I have… returned.

Whew.

Okay, here's the chapter! Thank you, guest in the comments, for reminding me that bats aren't actually blind. I needed that.

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-Spirit

Pretending to be blind was way too much trouble. I settled for…. A visually impaired cave bat faunus.

It was the best I could come up with. Since bats saw different wavelengths of light (not that these uneducated farmers would know any better), they were effectively blind during the day. And since people, well, slept during the night, I wouldn't have to prove that I could see in the dark.

Right now, I was paying my landlord. He wore an opened button white shirt, some khaki shorts, and was currently smoking.

"Hurry it up."

"I'm sorry." I grumbled, slowly sorting the cards based on size, slipping in a couple of mistakes that benefited the landlord. "I can't see that well in the daylight."

"… What kinda faunus are you?"

"Bat faunus." I said, sighing. "I inherited the eyes."

"So you can't see much during the day, but can see a lot during the night? Are you sure you're not an owl faunus?"

"Pretty sure." I said, dryly. "I would know if I was."

He nodded, pocketing the extra cards I gave him without any remorse and a scummy grin. "Well, nice doing business with ya."

"By the way… you mind if I do anything to the backcountry around here?" I said, jesturing towards the barren fields.

"Nobody owns it, so go wild." He said, shifting through the cards greedily. "Remember, rent is due every month. You either pay in food or lien. You don't look like a farmer, so I'll be expecting that.."

"I will be paying in Lien." I said.

"Great. Less trouble for me." The landlord said, scratching himself behind his rather short animal ears. "See you around."

I nodded, before acting as if I was almost about to walk headfirst into a pillar. I stopped myself at the last second as I reached out to feel the pillar, before turning and slowly walking into the house.

I could hear the landlord laughing at me even inside the house.

The shack had a dirt floor, and a brick platform was elevated to form a kind of rough bed. A scraggly sheet barely holding in straw was the mattress, and there was no pillow. There was a rusty stove in the corner, about two pieces of firewood, and no way to actually start the fire.

That was a bummer.

I sat down on the brick and looked at the ceiling. Dried spiderwebs and the shells of said inhabitants steamed up in the burning purgatory that was the roof under the influence of the heat from the sun.

The door was creaky, there were no sinks (and just a bucket), no toilets or bathrooms save for one that was said to be communal near the village square, and an oil lamp with a broken handle.

All in all, it was pretty nice. It only costed two hundred lien a month, which made sense, considering the terrible conditions.

Still, the dirt in the air, the blazing sun, and the rustle of dried grass in the background… it reminded me of a different home.

Of a life that I could have lived…

…

"And you're sure that he's rented out a room near the western outskirts?" somebody in a white mask said.

"The human that has infiltrated our sanctuary is there." The other goon said.

"Cut the crap." The first one said, kicking the goon in the shin. "Stop making us sound like a cult."

"Our revolutionary spirits cannot be-"

Another kick laid the goon on the ground. The White Fang member shook her head. "Teenagers these days…"

…

I was out fishing now.

There were no tools around for me to start clearing the fields, and my arms were too weak for that anyways.

Besides, fishing was an easy way to get money on the island. With an unbelievable ratio of feline faunus on the island, fish was practically a must buy for most households.

(Also, with selling fish, I could travel all over the island and hopefully find where the chieftain or leader of this nation was without asking anybody. Then, I would market my project for an electric generator. My goals were still in sight, and even if the path to it was convoluted, it wasn't totally hopeless.)

With Chi, I had a shortcut for fishing anyways. With a wooden rod and a failing retraction mechanism that I had brought from a pawn shop for cheap, I could just put some bait on the rod, and when the fish went to bite the rod, I channeled the slightest bit of Chi to stun and incapacitate the fish, before dragging it to shore and putting it in that bucket I had in the room.

The fish would soon come back to its senses, but find it trapped into the bucket.

With this technique, even the larger and stronger fish were no hassle to reel in.

Some fishermen sat down besides me, wearing wide, straw hats that covered most of their body in shade, before casting their much more professional lines out.

"Anybody know the price for fish near the peak these days? Haven't been there in a while."

"It's point five line per pound."

"It's gone up, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." Somebody else said, nodding. "Less boat traffic means less people going to the docks at all. That means less people ferrying up fish."

"Wanna go sell there, boys?"

"Yeah. Might as well grab some beer while we're at it."

