Hello folks, good to be back. I'll keep this mostly short as the last chapter explains most of my feelings and where I've been but I noticed someone ask what time period this is set in so I thought I'd give a clear answer.
At this point in the story, we're at least 5 or so years out from the main story actually beginning. I wanted the main character to age and grow before we get into the events of the show itself, and give myself some more freedom for the beginning acts of the story. Eventually the events of the show will kick off however. There will be various time skips between some of the chapters leading up to the main story but I will try and flesh out this time more thoroughly.
Chapter 5: To hunt again.
Jeremiah POV:
-2 weeks later-
"So explain to me what we're doing here again?" I asked as I turned towards Alfred, who was idly smoking what he called a "cigarette". It seems that it's some type of small white tube that houses a smokable material. At that point why not just use a pipe? Oh well, seems like it's one of the many things I'll have to get used to.
It's been 14 days, but I wouldn't exactly say I'm settled in. I've yet to really learn anything in the time I've been here. Well, anything besides how to best slaughter these "Grimm". The past couple weeks have been spent doing nothing but killing, eating, and sleeping. Food was an after thought during the hunt, as all you need there is a bit of blood to keep you going, but with lack of access I have to be careful about when to partake. I nervously looked down at my belt, seeing only six small vials of the old liquid remaining.
I've considered attempting to consume the blood of Grimm, but that seems like it could do more harm than good. I'm going to have to do something about that, and soon. Apparently there's something in this world called "Aura" that they use, but when Alfred tried to "unlock" mine there wasn't any luck. Nothing, not even a drop. He seemed worried about that, but obviously was hoping I wouldn't notice. There's something up with that guy, but It's not exactly like I've been the most truthful so I leave it alone.
"Well you said you wanted to learn about Vale, so I thought I'd show you around a bit! Not very often that we get a day off, so we ought to spend it well." He said with a large smile on his face. He looked towards me and said,
"And we can get YOU some real clothes, y'know there's more to life than Hunting." I shook my head and thought to myself
'Oh you have no idea.'
"I'll be keeping my hat and coat, but I suppose what I wear underneath could use a bit of an… update." I responded. It seems the fashion of this place had long since grown out of the elegance the denizens of Yharnam liked to employ in their clothing.
"But I won't be any less formal, it's adherence to tradition that stays our humanity. Without that, we're little more than beasts." I continued as he sighed.
"Still gonna be cryptic huh? Well whatever you say, there's a tailor a couple blocks down. I know the guy, I can have two suits made for ya, free of charge. How does that sound?" I nodded in acknowledgement as he turned towards Mirrah, who was being extremely quiet (not that that's very unusual.)
"Oh come on you two, I can't do all the talking for the three of us, lighten up!" Alfred said to her.
"Oh? You seem to be doing a pretty good job at it." She bluntly responded, voice lightly muffled by the black iron helmet she still wore.
"Come onnnnn, it's safe inside the walls, you know that! Or are you only wearing it because the only time you smile is when you're killing something?" Alfred continued, obviously trying to convince Mirrah to say more than one sentence.
"Safe from Grimm, but that's not exactly our only problem." She said, ignoring his jab at her before walking slightly ahead of the two of us.
Alfred looked back at me before saying,
"Does it ever get tiring being this serious all the time?" I just shrugged before we resumed the walk in silence.
We finally reached the building, and followed Alfred in as I was surrounded by all sorts of clothing.
A thin looking man dressed in a tailcoat came out and before he could even ask Alfred gave an answer.
"I need two suits for dark and brooding over there, and I'm calling in my favor." The man nodded wordlessly before suddenly appearing behind me.
"This should only take a minute sir." He said in a foreign sounding accent. He quickly moved a marked strip of cloth all around my body and was in the back before I could even wonder what was going on.
Stepping out from the back, he was holding three pairs of clothing. One was a long black coat with two seperate tails, a black pair of pants, and a bright white shirt with an even brighter white low cut waistcoat. Accompanying that was a black Top Hat.
"I thought he seemed like someone who would get some use out of White Tie, so I made this as well. Consider it a first time bonus." He said handing over the first set.
The second pair was dark, but not quite black. It was a matching pair of pants, and a much shorter jacket. There were two rows of buttons in a sort of Y pattern, and another white, but much less harsh, shirt.
Lastly, there was a pair of black pants, that went with a dark blue jacket that held only two buttons in a single line. Together with that, was a light grey shirt.
(For those more familiar with men's fashion, the three sets are a White Tie outfit, a grey double breasted suit, and a navy single breasted combination with black pants).
"Damn, 3 in 56 seconds. You're slowing down there, is age finally catching up with you?" Alfred obviously noticed my disbelief and answered.
"It's a part of his semblance, he thinks and moves faster than the rest of us. Could've been a great member of the guard but noooo, he wanted to be a tailor." Alfred said as he and the other man laughed.
"Well thank you for that, and don't worry. Your secret client's identity won't be getting out anytime soon." Alfred said as he led the way towards the door.
"Oh you know you'd rat out an old friend Alf." The man responded as we begant to exit the establishment.
Waving goodbye Alfred simply responded, "Yeah but if I don't threaten you, how am I supposed to get free stuff!" and with that, we walked out into the streets of Vale.
"So! Are you two ready for some food?" Alfred said turning towards Mirrah and I. We both nodded and Alfred began to lead us towards a small noodle stand that was conveniently acrossed the street.
