Sorry for the gap. Mixture of holiday and then a period of being cut off from the internet.

Sun watched as Emerald and Mercury leapt off the bullhead to join Jaune Arc defending the civilians. He was sorry not be joining them but the reassurance that he and Neptune were needed elsewhere had sounded genuine.

The entire crew had their eyes glued on the coverage from the other bullhead. Sun had been impressed by how Amber and Nora had tackled the King Taijitu and Pyrrha taking out the Alpha Ursa almost before she had landed had caused them all to whoop with appreciation.

Neptune nudged him and Sun saw that the old hunter Nicholas had his fists clenched as he watched the footage from the convoy. A horde of Grimm were charging down the road straight at the convoy and in particular at Jaune Arc.

The fists unclenched after a couple of moments when it became clear that Jaune's shield, and his aura were holding out against the Grimm and that Emerald and Mercury were taking out the Grimm which had been knocked back by Jaune's defences.

Sun watched Emerald alternating between firing her weapons and using them to slice and dice the Grimm while Mercury went in for kicking the Grimm and firing using his feet. Jaune mostly kept his dust enhanced shield up to cause the Grimm to become easy pickings for the other two but occasionally used his sword to take out any Grimm which got too near to him.

Neptune commented "Frack, I did not know Emerald was that good." Sun mentally agreed with him. She had been as sound as any of them, but this level of ruthlessness had not been seen previously. Mercury had admitted to being lazy to the rest of the team but had periodically showed how good he could be if anyone tried taking liberties.

Sun knew that he and Neptune had avoided breaking out their semblances and had been saving it for the Vytal Festival so maybe it was just that the entire team had decided that there was nothing to be gained in flaunting how good they were.

Sun was puzzled, although relieved, that the Grimm who were not on the road were not turning to attack the convoy but were instead ignoring it. While he supposed that the convoy might not be that visible, in his experience Grimm did not rely on sight and often attacked through sandstorms in Vacuo. He asked, "Professor, why aren't the Grimm attacking from the side or the rear."

Nicholas and Pink looked at each other. Pink nodded and Nicholas said, "Lie Ren's semblance dampens emotions and hides them from the Grimm. It is working better than I expected. I am not certain whether it is because his semblance is that good or because the negative emotions coming from Kulsa are so strong as to overwhelm any residual traces. Probably a combination of both."

Pink said, "I agree with Mr Arc. Useful semblance for protecting civilians from the Grimm. No use at the Vytal festival, so I do not feel guilty confirming Nicholas's answer."

Nicholas said. "Better in the long term to have a semblance which can protect against Grimm than one which is only of use against humans and winning tournaments."

Pink then said, "Seriously lads, I know everyone likes to keep semblances a secret until the festival but if you need to use yours to save lives including your own then do so."

Sun said, "Absolutely understood, sir."

Pink turned to him and Neptune and said, "It looks like that fight is under control. Time to discuss what we are doing next. In particular, we three will be heading straight to the Faunus quarter of Kulsa and Emerald and Mercury will join us later. We are there to look confident and to show the locals we are there to defend them as well as fighting any Grimm which threaten to overrun the defences. You two look up to the task of exuding confidence."

/-/

Team ABRN was on a bullhead with five LGDF reservists as well as Nancy and Jessica Arc. They were flying to Chesterton, a mainly human town near the border with the neighbouring province and one of the first destinations for refugees with no access to cars. They had a mixed mission of defending the town from the Grimm and getting the refugees into town.

Reese was annoyed that team ABRN were not being sent to Kulsa and that instead Team JNPR and Team VBES had been sent instead. Yet again perfect Pyrrha was being favoured over Arslan and as for why Team VBES were being sent Remnant only knew. She worried that in part this was her and Nasir's fault. If she was honest they were nowhere near as strong as Bolin, let alone Arslan, and whether she would have been a better friend to have refused the offer to be on Arslan's team.

