Hey there everyone. Hope you all have been well. Once again, I feel I must apologize for the nature of my ANs for the previous chapter. Hope it didn't throw any of you for a loop.

But now, I'm back to 'normal,' so to speak. Just recently had my first 2 exams of the semester and found them to be surprisingly easy. Especially since one of them was Spanish, which I never learned while growing up and only took two years of in high school. Guess it just goes to show how great the professor is; he's seriously a real helpful and nice guy. Once the semester is nearly over and reviews for the professors come up, I'm definitely going to give him a good review.

That aside… I do hope everything will continue to go well for everyone.

Now onto the chapter.

Chapter 15

"So Roman has now been dispatched…" the captain of the Holy Knights spoke softly, even though he was within the confines of his own room.

"Noted… I see you've 'upgraded' him."

"But of course. I must admit, doing so had been a good idea; the more bodies to throw against the ancient magi, the better," the captain explained, leaning back in his seat. He had removed his mask, though the natural darkness of his room obscured his face still. He looked to his mask, his expression unchanging. "That said, soon enough it'll be time to finally start."

"The war against them, eh? I wonder just how it'll go…"

"Considering the might of our Holy Knights and the two little trump cards I ensured they all have, hopefully it'll be in our favor… no, I feel that it will be in our favor," the captain spoke with a great deal of confidence, perhaps almost even bordering on arrogance.

However, it seemed like his fellow conversationalist didn't share that same emotion. "Maybe, maybe not. I've learned a long time ago that sometimes numbers mean nothing as do trump cards. You should know that as well."

"Perhaps so… but unlike back then, we know what our opponents are capable of." The captain paused. Slowly, he set his mask down on the desk nearby and proceeded to lean back in his seat. "After all, knowledge is power. And so far, the ancient magi know so very little about us."

"But for how long? Their abilities aside, they didn't live this long by being lucky; they're strong… smart… skilled… above all, they're experienced. While they know jack shit about us personally, soon enough that little advantage of ours is going to go swan-diving out the window."

The captain let out a long-standing sigh. "You're much more of a worrier now than ever before, you know that?"

"Yeah, I am. There is a proverb for it though: better safe than sorry. Maybe you've heard of it."

"Heard of it? I've all but abided by it up until now," the captain muttered. "But now I think we can finally afford to be just a little less cautious. Not necessarily reckless, but simply a little more relaxed about the whole ordeal. For now, how about we actually focus on the matter at hand."

"The ancient magi…"

"Yes. Just how do you think we should deal with them? Or more specifically, Fenrir?" the captain asked, wanting his comrade's opinion.

"Honestly, it really doesn't matter how you want to do this. Just as long as Fenrir is saved for last. If even one of your Holy Knights or you yourself ever bump into him, we're all fucked; even we were to escape, he could just use Da Capo to summon us to him, rendering escape impossible. Never mind the fact he has Odin's abilities too."

The captain nodded, having had similar thoughts too. "That much I can agree with. Still, no real suggestions of your own?"

"What do you want, a freaking hit list?"

"Perhaps. All of the ancient magi have rather troublesome abilities, so picking one in particular to go after first could possibly make things much easier," the captain reasoned.

"Well, if you're really this dead set on it… perhaps that magus that works for the military of Atlas; his magical weapon, given its ability to erase what it hits from existence, could certainly prove most troublesome if he could even pin any of us down long enough to strike us." A pause. "After him? Possibly Brynhildr or Thor, given what sort of abilities they have at their disposal…. Or perhaps not; they're among the strongest of the ancient magi anyway."

The captain rubbed his chin as he took in these words, thinking long and hard on them. "Good point. I suppose I'll have to think about that last point of yours. But I'll take what you said about Tyr in serious consideration; his magical weapon is quite a bothersome one, even if it can only be effective in close quarters combat."

"You do that."

And with that last comment, the conversation ended, leaving the captain alone to contemplate what to do next.

Elsewhere though, Roman was in the process of sneaking into the facility that he had been tasked with destroying. Although perhaps the word 'sneaking' was the wrong one to use given how he seemed to be sauntering up towards the facility in question.

There were very few people in the area, given it was mainly an industrial area and it was already approaching night, with many of the workers already having gone home for the door. As a result, the criminal was able to casually walk down the road leading towards his intended destination with little worry of being spotted by anyone.

