And we're back! I honestly wasn't expecting this chapter to become as long as it did, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Hopefully it makes up for the shorter chapters last time!

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 26: The Hunter's Guild

Tuesday. 3:20 P.M., Darius Mountain Pass

With another thunderous release of One For All, All Might crushed the head of an Ursa Major beneath his fist. The shockwave sent the accompanying wave of Beowolves flying into the air, dissipating into a smokey cloud before they even reached the apex of their flight. Out of those smokey clouds flew a swarm of juvenile Nevermores. Before they were even within twenty feet of him, the Number One Hunter had blasted them away with a Beacon Smash. He had no time to celebrate though, as a Goliath was now charging straight at him.

All Might dug his feet into the ground as the beast charged, meeting it head-on and grabbing it by its tusks. He was pushed back several yards, but eventually he stopped the monster's assault. He took a deep breath, channeling the power of his soul into his arms before ripping off both tusks. Before the Goliath could even respond to this, All Might crossed his arms in front of his face and unleashed an Argus Smash, cracking the Grimm's armor plating. He reeled back his fist in an attempt to finish it off, but an Alpha Beowolf jumped in and bit his left arm, razor-sharp teeth digging into his Golden Aura.

Seeing that more Grimm were closing in on his position, Toshinori leapt backward into the air away from them. He tugged the Alpha off of his arm and threw it into the ground, the beast eviscerating on impact. When he landed, he did so behind a two-line formation of Atlesian Knight - 200s, armed to the teeth with advanced weaponry by Ironwood, alongside two Paladins.

All Might wipped a speck of blood from the corner of his mouth, steam beginning to rise from his hand.

Shit! We're probably only a third of the way through the horde! I won't even make it halfway at this rate! Before he could think of any plan, his ears were filled with the sound of metal being crunched. He turned, only to see a massive King Taijitu had destroyed one of the Paladin's legs in one jaw and had crushed an arm with the other. Reinforcements of AK - 200s poured in, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. The narrow section of the pass only went on for another mile and a half. If they couldn't kill every last Grimm in time, then the beasts would spill out into the DEVs. Thousands would die and Vale would be crippled. If I put every last ounce of One For All into this I can probably do it, but the plan to kill All For One won't work without me! This is the worst case-

"You look like you're in a sticky situation, big guy." The voice in All Might's earpiece made him pause, both because someone was talking to him and that the person talking shouldn't even be in Vale yet. "You're gonna wanna back away from the front line. Way, waaaay, back."

All Might grimaced. "What the hell are you saying, H-"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

The ground and the mountains shook as an overwhelming explosion erupted from above him. All Might looked up to see a massive avalanche of rocks falling down both mountainsides. Without another thought, he began sprinting away, leaping over Ironwood's machines as he did so. After only a few seconds, he felt the impact of the rocks behind him, a massive wave of dust and debris kicking itself up and following right behind the Number One Hunter. After a solid minute of running, Toshinori turned back and swiped at the dust storm, sending it flying back with the force of One For All. The narrow pass had been completely covered up by the avalanche, crushing both Grimm and Robot indiscriminately and leaving it unnavigable.

All Might heard the flapping of wings behind him. "It's an extreme solution for sure, but Ozpin didn't want to leave anything to chance. When I told him the Guild could give me enough explosives to do this he gave me the green light right away."

Toshinori sighed as he reverted to his normal form. "One of you could've at least given me a head up."

"Sorry about that. It was last minute and I couldn't afford to waste any time planting the bombs."

"I suppose that's fair enough." Toshinori turned around and craned his neck up to look at the familiar visage of a young member of the Hunter's Guild. "Regardless, it's nice to see you again, Keigo."

Avalon, 3:30 P.M.

"We're searching now?" Jaune asked as he, his teammates, and their professor exited the wall of the village, stepping out into a small grassy field about thirty yards away from a dense forest.

"That's correct. While it's possible a lead may still surface from within the village, at this point I think it's fair to consider that our missing Hunter's died outside the walls. They were stationed at that watchtower there-" Aizawa pointed behind them at a small octahedron-shaped structure atop the wall. "-meaning that if they found something and ran off to chase after it, they probably would've headed somewhere in this direction."

"Aww yeah, we're finally takin' the initiative!" Nora pumped her fist in excitement.

"The other watchtowers aren't too far away." Ren said, looking to their left and right. "For the other Hunters not to have seen them leave, they must've gone directly into the forest."

"Good deduction." Aizawa nodded. "We'll fan out into a V-formation with me at the point. Stay within earshot of whoever's close in the formation, and make sure to keep your Scrolls on at all times. The second you find any sign of our missing Hunters or anything else out of the ordinary, you say so. Got it?" JNPR nodded. "Good, let's move."

They scoured the forest, searching for whatever clues they could find. For the first thirty minutes, they found nothing except for the occasional wildlife. To their surprise, they found no Grimm in the area, not even the smallest sign of a newborn Beowolf. However, their luck soon turned around.

