I won't talk as long this time, because I've actually spammed everything down in the authors note at the end of the chapter. I'm sorry for not updating as often, but life is life. I probably have it easier than some of you out there, but we're all still busy.

The reason for my absence isn't exciting at all. It's just schoolwork.

-SpiritOfErebus

Ilia, tailing the enigmatic figure that was supposedly Yun Wu, was questioning if this really was necessary.

The individual in question was currently sobbing after he had left a vegetable stall. Many passersby gave him a wide berth, some casting sympathetic glances while others casting suspicious ones. The vegetable stall owner smiled awkwardly, repeating soft apologies.

This was the third day in the row that such an occurrence like this had happened. Ilia wished she was tailing Blake; at least then, she could write notes that weren't "sobbing and kneeling in front of vegetable stalls". Of course, there were... other reasons, but it was mainly out of boredom.

The figure he was supposed to be tailing recovered from the stupor, got up, and then ran towards the next stall. The owner and the desperate customer dialogued, the customer growing increasingly irritated, before he stormed off once again.

"Why is it that on this desolate island, there aren't any potatoes?" he yelled to the sky.

"Why do you need potatoes so badly?" the shopkeeper shouted back. "The last shipment went missing because a Grimm attack hit the earlier of the two ships that were supposed to stock us on some more exotic vegetables.

"Potatoes are exotic?" Yun Wu muttered. "They literally can grow anywhere!"

Ilia felt like she should have disagreed with the human on principle, but on second thought, there were many Mistralian villages that had farmed potatoes literally everywhere, and they grew in the desolate Solitas region in Atlas. They should be able to grow potatoes, right?

She shrugged, not questioning the logistics of the why they weren't farming such a common crop in the mainland of Remnant, before turning back and tailing her target.

Said target was currently punching an abandoned stall in frustration, and even with the harsh glow of the sun, she could see the faintest traces of purple glowing over his fist.

"I guess that confirms the fact that he is at least trained in combat. He does have aura, and knows how to throw a punch."

The wood that the target was punching snapped in half, and he left the splinters behind, heading towards what seemed to be the docks.

…

This situation was unbelievable. Not even a single potato remained on the island. I would know, since I haven't seen any potatoes since I entered Menagerie. The vegetable stands had all replaced potatoes with other options.

Why was I heading to the docks, then?

It was to confirm that there really were no potato shipments that had made landfall.

The docks of Menagerie were filled with various young people waiting around to be hired and to get help. Since economic activity was slowed in the first place by the lack of travel during these tumultuous times, there weren't even any normal visitors.

Also, the rumors of the Kraken Grimm I had injured with the malfunctioning cannon were circulating, and it was made out that less ships even wanted to travel to Menagerie nowadays.

I approached a dockhand resting beneath the shade of the overhang of a dock administration office. It didn't really look like an office (the structure wasn't even painted) but the loosely hung sign that dangled from the doorway was proof enough.

I sat down in lieu of an introduction. We just sat there for a wile, looking at the calm seas. I saw somebody else walk onto the docks and lean against a slightly moldy pier. The waves rose up and down the pillar holding the dock up, revealing barnacles and other assortments of mold.

"How has business been going here lately?" I asked. "Fishing's been really slow recently, with all of the competition that's been popping up."

"Just look around." The dockhand said dryly. "Do you think we have any clients to help? Most of the new fishermen you mentioned were probably dockhands."

"What's happened to all of the ships, then? Why aren't they comming by here anymore?"

"There's rumors that Sea FeiLong and Krakens now roam the seas between the mainland and Menagerie. Most ships lose a lot of shipments of materials through their journey because they have to reduce their weight to sail faster. They have deemed the trip unprofitable.

"What kinds of shipments do you usually process?"

"Oh, all kinds of things. It's not like that's been common recently, give the…" the dockhand gestured to the empty docks. In the distance, a couple of fishing boats slowly sailed back in and waved to the dock.

"Well, the most recently lost shipments were the potatoes and carrots from Mistral, but the ship that carried those here wasn't critically damaged by the Sea Feilong because a huntress and a huntsman were aboard."

The fishing boats were getting rather close to the docks now.

"I best be going." The dockhand said.

