Alright, Chapter 11. I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING in this story, it all belongs to their respective owners and you all know the drill by now.

Neo was a woman who was somewhat simple in her own opinion. She hated people, she was a professional and she was currently lying in her rented bed with a bored expression on her face with her weapon of choice leaning against the nearby dresser. Beside he was Rally who sat in a chair near the closed window, attending to her own devices she supposed.

Pink and brown eyes glanced at a clock on the wall; it was already going on eleven, by now the skies were probably dark and cloudy as she still hadn't felt anything around them. Rally sighed as she closed a book she was reading, a quick scan of the title was one on navigation, it was clear that while the other woman was decent in navigation, and she wasn't an expert.

Still, Neo would admit that she at the very least took it a bit more seriously than Jaune had so far, though she supposed that he also had his own thoughts on the subject. Neo closed her eyes, thinking back to their initial contract they made on a napkin of all things, in exchange for her help she would get a favor in return, while it seemed like it was simple, it was actually more to her benefit than she wondered if he thought.

Her goal was simple, to help him take down the Panda Family and take it over for herself. This would be simple if it was anything like Buso or what she heard about that Rein Zero guy from the two others. The only issue she could think of was numbers and intelligence. There were reasons that Roman and her used minions and grunts, there were reasons people like Cinder bothered with the White Fang when she could've decimated anyone at Beacon before it was overrun by Grimm.

Numbers were important, leading their odds three to… however many solders, grunts, executives and the likes the Panda Family actually had. And to make matters worse was that only Jaune and she could put up a decent fight. Nothing against Rally as it was…

But she was kind of weak, like probably weaker than Blondie back when they fought on the train, weak. At least Jaune had some actual training this time around, and she was more than confident in her skills, but the fact remained that they needed to even the odds if only a little.

'Jaune is decent I suppose, but he's still a little sloppy and a bleeding heart, the idiot really did fuck up by challenging these guys. And Rally is barely able to fight, she needs to get stronger if she's actually going to be any use to us beyond navigation purposes' Neo thought dismissively as she noticed Rally looking out the windows and peaking through the blinds.

"I don't see anything yet… Anko did say that those Kaima things did roam around at night, you think they'll actually show up?" the swordswoman asked nervously as Neo shrugged a bit uncaringly. Then again while she didn't have too much stake in this whole thing, they did agree to help out here.

She really hated the situation thought, however her distain was put aside as she noticed Rally looking at her with some hesitation, it was clear she wanted something. Rolling her eyes she got up and sat cross-legged on the bed as she addressed the other woman who blushed slightly, realizing she was caught staring.

"Oh… well… I was just wondering, what exactly is Remnant like?" she asked curiously as Neo blinked in confusion at the question. "I know you uh… might not want to get into it, but all I know are from what Jaune says" she said as Neo rolled her eyes. If that was the case then why not ask him that? "And Jaune barely tells me anything about it" she continued as Neo frowned, she knew what the angle was. Better to get information from the mute hit-woman over someone like Jaune.

Seriously, that was kind of stupid in hindsight, especially when she couldn't talk, even before the whole eating the fruit thing. Still, it wasn't like she had anything else to do with her time. She might as well nip it in the bud while they were at it, that way whenever someone else asked she could point them towards Rally to play twenty questions with.

Still, she felt like she needed to remind the other woman one crucial detail, Neo's finger making their way up and pointing to her throat was a clear indication as she gave the swordswoman pirate-wannabe a flat expression. To her interest however, she noticed Rally pull something out, it was a pen a note pad. Looking at her confused, Neo saw a nervous smile before silently taking the note pad and flipping through it.

She noticed it was already written on, just things like supplies and stuff from probably before she joined them. Finding a blank page, the pink and brown haired woman began to draw out some of her musings, thinking about how the best way to describe it would be. Sure she could've just written down the basics and ended it with "Why Remnant Sucks" but eh, she'd play along for now.