"Hey new guy, want to tag along?"

I realized they were talking about me. I adjusted my loose white shirt, hesitating. Would tagging along with a bunch of random people prove, well, safe?

Well, if worst comes to worst, I could always just… beat them up.

I nodded. "Sure, guys. I'll go along. I need somebody to show me the ropes around here, anyways."

We sat in silence, the waves glittering in the golden sunlight. I made a point to make my eyes wide and unfocused, building the stage for an "I'm almost blind" reveal.

"So, kid, what made you start fishing?"

"Not going to join the White Fang like all those other young folk?" another fisherman said, grinning with a blade of grass in his mouth.

"I just… don't see the point." I said, sinking into an old, depressing mindset. This situation was hitting a little closer to home, back to my college days.

"…They're fighting for our rights, right? How can that be pointless?" a fisherman that had actually bothered to wear a shirt said, looking both confused and sad.

"It's just that the situation won't get better no matter what we do." I said, looking further into the waves. The glint that the ocean gave off was a lot less warm and relaxing, and looked like it came out of the ending of a novel instead.

"All of us want better lives, but most people-"

I realized my mistake regarding the fact that the faunus and humans were actually separate species, and quickly revised my statement.

"-and almost all humans are inherently selfish and only care for themselves. And since they think us faunus already getting something out of that deal years ago, they just think we're annoying in asking for more."

"…This island really is a death trap, isn't it?"

"More like a life trap. We're all stuck here." Somebody else said, sighing. "But we all gotta do what we gotta do, right? And if it means living in a dump like this, it's living in a dump like this."

Clouds began rolling over the bright sun shining above us, blessing us for a while with merciless shade. The winds slowly grew louder, the whisper of the air folding around the rocks near the bay slowly graduating into a deafening howl. We all squinted our eyes, the wind blowing sand around in our eyes.

"You all should probably focus." A fishermen near the edge of our group of people shouted over the roar of the sudden sea wind. "Our lines are getting dangerously close to getting tangled."

After some quick platitudes, we quickly scattered. Some packed up fishing lines and moved lower down the shore. Others reeled their lines in and began waiting the wind out.

As for me? I didn't have much to lose anyways. The rod I had was really old anyways, and I could probably get a better one when more fishing equipment popped up in the market. My fishing line bobbed about in the sea, the wood in my hands creaking as the line went from rigid to relaxed, and relaxed to rigid once again.

…

The morning's fishing ahd finally concluded, and not wanting the fish in our buckets to begin going bad in this hot weather, I tagged along with the group and began climbing up the mountain. A sign, Kuo Kuana, greeted us as we walked from a scattered mess of markets and shacks into an organized street sprawling a quarter of the way up the mountain.

I didn't act surprised, but I was. In this backwaters place in Remnant, these people had the energy to build what looked like a miniature city?

The bucket of fish in my slightly scarred hands flopped around, rocking the bucket. I put both hands on it to steady the shifting weight, my fishing rod dropping onto the grond.

"Damn it." I whispered, bending over and picking it up. I looked up, surprised to see that somebody had picked it up for me.

"Here you go." A rather depressing voice said. I looked up to see a blue eyed girl with an oddly curved ponytail. Something metal was also tucked into her waist, and the garb that she was wearing seemed oddly…

Militant.

Was this a white fang agent? I began sweating intensely, even more than I already had been because of the heat. I slowly edged away, getting out of arm's reach as passerbys continued swarming by us.

"Hey, kid! You coming or what?" the fisherman said impatiently, struggling with his own heavy bucket.

"…Thanks." I mumbled, taking the rod and tucking it under my arm.

I continued trudging forward, and was glad to see that one of my fellow fishermen had slowed down to wait for me.

The girl walked on as well, but not before suddenly looking back.

I had been found just like that.

God damn it.

But what could I do but keep my head down and keep walking? I couldn't live off my two thousand lien forever.

…

There was an odd dip in elevation as we approached the central mountains of Menagerie. It diverged into three different roads, and here, the market was the busiest.

Out of the corner of an eye, I saw a suspiciously familiar cat faunus in a white coat and a blonde haired, blue eyed dude with a tail and red armguards walking by.

That couldn't be Blake, right? Blake merely wore a bow-

She turned her head and looked over us fishermen carrying our goods to the base of the mountain, and I quickly turned my head the other way. But in the instant that I saw her turn, I could see the remnants of a huntress outfit and… those heels.