"I've got footprints." At Pyrrha's words, everyone converged on her position. Once they were all assembled she pointed towards three sets of footprints in the ground. "That's one for each of our missing hunters and one for our mystery assailant." She said.

"Nice job, Pyrrha!" Jaune said.

"It was nothing." She responded with a smile.

"Let's go. Make sure not to step on them. This could be our only lead, so we can't afford to disturb them." Aizawa said.

"Time to break some legs!" Nora cheered. Team JNPR moved forward and followed the footprints, with Aizawa trailing slowly behind him. As the veteran Hunter followed his pupils, he couldn't help but be distracted by the treeline above them.

Broken branches? The further along the trail they went the more and more of them he saw. They were never major brakes in larger branches, always in smaller ones. Had he only seen one or two of them, he would've imagined it was just a coincidence. But the fact that they kept showing up…

"The hell?" Nora's open question brought Aizawa out of his train of thought. He looked ahead to see that the footprints lead into a circular clearing in the middle of the forest about fifty meters in diameter. The only thing in the entire clearing was a building sitting directly in the center.

"A cottage?" Ren asked.

"Is this normal for Vale?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune shook his head. "Maybe, but if there was one out here, it would definitely have some sort of path leading back to the village. But this… something isn't right with this."

The cottage was a small, one-story windowless building with a greenish-grey exterior made out of wood. There were no signs of life around it; no objects left outside, no garden. Even the wildlife seemed to avoid it, with there being no signs of animals throughout the entire clearing. It didn't even have bushes or vines growing along the sides of it.

The longer they looked at it, the more they got the feeling this thing did not belong here.

Aizawa wrapped a hand around his scarf. "Stay close."

With a creak, Aizawa pushed open the door to the cottage, ready to activate his Semblance at a moment's notice. Peeking his head in, he was met with darkness. What little light managed to leak in from the door revealed a cold, gray floor and walls, appearing more like a bunker than a cottage. Not sensing any presence, he slowly stepped in, Jaune, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha falling in behind him. With walls to their left and front, the only option was an immediate right. Noticing a light switch on the wall, Jaune attempted to flick it on, only for nothing to happen.

"No power." He whispered.

"Figures. Ren, light." The teen nodded at his teacher's orders, holstering a pistol before bringing out his Scroll and shining a light in front of them.

The first thing they saw was a small pool of dried blood on the floor.

Aizawa grimaced. "Nikos, use Aura Sensing. Make the radius as large as you can while keeping it stable. Arc, if anything gets past me, you're the next line of defense. If things go south, leave me behind and get back to the village as quickly as possible."

"We're not leaving you behind!" Nora said.

"Don't be irrational, we have to make sure word gets back no matter what. Now come on." Aizawa began moving forward. JNPR exchanged worried glances but followed close behind him.

"Still not getting anything." Pyrrha said as they rounded the first corner, turning left to find themselves met with another corridor, even longer than the first. There were four doors in sight, two on the right, one on the left, and one at the end of the hallway. After a brief pause, Aizawa motioned to the first door on the right. They quickly moved in front of it, surrounding it on all sides. Aizawa grabbed the handle and looked back at his students who silently nodded at him. He nodded in turn before quickly opening the door, activating his Semblance as he did so.

The five of them rushed in to find a large pantry. Each wall was lined with shelves stacked with no perishable food. A thin layer of dust covered most of it all, except for a few key places where a small dustless area rested. Aizawa quickly took it all in. Though the room was empty, someone definitely took food from here recently.

They could still be here.

Before JNPR had enough time to process what they'd seen, Aizawa darted back out of the room and into the hallway. They quickly moved to follow him, only to find him already at the next door, this one on the left. By the time he reached them, he'd already opened the door. This time they found a small-scale armory, filled with basic weapons and supplies. Knives, swords, pistols, rifles, camping equipment, flares, smoke bombs, flashbangs, and an entire wall lined with Dust Crystals of various types, though one section of it was empty.

No Gravity Dust… Aizawa thought.

"Is this a military bunker?" Jaune whispered.

"What's a place like this doing here?" Nora asked.

"We'll piece that together later. We still need to clear the building. Nikos, still nothing?"

"Nothing."

Aizawa nodded before moving back out into the hall, JNPR hot on his tail. Aizawa felt his heart race as he reached the third door, and his mind racing. He felt confident in his abilities in close quarters combat, but fighting while keeping his students safe could be another story. He didn't want this mission to end up being like the BRTC. However, he took a quick glance behind his shoulder, and not even the darkness could hide the resolve in his students' eyes. He chuckled to himself.

Guess if they're confident I should be too.

As they opened the third door, the first thing they were met with was a repugnant smell. It was a disgusting cocktail of rotting meat, cheap perfume, and sewage left to sit in the Vacuan Sun for an entire summer. Aizawa quickly brought his scarf over his mouth in a vain attempt to repress it, while his students were left gagging behind him. He pulled out his Scroll and flashed a light into the room, only to be met with a gruesome sight.