Arslan for some reason did not seem to take offence at being overlooked and sent on the second most important mission. It was so unfair. After Pyrrha Nikos had decided to betray Mistral and go to Beacon rather than Haven it had looked like people in Mistral would finally appreciate Arslan's abilities. At first they had, but one brawl in a nightclub and one flight to Ansel seemed to have made her Mistral's darling all over again. The TV crew from Vale had accompanied Pyrrha and her team on the flight to Kulsa and no doubt would be releasing footage of her fighting the Grimm and striking heroic poses.

Perhaps she had been going on a bit about it as the two Arc twins exchanged glances and then Nancy, the more caustic of the two said, "This mission is important and challenging. Provided we take it seriously and concentrate properly, we are going to save lives, kill lots of Grimm, gain valuable experience and come out of it in one piece. At least there are nowhere near as many assholes in Chesterton as there are in Tulsa, so we won't feel conflicted about saving them from the Grimm."

Reese coloured at this and said, "Of course we will carry out the mission to the best of our ability, but I think as a team we are up to the challenge of Kulsa." She did admit to herself that she had neglected thinking about the mission because of her anger at the snub to Arslan.

Nancy looked at her, shrugged and said, "Provided all of you promise not to record this on your scrolls or speak to others about this, I will explain why I think my mother made the right choice in giving the assignments."

Arslan said, "Team Auburn, please do as the huntress asks. I believe that there are good reasons why the choice was made, but I would be interested in hearing the analysis."

Team ABRN and the LGDF made a show of showing that their scrolls were not set to record, and Nancy nodded at them all.

"First of all, us turning up at Chesterton will help morale there. You are the leading first year Haven team and you being assigned here will show that they are not being abandoned. Following the fall of Kurohari, I suspect people there are nervous that they will be next, and that Mistral will not defend them. The Kingdom guard will be sent first to Kulsa and only a day or so later here. It also helps that me and Jessica are locals and did well enough at the Vytal Festival to have some credibility."

Reese thought that the twins were underplaying it. Being two-time quarterfinalists and having the reputation for enjoying life these two had meant they were well respected. They had also made the team feel welcome two nights ago at Chief Arc's house.

Bolin said, "Why not team Vibes? They are definitely amongst the best teams at Haven?"

"You know that, and I believe that, but the people of Chesterton do not. In that regard you are a better fit here than Team Vibes would be. None of them have fought at the Mistral Regionals or the combat school tournaments and so no one in Chesterton knows them from television other than the fact one fought the White Fang in Atlas. If we turned up with Team Vibes in Chesterton and told the townsfolk that both your and Pyrrha Nikos's teams were in Kulsa the townsfolk would feel exactly like you are feeling now. Undervalued and snubbed – this would not be a major contribution to lowering the negative emotions there."

Arslan nodded and said, "That makes sense. Besides which I suspect Prof Pink would have vetoed the idea of sending Team Vibes to a rural market town. Neptune is self-evidently a rich man's son – a very pleasant version of the type, but it takes time to realise that. Emerald is clearly from a large city."

Arslan left unsaid that it was quite clear that Emerald had known tough times. The way she ate quickly and with her body and arms positioned to make it impossible for people to steal her food was a dead giveaway. Also, the fact that she was invariably polite to everyone except Mercury, but he was the one she spent most of her free time with.

Nadir added, "Mercury would just snark at everyone, and they would not know he was only joking."

Reese said, "Is he? My dad used to say of my uncle that everything he said was half in joke, wholly in earnest. Mercury strikes me as being like that." She felt uncomfortable around Mercury

Bolin said, "Sun is easy to like."

Nancy said, "I think you have just demonstrated my point. They all sound as though they will fit in better in Kulsa."

Reese said, "Even Sun?"

"Around 20% of the population are Faunus despite everything which has happened."

Arslan spoke up, "It obviously makes sense to send a Faunus to Kulsa. The fact that Sun has been seen fighting the White Fang makes him the perfect choice. Reassures the Faunus without spooking the humans."

Reese said, "Fair enough then to send team Vibes rather than us." She also saw that it was better to send the cheerful monkey Faunus then the timid looking Rabbit girl who hung around with Coco Adel if they were going to choose especially as VBES was a Haven team.

Jessica and Nancy exchanged looks and Jessica asked, "How much do you know about Kulsa? Has Pink given you his Faunus wars lectures yet?"

