Sorry about the super long wait on this one. I ended up having a really busy Summer and then school started back up, so this story got put on the backburner. I never really stopped thinking about what I wanted to do, I just never had the time to write. I'll try my best not to have the next chapter take as long, but I can't make any promises.

Later today I'll be posting a small chapter, around 1500 words. The chapter after that will finish up the JNPR side arc started in this chapter, and already has a decent portion of it done.

I do not own RWBY nor My Hero Academia all rights belong to Monty Oum and Kohei Horikoshi and their respective publishing companies.

I do not own the cover image.

Chapter 24: Dead End Village- Avalon

Monday 11:35 A.M., Northwestern Vale

"Wake up your four." Aizawa called out, banging against the wall of the Bullhead with his fist. Jaune watched as the other three members of his team quickly stirred awake, clearly not wanting to incur the wrath of their professor. He himself hadn't even attempted to get any sleep, partly because he was too concerned with making sure he didn't throw up from his motion sickness; he didn't want to give anyone a reason to start calling him Vomit Boy again. The other reason was that he was trying to get updates from Izuku about their team's mission, though those had stopped coming roughly an hour ago. The young leader wasn't going to pretend he was the closest among them to Shoto, but he still felt terrible knowing he was going to be in close proximity to his father for an entire week. Not that he really had any more time to worry about that though. He and his team had their own mission to worry about.

"Hey, I thought you said we weren't getting there until noon!" Nora whined as she checked the time on her Scroll.

"We aren't, but if you're going to be Hunters, you have to be alert when you're needed." The four of them thought that was a bit ironic, coming from someone who could be regularly seen around campus in a yellow sleeping bag, but none of them were bold enough to say anything. "Besides, you four still need to be briefed."

"The mission board said this was Village Security. Is that not the case?" Ren asked, a subtle hint of concern in his voice. The usually quiet teen had been quite adamant on wanting to choose a mission in a village, so Jaune supposed it was only natural he would be concerned over if they had chosen the wrong mission.

"It is, but when it comes to the Dead End Villages, it becomes a whole other matter entirely." Aizawa responded.

"Dead End Villages?" Pyrrha asked. Aizawa looked at the young teen as if she'd grown a second head.

Jaune cleared his throat. "I-I'm the only one here who's actually from Vale, so I'm guessing they've never heard of them before."

Aizawa sighed. "What the hell is Oobleck even getting paid for."

"I'm guessing they're pretty important then?" Nora asked.

"Important is an understatement. Vale couldn't even survive if it weren't for their being here." Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren all widened their eyes. "Put simply, the City of Vale only became as big as it did because it's easily defensible thanks to the mountains surrounding it. It doesn't have much in the way of farmable land or Dust Mines. That means it has to rely on villages within its territory for such things. That's what the Dead End Villages are; the main villages Vale gets its supplies from. They're all to the northwest of the city and they're vitally important to the kingdom's survival."

"Without them, Vale's at a dead-end, hence the name." Jaune said.

"Exactly. So, these villages are all highly defended round the clock, and if one calls for help, they get top priority. So we can't mess this up." Aizawa said.

"Kinda surprised they'd give this to first years then." Nora said.

"I was too, but apparently this mission isn't because of any major Grimm attacks. If it was, they'd be sending the whole damn cavalry out here. But since Ozpin specifically asked for me to go on this mission, it means we're probably dealing with something crime related. Whatever the case, I want you all strapped up and ready to go within ten, understood."

"Yes, sir!"

Twenty-Five Minutes Later

The village of Avalon was much larger than Team JNPR had expected. Granted most of the territory within the thirty-foot tall wall was occupied fields of various crops, alongside some where animals were allowed to graze, but even so, the village took up their entire field of view as the Bullhead touched down on an empty field reserved for airships. The four of them silently questioned why such an important place wouldn't have a more sophisticated landing platform, but again none of them spoke up.

As the five of them stepped out of the Bullhead they were greeted by a cheery man wearing light gray armor. "I take it you're the people Beacon sent?" Aizawa nodded, pulling up his Hunter's License on his Scroll and showing it to the man. "Good. My name's Masaki Mizushima, but you can stick with my Hunter Name, Manual. I'll take you over to the Lodge and brief you on things there."

The Huntsman Lodge was located on the other side of town, meaning their walk afforded them a good look at the village they'd be spending the next week at. Most of the buildings were quite small, likely houses containing only a few rooms. The exceptions to this were a two-story inn in the middle of town and a large diner right beside it, with the large town hall standing across from them.

"Geez, where is everyone? Figured such an important village would be more bustling. This place looks more like a ghost town than anything else." Nora commented. The rest of JNPR scanned around, only to find that their resident powerhouse was right; there wasn't a single villager in sight.

