A/N: Hello, all! Been a while since our last update in here. I've got four new TFTA updates that are loaded up as a sort of last hurrah before the next "main" story (currently called RU2 until I think of an actual name) starts back up. The TFTA's will hopefully continue after that, but it will be up to the other writers to keep it going. Hopefully my work on RU2 will give them ideas for new chapters to dream up.

Either way, here's another contribution from the impressively prolific Vin.

Title: Phantom Pain

Author: Vinpap

"How come I never saw you with a weapon? Do you really just fight using your fists?" the woman walking said with a soft laugh, hands behind her head as they walked in the forest calmly, as if it wasn't completely overrun by grimm.

"You could say that." the blond man answered, looking up at the sky to make sure that they were still heading west, towards their objective. They hadn't met long ago, so he didn't want to divulge all of his secrets just yet, not when he didn't know what kind of person she was. She had a warm smile and a pleasant voice, so he wasn't worried about her being a pain for the future, but he didn't know what her motivations were.

"That's cool. I never was a good hand to hand fighter, always preferred using weapons. And those two have been my go to for years. My semblance helps a lot, since they can be used as ranged weapons as well." the woman explained, vanishing from beside the man and reappearing on a branch overhead, her tomahawks resting on her hips. She laughed, winked at him and vanished once more, this time appearing further down the path, waving at the man. "Come on! Keep up!"

The man laughed and started to jog, hoping not to lose sight of the woman. She might be a bit hyperactive and energetic, but honestly, he didn't mind it that much. It would make their time together much more entertaining.

Soon enough, they reached a clearing in the forest…

… And the firefight exploded, the five operatives fanning out as they pushed back the unrelenting forces of evil that were trying to assault them.

"Azul, get on top of that tree and take out those flyers! Fusube, I want this entire zone flat. Those trees are preventing us from taking them out from a distance. Baekdan, prepare one of those grav grenades, I want you to vaporize those insects. Everyone else, disperse and always keep at least two other people in your sight at all times. We don't want a repeat from earlier." the man in charge called out, the refugees and militiamen making sure to stay behind the junior's men and their huntsman escort.

The huntsman in question was already deep in the fray, punching and kicking the larger monsters with enough strength to send some of them flying. He didn't say anything when the battle began. Whether it was because he trusted those soldiers or because he didn't care about them, it wasn'T clear to some of the refugees.

Ever since the team sent by the council had evacuated them from their village, the huntsman hadn't spoken much, barely even looking at the people he was escorting. And yet, the five former thugs trusted that man with their lives… There must have been a good reason for that. Right?

Suddenly, a trumpeting sound was heard and the whole battlefield seemed to ground to a standstill as, from the forest, a large Goliath making its way into the fray. Some of the refugees started to run away, despite the screams of protestation of the militiamen and of the soldiers.

And yet, the huntsman didn't budge. And instead looked at the goliath as if it was just an ordinary grimm and not one of the wisest grimm in the known world. The goliath charged and smashed the huntsman to the side with its trunk, sending the man flying.

"You know, I think you could use a better landing strategy." the black and red haired woman said, a loud laugh escaping her lips as she sat on top of a small ravine, looking down at the blond man with a large smirk.

The man, for his part, groaned as he got back up, rubbing the top of his head, making some dirt fall from his hair, a chuckle escaping his lips. "Oh, I know. That's why I ordered that dust. I want to see if I can have better gear. Sadly, I don't have a lot of money left so I couldn't order a lot."

"Well… Yeah… But you have your semblance don't you? Couldn't you… I dunno… use your semblance and transform the energy from the impact and use it to boost your leg strength to send yourself back flying towards your enemy? Or reverse the momentum?" the woman asked, crouching down and resting her head against her knees as she looked down at the blond man, one of her eyebrows rising slowly as she spoke.

The man was silent for a moment blinking slowly before looking down at his legs, then up at the woman, then back at his legs, then at the dent he had made on the ground, then back at the woman, then at his legs again, before finally looking at the woman. "Okay… You know, now I think I'm starting to understand why you have higher grades than everyone else on the team," the man said with a laugh, shaking his heads.

