A.N. (11/26/20) - I know, I know. I'm late by a day. My excuse this time is that I was busy doing a week's worth of homework to free up time for the holidays.

Chapter 26 - White Fang

-9 Months Before the Fall of Beacon-

"Thanks for the lift, Pilot Guy."

Said pilot guy gave a mock salute. "Anytime, Miss Tohsaka."

Exiting the ramp and entering Vale, Rin found herself headed towards Tukson's bookstore. Ana walked behind her in her astral state, as there were still people around them. But Rin continued to talk to her through their mental link.

"You know, I haven't introduced you to Tukson yet. Think you could handle a meeting with him?"

"If you want," she replied.

Rin frowned at that. "Hey, just say no if you don't want to. Just because I call you my Servant, doesn't mean you are one." Speaking out loud this time, she told Ana, "You're my partner. And as your Master, it is my job to make sure to listen to any of your worries and help you as much as I can."

It took Ana a while for her to respond. "...maybe later then. I think I'll be able to meet him soon, but not today please."

"It's fine," Rin said, until she realized that she said that last part out loud while Ana was still invisible. This time speaking through their bond, she continued, "As long as you make sure to bring up anything you need me to know. Communication is an important part of this relationship, and that goes two ways."

Ana didn't respond, but she did give a little nod. Rin smiled at that and hoped that this would help improve their relationship from this point on.

In the meantime, Rin was going to meet with Tukson and check up on him. Ever since she started experimenting, she hasn't had time to visit for a while. Might as well take the chance now to visit him.

Passing by a few stores on the way, Rin noted that a few of the shops were already starting to prepare for the upcoming Vytal Festival coming in a couple of months. A few shopkeepers were busy hanging up decorations.

Now that Rin thought about it, isn't Tukson going to be busy too? It wasn't the tiny bookshop that Rin lived in a few years ago anymore. And since Tukson wasn't planning on skipping town anymore, he should have his own preparations for the festival.

By the time the two reached the store, Rin was feeling pretty excited about finally visiting Tukson.

"Huh, what's going on." Rin saw that even though it was in the middle of the day, the shop was closed. Increasing her pace, she stood right in front of the shop and took a look through the glass window. "Weird, even the lights are off."

Feeling slightly concerned, she quickly took a peek at her surroundings before pressing her palm against the door. Manipulating her Prana, she connected to the invisible security system that she set up a long time ago to see what was going on.

"Tukson's not here, or anyone for that matter. No part-timers watching the store or anything." Removing her palm, she took out a key and quickly unlocked the door to enter. Closing the door behind her, she walked to the back of the store and reached underneath a desk to feel for something.

Pulling out a small gem, she sent a burst of magical energy into it and connected to the main core of the security system.

"Familiars One to Three, report for duty." Immediately after issuing that order, three statues of different types of Grimm appeared. A Beowolf, a tiny Nevermore, and a Rapier Wasp, all made out of regular jewelry instead of Dust.

Normally, Rin dealt with Dust as it was simply more convenient to do so. With Dust, Rin didn't need to add as much magical energy as she did with regular jewelry simply because the nature of Dust made it so that it already had its own pool of energy. Adding to the fact that it wasn't as scarce as regular jewelry, making it a lot easier for Rin to acquire, Dust was something she almost used exclusively.

However, the problem with infusing her Prana into Dust was that sometimes she ran the risk of igniting the material in question. While usually not a problem as Rin mostly used Dust to create consumable Mystic Codes, it didn't really work well when trying to make something intended to last for a while. Working around that problem, like she did when she created the Dust blade Sasaki Kojiro, wasn't worth the effort for simple security familiars.

So in the end, she made a couple of familiars watch over Tukson in the event of an emergency. And it wasn't even that costly to make either, since Rin made use of her *cough* *cough* favorable connections with a certain gentleman thief to get a great discount.