"Still, I gotta admit… hadn't been expecting the place to be here of all places…" the man muttered in just a tad bit of surprise.

Given the sort of quality that the captain of the Holy Knights had spoken of just a few days ago about his machinery, Roman had originally expected the facility he had stolen some parts from to be in Atlas, which was practically a mecca for all things doing with machinery. Instead, much to his surprise, the facility was in none other than the kingdom of Vacuo. He wasn't really one to keep track of said kingdom, but he couldn't quite recall them ever having established a place like this. Then again, it wasn't as if his knowledge on the particular workings of the other kingdoms was that great.

"Sure it hot out here though…" Roman somewhat complained, fanning himself. Still, there was a bit of a confident smile on his face and a swagger in his steps.

He had traveled here to Vacuo in just roughly two days' time. But not in some ship… no, he had done it on foot. Sure he had to run at full speed the whole time, which put quite a strain on his legs, never mind the fact that he nearly lost his lovely little hat along the way too, but even then… he couldn't help but feel like a giddy little kid.

Roman could only chuckle now, almost actually eager to see what else he can now do, especially since he had virtually no time to really test himself prior to being sent on his way here. "Heh, I actually want to try fighting someone… go figure." He was perhaps acutely aware of the shift in his own demeanor. Prior to his little empowerment, confrontations were things he very much tried to avoid, partially because it'd require too much effort on his part and partially because it just waste time and could lead to a lot of mistakes on his part. But he now couldn't help but feel this desire to truly test his new limits, to see what he was capable of.

"And who says crime doesn't pay…? Ha ha ha." Giving Melodic Cudgel a brief twirl, the criminal continued to make his way towards the facility he had been tasked with destroying.

He took his time doing so. After all, just who would possibly know he was here?

Coincidentially, it was at around the same time he had this thought that a ways away from his current location, someone spotted something out of the ordinary.

"Well now…" Yuko spoke aloud, albeit to herself. "That's definitely out of the ordinary."

As it was now approaching night, it had been time for her to call it a day and head home after spending a few hours after school let out to take care of some grading. And now on her way to her little home abode, she always would pass by the industrial sector of the city, which was sealed off by a large metal wall.

And in one particular spot that she always passes by, there was now a large hole in the metal wall, looking as if it was melted.

"No, not just looking melted… it was actually melted…" Yuko thought with narrowing eyes.

Said spot was down a particularly long and dark and obscure alleyway just outside the industrial sector. Despite the size of the hole, it was so far down the alleyway that even in the middle of the day, Yuko highly doubted anyone would notice it unless they deliberately traveled down this alleyway, something she knew for a fact would never happen as it was always a deserted one. The only reason why she even noticed this at all wasn't because of her heightened senses, which would've allowed her to look far enough down the alleyway to see the hole, but rather because of the strange feeling in the air.

"Mana… I'm detecting mana from this hole," Yuko thought quickly. "Doesn't feel natural either…" As soon as that particular thought ended, her whole body immediately and instinctively prepared itself for a confrontation despite no real threat being in her immediate vicinity.

Nonetheless, she expanded her senses as much as she could, slowly looking all around her for anything else out of the ordinary. Spotting nothing else, she then focused back on the hole in the metal wall and moved closer to it.

"Definitely not a Holy Knight; this mana signature lacks the quantity and intensity that Takehiko and Daisuke described to me right after the meeting." Yuko's fingers twitched as she then walked through the hole and began to head for the nearest road within the industrial sector. "Still, the amount is not small enough to be deemed a non-threat… so just what could possibly be going on here?"

Pausing in her steps for a brief moment, Yuko mulled over what to do. Clearly this was something out of the ordinary and therefore deserved to be reported to her fellow magi as soon as possible. But at the same time, this mana signature felt 'fresh,' meaning whoever or whatever was the source of it was still here in the area. And Yuko highly doubted said person or thing had good intentions.

Ultimately deciding that it'd be better to at least know a bit more about the situation before doing anything, Yuko began to walk yet again in a somewhat hurried pace, now following the artificial mana signature deep within the industrial sector.

