Disclaimer: Fate/Stay Night is property of Type-moon, RWBY is property of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. This work is purely fanfiction and as such earns me no income.
*May receive some edits in the future and maybe additional dialogue.
*Fresh post. May have more than few mistakes here and there. Will update with corrections in several days or so.
FYI this chapter is mostly RWBY focused. Last section is where the Fate group is and it ain't that long I think.
"Do you have any idea just how much trouble you kids are in right now?"
Glynda Goodwitch paced back and forth on the opposite side of the table where Ruby was currently seated in. It brought back memories of their first meeting together. Glynda, impressed but very mad, and Ruby, excited and scared but still eating a plate full of cookies… who brought those anyway?
No.
The professor had better questions she wanted to find out right now. The cookies can wait… although there was an oddly familiar scent to them that was making her stomach rumble.
She coughed to herself to reign in her thoughts. "Now what exactly were you students doing there that night?"
"Well… it's a bit complicated." Ruby rubbed the back of her head, as she tried to think how best to explain things.
"Then make it uncomplicated," commanded Glynda, whose stare could probably make even a statue beg on its knees for forgiveness.
"W-we just wanted to stop a bunch of thieves!" stammered Ruby quickly, buckling under the pressure.
"The thieves being the White Fang?"
"Well, yeah," Ruby fidgeted uneasily. "At least... we thought it was just them at first."
That remark lit a curious brow from the professor. The information they had received had all but pointed the White Fang being the culprits behind the string of Dust robberies. Although they received that odd report about a failed attempt, they had considered it inconsequential and had only happened by chance due to a clash with Roman Torchwick and his own band of thieves.
"You encountered someone else?" said Goodwitch, more as a statement of fact rather than a question.
Ruby nodded in response. "We met them the first time when we—"
"The first time?" Glynda adjusted her glasses. "Do you mean to say that this wasn't the only time you students have tried this?" She asked with a glare.
Team RWBY's leader promptly gulped and clenched the edge of her seat. "Ahahaha…" she laughed weakly, trying to dissuade the fear she felt from the professor's tone.
Glynda sighed and shook her head at the recklessness of her students. "Nevermind, please continue."
Glad that the professor was no longer glaring at her, Ruby continued explaining things to her. She recounted the reason why they had planned on stopping the robbery, how they had tracked down the location for the next one, and what happened when they got there.
At the same time, in a similar room at the same building, Pyrrha Nikos and Coco Adel were also both being debriefed of about what had happened at the port. Jaune would have been the one to represent Team JNPR since he was their leader, but his nervousness made him a bit hard to talk to at the moment. People felt he was overreacting a bit.
It wasn't like he was under arrest or had something to hide now, is there?
No one had any problems when they asked Pyrrha to answer the questions in his stead, since she had a better memory and composure of what had occurred. The one to debrief her was also satisfied with that arrangement.
"So what can you tell me exactly about the woman that Team RWBY and your team had fought?" asked General Ironwood, as he stood with his hand behind his back staring outside the window. "You have only said that she was possibly a very strong Huntress working with the criminal known as Roman Torchwick, but I'd like to know more details about her."
The General was indeed very interested to know just how strong this woman was. He had a very good reason to try and find out more about her. That reason was currently lying deep underground beneath Beacon Academy, and he would be shamed if he didn't see a connection right before his eyes.
Prryha though, was a little bit nervous at having the Headmaster of the Atlas Academy and General of the forces at Atlas be the one questioning her right now. She hadn't even known he was here in Vale already. After all, last she heard, he was supposed to have been scheduled to arrive sometime in their next semester. The fact that someone so important would be so interested in what a student like her had to say was simply something she couldn't fathom.
"Well, aside from her appearance, which I've already told you, I can only repeat that she was strong," Pyrrha said before frowning in thought. "Overwhelmingly so, I should say. It took all of us working together to even try and land a hit on her. I can't even imagine fighting her with anything less."
