Author's note: This one's a short chapter too. I'm writing in short bursts. If I get a few ideas I like and a scene I can visualise, I flesh it out. This way, I can keep driving the story forward. I'd like to do longer chapters, but I don't think there's any point in forcing them.

Chapter 23:

"This is the place."

"You don't say."

The absolute worst duo in all of Remnant stood looking at a quaint little house in the middle of vast fields. Built in a style that combined traditional and modern, it nevertheless had a neon sign in front that left no doubt as to what the place was: Devil May Cry. The house was relatively close to the city, though outside its high walls, where few dared to build residences due to the fear of Grimm attacks.

"Let's just get this over with," grunted Qrow. "Let me handle the talking."

"It's a miracle someone with as few functioning brain cells left as you can even string two words together," shot back Winter. "So maybe you should leave this to someone who isn't perpetually drunk."

Qrow did not even bother to glance at her, simply walking ahead towards the building. No matter what, he couldn't afford to get angry. He very much wanted to give both Ruby and Yang a talking-to, but that might do more harm than good. The best way to get them to see sense was to talk to them like he always did, openly, and using reason, rather than authority. It took less than a second for Winter to match steps with his own, keeping pace. She had no intention of letting Qrow ruin this. While the best case scenario would be to bring all the students back to Beacon, she would be satisfied if she could get Weiss out of this place. In fact, perhaps it would be better to take her with herself, back to Atlas. All of Remnant was unsafe right now, but Vale more so than anywhere else, given the number of known demons here.

The two reached and knocked on the door at the same time.

"Come in," answered a woman's voice from inside.

Qrow was slightly surprised. He knew that Glynda Goodwitch had also joined this agency, and even that she was supposedly in a relationship with the one called Dante (how exactly he had pulled off that particular feat was beyond him). However, the voice he had just heard was not that of the former Beacon combat instructor. This one was completely unfamiliar to him. Although it spoke only two words, it had the tiniest hint of a teasing tone to it. And not necessarily in a way that led to the bedroom.

Nevertheless, he pushed the door open before Winter could do so, causing her to scowl at him. Ignoring her, he walked in, followed closely by her. Looking around inside, Qrow blinked a few times. Was this really the office of a demon hunting agency? There was a desk, but the vast majority of space was occupied by other things: a billiards table, a jukebox (seriously?), a drumset, some couches, electric guitars hanging from the walls. On the centre table were various comic books and entertainment magazines. More than a hunter's office, this place looked like a room someone had set up for the prime purpose of having fun.

Qrow's attention once more returned to the only part of the room that looked like it belonged in an office, the desk. Sitting behind it was the woman whose voice he must have heard. She looked unlike any woman he had ever seen before. Leaning back in her chair, with her legs on the desk, her lithe, voluptuous frame was in full view. While she was slender and graceful, her assets were more than generously sized, and her clothing of choice, a tight black corset with a lightning bolt pattern zip down the front, only emphasised them, while also exposing her firm abdominals. Her leather pants were similarly form fitting, leaving little of her toned legs to the imagination. She wore high-heeled boots and matching bands on her forearms. A black choker around her neck completed the outfit. Qrow's gaze met hers. The woman's eyes were a piercing blue, and glittered slightly. Her high cheekbones, sharp features and full, red lips gave her an appearance highly reminiscent of royalty, enhanced even further by her bright golden hair. Except, Qrow had met several aristocrats and so-called nobles, and he could not imagine any queen looking like that. Her face was too finely sculpted, her body too graceful. In a way, her existence itself seemed impossible, as though rather than an actual person, she was some kind of organic construct made to represent the ideal vision of beauty.

The woman put aside the magazine she was reading, and swept her legs off the table.

"Welcome to the Devil May Cry," she said, her voice still retaining that hint of a teasing lilt to it. "How can I help you?"

Qrow actually had to consciously remind himself of his objective.

"I'm looking for the guy who runs this place," he said. "Someone named Dante?"