Back at Beacon Academy, team JNPR shuffled slowly into their dorm room. Although they didn't look the part, every single member felt as if they got ran over by a particularly large train.

"Ah, my bed. How I've missed you…" Nora muttered, completely exhausted to the point where as soon as she reached her bed, she plopped down on it and seemed to fall asleep.

"His training is quite… harsh," Ren commented briefly as he tried to stretch his arms without causing himself additional pain. Which didn't work.

"You sure said it," Jaune agreed as he lowered himself onto his own bed. He watched silently as Pyrrha did the same, the redhead not appearing to have any words of her own to chip in for now.

For the past few days, they've all been training with Naruto in relative secret, the blonde magus calling them out to the arena when the rest of the students had long since returned to their dorms to either rest or study. There in the arena where no one could disturb them – "or hear us scream," Jaune thought – Naruto would proceed to put them all through their paces in a variety of ways. First, they were to stretch for a considerably longer period of time than what they were originally used to in order to loosen their muscles. Then he'd put them through a grueling regime of push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and jogging around the arena with some weights on before having them work on individual skills. This could range from sharpening their own skills even further, such as having Jaune go through a strict set of specific sword swings, or having Nora do something similar with Magnhild, to having them try and expand upon their skillset or current abilities, such as having Ren go through endurance training to build up his rather low stamina or having Pyrrha spar with him – Naruto – without using her semblance in order to teach her to not be too reliant on her polarity should something happen.

Naruto was a great teacher and quite caring too, always careful to not push them too far… but ultimately, he was a very strict one who had no problem exploiting his Da Capo Zero to keep the team training longer than they would normally, simply undoing any and all injuries they took in the process.

"Still, this will ultimately benefit us in the long run," Pyrrha finally spoke, trying to keep her teammates' somewhat drained spirits up.

"I sure hope so," Jaune muttered very quietly to himself. He couldn't help but look to his own hands, which felt rough and calloused from the many swings he had to do with Crocea Mors. Already, he had felt his own skills seem to improve, having noticed his swings become a little less clumsy and more precise over time. But at the same time, the blond leader couldn't shake this growing feeling that he would soon be hitting a mental wall already. Of which there was a reason for that: namely how he was to incorporate his hopefully improving sword skills into his sword/shield style. Being able to properly attack was certainly a great thing, but learning how to defend with his shield at the same time would be quite hard, given how much he had to focus just to properly swing. This doubt wasn't quite helped out when Naruto confessed that he himself never really encountered anyone who used the sword and shield style as well and therefore couldn't give him any real pointers there, leaving him stuck with this problem all on his own.

And at the same time, Jaune also took notice of the effects that the training was already having on his friends. By no means had they suddenly become stronger or tougher or faster. That sort of physical improvement takes more time than just a few days. But their skills certainly had improved a fair bit since then. Nora, ever the wild one, had become noticeably more precise with her hammer strikes. Ren's dodging skills had further improved and through sheer willpower, was able to last longer in brief spars than before the training. Pyrrha's combat style had somehow managed to become even more perfect and even a tad bit more aggressive as she did her best to avoid possibly over-relying on her semblance.

"Just goes to show how talented they are…" Jaune thought. He then clenched his hands tightly. "Which just means I'm going to have to try that much harder too."

He recalled almost vividly how much of Naruto's attention he seemed to hold. Indeed, it almost seemed as if the blond magus instinctively knew the young leader needed the most guidance, with his training exercises being just a bit lighter than the others' for the time being. However, Jaune had no doubt in his mind that once he's improved a bit more, Naruto would ramp up his training in order to keep him and everyone else roughly even. Something that he happened to be looking forward to.

But as much as this training drained yet motivated him, the blond leader couldn't also help but still worry for his teammates. Although they've been fully checked out by the doctors at the infirmary, he had the sneaking suspicion that the machine Yang had accidentally destroyed may have had some sort of hidden side effect or something. "Or maybe I should stop reading so many sci-fi comics…" he muttered to himself as he finally looked up from his hands and towards his friends/teammates, who all now lied on their beds, all but ready to pass out from exhaustion.

Ultimately, all he could do was scratch the back of his head sheepishly. Maybe he was simply giving all of this way too much thought.

With that last thought, Jaune decided to get ready for an early rest. Tomorrow was going to be a hectic day after all and the last thing he wanted or needed was for it to somehow become even more hectic.