General Ironwood walked slowly back to the desk where Pyrrha sat and read the file he had on the student in front of him, along with the rest of the students. "It says here you're one of the best students that Beacon has to offer, I'm not so surprised given your numerous awards and excellent track record." He glanced at her before he continued reading the files on the other students. "Your Headmaster apparently holds, not only you, but all of the others in high regard as well." Dropping the file, he asked, "So how is it that Beacon's best and brightest were unable to apprehend their intended target?"
Pyrrha shifted uneasily on her seat. "We had planned our attack earlier that day. Given the description Team RWBY had described of our opponent, we thought it best that we made preparations. We had even asked help from a more experienced student…"
Earlier that day…
"What's up ladies and gents?"
Coco smiled as she greeted her fellow students. She had accidentally bumped into Ruby when she had been out to try out the café that her clothing store had recommended for her during one of her little shopping sprees. Actually, it was more like Ruby had almost run her over because of how fast the little red rocket was barreling down the street.
When Ruby had found out where she was going, she had offered to walk alongside Coco the rest of the way since they were both going to the same place anyway. She even said that the leader of Team CFVY could join up with her and the rest of her teammates at their usual table, and that she'd pay for her first meal there as an apology for almost crashing into her.
Too bad Weiss would be the one ending up footing the bill at the end.
"It looks like you guys are having fun planning something," Coco said as she pulled up a chair and relaxed. "Care to fill me in?" Her eyes shone with curiosity over her lowered sunglasses.
Weiss happily obliged. "We're planning to stop a robbery," she said proudly.
Coco stared at her. "Isn't that a job for the police?"
"W-well, normally, yes… but the thieves are from the White Fang!" argued Weiss.
"That still doesn't sound like something students like us should be dealing with," Coco took a menu from the table and started browsing through it. She was far more interested on the selection of appetizers than she was of Weiss' plan. "We're training to hunt down Grimm, not common criminals," she said lazily as she eyed a particularly appealing picture of a hors d'oeuvre.
"But these aren't just a bunch of ordinary thieves!" huffed Weiss. "Plus that blind woman's inhuman strength was anything but ordinary." That last part seems to have gotten Coco's attention back.
"Blind woman?" she asked with a tilt of her head. "You guys got beat by a woman who couldn't see?"
Blake was the one who answered. "She may have been wearing a blindfold, but I'm pretty sure she could see everything around her just fine. The way she moved… it was just uncanny."
"Yeah," agreed Yang. "And Weiss wasn't kidding about how strong that woman was. Her Kick was so heavy that it made a dent on Ruby's scythe."
"Oh?" Coco had now leaned forward, her curiosity rising at this new information.
"That's right!" said Ruby before leaning in and whispered to Coco, "…I think she may be a Huntress."
"Hmmm…"
Coco considered the matter seriously. The White Fang and common thieves are one thing, but having a possible rogue Huntress confronted by a bunch of 1st years is a different problem. She'd feel bad leaving them alone against that chance, not when she could help them.
After a minute of thought, Coco said, "Right, let me join up with you guys on this merry little hunt of yours."
"Alright!" said Weiss in good cheer.
Jaune, however, was not entirely happy with this new development. "A-are you sure?" he asked nervously. "I mean, wouldn't it be better to tell the professors about this?" He was really reaching out for his senior to see reason.
Coco waved off his concern casually. "The professors are busy enough as it is with the upcoming Grimm missions and Vytal Festival preparations. I doubt they'd interfere with something so simple as a Dust robbery."
"What about the rest of Team CFVY, will they not be joining us?" asked Pyrrha.
"Velvet is still working on building up her weapon, while Fox is helping her out on that. Meanwhile, Yatsuhashi has some weird meditation practice going on right now." Coco sighed. "Really, if I hadn't bumped into Ruby, I'd have spent today all alone right now."
It was also the reason why Coco had been out by herself today. Of course, she could have done individual training but that would have been a waste of a good weekend. Practice is all well and good, but relaxing is equally important. And there was nothing quite as relaxing as browsing over a new line of berets at her favorite store.
Coco smirked at the red-head. "What? You think we still can't take on this woman even with this many people?" She adjusted her glasses as she took in the reactions from both teams. "I think you're either severely overestimating your opponent or you're completely underestimating yourselves, rogue Huntress or not."