The woman's eyes gleamed for a moment.

"Dante isn't here at the moment," she said.

"Really?" asked Qrow, sceptical. "Where is he?"

"Business trip," the woman answered smoothly. "I'm happy to help in his place, however."

Winter, who had watched this exchange take place with growing annoyance, finally felt her patience run out.

"Enough. It doesn't matter where he is. I'm here to see Weiss Schnee. I was told I could find her here."

The mysterious woman turned her gaze onto Winter, eyes once more glinting.

"Weiss Schnee… it's unfortunate, but she doesn't happen to be here right now either."

"Doesn't happen to be here…" Winter repeated. With every word, her temper came closer to the breaking point. "And where is she, then?"

The woman seemed completely aware of the effect she was having on the duo, but did not seem the least bit bothered by it.

"Who knows?" she said, shrugging. "I'm not a babysitter, and she's old enough to take care of herself."

Winter's temper reached its limits, and went over.

"You will answer the question you are asked!", she said, taking a step forward. One hand twitched toward the sword at her side. Qrow, knowing the situation was worsening by the second, tried to intervene before things got out of hand, though he was far from calm himself.

"You've got to have some idea where she is," he said to the blonde. "Or do you just let them all run around wherever they want?"

The woman stared at him in silence for a moment, then stood up. She walked around the table slowly, running a finger along the wooden surface.

"You know, the two of you have been asking a lot of questions, but you haven't even introduced yourselves yet," she said, her eyes lingering on each of them for a moment.

Winter's eyebrows twitched, and she clenched her fist in irritation. Everything about this woman would have annoyed her on any given day. But in the mood she was in, it infuriated her. She could tell just by looking at her that she knew exactly where Weiss and the rest of her team were. All of this was just her playing around, trying to get a reaction out of them. It was the sort of thing Qrow did. However, Qrow happened to be on the receiving end of it this time. Whatever satisfaction she might have felt at that otherwise was overpowered by more important concerns, however. If the woman was planning to drag this on, she would make her talk. With this intention, she was about to take a step forward, when Qrow spoke.

"Qrow Branwen, Huntsman, officially licensed by Vale. Uptight lady over there's Winter, Specialist from Atlas. We're here looking for team RWBY from Beacon Academy."

Normally, he might have led by saying he was Yang and Ruby's uncle, but he wasn't sure how wise it was to give away that information to someone who associated with demons. Likewise, giving away Winter's relation to Weiss was a bad idea. He looked at Winter, hoping he'd be able to convey this information through a glance. Ozpin might have said Dante possessed humanity, and maybe that was true. But a lifetime of experience with the supernatural had taught Qrow to at least be cautious of those connected to it.

Winter's eyes met Qrow's, and at the last second, she managed to stop herself from moving towards the woman.

The blonde was silent for a while upon hearing their names and titles. A knowing smile appeared on her face, but if she was indeed on to their concealment, she made no reference to it.

"I see," she said. "Well, huntsman and specialist, I regret to inform you that the ones you're looking for aren't here at the moment. But I'm sure whatever you want to see them about is important, so you're more than welcome to wait here for them."

"Wait here…" muttered Winter. "Wait here, you say…"

Her temper had been bubbling for a while now, and for many reasons. In the first place, Ozpin's terrible administration of Beacon, and his complete failure to realise that an actual demon had been teaching at his school for several months. And then, more importantly, his failure to stop Weiss and her friends from following said demon out of school. As if that wasn't bad enough, she had to deal with Qrow as she attempted to find and bring them all back. And on top of all that, she had just been told to wait, without being given any information about their whereabouts, by a woman who was clearly toying with them.

It was the feather that broke the camel's back.

She walked towards the woman.

"You know more than you're letting on. Start talking, now."

The blonde's eyes gleamed, and a smile appeared on her face that made even Qrow's blood run cold for a second. Never before had he thought that someone that beautiful could radiate that much danger.