Back with Roman, the criminal was now just outside the facility he had been looking for. Being practically at its front door, the man had to take a moment to look upon the facility in all of its glory.

Standing at an almost ridiculous height for a simple manufacturing facility, the entire place seemed to be constructed out of a special type of metal meant to resist the extreme temperature changes that Vacuo was known for; just by lightly touching the wall, Roman could almost literally feel how cold it was within the building.

"Well, I guess they gotta keep the machines from overheating anyway they can," he silently reasoned with a slight frown. That frown quickly transformed into an almost childlike smile as then reared back a leg and proceeded to kick down the main door to the facility.

Before he had undergone the little 'experiment' of the captain's, kicking down such a clearly reinforced door would've led to a broken a foot on his part and a torrent of foul words and curses. But now Roman had to hold back a laugh as his foot smashed down the door with all the ease of a Nevermore smashing a miniscule block of wood.

"I'm so loving this…" he commented as he walked on in.

As soon as he did, he took aim at a little security station on the far side of the not-too-surprisingly vast interior and fired Melodic Cudgel. What could only be described as a beam of pure magical energy shot out of the cane's firing end and shot forth at a blinding speed. And so before an alarm could possibly go off, the security station – which seemed to be unmanned – was destroyed entirely.

Once again, Roman had to fight back a laugh, feeling positively giddy. He raised Melodic Cudgel close to his face, giving it a little kiss before proceeding to twirl it with more vigor than he usually did.

"Alrighty then…" he began to speak. "Now it's time to get this over w-."

"Get what over with?"

Roman immediately whirled around to see who had spoken just now. As soon as he did, he was almost literally face to face with a serious looking Yuko, who had quietly snuck up behind him just now. Surprised, the criminal immediately leapt back several meters, landing on top of some machine, the name of which he couldn't recall. "Whoa there, now just who are you, little lady?" he asked, his smile quickly returning to his face. But at the same time, he didn't feel quite so confident anymore; this woman, whoever she was, had managed to snuck up on him. Granted, he had been too in the moment to really pay attention, but even then the woman should've at least made some noise.

"Who I am is none of your business… Roman Torchwick," Yuko spoke sternly. Without actually taking her eyes off of the man, she slowly took in the environment around her, making her wonder just why someone like Torchwick would want to be here of all places. It just wasn't his scene. But of course, having all but literally sensed his intentions to now try and destroy this place, she just had to stop tailing him and step in, especially since it looked like he wasn't quite a normal person anymore. "Instead, how about I ask you the questions and you answer? Like just how you're giving off such a strange vibe now?" She could clearly tell now that he was the source of the artificial mana she had been following, a fact that brought with it a number of questions that she was quite eager to know the answers to now.

"Ho ho ho…" Roman laughed mockingly. Slowly walking off the machine and onto the floor, he gave his cane a little twirl before pointing it at Yuko. "Looks like my reputation precedes me… but more importantly, just what do you mean by a strange vibe?"

"Don't give me that," Yuko all but spat out. "It's clear to me you must have some kind of connection to the Holy Knights; I can feel the 'artificialness' of your mana."

Now Roman's eyes widened greatly in shock. But this look of immense surprise disappeared quickly enough and his eyes soon narrowed dangerously. "So you know about them, huh? Well, that won't do now…" He began to walk towards Yuko, who stood her ground. "You know… I was told just to come on by here and destroy this place… but now that there's someone who knows about them, I guess I now have one more thing to take care of. I guess they're going to owe me one now."

Yuko actually smiled a little, even as she sensed Roman about to go on the attack. "Your pals didn't really tell you much about me, eh?"

"Nope, not at all," Roman admitted freely. He was aware that people like Ryuichi certainly existed, but on that front, the captain of the Holy Knights had said very little about magi to him thus far. He had also neglected to mention the ancient magi to Roman in addition to their names and appearance, something that would now be working against the criminal. "And I doubt you're that big deal anyway. Now then, sweetie… how about you just stand still for a sec?"

He took aim at Yuko with Melodic Cudgel, channeling a fair bit of his newfound mana into it. This filling of mana occurred quickly and only a second after he had pointed his cane at Yuko that Melodic Cudgel fired a thin yet powerful beam of magical energy.