"It's usually like this I'm afraid. Pretty much everyone here is a farmer, so they're all busy tending to their fields and livestock. You won't find anyone here until later in the day." Manual answered.

Eventually, they reached the Huntsman Lodge; it sat on the outskirts of the town, but still a good distance away from any of the fields. They managed to catch brief glances of farmers working on tractors or herding livestock with the aid of dogs, but the locals either didn't notice them or chose to ignore them. The Lodge itself was quite meager, barely any bigger than most of the houses they'd seen on their way here. Stepping inside they found the place to be fairly bare-bones. One common area with a connected bathroom, and two sleeping quarters split off by gender. At Aizawa's behest, the teens quickly chose their beds and dropped off their things before returning to the common room.

"Wasting any more time would be illogical, so let's get this started. What's the mission, Manual?" Aizawa asked.

"In short, this is a missing person case." He answered. "Two days ago two of the Hunters on the night watch went missing in the middle of the night. We've tried contacting them by Scroll but we've gotten nothing."

"What do you mean missing? They just up and vanished?" Jaune asked.

"Basically. We investigated their post and found no signs of a fight. It's like they just disappeared."

"This isn't some rookies just getting cold feet, is it?" Aizawa asked.

"These two had been here even longer than me, so I doubt it. We checked both of their houses and found all of their stuff was still there, and there were no signs of a struggle. We would've launched a proper investigation ourselves, but orders are not to leave the village unless it's to deal with Grimm who encroach on the wall. That's what you're here for. We need you to figure out what happened."

Aizawa nodded. "I see. Two days leaves quite a bit of time for the trail to have gone cold, but we'll do what we can. If you've already searched their post and their house, then the first order of business will be asking the villagers if they've seen any suspicious activity in the past few days. We'll move from there based on what information we can gather."

"Doesn't that mean we'll have to wait until they're all done with their farming for the day?" Jaune asked.

"Surely a missing person investigation takes priority over farming." Pyrrha said.

"Ideally yes, but the locals here can be… irritable. Best to wait until they're done for the day." Manual said.

"Irrational, but if that's the case then so be it. For now, you four can do some training with me." All four members of JNPR felt their hearts sink at those words.

"I'll leave you to it then. I have to get back to my post on the wall, but if you need anything just say the word." Manual said.

6:15 P.M.

When Aizawa and JNPR stepped into the diner at the center of town, they immediately felt the gazes of everyone in the building. Young and old, customer and employee, all eyes were on them as they took a seat at an empty table. The stares only continued, and while Aizawa simply shrugged them off, his students all took turns discreetly glancing around the diner. The looks varied in nature, with the handful of children looking at them with curiosity, but anyone who was JNPR's age or older gave them looks of suspicion, annoyance, and from some of the older patrons outright disgust.

It was clear they were not welcome.

They were given a short reprieve from the gazes when a waiter walked over to them. They ordered their food and she was gone without another word, clearly not wanting to be seen around them any longer than necessary.

"Are civilians usually this… hostile?" Pyrrha whispered to their teacher.

Aizawa shook his head. "No. Usually when you're working with civilians they're the ones requesting help, so they can be pretty amicable. This is something of an… extreme case."

"What reason would they have to hate Hunters?" Jaune asked.

"It may be a bit early to tell, but I wouldn't call it hate."

"Agree to disagree." Nora gruffed.

After around fifteen minutes, their food arrived. All of JNPR was quite famished after training for so long, so while the food wasn't to die for, they certainly ate it like it was. Aizawa ate slowly and deliberately, trying to gauge the looks of the other patrons without making it known he was doing so. Most of them had turned their attention back to either their food or the people they sat with. The only gazes that persisted were either from the very young or the very old. After finishing his food he left enough Lien for the five of them on the table before walking over to a booth nearby. It was occupied by a man and a woman, married from what he could tell, who were two of the first to go back to eating their food after their arrival. He hoped this would mean they were among the more amicable.

"Excuse me." They both turned to him, their expressions souring slightly. "My name is Eraserhead. I'm here because two Hunters stationed on the wall went missing two nights ago. I was wondering if either of you had seen anything suspicious going on around that time."

The two of them exchanged glances with one another for a brief moment before the husband turned back to him. "Where'd they go missing?"

"We're not entirely sure, but their post on the wall was along the western side."

"Sorry, but our house is in the south, so we wouldn't have been around to see anything."

"And there's been nothing out of the ordinary the last few days?"

"No. Floyd's farm is on the west side though. Bother him if you want." The woman said, motioning to a booth a few feet away. It was occupied by a large man and his two sons, one a young teen and the other no older than seven. Aizawa nodded before moving towards the other booth. He spared a quick glance towards his students, all of whom watched on in silence, nervous looks on their faces. He would've had them come along and assist in questioning, but he figured that the locals wouldn't speak a word if all five of them walked up to them at once.