Her voice was almost like a melody in his ears as she shook her head at him, vanishing and reappearing in front of him in the ravine, grabbing him by the hand and vanishing again, reappearing back on top, completely ignoring the man's gagging sound. He never got used to the feeling of being disintegrated and reassembled. Not that she blamed him anyway. It was a weird feeling after all. Still she motioned him to follow and started walking towards their school. The man laughed and followed behind, his eyes never leaving her back. He grinned as a genius idea came to his mind and he started to run raising his hand slowly, reaching for her hood…

… And his fist connected directly with the side of the goliath's head, making the beast trumpet in pain and anger as it was pushed back. The man landed on his feet and slid a few meters back. His expression was that of an angry man, his purple eyes shining with incomprehensible fury. He turned to look at the fighting soldiers, still managing to hold back the forces of grimm, before looking back at the large beast.

If they could hold the smaller ones by themselves, he could focus on the goliath. Being the larger threat, he should have asked support to take the beast down, but that would only put the refugees at risk and needlessly cost more lives.

The beast charged him and slammed him to the side once again with its trunk, but this time the huntsman was ready. As soon as he hit a large boulder, his semblance kicked in, using the energy from the impact with the trunk and the subsequent impact with the rock to fuel his body, using that stored kinetic energy to send him back flying at the beast.

Some refugees would later claim that the man's hand had caught fire, as if the friction between his fist and the atmosphere had been enough to ignite the air itself. Whether or not that was true, they would never know. What they did know, however, was that the impact was powerful enough to kill the goliath with that hit. The man going through the already disappearing corpse, landing gracefully on the other side of the clearing He looked at the fight going on, taking into account the various creatures of grimm charging him and the refugees.

He took a deep breath as he prepared himself, focusing his aura at certain specific points of his body. He had a plan. But he had to be careful, it had been a while since he had last used such a tactic. Especially against large swarms of grimm, as opposed to one or two specific enemies.

"You want… to see my swords? Why?" the red-eyed woman asked coldly from her bed, looking up from one of her books.

The blond man simply shrugged, a laugh escaping his lips as he put his hands back in his pockets. "Well… Professor Guren was right in the assessment of our team. I lack versatility. I hit it, if it doesn't work, I hit it harder, if that doesn't work… I'm stuck. Or if I am against an opponent that can dodge my punches and kicks, I will only exhaust myself trying to hit something that I can't. So I wanted to look at your swords."

"What, you're going to use swords now? I can't imagine you fighting like me." the woman said with a scoff, although a faint smile appeared on her lips.

"Pffff, as if. We may be dating, but I'm not going to start copying you. No, I want to see what kind of dust you use. I want to weave dust in my gear."

There was a long silence in the room, the other two occupants slowly turning their head to look at the blonde man.

"Wait… you know how to weave dust?" the black and red haired woman asked, her tone clearly showcasing her amazement at that affirmation.

"Yeah, my grandfather taught me how. It was the only way they had to defend themselves from grimm back in the days. Instead of using full dust crystals in seconds, it allowed them to ration it for a few months, maybe even a year."

"That is… impressive. I didn't know it was a still known technique. Hell, I don't think most teachers know how to do it." the black haired man sitting at his desk said, a low whistle escaping his lips as he rubbed his five o' clock shadow of a beard.

"Probably. Now it's much more efficient to include them directly in the crafting process of weapons or to turn them in bullets. But for someone like me… Well… Dust weaving is the best option."

"Alright." the red eyed woman said, slowly closing her book as she stood up, grabbing the blond man by his hand, pulling him towards the door. She turned to look at the other two, her expression as cold as usual, although there was a small glint in the corner of her eye that her brother noticed quickly. "I show you my swords and in turn… you teach me how to weave dust. Don't come looking for us," she called out to the other two, "we'll be doing our own thing for the rest of the evening."