Surely, it was fast enough and powerful enough to immediately kill any normal civilian. Against even the most seasoned and toughest of hunters and huntresses, such an attack would be serious, perhaps even fatal.

But against an ancient magus? Yuko took this time to demonstrate the difference.

"Enhalt." She muttered. And then she vanished from sight.

"What the-?!" Roman nearly exclaimed as his magical blast missed, barreling out through the facility entrance. He was then cut off when he felt a foot bury itself in his gut. "Guh!" He went sailing across the room and crashed into the wall with enough force to crack it a bit.

Falling from his crashing point and landing a little shakily on the floor, he looked to where he had just been standing. And now standing there was Yuko, who had her right leg raised for a moment before lowering it, her red eyes locked onto Roman's form, completely devoid of emotion.

Roman rubbed his stomach, holding back a growl. "Alright then… that was pretty unexpected." He stood up completely now, dusting himself off. As he did so, he noticed how little damage he had appeared to have taken. True, he had been kicked across the large room and it had certainly hurt, but if this had been him from before the procedure, he'd have probably been put in the hospital. Yet here he stood, having only been more taken aback by the surprise kick than anything else. As he took note of this, he regained his smile. "But you're still going to have to-."

Once again, Yuko used Enhalt, bursting forth at Roman and circling around him to deliver a vicious punch to his exposed back.

However.

Much to Yuko's surprise, Roman twisted his body a bit to his left, maneuvering Melodic Cudgel in his hands so that it now was in between Yuko's incoming fist and his body. Just as Yuko's punch was deflected to the side, Roman lashed out with an attack of his own, punching at her with all the speed he could muster.

In response to this, Yuko immediately pulled away from him, ducking and weaving as Roman proceeded to follow up his failed punch with a barrage of strikes. Then with only the briefest of warnings in the form of a slight grunt, Yuko ducked and did a leg sweep, taking Roman's legs out from under him so completely that he nearly dropped his cane. But he somehow managed to regain his grip on Melodic Cudgel and used it as a sudden suspension to keep him in the air long enough to use the momentum to propel himself away from Yuko.

"Eat this, bitch!" Roman yelled as he gathered mana into his cane and fired off three rapid-fire magical blasts at Yuko.

Against the first blast, Yuko slid right under it before jumping to the side to avoid the second. The third and final one was avoided with a sudden leap into the air, Yuko twirling in mid-air as she went sailing over Roman.

Landing near the entrance to the facility, the ancient magus quickly looked to see where the blasts she dodged went and could only marginally wince when she looked up in time to see them strike different spots of the room they were in, naturally causing a lot of collateral damage.

"Too little room in here with all of these machines…" she thought and with that, she rushed straight out of the place.

"Hey!" Roman immediately gave chase, worried that the red eyed woman would try and make a break for it. And that just wouldn't do; witnesses couldn't really be allowed in any sort of situation.

But he needn't have worried; Yuko had simply wanted some more fighting space was all. And to this end, she promptly took advantage of the environment around her. Vacuo, the kingdom having once upon a time been Sunagakure long ago, was a very sandy place. Even here in the industrial sector, which is supposed to be a 'clean' zone, there was plenty of sand around.

"Enhalt!" Using her all but signature technique, Yuko made one massive circle around Roman, rushing around him several times with such blinding speed that she ended up creating a miniature tornado of sand.

Roman couldn't have possibly anticipated this and so ended up taking the full brunt of the 'attack,' with sand getting into his eyes and mouth, eliciting a cry of shock and anger out of him. And so with his vision obscured, Yuko went on the offensive. Keeping her mouth and eyes closed to avoid her own 'attack' backfiring on her, she used the retching sounds Roman was now making to properly move towards him and started to unleash a short barrage of punches into his chest and stomach. Feeling the man reeling under her blows immediately, she then ended her brief assault with a high kick to the temple, knocking him dozens of meters to the side.

The sand now settling onto the ground again, Yuko opened her eyes in order to observe her handiwork as she heard Roman making several loud thuds as he all but skipped across the ground like a thrown rock. The man finally landing a ways away from her, the ancient magus slowly began to approach him as he seemed to cease moving.