"..."

Aizawa quickly slammed the door shut, a large thud reverberating throughout the building as he did so. "What was in there?!" Nora asked as she did her best to waft away the smell with her hand.

"Our two Hunters and our suspect. Dead." Aizawa responded, keeping his eyes on the door. " There's probably a breaker down behind that door." Aizawa said, pointing towards the end of the hallway. "I'll get the power on and inspect the bodies. Head back outside and send a message to Manual."

"All of us?" Pyrrha asked.

"The bodies… they aren't pretty. You guys are young, you shouldn't have to see this kind of thing. Not on your first mission. Manual can help with things once you contact him. Now go." Aizawa turned and walked towards the end of the hall, not sparing a glance behind them.

JNPR all stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. They all took turns glancing between one another, the direction Aizawa went, and the door right next to them. The disgusting smell from within still lingered in the air, causing them to feel more nauseous by the second. It did little to quell the feelings of anxiety that had emerged within them.

"They're… really dead." Jaune said, talking to himself just as much as his team.

"Unfortunately, they've likely been this way since before we arrived here." Pyrrha said.

"We should follow Eraserhead's instructions. The sooner he and Manual can investigate the sooner they can be returned to their loved ones." Ren said, quickly moving back out the way they came. Pyrrha and Jaune were both taken aback by the suddenness of his actions. They turned towards Nora, who simply looked at her partner with pursed lips and a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Staying here isn't going to help. Come on, let's go." The grenadier placed Magnhild on her back and walked off after Ren.

Pyrrha sighed. "This is far from how I wanted our first mission to go, but we can't turn back the clock, I suppose. Let's go make sure they don't get into too much trouble." She said, attempting to lighten the mood.

Jaune turned and looked towards the door behind which the bodies rested. Pyrrha watched as his mind seemed to wage a war with itself. He took one last look towards the exit of the bunker, then a look to the door Aizawa had just gone down. Jaune gulped before taking a single deep breath.

"You go call Manual. I'm gonna go help the Professor."

Pyrrha blinked in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"...Yeah, I'll be fine." Pyrrha's brow furrowed before eventually nodding. She turned around, sparring one last look at her partner before joining the rest of her team outside. Once she was around the corner, Jaune turned around and headed after Aizawa, the smell of the corpses still lingering on his body as marched.

He opened the door to find Aizawa standing in front of a breaker box. His teacher flinched, turning towards his student with red eyes. Jaune almost yelped at the sight, but managed to maintain his composure. "I… figured you could use the help."

Aizawa stared him down, evaluating his student with a keen eye. "Give me a light. This'll be faster if I can work with both my hands." Jaune nodded, quickly pulling out his Scroll and shining a light over Aizawa's shoulder into the breaker box.

"It looks… pretty much undamaged. Did anything even get broken?"

"Doesn't look like it."

"Wait, who would've even turned this off? All three of them are…"

"If our suspect is a Faunus like we believe they could've done it to take advantage of their night vision." With one last flick of the switch, the lights to the entire compound returned, now illuminating the room they were in. It was filled to the brim with other electrical equipment; old radios, walkie-talkies, things that were closer to Great War technology than the technology of modern Remnant. Aizawa walked over to a nearby desk. It was covered in Dust, save for a rectangular space in the center.

Something's missing here too.

"There's no damage." Aizawa turned towards his students with a raised eyebrow. "The room looks completely fine. Unless they turned everything off before the fighting started, it wouldn't make any sense for none of the fighting to have happened here." Aizawa knit his brow, pondering the implications of his student's thoughts. He didn't like where it was leading him.

"We won't know for certain until the bodies are examined. Are you sure you wanna help with that?" Jaune looked his professor in the eyes, a look of trepidation in them. He shifted his gaze back out the door towards his teammates.

"Ever since the beginning, I've always felt behind everyone else. Even though I'm able to help in fights now, I still feel like there's something they have I don't. I wanna be able to help them, to make them feel comfortable leaning on me when they need to. And I think this might help me get one step closer." Jaune returned his gaze to Aizawa, firm resolve in his eyes. "I'm not asking to help because I want to, I'm doing it because I need to."

Aizawa let that silence ring in the air before walking over the Jaune, placing a hand on his shoulder. "There's no need to force yourself to do things like this yet. This world is cruel, and Hunters are the ones who have to witness it firsthand on a daily basis. I learned that a lot sooner than I should have… a lot sooner than I wanted to. But if you're sure…" Aizawa moved his face directly in front of his pupil's. "I'll show you."

Jaune took a deep breath.

Then he nodded.

"I'll examine the bodies, you record everything I say on your Scroll for documentation and review. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

With an almost inaudible creak, Aizawa opened the door, again being assaulted by the smell of the corpses. He half expected to see flies buzzing around the bodies, but given the fact that nothing natural seemed to want anything to do with this building, supposed he shouldn't be surprised. He stepped into the room with his cloth tied around his face, protecting him from the brunt of the smell. Jaune followed him inside, a crudely tied handkerchief serving as his own mask.