Bolin said, "They are for next term. He has asked us to read two books, one by him and another by a Dr. Oobleck over the holidays."

"One of the opening incidents in the wars happened in Kulsa. Exactly how it started and who was to blame for the opening of hostilities is impossible to say for certain. Most agree that the Faunus human incident which resulted in the arrest of a sheep Faunus was a non-event, but rumours of lynching fed the fires. Anyway, the end result was that half the Faunus district burnt to the ground. No humans were arrested and the burnt down area was taken over for factories and retail districts. No one knows for certain how many died, but thousands lost their homes and businesses."

Reese replied, "I did not know that."

"Fair enough. Mum is an expert because most of her job in Kulsa involves avoiding giving accidental offence, so she knows all the versions and who believes them."

Arslan said, "I knew enough to see why sending Sun to Kulsa makes sense, but why does what happened forty years ago matter now?"

"This is a simplified version as I tended to tune out when I came home during the holidays especially as it was clear that people wanted to hush it up. In short, Kulsa suffered disproportionally from the White Fang terrorist campaigns. Indeed, they were more or less the only city in Ansel province which was targeted. The main casualties were those who had gone to work for the Atlas Multi-Kingdoms in Vacuo after the mines near Kulsa started to wind down."

Nadir said, "Why were they targeted?"

Nancy looked around and said, "I avoid politics and find ignorance prevents me arguing. Bill, have you got a short answer to this?"

One of the LGDF reservists who reminded Reese of one of her teachers said, "Ill treatment in the mines. Most of the ex-patriates were mining engineers who were just looking for jobs to use their skills but had traditional views on the role of Faunus. Without wishing to cast aspersions, some of them were younger sons of wealthy families who left Kulsa because they had burnt their bridges here and were not noted for the moral character."

Nancy said, "Bill is not noted for wild statements. What I have gathered is that although there is no evidence that any local Faunus were involved in helping the White Fang, the humans in Kulsa believe that the White Fang must have had some help from the local Faunus. The Faunus are aware of this and are scared of a re-run of massacre of 40 years ago."

Bolin said, "Some of the locals I spoke to last night in Ansel said that seeing Pyrrha and a TV crew there made them feel that they were less likely to be betrayed by central government in Mistral to be the next target of the Branwen tribe."

Jessica looked thoughtful, "Sounds like mum is trying out her nudge theories again. The more attention is paid to Kulsa the less likely people will riot publicly or fear about being abandoned and the less reason there is for the Faunus to fear an attack from the humans."

Nancy replied, "You think that Pink and team Vibes are there to reassure the Faunus: Pyrrha and her team to reassure the humans and to attract the TV crew: the TV team to encourage good behaviour by more of the locals and dad and Amber to play good cop/bad cop with the leaders."

Jessica said, "Sounds about right. Dad is a local and knows how to make his point without putting too many noses out of joint. Amber does come from Ansel and has a way of making it clear that resistance is ill-advised. I wonder if Team Blood are in town. I hope for their sakes that they do not meet up with Amber."

/-/

Jaune and Pyrrha were landing in Kulsa. They were given three cheers in front of the cameras by the civilians they had been travelling with which was dutifully filmed by Lisa's cameraman. Jaune felt rather embarrassed. His role had been primarily defensive and although Amber and his team had said he had performed it well and Mercury had congratulated him on making Grimm hunting like shooting fish in a barrel, he did not really feel that he had merited the applause.

Pyrrha had slipped into the role of being the invincible girl. It was what people wanted and expected, but he increasingly understood why she had chosen to go to Beacon. It had been slightly annoying when they went into Vale as often people would stare and ask for autographs but at least there were many who did not know her or simply left her alone.

It had been disturbing enough in Ansel when the hotel bar had erupted in spontaneous applause as she walked in In Kulsa every scroll in the place seemed to be trained on her and people's faces seemed to distort when they registered she was here. Jaune wondered how they were going to get out of the airport. However, the local LGDF had been prewarned by mum and tried to satisfy both the people and operational needs by having her stand on a desk on the first floor overlooking the concourse and give a short speech into a microphone which was linked to the speakers.