Yeah. It was Blake.

Still, I didn't dare stop and look. Because the moment that I was recognized was the moment that I was dragged back into that life. The life of a huntsman.

Something much more complicated and dangerous than selling fish.

…

"There's no way that the leadership here doesn't know about the Fall of Beacon!" Blake hissed, turning to Sun.

"It's probably more complicated than I can understand." Sun said. "But wouldn't it be like in those novels where the minions of a mafia go rogue-"

"Ugh. You don't understand how serious this is!" Blake turned her head away from the blubbering idiot that was Sun. "And do you even read in the first-"

She caught a glance of what she thought was a familiar face. With grayish silver eyes and white hair, what looked like… Yun was walking through the streets, carrying a bucket of fish along with the other fishermen.

It was probably just her imagination.

"What? Is something wrong? Are they here?" Sun said, suddenly much more alert.

"It's… nothing." Blake said, sighing. "I just thought I saw somebody I knew."

Behind them, Ilia stiffened, before tailing the duo more closely.

…

It was finally night. The fish had been sold rather quickly, and I had earned a measly ten lien.

The good part about this was that I had already eaten with all the other fishermen, buying bread and other non-meat items from the stalls. I had also found an old pot and bought it off the restaurant that had no need for this old piece of equipment.

If I earned ten lien a day, got some water and boiled it for myself to drink, and nothing horribly catastrophic happened, then I would keep earning about ten lien a day. Maybe slightly more or less, depending on market prices for fish.

It was then that a huge dent was put in my newly acquired pot. Something sounding like a bullet struck it, leaving a dent.

I was enraged at the damage done to my pot.

And then, I was terrified. Why did somebody shoot me? I jumped backwards, my back against the wall to limit surprise attacks, before grunts stormed into my room. I was about to hide, before forgetting that faunus had night vision. Instead, I leapt up to the roof. I almost fell, losing my grip due to my arms still not being healed enough to be reinforced with Chi.

Drawing out some Aura, I kept my grip on the faulty crossbeam, but the purple glow was bound to attract some attention.

My door was kicked open, and I winced at the repair costs.

"He's not here." The operatives said.

"Well, his pot is still here, and it's boiling water…"

"That's weird."

I dropped on one of them, knocking them out as silently and quickly as I could. The goon offered little resistance, not even engaging their aura as I drop kicked them, catching his body before it hit the ground. I quickly dragged him underneath a table and climbed back up to the ceiling.

"Chiffron, what was that?"

Whoever he was addressing was unable to respond. The masked operative turned around cautiously, ears twitching subtly. I slowly breathed in and out of my mouth to minimize the noise that I would make via breathing, and slowly crept over the support beams on the roof to a spot above the goon's head, where I would then drop down and-

Creeak

Instantly, the goon began firing up in the rafters. I was forced to engage my aura and protect myself, but the purple shimmy exposed my position even more. I jumped down and held up a chair for protection, but it was shot to pieces.

…There went twenty lien. I was going to have to pay for that chair.

I ran forward, accidentally knocking over the pot full of water and extinguishing my own fire. The place was plunged into darkness, and even if the stream of bullets continued, I…couldn't actually see. The bullets were also awfully loud, making locating the source difficult due to the ringing in my ears.

I couldn't hold out forever like this, so I ran out of the door and hid myself above the door.

My aura was almost broken, and even if the goon was relatively inaccurate with his gun.

He came out of the doorway and looked around in the moonlit clearing, gun drawn.

I dropped on him, knocking him unconscious after using his own gun as a bludgeon.

After a bit of heavy breathing, I finally relaxed. There were no more goons around, and the large crackles of gunfire remained ignored by the populace, for some strange reason.

Then, I heard gunfire in the distance. Panicking, I jumped onto the roof of my house and looked around.

In a watchtower some distance away, another White Fang member in its signature white mask was firing at what looked like a massive nevermore. Below the tower, what looked like a phalanx of armed soldiers were taunting the Grimm to come down there and attack them.

So the Grimm were much more of a threat here than anywhere else, and the White Fang… also acted as a local defense militia against the Grimm?

I looked down at the two unconscious White Fang grunts with new respect. Maybe they weren't just homicidal terrorists, but homicidal terrorists with a purpose of defending their people's well being.

