Author's Notes
Ok, have a couple of things to go over that might affect the unofficial update schedule I have going here:
1) Alongside this chapter, I'm uploading the first chapter of RCRDL. Posting it now because it's starting to feel like if I don't force myself, it will never get uploaded. Point is, that story will be competing with this for my attention, but given RCRDL's scope is much, much smaller, it shouldn't be a big impact.
2) More pressing, I net a freelance job on the side, so whenever deadlines for that rear their ugly head, I will need to take a step back and deal with those.
3) My capstone deadline is fast approaching and while I believe that thing is done, it is up to my advisor and every time she returns it asking for some fix, I have to drop everything to focus on it. So yeah…
So yeah… enjoy this chapter! Review, Follow, Fave. In that order. :D
Chapter 24: Vale is on Fire, Part I
All things considered; it had been a pleasant day. Catching up with Sun and reminiscing about their childhood mischiefs brought with it a wave of nostalgia that left Kohaku tingly, wishing for those simpler times when their biggest worry was sneaking behind the adults', and Kon's, back. When the gang was up to some grand adventure that only existed in their little minds.
But now, while the day had been pleasant, the shadow of Blake's absence was an ever-present problem looming on the back of their mind. While she and Sun toured Vale, they kept eyes and ears open for any sign of the missing faunus. More than once she sent her team and JNBR a message asking for an update on the matter, to no avail. The only ray of hope being that GV hadn't respond. Maybe he found Blake and was busy convincing her to return.
"Vale is such a great place. Not as uptight as Mistral nor as hot as Vacuo. I should have gone to Beacon."
Sun kept her spirits up. She could tell he was trying to keep the mood light, distracting her as best as he could. She appreciated it. However…
"I still cannot believe you found the one 'I heart Vale' button-up shirt in existence." And didn't button it up, was left unsaid.
The cheeky grin and ridiculous 'I heart Vale' white button-up shirt Sun was wearing made Kohaku want to smack him.
"It's pronounced 'I love Vale' and you're just mad because they didn't have a black crop top version."
"But if I say, 'I love Vale', how would people know the shirt has a heart instead of the word 'love' on it?" Kohaku asked rhetorically, modulating her tone to sound both condescending and airy.
"Right, right. That makes sense." It didn't. "Maybe we are approaching this whole Blake thing the wrong way."
Oh, they were talking about Blake now. Sun had been good on his word and spent the better part of the day reminiscing with her about years gone by. Kohaku supposed he could entertain him on his search for true love. And if she was being honest, she was anxious about the matter. Doing anything would make her feel better.
"What do you have in mind, o glorious leader?" Kohaku mockingly asked.
Sun laughed. "Hey, you were just as much a leader back in the day. Remember when you successfully took reigns and found Maria after she ran away?"
"I wouldn't have needed to if someone hadn't told her she was wrong about the swamp creature living under the abandoned factory." Kohaku gave Sun a pointed look.
"Good times, good times," Sun reminisced with a goofy smile plastered in his face.
"No! We were worried sick. Kyota and Jin tore the village a new one trying to find her. After they cried for four hours straight."
Sun goofy smile never left. "Ah, the memories. I like to think it built character in them."
Kohaku narrowed her eyes. "They were five and seven back then, Sun. There was no foundation upon which to build a character!"
"Hey, do you think either of them developed a crush on little Maria?"
Kohaku was unimpressed by Sun's dismissal. "Didn't Kon beat the ever-loving crap out of you when she found out?"
Sun grinned and extended his hands. "And now, we're both Hunters. It all worked out in the end!"
It dawned upon Kohaku. "Oh god, you're a masochist with the hots for my sister."
Sun laughed and dismissed her thoughts. "Nah. Teach is… too blond for my tastes."
A beat.
"Sun, you're blond."
"And can you imagine another blond in my life? You might as well admit me into a psychiatric hospital. For life."
Kohaku opted to delete the last part of the conversation. To avoid admitting herself into a psychiatric hospital. "Why the stroll down the bad parts of memory lane?"