By the time he reached the booth, Floyd was locked onto him, a cold look in his eyes. His children were a slightly different story; the younger one stared with interest at the Pro Hunter, while the elder didn't even look at him, instead simply staring at the table in front of him with pursed lips.

Aizawa stopped just in front of them. "Pardon me, but would you mind if I asked you a few questions?" Floyd didn't respond, instead reaching for a glass of beer before taking a long drink of it, each gulp cutting through the silence like a razor blade. After the glass was empty, he placed it down on the table and took a bite from his food. After swallowing, he finally turned up to Aizawa, icy glare still present.

"Can't you take a hint?"

"The sooner you answer my questions, the sooner I'll be out of your hair, sir. I'm just curious if you've seen anything out of the ordinary over the past few days."

"I saw someone!" Aizawa almost jumped when the younger son spoke. "They were runnin' around in the middle of the night in our field! I thought it was a monster at first!"

"That's enough, Ben." The boy's father said sternly.

"But Dad, I just wanna tell him what I-"

"That's. Enough." The boy sulked down into his seat. Floyd turned his eyes back to Aizawa. The Hunter was certain that were it not for the presence of his children, the man would be screaming at him right now. "First you city folk make us work our asses off to feed millions of people year-round without paying us shit, then you think you can walk into our town and demand we help find people who we never even wanted to be here in the first place. Do you people not understand that we live outside the walls of your shining cities for a reason?"

"That's enough, Floyd." All eyes in the building turned towards the door to the kitchen where a short, pot-bellied man stood. "I get why you're mad, believe me, but I don't want you starting a fight in my restaurant." The owner turned to Aizawa. "If you get your answers will you leave?"

"Of course, sir." The owner nodded before turning to face the other patrons.

"Alright, you heard the man! If you've seen anything weird the last few days, raise your hand!" Ben was the first to raise his hand, before slowly being followed by his elder brother. Nearby a lone, young woman raised her hand. An elderly couple begrudgingly raised their hands on the other side of the dining area. Aizawa motioned JNPR, the students quickly splitting up and walking to the other tables.

Aizawa turned his attention back to the children before him. "What can you tell me about this person?"

"I couldn't really see 'em cause of how fast they were; they were moving almost as fast as our horse does! They looked a bit shorter than Dad, but they were wearing a big hood or somethin' so it was hard ta tell. Oh, and it was two nights ago too! Did you 'em too, Mike?" The boy asked as he turned to his older brother. The boy flinched before turning to his sibling.

"No. I saw someone last night." Mike looked up at Aizawa. "I heard a big bump on our roof so I looked out the window but didn't see anything. When I went outside to check if something was wrong, someone jumped off our roof right in front of me." Aizawa's brow raised before he motioned for the boy to continue. "He turned to look at me, but it was really dark so I couldn't see his face. He just… stared at me for a while. Eventually one of our cows must've seen us cause they started making noises at us. I turned away to look at them for a second, and when I looked back, he was gone."

"And you didn't see them at all afterward?"

"N-No, I was too scared so I ran back into the house. I honestly thought it was all a dream, but now I'm pretty sure it was real. None of our stuff went missing, so I don't know what he was doing, but I don't think he wanted to be seen."

Aizawa nodded. Assuming this is the same person, they'd only be able to move that fast if they had their Aura unlocked, and they'd need training to move so stealthily. If these were different people though, then the second one might have some sort of teleportation Semblance. Could be the Grim Legion, but I doubt they would've left the kid alive if he had actually seen them.

"Are you done interrogating my children?" Floyd asked, venom filling every word as he spoke.

"I am, thank you for your time." Aizawa turned and walked away, not needing to look back to know that two holes were being bored directly into the back of his head. After waiting a moment for his students to finish asking questions, the five of them walked out of the diner, knowing full well they would not be allowed back in.

"What did those people have to say? Anything important?"

"The woman we talked to said she saw someone suspicious last night heading south. She couldn't give a very detailed description, only that they were around six feet tall." Jaune said.

"The people Nora and I talked to said they saw someone heading west two nights ago. They were wearing a cloak so they couldn't see much. They thought they might've seen a tail of some sort." Ren said.

"Hmm. Those boys each saw someone last night and two nights ago. Assuming this is the same person, we're looking for a six-foot male, possibly a Faunus. So tell me; what do you four think we should do from here?" Aizawa asked, crossing his arms. The four teens blinked in surprise before looking at one another.

"Well, we should probably report this description to the Hunters stationed here. They can check through the criminal records and see if anyone fits that description, right?" Jaune suggested.

"I agree. Since that description doesn't match the ones of the missing Hunters, this person's likely a criminal who played a role in their disappearance." Pyrrha said.

"Doing a stakeout tonight could also be beneficial. If this culprit's been seen the past two nights, in a row, it's possible they'll move again tonight." Ren responded.