Then, I realized that there were two unconscious bodies in and outside of the shack I had rented. I had to… dispose of them.

But how? I couldn't just… bury them alive. That was way too cruel.

I resolved to drag them to the bar instead. Taking off their masks and putting it in their hoodie like uniforms, I tucked a large stick under my arm just in case I had to bludgeon them until they went unconscious again. Leaving the two in a back alley behind the bar, I nodded to myself, before scurrying back to my house and starting up the fire.

It was hard to find the tinder under the relatively pitch black conditions, but I did, and with a couple of strikes from a primitive fire starter I had borrowed from a neighbor for the night, I had a small fire going again.

And then, I saw the bullet holes lining the walls of this shack. How was I going to fix that?

…

"Wow…" Oscar said, looking around the bustling streets. One or two buildings were still being repaired, but the state of prosperity that the city exuded could not be denied.

Mistral City was everything Oscar imagined it to be. With fountains and modern looking apartment buildings, there were also sections of the place with more traditional building styles, clay tiled roofs dominating half of the cityscape.

Trees were planted in the sidewalk, the new buds of leaves peeking out of the rough nubs on the branches. Spring was in full bloom, and in the distance, he could see a cherry tree blooming in the center of an array of evergreens.

"Mistral city was always a delight to visit, no matter the incarnation." Ozpin said in Oscar's head. "But for now, I think that going to to the… slightly more destitute side of the city and renting a hotel would be the best for both of our conditions."

Indeed, Xin and Oscar were garnering a lot of odd looks from the passersbys. Xin stood robotically still, looking totally serious with a couple of dead leaves stuck in his hair and other plant parts trapped between the folds of his black robes. Oscar's pants were liberally caked in mud, and the fabric of his already second hand shoes had mostly been worn away.

This statement made Oscar remember how tired he was, and dragging Xin along, he strolled through the market square, and slowly headed into the shadier parts of town. The tarnished red brick walks had its cracks saturated with decaying cigarette butts. The remains of smashed bottles glimmered weakly in the dying sunshine as lights began flickering on for the evening hours.

Now, Xin took the lead, after receiving the command to look for a cheap motel. People glared at us from the corners of streets. Beggars edged away and took their business elsewhere.

Despite Xin looking… kind of stupid, the metal staff in his hand marked him as a huntsman.

Finally, they arrived at a hostel with broken glass windows roughly patched up with duct tape. The owner greeted us with his hands behind his belt.

"… You all… uh… nevermind." Upon seeing Oscar's wide, confused face, all hostilities were ceased. "Sorry about that."

The owner of the place turned around, revealing a shotgun in her belt. "Room for two, I guess? And are you a huntsman?"

"Retired huntsman." Xin said emotionlessly.

"Well, there's no need to worry about your safety. The price will be fifty lien for eight hours."

"Okay." Oscar fished in his bag for the pouch full of lien cards, and doled out slightly more than the amount required. He had three lien left at the end of the transaction.

Three.

Maybe he really should have asked for more.

"Have a nice night." The attendant said, handing them a key. "You all can find your room by yourselves."

The duo walked away.

"Great service…" Oscar mumbled.

"This area is a troubled area. Service is a luxury, and what matters are the fact that you get the goods that you paid for in the end." Ozpin advised.

"That… didn't make any sense. Isn't providing good service the point of a service job?"

The mental bickering continued on into the night, until Oscar discarded his muddy pants for another, removing most of the mud and washing it down the sink from his old pair. He then put it up to dry on a clothesline inside the hotel room and relaxed on the chewed out mattress. Xin was leaning against a wall.

"Is this was saving the world feels like? Because so far, it's a lot of walking."

"Imagine traveling remnant before bullheads were a thing. Imagine having to lead armies through deserts without any transportation vehicles."

"… Saving the world is mostly walking, then?"

"Yes, yes it is." Ozpin sighed.

As Oscar fell asleep, Xin thought about clouds.

…

Finally, I am finished!

Hopefully this chapter wasn't too boring, but I couldn't resist putting up some world building because we get nothing in the show other than "faunus apparently suffer in a vacation home" and "big house… ooh, even bigger house!"

I'm also announcing that, well, I'm going into a wifi dead zone during the period 6/20 to 6/26, so there won't be updates then. I'm sad as well….

Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and tell me what you think about it!

-SpiritOfErebus