Team JNPR saw her point, but Team RWBY was a little bit more hesitant in accepting her statement. They were, after all, the only ones who had actually fought said woman before. And they had a better grasp of just how strong she was.
While they had been discussing things, Sakura came up beside them to take up Coco's orders. She had noticed the arrival of Ruby and a new customer and proceeded with providing the café's prompt service.
"Welcome to the café, dear customer," she greeted and made a polite bow at Coco. "Would you like to order now, or do you need more time? I can get you something to drink first, if you would like."
Coco closed the menu and handed it over to the maid. "No, thank you," she said. "I'll have the Brandade de Morue au Gratin, Chicken Dijon, and a Lemon-Ricotta Soufflés for dessert. As for the drink, I can settle for good ol' cup of coffee."
Sakura quickly jotted down the order before bidding her leave.
Team JNPR and RWBY was a little bit surprised at Coco's selection. It would seem she has a taste for the exquisite… and the expensive. Her orders were easily one of the most expensive parts of the menu.
Ruby looked a bit forlorn, as she counted the price.
"Don't looks so down, Ruby," said Coco as she patted her on the back. "You're not the one paying for my meal." She gave Weiss a knowing smile. "Isn't that right, princess?"
Weiss actually felt the stab at her credit card for once in her life. Something only a certain Jewelcraft user, cooking in the kitchen below them, would be able to understand with complete honesty. It was a good thing that her father hadn't cut her liens off yet, otherwise paying for this many people would have been impossible for her.
"Since I assume this was your idea, you wouldn't hold back in treating me to a little something for my help, right?"
"O-of course…" answered back Weiss with a slight twitch to her smile.
Coco smiled amusedly at that. "Now let's get to the plan you've got while I wait for my food to arrive…"
Back to the present…
Professor Ozpin sat back on his chair as he took a sip from his favored mug. He had just finished hearing Coco's side of the story about their plan on capturing the rogue Huntress. His face was placid as his student watched him stare at the mug in his hand.
They were in an identical room, right across the one where Pyrrha and General Ironwood were.
"I can't say I'm not very disappointed with how you handled this matter, Miss Adel," Ozpin finally said. "As the senior student there, I would have assumed you would have talked sense into your juniors." Coco looked down guiltily at that. "What you students did, was both foolish and dangerous. It wouldn't be completely farfetched that something far worse could have happened to any of you in that kind of situation."
"I apologize professor," Coco's answer was timid but sincere. "I had misjudged the situation and just went along with the plan without considering the possibility that we might fail."
Ozpin sighed.
He had known that more than a few of his students would have a penchant for causing trouble, but this is a bit more than he was expecting. The White Fang seems to be moving up the scale of their operations at Vale, and he was beginning to suspect that someone else may have had a hand in their movements. A student of his being a former member of the group was already something he had helped to cover up. And now, there was the appearance by another unknown party that has just added more to his already increasing problems.
"I suppose it is quite alright," Ozpin said. "You children are still young, it is something that is to be expected while we are still at a time of peace." He would try his best to at least keep the students as safe as possible from the dangers this world has, Grimm and otherwise. "Now, please continue on how your plan had failed."
Coco nodded in affirmation.
She told Ozpin on how they had planned to ambush the lone woman by flanking her on from both sides after she had dealt with the White Fang for them, something Coco had thought was bit much for a single opponent. The battles she saw at the port though, had completely changed her opinion quickly.
The plan had been to wear the woman down with their numbers by keeping her occupied from all directions so she wouldn't have a chance to escape. Four of them would fight her up close and personal, while the others would provide range support, in case they were pushed back. Coco's role was to provide additional firepower they would need and finish the battle, when everyone else would have had to reload their Dust rounds like the last time the woman had used to make her escape.
It was best decided that they would not give the woman a single moment of time to make a move of her own, based on the speed she was able to move at. Coco couldn't agree more with that then, when she saw for herself how quickly the woman disappeared from one thug to the next during her fight with the White Fang.
If they had given her even a single second of opening, they would have probably lost their only chance at catching mystery woman. Coco's gattling gun would also be better at penetrating the intense aura that the she had, since their normal rate of fire proved insufficient before.