'Remnant is a place filled with aura, dust and monsters called Grimm. Grimm are soul-less creatures that attack and kill humans' she thought bitterly as she remembered Roman's fate. Rally noticed the way she wrote in the note pad was a bit more aggressive than how a normal person would write. 'There are people called huntsman and huntresses that fight off the Grimm with dust and weapons to protect the kingdoms and for unity and stuff.'

The more she wrote down, the more uneasy Rally grew until Neo finished and handed it over to her. Taking it back, Rally read it with a bit of curiosity until she turned to Neo confused. "An immortal Grimm woman?" she asked as Neo nodded, recalling Salem well enough. "…And that Cinder person was a maiden or something?" Rally asked again as Neo frowned but nodded. "I take it she's the one who caused so much damage then" Rally said to herself as Neo sighed.

Cinder Fall was a bitch but was someone who actually managed to fuck up more than Jaune's and her lives. Who knew how many other people suffered, not like she really cared all too much about it. Still, Cinder was a bitch and hopefully she was a dead one. Roman was avenged, by Red of all people from what Jaune said.

'Then again he could've been hallucinating… he was on fire and near death' Neo thought with a slight frown. Still, she would admit that throwing a relic into the void was one hell of a way to fuck her over. 'Heh, if she didn't die then I bet her boss would kill her' Neo thought gleefully and with a bit of sadistic pleasure as she recalled her message. Oh it was all of the small things in the worlds now…

"…Do you know what Jaune was like?" Rally asked as Neo turned to her with a frown,"I m just curious. I mean I know it's not any of my business but I know he might not want to talk about it and from what I could tell…" she trailed off as Neo sighed in annoyance. She was really playing gossip with her now?

'She really thinks I know much about him, I didn't even remember his name until I fought him in Atlas' she thought before crossing her arms, best describing him. 'Well… from what I actually do remember of him, he was an idiot, a bleeding heart, somehow survived initiation with those barely usable skills he had and didn't have down a semblance name. It was clear he faked his way in, or was just really lucky he survived. Hell the fact he managed to last as long as he did was impressive, especially since he apparently fought Cinder twice' she thought as she brought a hand to her chin.

Come to think of it, he really was lucky, wasn't he? From what she knew about him, he managed to become partners with the so-called Goddess of Victory known as Pyrrha Nikos, who had a thing for him at that. Then he managed to escape Beacon unscathed, just losing the person who loved him. Neo frowned as she could vaguely see what he meant when he said they were similar now; she shook her head and went back to the thoughts.

'Emerald mentioned that she and Jaune met again at Haven, with Jaune apparently fighting Cinder one on one for a bit, despite how he was decimated by her. Yet for some unknown reason, she spared him, she could've killed him at Haven, but chose the Schnee heiress instead. And to make matters stranger, she attacked the heiress in a way that allowed Jaune to save her with his semblance.

A semblance he had just discovered right then and there if what Mercury said was anything to go on.

And then there was the fact that she was discovered and struck by that kid back in Atlas when she was more than prepared to attack him and the other two to escape with the relic. Yeah, sure they had apparently escaped but also survived a blast from said kid's cane that blew up a giant whale to smithereens, hell she thought she was going to die when the blast hit.

And he was near ground zero, and was unharmed at all?

And who knew what else he went through… she overheard something about them stealing a ship from Argus and escaping, something about a Geist that he fought without a weapon? There were a few other things that were brought up when she disguised herself as a SDC maid. She was waiting for a chance to kill Ruby but couldn't find a right timing for it.

'Seriously, Jaune and Red either have the best luck or the worst luck in the world' she thought annoyed as she came back to her senses. Seeing Rally looking at her, she sighed. Instead of answering, she merely transformed into Jaune with her semblance as Rally sighed.

"Yeah, I know I should just ask him… sorry for bothering you about it" she said as Neo nodded, undoing her illusion and looking back at the clock with a bored expression. Meanwhile, Jaune was in a separate room across the hall. Saints rested against the bed-frame as he tried to think about the whole thing that happened to them.