Pyrrha had dragged jaune on to the desk with him and had said "Thank you for such a warm south-western welcome. Please also express your appreciation for my team leader and Ansel's own Jaune Arc." More applause followed.

She signalled for silence. "I would love to spend more time with you all but duty calls. A hunter's most significant role is to deal with Grimm and my duty now is to follow the instructions of the LGDF in how best to protect all the inhabitants of Kulsa against the current Grimm incursion."

The crowd seemed to accept that by making herself available for photographs she had fulfilled her side of the celebrity bargain and he and Pyrrha had been taken in a police car to the LGDF headquarters which were next door to the town hall.

He had been told by Pyrrha that she had appreciated how little fuss he had made about being on the same team as her. The truth was that he had not really registered the Pyrrha phenomenon.

He had not watched the Mistral Regionals or the Combat school tournaments after he had had to leave combat school because the headmaster and dad had conspired to pretend that his aura could not be unlocked. He had barely watched the Vytal Festivals except for the twins matches.

Lavender had of course known who Pyrrha was but had watched the fights on a TV in her own room and had realised how sensitive Jaune was to discussions of hunter matters.

Even after his sulk had receded when mum brought him into the LGDF he had not been interested in the televised competitions. He took Amber's line that these fights between humans (and the occasional Faunus) had little to do with being a real hunter or huntress fighting Grimm other than increasing the wages people were prepared to pay you. Considering she had been a semi-finalist; this was clearly not simply hard grapes on her behalf, but a statement of truth by someone who had benefitted from the system.

He and Pyrrha entered the LGDF headquarters and were taken to the conference room. Dad was there with Marian, who was mum's human second in command of the Ansel province LGDF together with Jesse Earl who was the local LGDF leader. He was a rather jolly gentleman who owned farmland near to Kulsa. All three were looking rather sombre.

Marian turned to them, "Good work out there. You are just in time for City Chief Earl's briefing."

The old man nodded and said, "We expect the kingdom guard to arrive tomorrow morning with the first contingent of one hundred arriving this evening. We have various waves of Grimm approaching the city but as we have no forests within ten miles we are able to keep track of them. So far larger flying Grimm are not among the invaders and that King Taijitu and Alpha Ursa which you dealt with are definite outliers."

"That is about it for the good news. We evacuated three villages between us and Kurohari last night when it became clear that we could not guarantee that the defences would stand up. There were more Alpha Grimm among the attackers there and we expect that they will near the walls by midnight. Our real problem is that some idiots here think Grimm attraction is an exact science and that they can persuade the Grimm to concentrate on the Faunus quarter this evening and overnight."

Marian asked, "How do they think they can achieve that?"

"By frightening the Faunus. They have spread rumours that the materials used to protect the Faunus quarter were sub-quality, they have beaten up Faunus found in the wrong part of crown and are planning demonstrations outside the Faunus quarter."

Pyrrha asked, "How can they be certain that if the Grimm get through they will only attack Faunus? Once the walls are breached and they are inside surely everyone is at risk?"

"Miss Nikos. You are from Argus. When we refer to the Faunus quarter, we mean it. around 80% of the Faunus in town live there and the few humans who stay there are the poorest of the poor. Besides which we have two supplemental walls ten yards apart separating the Faunus quarter from the rest of Kulsa. They were originally designed to make the Faunus more secure against the threat of humans and humans to be certain that they could contain outbreaks of trouble amongst the Faunus. Because it was easiest and less expensive they are built to the same specifications as the walls on the outside of the town."

Marian added, "Chief Arc had hoped that getting the Kingdom Guard in so quickly would nip this in the bud. However, according to Jesse here the ringleaders see this as giving them a window of opportunity tonight to take out the Faunus without harming humans."

Jesse said, "I have arranged an appointment with the mayor in thirty minutes to persuade him to call a curfew and to order the police chief to disperse crowds of humans just outside the Faunus quarter. The LGDF and huntsmen are not empowered to enforce the law on humans. We have wide powers, but we cannot override the civilian authorities on how they deal with civilians, whether they be humans or Faunus."