"And you're saying, all of this was for one blind woman?"
Coco nodded as she remembered her own skepticism at the time.
She described just how the woman had enough strength to pull down to planes at the same time with barely any effort, how she had mowed down the criminal faunus with such speed and ferocity, and how she had completely ignored any and all Dust rounds from the thugs that attacked her without a single hint of her using Dust as well.
"…No Dust, you say?"
"Yeah," answered Coco with utmost seriousness at her Headmaster. "I never once saw her use Dust during the entire time I was there. It's possible that she might have been using a Semblance like Ruby's that increases her physical ability, but it would have been on a completely different scale."
Ozpin mused on that fact for a moment before addressing his student once more. "So I take it things didn't go according to plan, since not a single criminal was caught with you when the police arrived."
Coco shook her head. "Actually, everything went well as planned until the end," she said. "Although we didn't expect her to get stronger in the middle of that last stretch, we had still managed to pin her down long enough for me to shoot at her."
"Please tell me that you're Dust rounds weren't enough as well," laughed Ozpin lightly as he thought he remembered the particular weapon his student carried.
"No, she didn't stop my Dust rounds." Coco answered just as Ozpin thought. "Someone else did…"
"What…?"
The Headmaster couldn't entirely believe his student was telling the truth. There were very few things he could think of that would be able to stop such an onslaught. And some of those few, were important secrets that were held by only he and few others knew about.
"It doesn't end there," continued Coco. "When I felt the aura coming from that… female knight who had just tanked my rounds like they were nothing, I knew that she was just as strong, if not stronger than that blindfolded woman." Her body shook a little after she remembered the intense feeling she got from that time. "I ordered everyone to fire everything they had at her… but even then… there wasn't even a scratch on her."
"It can't be…" whispered Ozpin.
Coco turned away from her thoughts and saw that the Headmaster had a difficult expression on his face. "Do you know something about this, Professor?"
Quickly, Ozpin reigned the emotions that were leaking out on his face. "No, I am sure that whoever it was that you had encountered may have been using a Semblance or other equipment that may have rendered your Dust rounds useless somehow," he said as his explanation.
Professor Ozpin had Coco finish the rest of her story before he sent her away with a slight warning against doing anything so foolish again, at least without his consent at doing so. At the same time, Ruby and Pyrrha had already finished their own explanations as well.
The students met together at the hall of the police station, where they chatted about their recent bout and temporary detention.
"So how'd it go with you guys?" asked Ruby worriedly.
Coco and Pyrrha smiled somewhat at that.
"Looks like everyone got off lightly," answered Coco, greatly relieving Ruby's pent up fear from her talk with Professor Goodwitch.
"Oh, that's great!"
Ruby had feared for the worse in terms of punishment. She had been thinking of, being forced to do more homework, lose their weekend privilege, or maybe even… getting expelled. Her head was just full of those nasty outcomes, that if it weren't for those cookies, she might have not been able to talk with Professor Goodwitch at all.
"Ruby!"
Ruby looked over just in time to see Penny running over to her just before she jumped her and fell to the floor.
"Penny… why?" she mumbled weakly over the weight of her friend.
"Are you okay?" said Penny, ignoring the pain of her friend as she continued to hug the poor girl on the ground. "You didn't get into too much trouble did you? Did that officer give you the cookies Illya sent?"
"I think you should let her up first before she starts answering your questions, Penny," giggled Pyrrha from the side.
"And who do we have here?" smiled Coco.
The peppy young girl slowly got up from Ruby and introduced herself. "Hi, my name is Penny. It is a pleasure to meet you!"
Coco gave her an amused grin. "Pleasures all mine."
In the meantime, Ruby had finally reoriented herself from that surprise tackle. She had best try and stop Penny from doing that or at least learn to fall better, otherwise she'd end up with back pain too early in her life.
"What are you doing here, Penny?" she asked.
"I heard from Illya that you might be in trouble with the police, and she asked me to bring you the cookies her friend made to help cheer you up."
