Kuroyuri didn't feel quite the same as Oniyuri did the previous day, in fact it felt even worse, the air was oddly cold enough to where Ruby and Jaune could see their own breaths.

"Something feels wrong here." Ruby admitted, as she looked to her uncle.

"Yeah, I feel it too." Jaune agreed. "It feels like this place is almost... Haunted..."

The pair stopped under a tree as Ruby knelt next to her Uncle and frowned. "Jaune, can you stay here and keep watch of my Uncle while I try and find supplies around here?"

"Sure. But let me know if you need help for anything." Jaune nodded as Ruby started towards a building that had a hospital sign on it. She crossed a bridge, but stopped for a moment when she saw a dead lotus flower sitting atop the dried up canal...

That same lotus flower several long years ago was stared at by a young boy who reached out for it when suddenly his mother picked him up. "But Mother, I want the flower!" he pouted.

"I know you do, Lie. But that flower belongs in the river." she told him. "Just like how you belong here in the town with everyone else around." she ruffled his hair as she set him down.

"Now then, I know your father's been out for a while so why don't you take this." she handed him a couple of lien cards. "And get him something."

"Okay, Mother!" Lie ran off to find something he could give his father. The town was bustling and busy with shops of all sorts and stands, shops with food, drinks, clothing, pottery and weaponry. The boy approached his first stand that was selling alcoholic drinks and held up his card.

"Sorry little guy." the man shook his head.

"It's for my father." he pouted.

"Hmm... I know! Why don't you get him a snack?" he directed him over towards the bakery that was selling freshly baked pastries.

"Oooh. Great idea! Thanks Mister!" Lie smiled before running towards the bakery and putting his lien cards on the table and looking around at the pastries. He pointed to a small loaf of the cat bread they had and grinned as he was handed it by the baker in exchange for his money.

Lie walked outside and looked to the bread. "Oh I know father will just love this!" he looked to it before a girl that was running bumped into him, making him drop the bread that she soon picked up.

"H-Hey don't just stand there get her!" an older boy stated as Lie followed his lead before stopping in an alley between houses where the girl was starting to eat the bread that he wanted to give his father.

"T-That bread was for my father!" Lie complained as the girl growled like a feral animal.

"Don't worry we'll make her pay for eating it." one of the older boys cracked their knuckles.

One of them reached a hand out to try and grab her but she bit them. "OW! That feral thing bit me!"

"It's best we just throw her out of town, she'll only bring Grimm here." the third boy with them took a step forward.

Ren looked down and was feeling bad for her. He started to approach but then the girl just broke into a sprint past everyone and ran, bumping past a man that now stood behind Lie.

"After her!" the boys followed in pursuit as Lie looked down shamefully before the man that stood behind him knelt down in front of him.

"Sometimes, not acting is worse than doing something bad." the man stated.

"Father, that bread it was-"

"I know, son, I know." his father hugged him before picking him up. "Come now, we can get another one. It'll be alright."

Ruby kicked down a door inside the clinic and coughed as the dust in the building was clearly there for a while. "Alright, I just need antivenom... Antivenom..." Ruby scanned her eyes around the shelves, some of them were clearly broken from prior looting. She opened a drawer and took some bandages and alcohol from a cabinet before entering the next room.

"Come on, Come on... AHA! Found it!" Ruby called out, now holding up a bottle. "Now to just give this to Uncle Qrow... Hopefully expiration dates won't matter." she started outside of the building and went back to the town square where she could have sworn she saw a branch move in the farthest distance away in the forest.

"I found something that could help Jaune." Ruby held up the bottle of antivenom.

"Well, Hopefully this'll keep him steady till Ren and Nora get back here..." Jaune looked over towards the mountain they had to pass through to get to Mistral's capital city.

"Are we almost there, Ren?" Nora asked.

"I think so." he confirmed with a nod as he tried to look ahead but couldn't as there was still mountain in his line of sight. "We need to hurry. Ruby and Jaune are counting on us."

Ren kept walking when Nora suddenly and harshly yanked his arm. "Ren." she pointed towards something.

"What is it, Nora?" he then turned in the direction he was pointed in and his eyes went wide.

Lie woke up to the sounds of a terrifying screech followed by panic, gunfire and metal clashing against something.