But just as she got within several feet of him, Roman immediately leapt back to his feet, firing several magical blasts at Yuko in the process. The criminal took a bit of joy as two of the blasts ended up grazing Yuko's left shoulder and foot, blasting off part of her sleeve and her shoe respectively in order to show a bit of burnt skin. Although she had managed to dodge the rest skillfully enough, Roman took at least some joy in those two attacks.

However, the smirk that blossomed on his face faded as fast as it had appeared as he saw her burnt skin slowly but surely heal. It was only a moment or so later when Yuko's pale skin had fully healed from the slight injuries.

"Just what the hell are you supposed to be?" Roman asked, annoyed.

"Funny…" Yuko replied as she carefully took a few steps back. It would seem she had underestimated somewhat the full extent of Roman's clearly enhanced abilities; without Enhalt, his sudden jump up and attack would've landed for sure. "I should be asking you that."

"Tch." Roman now looked over Yuko with a far more discerning eye than before. It was now very obvious to him that she had combat experience and even training, given how flawless her movements seemed to be. And her physical abilities too… he was worried. It was clear as day to him that even with his abilities having been enhanced, Yuko would be a tough opponent. And it wasn't as if he could simply walk away from this fight now; to run away would be to fail the 'quest' the captain of the Holy Knights had sent him out on and that'd just be a slap in the face to his work. On the opposite side of things, to let Yuko go would be to risk bringing a lot of unwanted attention to himself if or when Yuko talked to others.

So with that in mind, he spoke just once more. "Guess if we want answers, we'll just have to beat it out of each other!" He suddenly rushed forward at Yuko, his attack taking her off guard just enough to slam the blunt end of Melodic Cudgel into her side. But when he twisted it about in his hand to try and jab the pointed end into Yuko's right eye, the ancient magus recovered from his initial attack enough to duck and lash out with a fierce kick to the back of his knee.

Now forced onto his unhurt knee due to this, Roman was left exposed for the red eyed magus to hit him with a perfect palm strike to his jaw, blowing him back with surprising force. Rolling across the ground and through a great deal of sand, Roman forced himself to a stop and shot forth several magical blasts from his cane.

Only to watch, utterly stupefied, as Yuko simply stood where she was. "Gate open!" she exclaimed.

For all of a nanosecond, Roman was blinded by two things: first, a sudden flash of light that then seemed to splinter off into four smaller balls of light. The second? The sudden destruction of his own blasts, which occurred so close to him that he had to shield his face from the resulting explosions. Then he felt his little 'danger sense' tingle and obeying it blindly, the criminal barrel rolled to the left as fast as he could, just narrowly avoiding two objects that had been aimed for his neck.

Quickly settling into a crouched position, Roman tried to locate what had been going for him just now, but his eyes were unable to track the objects. They were just that fast. Thankfully for him, the objects, seemingly with a mind all their own, returned to Yuko's side.

And now seeing what had happened, Roman could only gape.

There, floating above Yuko's shoulders, were none other than the four blades that made up her magical weapon, Overload.

Having never seen such a thing before, Roman couldn't help but speak. "Just what in the hell… are those supposed to be?" he muttered, having never once seen blades with such a simple yet intricate looking design. Looking even more closely at the blades, the man could almost swear that he saw them pulse with pure energy, constantly changing between bright colors that he could barely even discern.

Wordlessly, Yuko commanded the blades to fan out, forming a circle of sorts around herself, traveling from around the top of her head all the way down to her ankles.

"How about…" Yuko began, her voice taking on a dangerous tone to it that now had Roman shivering just a bit. "I show you what these are instead?"

She pointed a delicate finger at Roman. And in response, the blades flew forth, now having a target.

Roman, for the first time in a very long time, uttered a curse. "Oh… fuck me."

The criminal decided then and there as the blades approached that perhaps this wasn't what he had signed up for.

Yeah, sorry if this seems like an okay chapter and not a great one. Alas, this fanfic is still more or less in its 'infancy' stage and there's some more to be done before it really starts to pick up. But I can say this much: once the ball really starts to roll, it's going to be rolling for a while. So please have patience.

That said… huh, once again not much to really be said. I'll try to update when I can and please keep in mind what I said in the beginning AN of the previous chapter too.

Until next time, everyone. Take care.