Chapter 25: Ghost Town

Bethany cut through a stray branch dangling just in front of her face as they began to make their way towards Eika. There had been no real signs of the village so far, and while no one would say it, there was a constant feeling that maybe the old man had been wrong. Maybe he was a bit out of loop. And after having to climb up that mountain, no one would appreciate that.

Especially not Amy. It had caught her a bit off guard when she had figured out Amy was scared of heights. She didn't strike Bethany as someone who would be afraid of something like that. But then again, everyone had their fears. She used to be afraid of the dark once.

"Hey, what's that?" Damion said, pointing ahead of them.

"I think it's a sign." Amy said, walking over to it. "Welcome to Eika. Yep, it's a sign all right. Let's go in." There was also a gate right next to the sign, which Amy opened. Bethany peeked over her shoulder, and could see some houses in the distance.

The sound of crunching leaves was heard as they began to make their way towards them. There was no commotion that you might expect to hear from a village, no sound, nothing.

Just a cold, eerie silence.

Whenever they made it to the first house, Amy walked up to the door and knocked on it. No answer.

"Okay then. Let's try the next house…" No answer there either. This trend of people not answering continued for at least three more houses.

"I thought they said only a few people had disappeared." Samantha said.

"Maybe everyone is hiding because there worried someone is going to come in and take them." Amy suggested. They tried one more house. All of a sudden, a man came bursting out wielding a knife.

"Stay back! Stay back! Don't you dare take my family!"

"Hey, hey, woah, calm down there." Amy held her hands out in front of her, and took a step back. "We aren't here to take anyone. We're here to help."

The hand with the knife trembled slightly. "Who are you?"

"I'm Amy Ivankeo, a professional licensed huntress." She took out her scroll and held up her licence. "And these are my students. We are here to find out what is going on with all these disappearances, alright? So, could you please put the knife down?"

He put it down and looked at her. "So, your here to help you say? Well tell me then, what's going on?"

"We don't know yet. We suspect it may be Grimm, but we can't be sure."

"Okay, okay." He took a shaky breath. "Okay."

"Sir, do you know everyone here?"

"I do. Why?"

"That's good, because it'll make this next part a lot easier." Bethany, Damion and Samantha looked at Amy in confusion.

"What next part?" Damion said.

"Damion, maybe if you listened to what Amy is saying, you would know." Samantha said

"I'm listening."

"So, in order to make sure nobody else get's taken, I think it would be best if we grouped you all together into a big house somewhere so we can keep a eye on you."

"Ah, I see."

"So which one of these houses would you say is the biggest?"

"Probably Leilani's."

"Who now?"

"She's a women who lives…" He took a step out of his house. Bethany saw that his wife and son were huddled behind them, and they both quickly followed him out.

"Just over there. I can go talk to her." And with that, he was away, his family following after him.

"People seem to be really on edge here." Amy said. "And no, that was not a intentional pun."

"What exactly is the plan then?" Samantha asked. "How are we going to find out who, or what, is taking these people?"

"Well, what I was thinking was, some of us watch the people, the others go out and look around. There has to be some clue, something we can link together."

"What if the serial killer, or Grimm, or whatever it is, sees that we are here, and decides to beat a hasty retreat?" Bethany said.

"In that case, we better find it quickly then, shouldn't we?"

"Do you really think that those people will trust us?" Damion asked. "I mean, sure, you have your huntress license, but what about us? As far as there concerned, we could be out to get them."

"They won't have much of a choice unfortunately. Oh, there he is now."

People were beginning to come out of their houses and gather around each other. The man who they had been talking to before waved his hand at them to come over.

Everyone was looking at them, and some people were even whispering. Whether they were nice things or not was a completely different question.

"So then everyone" The man spoke up, and people fell quiet. "These people are here to help us. They are going to find out what is taking our children, our brothers, and our sisters. One of them is even a professional huntress." All eyes fell upon Amy, probably because she looked the oldest and was the tallest, who raised her hand in a wave.

"And they have decided it would be best that we all group together in a single house so they can keep an eye on us all, and make sure nobody else is taken." He looked at Amy like he expected her to say something.

