper.
Oscar frowned in confusion, but his attention was driven away by Jaune and Pyrrha returning from a classroom they split off to investigate.
"Only small Grimm." They reported.
Oscar nodded, and they waited for the rest to come back, seeing this particular hallway was filled with classrooms, that they all split up with Oscar and Ruby standing guard in the hall.
While one or two rooms were trashed, they hadn't found the Grimm responsible for it.
Qrow was the last to return, from the furthest classroom, to report only smaller type Grimm as well.
Nothing that could have caused the mass destruction they had come across.
They would need to find whatever was responsible, if singular or plural in form before they headed back to the Safe Zone for the coming night, before returning tomorrow.
They never really realised how big their school was until they needed to go through every single room meant to house up to four years' worth of students.
./.
"Hold up!" Oscar cautioned as they were going to turn into a new hallway.
His caution immediately amassed the nine others to handle their weapons cautiously.
Ruby came up to him nervously, as he peeked around into the hall.
"What's wrong?" She questioned.
"Get back!" Oscar suddenly hissed as he moved, bringing her up as he put himself against wall, the others rushed to do the same.
There was a suddenly ominous clicking noise that was continuous and getting closer.
Each click sent panic up Oscar's spine as he tried to disappear into the wall behind him, away from the noise. Ruby looked to him in concern, as she could feel him trembling from the arm he still had across her chest.
Suddenly across the junction came the Grimm that was causing the clicking noise, it looked like a ball with red tentacles jutting out of its base. All in all, it looked like an ominous looking jellyfish. Seeing the creature, Oscar backed up as much as he could. He knew what that was, and he knew none of the others knew what he knew.
If it spotted them…
They froze when the Grimm stalled in the junction, clicking as its tentacles moved about, the ball-like structure atop of it seemed to glow dimly yellow as it searched.
It suddenly squealed as if it detected them.
"Oh no." Oscar breathed.
And then all hell broke loose.
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A/N: For those on Ao3, (and those here beware), should take note I've reworked the "no deaths" tag into "no Vol 3 canonical deaths"
So food for thought going into next week's chapter.
I did say it was going to get worse.