"Wow," said Ruby. "News sure does travel fast. But yeah, those cookies were really good."
"I'm glad to see you're alright," smiled Penny.
As the girls got to chatting about their predicament, the adults were having a deep conversation of their own in one of the rooms.
"I take it you two have heard of the same thing as I have from our recent conversations based on your worried looks," said Ozpin calmly as he sat his mug down on the table. "I'm sure Miss Nikos provided you with some interesting bit of information as I had from Miss Adel, am I correct, James?
General Ironwood had a stressed look in comparison to his friend. "So it's true then?" he said through gritted teeth. "It's possible that we may have found the people responsible who Qrow had talked about."
"It's also possible that you may be jumping to conclusions," said Glynda. While clearly a bit biased, Ruby had told her how none of them were seriously injured and how the rogue Huntress seemed to have warned them more than once that she did not wish to hurt any of them. "It did not appear that this one was quite as vicious as the ones Qrow reported."
"You've heard what they said, Glynda," answered Ironwood. "How their thief had not used Dust and how she shrugged off Dust rounds as if they were nothing more than a mere annoyance. Who else could that possibly be, if not the enemy who attacked us?"
His question was met with silence, as the professor was unable to find an appropriate answer.
Ironwood took it as confirmation of his argument. "I'll be calling on my forces to arrive here. They should be here soon to help protect the city and our charge."
Glynda looked at him in disbelief. "You can't be serious?" she asked. "Having the Atlesian army occupying Vale would spread unjust worry over the population!"
"I had already made plans for them to arrive beforehand for the start of the next semester. I would be merely taking things a step further than I had anticipated. You won't have to worry about it being an occupation since I will be having them stage mock drills and displaying the newest technologies from Atlas. I will just offer the excuse of them being necessary protection for the expensive equipment we would have on display and as added security for the Vytal Festival." He looked at Ozpin and asked, "I assume you won't have any problems with this?"
Ozpin sat silently with the fingers of his hands crossed together as he contemplated it.
"No," he finally answered.
"Ozpin!" Glynda was unable to believe that answer. "You can't be serious about this?!"
Ozpin sighed before turning towards Glynda and said, "While I would be hard pressed to say that I approve of such measures, the situation warrants caution. Whoever these people are, they have already been encountered by our students. If we fail to take this seriously now, then we may find ourselves at the end of our ropes. Our enemy has clearly something planned, if they are moving around this much then it would suffice to say that that something will happen soon." Ozpins face was stern as he said this, "And I will not endanger the lives of those we are to protect while we hesitate."
Glynda was not entirely satisfied with this arrangement, but would nonetheless, trust Ozpin's judgement for the time being. Even she understood that things have gone quite a lot more serious now and that they would need to act to prevent any disaster in the future.
"So you will be the one leading this hunt then, I suppose?" she asked the General with disapproval. "We don't even know how many of them there are in the city."
"We know definitely that there are at least two of them here and that either one or both have the necessary power that may have come from a maiden."
"You're forgetting the exploding arrows that the students mentioned." Ozpin said to remind them. "Recognize something familiar with that part of their story?"
The General thought for a moment before nodding, "From that field trip at Forever Fall Forest, it's probably the same kind that destroyed that device there."
"Yes." Ozpin took his mug and stared at it in thought. "The one where those statues were found…"
"And the place the Grimm had avoided," softly added Glynda.
"We have to be careful with our chase," said Ozpin. "At best, these two women are the only Huntress with high levels of power and their accomplice or accomplices are just normal henchmen, but at worst?" He paused as he let his words sink in. "We may have to assume that they have another of similar capability with them."
Grim thoughts were shared among the room at that idea. It wouldn't occur to them that their idea is still far from the worse and the truth about the people they would someday encounter.
"That is unreal…"
Cinder had no idea who said that but she couldn't really agree more with it as she stared at the video on the screen playing at their base. She and her minions watched unblinkingly at the video of the woman who had single-handedly taken apart the ambush they had laid out.
That in itself wasn't what caused most of their surprise, since they had only setup the ambush to figure out the identities of the other party that had been disrupting their operations lately. What got the most surprise was how the blind woman had handled her next opponents and the appearance of the female knight who had appeared to shield her downed comrade with her own body from a hail of Dust rounds that should have left her seriously wounded.