Dad said, "We can use a certain moral authority, but, begging your pardon, Chief Earl, I do not think that either of us can shame enough people into doing the right thing. We hope that we can shame the mayor into it. Actually, Miss Nikos, I rather hope that you and Jaune can help us in this regard. I know you would rather join Amber dealing with the Grimm directly, but an hour with the mayor may help save more lives."

/-/

Lisa Lavender's team had raced to put together an initial report while the Mistral authorities had not got round to censoring her. What she was sending out now should not cause problems and probably would increase the time she could report without being unduly supervised, she preferred to avoid the delays and hassle. Besides which reporting from a Grimm warzone would be good for her career and her self-esteem.

She would have been gratified to know who would be watching her first report from Kulsa. First, as well as the MBC the Vale networks had paid to use the footage.

James Ironwood watched it from Atlas with Winter by his side. He commented, "Good to see Mistral responding quickly to something quickly for a change. Winter, do you think it may be worthwhile you going to Mistral on a goodwill visit to see if they are finally interested in us supporting their forces with robots?"

He arranged a call with the Ambassador in Mistral to see whether he had any information on what was happening in the capital's complicated political system. He hoped that Winter was wrong in her judgement that calling in the Kingdom Guard was primarily a response to Pyrrha Nikos turning up in Ansel with the rest of her team of Mistralians from Vale and that it had merely been a factor which had tipped the balance towards doing something useful.

He made a note to himself that he should invite Amber Arc to Atlas to speak to the students and offer suggestions on how the syllabus should deal with training students to fight Grimm as well as demonstrating that it was not necessary to make a choice between being good at killing Grimm and being a good tournament fighter.

Lisa would also have been pleased to know that Professor Ozpin watched the coverage with Professor Goodwitch. Ozpin thought that it was good to see students acquitting themselves well and it would them no harm to spend time with an experienced full-time huntress who was in her prime as a fighter. He resisted the temptation to remind Glynda about the doubts she had expressed about Jaune Arc. He had learnt over several lifetimes that saying I told you so rarely went down well.

Glynda said, "Was Pyrrha Nikos turning up in Ansel something you had planned for or was it an unexpected bonus?"

"Hoped for and believed likely, but not a forgone conclusion. Hinting to Miss Adel that she could turn up unofficially increased the chances of Pyrrha turning up."

"What do you think Raven is up to out there and is it linked to Salem?"

"I suspect what it is happening in Ansel counts as unintended consequences. I hope and believe that she is still keeping her distance from Salem. She has been good at giving me no reason to go after her and bribing and scaring just enough people in Mistral to mean they only take a half-hearted interest in her activities. I suspect she does something similar with Salem – avoids attracting her attention if she can and deals politely but distantly with her minions if she has to. I suspect she tries to ensure that she deals as much as possible with Rainart who is at least mostly sane apart from his views on me. Do not see her working well with someone like Watts and the temptation for both her and Callows to see how good the other really is suggest that Salem would avoid sending him on missions to Raven."

Lisa would have been less pleased to know that Roman Torchwick had also been watching the coverage along with Neo and Perry after they had returned from their meeting with Cinder and Adam.

Roman was a few years younger than Amber but had been at Haven at the same time. Obviously, they had not spoken much, but she had been a decent sort and even though she was still a student herself sometimes acted as a teaching assistant on practical missions involving the Grimm. Because at the time he had expected to be going back to the family farm he had been interested in the lessons she had given on the practicalities of killing Grimm without putting yourself at too much risk.

What gave him the most pleasure was watching the street rat and the punk killing Grimm next to the dork with the shield. He was almost disappointed that it seemed to be so easy for them.

Neo seemed to approve of Pyrrha Nikos and the girl with the hammer even more than previously. While she had been too much involved with her own fight, she had watched the TV footage and Junior had shown them the surveillance camera footage. At least that which had survived, upstairs a combination of a coffee flask which doubled as a flamethrower, a bag which doubles as a mini gun, exploding grenades meant that the cameras had given out early on in the corridor the White Fang had charged down.

As far as he could gather she approved of Pyrrha because of her style and hammer girl because of her destructiveness. She was also the right size for Neo to use as a basis for illusions.

He did wonder where Little Red had been sent. He felt easier knowing that she was nowhere in Vale as that evening four months or so ago had been the nearest he had been to being captured since he had first arrived in Vale.