"Good luck…" I said, sighing.

I stumbled out of the docks and went back to my rather shot up home. Maybe it was just time to admit defeat. Between rounds of attacks from the White Fang and there being no potatoes, it was almost like fate wanted me to fail.

…

"Ilia was here." Blake said confidently, looking over the docks. "Some people spotted her over here. But why was she at the docks….?"

"There isn't much to be affected by the White Fang's usual operations here…"

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"Well… sabotage and murder… you know." Sun Wukong shrugged.

"You two looking to dock a boat?" the dockhand said, footsteps making dull thunks across the dilapidated wooden planks. A slight glint of greed was in the shark faunus's eye.

"No, but did you see a girl about my height, and with a oddly curvy ponytail around?"

"I saw here leaning against a pier, but she didn't look like a customer, so I just- nevermind." The dockhand muttered.

"Was there anybody else around?"

"Yeah." The dockhand nodded. "Some white haired kid that came up and asked about shipments and the dock. His weird eyes creeped me out a bit, though. Way too colorless."

"That's probably Yun, then." Blake said.

"Wait, but didn't he not even react to you calling his name?" Sun asked, scratching his head.

"I spent a whole semester studying with him. I think I know what he looks like."

"Then…. Why would he?"

Blake sighed. She knew the feeling all too well. Yun had a look on his face that told her he, along with what she had done in the past: shared a lot in common.

Yun was running away from his problems, like her not sticking around and trying to change the White Fang's violent ways from the inside.

She wanted to change the subject now.

"What happened to the shipment that was lost from the ship we got here on?" Blake said, turning around and questioning Sun this time.

"Well…. Uh…." Sun stammered nervously.

"Just spit it out."

"I… may have thrown several crates of vegetables overboard to make my living area as a stowaway."

"Great. So you're the cause of all his problems." Blake said dryly.

"It's not like that! Well…. Yeah, it kind of is." Sun said, scratching his head. "Maybe I should apologize to him?"

…

Ilia was kind of concerned.

Now, her target was lying on his sheet over a straw mattress and staring at the ceiling with a catatonic expression on his face.

Ilia was also hiding amongst the shot up support beams that made up the roof, but her black cameoflage prevented her from being seen.

Currently, her target was muttering sadly.

"All the potatoes are gone… And I'm stuck on this island… Damn those sea Grimm…"

If they weren't class enemies, Ilia might have even felt sorry for the guy.

"Those god damn tentacle demons or whatever ruined my plans!"

Ilia was suddenly back on high alert. What plans? And what did potatoes have to do with it? She wracked her brain of her limited explosive handling knowledge. Could potatoes, in any way, be used in methods of sabotage?

…She didn't think so.

Slowly, she scribbled going insane on her notepad.

"Well, I'd better tell GhiraBelladona that I can't actually do what I promised to do because there are no potatoes in this literal barren wasteland!"

Wait, but how was Ghira involved? Was it better to just end Yun Wu here, so that if on the off chance that he does find a potato, his evil plans won't be fulfilled?

Slowly, Ilia reached for the lightning dust rapier-whip fusion that was hidden on her and began thumbling the switch on the side of it.

…

After I finished my small rant, I heard a soft click from the rooftop. I was already staring up at it, and I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary yet. Come to think of it… There was a patch of darkness that was a little too dense for the afternoon. Besides, there were holes in the roof, so the light should always be leaking through. But for a section of the roof to be that dark….

Did the owner come by and order some repairs?

I immediately dismissed that idea. The owner was too much of a lazy landlord to manage these run down properties.

Then, the only explanations were that either there was something blocking the bits of light up there or there was someone up there-

Oh no.

I took several deep breaths. I couldn't panic.

The enemy had been there for a while, so they don't know that I know they're up there. They're probably hoping for the sneak attack angle, but since I'm lying down and turning my back on the ceiling would just be a mistake… I would have to strike first.

I loosened a small piece of brick from my cot and began purposefully fiddling with it, eyes looking at nothing in particular so as not to give out any hints to my plan.

Then, I bunched my right hand into a flicking position, before fumbling with the rock a bit and putting it before my index finger.