"Lie, wake up, please!" An shook her son as Lie sat up.

"Mother, what's going on?"

"I love you so much, Lie. We're going to-" she was about to pick him up when the roof of the house suddenly collapsed and everything would go black for Lie till he woke up moments later being carried by his father, Li.

"Father?" Lie asked before he was dropped suddenly and looked up at the beast in the distance. "Father! GET UP!" he shook him as he struggled to his knees.

"Son, you have to leave now." Li instructed. "I'll buy you some time, but you have to go!" he insisted as he then took his knife out from his pocket.

"Be strong, be brave my son." he handed the knife to Lie now.

"But father..." Lie argued before suddenly a long arm attempted to grab at Ren but instead would only strike Li as he was knocked down.

"GO NOW!" he insisted as his aura shattered while he then took the bow off his back and took an arrow out of his quiver. He screamed as he fired the arrow at it before reaching for the next.

Lie was breathing heavily as he ran and ducked into the canal he was looking at earlier while Nevermore, Griffons and Beowolves were overrunning the town, he even saw one nevermore clutching a human arm out of it's beak.

His whole world fell apart in just a matter of moments. He then saw the girl from earlier, now hiding underneath a house and curled up crying as all the airborne Grimm flew overhead.

Lie clutched the knife in his hand tightly as everything suddenly slowed down and he felt an air of calm about him while his aura then activated and he suddenly went gray, a Beowolf that was approaching him failed to notice him and that's when he realized what had just happened.

He looked in the direction of the girl and narrowed his eyes.

The girl was screaming as a Beowolf attempted to claw for her but couldn't reach her from under the house when suddenly from behind her Lie grabbed her shoulder. "Hey!" he tried to appear friendly but was slapped by the screaming girl and he fell over..

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" she panicked before she tried to help him up before the Beowolf now got a hold of her leg and she started screaming again as it was starting to pull at her.

Lie glared and stabbed it's hand with his knife, making it let go as it then backed away before he then took hold of Nora's hand. "Be brave." he told her as the largest Grimm, with horse's legs and lanky arms walked by. Both him and the girl went gray, he stared at her the entire time and didn't let go of her hand.

Hours went by as the Grimm all cleared out, ignoring the two as Lie had managed to calm his new friend down and use his semblance whenever his aura recharged.

Lie then noticed a toy hammer underneath the house adjacent to the one they were under. He smiled and went to grab it but was stopped by the girl, who was clutching his hand tightly and shaking fearfully.

"It's okay. I think they're gone." he assured. "And I'm not going to leave you."

Never knew a time,
When you weren't by my side,
The one thing I could always count on

She let go of him as he picked up the hammer and approached her. She met him halfway and he handed the hammer to her. "What's your name?" he asked.

Always there for me,
You've been my family,
Ever since all other hope was gone...

"N-Nora." she sniffled as she took hold of the toy hammer in his hand and weakly smiled as the sun shone down on them.

"I'm Lie Ren." he smiled to her warmly.

Ren and Nora entered a cave, this cave was littered with weapons and the stains of what seemed to be black blood on the wall.

"Ren? Is this... Could it be?" Nora gasped as Ren picked an arrow off of the ground. It was one of his father's arrows.

Ren immediately turned towards the other exit of this cave that had a clear view of Kuroyuri.

Nora took hold of Ren's hand now as the two turned towards their former home where their friends currently were.

Qrow gagged and leaned up against the town square's tree. "It didn't work. Just leave me."

"We're not going to leave you Uncle Qrow." Ruby argued.

"Ruby..." Jaune looked up now at a shadow that was starting to get bigger as the sound of a horse's footsteps got closer to the two followed by a fainter sound of two smaller pairs of footsteps as Ren and Nora both entered the village in a frantic sprint from the other entrance.

"Guys!" Ren shouted before he then looked up and fell to his knees. "No..."

The beast stopped now as it looked down on the four students and injured huntsman. It's head twitched as it became full of motion again while the horse head on the lower half of it's body now had dull eyes.

The Nuckelavee opened it's almost sewed shut looking mouth and let out a blood curdling screech.

Commentary: Here's the essential Flashback episode that makes this Kuroyuri arc all about Ren getting some much needed closure in his life. On account of Weiss's storyline being finished for this volume, next chapter we'll check in with Blake.