For the first time in his life, Jaune Arc looked upon a dead body.

The first one he saw was the one in the dead center of the room, face down in a pool of dried blood. It was the body of a woman covered in a brown cloak. A giant hole was torn violently in it in the center of where her back was, outlined by a ring of blood. An expression of shock was frozen onto her face as a trail of dried blood emanated from her mouth.

Jaune found himself transfixed by her eyes. The lifeless green orbs gazed off into nowhere, yet at the same time appeared to stare directly into his soul.

"..rc! Arc!" Jaune almost jumped out of his skin when he finally registered that his professor was talking to him. "If you need to-"

"N-No I'm!... I'm fine."

Aizawa stared at him before eventually nodding. He moved over the left side of the body before crouching down next to it. Jaune held his Scroll in both hands in an attempt to keep it from shaking. He kept his eyes transfixed in front of him, not wanting to look at the other bodies until absolutely necessary.

"Woman, between 28 and 33. Green eyes, freckles, brown hair. Height between 5'5" and 5'7"." Jaune copied Aizawa's words onto his Scroll as his teacher shifted around under her cloak. "Cheetah Faunus. No weapon on her. Appears to have died from a puncture wound in the center of her back which pierces through to the front. Size of the wound suggests a spear of some sort. She has tears in her clothing along her legs and arms. Likely tried to defend herself, and in the process suffered lighter wounds which her Aura was able to heal. Matches the Faunus description acquired from locals, but not the description of being six feet tall. Moving onto the second body." Jaune dreaded those words more than any he'd heard before, but he steeled himself as best he could as Aizawa stood up and walked to the left wall.

The body on the left wall was one Jaune recognized from a picture Manual had given them at the start of their mission; it was one of the missing Huntsmen. He was slumped against the wall, his rifle fallen to the ground right beside his fingertips. A long gash carved its way diagonally against his face, severing his nose in two and leaving him without a right eye. He was similarly pierced in the chest, directly in his heart; the thick bloodstain against the wall evident of just how devastating it was. Jaune tried to block the image out of his mind, focusing instead on copying down all of Aizawa's notes onto his Scroll.

"Moving on to the third body." Reluctantly Jaune turned away from the second body and, while doing his best to avoid gazing at the first, tried to find the third, only to see they weren't along the far wall nor along the wall to the right. It was only when he realized how close Aizawa was moving towards him that he realized where it was.

Laying on the ground, mere inches from Jaune's right foot, was the third body. The Huntsman's left arm was separated entirely, and his right arm was extended out in front of him, as if he was desperately clawing towards something. Even though he was face down, Jaune could still see that his throat had been slit. "Victim is the other missing Hunter, August Song. Left arm has been cleanly severed." Aizawa looked over towards the right wall to see the missing arm lying on the ground, alongside the man's sword. "Throat has been slit. An autopsy will be necessary for all three bodies, but this can safely be ruled a homicide." Aizawa stood up and looked towards his student. "I know it's a lot to take in, but you said you wanted to help. So, what do you think happened?"

Jaune stared at his teacher, taking a moment to process the question. With a steadying breath, he looked back over each of the bodies and analyzed things as best he could. After just under a minute, he found himself coming to the conclusion he had first thought of in the beaker room.

"There was a fourth person." He said with confidence. "Unless the woman had a Semblance that let her create a spear or gave her the physical capabilities to mimic one there's no way she could've inflicted these injuries on the Hunters without a weapon. And even if she could, we know for a fact there's no way the Hunters could've given her that piercing injury. Plus the fact that the breaker was turned off but they all died in here would be almost impossible if there wasn't a fourth person. I'm guessing that the person the farmer's son and the woman saw, that six-foot man, wasn't the same person that the old couple saw."

Aizawa nodded. "I agree. Hopefully a proper autopsy will be able to determine more of the circumstances around their death, but it's pretty safe to assume someone else was involved. There were quite a few broken branches in the trees directly above the footprints, so that could explain why we only saw three sets of footprints. I've also noticed a couple of things missing throughout this place. It's possible whoever this fourth person was stole them before leaving. Let's go tell your team about what we found."

"Alright. I-If we're lucky, Manual might have some ideas about what else could've happened here." Jaune said. With that, Jaune turned around and walked towards the exit, happy to be away from that room. However, Aizawa lingered behind, a single question remaining unanswered.

But what even is this place? Aizawa furrowed his brow as he looked up at the ceiling. A random house in the middle of the woods, armed to the teeth with weapons and Dust, yet also having outdated tech. It doesn't make sense. He turned around towards the corpse of the Faunus woman and walked up towards it. The Hunters probably followed her after they saw her moving into the woods, so this building likely belongs to her, but the Hunters are the only ones who went missing in the past week, so she couldn't be a villager. Has she just been living out here undisturbed for years? Just who the hell is she? Out of the corner of his eye, Aizawa saw something in her right pocket, something he'd missed. A Scroll? He quickly dropped to his knees and reached into it. If it still works we might be able to figure out more about her. But instead of finding a Scroll, he found a simple plastic card.