I took a moment to aim at the glint of light that suddenly appeared on the ceiling, and flicked. With aura-enhanced strength and just a bit of Chi (since my arms still had the mangled blood vessel problem that I haven't solved yet), the rock was flicked straight up. It hit whatever was shining up on the roof, and a startled yelp echoed through the shabby house. The rock fell, and then whatever it had hit fell.

A rapier sank into the dirt beside my bed.

I immediately rolled off the cot, grabbed the rapier, and pointed it up at the ceiling.

"Now, I don't know who you are or what you want with me, but you should… probably leave. I have disarmed you, and you stand no chance against me without your weapon!"

There was no response.

Then, a nebulous figure jumped down and hooked the rapier with their feet, wrenching it out of my hands.

I was then reminded that I haven't practiced martial arts for weeks, and that I still hadn't fixed the blood vessels in my arms to accommodate Chi.

Well, shi-

The weapon seemingly unfurled, and an electric whip flew at me, small sparks occasionally flying out of the contraption.

I held up the chair that I had just spent twenty lien to repair and winced as its legs were sheared off by the force of the blow. My arms trembled like weeds under the pressure, and I had to drop the chair. Aura laced into my arms and fixed the mildly torn tissue, but I realized that parrying was no longer a viable play for me.

I also couldn't just fall back onto old habits of using Chi to reinforce my arms, and did so with aura instead. I infused my arms with the energy, feeling it snake past the damaged blood vessels and entrenching it into my muscles and skin, making it more durable and stronger.

Slightly glowing with purple energy yet aware that this method of reinforcement drained down a lot of aura, I knew I had to finish this fight fast.

With a burst of Chi to my legs, I flipped through the air, almost losing my balance midflip after twisting myself midair to dodge another whip lash, and then punched the ground besides my assailant.

I really was getting rusty at fighting against actually skilled opponents.

Thankfully, the punch to the ground still worked. The small shockwave shook the assailant, which was already leaning forward because of the whip lash. I watched as they stumbled forward, before jumping behind them and punching them with my aura wreathed fist.

My arms were much weaker than I thought they would be. Months of no practice and the inherent weakness of my still injured arm saw to that. Aura probably worked on multiplying your base strength, and the lack of even that, coupled by the telltale shimmer of aura that defended them against my blow, they only stumbled, letting out a very high pitched squeak as I presumably knocked the air out of their lungs.

I stood near the doorway, analyzing the figure of my assailant. She was wearing a completely dark uniform, and her skin tone was somehow changed to match that. With everything coloring her black, there was no wonder she could lurk on my ceiling for so long, undetected.

"Now, I don't know who you are, but we can definitely talk this out." I said, holding my hands forward, with palms facing upwards to the ceiling in an unaggressive stance. However, I still tensed the muscles in my legs and prepared to jump out the front door and make a run for it.

They were completely silent, and leapt forward, once, pointing the sword straight at me.

I followed through with my escape plan. My back glowed purple as I threw myself backwards, my door's flimsy lock shattering as I impacted the dilapidated structure. Rolling amidst splinters and fragmented boards of the door, I got up and jumped for the rooftops, beginning to try and parkour to lose the random assailant. Now, the color on her shifted to a lighter tone, something akin to the straw on the rooftops. The color of her clothing, however, stayed the same, which made her (most likely instinctual) camouflage pretty pointless

My footsteps thudded on the thatch roofs, each step carrying Chi to reinforce the straw below to at least be able to hold some of my weight without bending. My chi channeling skill was now almost obsolete with the months of disuse (using only reinforcement in the previous fights with some low level grunts), but I stepped on the roof beams often enough that I didn't make the rooftop cave in and fall into unsuspecting homes below.

I began breathing exercises to try and fine tune my Chi just a little as I ran, though my heavy breaths made my efforts effectively useless. I chanced a glance behind me, and the assailant was swinging from roof to roofs using her whip, casually striking through the roofing and latching the metal point of her whip into the wood, pulling her forward.

I was going to get caught if I kept running on the rooftops, and I probably wasn't going to lose her on any venue of the island. Even if I had lived here for a couple of months, she was probably still more familiar with the place.

Thus, I had to go the one place where I knew there were other people of similar skill to what I used to have: the Belladonna Manor.