Before the man could even say anything, he was soon pulled out of the room. He laughed loudly as people looked at the two of them with a weird expression, but he didn't care all that much. She had a weird way of showing her affection, but at least he had a girlfriend that liked him and that was fun being around. He pulled his arm away from her grip and instead lowered his hand into hers, grasping at her hand and intertwined his fingers with her, a large smile on his lips as he brought his lips towards her cheek. He closed his eyes…

… And let a loud battle cry escape his lips, the purple energy from the gravity dust in his right glove sending the ursa flying towards the other side of the clearing, The huntsman then dashed towards a pack of beowolves that had gotten too close, jumping high in the air, before activating the earth dust in his boots, his left foot coming down in an axe-kick to cleave one of the beast's head from its body, using the energy from his landing to power his next kick that cut the second one in half in an horizontal kick.

From a distance, the refugees, thugs soldiers and militia men could only observe in awe as the huntsman single handedly took out the most dangerous threats of the pack. The leader barked his orders and the guns-for-hire soldiers started to gain ground against the unending tidal wave of grimm. The sound of gunfire completely submerged the battlefield, drowning out the snarl and growls and howls and grunts and skittering of the creatures of grimm.

The huntsman continued fighting for what felt like an eternity, his body moving on its own despite the screams of his mind to stop and to focus on what was happening around him, that he was going to get killed if he wasn't careful.

But the man didn't listen. He didn't want to listen to his mind, he hadn't been able to ever since that fateful day on top of the cliffside. Ever since he had lost his wife a second time and his youngest daughter. The only thing keeping the pain and suffering away being the ability to ignore his mind when fighting grimm. And the liquor back home.

Soon, the clearing was silent once again, the grimm having been pushed back and running away from the carnage that the soldiers and the huntsman and the escort had caused. The refugees exclaimed in happiness, soon accompanied by the militia men. Junior's operatives, meanwhile, looked with a concerned expression at the lone huntsman, standing still in the middle of the clearing as he tried to regain his breath.

The one in charge started moving forward, towards the huntsman, but stopped quickly when his radio came to life. He stopped and had a quick discussion with the person on the other side, before he sighed and walked up to the huntsman, presenting the radio to him.

"Mister Xiao Long? There's someone on the other side who wants to talk to you." the man said.

Taiyang Xiao Long slowly turned around and raised an eyebrow, but he still nodded softly, grabbing the radio and bringing it to his ear. "What is it?" he asked, his voice coming out raspy from the exertion.

"Finally, we found you." came the voice of Central Officer Bradford. The man sounded relieved, even happy. And Taiyang didn't understand how that was possible. Ruby was missing. Didn't his message reach him? Didn't he know that Ruby had been kidnapped? Why would he sound happy? "Mister Xiao Long, if you'd please look up… I think you'll be happy to see this."

Taiyang looked up and sighed, shaking his head slowly as three bullheads were flying towards the refugees. "Bradford, I don't think you underst-" he started to say, but his voice died in his throat as someone else cut him on the call.

"Hi dad. It's me."

That voice. But… No… She had been kidnapped… By… How… Why…

"I… Ruby?" Taiyang managed to croak, falling to his knees as his legs stopped responding to him, his breathing short and raspy.

"Yeah. It's me. I have… a lot of things to talk about when you come back." She said simply, emotion evident in her own voice as well. "I can't really talk about it on the radio, but… Bradford did manage to convince Junior to allow you to hop in the next bullhead for the Avenger if you want."

If he wanted? By the gods, what kind of father would he be if he didn't say yes? What kind of respectable person would refuse the chance to reunite with the daughter they feared they had lost? Taiyang managed to wobble himself back on his feet, struggling to stand still as sobs shook his body, tears filling his vision and preventing him to see in front of him.

But he didn't care about that. He only cared about his daughters. The last things in the world that helped him move forward. He took a deep, although shaky, breath and looked back at the refugees and the other people he had been escorting, smiling at them for the first time since he had started his mission.

"I'll be there as quickly as I can Ruby. I love you." He said softly, a soft laugh escaping his lips, making the tension he felt in his muscles melt away.

"I love you too dad… I love you too…" Ruby answered back between laughs and tears, just as relieved as her father.