"Uhh, yeah, yeah, we thought it would be best for you people while we try and track down the culprit of these disappearances."

"So, therefore, we shall all gather in Leilani's house." That's when Bethany realised just how little people there were in the village.

There's only about sixty or seventy. How many people have been taken? Whenever the mission info stated "Some disappearances" that was a huge understatement.

"So, do we head in then?" Someone spoke up.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Might as well." Amy stated, pointing to the house. "Come on everyone, chop, chop."

People began to walk into the house, and they waited until everyone was inside before heading in themselves. The man who was talking to them stopped them.

"I must apologise for my violent start. My name is Chasin." He shook Amy's hand. "I severely hope you can get to the bottom of this. What was once a lively village filled with joy and wonder has been turned into a place where tensions are high and people have no choice but to cower in their own houses for their safety."

"Well, we will certainly try our best." They walked into the house. People were still looking at them.

"Okay then everyone" Amy raised her voice. "Let me just make this clear. Do not leave this house unless I or one of my students here says that you can. I know it seems a bit cruel and unnecessary, but I promise you, it's for your own safety." There were several murmurs but everyone seemed to be happy enough with that.

"And, yeah, that's about it really. Oh, and if you do see anything suspicious, please let us know obviously."

"So, what are we supposed to do now?" Damion asked.

"Well, I mean, if you guys want to go and take a walk around the village looking for anything, then that's fine. I'll stay here." Amy said.

"We might as well start looking for anything that might help us." Samantha said to Damion. "Come on." They both left.

"Are you going to go with them?" Amy asked.

"No, I think I'll stay here." Bethany said.

"Oh, alright then."

Criminals and Mentors

"So, the Cult of Akuji, huh?" Daniel said. "Never heard of it before."

"It's a cult. I'm sure they wouldn't want to be in the public eye." Lucy said.

"And what even is Akuji? Is that some god or something?"

"I think she's a Grimm." They both looked down at Luna.

"A female Grimm? But Grimm don't have genders. At least I didn't think they did. Certainly never taught me that in Grimm studies class." Daniel said.

"Maybe it's like a special Grimm?" Lucy suggested. "I dunno, I'm just throwing ideas out there."

"Perhaps it's a-" Daniel was cut off by a White Fang member shouting at him.

"Hey boss! Could you come over here for a second?"

"Sorry, I'll be back in a second." Daniel walked over to him. "What is it?"

Luna watched him go, and she thought it was amazing how much authority he held over the White Fang, just how easily he talked to them. If it had of been her, she probably would have stuttered a lot. She had a real problem talking with people, especially after her time in ShiverBane, where people would have often abused her for the half mask that she wore. It only took him a minute to sort out what it was before he came back over.

So tall, so confident… I wish I could be more like him.

"Sorry about that. So yeah, I was going say it could be a man made Grimm?"

"A man made Grimm? Dan, don't be stupid." Lucy said.

"Right, look. Luna has told us that it's a cult. So they obviously worship this Grimm, and it's a female apparently. This is something different entirely. It may not even be a Grimm, it could be something entirely different for all we know. Can you remember anything else Luna?"

"Uhh…" She tried to think. It was a long time ago since she had been trapped with the cult, nearly six years, but she was able to recall it extremely well. And that was a extremely bad thing, she hated remembering it.

What did she look like? Did they ever summon her?

Not that she could remember. She vaguely recalled a statue of some sort, but her memory was too hazy on that particular spot.

"No, I can't."

"Well, guess we are stuck on figuring out what it could be then. But anyway, how did you get out?"

"I unlocked my semblance."

"Ah, okay."

"Your semblance is like blocking out noise that you make or something, isn't it?" Lucy said.

"Kind of. I can block out noise that I make with my own body" All of a sudden, they couldn't hear her footsteps anymore. She then held her arm out and gave a light slap, and no noise was made. "But I don't block out the noise that's made if I come into contact with another object. So like…" She went up to the nearest wall and lightly rapped her knuckle against it. A clear sound was made.

"Oh, that makes sense. Kind of."

"What about you two then?"