'Amachi… Kaima… Vegapunk… this whole thing is just insane' he thought as he tried to think of something else. Hell why did this stuff always happen to him? He thought back to what Anko said to them, about their deal, his eyes drifting to a lone snail on the dresser nearby with the swordsman frowning, recalling the deal with Anko they all made.

Sitting around the small room that their current host had given them on her tab, Jaune and the others looked at the purple-haired woman with caution. Said woman currently sat down in a chair with her arms crossed as her chair was near the farthest end of the square-shaped room. In front of her were Jaune, Neo and Rally, each of which had their hands resting on their weapons, not yet drawn or extended unless they needed to.

With Jaune in the middle, he decided to ask the first question while Rally looked at the white snake that lay on the bed, coiled up and giving them a blunt stare. "So, what exactly did you mean by "Fishing. More so what does that have to do with those monsters we encountered on that ship?" Jaune asked as his shoulder was still a little damaged from the thing's bite, Anko however frowned and crossed her arms while knowing that what she was about to do would've been a little against the code.

"I'll start from the beginning, as I said the name is Anko, the single and sexy bounty hunter of the South Blue" she said with a smirk as Jaune tried not to blush, Neo rolled her eyes but stayed only somewhat interested. Truth be told she was curious about the monsters, where they human or something else entirely. Neo was not one to be scared, even by the unknown, especially of the unknown after she saw for herself what kind of monster Salem was.

But those things, they just didn't seem right at first; they were like the Grimm over anything else she had seen. It wasn't fear, it wasn't hesitance, and it was unease. And those things could make anyone uneasy…

"And what I need you to help me with is to track down the person making those monsters" she said as that made the trio look at her curiously, if not a little fearfully in Rally's case.

"Make those… what do you mean by that?" the swordswoman asked as the purple-haired bounty hunter sighed. Looking out the window, she frowned as she thought of it. "A few months ago, a lab of a man named Doctor Vegapunk was broken into and several research documents were taken from the scene, the culprit is a scientist known as Dr. Amachi, or just Amachi now for short" she explained as she had no reason to call that mad man a doctor of any sort other than quack.

"Vegapunk… that name sounds somewhat familiar" Jaune said to himself, trying to remember where he heard that name before, Neo shrugged it off while Rally was curious.

"I never actually heard of that name before… is he famous?" she asked as Anko turned to her with a shocked expression before remembering where she was.

"Right, forgot we're in the South Blue… he isn't that recognizable outside the Grand Line" she said as Rally grew curious. "Doctor Vegapunk is a scientist enlisted by the World Government. He is the head of the scientific division" she said as Jaune snapped his fingers, recalling what Miles had mentioned about the man.

"Isn't he that guy who was able to figure out things about devil fruits and stuff like that?" Jaune asked the woman who smiled.

"Yep, he's a genius when it comes to that. He figured out how to grant inanimate objects the power of Zoan type fruits and a few other projects… but I guess that's a good place to start I suppose" she said as she crossed her arms. "Now, tell me, what exactly does a devil fruit do? Actually, how does it affect them?" she asked like a teacher talking to her class while Jaune gave her a flat look.

"Gives someone a super power or ability such as matter generation, elemental manipulation or transforms them into an animal?" Jaune more asked confused why she would as that. Neo was also confused, while not being personally trained to learn this type of information she at the very least knew about some of the common things like that, even if many people considered them rare or a myth.

"I meant on a more scientific level… such as a their DNA" she elaborated with her own flat look and dry tones as Jaune said nothing, trying to play innocent to not cause any suspicion. He wasn't a scientist and he only knew about this stuff from Miles talking about it. He didn't exactly trust this woman either considering that not many people know about how the devil fruits impact someone on a cellular level.

Seeing the confusion, she nodded. "A devil fruit effects something called the Lineage Factor, it's a mutation of that which supposedly grants you the powers of the fruit. Dr. Vegapunk developed a means of experimenting and learning about it, more accurately how mutations can effect specific changes. From the research notes that Amachi had taken it seems he was able to replicate part of that process" she said as Rally spoke up in disbelief.

