Violet sighed as she sat up in bed. Her mattress was more comfortable than what she was used to, allowing her to get the best sleep she's gotten in a while. She sat up and found the sun quietly rising out her window.
Not wishing to be loud, Violet quietly slipped out of the bed. Slipping into her clothes, Violet realized she only had the one set of day clothing with some sleepwear being provided by Velvet. 'I left my clothes at that Spider's safe house. Good thing I left my Phantom Thief gear with the others, there's no way I'll be able to get back in that safehouse,' she thought to herself. Without another sound, Violet made her way out of the room after making her bed and ventured out to the courtyard just before the sunrise.
She sat down in the lotus position, legs crossed, arms placed lightly in her lap, and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. As the warmth of the rising sun began to wash over her, Violet let it fuel the fire within her body and soul.
If she had learned anything from her Grandmother, it was how to meditate and center herself for the day. Thoughts of her Grandmother, of her home, filled her mind as she thought of her meditation lessons. She tried to cleanse her mind of such thoughts, but the floodgates had been opened. Thoughts of her Grandmother led to her recent training with her, which led to her defeat at the hands of the Ace Ops. This started an unrelenting recounting of everything that had gone wrong since she first became a Phantom Thief. Failed her mission, failed her friends, even failed to comply with The Spider's assignment.
She went to her grandmother for training after splitting up from the other Phantom Thieves but it didn't amount to much. So she came to Mistral in hopes of finding good opponents to sharpen her edge to only end up in debt to Lil' Miss Malachite. Being forced to work as her attack dog.
Unable to fully clear her mind, Violet growled and stood up before getting into the beginning stance for the one of the Mistralian Kata's she learned from her grandmother. If she couldn't meditate to quiet her mind, she would quiet it through exercise. Violet breathed deep before taking a step forward and initiating the kata. She let loose a series of strikes into an invisible opponent, effortlessly transitioning from offensive to defensive stances; keeping focus on her footing and balance.
After working through the kata, Violet brought in her arms, palms face down, and exhaled. As she settled her breathing, she noticed how hands were closed into fists. Violet stared at her fists with a look of concern and disappointment. She had long since trained herself to keep her aura control as precise as possible by only using her first two fingers on each hand. She hummed to herself and went through the forms again and caught her closed fists halfway through the rhino kata set, a series of moves used to break through an opponent's defenses with strong and continued jabs and kicks, and growled. "What is wrong with me?"
"Perhaps the discord in your mind is affecting you mentally and physically, Violet," said a voice behind her. Violet turned around and spotted Professor Lionheart standing behind her with a mug of steaming liquid.
"That might be the case."
"I wish I could help you but with the school being shut down, there's not much I can do." Lionheart walked over to her and handed her a large stack of Lien.
"What is this?"
"This is your payment for your role in the other night's events. The Academy has become extremely short-handed and there aren't many I can rely on right now so I appreciate you aiding Team CFVY in their dilemma."
"Thanks, but I didn't come there to help them out. They were just around my objective"
"I see." Lionheart took a sip from his mug as Violet examined the stack of Lien.
"Why are you giving me this much?"
"I received a call from an shared associate of ours and was made aware of your 'Spider' problem."
"Well, this should hopefully deal with it," Violet grunted and felt her stomach growl softly. "Do you know where the mess hall is?"
"No."
"Then I suggest you look at a map. You are still growing, after all. Have a good day, Violet." Violet watched the man leave and thought about both interactions with him. Lionheart gave her a weird feeling. Despite his seemingly calm composure, Violet felt like that wasn't the case.
Violet found a map around the campus and followed its directions to the mess hall where only a few people were eating since most of the school no longer there.
As she got her food, she found a familiar face under a pair of rabbit ears sitting alone at a table. "Good morning, hops." The bunny girl looked up, startled slightly, and calmed down, smiling as she saw Violet.
"Good Morning," The Faunus said.
"I didn't expect you to be up so early."
"I could say the same for you."
"It's become a habit for me to rise with the sun. It helps me harness my aura."
"Really?"
"Because of it my aura control is better than average." Violet conjured her aura on her hand, mesmerizing Velvet with its purple color.
"That must come in handy"
"No, I'm sure you can't." Violet looked at her food, eggs and bacon, and placed her palms together, closing her eyes in a silent prayer.
"What are you doing?" Velvet asked
Violet finished her prayer before turning to Velvet. "A prayer before eating. A custom from home I practice regularly."
"My teammate does the same thing. His name is Yatsuhashi."
As the two conversed, Velvet spotted a member of her team enter the mess hall, Coco. Spotting her, Coco got her food and went over to them. "Good morning, Coco."
"Morning." She sat across from her and started to eat a bowl of cereal.
"This is Violet."
"You're the one who helped us out with that scorpion Faunus, correct?" Coco asked.
"Yep, nice to formally meet you," Violet nodded.
"Same."
"Where's Fox?" Velvet asked
Team CFVY's Temporary Dorm
"Oh...my head" Yatsuhashi groaned in pain as he slowly got up from the place he was resting at, his head feeling like someone banged on it with a hammer multiple times.