Rin sent a mental thought to one of her familiars. Extending a finger, Rin allowed the Rapier Wasp to land on her finger before casting 'Structural Analysis' on it.

The spell connected to the records inside the familiar. Reviewing what the familiar saw during the past few hours showed Tukson leaving with an unfamiliar group of Faunus.

"Where are you going Tukson," Rin mumbled under her breath, letting the Wasp fly off while doing so. "Closing the shop in the middle of the day and going out with a group of Faunus. I seriously doubt this is part of your usual efforts in affirmative action."

Placing her hand on the other two familiars and viewing their memories only showed similar images of Tukson leaving with a group of Faunus only a few hours ago. Dismissing them, Rin continued to wonder why Tukson left in the first place.

"Rin, I found something." Ana didn't usually interrupt Rin while she was thinking to herself, so the abrupt mental message surprised her. Turning around to see her Servant materialize, Rin saw Ana hold up a white mask.

A mask that she recognized. "The White Fang? What's Tukson doing that has the White Fang involved."

}-{

Tukson couldn't help but complain, "Seriously, where am I going?"

"Mount Glenn." The Faunus male that Tukson tried talking to shrugged his shoulders while he answered. "The boss said to show you where the rest of us are living. Wanted to improve morale to the troops there and show you who's fighting."

"Uh-huh, I got that. Now could you tell me how and why we're traveling through what looks like a tunnel out into the cities?"

A scowl came on the other man's face. "These tunnels were supposed to be subways connecting Vale to the Glenn expansion. They were abandoned and sealed a long time ago when the Grimm overran Glenn, but we managed to open up a few of the tunnels."

From the vehicle they were driving in, Tukson peered outside and saw various bits of construction equipment lying around. "So you guys have been at this for a while?"

"Not really, we've only started about a month ago. We've got enough of this side of the tunnel cleaned up for a small vehicle to go through, but we plan on expanding until it's a bit more accessible."

That raised Tukson's suspicions. "Accessible for what?"

He didn't answer.

They stopped driving when they reached an area unsuitable for a vehicle to travel through and made their way from that point on by foot. After another twenty minutes of traveling like this, Tukson finally started to hear the sounds of construction equipment working.

"This way, the boss is expecting you."

He grunted. "Just making sure. You're talking about Adam, right?"

"Of course," he gave Tukson a confused look. "Who else would I be talking about?"

The memory of an annoying grey-haired bastard and his mint-haired partner came to mind, but he didn't vocalize it. "Never mind, let's just go."

He led Tukson to a small ruined building, one of the few buildings that were completed during the initial construction of the Glenn expansion. Inside was Adam, talking to a few other White Fang members.

Noticing him enter, he quickly dismissed himself from the others and came their way.

"So, what do you think?" he asked directly, gesturing to his surroundings.

"I think that I'm going to need to clear my nose of dust." To emphasize his point, Tukson immediately sneezed after he said that. "Seriously, you should really get somebody to clean this place."

Adam ignored that and started walking past him. The man leading Tukson nudged him to follow, and Tukson resigned himself to the fact that he was probably going to be doing this a lot.

Adam started talking when Tukson started walking by his side. "These brave men and women are all here to volunteer their efforts to the White Fang while risking their lives to the possibility of being attacked by the Grimm. Every day, the accumulated negativity from this land draws in a number of Grimm, and our brave members face off against them in order to safeguard our workers."

They passed by a few of said workers, who paused to stare at the small group pass by them. A few of them seemed to recognize Tukson, having seen him a few times on TV talking with Glynda or the police, and they started to whisper to those around them.

Tukson ignored them for now and spoke to Adam. "I can see that this is a pretty big project. Care to explain what exactly you're having everyone do here?"

Adam smirked. "We're going to create a path so that the Grimm can attack Vale."

.

..

…

Tukson took a moment to see if Adam was kidding. He then took another moment to wonder if the growing headache he was experiencing was going to go away. Sadly, it looks like the answer to both of those was a no.