"Wait, are you telling me that those monsters are devil fruit users?!" she asked as Anko shook her head.

"Those are what we are currently calling, Kaima; humans who went through the process of having their DNA mutated in an artificial way. Dr. Vegapunk thought he could mutate one's genetic structure to be more suitable to water, allowing them to move freely in the water and act as better fighters against both pirates and in particular, fruit users" she said as Jaune frowned.

"He changed their DNA to have super solders?" Jaune asked with a small glare as Anko nodded.

"That was one of the intensions but as you can tell the whole thing didn't pan out too well. After the first few volunteers began to go on a rampage the project was shut down, Vegapunk destroyed all of the evidence and forbid anyone from continuing that work" she said. Jaune frowned at the way she worded it. He destroyed all of the evidence? Bullshit, if that Amachi person managed to find documents on it.

"Yeah, for some reason there were still some notes in a backup lab he forgot about, and Amachi was an assistant in the project, he claimed it was going to be his life work, when it shut down, you can imagine how he would've reacted to that."

"That's awful, those monsters were people…" Rally said with a frown before it turned into a glare, "And he said that was his life's work? He's continuing it?!" she shouted as Neo glared at the thought as well. Jaune clenched a hand into a fist as he closed his eyes while trying to calm down. From what he heard about that Hound Grimm from the others, it had them rattled but according to them it was partly human. It was horrifying to see a monster like that speak, it was unnerving to see it have sentience, knowing it was a human hybrid made it all the more horrific…

'Amachi… he's turning people into monsters… no better than what Salem apparently did' he thought as he heard Anko speak up again.

"That was why the experiment was shut down, out of the initial eight subjects, the only one… never mind, the point I'm trying to make here is that Amachi is continuing this research, and we think that Umibozu Island is the current base of operations. Which is why, I'm tasked into taking him in and eliminating the assets as it were" she said as Jaune narrowed his eyes.

"You know, you seem to know a lot for a bounty hunter, are you a friend of Vegapunk's or something?" he asked as he was feeling like she knew more than she should. Anko however gave him a small grin. Before he knew it, she stood up and vanished in a burst of speed. 'T-That's-'

"You seem to be quite the curious one~" she purred in his ear as Rally and Neo turned their heads and saw Anko with a kunai pointed at Jaune's jugular, in a position to kill him anytime she desired. Neo glared but a hissing was heard as she saw the white snake rise up, glaring at them while readying to attack if needed. "But I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised, it's only fair" she said as she moved the blade away from his throat and twisted it in her hand. "Let's just say that I am a very… particular bounty hunter with my own secrets… similar secrets to your own perhaps, Mr. Rokushiki?" she asked with a knowing grin.

At that, Jaune froze as she called him out on his fighting style; Rally was worried as it was clear that Anko was clearly capable of using that one move. Neo glared but was confused by what she was talking about, her interest further increased when she saw the blond swordsman pale up as he did.

"H-how do you…?" he started as Anko gave him a small laugh in return.

"You think we didn't have someone report you taking on Buso, or the fact that you used a marine-fighting style in public without any proper connections? We did a background check, no marine named John Ark is currently found, which is rather curious how a possible unknown is capable of using our fighting style" she said as Jaune narrowed his eyes.

"Is it that important, maybe I just learned it from someone and they didn't say" he said as Anko nodded a bit too dramatically as well.

"Well I suppose, but learning what was considered a higher-tier technique for Shigan, the Rankyaku, Tekkai and Soru?! Tell me, Blondie, what exactly went through your head when you basically call out your own attacks, especially when it is a fighting style that isn't known by anyone outside the marines?" she asked as Jaune said nothing.

"…Jaune-?" Rally began to ask as Jaune cried in his hands, realizing his fatal mistake.

"God damn it, I fucked up, badly!" he shouted as he came to terms with what she just said. Neo was staring at him in disbelief; he really used some kind of marine-only technique, openly, and used higher variations of it? A thought came to her mind, a thought that Anko had said to confirm her sudden thought.