Instead, they saw the perfectly immaculate form of the knight, with nary a thread out of place from the attacks of the students. Her gallant figure stood proudly while her hands rested on the air in front of her waist, as if holding down on to something there.
"Are these the other maidens?" questioned Emerald.
"If so, I'd say we got really lucky with picking out the weakest one," said Mercury with a frown as he replayed the video of the blind woman pulling down two of their planes.
"They aren't any of the maidens," answered Cinder.
That answer received confused looks from everyone in the room with her, including that of Neo.
"How can you be so sure?" said Emerald.
Cinder merely said, "Oh, I'm sure." Her right eye glowed yellow with power. "You can trust me when I tell you that those women aren't any of the seasons. They're something else entirely."
"Then what are they then?" said Mercury in exasperation.
"Magic."
Both Mercury and Emerald laughed at what they assumed was their leader making a joke. But the placid look Cinder gave them, showed them that she was not kidding at all about her answer. They immediately went quiet as they waited for her to continue.
"The maidens hadn't always been powerful as they are now," explained Cinder. "As the fairy tale tells it, an old man was said to have given them their magic, once upon a time. Both of you have experienced that magic firsthand, remember?"
The two gulped as they thought about the time they had attacked one of the maidens. It wasn't an easy fight, even after they had setup a perfectly laid out ambush. It was something that could have easily had ended badly for them had they not prepared and gotten a little bit lucky with it.
"Now if the maidens were that powerful," continued Cinder. "How strong do you think the old man who gave them those powers would be in the first place?"
That certainly stretched their imaginations a bit. Although, their eyes strayed off back at the video that had been playing again. It didn't seem that too far-fetched of an idea, now that they had something to reference it with.
"Exactly," Cinder said as she saw where their eyes were at. "If it's magic, then it's possible that these two are an existence related to it."
"Then what does this mean for our plans?" asked Emerald.
Cinder glanced at the worried look of her ally. "It means that the plans would have to change a little."
"What about the maiden then?" said Mercury.
"Our current plans will continue as scheduled. They will only be… altered a bit."
Emerald gazed at the proud form of the knight on the video. "How can we even beat that thing?"
"We might not have to," answered Cinder and she played forwarded the video to a certain time after the barrage of Dust that hit the knight.
"My Master has ordered our retreat. Our objective has been met and there is no longer any need to stay here," said the voice of the knight in the video.
"I wonder if the master is as strong as its servant?" smirked Cinder maliciously. "One of our goals now is to find more information on our new targets."
"But where would we start?" said Emerald. "There might be no one who knows anything about these guys."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Cinder said as she flipped a photo of someone onto the screen. "It looks like our little lost wolf in sheep's clothing might know a thing or two about them. Let's try our best to get him back to us then. Gather our informants, while I report the changes to our plans and other matters." She did not need to tell them who she would report those to.
Meanwhile, Neo's grip tightened on the handle of her umbrella as she looked at picture up on display.
As Cinder left the room, she vowed, "Our new enemies will soon suffer the same fate as the rest of the people of Remnant."
"How…?"
A cry of grief sounded into the air of the cold night over a rather large mansion. No other voice could be heard besides the first, and the sounds of a cackling of flames near it. The light of the moon gently basking the earth with its mysterious splendor as it slowly moves through the night sky.
"How did this happen...?"
Two fists pounded the clean cut grass, as a girl with twin-tailed hair sank to her knees on the cold earth. Her body shuddered and shook as she cried out in anguish. No words came out from those around her. For they knew not what to say to calm the emotional woman down. They could only stand to the side, and watch as things played out.
"How did the plane crash so close to landing?!" she screamed out.
The wreckage that laid out in the suitably large backyard used to be one of the planes that Roman and his crew had stolen just last night. It was now in pieces… burning and melted pieces of metal that scattered all over the once immaculate garden. But it wasn't the damage to the beautiful garden nor the usefulness of a potential vehicle that Rin had been grieving for.
