Chapter 9: Birdo

Kuro is outside the bakery, waving at the twins as he feels happy that he finally gets a job, Ruby is running around him sharing his excitement as she feels happy that her friend is happy. Patting her head she pouts and her face turns a bit red as they begin to walk towards the bus station to go home, as it is near nighttime and Yang probably waiting for them at home by now.

As they begin to approach the station, Kuro notices that Ruby is looking a bit sad as she walks with her arms behind her looking at the ground, not talking as much as he thought.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Ruby is surprised as she stumbles around, looking at him.

"Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be okay? I feel right as Zwei! That dog rarely gets sick."

Kuro sees through Ruby as she is forcing herself to smile. "Something is clearly wrong." he thought.

"Look, Ruby, it's clear that something must be bothering you, and you've been distracted earlier that I need to tell you twice before responding."

Ruby and Kuro stop as she begins to think carefully as she sighs.

"I've been thinking earlier, now that you got a job, you'll be busy most of the day and I'll be alone in the house again. Don't get me wrong, Zwei is a great dog but now that I have you as my first friend outside of school, I can't just go back to being alone playing by myself."

Thinking about it for a bit, it occurs to him that Ruby is mostly the same as him, a person that sucks at social stuff. Although he didn't think that this affect her greatly.

"What the, is she this starved for friends? Think Kuro what can you do, as her friend I should be able to do something! Ah! I know."

"Ruby!"

Ruby is once again shocked by Kuro's loud voice as she stares at him with a red face.

"Yes?"

Kuro calms himself down, lowering his voice enough so that Ruby won't be shocked at anything.

"How about you also come work at the bakery? That way you could earn some lien and pay me for the sweets that you feel like you owe me."

Ruby glows at the idea but still doubts herself, unsure if she could do a great job.

"But, I've never been in a job before. Maybe I'll.."

Kuro interrupts her as he brings her out of that sad state.

"Don't worry about it. I'll help you with any problems you might encounter. How about this, just wait at the station, I'll go back to the bakery to talk to the owners if they could also make you my helper. So what do you say?"

Ruby thinks for a bit before smiling, for real this time, her silver eyes shone with excitement.

"Sure! I'd love to."

Kuro smiles as the pair approaches the station, going to a seat near a holographic television so as to not make Ruby bored by waiting for him.

"Great! I'll see you in a moment Ruby."

Kuro begins to run towards the bakery, excited that he plays some upbeat music as he begins to think about his tour with Ruby. Realizing that he might be in the same predicament as Ruby, having a friend like her makes it difficult to go back to being lonely.

"CAW!"

["Warning! Unknown magical being is approaching you at high speed!"]

In an area where Ruby can't see him a black bird on the rooftop begins to dive at him. Shocked by the warning he didn't have time to respond as he felt his body being thrown heavily, making him fly towards the wall. As he approaches the wall, he notices that a piece of metal is sticking out, perfectly lined upon his head. Without anything to protect him, at this speed, even with his newly acquired aura it will impale him, killing him without a doubt.

"No! I won't die to some stupid piece of metal. Come on!"

Unlucky for him, it seems like some nails from a ladder fall on him as if the world wants to kill him twice. Refusing to die Kuro protects his body as he tries to minimize the damage, hoping that his aura will protect him from most of the damage.

Closing his eyes, he waits for a while until he felt his body suddenly stop. Shaking his head he felt his body being grabbed as a voice reaches his ears.

"Hey, kid. I want to talk to you for a bit."

A few days before.

"No! Get away from me! I'll.. Aghhh"

Crack!

"What kind of grimm is this? Nononononono!"

Snap!

The cave is surrounded by the sounds of bones being crushed as the soldiers are being eaten one by one. The leader of the group is shocked as his men are being destroyed by only one grimm.

"We can't hold the line anymore. Retreat!"

Unable to afford any losses, the leader calls for all fighters to back down.

"Calling for all available units! Immediately evacuate the premises, let the Atlesian robots take the fall!"

"Yes sir!"

"We can't let this grimm occupy this area, we must act now."

The headmaster of Beacon is sitting on his desk, rubbing his head as he finishes talking with the council of Vale, who oversees and ensures the future of its citizens. He drinks hot cocoa as the taste calms him down.

"An unknown variant of grimm appeared out of nowhere, did she start taking a move?"

Watching the video he received from the soldiers it seems like the council is terrified as they argued loudly about a new type of grimm being discovered recently. They employed him to eliminate this threat immediately. Ozpin sighs as he called a number in his scroll.

The kingdom is protected by natural barriers in the south, making it an excellent chokepoint. However, news of an unusual grimm has been sighted by people living near the borders. Making them unable to defend and protect the border due to this grimm. If the chokepoint is held on for a long period of time by the grimm, then the Kingdom of Vale might be in danger of extinction. Alarmed by this predicament, the council has contacted one of their best hunters to eliminate the problem.

A woman wearing provocative clothes is serving some customers in a bar, slapping away the perverts that try to grope her body, and they laugh as they tease the woman. A young man in their group called the woman out.

"Hey! Would you like to go somewhere more private? Maybe have some fun?"

Great. It's the nth time a customer has tried to invite her to their place, it's not her fault that her clothes make it look like she's easy to pick up, but these are just uniforms for the bar, she has to blame the owner for that. She tries to refuse, knowing that they would stop once asked if they don't want to get banned in the bar. However, it seems like this particular man is too drunk to even think of the consequences. He gets angry as his friends try to stop him but to no avail. He forcefully grabs her hand, hurting her, and crying out in pain.

"Guards! Help!"

Shouting for help it seems the guards are fooling around as they are not approaching. The man, noticing that no one is coming to help her, gets more confident as he gets more forceful, trying to get frisky with her. His arm is steadily approaching her breast, she struggles fruitlessly as she closes her eyes, resigned by the fact that she might be violated.