He slowly opened his eyes and looked to see that he was back in his dorm.
"He's awake" A young voice spoke. Yatsuhashi recognized it to be Reese who was in the room with him.
Yatsuhashi turned to his right to see Arslan, Fox and Reese standing beside his bed, looking over the tired swordsman.
"How are you doing, Yatsuhashi?" Fox asked.
"I feel like someone used me as a target practice doll" Yatsuhashi groaned as he placed a hand on his head. "What happened?"
"You mean you don't remember last night?" Reese asked.
"Well, I remember going to that party, then I remember some guy covered in wine," Yatsuhashi recounted with his fingers. "Then...I think I took a drink and...Well, I can't really remember anything after that." He said.
"Anything?" Arslan asked.
"I do remember hugging someone" Yatsuhashi said as each memory slowly came back to him.
"That was me." Fox said, raising his hand up. "You were kind of emotional when you were drunk"
"I was drunk!?" Yatsuhashi exclaimed in shock before he recoiled back for yelling. "I guess you were right, Arslan" Yatsuhashi groaned.
"Indeed." Arslan nodded as she crossed her arms.
"I also told you this would happen." Reese said.
"I know." Yatsuhashi groaned in pain. "Anyway, sorry for doing that, Fox" He apologized. "It must've been real awkward.
"It was fine." Fox said. "It wasn't too bad. Plus, it was really the least of what you did last night."
Yatsuhashi's eyes snapped open at that as he slowly turned his head towards his teammate. "What?"
Fox pulled out an opened scroll for him to see. "Coco taped this last night and sent a copy to us."
"Yeah, it was a good thing she sent it to only us and didn't put it online." Reese said.
"Why!?" Yatsuhashi asked in a distressed tone. "What did she record!?" Yatsuhashi said as he took the scroll from Fox to quickly see what they were talking about. And what he saw shocked him very much.
"OH MY OUM!" Yatsuhashi exclaimed.
"Yep, that" Fox said.
"I did that!?"
Reese nodded in response. "Yep,"
"Ugh" Yatsuhashi moaned in pain and embarrassment over his actions last night. "Oh god...My father was right."
"Right about what?" Fox asked.
Yatsuhashi looked up from the video. "My father once told me that the men in our family shouldn't drink that much at parties. I didn't understand why...and now I do." He groaned.
The sounds of their doors knocking and opening came in as Velvet peaked her head out. "How's he doing?" She asked.
"About as well as you think" Fox said as the door opened, revealing Coco and rest of Team ABRN.
Yatsuhashi looked up to Coco with a distressed look. "I am so sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you all. I wasn't thinking. I was drunk and I know I shouldn't have-" Yatsuhashi rambled in a panicked tone.
"Its fine, Yatsuhashi" Coco said with a big grin. "In fact, that was the best part of my night!"
"Really?" Yatsuhashi said with a raised brow.
"Yeah!" Coco said. "Even Lionheart found it hilarious! Couldn't stop laughing to himself after he heard that song." Coco laughed while Fox rolled his eyes at her.
"Wait, Professor Lionheart was at the party" Yatsuhashi chuckled slightly.
"No, and brings another problem" Velvet said, making Yatsuhashi having that feeling of dread again. "It seems someone else at the party decided to record and share your...performance last night"
Yatsuhashi gave a loud groan as he placed his hands to his face. "I need an aspirin..." He groaned as he held his head in his hands, dreading for the rest of the day.
Team VVAD's Dorm Room
"I don't see what I did wrong." Axel stated.
"That's exactly the problem!" Daisy interjected.
"You're defending a Schnee! They're all just as bad as those we've stolen from!"
"That doesn't excuse what you tried to do!" Daisy grit her teeth now. "I don't know why you hate the Schnee family so much but-" she was cut off as Axel interjected.
"Do you know why I hate the Schnee's?! They've been discriminating against our kind for as long as I can remember. They steal from them, they hurt them.." he began. "Almost all of my memories of my mother's face is one of despair... Every time she returned from their mansion."
Vince and Daisy looked at Axel surprised when he mentioned this.
"Every day... My mother would come home with dead eyes." Axel balled his hand up into a fist.
"Axel..." Vince wanted to speak up, putting a hand on his teammate's shoulder but Axel continued.
"NO!" Axel stormed back over to Daisy. "Do you want to know why I hate the Schnee Family?! It's because they're all just a bunch of liars, thieves and MURDERERS!"
Daisy was shaking now as her eyes narrowed at Axel. "THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD STOOP TO THEIR LEVEL!"
She stopped at that moment when her emotional shaking had caused her hood to slip off her head, revealing her squirrel ears.
"I can't work with someone who's okay with going that far!" Daisy put her hood back up and immediately sprinted out of the dorm room.
"Wait" Vince went after her, trying to grab her arm to stop her, but his hand only went through Daisy's arm as she ran off and down the hall.
Axel's eyes were unreadable. "Daisy..."
Authors Note
Hey, I'm glad to be finally coming back to Thieves of Vale! Not sure I'll be able to regularly produce chapters but it will not be like the last few months.