"Well…" Luna watched as Daniel produced a clone of his own body, which walked alongside him. It looked like him, besides from the fact it was made up of a blue aura. It then went back into his body, disappearing completely.

"Oh yeah, I remember that now. Lucy?"

"I… still haven't unlocked mine, and quite frankly, at this point, I don't think I ever will."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Daniel put a hand on her shoulder. "Sometimes you unlock your semblance at the most dumb and unbelievable time. Like my sister, she unlocked her ability to clone objects when she threw a box at my face."

"Wait, what?" Lucy turned and looked up at him. "Why was she throwing a box at your face?"

"It was when we were like, seven years old or something. I don't remember exactly. I probably stole something off her."

"Oh. What about Amy then? What's her semblance?"

"She really doesn't like to use it, or even really talk about it. She can manipulate people's emotions and how there feeling."

"Why wouldn't you want to use that?" Lucy asked. "I can think of loads of situations where that would be really helpful. Friend about to get mad at you? Make them happy. Boyfriend or girlfriend about to break up with you? Make them feel love."

"I am just sure you would love to have that as your semblance Lucy. Make all the boys fall in love with you." Luna could tell from the big grin on Lucy's face that she was thinking just that. "Amy used to see it like that, but then she stopped using it like that. Nowadays, she would only use it if absolutely necessary."

"Why? What happened?"

"Lucy, if you ever meet Amy again, do not tell her that I've told you this. She would go mental at me. Alright?"

"Yeah, sure, I've got it."

"Good. So basically, she used to have this crush on this guy back at Beacon. His name was Hari, I think, it's been a while. And she would constantly try to get his attention. However, he just simply wasn't having it. So, she tried to use her semblance on him. And it worked. The effect isn't permanent though, it only lasts for a while. So, during those short, shall we say, bursts of affection, they would get all lovey with each other. And okay, I will admit, I did think it was kind of cute. Eventually though, I came to the realisation that it just wasn't right. She was essentially turning him into a puppet for her own romantic pleasures, it wasn't natural, it was forced. So I told Hari. I told him what was going on and needless to say, he was not pleased."

"I can imagine."

"Next time she tried to do it, he pushed her away. Amy basically demanded to know what was going on, and I told her that I had told him. Saying she was angry is a understatement. She was fuming. Didn't speak to me for days. Whenever I did eventually talk to her, and told her why I thought it was wrong, she began to understand. It took her a while, but she understood. And that's why she doesn't use it unless it's absolutely necessary."

"That's a powerful semblance." Luna said quietly.

"It most definitely is. Being able to manipulate how someone is feeling… That's a big thing. It's also why we need to treat those kinds of semblance's with care. Because while some semblance's may just give you a small edge in combat, others can potentially change a person completely. They may use it to further their own selfish needs, or to even harm other people."

"You did the right thing." Luna said. "By telling Hari."

"I know I did. But sometimes, it's hard to choose between doing what you think is right, and doing what you think is best for the people you care about."

"You sound like you would've made a really great team leader." Lucy stated. "If that had of been me, I would have just let her do her thing."

"I just did what I thought was best and tried not to abuse my power. Whether I succeeded in that or not is a completely different story. Although I did fail to save Nicole…" He sighed softly. Lucy reached out and gently squeezed his hand.

"But anyway, back to what we were talking about before. The Cult of Akuji. So we are all in agreement that there is a highly dangerous cult running around somewhere in Remnant and we have no clue where they are or what they could be doing."

"There doing things that cult's do." Lucy suddenly put her hands out and raised them up in the air. "Behold the might of the holy tea spoon! It's power is unlimited and unbounded! It shall come down from the heavens and set us all free!"

"A tea spoon?" Daniel asked. "Of all things?" Luna was bent over, and she was laughing.

"Well, yeah. Cult's worship all sorts of weird things."

"But a teaspoon? Seriously?" Daniel shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Alright then. How about a… hat?"

"A hat?"

"Yeah, like Roman's. The cult of the out of fashion bowler hat."

"I'm sure Roman would love to have a cult dedicated to a bowler hat."

"Or how about the cult of ice cream? There's Neo's one!"

"She scares me." Luna said. "Her eyes change colour and it's really weird."