A loud yelp left the mouth of the pervert, as groans of pain enters the ears of the woman. Opening her eyes, she sees a large hand grabbing the boy's arm, and it throws him to the side, colliding with a chair. The man is knocked out and gets surrounded by his friends as they carry him to the entrance. Sighing in relief the woman turns her head to her savior, her eyes widen in recognition.

It is obvious to the passersby that a hunter saved the woman, due to the greatsword in his back. Only hunters openly show and equip their weapons in public. The hunter pats his hand to his sides to clean off the oil, and the woman stands up.

"Thank you for saving me ."

The hunter looks at her with sadness as he lets out a statement that greatly confuses the woman.

"Sorry."

The hunter grabs a bottle and quickly leaves the bar, leaving the woman dumbfounded, she stood there for a while, thinking it's one of those weird hunter shenanigans as she silently thanked the person who defended her from the pervert. The woman goes back to work, as the surrounding people continue drinking, talking about the hunter. The guards finally came back from the restroom, faced with the owner, who begins berating them.

Far away from the bar, a man opens the bottle on the rooftop.

"Another one jinxed again."

Qrow Branwen, the uncle of Yang and Ruby, is drinking the alcoholic bottle as he sighs in acceptance. Today is his rare day-offs as he constantly gets missions day by day, but also accomplishes them at ludicrous speed. Thinking about his nieces and how they are faring, he finishes the half of the bottle, pouring the rest into his beloved flask he has on his hip.

Qrow is one of the best solo hunters in Vale, usually, most hunter graduates from the academies operate in teams of four, but due to his semblance, Misfortune, he always goes alone on missions. Back in the day, he didn't really mind his semblance, his enemies faltering their attack out of random means was something he always appreciated, until that day, during a mission with a friend, his semblance caused her death, leaving him in despair, making his guilt escape by drinking. After that day, he despises his semblance.

This is also why he moves from place to place and never stays for longer than he needed to, even with his nieces, as something might inevitably go wrong should he stay long enough that his semblance affects someone close to him. He sits there staring at the sky as his scroll rings. He answers it, and a grey-haired man appears.

"Sup Ozpin."

"Qrow, an emergency mission has been issued by the council, I believe that you are the closest one available to the region."

There goes his day off. The hunter looks to the sky for a bit, then focuses on Ozpin.

"Tell me the details."

Ozpin nods as he begins to tell Qrow about the mission.

"Very well, an unusual grimm has secured one of the chokepoints in Vale's natural borders, and hunters in that area are unable to eliminate it. This region has an avai….."

Qrow yawns as he starts to get bored.

"Got it, big bad grimm, important stuff yada yada."

Ozpin sighs as he stops talking about the mission, knowing that it is a waste of time since Qrow stopped listening, fortunately, he gets the job done. Tapping his scroll, he glances at the bored hunter.

"Sigh, I sent the details in a file in your scroll. Be careful, this may be the work of our enemies. Stay sharp. I await news of your success."

Click

Qrow opens the file, seems that it'll take him a few hours to get there.

Arriving at the area, it seems like the base is heavily damaged, with lots of grimm hanging around the base, looks like grimm are attracted to this place. The hunter notices some body parts strewn around, while he was getting used to the sight, he looks around for clues.

Grimm typically never leave any bodies behind, but this unusual grimm noted by the file seems special, according to Ozpin.

Looking at the photo he saw a few unnatural bones impaling the unknown grimm, making it look more dangerous and wild.

"A failed experiment? Looks like this grimm was thrown away."

Wary from the lack of knowledge of this unknown grimm he retreats, for now, going to a nearby village where the survivors escaped to ask for more information.

The village is comparatively behind the modern city, only having brick houses and a few necessary shops. Asking the villagers it looks like the survivors are temporarily occupying the town hall, giving a few liens to the person he goes to the building in the center of the village.

Opening the door he sees hunters laying down in beds, with few doctors patching up their injuries. Walking around he goes to the first hunter that he sees awake.

Sitting beside him it seems like the hunter's arm and face only receives a few gashes. nothing too serious, however, his arms and legs are cuffed, preventing him from moving too much. Frowning he goes to the hunter's side.

The hunter looks him in the eye, and his face turns into a rage as he tries to reach Qrow, but is unable to due to the cuffs.

"I'll kill you, you bastard!"

Qrow's eyebrow raises as one of the doctors quickly moves to his side, injecting him with some sedatives.

"Calm down, you'll injure yourself if you move too much."

The hunter calms down as the doctor looks at his condition. His face is much more tranquil as he looks at Qrow.

"Thanks, I keep hallucinating that damn grimm. Hey, you're that hunter the council sent right?"

Qrow nods.

"Ok, you're probably here to know more about that. That monster we fought. It looks like a normal beowulf, but it deceives you, and hits you at your blind spot. It's. too… nooo! GET AWAY FROM ME…"

"Calm down! Is there anything different from a normal beowulf?"

The man heaves as he tries to speak more coherently.

"Thanks, Sorry, I couldn't help much, but I do remember its eyes not as red as a normal grimm. Sorry, I can't give you any more info. This is probably the most you can get from anyone. The others are too incapacitated to talk to you."

Qrow begins to think. Some type of illusion grimm then? Eh, he handled weirder stuff before.

"Hmm, more than enough."

Qrow begins to leave as he heard the hunter speaks behind him.

"Hey. Kill it for those who died there, we've lost so many people today."

The hunter watches as Qrow exits the door, not before hearing from the man himself.

"I will."

AN: Yay uploads!
Don't worry it won't be angst stuff, maybe a bit.