"Why exactly do you think you have thirty-million to your name?" she asked as she shrugged. "I mean an unknown guy with no background in the marines using something like the Rokushiki was bound to get noticed and start asking questions. Not only that but there's also the second factor here" she said as she turned to Neo who narrowed her eyes. "Your friend here seems to be a rather curious woman as well… we got some eye witness reports from the few marines she hadn't killed off and they all said it was strange. Your abilities, what exactly are they?" she asked.

Neo glared and was ready to attack before she was restrained by Kabuto wrapping around her and looking at his master curiously, Anko sighed while she noticed Jaune and Rally pull out their blades.

"Enough, Kabuto. Let her go" she ordered as the snake did nothing but comply. Neo managed to take advantage of that and pulsed her aura, sending it off of her fully as it fell to the ground, she was about to kill it with a gun made from her abilities before Anko held her hand and seemed curious, quickly realizing she had something in her hand. "Oh~" she said as she managed to use haki and wrestle away the object from the woman, Neo glared as the gun disappeared, upset that she allowed the woman to get the drop on her. Before she could do anything else, Jaune appeared between them as Kabuto recovered.

"Enough… Neo, stand down…" he said as Neo looked at him, ready to turn her sights on him until she saw the look in his eyes, a look that was then shown to the bounty hunter. "And you… I don't know what your game here is… but if you attack or try anything with my friends…" he threatened as his aura began to build, Neo looked at it and could tell he was angry at the woman while Rally said nothing throughout the whole ordeal but nodded, ready to fight if she had to protect Jaune and Neo.

"…Alright then… Kabuto, stand down now!" she ordered as she saw the anger, the over-protectiveness in his eyes. 'This guy… he seemed rather harmless a second ago… now…' she thought as she knew stalling would end in a fight between them. "Let's just cut to the chase" she said as Jaune and Neo glared. "If you help me fight and bring Amachi to justice… then not only will you be helping stop him from experimenting on others but you'll be helping us put an end to a mistake on our part" she said as she gave him a small grin. "You'll also have my word that I won't try anything with you… but trust me when I say that you two are rather interesting in their eyes" she said as Jaune kept his glare up.

"…Noted, give us a minute to talk about it" he said as she nodded. Walking out of the room, she opened the door as Kabuto followed her out, slithering across the floor as the woman closed the door behind them. As Jaune closed his eyes he took a deep breath as Rally looked at him in concern. Neo however was curious why he acted like that. Why did he want to intervene like that? Did he want to play peacekeeper or did she think she couldn't defend herself. "Neo, are you alright?" he asked as she noticed the hostility in his eyes slowly fade to that of a usual warmness he usually had.

"I-I don't think I ever saw you like that before…" Rally commented as Neo silently agreed, "Jaune… are you the one alright?" she asked as Jaune looked at her with a small hint of sadness. He sighed before sheathing Saints and looking at her with a smile.

"I made a promise that I would protect my friends… and as long as we're traveling together, I don't see why we can't be…" he said as Rally nodded while Neo frowned. Was he that naïve, she was helping him only because she wanted to accomplish her own goals, they weren't friends, they were allies, partners to an extent.

'Still… I didn't think he even had a glare like that… he didn't have that in Atlas, that's for damn sure' she thought as she went more into a passive state and withdrew her own weapon's hidden blade. Crossing her arms, she waited for what their next goal was.

"So, what now?" Rally asked as Jaune said nothing. A moment of thinking came and went before he sighed.

"For now… I think we should help her out" he said as Neo gave him a glare, clearly not willing to help the purple-haired bitch but seeing him look at her with a stern expression made her hold her tongue, waiting for whatever reasoning he had. "If she is right and this Amachi guy is turning people into those things, he needs to be taken care of, and fast" he said as Rally frowned.

"I don't trust her, Jaune. As far as we know she could be in cahoots with him" the brown-haired woman said as Jaune sighed.