"And what if I don't?", she said simply.

Winter swung without warning, but her arm was intercepted before it reached the woman's face. The grip on her forearm was vice like: it was hard to believe that the slender blonde had that much strength. Even with her Aura and years of training, Winter couldn't budge her even an inch. Abandoning the attempt to overpower her, she instead twisted her wrist like a snake, placing her hand on the blonde's own and pushing against it. With the added advantage of leverage, she broke through in an instant, and capitalised by thrusting her other palm forward in a jab. However, her blow was knocked aside. Winter registered an elbow coming towards her face, and weaved sideways, barely avoiding it. She swung her arm outwards in a backfisted blow, but it was likewise blocked, before the blonde countered with one of her own. Winter ducked under it and struck back with a body blow, but it was parried with a forearm block before the blonde swung her knee upwards. Winter used a cross-arm block to intercept the knee-strike, which had enough force to push her off the ground by a few inches. Taking advantage of the air-time, Winter summoned a Glyph right in front of her, planning on using it to launch the woman off balance. To her surprise, a circle of golden runes appeared right opposite her own Glyph, repelling her attack. With her force hurled back at her, Winter used it to gain distance, allowing it to push her back several feet, where she landed smoothly.

The entire exchange had taken barely two seconds.

Winter gazed warily at the woman, who still had the unnerving smile on her face. The Atlesian Specialist drew her sword. As annoying as the blonde was, there was no denying it: she was a formidable combatant. Before she could press the assault, however, Qrow leapt in with a dropkick aimed at the back of the mysterious woman's head. Without missing a beat, she leaned to the side, making the huntsman's attack whiff. However, Qrow turned around in mid air, grabbing on to the woman. Planting his feet on the ground, he transferred the momentum through his body, using it to throw the blonde.

He was about to let a smirk make its way onto his face when he realised that the woman was still holding on to his wrists. As for Winter, her eyes barely had time to widen before she felt the woman's legs scissor her head, grabbing on tightly. The blonde twisted her hips, and pirouetted horizontally, using the force to flip both Qrow and Winter into the air at the same time.

Landing gracefully while the two hunters were still spinning in mid-air, she grabbed onto Winter's head with one hand, and hurled her like a baseball right at Qrow. The two lived up to their nature as polar opposites, crashing into each other as the force carried them backwards all the way to the front door of the office, where they once more managed to recover in mid-air, barely landing on their feet, and turning to glare at each other.

"What the hell are you doing?" growled Winter.

"I was taking an opening," shot back Qrow. "Next time, don't just stand still and let yourself get grabbed like that!"

Winter was irate. She wanted nothing more than to beat Qrow into the ground, but there were more pressing matters at the moment. The usually-drunk huntsman unsheathed his shifter-weapon and turned his gaze back to the blonde.

The woman, in turn, smirked before she raised one hand and held it up, palm facing towards the duo.

Qrow frowned.

She was really taunting them this early in the fight? It wasn't like she'd landed a convincing blow on either of them.

It was his instincts that realised it wasn't actually a taunt. However, there was no time to react beyond strengthening his Aura.

A blast of lightning crashed into both hunters at the same time, hurling them back clean through the door, and leaving them sprawling on the grass outside.

Qrow groaned as he sat up, wincing slightly as a tingle ran through him from the electricity. Winter grimaced as well. Looking up, she saw the blonde come out from the same door they had just passed through, before closing it behind her.

"It's your first time here, so I'll be gentle," she said. "But there's something you should remember."

Gold lightning flashed all around, her eyes shining with power as she stood at the entrance to the shop. Above her, the neon sign of the establishment glowed, bathing her in its light.

"You don't come to the Devil May Cry and demand answers."

Winter and Qrow got to their feet, this time fully prepared, both holding their weapons at the ready. Both of them had been so focused on Dante as the biggest and most obvious threat that they'd neglected that someone else might also be too good to face with anything less than their absolute best. Her speed and power, her skill and fluid movements… they were on par with a top-level hunter.