When he pulled it out and looked at it, a shiver went down his spine.

"Jaune!" The young leader was immediately met by the cries of his female teammates as they rushed over to him, with Ren not far behind. He had to brace himself as Nora threw herself at him with a bear hug, almost crushing his lungs.

"We were about to head in there after you." Nora said, only to almost throw up in her mouth. "Blegh! You smell disgusting!"

"Did you… go in there with Aizawa?" Ren asked, a reserved look in his eyes. Nora looked at him with a concerned look, hand raised to her chest. Pyrrha simply stared at him, not allowing any emotion to betray her face other than through her pursed lips.

"...I'm-"

"Hello! Helloooo! Ah, there you are!" Manual quickly burst out of the brush into the clearing, sweat dripping down his face. Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha turned their heads back and forth between him and Jaune. After a brief moment to think, the young leader smiled.

"We'll talk about it later. I'm fine, really." His teammates exchanged glances with one another before eventually nodding. Jaune turned to Manual. "You don't have any idea what this building is, do you?"

"No clue. I'll have to double-check with the Mayor and the Captain of the Guard, but I'm almost certain they wouldn't know either. If it was important to the village, they would've told all the Hunters stationed here about it. So… are the bodies…"

"Yeah, they're in there. There's a third one in there too." Jaune said. responded.

Manual nodded slowly. "Damn. I'm sorry you had to see that, kid. Sorry your guys' first mission turned out this way at all."

"It's not your fault, sir. You had no way of knowing what the situation was." Pyrrha said.

"I guess." He conceded. "Well, at least it's over now. I can try and get you some work around the wall so you actually get some real experience out here."

"There's more." All eyes turned to Jaune as he spoke, who balked at the attention before quickly regaining composure. "Eraserhead and I are pretty sure there was a fourth person involved."

"What?!" Nora yelled out.

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah. He can probably explain everything better than me, but it seems pretty clear."

"Shit!" Manual cursed. "If that's true they might still be in the village! We should get back there now and-"

"I doubt that's the case." All five of them jumped as Aizawa walked out of the compound, a stressed look in his eye.

"How can you be so sure?" Manual asked.

"One of the reports we got from the villagers was that someone was moving towards the south two nights ago who was around six feet tall. That description is vague, but it doesn't match any of the appearances of the missing Hunters or the dead woman in the compound. The village to the south is Corinth, the location of Pharos Academy, and a major port city. Our fourth man probably headed there and hopped on a ship out of Vale. And if that wasn't the case, we would've seen them in our watch last night, which while possible is unlikely."

Manual brought his hand up to his face, thinking through all of Aizawa's words before eventually nodding. "I suppose that's true. Still, I'd rather be safe than sorry and make sure to tell the villagers to keep an eye out for anyone or anything suspicious. If we have the Mayor tell them they should take it seriously. Have you moved around the bodies at all? I'd like to take a look at them."

"We haven't, but there's been… an unexpected complication." Aizawa said as he reached into his pocket.

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked.

"I found this ID Card on the body of the woman." He walked over to Manual and handed him the card. He quickly scanned over it, only for his eye to practically bulge out. JNPR slowly walked over, looks of shared confusion on their faces. Aizawa turned to them.

"The woman wasn't some criminal. She was a member of the Hunter's Guild."

6:00 P.M., Unidentified Compound

Hunter's Guild Bylaws Section 4: Guild Hunter Member Relations Subsection G: Discovery of a Dead Guild Hunter:

Should a Non-Guild Hunter (NGH), police officer, military personnel, civilian, or other such person encounter a deceased Guild Hunter (GH), said person should immediately contact the Hunter's Guild in order for the Guild to dispatch another GH so that they may conduct an investigation of the deceased GH. The second GH will be made the head of the investigation, regardless of the circumstances of the death (i.e. location, cause of death, etc.), and will be given full authorization to use any local, kingdom, or Hunter resources in the area. No actions, direct or indirect, pertaining to the investigation of the deceased GH will be made without the direct approval of the GH. Should it be found that such actions have taken place, the Hunter's Guild is within its full right to punish those involved to the extent listed in Section 2 Subsection B: Hunter's Guild Judicial Powers.

Jaune finished reading over the paragraph again on his Scroll, still struggling to believe it. "So they seriously just get full deference into the whole thing? We can't do anything?" Jaune asked.

"Guess so." Pyrrha said, equally as frustrated as her partner.

"It's hard to believe the Kingdoms would all willingly give up so much power, even within their own walls." Ren said.

"How can you guys be focusing on that?!" Nora yelled. "Don't you guys get what this means! Not only did this fourth guy kill three Hunters on his own, one of them was a Guild Hunter! I mean, Stain hasn't even killed one, right?!"