"She's really quite sweet actually when you get to know her."

Daniel groaned. "Are you serious Lucy?"

"What?"

"Sweet? She's really quite "sweet."

"I didn't even do it on purpose, I swear!"

Criminals and Mentors

"Is that a farm?" Damion pointed out a field surrounded by a fence which appeared to have carrots growing in it.

"Yes, Damion, that is a farm. The people here live on top of a mountain, they need to get their food somehow."

"I thought so. Anyway, how exactly are we supposed to find something that is supposed to help us find out who's taking all these people?"

"I… really don't know." She took Onris out and began to move her hands up and down it's blade.

"How does it actually work? How does that function as a whip and a sword at the same time?"

"How do your two short swords transform into pistols?"

"Well, basically, you see this thing here? That does something, and uh, yeah, I don't really know."

"There's your answer. I don't know how whip swords work."

"Hey, they look really cool though, so that's something."

"I guess."

"So…" A realisation suddenly struck Damion.

Have I really talked to Samantha all that much? There was that one time they had played chess, and that one time she had beaten him in sparring, amongst other occasions, but had he ever had a actual meaningful conversation with her? He didn't think so. Aside from knowing that apparently she liked to read, but he couldn't ever recall her actually reading a book, he basically knew nothing about her. Nothing about her personal life, or what other things she liked to do, or what her ambitions were, nothing like that. And considering she was his partner, he couldn't help but feel like that was wrong.

But then again, if you didn't have to spend so much time worrying about Bethany and wondering what crazy thing Alan is going to do next, you may have been able to spend a little more time getting to know her.

"So what?" She was looking up at him.

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking about stuff. Sorry, I'll pay more attention to what we should be doing now."

I do wonder what Alan is doing now though…

The guy was a jerk, but now that Damion knew he was a Faunus, it gave a bit of context as to why he did what he did. His actions were understandable, but not justifiable.

But he didn't seem that bad at the beginning…

It was only really at the docks that Damion began to hate him. He had even showed off his weapons to them all in their first talk together. He hadn't seemed that bad. It was confusing.

"Do you think Bethany's okay after what happened with Alan?" Samantha suddenly said. "I mean, he was her partner, and he basically just left."

"I don't know Sam. My biggest problem with it seems to be that she seems to think she could have done something about it. Helped him in some way. But if he is a Faunus, and he's been treated like dirt by the humans, there was no helping him. And that's just the simple truth."

"Yeah, I guess."

They fell silent again, walking through the village.

It's just so… quiet.

"This feels very much like a scene in a horror movie. Two people walking along in a abandoned village and the next minute, boom, something jumps out." Damion stated.

"I don't like how quiet it is." Samantha noticeably shuddered. "It creeps me out."

"It's like a ghost town. Maybe something is about to jump out-"

"Damion, don't. Please. Your just making me more paranoid." She looked around for a moment, and then wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

Is she cold? Should I like, put my arm around her or something?

This was really quite telling about how much he didn't know about her, the fact he didn't know if he was even allowed to touch her or not.

"Are you cold?"

"Are you kidding? I'm freezing. I always knew it was windier on the top of mountains, but this is ridiculous."

"Maybe you should have worn something more than just a dress then."

"That's really helpful now, isn't it?"

"You can still throw a sassy remark back at me, so you mustn't be feeling that cold." She rolled her eyes at him. "And you can still roll your eyes at me."

"Alright, I get it." She shivered again. She then noticeably stepped closer to him.

"We can head back if you want to."

"No, really, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then. Hey, I think we've come to the end of the top of the mountain." They had suddenly come to a steep drop, the landscape stretching out before them as far as the eye could see.

"Well, now we have no option but to turn back." Damion was about to turn around, until Samantha put a hand on his arm. Her hand was freezing cold, even through the sleeve of his jacket.

"No, let's sit here for a minute." She walked over and sat down, her shins dangling over the edge.

He sat down next to her and they stared out into the sky for a minute before Damion spoke up.

"This should not be this awkward."

"Huh?" Samantha turned and looked at him. "What shouldn't be this awkward?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He motioned to himself and then to her. "Us! We shouldn't be so awkward with each other! We are supposed to be partners!"

