Blake ran down the stairs of the dormitory, brushing past a few students, now where could Jotaro be? After the previous night, Ruby told them where their hideout was, so it could be possible they were there, and it was the safest bet.
She followed Ruby's instructions from memory,, entering the foliage just outside Beacon, it took a few minutes, but she navigated through the wild mess and found it, it was just as Ruby described, old-fashioned, but comfortable.
She knocked on the door...and no one responded, she knocked again, a bit harder, and she heard the sounds of footsteps coming from inside the building, and a voice she recognized to be Kakyoin's, "Who's there?" he asked, suspicious.
Blake quickly replied, "Blake...you know, Blake Belladonna?" she said, a few seconds passed, and the door slowly creaked open, "Sorry, can't be careful enough when you're in our position." he said, and he opened up the door, letting her in.
She took a few steps inside the hallway, and noticed...that Polnareff was hanging from the ceiling, Silver Chariot ready, Blake was taken aback by this tactic, Polnareff took a deep breath and dropped down, falling on his feet as Silver Chariot dissapeared.
"Do you always do this every time someone knocks?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, Polnareff placed a hand on his aching back and groaned, "Thankfully it does not happen that often."
Polnareff slowly walked back to the kitchen as he said that, and Kakyoin closed the front door, approaching Blake, "Why exactly are you here?" he asked.
She looked around and peered inside the empty bedroom, before turning towards Kakyoin, "Where's Jotaro?" she asked, and Kakyoin raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "You mean he isn't with your team?" he asked, and she crossed her arms, "I wouldn't be here if he was."
"I don't know then, Jotaro told us he'll be with Ruby's team for a little while, could he have dissapeared?." Kakyoin replied, and among the fizzling and stirring of pots, Polnareff shouted from the kitchen: "Not this crap again!"
Blake couldn't help but groan, of course it wouldn't be easy, "Have any idea on where to find him?" she asked, Kakyoin looked down at the ground with a hand on his chin, "Unless he has been dragged away again, he could be still somewhere at Beacon, couldn't have gone that far, but he has lost his Scroll in the sewers, so even if we wanted we couldn't call him. But may I ask why are you searching for him?" Kakyoin replied, a curious look on his face
Blake shook her head, she had a bad feeling about this, "I'll explain later, but thanks anyway." she said, and quickly ran out of the hideout without adding anything more."Should we go help her?" Polnareff asked, poking his head out, Kakyoin looked up in thought, and took a few steps towards the kitchen, "I don't think we should, anyway, can I get a bite of whatever you're eating? The cafeteria food was quite unsatisfying."
"A-Ah, this didn't take that long..." Blake muttered as she looked at the scene in front of her: in-between the first year and second year dormitories, Jotaro was standing still with Star Platinum standing beside him, and three hooded men laid on the ground unconcious, another one with the same hood stood in front of Jotaro, hand trembling as he tried to point a gun right at Jotaro. Star Platinum leaped forwards, and without wasting time, smashed his fist on his face, making him fly backwards and slam into a wall, unconscious.
Blake slowly approached Jotaro, and looked down at the aggressors, "Who...are these people?" she asked
"Hell if I know, these four just assaulted me out of the blue and tried to stab me." he replied with a hint of exasperation as he turned around towards Blake, who seemed to space out for a moment, kneeling down and pulling down the hoods of the assailants, "These...can't be White Fang members, that's for sure, they completely lack masks or Faunus features, they could be simple assassins." but she couldn't help but be bothered by something, all of their shirts had a white circle that spanned the entirety of the chest. She shook her head and ignored for the moment, and took out the rolled up map she tucked away, catching Jotaro's attention, "In any case, could you come with me? My team is waiting in the dormitory."
Jotaro raised an eyebrow, but nodded and followed her.
"So, you're telling me..." Jotaro started, looking at the sewer map, "to use my Stand to find out whatever could be hidden in this map.", Blake nodded, and the rest of Team RWBY stared at Jotaro expectantly. Jotaro looked at them briefly, before his eyes rolled back to the map, "I can attempt." he simply stated, Star Platinum, sitting beside him and holding a pen and a piece of paper, leaned in to look at the picture, and it lightly tapped the pen's tip against the paper as it began analysing.
After a moment, Star Platinum's arm began moving at high speed, drawing incredibly quickly as it kept staring at the map, sometimes sending squirts of ink around, this trick worked once, so it should work again.