"Yeah, but the way I look at it if we do and she's against us we can at the very least fight her off and deal with Amachi ourselves, Neo can take on those Kaima things-" he said as Neo glared, she wanted the purple-haired bitch, not a bunch of mindless scaly monsters. "-We can make something work, still I'm not going to just trust her. Right now we should play this out more and wait to see what happens" he said as Neo growled but nodded.

Because as much as she wanted to stab the woman through, Neo knew that those Kaima things were nothing to laugh at. If she was going to be in charge of the Panda Family after taking it for her own she was going to make sure that something like Amachi was dealt with before it wound up becoming a larger mess

"…Fine, I'll trust you, Jaune. But I'm not a fan of this" she said as Jaune nodded. Looking at Neo, she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, not willing to be friends with the snake woman but fine, for now she's play along. But if she accidently stabbed the snake or the owner of said snake, then she wouldn't be held accountable.

Sighing, he nodded and left the room, seeing Anko waiting for him. "So, you three decide?" she asked as Jaune sighed.

"Yeah, we'll help… however if you try anything funny-" Jaune started as Anko rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I get it… don't worry, I'll behave. My orders are more important than playing around with you three, and I am mostly a woman of my word so like I said, if you help me then-"

"Then you let us go" Rally said annoyed as she looked at Jaune. 'I know Jaune wants to help, but still… something isn't right here' she thought as Jaune held out his hand to shake as Anko gripped it tightly, an alliance was set to go after Amachi. With that, came the next question.

"So, where do we even begin?" Jaune asked as Anko smiled at the question.

"Funny you should ask, I did a little bit of digging earlier today and I found something rather interested, these Kaima seem to be attacking this island but also boats around it" she said as Jaune quirked an eyebrow.

"Meaning what?" he asked as she pointed to a small ship barely visible from the outside, it was around the same size as the one Neo took with her on her trip, and with that a small quirk of an eyebrow from said silent assassin begged for an elaboration

"We have two ways to track them… first thing is they are more active during the night or close to it, my guess is they're nocturnal. Second is that sometimes they poke around town" she said as Rally stared in disbelief.

"Seriously, they're walking around town?!" she screamed after a second or two of silence as Anko seemed unaffected by the scream.

"Yeah, apparently they've been taking the towns people, and ship that tries to leave often gets tagged and followed, safe to say that unless you're strong enough to handle them you aren't going to get away from them" she said with a frown. "Not only that but they're also aquatic, they can manipulate water and are probably the strongest in it, so stay on land unless you have a death wish."

"Okay, but how exactly does that work… if they're like other fruit users, shouldn't they be unable to swim?" Jaune asked as she did compare them to the eaters of said fruit. Anko however frowned at that.

"I said they were made by a similar process, not that they were the same, though I have heard a story that one of them did eat a fruit after it was fully transformed like that… it wasn't pretty" she said as she visibly flinched at the memory, the fact that it was similar to eating two fruits made it rather worrying. And messy, very messy and annoying to get out of your hair as the snake woman sadly discovered.

"…I'm not going to even ask" Jaune said simply as Neo crossed her arms, pointing at the boat and holding her finger up, when she pointed at the room they were staying in she held up a second. Anko seemed confused but slowly thought she understood what the woman said.

"Yeah, we have two different means of finding them. And after that is just a matter of either having Kabuto track them or finding out where they initially came from. Also I tried looking around the island, not many places they could be hiding since its all just forest" she said as Rally frowned.

"What about the caves, I mean from what I heard the Umibozu was the one who lived there and struck ships from under the tunnels" she said as Anko frowned a little.

"We already checked those too, Kabuto didn't find anything, so wherever they are they aren't there" she said as Jaune frowned.

"Alright… then what, do we lay a trap and wait for a bite?" he asked as Anko nodded.

"Yep, I'll be taking the ship route but I need someone to be here to see if they take this route, if we're lucky one of us will get the lead we need" she said as Jaune nodded, they were bait to lure them out, that was great the swordsman thought sarcastically as Neo frowned.

"What about Amachi?" Rally asked as Anko nodded before reaching into her coat pocket, pulling out a small picture of the man in question.