No, it was the large supplies of Dust crystals that it had been carrying that received her solemn grief.
Thomas Ground, the raccoon-eared faunus, stood to the side, looking away and scratching his cheek uneasily. "I-It couldn't be helped…" he said in a whisper.
Rin momentarily looked up from her crying to give a menacing glare at the faunus. "I thought you said you knew how to fly one of these things?!"
"It wasn't my fault!" He held his hands up trying to block the eyes that he swore could melt him where he stood. "T-The engine probably had a faulty leak or something!"
"Uhm…" Euly tried to help. "It's really not his fault… technically."
Saber, who was on the side with the rest of the Servants, tilted her head in question at that. "Can you clarify what you mean by that?" she asked.
"Well…" Euly looked away for a moment before answering. "Thomas had always been good with equipment in general. But for some reason, every time he gets behind the wheel of a vehicle, it ends up crashing or sinking, and that's not because he's a bad driver or anything. It just happens that he usually gets a boat with a crack in its hull, a car that had its tire's almost worn down, or in this case, a plane that probably did have something wrong with its engine. It's the reason why the White Fang got him as far as possible from the driver's seat during a job."
"Oh? I was wondering why he was shoved in the back so forcefully before," said Roman with mild amusement.
"So it really was your fault!" declared Rin as she grabbed the offending faunus by the neck, trying to strangle him.
"Like I said, it's not really his fault," continued Euly as Archer and Saber both pried the mad magus off their pale comrade. "He just sort of has really bad luck with driving things."
"That is quite surprising," said Rider. "It's almost like he has a negative rank in Riding ability."
"Easy, Rin," Shirou tried to calm his girlfriend down. "We still have one plane full of Dust crystals at least. It's still more than the amount you had wanted in the first place," he said as Rin twisted and struggled from his and Saber's grip to continue her assault.
That did seem to have calmed the magus down a little bit, even though she was still glaring daggers at the buffoon who had hid himself behind Rider for his safety. It was fortunate that they had more than enough Dust crystals loaded onto the other plane, which was now safely hidden away at the basement beneath their property by the others. Otherwise… who knows what Rin would have done to Thomas had they nothing to placate her with.
After Shirou noticed that Rin had settled down somewhat he offered that all of them should return to the house for now to further discuss the events of that night. Naturally, cleanup duty would be done solely by Thomas, which he gladly accepted since it meant he'd be out of reach of his still rather pissed off boss.
Inside the house, Sakura had already had some tea and snacks prepared for everyone. She had been busy helping out Illya earlier with making a plate of cookies for her friend, so it didn't take her that long to finish preparing them.
The living room where they were to hold their meeting was reminiscent of the old European style homes, much like the Tohsaka residence had, albeit a bit larger. It was there where Rin had sat in a single grandiose chair while she drank her tea that Shirou had given her.
The three Servants and Illya -who sat on her Oniichan's lap- were seated on a similarly styled couch, right next to Rin. Whilst, Sakura sat opposite of her sister's. The rest of the group had been made to sort through the load that they had just acquired.
"Really…" mumbled Rin as her blood pressure had just started going down after drinking her tea. "If we hadn't put a bounded field around the property, people would have heard that crash."
"I think it's better if we discussed something else besides that, Neechan," said Sakura.
"Fine," Rin sighed before turning a serious look over at the Servants. "Looks like things hadn't gone completely as we had planned. If the hunters and authorities haven't been looking for us before, they most certainly will be now."
"My deepest apologies," bowed Rider. "I failed to perform adequately with my duties."
Sakura frowned at this. "You did nothing wrong, Rider," she said. "We didn't take Illya's friends seriously enough. It was wrong of us to assume that they had only been there the first time by chance."
"And I guess I should have probably informed you of some the Semblances that they had," added Illya guiltily. She had been a bit too excited at having friends for the first time that she had forgotten to go over what she knew about Huntsmen and Huntresses with everyone else.
Rin shared her agreement with her sister. "Had we known that they were waiting for us, I may have cancelled the operation all together."