/-/

Lisa would have felt rather more flattered that her report was been watched by Sienna Khan and Raven Branwen. Both of them regarded the events in Ansel and especially Kulsa as unfortunate in light of their own plans.

She would have been incredibly pleased to know that Raven Branwen was considering inviting her to Kurohari to see the truth of what the change in regime had involved to allay fears over the border as well as to be present for her special announcement. She would have less pleased to know that Raven's instinct was to make the invitation an offer which could not be refused.

Raven was surprisingly disconcerted by seeing that her husband and his daughter by Summer were in Ansel. She had been particularly bothered by the realisation that for some reason Ruby had been added to the people to whom she had a connection to with her kindred link semblance. She had been trying to locate Taiyang and had been surprised to find that there were two separate links in close proximity. She supposed it was because Ruby looked so like Summer did as well as being Taiyang's daughter.

She did worry about how she would respond if Tyrian Callows got anywhere near either of them. She felt that she owed Ruby the chance which she had never used in relation to Summer. By her own lights, she did not regard bringing back Summer's body as being the equivalent of saving a life. On the other hand, killing Tyrian Callows would not be easy even for her and would set her more directly against Salem then she desired to be.

Perversely both Sienna and Raven were wondering if there was anything they could do which would reduce the stress levels in Ansel. Unfortunately, merely saying that they had no further territorial ambitions would not cut it and might even be counterproductive.

A similar issue applied to revealing that not all the people taken from Kulsa by the White Fang had been killed but had instead been put to work in mines situated inside the Branwen Tribe's sphere of influence or in geological studies locating possible new mines. Revealing that the Branwen tribe were in a position to compete with the SDC might not be helpful for relations with Atlas and might encourage the Mistralians to actually attack.

Raven had already arranged for refuges to be stopped from leaving by car or on foot across the Ansel border. If they still wanted to leave the plan was for them to be conveyed a few hundred miles north and encouraged to cross into Mistral government-controlled territory by chartered airships. Admittedly this meant involving the criminal gangs of Mistral, but they were more efficient than the government.

It was actually a downside of changing strategy to preserve more lives. In the past the Branwen Tribe had only taken over towns after the Grimm had done their worse, albeit the Tribe would have raided first. However, dead men told no tales and the Tribe had known the importance of knocking out the CCT communication stations first.

Nowadays local communities gave in at an early stage and indeed Kurohari had fallen a week ahead of schedule. People had not had time to get used to the fact that change was coming and become resigned to it or even welcome the arrival of the Branwen Tribe as a restoration of order. Allowing the most discontented to leave had seemed the right way of reducing the risk of unwanted visits from the Grimm. However, they had not thought through the risk of exporting Grimm activity over the provincial border.

She decided that even if no one else would believe that she had no interest in taking over Ansel, it did not matter because she knew the truth and her tribe would believe her. Besides which Sienna Khan had no interest in doing the donkey work involved in running towns like Kulsa.

It had been a useful alliance for both sides. Unsurprisingly a bandit organisation had little use for administrators beyond recognising that you needed someone to organise the digging of latrines and sharing out the plunder. Certainly, the skill sets needed to administer a small de facto kingdom were not to be found within the tribe. The problem was that the tribe had become so successful that it had become clear to her that shearing the sheep every year was more profitable than slaughtering the entire herd for meat.

Oddly enough for a terrorist organisation, the White Fang had a plentiful supply of competent (by Mistral standards) bureaucrats who actually wanted the opportunity to run things better than they had been previously.

This was an overhang from the Belladonna era, but Sienna Khan had tried to retain these supporters by saying that the increased violence was necessitated by the intransigence of the Kingdom governments, especially in Mistral and Atlas.

What was true in Mistral was that human managers were not afraid of promoting competent Faunus to middle management and delegating tasks to them because there was no chance that their bosses would promote the Faunus over the manager's head.

Twenty years ago, this had been OK with the Faunus involved as they were being paid more than they had ever expected to be paid and the houses which could be built in the Faunus areas of town for the wages involved were as good as the house their bosses had in the human areas. Also, back then it was a fairly enlightened human boss who employed Faunus in positions of responsibility and tended to pay decently.