"This is the man we're looking for, he's a scientist who also has eaten a fruit called the Peto-Peto no Mi" she said as they were confused. "Long story short it makes someone able to control others with slime-like collars, which is another reason I'd like some backup. Thankfully if you break the collar you can free the person being controlled" she finished as Jaune nodded.

'I see… so that's why, more people means more traps. Plus if she did get trapped in it one of us could probably free her' he thought as Neo was curious on how that worked out. Rally said nothing but was worried as Kabuto hissed slightly as Anko looked over to the snake and patted him on the head.

"So, any questions?" she asked as Jaune did ask one of his own.

"Yeah, you said that those Kaima are people that this Amachi experimented on, is there any way to reverse that?" he asked as Anko shrugged.

"Not sure, if they still have their mind then it might be possible, but it might be better to eliminate them as a whole" she said as she looked at him with a serious expression on her face. "Trust me, I can't say that returning them to normal is possible if they're too far gone, the only one that might be possible is… but she might be dead by now" she said as Rally was confused.

"She?" she asked as Anko nodded.

"As I said before, the initial batch all lost their minds… all but one anyways. A woman managed to maintain her mind; she was considered the actual success. However, Amachi managed to kidnap her to make those things, those new Kaima are different than the first models" she said as Jaune frowned. Putting aside the fact that she called the people who became mindless monsters "Models" he was curious about the second possibility.

"What does this woman look like?" he asked as Anko shrugged.

"No idea, all I know is that Amachi managed to smuggle her out and continue experiments in making those things with her. It honestly might be possible that we can stop him if we take her out as well" she said as Jaune frowned. "Anyways, it's getting late, you can use this to reach me if you find a lead" she said as she reached into her pocket to pull out a small snail-like creature with a strange dial. It was the same size of the crushed one from the ship as Rally took it.

"This is… a den-den mushi?" Rally asked as she saw Anko nod.

"Yep, simply dial the number on the back of the shell and let me know if you see anything" she said before leaving, waving at them as she left. "Good luck" she said as she left the hallway and possibly the building. Seeing where she disappeared, Rally looked at the snail confused before looking at Jaune and Neo. Neo was more interested in the snail, currently eyeing it with some interest.

"…So, what now?" the brown-haired woman asked as Jaune sighed. It was going to be one hell of a night.

Jaune sighed, kicking himself in the ass for being so reckless using the Rokushiki, especially against the marines, especially when it was clear that Buso wasn't just a normal captain if he was working on some kind of project. Miles was right when he said he was going to cause some trouble when he left. Slowly, realization dawned on the swordsman, slowly his eyes widened as slowly he voiced his thoughts.

"…He knew" Jaune said simply as he was unsure if he was over thinking it or not 'That asshole knew this would've happened, he had to before he trained me!' Jaune thought as he twitched the more he thought about it. 'Oh, I give you a week or so… he knew I would use Rokushiki so blatantly, it was all we trained in other than swordplay, he knew I would use it and get caught. And I can't just say I learned it from him either. Even if they believed me, they would ask questions about how I got to Dusk Island in the first place.'

He could lie, he could do who knew what else, but he had a feeling Miles had a plan for that. Jaune buried those thoughts however and sighed deeply into his hand, a hand that clenched onto his face from his nose being at the center of the palm. And now the entire World Government knows, that was just great, wasn't it?

"Whatever can't change it now, right? Besides, I might as well just be a pirate like Miles and Ryos said" Jaune muttered as he got out of bed and walked towards the bathroom. It was late and he was nearing another all-nighter. He was tired despite his aura helping him stay awake. It was only as soon as he turned on the light that he heard something inside the room begin to ring.

Turning to see the snail, his eyes narrowed before moving over to the dresser and picking up the strange device on the shell. "Uh, hello?" he asked as he heard Anko on the other line.

"Hey, Blondie… we got a hit, I'm tracking one of them now with Kabuto, get the other two and get ready" she said as the call ended. Jaune frowned before grabbing Saints and running to the shared room. Knocking on the door, he was happy to see Rally open it.