"That's true, it is quite… unsettling." Pyrrha said.

"It's not nearly as impossible it sounds." Aizawa said as he walked over to his students. They turned to him as he elaborated. "The Hunter's Guild doesn't exclusively recruit Hunters based on strength. Don't get me wrong, they do recruit some incredibly strong individuals, but they also recruit people based on other talents. If you have a Semblance that's incredibly useful in a certain niche, they'll try to recruit you, even if it has no real applications in combat. It's hard to know exactly who they recruit since they keep almost all of their files top secret, but it's possible the woman wasn't a top-tier combatant."

Ren and Pyrrha nodded. "A niche Semblance… does that mean they tried to recruit you?" Jaune asked.

Aizawa nodded. "They did, right when I entered my fourth year at Beacon. They were persistent, but I turned them down. As for your question as to why they have so much power, ask Oobleck if you're that interested in minutia, but the gist of it is that after the Great War, the Kingdoms all decided that a new, independent organization was needed in order to ensure an unbiased opinion in international details. That's why the Hunters Guild was created, and why they're able to act throughout the Kingdoms with full autonomy. Doesn't mean it's not a pain in the ass for regular Hunters to deal with though."

"Why did you turn them down?" Nora asked.

"I didn't want to have to constantly move throughout the world on missions; figured staying in Vale would be much more pleasant and easy on the body. Besides, from what rumors I've heard about what their members go through…" Aizawa paused and looked up to the sky towards the sun, narrowing his eyes. His students followed his eyes, eventually all settling on a large figure in the air. At first they thought it was some sort of Grimm, be it a Nevermore or a Griffon, only to soon realize it was a person.

On a pair of red wings descended a young man wearing a tan jacket over a black shirt with tan pants. As he touched down on the ground he pulled a yellow visor off of his eyes and rested it in his ashy blonde hair. "Hey there!" He called out, waving to the five of them. "I take it you're the professor and his students?" Aizawa nodded as the newcomer walked over to them, eyeing him up and down. "Sorry for the long wait. I would've gotten here sooner had I not just been finishing up some other business."

"It hasn't been too long. We only discovered the bodies just a few hours ago." Eraserhead responded.

"Fair enough, but still the faster a mission gets done the better, yeah?" The young man stretched his hand out. "Name's Hawks."

Aizawa shook his hand. "Eraserhead. This is Team JNPR." He motioned towards his students.

Nora stared the newcomer down with narrow eyes. "Hawks? Isn't that, like, reeeally on the nose?" Pyrrha was fully prepared to smack Nora upside the head, only to stop when the young man laughed.

"Yeah, it is. But it's memorable. And besides, I think it's kinda catchy." He chuckled. "So, I take it you've already looked over the bodies?"

"We have." Aizawa handed over the ID. "Based on what we've managed to gather, she and the other Hunters stationed here were probably killed three nights ago."

Hawks pondered over the card, focusing on the name of the woman. Avadorra Sphinx. Thought so.

"Do you recognize her?" Aizawa asked. Hawks raised a brow at the professor's question but nodded.

"Yeah. She was assigned to be guarding Darius Mountain Pass, but she went missing a few days ago."

"The Darius Pass? That's at least a day's walk away. Why would she come all the way out here?" Jaune asked.

"The answer's right behind you." Hawks responded, pointing towards the compound behind them. "That's a Hunter's Guild Safehouse. You can think of them as being our version of Huntsman Lodges. There are hundreds of them throughout all of Remnant, and this one happens to be the closest to the Darius Pass. She likely retreated here after being attacked."

"It's a lot more armored than a Hunter's Lodge." Pyrrha said.

"It does seem a bit over the top, but trust me, it's necessary. Of course, now that it's been compromised it'll have to be abandoned, and a new one will be set up in the area." Hawks responded. "If you don't mind, I'd like to investigate the bodies now. I want you there with me so you can explain everything you guys have managed to piece together so far."

Hawks stepped into the room containing the bodies with Aizawa right behind him, not bothering to try and block the stench from the corpses. "If there's anything important that's been altered about the bodies let me know." He said as he approached the body of the deceased Guild Hunter.

"The bodies haven't been moved since we saw them, and the only thing I took off of them was her ID. However, the power supply to the building had been turned off when we arrived. My student recorded the observations I made of the bodies. I'll have him send that to you."

Hawks nodded before kneeling down and inspecting the woman's wounds. One clean hit through the back, but there are signs of other healed wounds too. She must've fought whoever killed her before they arrived at the Safehouse, and it must've been a few miles out from the village. He turned his gaze up slightly from the body towards a tile on the floor. It was impossible to notice unless you looked for it, but the tile was raised by a few millimeters. That tile leads to a small bomb shelter. She must've been trying to get inside it, only to be stabbed in the back right before she got there. He was probably right on her tail the entire time. She wouldn't have been able to run at top speed, but it's still an impressive feat.

"You said the power supply was turned off, not destroyed, right?"

"Correct."

"And is that all that was out of place in the rest of the compound?"