Star Platinum stopped, and everyone leaned in to look at what it wrote, and there it was, clear as day: Silver Records Tunnel Completion: 68%. Insider Status: Operative
"Silver Records…?" Ruby read,
"Sounds like the name of a club." Yang commented.
"Yeah, it kinda does."
"What's this about an insider?" Weiss asked, pointing at said word, Blake looked at it too, curious, "Whatever this 'Silver Records' is, there may be an insider inside the school, which might explain why these maps and this secret message were in the school's library, this map is barely from a month ago, so the insider might still be here." she observed, and suddenly, she remembered, "Those thugs that assailed Jotaro had symbols that resembled silver records, they must have attacked him because he escaped the tunnel!"
Jotaro nodded, "If this Silver Records is the one that made that tunnel and sent out assassins, I think it's safe to say they're our enemies."
Ruby sighed, "One more to the list...We might just be the most hated people in Vale right now."
Blake shook her head and turned to Jotaro, "Can we really handle these many factions going against us at once?"
Jotaro's face didn't change a bit, "I don't know. But if we manage to make it so one of these factions can't harm us, we'll have an easier time fighting the others."
Team RWBY nodded, "I'll try my best to find as many informations as I can about 'Silver Records'" Blake stated, and Yang stood up, "And I'll help her! I'm not great at researching, but I'm going to make sure she doesn't work herself too hard." she said, grinning at Blake, who smiled back.
Jotaro rolled up the map and grabbed the piece of paper as Star Platinum dissapeared, and stood up, "I'm going to inform the others of this. Be even more careful as of today." he said, and Yang approached him "Aww, is the cold Jotaro worried for us?" she said in a jokingly mocking tone, hands on her hips.
Jotaro turned around with an almost silent "Hmph..." and walked out, and Yang giggled, which made Blake raise an eyebrow. "Huh, Yang, are you…?" Blake started, but stopped once the others turned around to look at her, "Hmm?" Yang tilted her head curious, but Blake shook her head and looked down at the ground,"Never mind."
Two days later:
The sound of chains echoed across the wide auditorium, dozens of people kneeled down, like in a solemn prayer, the snarls of beasts filled the room, but they didn't move, completely fearless.
Footsteps broke the noise, as if the beasts wouldn't dare cry out, and the people stood up all at the same time. The man stood at the end of the room, looking down at his followers. "Welcome, my believers, it is the time that many of you have been waiting for. On this day, one of you will receive the Gift, and transcend humanity itself." he announced, his voice low and deep, but loud enough that everyone could hear it. The leader raised his hands into the air, robes covering his entire body and those of his followers, "It is thanks to your hard work and sacrifices that we've been able to get so far. Be proud!"
The followers raised a fist into the air and shouted all at the same time, creating a single, loud voice that echoed in the room, proudly showing off the circular symbol on their robes, the Silver Record.
"I-I'm so damn hungry..." Josuke whined, his stomach grumbling as he kept walking, Qrow was ahead of him, weapon strapped to his back, "But you just finished eating." he said, turning around to look at him.
"I know, but it wasn't enough! I've burned a ton of calories these past few days, are we even there yet?" Josuke replied, and Qrow sighed heavily, "No, no, we're not there yet, you've already asked that, it's a few days ahead at best."
Josuke looked down, kicking a small pebble away from the dirt road, mumbling to himself, and almost bumped into Qrow when he stopped, "H-Hey, why did y-" Josuke was about to say, but Qrow quickly shushed him, and he quickly looked around.
On the sides of the dirt road stretched rows and rows of trees, from one side, both could distinctly hear the sound of rustling, and as seconds passed it grew even closer, Josuke didn't even have time to ask what was happening that the head of a gigantic white snake rushed out of the forest, and slithered right in front of the road, hissing at the humans.
After just a moment, a second snake head popped out right beside of the first one, this one black, at a first look it would seem the two snakes were intertwined, but in reality the black and white snakes were conjoined together. "A King Taijitu here?!" Qrow shouted, grabbing his sword with both hands while he looked back at a shocked Josuke, "Get back, kid! I'm taking care of this!"
But, surprising Qrow, Josuke stepped forwards, a smile on his face as he brought out his Stand, making both snake heads lock on to him, "So...this is one of those grimm you talked about?" Josuke asked, Crazy Diamond's standing right in front of him in a battle position, "Heh, this seems like a scene straight out of a video game!"
And before Qrow could act, Crazy Diamond lunged forward
[To Be Continued]-
Author Note: Sorry for the cliffhanger, but if I didn't finish it there I would have not been able to publish this today, and sorry for the shorter chapter