"Hell yeah, we can catch 'em red-handed and break their legs!" Nora cheered.

Aizawa sighed. "I agree. In this case, those are probably our best options. However, they likely won't turn up anything." The teens' expressions did a one-eighty, the quick shift from praise to criticism robbing the wind from their sails. "The problem with checking the criminal records is that if this person is strong enough to take out two Hunters on their own, they're probably so strong that they haven't been caught yet. I'll still forward the information to Manual, but if we have to resort to checking each villager one by one to see if they match the description, we won't get an answer anytime soon. And that's not to mention how broad of a description it is.

"As for the stakeout idea, the only real problem is that our presence has caused too much of an uproar. While asking publicly about our mission may have allowed us to get a lead faster, word will spread that we're here. If the culprit is still in the village, there's no way they won't know we're here by tomorrow. If they don't show themselves tonight, they likely won't at all."

"Then what are our other options?" Pyrrha asked.

"None, unfortunately. Let's head back to the Lodge. You four rest up so you're ready for a stakeout tonight. Ozpin will want a report about the first day of the mission, so I'll fill that out when we get there." With that, the five of them headed back to their temporary home with what little information they gathered.

However, one part of their teacher's words stuck in the back of JNPR's heads.

A/N

Regrettably, I couldn't finish this entire mini-arc in one chapter, but I think this is a decent stopping point for now.

Chapter Commentary-

-Just in case anyone's confused on the dates, this chapter took place at the same time chapter

-I wanted to give JNPR and Aizawa some time in the spotlight, as well as set up future plot points (which will mostly be in the next chapter), which is where the idea for showing off their mission came up. I don't remember exactly when I came up with the idea for the DEVs themselves, but I'm pretty happy with them on the whole. Avalon's probably the only one I'll ever get to show off, sadly. The name for Avalon comes from Arthurian Legend as the place where Arthur was taken after Camelot fell.

-As you can see, not everyone in the world is fond of Hunters. It's an idea I plan to expand upon in the future, especially with Volume 4 and onwards, for reasons you can probably imagine.

Reviews-

Cyber-RK18- I'm really happy with the idea of Penny being Ironwood's choice for OFA, and I'm really excited to show you guys how it'll play out going into Volume 3. If she did have it, she would be quite the powerhouse.

Leofire312- I don't plan on making it a one-to-one of Nighteye and Deku's dynamic. So while the arc may fill a similar role of Deku doubting if he was the right choice for OFA, I will go about it in a slightly different way.

Fernandamichelleraya- After going back and looking at Penny's death in V8 I do get a lot of the reasons why people were upset. I personally wasn't too upset by it, but it definitely could've been handled a lot better.

Guest (1)- That's a long ways down the road, so I don't want to spoil anything. I'm not sure how exactly I'll handle Ironwood in the Atlas arc, but I know it won't be the same as it was handled in V8.

Guest (2)- MHA MANGA SPOILERS IN THIS COMMENT! I'm neutral on Fa Jin itself, but on the whole I think it was a mistake to have multiple quirks inside of OFA. I don't think it really breaks the power scaling on anything, I just think it would've been better if OFA stayed as just super strength, with Deku adding in gadgets to help in combat.

Guest (3)- Cinder's always ready to take whatever opportunity comes right into her lap!

Guest (4)- Stain's words will have an impact believe me, things will just play out slightly differently.

Guest (5)- I've only seen a few of the skits, and I'm not seriously impressed. Definitely prefer the older skits.

Guest(6)- Oh he'll get to nerd out, just you wait.

Ragnarok17- Ironwood, Penny, and Izuku will get quite a bit of time to flesh out their dynamic in Volume 3, so look forward to that. As for Mirio… I have other plans for him, Tamaki, and Neijire. I think you'll all enjoy them, but they are a ways off.

Thepreator- Glad you enjoyed everything that went on in the last chapter, I was really proud of it! IN hindsight Shigaraki may have come off as being a bit weak, but Penny's attack at the end was something of a last ditch effort, even if it was almost successful and thought out. It's mainly just the fact that Penny's so damn strong. Just like in canon however, Shigi will grow.

Guest(7)- Probably. While manipulating metal is very versatile, it would require a lot of training to get to the level Pyrrha is at with it. Still, I imagine he would take it if the opportunity presented itself.

Guest(8)- Yeah, Penny with OFA would be a frightening force.

Guest(9)- MHA MANGA SPOILERS IN THIS COMMENT! I'm all for Vigilante Izuku. I've been loving the manga a lot recently and I look forward to seeing what Horikoshi has in store next. If only the anime could be as enticing...

Monster King - Glad you liked it!

Guest(10)- Probably not. I'm not planning on playing the game, but if there are some really interesting pieces of lore or characters I might incorporate them. If the story is anything like RWBY: Grimm Eclipse, then I'll likely ignore it completely.