"Some food was missing from the pantry, and something was taken from the breaker room, but I can't be sure what it was. All the Gravity Dust from the armory was also taken"

"I see."

He cut the power to stop the security cameras from picking him up since they take time to properly save the footage and transmit it back to the Guild Headquarters. But he shouldn't have known that offhand, and besides, the cameras are well hidden so even if he was looking for them he couldn't have found them fast enough. Plus the breaker should've been locked, meaning it would've been easier to destroy it altogether. But if it had been destroyed, a signal would've been sent back to HQ, so he took the extra time to break the lock and unplug the wires manually. Whoever killed them would've needed to know the exact ins and outs of a Safehouse to do this.

So the rumors are true, the Hunter's Guild's being targeted.

Hawks and Aizawa stepped out of the compound only to be eagerly met by JNPR.

The young Guild Hunter stuffed his hands in his pockets. "It looks like you guys were basically on the mark. Someone attacked her and their fight lead them here. The two Hunters stationed here either saw or heard the fighting and chased after them, only to die themselves. As for anything he took with him, the only way we'll know what was taken is by asking the Guild to send us an inventory of the entire Safehouse and see what's here and what isn't."

"What reason would this person have to kill her?" Jaune asked.

"No clue." He responded with a shrug. "I'll send all the details of the case back to the Guild; hopefully they can find some leads. Unfortunately I'm also dealing with another assignment that can't wait."

"So you're saying we're gonna have to wait for someone else to show up?" Nora groaned.

"No, whoever they send will probably want to investigate independently, and so long as they have all the information you guys have compiled that should be fine. I'll go tell the Hunters stationed in the village how to handle the compound and the bodies until they arrive. Sadly that means it'll be a while before these three get a proper burial."

"Some things can't be helped I suppose." Aizawa said with a hint of frustration. "I take it you'll be leaving now?"

"Yeah. Sorry for not being of much help, but I can promise you the Guild will get to the bottom of this." Hawks said.

"Don't be." Aizawa responded as he folded his arms. "It's not like we were able to do much here either."

"Fair enough. Hopefully the next time we meet will be under less unfortunate circumstances." Hawks said as he began to walk away from them towards the forest. "I'll be in Vale for the next month or so. If I have time to swing by the Vytal Festival I'll be sure to root for you guys!" He said towards JNPR over his shoulder.

"T-Thanks!" Jaune responded. With a smile and nod Hawks flew off, the young man nothing more than a dot in the sky within less than a minute. "Well, that was a lot quicker than expected. And a lot less stressful."

"Are most Guild Hunters like him, Professor?" Ren asked.

"In terms of personality, he's probably the most laid-back one I've ever seen."

"Ya know, maybe if you had joined the Guild you'd be more chill like him."

"Is that your way of asking for additional training, Miss Valkyrie?" The color instantly drained from Nora's face, her attempt at comedy completely backfiring.

"N-No sir, that's not at all what she's asking for, r-right Nora!" Jaune said with pleading eyes.

"Y-Yeah, i-it was just a slip of the tongue, nothing else at all! No way!"

Aizawa chuckled. "Let's get back to the village. We'll give a full report to Manual then we'll have a Bullhead scheduled to pick us up in the morning."

"Feels like we barely got to do anything." Pyrrha sighed.

"There's a lesson to be learned from that: Sometimes you're just too slow. Despite our best efforts, there are some people we just can't save. But that's no reason to stop. The more you slow down, the less good you can do."

Jaune nodded. "You're right. We should use this time to train more for the Vytal Festival."

"A sound idea." Ren agreed.

"Right, we'll be the best team in Beacon and show the whole world what we can do, not that we aren't already the best!" Nora cheered.

With that, the five of them began their walk back to the village. However, right before he got out of the clearing and into the woods, Jaune felt a hand on his shoulder holding him back. He turned to see Aizawa staring at him.

"I-is something wrong, sir?" He asked.

"Do you feel one step closer now?"

Jaune took a moment to process his teacher's words before looking back towards the compound, the door inside barely open, tempting him to return like the devil on his shoulder. In his mind's eye he saw the corpses which lie inside, cold, mangled, and lifeless.

"... those bodies… when I looked at them, all I felt was helplessness. Everything those people had done in their lives; the people they saved, the people they inspired, the people they cared about, it all got destroyed in the blink of an eye. And the worst is that in that moment, there was nothing they could do about it. They probably didn't even have time to accept what was happening… something like that shouldn't happen. People shouldn't have to die like that. The connections they made shouldn't be destroyed."

Aizawa nodded. "I know that seeing something like that for the first time can be rough. I didn't have to deal with it until my final year at Beacon. So if you need to vent, vent."

Jaune took a deep breath. "Thank you. Professor." Aizawa patted him on the shoulder and the two of them continued their walk.

Destroyed connections, huh? Can't say that's the healthiest way of seeing it. But taking things one step at a time is fine.

He's still got a lot of time left to grow.