That statement certainly came as a surprise to everyone in the room. They had seen just how much Rin had been anticipating the arrival of the Dust crystals before the operation. It was suffice to say that she had almost been in a semi-drunken dream state whilst she waiting for the time till the White Fang struck. Having her cancel it would not have been far in comparing it to cutting off her hair.
Unlike everyone else in the room, Shirou sensed her unease. "What's bothering you, Rin?" he asked gently, his eyes showing her his concern. "Whatever it is, you know you can tell us, right?"
Rin sighed.
"It's not really anything concrete," she said. "But something is still bothering me about this world. Those Grimm are one thing, but magecraft all together in this world is still something I can't make sense out of." She bit her nail as she continued to talk. "The people here are a lot more naturally durable than the people of our world. They can also use Aura and Semblance which seems to be their innate magic that's taken form. I would guess it's how the people here have adapted to survive in this world filled with creatures that could kill them so easily. Then you also have Dust, which is kind of like prana in material form that they also use to combat the Grimm and power their devices." So far everyone nodded their heads, having understood. "The thing is… I've read some their history and there are more than few instances where I suspect magic had once been common knowledge."
Everyone knew and had a general idea of the implications of that and it would be quite serious indeed. If magic had once been as Rin has said, then the important question was why it was no longer so and if there's still anyone around who can use it.
"Are you sure about that, Rin?" asked Saber.
Her Master gave her an affirmative nod. "Everyone here should know that myth and legends have some underlying truth to them, the same can be said for fairy tales," she answered. "Magi in our world always find ways to conceal the truth from the rest of the people. But if you read between the lines of some of our history books, you can just make out the events where magic had been involved in."
"So there might be people here who can use magecraft," said Illya.
"And if they're anything like the magi of our world then…" mumbled Shirou.
Rin nodded grimly and said, "They will come looking for us. And when they do, I'm not so sure they won't be as friendly as our own magi."
Silence permeated the room as everyone digested what had been just said. Even if they had Servants, being hunted continuously by something like the Enforcers, magi, and other beings of the supernatural would greatly inconvenience their new lives here. It would be the same as living the life of a sealing designee, where one would never know true peace of mind when you had to constantly worry in hiding and always on the run.
"You said you're not entirely sure about it yet though, Rin?" Shirou finally said.
"What I can find through the regular circulation of books is somewhat limited, even with Mr. Tuckson's connections through the trade," sighed Rin. "He said most books you won't find anywhere else are only available at the libraries of Huntsmen Academies."
"That means you'll need access to their facilities for that?" said Sakura
"Yes," sighed Rin once more. "Unfortunately, only students and staff are allowed access to their libraries."
"What if we—"
Rin cut off what Illya had been about to suggest. "Becoming students would be out of the question for us," she said. "While we do need to know more about this, we should really keep our focus on our current project's task. While it's our fault that the Grimm had been attracted to this city, the reports have been pointing to them growing stronger even before we had arrived here. It would be best if we finished sooner rather than later. Going back to school would slow our pace, and would keep us separated for a longer periods of time than I would deem necessary. Not to mention, I'd like it if we held on to our cover for as long as possible. Frequent combat, especially in a school designed for that, would only invite suspicious inquiries to our background." Rin smiled at an amused thought. "Can you imagine what would happen if we sent any Servants there?"
Illya's face cramped as she did.
There are just too many ways that things could go wrong with that.
"I guess there's nothing we could do about that then," said Shirou.
"Tsk!" Rin looked frustrated at the lack of an option. "I really would have liked to get my hands on the information there. We'd be able to know more about this world and those that inhabit it."
Unlike everyone else, only Sakura had a smile on her face. "I might have a way in for you, Neechan," said the girl, which got her curious stares from everyone. "You see, students aren't the only ones who frequently visit our shop…"
A/N:
This chapter is a bit longer than the previous ones but i'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed with the lack of focus with the Fate group. The next chapter should fix that... probably.
Also changed Superhuman Strength to Monstrous Strength as alienvx0 suggested since the translation does sound better as that.
As always, please read and review. It will help me if you can point out some mistakes in spelling, grammar and inconsistencies as well. Please do try to make constructive criticism.
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