"You're getting a bit too cocky," growled Winter.

"Who are you?" asked Qrow.

Before she could answer, the second floor window of the shop opened, and a familiar face appeared.

"Trish, could you please keep it down? What's all this noise about?"

Qrow looked up in surprise.

"Glynda?" he said.

Glynda spotted the two hunters.

"Qrow? Winter? What are you two doing here?"

Her gaze went from Trish, who was facing off with them, back to the hunters, and then to her again, and she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Trish…"

The mysterious blonde now revealed to be named Trish shrugged.

"I was just having some fun," she said.

"That's not a good enough reason," Glynda chastised. Both Qrow and Winter could do nothing but stare as this conversation played out. The inscrutable, dangerous fighter from seconds ago was suddenly behaving as though she were a mischievous trickster who had been caught in the act. It was almost as if the two blondes were sisters, though they couldn't be any more different from each other.

"Glynda Goodwitch was upstairs all this time," said Qrow, "And you didn't tell us?"

Trish glanced at him, eyes twinkling.

"Well, you never asked about her," she said.

Not able to come up with a verbal response that he wanted to utter, Qrow reached for his flask.

As for Winter, she felt, in spite of herself, all her anger dissipating as she stared at the woman in sheer disbelief.

"You… You… All this time, I've been trying to find my sister. Any hint would have been fine. Her teacher was right there, and you…"

Trish looked at her.

"You know, if you'd led with that, I would have been only too happy to tell you," she said.

Winter stared.

Trish briefly glanced at Qrow before facing her once more and winking.

"Helpful hint: next time you want answers from someone, try asking nicely first."

Glynda face-palmed from the second floor.

"Just… come inside, all of you."

Meanwhile, in the city:

"You smell of demons."

Ruby backed away slowly, hands held up.

"Penny, wait a second! We don't need to get violent." As she spoke, Penny's words sunk in properly. Sure, the existence of demons was common knowledge in Remnant now, but she didn't sound like she'd just found out about it. Besides, she had said that Ruby smelled of demons, which was technically not wrong, she had been around Dante. But for Penny to be able to catch his scent was odd. The only other person who was able to sense demons that way was Dante himself.

Before she had time to think further about it, however, Penny dashed in. Ruby was taken aback by the sudden burst of speed. Given the short distance, there wasn't enough time to unsheathe Crescent Rose and use it to block. Fortunately, however, she didn't have to.

Yang slid in front of her, parrying Penny's blow aside with one hand while thrusting her own open palm outward. While it had less damage-causing power than a closed fist strike, it could be thrown out quickly and connect safely. And sure enough, it slammed into Penny's face, forcing her backward.

However, even as she slid back, off balance and head tilted from the blow, she swung her leg upwards in a straight kick.

She countered after taking my hit?

Once upon a time, the unpredictable counter would have caught Yang off-guard. But her training with Dante was starting to show results. To always observe and be aware of the opponent, and be prepared for anything: if one did this, then even the most unlikely counter-blows could be guarded.

Knocking Penny's foot down with her palm, she struck back with a front kick of her own, but the strange girl reacted with inhuman agility, twisting to the side while still off-balance, and avoiding the hit. Turning 360, she lashed out with a spinning kick which Yang ducked under, hands high as she went in.

As a natural addition to her fistfighting, Dante had taught her this move, taken straight from the legendary Jack Dempsey himself.

Shifting her weight rapidly from left to right as she pivoted her feet, legs and hips to generate power, she swung her arms, slamming in hooks from both sides.

Penny raised her guard, but it wasn't enough: the amount of brute force was too great, each hit shaking her. Further, Yang changed the angle of her blows slightly each time. Sometimes the hooks would come in from the side, but if Penny raised her arms to cover the sides, the next punch would come diagonally in from the front.

And all the while, Yang was using another tactic Dante had taught her.