However, nowadays the younger Faunus were less satisfied about hitting the glass ceiling and more human managers were trying to dump all the responsibility and work while cutting back the pay levels. Even if they were not members of the White Fang they were fellow travellers and were happy to join the White Fang after the Branwen Tribe had taken over their town.

Over the last few years, the Branwen Tribe had found then when taking over towns and districts they could keep the system on the road by sacking the human bosses (most of whom had left town of their own accord) and promoting the Faunus underlings and paying them a decent wage.

/-/

Fox was preparing to break the news of his Telepathy semblance to Ruby and her father. Port already knew about it and the team had accepted that they would need to tell Team RWBY about it on the Grimm training exercise with Port at the end of the holidays.

They would also have to tell Darren Marine and his team of hunters about it and see if they willing to be joined into it.

It was odd noting the differences between relatives' auras. While Taiyang was clearly the parent of both Ruby and Yang, it seemed that the mother's aura was slightly stronger in both cases. Fox noted this at the back of his mind as something he would research more in the future if he got the time and opportunity.

He had been told by Coco that Taiyang looked more like Yang than Ruby. He had listened to the conversation between the two and decided that they were genuinely close.

He decided the best way of broaching the subject was to talk to Ruby first. He concentrated and sent a message. "Ruby, this is Fox. Don't worry, you are not hallucinating. This is merely my semblance."

Velvet chipped in, "Hi Ruby, it works as a communication device for the whole team and allows us to warn each other about threats and tell each other what is happening without speaking. Don't worry it is only what you deliberately think with a view to using the semblance which is heard by the rest of us."

Fox added, "Admittedly Coco has fewer filters than the rest of us, but I cannot read minds. I thought it best to tell you in advance of the mission and give you an opportunity to get used to it. Could you warn your father about it in advance of me communicating with him? We need to sort out when I should be using it."

Ruby replied, "Wow, that is a useful semblance. No problem. I will warn dad."

A minute later she said, "I told dad on a piece of paper, and he says fine. He has eaten the paper and promises not to tell anyone about it."

Fox then communicated with Taiyang and repeated the explanation he had given to Ruby. The older man commented, "I can see that is useful. I trust you are a very close-knit team and use it wisely. The thought of two members in particular of my old team being able to harangue me without anyone else hearing does not appeal."

Port then boomed, "Actually they would have felt the same about you having it especially if you used it for telling jokes. Welcome to the Fox Phone, Taiyang. I would suggest that Fox links us in when we are on patrol and also uses it in times of emergencies. I will explain to Mr. Marine and his team when we get there and when we have chance. I am told that they have been up most of the night and would welcome some chance to rest when we arrive."

Coco thought at them, "Assuming that there is no immediate fighting which needs to be done, I would suggest that Velvet and Yatsuhashi spend time in the village relaxing people's anxieties. Past experience shows that Velvet is good with children and nervous locals and Yatsuhashi projects calmness and security. I would suggest that the rest of you patrol the outskirts of the village while the bullhead will scout and locate any incoming travellers or Grimm. I suppose that I should accompany Professor Port when he reports into the village elders."

Everyone agreed with this strategy. After that Ruby and her father practised communicating without speaking for twenty minutes and then suggested that they take a rest as they approached their destination.

The briefing had been that this was a mainly Faunus village which was almost a small market town. It was primarily agricultural but was close to the border. There was a nearby primarily human village which was five miles further away from the border.

Relations were not good between the two villages, although this was mostly reflected in the two villages leaving each other alone. However, over the last six months things had worsened and the LGDF had overseen ten home swaps between Faunus and humans in the two villages.

The recent influx of refugees had exacerbated the concerns and that the Faunus in particular were worried about the refugees and their neighbours especially as the refugees here were primarily farmers who had made comments when passing through about good the land was for farming.

A bit of a transitional chapter which is setting up future chapters in which more action occurs. You should assume that inconsistencies between people's views on past history in Kulsa reflect the characters differing perceptions rather than failures on my behalf. Fox's semblance does reflect the one he is given in the books even if not shown on the show.