Wednesday, 2:00 A.M., Private Warehouse, Vale

Cinder idly went through her Scroll, surveying the damage done by the Nomu in Vale, as well as the video footage of Stain being captured. Thankfully the storehouse she was using was far enough away from the fighting that she didn't have to worry about getting in a fight with Shigaraki's toys, or, more importantly, any of her plans being discovered in the process. She was beginning to regret not killing him the first time they'd met, it would've saved her the headache of his antics.

But she was even more grateful for the opportunities they presented for her…

*BRIIIING*BRIIIING*

She was surprised to see a call notification come up. Only a handful of people had this Scroll's number, and she couldn't see why any of them would be calling right now. When she saw the picture assigned to the caller, a dark purple flower, she figured it must be at least somewhat important. He was one of the less irritable to her colleagues, not that it was exactly stiff competition.

She brought the Scroll up to her ear. "Hello?"

"I see things are picking up in Vale."

"I suppose you could say that."

"Your tone sounds a bit too whimsical for someone who has a third party to deal with."

"Oh come now, have you no faith? Shigaraki and his little beasts are nothing more than a blip on the radar."

"You should be careful tempting fate like that, kid. There's a reason the Boss always kept All For One at arms reach."

If Cinder was being honest, she was a bit perturbed by the way he threw around that name so casually. She knew for a fact that he had fought All For One before and nearly die in the process, yet when she had sent word to her Master and colleagues that he was alive, he didn't seem phased in the slightest.

How could he be so stoic when she was so afra… No, she wasn't afraid. Fear was something she conquered a long time ago. She would never be afraid again.

She took the Scroll a small distance away from her face, allowing her to take a stabilizing breath without him knowing.

"One, I am not a child. And two, I have the situation more than handled. Everything with Mountain Glenn is going as planned, and Watt's virus was implanted without a hitch."

"I take it you'll be using everything happening right now to your advantage, then?"

"Naturally. Having fun playing assassin?"

"There was an incident with my most recent target, but other than that, everything's fine. I've gathered more than enough data for what we need."

"I take it some of that pertains to me?"

"The girl is being kept underneath Beacon Tower on life support. Her condition is too unstable to move her, and no doctor has been able to heal her. Guess having half of the Maiden's power extracted just makes you half head."

Cinder smirked, her attitude doing a 180. They couldn't protect her this time. They couldn't stop her from taking what was hers. "I appreciate it."

"The attack on the DEVs looks to be a bust, not that I expected it to work. Still, Ironwood will have wasted a sizable amount of resources, and All Might should be feeling the effects of the battle long enough that he won't be at 100% come the festival."

"And here you were lecturing me about not doing my job."

"My job is dealing with the Guild, not destroying villages. You should be grateful I went out of my way to make your job easier."

"I don't need help."

"I'll keep that in mind the next time I find you beaten within an inch of your life. I'm on a boat to Vacuo now. Next time I see you better be with a Relic in your hands."

Cinder scoffed. "Of course it will be."

"Good." With that, the line hung up, leaving Cinder with a scowl on her face. How dare he talk to her like that. She was a Maiden, dammit! Still, that only added more fuel to the fire burning in her eyes. He was just another person to prove wrong. She'd show him. She'd show everyone.

In three weeks' time, the world would know her power. And they would fear it.

A/N

And with that, we finish up the mini JNPR Arc!

Chapter Commentary

-Sorry if this wasn't as action-packed as some of you may have been expecting, but I wanted to take a reprieve from the action between Stain and the Breach. Still, I hope you were satisfied with what I presented.

-Hawks finally makes his debut! It was a bit more lackluster than I originally intended, but he'll have more to do as things move forward, as he hinted at.

-I'm really happy with how the Jaune and Aizawa scenes turned out. I wanted to emphasize Jaune's growth and I feel I did that well. His character arc won't take up major prominence for a while; it's more something on the backburner throughout the entire series, but I'm satisfied with how it turned out.

-Another new villain makes his "debut". They won't be turning up for quite some time in person though.

Comments

Ragnarok17- Thanks for sticking around! And yeah, Izuku's "Meet the In-Laws" moments will be quite a handful, but hopefully he'll be up to the task.

Cyber-RK18- Yeah, other than the scene at the monument, Ren and Nora never got to mourn Pyrrha properly on camera. I'll be sure to fix that though.

NOBLE Seven (good name btw)- Welcome aboard! Glad you've been enjoying the Izuku x Weiss stuff so far, hopefully you'll enjoy what's to come! As for the Scroll Signal, it only went out to the Hunters in the City of Vale, so they wouldn't have seen it.

Kylemerlo77- You'll get the idea of how the conflict will play out in the near future (at least in terms of number of chapters, I have no idea when they'll come out), so stay tuned.

As I'm writing this I'm about to start Finals Week, then I have a few weeks until the next semester starts. I'll be sure to work on the next chapter during then, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it out in that time. Fingers crossed.

Stay tuned and stay safe!