"What's wrong, we get a hit?" she asked as Jaune nodded.

"Yeah, she just called, we're heading out now so let's get going" he said as Rally and Neo both nodded before grabbing their own weapons and making their way outside. Reaching the door wasn't the issue however as much as what awaited them. Opening the door, they were greeted with something in the distance, something familiar.

Jaune frowned, Neo glared, Rally shivered, a Kaima looked at the trio and roared.

Neo grinned and made her way to fight it, forming a pistol in hand. She knew what it was and what she had to do, and Jaune nodded, griping Saints and pulling it out. He hated killing but now there was nothing they could do for them. At least they could end the suffering however, and with that, the battle began.

Elsewhere, Anko was annoyed as she brought up a kunai and slashed it through the monster's torso, the Kaima giving out a wailing cry as if fell dead to her feet with a thud. Behind her was Kabuto, biting into another Kaima with his poisonous fangs and tossing it aside, something that seemed impossible to accomplish for a normal snake. "Tch, hope Arc and the others got the call…" she complained as she wiped the red blood off of her weapon and looked around.

Seeing some of the Kaima beginning to retreat, she smirked before turning towards her pet. "Kabuto, go" she said as the snake hissed at her command, delving into the ocean waves to follow the monsters that began to escape from his master. Anko sighed as she turned back to the village with a frown. She could hear the sounds of fighting in there and ran back to give them a hand. 'Kabuto can handle himself, let's see how well those three can actually fight' she thought as she moved onwards to join the action.

"Shigan: Oren/ Finger Pistol: Yellow Lotus!" Jaune shouted as he delivered several finger jabs at one of the Kaima before reeling his fist back. "Jugon/ Stern Beast!" Jaune shouted as he sent it flying back before Neo delivered the final blow, appearing next to it from her illusion and shooting it in the head with aura enhanced bullets.

Sensing another one behind him, Jaune swung Saints and sliced open the Kaima's torso, causing it to stagger before jumping back. Now having distance, Jaune brought back his foot and delivered a Rankyaku into the exposed body of the Kaima, causing it to collapse. "Well this is going great, Neo, Rally?" he asked to check in as Neo nodded.

'I'm not dead yet' she thought as she noticed Rally avoiding the Kaima she was facing and getting in some hits on her opponent. 'So far so good, this is the last of it hopefully' she thought with a small grin as she shot the Kaima that Jaune was facing, ending the battle. As Jaune avoided the shot, he turned to the Kaima facing Rally and sheathed Saints only to quickly unsheathe it.

"Rally, get down!" Jaune shouted as the girl noticed what the Arc was going to do and dove out of the way. As the quick-draw's pressurized air shot out, the Kaima cried out in pain as Rally managed to avoid the attack entirely. Shortly, the Kaima fell into two pieces, bisected in half by the attack. Jaune sighed as Neo seemed interested in the attack but focused on Rally, who was panting.

"You know… I really need to learn how to fight better" she complained as she noticed Jaune approaching her. Holding out a hand, she smiled and took it, being helped up as Neo crossed her arms. "Thanks for the help…" Rally said as Jaune nodded before turning to where Anko was, the sounds of clapping filling the air as the purple-haired woman smiled at the three of them.

"Not bad, still, we have a few more issues here" she said as Rally frowned at hearing that.

"What issues?" she asked as Anko motioned towards the shoreline.

"I have Kabuto tracking some of the escaping Kaima, so I'll know where to find them. Can you three still fight?" she asked as Neo nodded without hesitation, Jaune following suite despite his earlier injury still not fully healed. Rally was uncertain but nodded with some conviction as Anko smiled.

"Good, then follow me, if we're lucky we can end this tonight" she said as she made her way towards the ocean with Jaune and Neo following. Rally paused for a moment but followed regardless, having a bad feeling about this.

And there we go, a bit of a shorter chapter this time, but with that, there we go. Hope you enjoyed it.