I caught my hand on a roof beam and pivoted myself to the ground, almost losing my grip with the lack of strength and the sudden change in direction.

I really have to start practicing again, and fix my arm. I thought, running through the streets now. My old shoes, already falling apart from the running in the chase, began to smoke as the rubber was rubbed on the rough stone.

I wanted to berate myself for not wearing my "combat boots" (which was a glorified pair of particularly sturdy hiking boots), but then I realized that it was still at Beacon, which was controlled by the Grimm.

It was time to ditch them. I did a flip in midair and kicked off my shoes as projectiles towards my attacker, before rapidly turning and regretting the decision to get rid of my shoes. The baked grey bricks in the afternoon sun were burning hot without insulating footwear.

I gritted my teeth, reinforced the soles of my feet, and continued running. I turned a couple of streets, tried hiding in a box to distract her, almost wrecked a vegetable stall by not having enough traction on my feet to stop after a particularly swift turn, and had to use aura to coat my bare feet all the while.

My reserves were running on fumes when I turned onto the last street before the Mayor's house.

Using up almost all of my Aura reserves, I put so much aura into my legs that a purple shell enveloped my clothing, before pushing off of the ground. The impact between the balls of my feet and the street hurt, but aura cushioned the blow enough that nothing but a dull throb remained.

It was probably a horribly inefficient use of aura. I didn't exactly care, though. I had accelerated enough.

The barrier of aura fizzled out on its own, no longer being conciosuly fed energy. Instead, I focused most of it on my hands, before jumping one last time. I grabbed onto the rim of the walls to the Belladona manor and swung myself in, landing with a thud amongst the relatively well-kept gardens.

The rapid footsteps that was my pursuer stopped outside of the walls. For a moment, I tensed. What if they didn't care about being seen by the authority figures? My mind fed me the horrifying realization that the person that had just chased me was with the authority.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case. The footsteps began to trail away and got lost amongst the sounds of the streets.

I took a couple of moments to catch my breath, healing up any obvious bruises with aura, before sneaking towards the front door to act like I had just entered the manor because the front door wasn't locked.

…

I was lead into the living room, and I sat down with a defeated expression on my face.

"I'm sorry about this… but I couldn't do it."

The burly chieftain glared at me. "So, you admit it. What you came here about last time was certainly a scam."

"No," I said, letting exhaustion creep into my voice. "It's just that the last potato shipment was lost at sea. There are none on Menagerie."

The silence in the living room was only prolonged by the soft steps of Kali Belladonna.

"Don't worry about it, dear." She said in a patronizing voice. "I'm sure one shipment will get through, eventually."

A teacup was placed in front of me, and a slice of lemon was impaled on the side of the cup. I absemtmindedly took the beverage and brought it to my mouth, before pausing.

"Wait." I said, hesitating. There was something I was forgetting. "This is… a lemon, right?"

Kali tilted her head in confusion. "Y-yes? Is there something wrong?"

"These are lemons." I said, putting extra emphasis on the word lemon. "You people here have lemons, but not potatoes? Are these grown locally?"

"What does lemons have to do with your crackpot potato experiment?" Ghira said, rage leaking into his words.

"I can also demonstrate with lemons!" I said, putting down the teacup and raising the volume of my voice. "It's an even better alternative than potatoes. Are there any that I can use? I'll also need to take apart one of your lights."

"…Wait, what?"

"I'll explain the science later. Just… take me to the lemons, please." I said, sighing. "It's been a long, sleepless couple of days."

This fic has made a return. After slightly less than two months.

I know I said on my profile that I would try to update stuff at least once a month, but school is really a pain. I still haven't finished with that paper thing from a couple of months ago, so I'm still working on that.

Hopefully this lived up to your expectations, and if it didn't… it's fanfiction. This isn't exactly novel material.

Moving onto actually talking about the chapter! This was my first human versus human chase scene written, well, ever. Hopefully it made some sense.

As usual, feel free to flood the reviews with criticism if you so desire. I'll take any sort of feedback at this point (lol).

Thank you for reading, and hopefully, the next chapter will at least come out in September ;-;.

(Discord Link: discord . gg / 9t9MK3jHmV)

-SpiritOfErebus