An old man who seemed to be balding greeted us as we all ordered, and then with speed that rivalled even the tailor we just weent to, returned with three perfectly cooked bowls of pasta. Suddenly a chill ran down my spine and I turned around as quickly as I could only to see… nothing. No escaped beast, no group of citizens trying to kill me, nothing. I was worriedly looking around before I noticed a young man in a long white coat, wearing a black bowler hat. If I didn't know any better I'd even assume he learned to dress in Yharnam. He seemed to be acting normal, but almost too normal. When you go to do something, you'll usually have a general plan but this wasn't like that at all. Every movement, every word, seemed almost calculated. There wasn't any hesitance anywhere, as he confidently strode into the same tailor we left. I looked towards Mirrah only to see her eyeing something else. She was looking at the alley closest behind the man in white. I stared at it, not seeing anything odd, until suddenly.
"Is that an antler?" I asked out loud as she nodded. There seemed to be an antler sticking out from around the corner. The antler quickly ducked back into the alley, but it was a bit too late. Mirrah and I stared as Alfred sat and ate his food. After a couple minutes, the door to the tailor opened back up and the man began walking the same way he arrived. However as he passed by the alley, a human hand shot out and grabbed his coat, pulling him in as well.
Mirrah and I immediately shot to our feet but, surprisingly, Alfred was already up and making his way towards the alley. The two of us were not far behind.
"Whatever that Faunus wants with him, it's not good." Alfred said, the jolly persona that usually masked his face dropped entirely.
"What's a Faunus?" I asked, not worrying about seeming out of touch.
"Damn, wherever that village of yours was, it must be really far out Wish I could go there." Mirrah said with a hint of malice in her voice. I didn't have time to ask as Alfred answered my earlier question.
"Animal people. Vale is more open to them than some other places." Before I could ask more we were at the entrance of the alley. Looking in we saw the man cornered with three of these "Faunus" surrounding him. One was a thinner man, with Antlers and armed with a sword. The two next to him were much bigger. One had two small bear ears on his head, and the other was the same but with the ears of a wolf. The bear was armed with a large sledgehammer, and the wolf was holding an iron rod.
"Now listen fellas, I don't know who you are but I don't have anything on me, honest!" The man said, with his hands up. The only thing he was holding was a seemingly ordinary cane hanging from his arm.
"Now you're lyin'. We know who you are Torchwick. So young, and you're already makin' your way up the ladder. Don't worry, we ain't gonna take anything from ya. We're just gonna show you what happens to people who threaten our business."
"Damn animals…" the man said under his breath. Quickly he reached for the cane on his arm, and swung it so the tip was pointed at the thinner man. The bottom of his cane flipped open to reveal a hole that was quickly filled with a small explosion, sending a large round straight into the deer man's temple.
"Ha! Seems it's deer season!" That man said with a laugh as Alfred, Mirrah, and I jumped into the frey.
"Oh how nice of you folks to drop by, and here I was thinking I'd have all the fun to myself!" The man immediately turned to block a blow from the bear man, when Alfred proceeded to slam his fist into the man's elbow, shattering it. Before the wolf could react, Mirrah was behind him with her arm around his neck. She squeezed as the color drained from his face. He began to flail, trying to grab at the woman behind him but she simply swung to the left. She let go of his neck before grabbing the side of his head, and slamming him against the brick wall to the side. Blood slowly trickled down his head as she gave him another kick to the chest and stared at the unconscious body. Meanwhile, Alfred was on top of the bear man, delivering punch after punch to his face.
Without warning, I felt an extreme pain in my abdomen. I looked down to see blood flowing like a river as I began to get light headed. I clenched my teeth and began to see red.
'Now's a better time than ever.' I said to myself as I jabbed a blood vial into my leg, feeling the ancient liquid course through me. Turning around, I saw the Deer man with his face full of terror. He was shakily holding a large pistol and stuttering. I smiled as I crept closer and he tried to pull the trigger again, only to miss completely. I slammed my boot on his hand, feeling a satisfying crunch. Kicking the gun away, I got on my knees, standing over the deer man. Reaching out, I grabbed a hold of his kneck and began to squeeze as hard as I could. I saw nothing but fear in his eyes as his life slipped away. A sickening grin crossed my face as the deer struggled to say something. Before long however, a booming voice echoed in my mind.
"It's all your fault!" as quickly as the voice sounded, it was gone, and I was off of the man. He was struggling for breath, but he was clearly alive.
"Ah come on! You're supposed to go for the kill!" The young man behind us dissapointedly said.
"Oh well, I suppose he didn't exactly deserve it but this time THEY attacked ME!" He said in defense. Mirrah and I stared at him confused, but I could tell Alfred recognized him.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, how rude of me." The man began, as he lightly bowed.
"The name's Roman Torchwick." He said, pulling out a long brown tube, tapered on both sides. (A perfecto). He withdrew a small black box from his pocket and flicked it open. With a clink, the box ignited from the top and the man slowly began to rotate the tube over the fire.
'Seriously? What's wrong with pipes?' I thought to myself upon seeing yet another method of smoking. When he was done, he placed the box back in his coat, and took a long drag from his 'disposable-pipe'.
"Well I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got places to be!" The man was about to walk off before he smiled and turned back around.
"Just you wait, in a couple years my name will be on the lips of every Lawman in Vale." He smugly stated as he began his walk back towards wherever he came from.
"So that's that!" Alfred's returned to his cheery self as soon as the man turned a corner.
"Should we be worried about him?" I asked cautiously as Alfred simply sighed.
"To be quite honest with you… I'm not exactly sure." Was all he said as the three of us walked back towards the stand.
"Now.. I believe we've got noodles to finish."
And that's a wrap! Now this may not be my best work as I wrote it all in one sitting, but I really wanted to get something out as soon as I could so I couldn't resist. Now I know that Roman is a main character, but it still will be a while before we actually get to the point of Volume 1, or even the trailers, so I thought I'd have some fun with him. After all, he is one of my top 3 characters from the show, so I'd like to show him a little more love than RT did. With all that said, have a good one folks.