"Okay," Tukson slowly started with an edge to his voice. "I'm going to wait for you to explain why you think this is a good idea first before I give my opinion on how stupid your plan sounds to me right now."

Adam frowned at the response but replied anyway. "If you want a simple reason, it's to force the White Fang's hand. Currently, our main forces are too passive with only attacking the SDC and other companies. This attack will show that the White Fang is something to be taken seriously, and will incite our brothers and sisters to do more than they are now." He smirked. "Admittingly, this is a gross oversimplification of all the reasons why we're doing this. But you get the point."

Tukson just stared at him.

"You can't be serious." Adam's smirk didn't change. "Oh my gosh, you're actually serious." Tukson couldn't believe it. This plan sounded like it could go wrong in sooo many ways. He had his suspicions ever since he met the bull Faunus, but there's no question now.

Adam is an absolute idiot.

An idiot who had leverage over him.

His response earned him a glare from Adam. "Your complicity in this will end you if revealed, so don't go around telling anyone about this. The troops have seen you walking amongst us, which already makes you complicit."

As if an afterthought, he added, "And according to my advisors, your presence is enough of a morality boost to limit the negativity emitting from our forces. Helps legitimize our actions. So that'll help lower the Grimm attacks."

Tukson knew that he was stuck in a perilous situation. His partnership with Adam was shaky at best and only maintained through blackmail. Still, hopefully, he can de-escalate the situation before Adam actually tries to go through with this stupid plan.

"So, just a thought, how about we not attack the once city that's somewhat friendly to Faunus citizens?"

"Vale is hardly friendly," Adam replied through gritted teeth.

"Friendly compared to the other main cities." Tukson raised his hands when Adam glared at him. "I mean, these past few years have been better. I don't mean to brag, but Glynda and I have really helped change a few legislations on Faunus employment and citizen rights. The results are only starting to show, but it looks like things are turning out bright. Have you heard about how there's actually a union being formed based on—"

"Enough of your prattling," Adam interrupted. "I see that you cannot see the genius of my plan."

What genius?! This is seriously the worst plan Tukson's ever heard. What kind of person thinks invading a major city will turn out anything but horribly wrong?! Aren't you supposed to be on the Faunus' side?! Won't hundreds if not thousands of Faunus die because of this plan?

Adam gestured to the man following Tukson. "Take him back for now. Make sure he's ready for our next recruitment. His services will be more of use once we finally acquire the Atlesian Paladins and present our pitch to the Faunus citizens of Vale."

Well, that didn't work out well. Tukson couldn't help but think of how he was supposed to fix this without getting him or Rin killed. Telling Glynda was one option, even if Tukson had no idea how to do so without drawing suspicion on him.

Ugh, his headache from listening to Adam was still annoying him.

I just found out today that the Fate/stay night 3rd Heaven's Feel movie hit theaters a week ago, and that there are no more tickets.

FUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!

Seriously, are there still any showings available in this country? A five-minute Google search said no, but I'm really hoping I'm wrong. I don't want to wait for the Blu-ray to come out in a few months to watch it.

So the White Fang is still planning on attacking Vale. I'm not sure if it was initially Cinder's idea (I haven't watched the first few Volumes in a while) but I figured that Adam was crazy enough to try it anyway. Honestly, I have no idea how to write Adam. I don't really have a high opinion of him in terms of his intelligence or motivations, so hopefully, this isn't really out of character for him.

And now Rin's wondering why Tukson is involved with the White Fang. Honestly, I'll try to breeze through this White Fang subplot as fast as I can so that I can reach Volume 2. At this point, I'm a bit unorganized with my thoughts on how I want the direction of this story to go.

The next chapter will come out in two weeks if things go according to plan. But I'm really close to my finals, so keep in mind the possibility of a late release. Hopefully, once I'm on school break, I can churn out chapters faster than a bi-weekly rate. But just hold out until then.