"But we-"

"Anybody who was looking in on the outside would think we didn't know each other. I don't even know that much about you, and you don't know that much about me. It shouldn't be like that."

"Damion-"

"We should know each other better than this."

"Damion, why are you getting so worked up about this?"

"Because I don't feel like I've done enough to get to know you. Sure, we played a game of chess once, and okay, we've talked a bit, but that's it."

"Damion, you know in the grand scheme of things, we haven't known each other for that long. We still have plenty of time at Beacon. I really wouldn't be worrying about that. And besides, your a nice guy. I mean, you clearly care about Bethany."

"I suppose so. But I just feel like at this point, on our first mission, I should know you a bit better. That's all it is really. But yeah, I suppose your right. Sorry, I don't even know why I brought it up."

"It's fine. You don't need to say sorry. But I do care about you." She lent back and placed her palms on the grass. "We've just had to spend more time worrying about Bethany and how she's been dealing with this Alan problem, you know? And you may be a idiot sometimes Damion, but I like idiots, because I can then prove I'm smarter than them easier."

"Hey! I'm not that much of a idiot!"

"Your my idiot." She smiled at him. It was beginning to get dark, and the moon was shining bright in the sky.

"It's getting dark, we should head back now." Damion stood back up.

"Yeah, your right." Samantha stood back up as well. She then walked over and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Even just the fact that you would worry about not knowing your partner well enough proves that you can't be that bad of a person."

"I guess. Sorry, I don't even know-"

"Stop apologising you big dumbo." She put her arms around him and gave him a hug.

"Oh, this is nice." He put his arms around her as well.

After letting go of each other, they both began walked back to the house.

"I still think you shouldn't wear high heels though. I mean, if this was a horror movie, then we would have been dead by now with the amount of noise your making by just walking."

Samantha purposefully began stomping her feet down even harder, making it even louder. "Here we go ghosts, come get us!" She called out, which made Damion laugh.

"And you said this place creeped you out."

"That's when it was quiet. We're talking now though, so it's not quiet anymore. I'm still freezing though." She shivered once again, much more violently this time. "Would you mind-" He put his arm around her. "Thanks."

Eventually, they made it back to the house, where Amy was standing outside, waiting for them. Damion took his arm away.

"There you both are. Did you find anything useful?"

"No, we didn't."

"Okay then. You can both go on in and get some rest. I'm on first watch for the night anyway."

"Alright then." They both walked in. Bethany was sitting in the corner and beckoned for them to come over.

"People are already beginning to fall asleep, so we're going to have to keep quiet." She whispered.

"Got ya leader." Damion said in a very loud whisper.

"Damion, that's a loud whisper." Samantha said to him.

"Is it? Okay, let me just turn it down a bit then." He dropped his voice even lower. "That better?"

"Now we can't hear what your saying." Bethany said.

"Well, what do you expect me to do then?"

"We should probably sleep anyway." Samantha stated. "Amy's probably going to be waking us up throughout the night to keep watch."

"Or maybe she just has a really big cup of coffee." Damion suggested.

"That's another option. Didn't see her holding anything though."

"Well, whatever. I'll be going to sleep now, so if you two are going to keep talking, don't wake me up. I can get very cranky when I want to be." Bethany laid herself down and rested her head on her hands. "Okay, this is extremely uncomfortable."

"I can tell you a bed time story if you want." Damion jokingly suggested. "That might help you fall asleep."

"No, I really don't want to hear about the tale of "Damion Awesome Denton, the saviour of Remnant."

"Aw, okay then."

Bethany quietly laughed and turned over onto her side. "Night guys."

"Goodnight, don't let the Grimm bite." Damion said.

Criminals and Mentors

So, I've been looking at a bunch of stuff lately, and there are a couple of names that just aren't sitting right with me for some reason.

ShiverBane is a obvious one, but for some reason, the names of Lucy's daggers and Bethany's swords haven't been looking quite right either. They've been called those for ages, and yet only now I'm starting to not like them. Don't know why.

Obviously I'll say if there are any massive changes.

As always, thanks for reading and have a good day!