Sun perked up. "Right! You found Maria by predicting her actions. You figured out she ran away because I dismissed her fantasies. Which, by the way, I was right about."
"SUN! You're seventeen picking a fight with a five years-old!" Kohaku chastised him.
"Nope. Back then I was nine. And today she's thirteen. But that's beside the point. You predicted she would go to prove things herself. Maybe we can do the same with Blake. Do you think she's the kind of girl who would do that?"
Kohaku considered Sun's words. When he tried, Sun could be insightful. Maybe him being the leader of Team SSSN wasn't a fluke. After the initial shock ran out, what would Blake do? Kohaku didn't know, but she pulled out her scroll and messaged someone who might. The ping of an incoming message followed shortly after.
"'We already checked all the bookstores, so if she didn't left Vale, she might be trying to prove Weiss wrong.'" She read the message Jaune sent her. "Prove Weiss wrong? How would she do that? People ARE racist towards faunus. Even Weiss cannot deny that."
Sun pondered that. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what you told me about this Weiss girl, her problem was with the White Fang, not the faunus themselves."
Kohaku gave a so-so hand wave. Sun continued. "Let's work from that. Blake would want to prove the White Fang are… well, not as bad as they clearly are. How would she go about that?"
Not really possible. The White Fang were that bad. Kohaku recalled the events yesterday. One detail popped up. "Maybe prove the dust robberies are not the White Fang's doing? This all started because of a comment Weiss did regarding the robberies. That and your inopportune appearance."
Sun ignored that last jab. "Dust! That's it. If we go where there's Dust, we might find Blake, who'll be trying to find the White Fang. And I know just the place!"
Kohaku had big doubts. "Are we sure about this?"
Sun shrugged. "No, but the port is as good a place as any to check. If this fails, we just fall back to plan B and enjoy the moonlight reflecting off the still waters of Vale's bay. It'll be a nice way to cap off the evening."
"If nothing else, you are an optimist through and through," Kohaku backhandedly complimented the monkey faunus.
-o-
The first thing that jumped out to Blake was how eerily silent and desolated the port was. If she hadn't known better, she would say it was peaceful, with the starry night and gleaming bay providing a serene atmosphere.
But Blake knew better.
"Where is the security of this place?" She asked while listening intently, her uncovered cat ears twitching in attention. But there was no sound to be picked. With an SDC shipment just a shout away, and the current scarcity of Dust, this place should be brimming with security.
"An exchange of lien here, a blind eye there…" GV explained.
Bribery. It was easy to just forward some lien to whomever was on watch and let something unfortunate happen. Better yet, they could just say they were assaulted before they had a chance to raise an alarm and nobody would be any wiser.
"This doesn't make sense. This is not the White Fang's MO."
GV looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "It isn't? This is par for the course in Vacuo's branch. More than once I had a subordinate pay someone to conveniently not be in the right place at the wrong time."
Blake shook her head. "Vale's branch mostly consists of volunteers. It's not as militant as Atlas's or, apparently, Vacuo's. Nor it has Mistral's political pull. There were talks of transferring Adam to Vale to whip the Fang into shape."
"Maybe he did." Which meant a world of trouble if the White Fang was involved. Between the two of them, they could deal with volunteers and grunts. But properly trained White Fang? Zero times twenty might be zero, but one times twenty was twenty. Numbers mattered.
Their wait was cut short as a bullhead flew over them. Blake visibly deflated while GV piously observed as the vehicle came to a stop by the SDC shipment.
The nail in the coffin came as masked individuals stepped out of the machine.
"No…" a crestfallen Blake uttered. "Why? Why would the Fang be stealing Dust indiscriminately?"
"One does not run a terrorist organization with charitable donations," GV said. Then narrowed his eyes. "Though that explains a couple of things."
"Alright you animals. Chop-chop. This is hardly subtle, and we have no time to waste. Move it, move it."
Blake was astonished as a man, a human, commanded the White Fang. "Torchwick? What is he doing here? Why is the White Fang working with a human?"