While her Semblance burned through Aura quickly, there was more than one way of using it.

Instead of spending it on an all-or-nothing attack, it was possible to use a small part of it, and slowly build it up, so that the opponent didn't notice.

Penny certainly didn't. As occupied as she was with preventing her face from being caved in, she didn't feel Yang activate her Semblance.

It was only after the first ten punches that she realised that the hits were getting heavier.

By then, it was too late.

Yang, who had finally built up enough power, let loose with a final, devastating hook, her closed fist crashing against Penny's forearm, and sending her flying through the air.

"Heh! Ultra combo," said Yang.

"Yang!" protested Ruby. "You didn't need to go that far-"

She didn't finish what she was saying.

Penny got up from the mess of store shelves and packaged goods. The angry welt on her arm from the hit she had taken was already healing up. Her eyes glowed red for a second.

"Threat level is higher than expected. Adjusting power output accordingly."

She held out both hands to her sides, and scarlet phantom blades appeared in them, made of pure energy.

Yang's eyes widened.

"That… doesn't look good," she said.

"You think?" said Ruby sarcastically, while pulling out Crescent Rose in scythe form. She prepared for Penny to attack. The key here was to find an opportunity and subdue her before this escalated any further. Before she could try to talk her down, however, she disappeared from sight.

Yang felt the air behind her warp, and quickly deduced that Penny had just teleported. She wheeled around, backing away, but felt a sharp sensation slice through the skin on her side. Looking down, she saw that she'd been cut over the ribs. It wasn't deep, but…

"Her attack went right through my Aura…" she muttered.

Ruby stared in alarm, her mind instantly shooting back to the last time such a thing had happened, and the subsequent lessons they'd been given about it.

"Demonic power doesn't have a thing to do with the laws of physics. Depending on how potent it is, how much of it there is, it can do anything at all. It'll break the rules of reality to do whatever its wielder wants. That Aura you've got. It's powerful, for sure. But it's not invincible. From what I understand, it'll protect you against anything, right? But that's an observation based on the rules of your world, based on your reality. So if you're up against something that goes against those rules, against reality, there's a high chance that it's…"

"Demonic power," said Ruby.

All the pieces came together now, and she stared at Penny in shock.

"You're a demon, aren't you? That's how you knew we'd been around Dante."

Penny's expression changed for a brief moment.

Yang, who had been fighting barehanded, slid Ember Cilica on and prepared to get serious.

"Dante…" said Penny. "The demon whose presence I can smell from you… is Dante?"

"Half-demon technically," said Yang.

Penny glanced at her, then relaxed her stance. The energy blades she was holding vanished.

Yang blinked.

"That's it? No round 2?"

"Unnecessary. The followers of the Legendary Dark Knight are trustworthy."

"Legendary Dark Knight?" asked Ruby, confused. Having heard a brief history of Dante's life from Trish a few days ago, she knew that that was a title given to the devil hunter's father, Sparda. But according to what Trish said, Sparda was "no longer in a place where the living could reach him". That seemed like an odd way of saying he was dead. But then again, perhaps even death wasn't the same for demons as it was for everyone else.

"The Legendary Dark Knight, Dante," clarified Penny. "The true and future Demon King who will rule this world."

Ruby and Yang both did a double-take.

"Wait, what?" they chorused.

Before they could ask for any details, however, the doors to the store opened, and Atlesian troops entered. For a moment, the two huntresses in training wondered if they were going to be arrested for messing up the store. To their surprise, however, the troops ignored them completely. Instead, their captain marched up to Penny and saluted.

"Your father requests your presence back at base."

"I see," answered Penny. Her voice was back to being its usual unreadable monotone. Without another word, she began to follow the soldiers, but paused briefly to glance at the two huntresses for a second.

Ruby wasn't sure why, but in that moment, she thought her eyes looked very sad.

The moment passed, and she was gone, along with the troops.

"Well, that happened," said Yang.