"Wouldn't be the first time," GV informed her.
"Why would Adam be working with a human?" Blake corrected.
"…I'll take your words for it." Sending a quick message in his scroll, GV stood up. "Sent a message to the Headmaster. We need to buy time for reinforcement to arrive."
"On it." Blake silently dropped of the warehouse's roof from which they were staking out the robbery. GV followed close by. Blake was a little surprised GV could do stealth just as well as she could. Although she shouldn't be, considering his past as an infiltrator for the White Fang.
"I'll ambush Torchwick. Cause a distraction so I can sneak in," Blake told GV, who, after some consideration, nodded. Her approach was almost surgical. Leaping from container to container, avoiding alerting the White Fang, Blake quickly took her position a dash away from the master thief, ready to jump out the instant GV made his move.
It didn't take long, as a grunt of the White Fang was sent flying into a wall, and into blissful unconsciousness, by a powerful electric blast.
"Hold it right there," GV yelled, commanding the attention of all the White Fang and, more importantly, Torchwick himself, who smirked.
"Sparky! Long time no see. I see your timing is as inconvenient as ever."
Torchwick's distraction was Blake's signal. In the blink of an eye, she rushed to the thief and held him, the hand with his cane held behind him and the blade of Gambol Shroud threatening his neck.
"Oh, and you brought a friend." Torchwick gave her a quick peek. "Hmm, this is not Red." He turned his head back to GV. "Already got tired of strawberry and wanted to try chocolate and vanilla? Bold of you, Sparky. Well, as long as you don't try all three flavors at once, I won't judge."
"What do you want with this much Dust, Roman."
GV kept his gun trained at the White Fangs that had gathered between him and Roman. And by extension, between him and Blake. He could tell the Fang were willing to fight but weren't particularly well trained. He could read it in the stance and the air of uncertainty exhibited. The real threat was the thief, who even when held at blade edge didn't lose his cool.
"First name basis, huh? I'm flattered. To answer your question… Dust for Dust's sake." Roman said nonchalantly.
"Why is the Fang working with you," Blake pressed on. She looked at the Fang. "Why are you working for a human like him?"
"For me," Roman corrected. "Finding good, hardworking, competent members of the proletariat is so hard in Vale. I expanded my horizons, widened my net, and decided to give the White Fang a test drive. Though I admit the results have been mixed. Customer service informs me I'm missing some essential parts that should be arriving soon."
"Don't mess with us," Blake growled, pressing the blade deeper into the thief's neck.
"Blake, don't let him get to you," GV warned.
"You should listen to Sparky, Kitty Kat." Roman turned his head ever so slightly, his green eyes looking into her amber ones. Smoothing his voice, he said, "Otherwise, you might make a dumb mistake… like holding at with a blade a Huntsman with full Aura that specializes in Dust."
"Blake!"
GV didn't need to warn her. Not like it would have helped as an explosion from Roman's cane forced her to use her Semblance and create distance from the thief. Distance that the thief breached immediately as he delivered a solid swing with his cane, forcing her to block with Gambol Shroud's sheath and be thrown away a fair distance from the sheer difference between hers and Torchwick's physical strength.
Roman didn't waste time with Blake, quickly turning to fire two of Melodic Cudgel's explosive rounds at GV, who opted to dash through the White Fangs in favor of blindsiding the thief. For all the help that did. Upon seeing his attack phase through GV, Roman opted to aim at the floor and fire, a spire of ice rising to block GV's lunge.
'Ice? When did he-'
"Trying to hold Huntsman-trained criminal at knife point?" Roman laughed. "Beacon's tuition in full display, ladies and gentlemen." He held a hand towards GV. "Gun him down."
GV immediately raised his Flashfield, protecting himself from the flurry of bullets that rained from behind. The Fang grunts he ignored. That was a problem. GV was sure he could trade blows with Roman one-on-one. But not if he had to watch his and Blake's back. Ideally, he would fight Roman while Blake dealt with the grunts. But in a lapse of judgment, they chose to invert those roles.
Blake lunged at Roman, but the thief was prepared and parried her attack. She followed with a kick but was met with Roman's own leg rising to block. Blake continued her assault – swinging, feinting, using her Semblance to disorient, all in an attempt to score a hit on the thief – but was not successful. It dawned upon her that when Roman said he had Huntsman training, he meant it.
"Not bad, Kitty Kat." Roman swiped aside another attack. "You would have blossomed into a wonderful Huntress." Blake attempted to vault over him and attack him from the back, but Roman read her move and successfully block it. "Unfortunately, you had to go and pick fights way out of your league." Roman scored a solid kick on her midsection, sending her reeling backward. He followed by another shot from Melodic Cudgel. One of Blake's earth clone tanked the shot, but the resulting blast still sent her back a few feet.
An orange crystal landed in front of Blake. A second later, it exploded into a spire of rocks. Blake's Aura clones didn't take much aura to create, but its use on top of the blunt damage she was receiving was quickly chipping away at her moderate reserves.
"You know," Blake pointed out, "throwing around Dust crystals doesn't make you a Dust specialist."
"Says the girl sporting the latest fashion in the Sleeping with the Fishes brand."
Blake suddenly realized her feet felt heavy. Her eyes widened upon seeing her feet incased in stone.
"How-"
"I don't enjoy dealing with kids." Roman raised his cane, aiming directly at Blake. "But you left me no choice. For what it's worth, my apologies."
Unable to dodge, Blake brought the bulk of her aura to the front, hoping a minimize the damage. The roar of a shotgun rattled her ears, but she felt no pain. And Roman didn't use a shotgun. He was, however, almost on the receiving end of one, forcing him to fall back as more bursts came his way.
"GV, jump!"
A female voice?
Two more shotgun rounds ripped through the air. This time they did met Blake. Specifically, her stone-encased feet. It was painful and probably did a number on her Aura, but she'll take that over being a sitting duck.
Looking at GV, the boy jumped as instructed while a metal whip swept below him and through the White Fang members. Tracing the whip to its source, Blake was met with a kneeling brunette holding the whip and a gun on the other hand, just as she retracted the whip back into a sword.
"Kohaku!" GV said in surprise at the assistance from his teammate.
"Regroup!" Kohaku ordered. GV was already close to Kohaku, but Blake was basically dragged by the blonde monkey faunus into said regrouping.
"What are you doing here?" GV asked the brunette.
"Pure chance. We came looking for Blake. We weren't expecting to actually find you."
GV sent a thankful nod.
"Honestly. I swear, nowadays Beacon is just a factory of precocious little gremlins like you four." Roman previous swagger was now replaced with displeasure. Next to him, the White Fang were also grouping.
Kohaku holstered her gun. "GV, you and Blake deal with bowl hat." She took a wide, two handed stance, right hand holding the sword close to the guard while the left hand below it and the elbow raised to shoulder levels, making the blade point forward and downward with the edge upward. "Sun and I will deal with the grunts."
The monkey faunus stood next to her, the spring in his stance itching for a fight.
GV nodded. "I need an opening."
"Got it!" Wasting no time and with a spin to gain momentum, Kohaku swung her blade horizontally at Roman and the White Fang. The katana extended to cover the distance, forcing the White Fang to duck while Roman, who was just at the edge of the whip's range, stepped backward.
That was the opening GV needed. Rushing at Roman, GV and Blake engaged the thief.
"Whoever knocks out the most must invite the other to lunch." Sun proclaimed.
"You're on," Kohaku sent a sideway smirk. "Fair warning, I'm the thirty-second best first year at this competition."
Author's Notes
The start of the fight at the docks.
WHY YOU STOP!?
I'm thinking of posting the next chapter this week too. The chapter after still needs more work to properly wrap stuff up, so there's a chance next week might be missing a chapter. But we'll see…
Anyhow. Rundown. Ready, Set, Go!
Jin, Kyota, and Maria: ASG characters. These are the plucky kids Kohaku looks after in Luminous Avenger iX. Just like I aged Kohaku three years for this fanfic, I aged them three years too.
Roman: I'm of the opinion that Roman was cheated in the show. Granted, he wasn't even supposed to be more than a one-off villain, but after he got an upgrade to recurring antagonist, he was dealt with like a chump. The kind you feed to fishes. No, wait, that's chum… one of the definitions of chum.
Anyways. I always found it weird Roman was on the same combat level as first year students. He always looked to me as the kind of guy who, while not the strongest or most skill combatant, would still be able to educate preppy freshmen dealing with stuff they shouldn't. So, I made him A) stronger and B) gave him a more unique fighting style. Since he deals with Dust and clearly uses explosive Dust in his fights, I wondered how it would be if he didn't limit himself to one type of Dust. Hence his abundant use of Dust crystals/shards in the fight, either as ammunition for Melodic Cudgel or as raw grenades.
Canonically Roman doesn't have a Semblance, but I'm toying with the idea of giving him one. That's for future me to worry. In this fight Roman sleight of hand is just extremely high, switching dust rounds too fast for GV and Blake to keep up. Or is it? *Shifty eyes*
Kohaku's stance: It's actually Blade's idle battle stance in the games. You can see it in her sprite and in one of her cutouts. While normally Kohaku favors a one-handed stance to allow for her handgun, she is trained in the two-handed stance when using her handgun is not viable.
Reviews
Four reviews! Guess I cannot go as detailed this time around. Let's go over them quickly.
Truemmerphantom: Glad you like the story so far. Yeah, making sure Septimas didn't overpower Semblances (for the most part) was important to me. In the case of Azure Striker, I didn't want to tune it down too much (it IS the alleged most powerful Septima), so I work in giving GV clear weaknesses. And if you shut down Azure Striker, GV is in a world of trouble.
Blue Bragon: Hard to respond without giving away the story, but generally I would recommend tempering expectations. I'm drawing a lot of parallels to ASG (more than you think) and I'm staying faithful to RWBY canon (at least the first three volumes). Still, thanks for the review. They do help me when going over future chapters, adding and changing stuff I just didn't thought about.
I have two Guess reviews. Not sure if they're from the same person, so I'll tackle them individually:
Anonymous (Chapter 2): Doing my best, coach! Characterization is a big problem for me unless characters have bombastic personality (like Torchwick)… which the ASG cast doesn't. Kohaku suffers from LAiX overall poor characterization, GV and Copen are two brands of serious and stoic sprinkled with dorkiness (though Copen has one of my favorite unseen character developments in a while between ASG2 and LAiX), and Mytyl is a mute whose characterization can be summarize as 'Cheerful Sick Child'. That said, Lola's personality is supposedly the result of interacting with Mytyl and Mytyl does show glimpses of being a very happy, energetic girl held back by her circumstances, so I clung to that for her characterization.
Anonymous (Chapter 31): Glad you enjoyed the story. Oof, guess I didn't make that clear. I meant 'uncanny' in the sense that they twins are more observant (and in the case of Mytyl, much smarter) than they first appear. If you get comfortable around them, it's easy to slightly slip up (e.g. Blake's secret) and for them to follow the thread to the correct conclusion. I wasn't trying to imply GV finds them untrustworthy. Just that, considering how odd they can be, their social competence comes out as uncanny.
As for small chapters… yeah. I get you. It's a catch-22 when it comes to length. Small chapters mean you can pick up and leave easily, but it hurts pacing if you're on top of the story. Long chapters give substance you can bite, but in today's world, especially as an adult, it can be hard to sit down and read through 7K words in a sitting. Even for me; I wouldn't be able to proofread and revise my chapters as frequently if they were longer.
On a side note: GV hasn't fought Nora. I haven't forgotten and it's not an accident they haven't fought yet. People will probably dislike how their fight will go down, but I'm not big on writing fight scenes and I didn't want to spend time writing combat classes. A lot of interesting matchups (like GV vs Pyrrha) were cut out due to pacing and how little they contribute to a story that already struggles with pacing.